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Speaker 1: Fellow Ridiculous Historians. We are returning with this week's classic episode,

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Speaker 1: a board game that I think has fascinated all of

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Speaker 1: us for quite some time, the Landlords Game. The Landlords

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Speaker 1: Game was the original, non broken version. You're right, we are.

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Speaker 2: Talking about Monopoly, but not the history of the game itself,

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Speaker 2: though we'll get into a bit of that, but how

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Speaker 2: the physical board itself actually helped Allied POWs captured during

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Speaker 2: World War Two stage their great escape.

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Speaker 1: Beautiful Let's roll it. Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: If you were, like millions of other people throughout history

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Speaker 1: and around the world, then you have probably at least

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Speaker 1: once played some sort of game with your friends, whether

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Speaker 1: it's a game of dice, a game of cards, or

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Speaker 1: important for our purposes today, a board game. And today's

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Speaker 1: episode is about board games, but not in the way

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Speaker 1: you think. Welcome to Ridiculous History. My name is Ben,

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Speaker 1: my name is Nolan.

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Speaker 2: I'm a fan of the old five finger file a

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Speaker 2: you know, where you take a blade and pop it

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Speaker 2: real quick between the gaps between your fingers.

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Speaker 1: Uh huh have you ever done that?

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Speaker 2: Only in video game form? It's an available game, and

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Speaker 2: I believe Red Dead Redemption.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's cool.

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Speaker 2: I haven't found it yet in the new one, but

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Speaker 2: hopefully it exists. But yeah, that's a pretty scary game.

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Speaker 1: I've played that game in real life before and I

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Speaker 1: never went fast enough to actually cut myself.

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Speaker 2: Seriously, was that back when you spent time in that

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Speaker 2: prison camp in the pow camp?

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Speaker 1: Well, they called it church camp, but you know what,

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Speaker 1: I think six on one hands, half a dozen in

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Speaker 1: the other.

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Speaker 2: Not to derail the topic before we even get there,

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Speaker 2: but I just watched both documentaries about the Ill Fated

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Speaker 2: fire Festival. We talked about this, and that was sort

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Speaker 2: of like being in a pow camp. F y r E.

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Speaker 1: The ill Fated, the ill fated festival that was most

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Speaker 1: closely associated with jaw Rules when it broke in the news.

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Speaker 2: And the main guy who was the perpetrator of the

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Speaker 2: whole hoax is a guy named Billy McFarlane I believe

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Speaker 2: is his last name. And yeah, he was a real

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Speaker 2: piece of work. But here's one thing they didn't have

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Speaker 2: at Firefest. They had these geodesic dome kind of FEMA

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Speaker 2: tents that were left over. They used that they had

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Speaker 2: advertised as luxury I believe villas, they had some really

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Speaker 2: sad looking cheese sandwiches, They had a lot of kind

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Speaker 2: of gross portapies. They didn't have was the game of Monopoly.

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Speaker 1: What they also didn't was our super producer, Casey Pegram.

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Speaker 1: So there they were without Monopoly and without Casey Pegram,

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Speaker 1: which I think is a grave injustice.

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Speaker 2: Possibly he could have solved the whole debacle.

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Speaker 1: Quite possibly. We are, by way of fantastic segues, exploring

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Speaker 1: the world of Monopoly, but again perhaps not in the

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Speaker 1: way that you have heard it explored before. For just

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Speaker 1: a quick look at the strange history of Monopoly. It

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Speaker 1: was originally invented as something called the Landlord's Game in

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Speaker 1: nineteen oh four by Elizabeth Maggie, and it was a

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Speaker 1: real estate and taxation game that was really meant to

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Speaker 1: inform people about the dangers of unbridled capitalism. And when

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Speaker 1: this game was more or less stolen from her, the

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Speaker 1: gameplay was modified so that it rewarded unbridled capitalism. And

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Speaker 1: nowadays Monopoly is a love it or hate it game

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Speaker 1: for a lot of people. I've never experienced a huge

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Speaker 1: falling out with friends, loved ones, relatives and so on

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Speaker 1: playing Monopoly, but that's because I don't play with cheaters,

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Speaker 1: and that seems to be one of the big accusations

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Speaker 1: against winners of Monopoly.

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Speaker 2: I just think that Monopoly is sort of the board

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Speaker 2: game equivalent of solitary confinement, and that it's really boring

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Speaker 2: and find it boring and takes a long time to finish.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I could I could see that being

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Speaker 1: a criticism. It's not for everyone, but it's a tremendously

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Speaker 1: popular game, you know what I mean, Like even even

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Speaker 1: people who aren't big fans of it have played it before.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's very true. Do you think people still play

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Speaker 2: it now? Like?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Fun really absolutely, And they've made a huge business

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Speaker 1: similar to Trivial Pursuit, they have made a huge business

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Speaker 1: in selling themed Monopoly boards.

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Speaker 2: That's true, but at least with the Trivial Pursuit branded versions,

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Speaker 2: they're like questions related to that topic. With Monopoly, it's

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Speaker 2: just like a different looking board and instead of a shoe,

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Speaker 2: you've got like a stranger of things, baseball bat or something, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, or a demo gorgan.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: The thing that I always found interesting about Monopoly is

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Speaker 1: that it is a pale shadow of the board game life,

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Speaker 1: which is I think much more intriguing. But either way

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Speaker 1: you look at it, Monopoly is here to stay. It's

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Speaker 1: a very popular game and during World War Two it

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Speaker 1: was widely played. It was just as popular in the

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Speaker 1: United Kingdom as it was in the US. In fact,

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Speaker 1: there was a manufacturer of Monopoly in the United Kingdom

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Speaker 1: called Waddington John Wattington Limited, and they had purchased a

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Speaker 1: license to create this just across the pond, which will

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Speaker 1: be important later. But no, where are we going with this?

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Speaker 2: Oh man, We're going so many places. Yeah, it's true.

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Speaker 2: Wattington was the licensee of the Product's almost like a

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Speaker 2: franchise deal right where they were allowed to manufacture and

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Speaker 2: distribute this game in the UK after it had seen

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Speaker 2: a lot of success in the US. But Wattington, this

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Speaker 2: company was also very well known for their ability to

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Speaker 2: print things on silk. And that doesn't seem like a

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Speaker 2: big deal for our story today, but it turns out

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Speaker 2: it might be the biggest deal and the thing that

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Speaker 2: gave Uncle Sam and his minions of espionage the idea

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Speaker 2: to pull off this amazing caper. I guess we can say.

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Speaker 1: I think caper is a great word or scheme caper

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Speaker 1: is a little more fun. Yes, the story really kicks

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Speaker 1: into gear with a guy named Christopher William Clayton Hutton,

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Speaker 1: known as Kluddy to his friends, which I think is

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Speaker 1: just a terrible nickname, not great, not superior. And you know,

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Speaker 1: Christopher Clayton Hutton or Kluddy is an intelligence officer at

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Speaker 1: m I nine, and he got this job through a

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Speaker 1: very strange series of events or an offhands comment when

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Speaker 1: he applied to work as an intelligence officer in nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty nine for the UK War Office. He says in

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Speaker 1: a quote later, my passport to the whole curious business

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Speaker 1: has been a casual reference to my thwarted efforts to

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Speaker 1: get the better of Harry Houdini, the world's greatest escapologist.

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Speaker 2: That's right, because he his whole deal and the reason

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Speaker 2: that he was attractive to I six was that he

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Speaker 2: was kind of a clever guy who was very fascinated

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Speaker 2: by things like up close magic and little tricks that

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Speaker 2: might be involved in doing some illusions. And he was

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Speaker 2: able to apply that to those kind of James Bondy

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Speaker 2: type gadgets that you that we all know and love,

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Speaker 2: like you know, a pen that's also an explosive device

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Speaker 2: or something like that, right.

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Speaker 1: A tiny telescope that looks like a cigarette holder, or

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Speaker 1: compasses on the backs of buttons, boots with hollow heels

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Speaker 1: that held knives, maps, compasses, and files. But the thing was,

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Speaker 1: you're right, only it was a brilliant, brilliant man. But

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Speaker 1: as ingenious as his inventions were, it seemed that the

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Speaker 1: Germans as they called them, always eventually figured them out,

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Speaker 1: all of them, that is, except for one. You see,

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Speaker 1: he came to Waddington Limited and said, hey, you all

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Speaker 1: manufacture a lot of things.

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Speaker 2: Check.

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Speaker 1: I understand that you print on silk, double check. And

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Speaker 1: I am of the understanding that you also print a

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Speaker 1: board game called Monopoly triple check. He probably pronounced it correct.

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Speaker 2: These are some important boxes. And add these three boxes

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Speaker 2: up together you get a way to x this plot

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Speaker 2: that was gestating in this guy's mind. Because here's the thing.

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Speaker 2: The reason that it was a big deal to print

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Speaker 2: on silk is because they could be used to have

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Speaker 2: maps printed on them, maps that wouldn't deteriorate in the

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Speaker 2: rain or get torn to shreds if you stepped on them,

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Speaker 2: or make a noise when you try to clandestinely unfold them.

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Speaker 2: Maybe in a pow camp or surrounded by enemy troops.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, you see, this is something that fascinated me

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Speaker 1: when he's studying up for this episode. Silk maps were

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Speaker 1: already around because of those advantages that we just named,

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Speaker 1: silk maps had already been proven superior to the paper

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Speaker 1: stuff that could disintegrate, tear, make noise, give away your position.

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Speaker 1: And because Waddington's made silk maps and Monopoly, Kluddy knew

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Speaker 1: he was onto something. There was one other important ingredient

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Speaker 1: of wartime reality that that solidified his decision. He knew

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Speaker 1: that board games were allowed into pow camps, largely because

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Speaker 1: of the Geneva Conventions and the Red Cross.

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Speaker 2: And also because Germany at this point in the war

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Speaker 2: had such a bad rep for adhering to the Geneva

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Speaker 2: Conventions in the way they treated prisoner of war that

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Speaker 2: they were willing to allow these humanitarian air drops into

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Speaker 2: their camps, which included things like snacks and you know,

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Speaker 2: things to pass the time. I think books, but board

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Speaker 2: games were also okay, and they would also think of

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Speaker 2: it as a win for them because they figured if

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Speaker 2: their prisoners were busy occupying themselves playing an interminable board game,

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Speaker 2: that took ages and ages and ages to finish. Clearly,

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Speaker 2: I'm not a fan of the game, yeah, but I

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Speaker 2: mean it would do. It serve its purpose right and

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Speaker 2: they would probably be thrilled to have the opportunity to

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Speaker 2: do something like that to pass the time. But there's

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Speaker 2: the thing. A board game is in a big box

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Speaker 2: with layers, with stacks of stuff in it. This is

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Speaker 2: a pretty amazing opportunity for our mister Cluddy. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, so what they eventually decided to do, Waddington's, we

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Speaker 1: should note, was initially not one hundred percent on board

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Speaker 1: with this. So Klutty and the UK government pitched it

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Speaker 1: to them hard and they said, look, we are We're

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Speaker 1: going to have this covered stem to stern. We are

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Speaker 1: not just going to smuggle maps in these monopoly games.

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Speaker 1: We are also going to include real money hidden with

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Speaker 1: the monopoly money. We're going to include French, Italian and

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Speaker 1: German notes just under the actual monopoly cash. What else

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Speaker 1: did they include?

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Speaker 2: They included hidden in little indentations that were cut in

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Speaker 2: the board itself, because back in those days the boards

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Speaker 2: were a good bit thicker than they are now, so

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Speaker 2: they were able to pre label because you know, the

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Speaker 2: whole label with all the pieces park place and all that.

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Speaker 2: Just a big old sticker that goes on a piece

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Speaker 2: of foldable cardboard. They were able to cut these very

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Speaker 2: shallow indentations that could hold things like files or those

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Speaker 2: those little compasses you mentioned earlier, the very small ones.

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Speaker 2: The smaller the better because they wouldn't want it to

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Speaker 2: be a red flag to any officers, any German guards

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Speaker 2: handling it, who might think this is way too heavy

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Speaker 2: for a board game. Right.

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Speaker 1: You'll also read other accounts that say playing pieces were

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Speaker 1: actually the escape items like a compass and a file

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Speaker 1: were disguised as playing pieces.

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Speaker 2: That's interesting because when I picture the whole cutting out

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Speaker 2: of the indentations into the board thing, it kind of

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Speaker 2: reminds me of stuff like how you might hide something

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Speaker 2: in prison by cutting the pages out of the middle

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Speaker 2: of a book or a bible or something like that

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Speaker 2: and having like a file or a shift or something

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Speaker 2: hidden inside. And it's interesting too because this actually was

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Speaker 2: classified until I want to say, the nineteen eighties, and

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Speaker 2: the soldiers were structed to destroy these boards. And the

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Speaker 2: thing is too they had to use their own intuition

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Speaker 2: to figure out these things are even in there. Which

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Speaker 2: is the thing that blew me away, because apparently there

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Speaker 2: was a little red dot on the board that made

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Speaker 2: that was sort of a clue. I guess that this

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Speaker 2: is a special board, but it wouldn't have been seen

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Speaker 2: as anything out of the ordinary other than like a

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Speaker 2: printing error maybe for the folks that were distributing the boards, say, okay,

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Speaker 2: the German soldiers, But it takes a lot for you

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Speaker 2: to think, oh my gosh, this board game surely hides

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Speaker 2: these secret items.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, man, you spend a lot of time, yeah,

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Speaker 1: looking at the same board. So maybe the staff of

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Speaker 1: the pow Kip just checks it and they shake it

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Speaker 1: a little bit, but they don't really care because it's

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Speaker 1: a monopoly game. But then there are a couple points

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Speaker 1: that I want to hit before they get lost. So

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Speaker 1: this this board, if you're familiar with Monopoly, does look

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Speaker 1: very similar. Most importantly, though, the map. You may different

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Speaker 1: things about the pieces versus things being stuffed in the board,

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Speaker 1: but the map itself was always hidden within the board,

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Speaker 1: and I nine covered their tracks very well here. They

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Speaker 1: invented fake cover organizations to quote unquote donate these parcels

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Speaker 1: to the camps. So this removed culpability from the Red

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Speaker 1: Cross because they can't knowingly distribute escape kits, right, So

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Speaker 1: instead they're not getting stuff from the UK Government. They're

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Speaker 1: getting stuff from organizations with names like the Licensed Victuallers

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Speaker 1: Sports Association, the Ladies Knitting Circle, the Jigsaw Puzzle Club

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Speaker 1: and the Prisoner's Leisure Hour Fund. So as far as

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Speaker 1: the people actually supplying the kits know, these are legiti

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Speaker 1: monopoly boards. As far as the Germans know, these are

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Speaker 1: legitimate monopoly boards, and they just had to wait. It

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Speaker 1: was a leap of faith to wait for one of

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Speaker 1: those POW's to say, hey, this piece doesn't look quite normal.

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Speaker 1: Let me turn it over. Oh there's a compass, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true, and not to mention like that. The

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Speaker 2: stacks of money, I believe were fake money on top,

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Speaker 2: fake money on bottom, real money in between. So that

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Speaker 2: might have been the first thing they gave it away,

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Speaker 2: right if they're like, think about it, if you're going

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Speaker 2: to play a nice game of monopoly, you pull out

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Speaker 2: the fake money and you say, what, what's this and

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Speaker 2: then there's you know, real money, and that maybe would

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Speaker 2: make them investigate further.

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Speaker 1: You think, yeah, yeah, I think that's I think that's

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Speaker 1: quite likely. And it's strange because at first, you know,

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Speaker 1: your first question is why is this not a film?

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Speaker 1: Right because it seems like one heck of a story.

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Speaker 1: But the second question is how much of this is

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Speaker 1: exaggerated because Monopoly is a cultural icon. The answer is

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Speaker 1: really not much.

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Speaker 2: No, not much. And just to throw in one last point,

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Speaker 2: Parker Brothers themselves, the creators of the game didn't know

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Speaker 2: this was going on. This all had to be done

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Speaker 2: very secretly, and it's not like they would like let

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Speaker 2: them know. Hey, by the way, is it okay if

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Speaker 2: we use your beloved board game to rescue some of

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Speaker 2: our troops? But you know, and again it was not

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Speaker 2: known for decades because it was classified, and we don't

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Speaker 2: have any examples of what these might have looked like

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Speaker 2: because they were all destroyed. Because what if a German

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Speaker 2: guard had discovered one, the whole jig would be up

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Speaker 2: for all of the camps. Here's the thing, too, Ben,

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Speaker 2: they knew which camps they were air dropping these on,

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Speaker 2: and they had customized packages for each particular spot right right.

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Speaker 1: This may have been declassified relatively recently, but it was

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Speaker 1: kind of an open secret. Way before two thousand and seven.

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Speaker 1: You could find a nineteen eighty five ap Press article

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Speaker 1: about this. But again, we don't know what the kits

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Speaker 1: look like. Because people could describe them, right POW's who

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Speaker 1: used these to escape, People can recount their appearance, but

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Speaker 1: as you said, they had to be destroyed. There's a

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Speaker 1: fantastic article on this in The Atlantic, How Monopoly games

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Speaker 1: helped ally POW's escape during World War Two by Megan Garber.

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Speaker 1: And you know, for someone who is severely anti monopoly like,

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Speaker 1: it seems no offense, you might be noal. This maybe

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Speaker 1: is redemptive. Does this make you feel a little bit

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Speaker 1: better about the game?

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Speaker 2: Well? Sure, I think the game has its its positive qualities,

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Speaker 2: and this certainly is one of them. I just personally

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Speaker 2: don't enjoy playing it. It's one of those games where

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Speaker 2: I like the idea of it more than the actual

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Speaker 2: practice of playing the game. I'm really into a game

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Speaker 2: called Pandemic, which is a game that you play cooperatively

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Speaker 2: with people, and I think that's a lot of fun.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes the adversarial nature of a game isn't isn't for me?

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Speaker 1: You know, there are also games such as there's a

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Speaker 1: great HP Lovecraft game called something like Call of Cthulhu

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Speaker 1: I can remember. Yeah, and you cooperate with other players

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Speaker 1: to prevent the coming of the eldritch gods.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and Pandemic is very similar that you're preventing

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Speaker 2: some sort of global outbreak that could annihilate civilization. So

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Speaker 2: it's all you know, it's all for a good cause. Also,

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Speaker 2: there's something about monopoly that kind of rubs me the

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Speaker 2: wrong way, because, like you said at the top of

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Speaker 2: the show, it used to be much more about, you know,

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Speaker 2: highlighting the evils and potential negative things that can result

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Speaker 2: from capitalism run amuck, and now it's just much more about, like, hey,

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Speaker 2: let's run am uck with some capitalism.

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Speaker 1: Now that we live in a world of late stage capitalism. Yep, oh,

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Speaker 1: excuse me, gig economy. Sheesh. Well, we would be remiss

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Speaker 1: if we did not ask super producer Casey Pegram are

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Speaker 1: you a monopolist? Casey?

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Speaker 3: I like it because the experience of playing it is terrible.

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Speaker 3: I just kind of feel like it's good propaganda for,

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Speaker 3: you know, a different way of life.

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Speaker 2: So sort of like in the way you might watch

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Speaker 2: a Mystery Science Theater three thousand movie you enjoy the

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Speaker 2: awfulness of it just for its own sake.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because I mean it's true to life. True to

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Speaker 1: life's too, it's too terribly true to life. Casey on

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Speaker 1: the case, folks. Yeah, I think that's such a great point.

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Speaker 1: One thing that I was thinking about during the course

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Speaker 1: of research into today's episode was the fact that going

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Speaker 1: to jail in monopoly is just part of business and

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Speaker 1: does not impede your financial or social success in any shape,

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Speaker 1: fashion or form, sort of like how paying multimillion dollar

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Speaker 1: fines is just the cost of business for a lot

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Speaker 1: of banks. I don't want to get too oriented towards

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Speaker 1: the corporatocracy or politics, but that's just the case. Monopoly

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Speaker 1: predicted it, but they predicted it in a terribly misleading way.

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Speaker 1: So I'm glad it did something good and helped some

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Speaker 1: portion of over thirty five thousand Allied POWs escape from

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Speaker 1: German prison gamps.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and they don't have exact numbers of how many

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Speaker 2: people many POWs escape using these monopoly kits, but everyone

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Speaker 2: involved is pretty confident that they were effective on some level.

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Speaker 2: And here's the thing I just found been to in

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Speaker 2: this great article from ABC News where they say that

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Speaker 2: airmen before being deployed on missions that might have been

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Speaker 2: going out on maneuvers at this stage in the war,

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Speaker 2: were told if they were captured to look for escape

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Speaker 2: kits in Monopoly games. Oh cool, So I was thinking

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Speaker 2: more of the folks that have been there, maybe a

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Speaker 2: little longer term, right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which lets us know that this

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Speaker 1: had been in a production for some time, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean, and it worked. Also quoted that ABC

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Speaker 1: article is Victor Watson, who was a former chairman of

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Speaker 1: Waddington's until nineteen ninety three, and in his estimation, again

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Speaker 1: this might be a bit biased because he did work

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Speaker 1: for the company, he says that Waddington's reckoned around ten

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Speaker 1: thousand POWs successfully used the Monopoly map, which is inspiring,

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00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,520
Speaker 1: you know, and I love that you raised the point

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Speaker 1: that we're never going to know the actual number of

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Speaker 1: people who were who were for sure saved or able

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Speaker 1: to escape with this. We should also mention that this

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Speaker 1: was not the first involvement. Uncle Pennybags that's the name

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Speaker 1: of that cartoon character, the capitalist.

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00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:31,960
Speaker 2: They yeah, we'll just call them Monopoly gay.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, his real name is rich Uncle Penny Bags.

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Speaker 2: Rich Uncle Penny Bags.

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Speaker 1: It's back when a penny before inflation.

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Speaker 2: Carried a lot more away and meant something.

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00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 1: Back when a penny meant something. After World War Two,

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Speaker 1: Monopoly found itself in the middle of another international conflict,

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Speaker 1: this one more ideology related, because you see Cuba, the

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Speaker 1: USSR and other communist countries outlawed the game because it

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Speaker 1: advocated capitalism. You know what I mean. There's not a

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00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:04,280
Speaker 1: communist version of Monopoly yet. I'd someone check on that.

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00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 1: If there is, please let me know whether there's some

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00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:12,960
Speaker 1: sort of anti monopoly or communist monopoly. And Casey, by

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00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,000
Speaker 1: the way, I see that you just sent us something

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00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:20,640
Speaker 1: called Monopoly for Millennials. Yes, this is a true thing.

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00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 1: I remember hearing about this a while back when it

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00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:29,720
Speaker 1: broke fairly recently. It was Monopoly's crass attempt to advertise

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Speaker 1: the millennial generation.

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Speaker 2: Right, They might have air dropped some of these on Firefest.

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Speaker 3: There we go, a nice way to call back. So

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00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,960
Speaker 3: what is this, Casey, It is a updated version of

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Speaker 3: Monopoly for millennials. And just looking at the box cover art,

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00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:45,919
Speaker 3: I love the slogan forget real estate. You can't afford

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00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 3: it anyway. So that's just that lovely, lovely late capitalist Dustopia.

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00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:57,360
Speaker 1: We've all enjoyed Casey on a tragic case there, But.

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00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,359
Speaker 3: I love it because it's got pictures of like bike

391
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 3: lanes and it's like a vegan only restaurant, green kind

392
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 3: of ecological messages. And mister Pennybags has kind of like

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00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 3: some reflective sunglasses on, looks like he has an iPod

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00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:16,160
Speaker 3: earbud in his ear. So they're really hitting the millennial

395
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:17,200
Speaker 3: cliches pretty heavily.

396
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Speaker 2: There more of a douchebag than a penny bag.

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00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 1: Yeah. Community chess cards say things like your free web

398
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:28,040
Speaker 1: streaming trial expires, pay the bank forty dollars. Tokens include

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00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 1: an emoji.

400
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 2: And a hashtag. Oh this is great, this is terrible.

401
00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny because it seems like they're trolling, but

402
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:37,200
Speaker 3: I mean it is a real thing you can buy

403
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:37,639
Speaker 3: in stores.

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00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 1: Apparently what rough board games slouches toward beth Lehem to

405
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Speaker 1: be bored.

406
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, and especially again, I'm fresh off watching both of

407
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,400
Speaker 2: these Firefest documentaries, so I have a pretty bad taste

408
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 2: in my mouth and a bit of a self loathing

409
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,800
Speaker 2: for millennial. I'm technically a zennial. I think I'm on

410
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:56,919
Speaker 2: the cusp. I think both you and I Casey, here

411
00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 2: a little bit on the cusp.

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00:23:58,000 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're cuspers.

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00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 2: We're cuspers.

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00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:05,360
Speaker 1: It's rated in two different ways. The one way would

415
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: be to rate it on a generational chronological divide. But

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00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,199
Speaker 1: another way, some sociologists for you this would be to

417
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 1: rate it on a digital divide or access to information.

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00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 1: You know, so people who were born before the days

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00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: of dial up modem, right, are clearly not millennial. I

420
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,919
Speaker 1: don't know. I think we're I think we're all actually cuspers.

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Speaker 1: What we what we should be wondering about if we

422
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:36,360
Speaker 1: were Hasbro, is what sort of board game the generation

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00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:39,959
Speaker 1: after millennials would like to play? Hint, it's not on

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Speaker 1: a board.

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Speaker 2: That's true. He also knows. It's funny how there's like

426
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 2: app versions of most old board games. Yeah, and they're

427
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:48,959
Speaker 2: very similar or just a little quicker to play. Like

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00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:50,359
Speaker 2: you mentioned the Game of Life at the top of

429
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:52,400
Speaker 2: the show, and I used to have an app version

430
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:54,680
Speaker 2: of that because the mechanics of the Game of Life

431
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:56,679
Speaker 2: are a little cumbersome, and with the app it kind

432
00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 2: of does all that for you. So it's a the

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00:24:58,880 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 2: lazy game of Life.

434
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's weird. I've tried doing you know

435
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:04,399
Speaker 1: you guys know me a huge fan of crosswords, and

436
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 1: I've tried doing them online, but there's something about the

437
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 1: physical pen and paper. Also, yeah, I do them in pen.

438
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:14,640
Speaker 1: But whatever I chose my battle. Oh, we should mention

439
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 1: as we're wrapping up here that Uncle Sam and the Yanks,

440
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 1: that's us, so we can say Yankees and not be pejorative.

441
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:28,199
Speaker 1: We totally copied this idea a little later. After the

442
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: Japanese attack Pro Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one,

443
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:38,640
Speaker 1: Hutton was tasked with training his American like the American

444
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,159
Speaker 1: version of him, a guy named Captain rob Lee Winfrey,

445
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,920
Speaker 1: in the art of concealing escape tools in this innocuous

446
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:50,120
Speaker 1: looking stuff, and he came up with ideas that took

447
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:56,120
Speaker 1: off kind of dovetailed on Hutton's and eventually his part

448
00:25:56,160 --> 00:26:00,240
Speaker 1: of the Intelligence Services Military Intelligence Services Escape in Evasion Setiction,

449
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 1: or miss X, started sending out Monopoly boards that were

450
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: also loaded with escape tools. The one thing different they

451
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: did is that Winfrey would send his employees into toy

452
00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: stores and department stores to buy civilian monopoly games, and

453
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:22,960
Speaker 1: then they would take the games back to their secret layer,

454
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:25,920
Speaker 1: and that's when they would kick them up, so they

455
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 1: didn't have I guess nobody trusted Parker Brothers at that time,

456
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, because they ever asked Parker

457
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 1: Brothers to manufacture bespokeer custom ones. They just reverse engineered them.

458
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:40,920
Speaker 2: That's nuts that there would be that much logistical planning

459
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 2: that would go in some of that. Did you talk

460
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 2: about the glue for example?

461
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 1: Oh, lay it honest.

462
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had to reverse engineer the exact glue that

463
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,199
Speaker 2: Parker Brothers used in order to make the you know,

464
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 2: the decal lay correctly. So there was a whole lot

465
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 2: of little things they had to kind of like troubleshoot

466
00:26:57,720 --> 00:26:59,399
Speaker 2: and figure out how to make so that it wouldn't

467
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 2: throw up any red flags.

468
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: Okay, I've got to catch up because just for a second,

469
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:08,200
Speaker 1: when you said the decal lay correctly, I for some

470
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:10,479
Speaker 1: reason I had a brain fart and I thought you

471
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,320
Speaker 1: said decla like it was some sort of very specific

472
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:21,360
Speaker 1: Parker Brothers correctly ladies. Yeah, you're you're right though, and

473
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:24,520
Speaker 1: by golly by gosh, by gum, it worked because when

474
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 1: the war ended in September nineteen forty five, there was

475
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: only one escape kit that the German forces had not

476
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 1: discovered and it was Monopoly. As you said, Noel, everything

477
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 1: was destroyed. We know this really happened. It was officially

478
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: revealed in nineteen eighty five, right, but the American news

479
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 1: of the game wasn't revealed until nineteen ninety and according

480
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 1: to various sources, at least at least seven hundred and

481
00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:01,680
Speaker 1: forty something airmen escaped with aids created by Kluddy and

482
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: Robie Winfrey. Which you know, it sounds like a great,

483
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: a great gig if you can get it. If there's

484
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: a wartime thing, then you get drafted. Can you imagine,

485
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 1: fellas if someone said, Okay, your job is to make

486
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:18,919
Speaker 1: top secret board game Escape Kits, I would be in.

487
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:20,800
Speaker 1: I would be one million percent in.

488
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 2: I would do and I think it's a real testament

489
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 2: to British engineering and ingenuity.

490
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: Agreed, And with that ends our tail, but not our show.

491
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,640
Speaker 1: Tune in for our next episode, which will be a

492
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: surprising romp through the origin story of one of the

493
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 1: world's most famous rhinos.

494
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 2: I'm very much looking forward to that. In the meantime,

495
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 2: we'd love to thank our super producer, Casey Pegram Alex Williams,

496
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:48,880
Speaker 2: who composed our theme.

497
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 1: Our research associate Gabe of course you fellow Ridiculous Historians,

498
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,959
Speaker 1: for listening. And Noel, thank you for thank you for

499
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 1: exploring this story with me.

500
00:28:58,600 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 2: Ben, thank you for being a friend.

501
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:03,400
Speaker 1: I wish we could. We don't have the rights to

502
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: play the Golden Girls.

503
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 2: You just have to use your imagination or go watch

504
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 2: it on Hulu's got right now, I can play.

505
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: It on, can you really?

506
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 2: Yes, that's very cool.

507
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,240
Speaker 1: Well I was ely on my priorities order, right man.

508
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 2: Well you got to and you guys should have your

509
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 2: priorities in order to listen to the next episode Ridiculous History.

510
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 2: We'll see then,