by Nomadic Chris, 14 April 2010

Alfred Mosher Butts (1899 to 1993) is the man behind Scrabble and the story behind the development of the game is inspiring in itself. In 1930s’, the world was in the midst of the Great Depression and Butts was laid off from his job. With time on his hands and a creative mind, he decided to develop an easy to play and family friendly game based on his two key passions; numbers and words.

Butts went about inventing a word game using letters printed on small cardboard squares and in the process eventually changed home entertainment and family life forever. By the end of 1931, he had devised a new game which used both elements of luck and skill. This initial game was known as “Lexiko”; this did not use a board and scoring was based on the length of the words. The game was later called CRISS CROSS WORDS. A few sets were sold to limited success and approaches to Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley were turned down. After several years of development, Scrabble itself still seemed a long time away but after nearly five years of development, Butts did not give up.

The game further evolved and Butts came up with the idea to fuse together letters with a playing board like a crossword puzzle. Butts then met a games loving businessman by the name of James Brunot. The rest is history… Together Brunot and Butts refined the game and came up with a name, ‘Scrabble’ (the word means “to grope frantically”).

How Scrabbles fortunes have changed is remarkable! It is estimated that one out of every three American homes now has a Scrabble set!! Remarkably, Butts did not really profit from his game but his memory lives on forever in his simple yet hugely entertaining game. So the next time you are compiling a word and trying to score more points… just take sometime to remember a man who had lost his livelihood during difficult times and instead of giving up hope he re-invented himself and in the process invented a useful entertaining game that has lasted and continues to be loved.

“If there hadn’t been any depression in the thirties, there wouldn’t have been any Scrabble!” – Alfred Butts – Inventor of Scrabble

Tweet

Please click here to read : Introducing "HISTORICAL HEROES SERIES" HISTORICAL HERO: The Kindness of Strangers: Sir Nicholas Winton MBE HISTORICAL HEROES: “Seabiscuit, An Unlikely Inspiration” Historical Hero: SIR JOHN WILSON – A True Visionary Who Worked to Save Sight and Prevent Disabilities Historical Hero: Thomas Edison – Inventor for the Ages!