Scrabble Game Board

History of the Scrabble Game and the Scrabble Board

Scrabble (originally called "Lexico") is a board game enjoyed by children and adults. It's gone a long way since it was conceived by its inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect who loved word games. The name Scrabble® is a registered trademark.Architect Alfred Mosher Butts (1899-1993) enjoyed word games. At the age of 31, he lost his job during the Great Depression. Suddenly, he found himself indulging in his hobby at home in Poughkeepsie, New York.

One day, while browsing the front page of the New York Times, Butts calculated how often each letter of the alphabet appeared, awarding a point value to each letter based on its rate of use. The exacting designer then hand-made letter tiles from quarter-inch squares of balsa wood.

Lexico 

Butts didn't bother with a board, as players would randomly choose seven letters hoping to limit the use of plurals, and would be scored on the value of any word they could form. In 1931, Butts named the finished product 'Lexico.'

Two years later, the patent board rejected "Lexico" and by games companies Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. Butts never gave up. Instead, he produced some 200 copies of the game and sold them to family and friends over the next five years.

From Lexico to Criss-Crosswords

In 1938, the crossword popularity hit the United States. Butts too advantage of the opportunity and added another element to Lexico by drawing up a game board and sticking it to a folding chess set. He also called his invention "Criss-Crosswords." Butts's product was again rejected by the games companies. This time he faced the fact the grim reality that he was not meant to be a good entrepreneur. Since the Depression period was over, he returned to architecture.

Birth of Scrabble

In 1942, Butts was introduced by a common friend to James Brunot, a lawayer looking for a business venture. Familiar with the Criss-Crosswords, Brunot believed he could make it into a successful product. A contract was sealed in which Butts would earn royalty on every game sold. In 1948, Brunot registered the board game name as "Scrabble" for no apparent reason except that he liked the sound of it. It was not successful either and Brunot was ready to give up four years later, in 1952.

Scrabble On Its Way Up

The same year, in 1952, the chairman of the popular Macy's department store in New York, Jack Strauss, was introduced to scrabble while on holiday. On his return, he was surprised to find out that Macy's didn't stock his new favorite game.

Having contacted Brunot, scrabble was launched by Macy's, with its sale skyrocketing to over 4 million sets sold within the next two years.

In 1970, as British mountaineer Chris Boningron and his expedition ascended the mighty south face of Annapurna in Nepal Himalaya, they spent the icy evenings playing scrabble.

1991, the first Scrabble world championship took place in London.

Alfred Mosher Butts, the unassuming inventor, continued his employ as an architect while enjoying Scrabble until his demise, in 1993.

Scrabble Today

In 2005, a Welsh-language Scrabble is launched, with extra tiles of letters such as DD, TH, LL and CH. Perhaps, other enhancements are on their way, only time will tell.