Rich Uncle Pennybags is the

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of the

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

of ''

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

''. He is depicted as a portly old man with a moustache who wears a

morning suit Morning dress, also known as formal day dress, is the Formal attire, formal Western dress code for day attire, consisting chiefly of, for men, a morning coat, waistcoat, and formal trousers, and an appropriate gown for women. Men may also wear ...

with a

bowtie The bow tie is a type of necktie. A modern bow tie is tied using a common shoelace knot, which is also called the bow knot for that reason. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar of a shirt in a symmetrical manner so that the ...

and

top hat A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...

. In large parts of the world he is known, additionally or exclusively, as the Monopoly Man, or Mr. Monopoly. He also appears in the related games ''

Advance to Boardwalk Advance to Boardwalk is a 1985 spin-off of the Parker Brothers board game Monopoly. Setting Like its progenitor, its setting is the real-estate world in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but focuses only on the boardwalk. It involves the building of ho ...

'', ''

Free Parking Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' ...

'', ''

Don't Go to Jail ''Don't Go to Jail'' is a 1991 Parker Brothers dice game for two or more players inspired by ''Monopoly''. The game is played by rolling ten dice and attempting to roll matches to score points. Seven of the dice have various colors, utilities, or ...

'', ''

Monopoly City Monopoly City is a board game that is a spin-off of the original Monopoly. It was released by Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding compan ...

'', ''

Monopoly Junior Monopoly Junior is a simplified version of the board game Monopoly, designed for young children, which was originally released in 1990. It has a rectangular board that is smaller than the standard game and rather than using street names it is ba ...

'', and ''

Monopoly Deal ''Monopoly Deal'' is a card game derived from the board-game ''Monopoly'' introduced in 2008, produced and sold by Cartamundi under a license from Hasbro. Upon its release, the game was generally well-received for its short playing time and play ...

''. The character first appeared on

Chance Chance may refer to: Mathematics and Science * In mathematics, likelihood of something (by way of the Likelihood function and/or Probability density function). * ''Chance'' (statistics magazine) Places * Chance, Kentucky, US * Chance, Mary ...

and

Community Chest cards ''Monopoly'' is a multi-player economics-themed board game. In the game, players roll two dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents, a ...

in U.S. editions of ''Monopoly'' in 1936. The identity of the character's designer, artist Daniel Fox, was unknown until 2013, when a former Parker Brothers executive,

Philip Orbanes Philip E. Orbanes is an American board game designer, author, founding partner and former president of Winning Moves Games in Danvers, Massachusetts. Orbanes is a graduate of the Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University). ...

, was contacted by one of Fox's grandchildren.

History

The unnamed character made his first appearance outside ''Monopoly'' in the Parker Brothers' game ''Dig'', released in 1940. He did not receive a name until 1946, when Parker Brothers produced the game ''Rich Uncle,'' where his likeness appeared on the box lid, instructions, and currency. According to Orbanes, Rich Uncle Pennybags of the American version of Monopoly is modeled after American

Progressive Era The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...

businessman

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

. Between 1985 and 2008, the character appeared in the second "O" in the word ''Monopoly'' as part of the game's logo. More recently, he is depicted over the word "Monopoly", drawn in a 3-D style, extending his right hand. However, he no longer appears uniformly on every Monopoly game box. In 1988, Orbanes published the first edition of his book ''The Monopoly Companion''. In the book, all of the characters that appear on the ''Monopoly'' board or within the decks of cards received a name. Uncle Pennybags' full name was given as Milburn Pennybags, the character "In Jail" is named "Jake, the Jailbird", and the police officer on Go to Jail is named "Officer Mallory". In 1999, Rich Uncle Pennybags was renamed Mr. Monopoly. That year, a ''Monopoly Jr.''

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

game was released in cereal boxes as part of a

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

promotion. It introduced Mr. Monopoly's niece and nephew, Sandy and Andy. According to the book, ''Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game & How It Got That Way'' and ''The Monopoly Companion'', Mr. Monopoly has a second nephew named Randy, although the ''Monopoly Companion'' mistakenly refers to Sandy as a boy. ''Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game & How It Got That Way'' also states that Mr. Monopoly has a wife named Madge. He is named as the sixth richest fictional character in the 2006 ''Forbes Fictional 15'' list on its website and the ninth richest in 2011.

Legacy

In 2017, a staff member of the activist group

Public Citizen Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas. Lobbying efforts Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Unit ...

that dressed as Mr. Monopoly (with added monocle) gained Internet and media attention by

photobombing Photobombing is the act of purposely putting oneself into the view of a photograph, often in order to play a practical joke on the photographer or the subjects. Photobombing has received significant coverage since 2009. In discussing a "stingray ph ...

the CEO of

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Thr ...

during a US Senate hearing relating to that credit bureau's data security breach from earlier that same year. It was an attempt to bring attention to the use of "

forced arbitration An arbitration clause is a clause in a contract that requires the parties to resolve their disputes through an arbitration process. Although such a clause may or may not specify that arbitration occur within a specific jurisdiction, it always bin ...

" to circumvent consumers' rights to sue financial companies in court. While Google CEO

Sundar Pichai Pichai Sundararajan (born June 10, 1972), better known as Sundar Pichai (), is an Indian-American business executive. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google. Born in Madurai, India, Pichai earned hi ...

testified before Congress on December 11, 2018, a person costumed in a white mustache and black bowler hat as the Monopoly Man was among those seated behind him. ''Clue: Candlestick,'' a mystery

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

Dash Shaw Dash Shaw is an American comic book writer/artist and animator. He is the author of the graphic novels ''Cosplayers'', ''Doctors'', ''New School'', and ''Bottomless Belly Button'', published by Fantagraphics. Additionally, Shaw has written ''Love E ...

based on the board game

Clue Clue may refer to: People with the name * DJ Clue (born 1975), mixtape DJ * Arthur Clues (1924–1998), Australian rugby league footballer * Ivan Clues * Tim Cluess Arts, entertainment, and media ''Clue'' entertainment franchise * ''Cluedo'' ...

, features Rich Uncle Pennybags in a cameo. He is referred to as "Milburn."

Vault Boy Vault Boy is the mascot of the ''Fallout (series), Fallout'' media franchise. Created by staff at Interplay Entertainment, the original owners of the ''Fallout'' intellectual property (IP), Vault Boy was introduced in 1997's ''Fallout (video g ...

, the mascot of the ''

Fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

'' video game series, is based partly on Rich Uncle Pennybags. A common instance of the

Mandela effect In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformat ...

is a false memory of Mr. Monopoly as wearing a monocle, which he never has (although a monocle is sometimes used with other characters as visual idiom of to denote an upper-class toff, e.g.

Mr. Peanut Mr. Peanut is the advertising logo and mascot of Planters, an American snack-food company owned by Hormel. He is depicted as an anthropomorphic peanut in its shell, wearing the formal clothing of an old-fashioned gentleman, with a top hat, mono ...

Voices

Mr. Monopoly has been voiced by several voice actors including Tony Waldman, Tony Pope, Wendell Johnson, Dean Hagopian, Mark Dodson, Larry Moran, Michael Cornacchia, Harry Aspinwall, and Rowell Gormon.

References

;Specific ;General * * *

External links

* * * {{Forbes Fictional 15 Mascots introduced in 1936 Toy mascots Male characters in advertising Monopoly (game)