Merle Robbins (September 12, 1911 – January 14, 1984) was an American

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

from

Reading, Ohio Reading (pronounced ) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 10,385 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is an inner suburb of Cincinnati and is included as part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. G ...

who invented the

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

UNO. In 1971, he invented UNO to resolve an argument with his son Ray, a teacher, about the rules of

Crazy Eights Crazy Eights is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players and the best known American member of the Eights Group which also includes Pig and Spoons. The object of the game is to be the first player to discard all of their cards. The ga ...

. The original decks were designed and made on the family dining room table. Then he and his family mortgaged their home to raise $8,000 and created the first 5,000 UNO decks to sell. At first, he sold them out of his barber shop, while his son Ray handed them out to his students. In 1972, he sold the rights to UNO to International Games for $50,000 plus

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

of 10 cents per copy. Today, the game is produced by toy giant

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

in 80 countries and has sold 151 million copies worldwide. Merle Robbins was a barber in Milford, Ohio. He died in 1984 in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

References

External links

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Boardgamegeek
1911 births 1984 deaths American entertainment industry businesspeople Uno (card game) People from Reading, Ohio People from Milford, Ohio {{US-business-bio-stub