I was just reading about Monopoly last night in Bill Bryson's Made in America. Here's a short extract.
But the game that secured the company's fortunes was not invented by Parker or anyone else connected with the company. It was created during the early years of the Depression by one Charles Darrow, an unemployed salesman from Germantown, PA, who sketched out the prototype on a piece of oilcloth spread out on this kitchen table. He called his game Monopoly. In 1933 Darrow submitted the game to Parker Brothers in hope that the company would manufacture it on a larger scale. The Parker Brothers executives dutifully tried the game but weren't impressed. They concluded that it had 52 fundamental errors. For one thing there was no finishing line, no visible ultimate goal. The idea of going around the board again and again struck them as faintly absurd. Then there was all this confusing business of mortgages and variable rents. All in all, the rules were too complicated and the game took too long to play. Clearly it would never sell, and they politely turned him down.
Undaunted, Darrow made up some games himself and took them to Wanamakers Department Store in Philadelphia, where they became a small sensation. When Parker Brothers learned of this, they decided to give the game a try on an experimental basis. In the first year, Monopoly sold a million sets, a figure unknown in the world of games, and it has remained the best-selling board game in America ever since. His faith in the game vindicated, Darrow retired to an estate in the country, where he grew orchids and counted his money.
