Milton Bradley, the godfather of board games

would have never existed.

Bold statement, I know, but let me explain.

(upbeat music)

The Game of Life.

The spinner, the cars, the choices,

college or career, kids or no kids, lawyer or farmer.

This family game night staple was once a pretty morbid game.

Back in the 1800s, Milton Bradley was

in the lithograph business.

Following the Republican National Convention of 1860,

Bradley printed thousands of images of Abraham Lincoln

who was clean-shaven at the time.

Shortly thereafter, Lincoln debuted his iconic beard,

rendering all of Bradley's prints worthless.

His lithograph business went belly up.

So, Bradley was forced to try something new.

He came up with a board game, a seemingly dark

and twisted board game, appropriately named

The Checkered Game of Life.

The game functioned in a similar way to how it does now.

There was a spinner, colored circles that moved

around the board, and of course squares

that could either make you or break you.

The squares on the original game were overwhelmingly grim,

boasting actions like disgrace, poverty,

ruin, crime, prison, and well, suicide.

Regardless, the game flew off the shelves.

Kids loved it and Milton Bradley went on

to own family game night.

Fast forward to about a hundred years later.

They revamped the game, trading Bradley's morbid squares

for the more delightful ones like payday, or graduation,

which we have all come to know and love.

And so there you have it, the story of the game called Life.

Thanks, Lincoln.

(bright music)