Q 01/05

Which out-of-work American invented the game in the early 1930s in Poughkeepsie, New York?

A) Alfred Butts

B) James Brunot

C) Milton Bradley

D) George Parker

Answer · why

A) Alfred Butts

He was an unemployed architect who decided every game was either a number game, a move game or a word game, and set out to blend the last kind with cr...

Q 02/05

Before the crossword-style board was added, the inventor's earlier tile game went by what name?

A) Wordsmith

B) Lexiko

C) Lettergram

D) Alphabetix

Answer · why

B) Lexiko

The tiles and their values were the same; the 15×15 board and crossword play came with the follow-up he called Criss-Crosswords.

Q 03/05

In what year did James Brunot buy the rights to manufacture the game from its inventor?

A) 1941

B) 1948

C) 1955

D) 1962

Answer · why

B) 1948

Brunot paid a royalty on every set sold, and in 1949 his family hand-made 2,400 sets and still lost money.

Q 04/05

James Brunot renamed the game Scrabble, a real English word that means what?

A) To argue loudly

B) To gather hastily

C) To scribble quickly

D) To scratch frantically

Answer · why

D) To scratch frantically

Brunot also shuffled the premium squares slightly and simplified the rules, but left the letter distribution untouched.

Q 05/05

Early orders from which department store helped the game take off around 1952?

A) Gimbels

B) Sears

C) Macy's

D) Woolworth's

Answer · why

C) Macy's

Demand soon outran the converted Connecticut schoolhouse where the sets were made, and by 1954 nearly four million sets were sold.