For half the game's history, the cover of the Candy Land box included the lines "a sweet little game... for sweet little folks." — Photo courtesy of Tim Walsh
Candy Land
Debut: 1949
Inventor: Eleanor Abbott
Company: Milton Bradley
Object of the game: By matching colors to spaces, players follow a rainbow path through a candy-coated countryside — passing the Peppermint Stick Forest, the Gumdrop Mountains, and the Molasses Swamp — until they reach Home Sweet Home.
History: Retired schoolteacher Eleanor Abbott created Candy Land while she was a patient in a polio ward of a San Diego hospital in 1948. The children in the ward liked the game so much that Abbott decided to submit it to Milton Bradley. Executives at the company were excited by the game, but they never anticipated it would sell more than 40 million copies.
Updated versions: Since the 1950s the game's artwork, characters, and even its game pieces have been updated multiple times. Along with special editions, Hasbro, which took over Milton Bradley in 1984, offers an electronic handheld version and a computer game. For those who want even more Candy Land, there's an app for that.
Trivia: The first Candy Land games were sold for $1 and were advertised as a game to satisfy "the sweet tooth yearning of the younger set without the tummy ache aftereffects."
Tell Us WhatYou Think
Please leave your comment below.
You must be signed in to comment.
Sign In | RegisterMore comments »