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Break from the Grind September 16, 2019
TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Why Was the Game Candy Land Invented?
Many of us have fond memories of playing the board game Candy Land when we were very young.
Reported by PS
Why was the game Candy Land invented?
In 1948, retired school teacher Eleanor Abbott was in the polio ward of a San Diego hospital along with many children suffering from the disease. Recuperating children were confined—and bored and lonely.
Abbott came up with the idea of a board game as a distraction and a way to pass the time for the children. Not only did it provide a distraction, it also gave immobilized patients a fantasy of movement.
On the advice of her friends, Abbott sent her creation to Milton Bradley, and the company introduced Candy Land in 1949. Though the company didn’t use its tie to portfolio to market the game, the original board depicts the steps of a boy in a leg brace.