For a recent article in German
(AUF DEUTSCH)
featuring Bruce and his wife Sybille (a serious game player and Catan historian), click on the link below to be taken to a pdf document. Even English-only speakers should check it out for the photos!
For a short news release in French, click on the pdf link below.
Bruce Whitehill is considered by many to be the world’s foremost authority on American games. As a historian, he has written extensively on American games and game companies, and the products and people that defined the industry. His book, Games: American Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992, published by Chilton Books (now out of print, but available from the author), is the most authoritative work on the history of American games and game companies ever published. His second book, Americanopoly: America as Seen Through Its Games, was published in conjunction with an exhibition, using games from his collection, at the Swiss Museum of Games (Musée Suisse du Jeu) in La Tour-de-Peilz.
He is the author of the extended section on games in Grolier’s New Book of Knowledge encyclopedia, and his extensive study on the history of American games and the U.S. games industry was a featured entry in the book, Board Game Studies/2, the International Journal For the Study of Board Games, published by Leiden University, The Netherlands. His articles appeared regularly in Antique Toy World and Collectible Toys and Values, and he has written for Antique Trader, Baby Boomer, Collectible Toys, Collectible Trend$, The Ephemera Journal, Goodtimes, Inside Collector, KayBee Toys Magazine, the New Jersey Star Ledger, Toys and Prices, Toy Values Monthly, and other magazines; his report on the histories of early American games still being manufactured appeared as a four-part series in Games International magazine in England.
He has presented lectures on American games and game history at international symposia of the international academic research body, Board Game Studies, including colloquia in Florence, Italy (1999); Marburg, Germany; Lisbon, Portugal; and Brugge, Belgium. His papers were published in the official proceedings, including Board Games in Academia III.
Mr. Whitehill was on the editorial staff of three now-defunct games magazines: He was the senior editor of Games Annual; the associate editor for the monthly magazine, Games Games Games, published in England; and the senior editor of Knucklebones. He edited an online games and puzzles newsletter, All in the Game, and was a monthly columnist for the collectibles magazine, Toy Shop.
His pseudonym, “The Big Game Hunter,” came in the early 1980s as he began to amass his collection of mostly pre-WWII American games, bagging games for himself and “hunting” them for others on request. (He makes it clear that he does not support hunting animals for recreation or sport, so if that’s the kind of game hunting you’re looking for, you’re on the wrong site!)
Mr. Whitehill writes about games as they reflect American culture. As a result of his expertise in games and recreational artifacts, he has been called upon to aid and advise museum staff, appraise private collections, provide auction houses with information and estimated values of games coming up for sale, and even provide historical data for major game companies involved in litigation.
Known internationally as “The Big Game Hunter,” Mr. Whitehill has the largest diversified collection of antique American games in the world–over 400 U.S. companies are represented from 1843 to 2000. He also has an impressive collection of game advertisements, catalogs, books, and ephemera which he uses to help him with his games research.
As a collector, he has been featured on Charles Kurault’s “Dateline America,” CNBC’s “Smart Money,” “The Joe Franklin Show,” and on “Personal FX” on the FX cable network, and “Public Affairs” on Fox TV (Rochester, NY). As a games expert and historian, he has been spotlighted in such magazines as Grit , Woman’s World, Toy & Hobby World, and has been quoted in Esquire, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, and numerous other publications. He was the main feature in Rhode Island Monthly magazine, in September, 2003. He was the guest commentator for a full hour on NPR, National Public Radio’s “Public Interest,” on a special program devoted to games and their development. His remarks about the design and merchandising of games appear in a chapter on the marketing environment, in the college textbook, Marketing (Charles Lamb; International Thomson Publishing). He was even the subject of an internationally syndicated Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! cartoon which was translated into various languages for publication throughout the world.
Games are both an avocation and a vocation for Mr. Whitehill, who has spent almost 30 years as a game inventor and consultant to the Toy and Game industry. He is the inventor of such games as “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!” (Milton Bradley Company’s best seller for 1984), “The Fraggle Rock Game,” “Snoopy Card Game,” and “Centipede,” among others; his “Championship Baseball” has been on exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. His “The Psychedelic Cipher Caper,” a mystery party game for teenagers (published by Sandpiper Creations, Buffalo, NY), was a parlor game extension of his other vocation: writing and directing live-action, murder mystery dinner theater productions. His latest game, “Stealth” (marketed by Talicor, Inc., Pomona, CA), an all-skill, two-player strategy game in the tradition of “Stratego,” was introduced at the International Toy Fair in New York in 1995, and is still on the market. Mr. Whitehill continues to develop game concepts for companies and independent inventors, and is expert at analyzing and enhancing game play and writing detailed instructions.
As a prominent exhibitor of early games, he has had major game exhibitions at museums in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California; items from his large collection have been on display in galleries from Essex, Connecticut, to Seattle, Washington, and his extensive selection of travel games was viewed by thousands of people in a unique exhibit at the San Francisco International Airport. His extensive collection of games themed around the American West was sold to the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York.
Mr. Whitehill is the founder and past president of the American Game Collectors Association, now known internationally as the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors, and has served on its board of directors for over nineteen years; the organization is committed to the collection and preservation of games, jigsaw puzzles, and mechanical puzzles, and to the research on the people and companies that invented, designed, manufactured, and/or distributed them. Mr. Whitehill spent over two years as editor of the AGCA newsletter for game collectors and researchers, Game Times, and has organized two international game conventions; he is hosting the 20th anniversary convention in Philadelphia in May, 2004, and is responsible for the development of the organization’s first European convention, in April, 2005.
[To read more about Bruce Whitehill's game collection, click on The Big Game Hunter.]
And, as “The Big Game Hunter,” he has been able to uncover unusual games for game company presidents, game buffs, and nostalgia lovers around the world.
As a dedicated writer, collector, and researcher, Mr. Whitehill, in the past two decades, has added more to the collective body of information on American game history than has been written in the last two centuries. He is committed to conducting research on the game industry and to uncovering the histories of the people who invented games and the U.S. companies that manufactured them. He is exploring also the relationship between American games and games of the world. Mr. Whitehill is continually discovering, amassing, and sharing new information about this unique aspect of American culture, examining the effects of advertising, licensing, and marketing, and exploring the role of games in U.S. education, leisure, and family life.
The Big Game Hunter in Rhode Island
by Chris Wall
Rhode Island Magazine
June 2003
It’s the *early-1990s* and Bruce Whitehill is sitting in a car with his mother in lower Manhattan when he spots the diminutive sex expert Dr. Ruth Westheimer – then at the height of her popularity – emerging from a hotel and getting into a *van*. Sitting now in the living room of his Warren apartment, *Whitehill’s* eyes light up and his lips curl into a mischievous grin as he recalls his thought at that moment, *“Here I am looking at Dr. Ruth, live and in person, thinking, how many people are driving around right now with a copy of the 1985 Dr. Ruth board game in the trunk of their car?” *At the next traffic light,* the ever alert and resourceful Whitehill quickly hopped out of his car, retrieved the game from his trunk and – after *running up to the van and* knocking on the window, *making hand and face gestures to convince the good Dr. that he wasn’t crazy – got Dr. Ruth to autograph the game’s box cover. “I *didn’t* hesitate, wondering *whether* it was a sound idea to approach her,” says Whitehill. “*When* was I ever going to get the chance again?”
That question seems to encapsulate the guiding philosophy of the *50+*-year-old Whitehill, whose life story is filled with examples of creating and seizing opportunities. It’s a question he may have asked himself before embarking on a post-college trip around the world, which turned into a seven-year odyssey. Or when he wrote the only book on the history of American games. He may have paused to ask it before buying each of the *now* thousands of games he owns – a collection that makes him one of the world’s leading collectors of American games and has earned him the nickname The Big Game Hunter, which is also the address of the web site he maintains that is devoted to the history and collecting of games: www.thebiggamehunter.com.
When asked where this affinity and passion for games comes from, he replies, “I was never particularly competitive as a child and I looked at games as a good and safe way to compete. You don’t get that ‘loser’ feeling. *Whitehill* doesn’t remember any epiphany that sparked his passion for games, but he does have fond and vivid memories of a particular toy he received from his grandmother. *As a boy growing up in Long Island, he would visit his grandmother in Manhattan’s Lower East Side (he would be put on a bus at one end, a note pinned to his jacket, and she would meet him at the other).* She would bring him a colorful crepe paper ball from *nearby* New York’s Chinatown. *As the ball was unwrapped, little charms and toys and surprises would fall out,* “Much like what you find inside a box of Cracker Jacks,” says Whitehill. What he remembers so well is “the sense of excitement, anticipation, and discovery as I *unraveled* each ball. You never knew what would be uncovered next and that wonder was the magic of it. *Now, opening up a game box does the same thing for me–you never know what might be inside!*”
Sitting in Whitehill’s apartment in a handsome 220 year old Federal style house off Warren’s Main Street, it is obvious he has never lost that sense of childlike wonder and excitement at the prospect of playing a game. Perhaps it is this unabashed connection to childhood pursuits that keeps him so youthful. With his unlined baby face Whitehill could easily pass for ten years younger. And with his twinkling blue eyes, a neatly trimmed beard and mustache flecked with gray, if you threw in a couple of pillows he would make a great Santa Claus. *(Except I’m Jewish!)*
A look around his living room with bookshelves on every side filled with books about games and you realize how many different types of games there are: board games, card games, dice games, positioning games, race games, skill *and action* games, strategy games, *and, though not eactly games*, *jigsaw* puzzles and mechanical *puzzles*.
In the adjoining room the only piece of furniture is a *workbench, surrounded by file cabinets, lawyer’s bookshelves, wire shelves, and an early 1900s rolling bakers rack, all filled or* stacked with board games. Resting in the hall leading to his office *are antique wooden boxes, all *filled with the games, including one with games* Bruce created during his stint (1982-1984) as a game inventor at the legendary Springfield, Massachusetts, game company Milton Bradley: the Ripley’s Believe It or Not game, the Fraggle Rock game (based on the once-omnipresent children’s TV show), the Centipede game (based on the once-omnipresent video game) and *“Championship Baseball,” and his newest strategy game, Stealth, *which is still on the market*. “It’s a great feeling to walk into a store and find a game you created on the shelf,” Whitehill says proudly *–especially if your name is on it, which it is on “Stealth” but not on the Bradley games.
All this would convince the layman that Bruce is a serious gamesman, but this isn’t the half of it.
Up a narrow flight of stairs is the attic. Not a crawl space attic, more of a full third floor attic with *four* large rooms. From wall to wall in the long rectangular room at the top of the stairs is what Whitehill calls his “for sale” collection. It consists of hundreds of game *boxes* stacked almost to the 10-foot tall ceiling. Filling an adjacent 10 by 10 room is *part of* Whitehill’s “permanent collection.” These games have historical and artistic significance and value: first edition games, beautifully hand crafted games, boxes with exceptional lithograph covers, *and games that represent particular periods or events in American history*. “There are collections out there *that have more value*,” says Whitehill. “But there are none that represent the history of American games as well as mine does.” He hopes these games, along with *some of the* 4,000 (yes, 4,000!) other games he keeps in storage in a Philadelphia warehouse, will some day form the heart of the collection in the *only* museum of games in the United States, which Whitehill hopes to open. There are seven game museums scattered across Europe, but none in the United States. (BTW, Chris, there was a game museum in NH once, which is why we can’t say “first ever” museum.)
Anthropologists believe Mancala, the world’s first known game, was played in Africa XXXX years before the birth of Christ. Mancala, which is still played today, was first played by moving seeds around a series of holes dug into the ground. Early people played games for the same reasons they are played today: as an entertaining pastime, as a way to test and sharpen the mind, as a friendly competition, as a gathering point for family and friends.
Most early American games were educational: they taught math, geography, history, and morals. In the early morality games players who *move onto spaces of virtue* advance, while *landing* in vice sends you back. In Milton Bradley’s original “Game of Life,” published in *1860*, players had to avoid “gambling to ruin,” “idleness,” and “disgrace” in order to win.
In “The Mansion of Happiness” game published *by Ives* in 1843, a player landing on a space marked “Passion” was sent to the “Water” because the rules prescribed that “Whoever gets in a Passion must be taken to the Water and have a ducking to cool him.” “Piety,” “Chastity,” and “Temperance” were among the qualities a player must possess to enter “The Mansion of Happiness.” “Audacity,” “Cruelty,” and “Immodesty” would preclude your entrance to the Mansion. Of course, in today’s sex and violence soaked video games audacity, cruelty, and immodesty are the keys to winning. “Games reflect the society that creates them,” says Whitehill.
Most games come and go with the times. Remember the “You Bet Your Life” home version of the Groucho Marx television show? Because of the prohibitive cost of launching and marketing new games, many of today’s games are spin-offs from movies or television shows that have already bought brand identity in the crowded entertainment market. But some games; like chess, checkers, and dominoes, transcend the disposable, transitory modern marketplace. They are popular across the years and throughout the world.
(Chris: the statement below, however true, is not an answer to the question above.)
Whitehill says, “Games reflect life, so they contain both elements of skill and luck to determine the outcome. I prefer games that squeeze out most of the luck and place a premium on skill.” Games that rely on a roll of the dice or the spin of a wheel to move you around are leaving your fate to chance. Knowledge and skill come into play when the players are responsible for choosing strategy, movement and positioning.
The best games, Whitehill says, are simple, but not simplistic. “You can explain how to play them in *five* minutes, but enjoy playing them over and over because each time *it’s* different.” Whitehill and his ** game-playing cohorts usually find themselves playing strategy games from Germany. These games give players lots of choices, but they limit the number you can do at one time. There are offensive and defensive maneuvers you need to execute to win, but with the restrictions you have to set priorities. “It is your skill in making the right choices that makes you responsible for the outcome. And that’s is where the satisfaction comes in,” says Whitehill.
When it comes to American games, Whitehill keeps Stratego, Battleship, and Clue in his playing closet, *along with a host of other games (“Troke,” for example) most Americans wouldn’t recognize*. For the record, no, he does not care for Monopoly, the most popular board game in the Western world. “I agree with the original opinion of George Parker, who initially rejected the game when it was first brought to him because of its flaws. *With the luck of the dice role being so important, there have been times where I have had no chance of winning after one trip around the Monopoly board, yet I had to keep playing forever. A good game has a catch-up feature so everyone is in the game the whole time.”
How enjoyable a game is to play makes a difference in how a game sells, but not in how valuable it is as a collectible. When it comes to collecting, it is generally not what is inside the box that matters, but what is on the outside. It is because of the beautifully lithography on their box covers that board games from the 1880’s and 1890’s are some of the most valuable games around.
In addition to artistic beauty, the qualities collectors are looking for include: rarity, quality of craftsmanship and historical significance. The highest price believed to have ever been paid for a game collectible is the *$73,000* the late magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes spent on a hand-painted oilcloth game board of a pre-Parker Brothers version of Monopoly. Anything to do with Monopoly before ** Parker Brothers bought the game and mass produced it is valuable, says Whitehill.
(new paragraph)
The two earliest known extant American board games were published in 1822. They reside in *a historical museum in Massachusettes, and are taken from comparable English games.* *There is also a special collection* held at the University of Pennsylvania. Not much is known about these rarely glimpsed games, but Whitehill hopes to take a closer look when the group he founded, the ** Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors, holds its 20th annual conference in Philadelphia in 2004 .
Oddly, Whitehill himself really just stumbled into game collecting. After returning from his seven year trip around the globe, which included stints as a television puppeteer in Israel and a yodeling waiter in a faux German beer hall in Tokyo, Whitehill began acquiring games as he worked the *California* antique show circuit. His primary interest at the time was in antiques, specifically the most unusual pieces he could find. *Whitehill* greatly enjoyed his antique trade and his stall always attracted a large number of visitors, but few buyers. One day a fellow antique enthusiast pulled him *aside* and explained why. “This friend tells me, ‘Bruce, you’ve got great things here, it’s one of a kind stuff. The problem is you need one of a kind buyers and they’re hard to come by.” Around the same time another acquaintance asked Whitehill *if he was a game collector. “I don’t know–I never really thought about it.” The friend persisted, asking “How many games do you own?’ ‘200’, Whitehill replied. “You’re a game collector,” said the friend. Soon thereafter Whitehill divested himself of his antiques and began to think of himself as a collector *and historian* of American games. In 1984, *now back on the East Coast*, he founded The Association of American Game and Puzzle Collectors. The group ** has *over* 300 members including noted Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim.
Whitehill used to find games at antique shops, flea markets, and yard sales but most of the low-hanging fruit has been picked. Now, he looks for games on Ebay and at several large antique fairs, the most notable being the annual paper shows *in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.*
When it comes to collecting, knowledge is king. And Whitehill is American game collecting royalty. Like all successful collectors, Whitehill savors his stories of improbable finds. Like the time at an antique fair when he bought a rare board for cheap because it lacked the game pieces. A few booths down he found the pieces for the game selling cheap because they lacked the board. Whitehill made a nice find at a nice price at the Antique Center soon after moving to Warren when he found a copy of the first *mechanical puzzle* put out by a *now-thriving game and puzzle* company called Binary Arts.
Before moving to Warren, Whitehill lived in Rochester, New York, where he made his living as a freelance writer and as the creator and *director* of dinner theater audience participation murder mysteries, *mock jury trials, and wild weddings*. When he felt he had saturated the Rochester market ** he looked to move to newer, fresher territory near Boston. He had no particular ties to Rhode Island, but liked the combination of the artistic community and antique industry in Warren and felt it would be a good fit for him. He *has a public mystery running at Hail Caesar restaurant in Cranston, and* hopes to book some corporate outings and hook up with a charter boat to offer his mystery theater as an entertaining companion to an evening dinner cruise. “The murder mystery business is a natural outgrowth of my interest in games,” says Whitehill. “When you think about it, it is really just a life-size parlor game, like Clue brought to life.”
Whitehill describes himself as playful and he exudes a refreshing enthusiasm whether he’s talking about his mystery theater plans or the history of games. I am a big believer in ‘it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how often you play the game.’”
