Board games were very popular in the 1950s. Electronics hadn’t completely taken over yet and there are many board games that came out in the 1950s that we still play today.
Instead of plopping down in front of the TV, families would plan entire evenings around board games. “Family Board Game Night” wasn’t a joke, it was what people did for fun.
Let’s break down board games from the 1950s from year to year, shall we?
Board Games in 1957
1957 Milton Bradley Name That Tune
Another strong trend was the slanting of game play toward mastery of the three Rs (readin’ writin’ and ‘rithmatic), history, and geography.
The first commercial game basing play on a phonograph record was introduced. This game by Milton Bradley contains an LP record with excerpts from 160 of the world’s most famous melodies. Players are given boards similar to those used in bingo. The first player to recognize and cover the names of five tunes in a row wins.
New in games that aid education was Steps to Learning, an integrated series of games keyed to teach preschool and primary-grade youngsters basic understanding of shapes and forms, clocks, calendars, and arithmetic.
Another unusual approach to fun with an educational angle was Fractions Are Easy as Pie which based play on sections of delicious cardboard pies and placed in pie plates
Go to the Head of the Class, featuring three levels of quiz questions, was another popular family game.
An indoor version of a childhood pastime Take a Giant Step, in disfavor outdoors because of traffic hazards, was introduced. The game board was marked into steps of various sizes for competition keyed to interest all age groups.
Share your love for Board Games in the 1950s
Hi,
What about, sling shots, Yo Yo’s, rubber guns, skate boards, hop scotch, and the game MONOPOLY !!!
Art
What about Cootie. Every family had a Cootie game.
A boar game called The Mountie Chase also Ludo, we didn’t have a TV listened to radio shows and enjoyed every minute of it. Read books and let our minds wander into many different lands and places. No one ran away from home, we played games outside of hopscotch, skipping, allies ( marbles) including steeles. Hide and seek to name a few games we played outside. We walked everywhere.
Climbing trees, collecting rocks, riding bikes, building things with Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs, shooting marbles, doing drawings with my Etch-a-Sketch, and reading. That’s what I remember.
hi there…
desperately (well.. kind of..) trying to find the name of a board game i played as a kid… late ’50s or earl ’60s…
it featured early tv stars… like red buttons… fred allen….
i’ve looked and looked and can’t find it….
if anyone remembers… i’d be (almost) forever indebted!
I don’t know the name of this game i believe it’s in the mid 50s or late 50s. This game has a little figure in the middle of the board game i think it stood on a small mirror standing straight up a small person it has a pointer in his hands pointig down not straight down but away, I think the little figure moved by a magnet under the mirror it stood on. I was only around 6-8 then, would love to know the name also a picture of this game, that’t all i can remember of it