Hardcover | 33.78 x 2.79 x 26.16 cm | 256 pp

Abbeville Press | 2022 | 9780789214447

Rare & Collectible

From Chinese checkers to the Wheel of Fortune board game, this is the story of how one family business shaped the way Americans play. Abundantly illustrated with new colour photography as well as rare archival images, this book offers a great insight into the history of play, and the design of toys.

When Jack Pressman went into business as a manufacturer of basic playthings like lead soldiers and toy xylophones in 1922, he could little have imagined that his small venture would become one of the iconic American toy companies. The firm scored its first mega-hit in the 1920s, when it popularised Chinese checkers, and it went on to introduce enduring favourites like Rummikub and Tri-Ominos. Today, the Pressman Toy Corporation remains well known for its line of classic board games in eye-catching red boxes, as well as games based on popular TV shows.

This centennial history traces the growth of the company under the leadership of three successive Pressmans: Jack, his wife Lynn (one of the first female CEOs in the industry), and their son Jim. It is a story that reflects the development of the toy industry as a whole - encompassing the rise of plastics, the emergence of character licensing and TV advertising, and the surprising endurance of the physical board game in our digital age.