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               How an entrepreneur merged spiritualism and capitalism to create a multimillion-dollar brand. by Zachary Crockett.
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                Sunday, October 30, 2022
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            <h2 style="font-size: 30px; font-family: 'Oswald', 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 25px;">
             <strong>
              The strange business of the Ouija board
             </strong>
            </h2>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 10px; font-style: italic; color: #737373; margin: 0;">
             How an entrepreneur merged spiritualism and capitalism to create a multimillion-dollar brand.
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             <strong>
              BY
              <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important; text-transform: uppercase;">
               Juliet Bennett Rylah
              </a>
             </strong>
            </p>
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            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             On a recent weekend in Salem, Massachusetts, I wandered into the
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              Salem Witch Board Museum
             </a>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The site of America’s infamous
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              witch trials
             </a>
             in 1692, Salem is now a commercialized ode to occultism: It is home to dozens of witchcraft shops, ghost tours, and “haunted” abodes.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Inside the museum, the history of a fascinating business is on display.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The walls and glass cases of the small gallery are lined with “talking boards” or “witch boards” — devices that supposedly allow people to communicate with spirits.
            </p>
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            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-museum_20221028180437.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
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             A selection of talking boards at the Salem Witch Board Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (Juliet Bennett-Rylah)
            </p>
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          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             They work like so:
            </p>
            <ol style="font-size: 16px;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              The board is labeled with the alphabet, numbers (0-9), and the words “yes,” “no,” and some variation of “goodbye.”
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              A player asks the board a
              <strong>
               question
              </strong>
              .
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              An indicator mysteriously moves across the board, spelling out an answer.
             </li>
            </ol>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             You might know these devices as
             <strong>
              Ouija boards
             </strong>
             . But Ouija is a brand, like Kleenex or Tupperware. And at one point in time, it was a multimillion-dollar business.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “Think of Coke and Pepsi. Coke is probably number one, Pepsi is number two. There is no number two for the Ouija board,” the museum’s owner,
             <strong>
              John Kozik
             </strong>
             , told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             When Kozik points out other brands in the collection, guests often assume they won’t work as well because they’re not “official,” as though ghosts harbor a brand-name preference.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             This is the story of how, thanks to the combined forces of spiritualism and capitalism, Ouija became the go-to for communing with the dead.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              How spiritualism became a business model
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              Spiritualism
             </a>
             — the belief that the living can communicate with the dead — was already popular in Europe when it ignited across the US in the mid-19th century.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             America’s obsession with spiritualism can largely be traced to the
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              Fox sisters
             </a>
             of Hydesville, New York, who interpreted messages from spirits that rapped on furniture and walls.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But for aspiring mediums without knocking spirits at their behest, there were other communication devices, like
             <strong>
              the talking board
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
           </td>
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           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-1890s_20221028180527.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Two women using an early talking board in the 1890s (Talking Board Historical Society)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             At first, talking boards were something people made themselves.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             An
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              1886
             </a>
             article described how easy the “new scheme for mysterious communication” was to construct: You just needed a board marked with letters and numbers, and a planchette (French for “little plank”) to point to them.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Users would place their fingers on the planchette, and spirits would channel through them to point it to the desired letter.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Among these early talking board enthusiasts was
             <strong>
              Charles Kennard
             </strong>
             , a fertilizer entrepreneur in Chestertown, Maryland. He didn’t seek answers from the great beyond so much as profit.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “He was one of those guys who’s always into seven to ten businesses, always looking for some cool opportunity,”
             <strong>
              Robert Murch,
             </strong>
             the president of
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              The Talking Board Historical Society
             </a>
             (and one of the nation’s foremost experts on Ouija boards) told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Kennard partnered with an undertaker and woodworker named
             <strong>
              E.C. Reiche
             </strong>
             to make and sell a
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              dozen or so boards
             </a>
             . Kennard suggested they go into business together, but Reiche failed to see a profit in something people could make themselves.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Kennard saw potential and kept at it.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             After his fertilizer business dried up due to competition and drought in 1889, he moved to Baltimore to start anew. There, he met patent attorney
             <strong>
              Elijah Bond
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              Call me Ouija
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Bond was into Kennard’s business idea — and it didn’t hurt that Bond’s sister-in-law,
             <strong>
              Helen Peters
             </strong>
             , was a medium (someone who claims they can communicate with the dead).
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In letters Murch uncovered, Kennard wrote of a seance Peters held in April 1890, during which he
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              claimed
             </a>
             they asked the board what it wanted to be called. It spelled “O-U-I-J-A,” then told the group it meant “good luck.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-headshots_20221028180635.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Early pioneers of the Ouija board: Charles Kennard (top left), E.C. Reiche (top right), Elijah Bond (bottom left), and Helen Peters (bottom right) (Talking Board Historical Society)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Ouija wasn’t a word in any language. Murch
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              speculates
             </a>
             it may have been a misspelling of Ouida, the sobriquet of Maria Louise Ramé, a writer Peters admired, but, whatever the case, it stuck.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Kennard incorporated The Kennard Novelty Company on Oct. 30, 1890,
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              with
             </a>
             investors Col. Washington Bowie, John F. Green, Harry Welles Rusk, and William H.A. Maupin.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Their mission? Selling as many Ouija boards as possible.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              ‘Proven at the patent office’
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Bond’s role was to trademark the word “
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              Ouija
             </a>
             ” and patent the board. Per Murch’s research, the patent office had rejected similar devices because their creators couldn’t prove they were summoning ghosts.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             So, Bond
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              brought Peters
             </a>
             along. The pair were shuffled from clerk to clerk until they reached the office’s chief.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “The [chief clerk] walks in and says, ‘Look, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. But if that contraption can spell my name, you’ve got your patent,’” Murch said.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             With Peters and Bond at the board, it revealed his name, letter by letter. The supposedly shaken clerk gave Bond
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              his patent
             </a>
             — and it gave Kennard a new tag line for the Ouija board in advertisements: “
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              proven at the patent office
             </a>
             .”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-patent_20221028180750.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             The original patent for the Ouija board, filed in 1891 (Google Patents)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             By 1892, Ouija was so popular that the Kennard Novelty Company built additional factories in NYC, London, and Chicago, and a second in Baltimore. The boards sold for
             <strong>
              $1
             </strong>
             (
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              ~$33 today
             </a>
             ) — a bargain for metaphysical messages.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The company’s leadership, however, had less staying power.
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Reiche, the undertaker, surfaced and
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               asked
              </a>
              for his cut of the profits, which Murch speculates left “a bad taste” in people’s mouths about Kennard.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Kennard and Maupin cashed out in 1892, while Bond, who turned out to be terrible at business, departed after a disastrous attempt to oversee the UK factory.
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Sans Kennard,
             <strong>
              Col. Washington Bowie
             </strong>
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              renamed
             </a>
             the company the
             <strong>
              Ouija Novelty Company
             </strong>
             , and enlisted
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              <strong>
               William Fuld
              </strong>
             </a>
             , his friend and a varnisher at the company, to manufacture the boards with his brother, Isaac.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The brothers did so until
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              1901
             </a>
             , when Ouija, for reasons unknown, signed an exclusive agreement with William Fuld.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              Big business
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In 1918, Fuld built a three-story factory in Baltimore for
             <strong>
              $100k
             </strong>
             (
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              $1.9m
             </a>
             ), purportedly because the Ouija board
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              told him
             </a>
             to “prepare for big business.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Soon, the Ouija board was
             <em>
              everywhere
             </em>
             :
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              It was a popular dating game among couples, as depicted in Norman Rockwell’s
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               cover
              </a>
              for a 1920 edition of
              <em>
               The Saturday Evening Post
              </em>
              .
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Songs, like “
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               Weegee Weegee Tell Me Do
              </a>
              ,” “
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               Ouija Mine
              </a>
              ,” and “
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               Ouija Board
              </a>
              ” told of its powers.
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Bachelorette parties
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              used it
             </a>
             to predict guests’ romantic fates.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-1920a_20221028180853.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Left: The Ouija board graced the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1920; Right: A 1920s ad offering the Ouija for $1; Bottom: Ouija boards packed in a storefront window (Talking Board Historical Society)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             With this newfound success, many competitors popped up.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Other manufacturers — including Kennard, Bond, and Fuld’s ousted brother — tried to cash in on the trend. But Fuld vanquished them all with lawsuits and pricing tactics (he undercut cheaper boards by manufacturing a discount “Mystifying Oracle” board).
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Unfortunately, Fuld’s factory also killed him.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In 1927, he
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              fell
             </a>
             off the roof while supervising a flagpole installation and a broken rib punctured his heart. On his deathbed, he asked his children to never sell the Ouija board.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             They honored his wish until there were no heirs who wanted to run the business. Then, in
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              1966
             </a>
             , the Fuld family
             <strong>
              sold Ouija to Parker Brothers.
             </strong>
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              The Ouija goes corporate
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Parker Brothers founder
             <strong>
              George Parker
             </strong>
             made his first game,
             <em>
              Banking
             </em>
             , in
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              1883
             </a>
             at age 16. It involved borrowing money from a central bank to see if you could make more.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             By 1966, Parker Brothers was a flourishing company headquartered, like Kozik’s museum, in Salem — with games including
             <em>
              Risk
             </em>
             ,
             <em>
              Sorry
             </em>
             , and
             <em>
              Clue
             </em>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             According to
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              a 1986 interview
             </a>
             with then-president Robert B.M. Barton, Parker Brothers paid a staggering ~$975k ($8.9m) for Ouija. It was the
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              most expensive acquisition
             </a>
             the company had ever made — it’d
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              paid
             </a>
             just $500 ($10.8k) for
             <em>
              Monopoly
             </em>
             in 1935 — but it paid off.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “I think I made the money back in two years,” Barton said at the time.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-1960s_20221028180948.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Consumers snapping up Ouija boards in the 1960s (Talking Board Historical Society)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <strong>
              Randolph Parker Barton
             </strong>
             , George Parker’s
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              grandson
             </a>
             and the company’s then-VP, said that when it acquired the patents, Ouija was selling
             <strong>
              ~400k boards
             </strong>
             per year, but had so many back orders, Parker Brothers
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              wasn’t sure
             </a>
             it could keep up.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In 1967 alone, Parker Brothers sold
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              2m
             </a>
             boards, outselling every single one of its other
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              134
             </a>
             games — even
             <em>
              Monopoly
             </em>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Though the Ouija board was a smash success, Parker Brothers lacked the finances to keep pace with the booming games business. In late ’67, the company was
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              sold
             </a>
             to General Mills.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             General Mills had already purchased Play-Doh maker Rainbow Crafts, Inc. and Easy-Bake oven maker Kenner, which merged with Parker Brothers after the acquisition.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Tonka acquired Kenner Parker in 1987 in a deal worth
             <strong>
              $627m
             </strong>
             (
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              $1.6B today
             </a>
             ), then sold to Hasbro for
             <strong>
              $516m
             </strong>
             (
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              $1.1B
             </a>
             ) in 1991.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Hasbro retains the Ouija patent and trademark to this day, and occasionally licenses it to other companies:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Winning Moves makes a
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               classic version
              </a>
              that harkens back to the ’80s and ’90s
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Bioworld Merch, which manufactures licensed apparel and accessories, sells
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               blankets
              </a>
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Spirit Halloween
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              sells
             </a>
             Ouija-themed merchandise, including party decor, mugs, and candles
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-spirit_20221028180943.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             The Ouija brand is in full capitalism mode at the Spirit store — it’s on everything from socks to blankets (Spirit Halloween)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Hasbro also produced two horror films,
             <em>
              Ouija
             </em>
             (2014) and
             <em>
              Ouija 2: Origin of Evil
             </em>
             (2016), both commercially successful. The first film took in a global box office of $103.6m against a budget of $5m-$8m, despite its mostly negative reviews.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Which raises the question: How
             <em>
              did
             </em>
             Ouija go from a spiritual tool to a flirty dating game to something scary?
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              Blame
             </strong>
             <em>
              <strong>
               The Exorcist
              </strong>
             </em>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In 1973’s
             <em>
              The Exorcist
             </em>
             , 12-year-old Regan tells her mother she uses a Ouija board to talk to a spirit called Captain Howdy shortly before she’s possessed by a demon. Interestingly, Ouija sales went up
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              15%
             </a>
             that year.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Sinister Ouija stories weren’t unheard of before
             <em>
              The Exorcist
             </em>
             , in both real life and pop culture. In the 1960 film
             <em>
              13 Ghosts
             </em>
             , a levitating planchette
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              warns
             </a>
             of impending doom. In 1930, a New York woman
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              convinced
             </a>
             a friend to murder her romantic rival, claiming a spirit had ordered the deed.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <em>
              The Exorcist
             </em>
             ’s greatest contribution to what Murch and Kozik call “Ouijastitions” is perhaps the idea that something
             <em>
              bad
             </em>
             could reach out if you used the board alone.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-exocist_20221028181010.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             The Ouija Board made a prominent appearance in the 1973 film, The Exorcist (Warner Bros. Pictures)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             It’s repeated in Dennis Tenney’s Witchboard (1986), in which Whitesnake video vixen Tawny Kitaen is ensnared by a malevolent spirit after playing alone; both Ouija films; and countless other media — over time cultivating a deep fear and demonic connotations.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             And in 2008, when Hasbro released a pink Ouija marketed to young girls and sold exclusively at Toys R Us, some called for a
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              boycott
             </a>
             on Toys R Us.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Hasbro made a pink
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              <em>
               Monopoly
              </em>
             </a>
             as well. Kozik, who has the pink
             <em>
              Ouija
             </em>
             in his museum, asks what’s more evil: chatting with ghosts, or bankrupting all your friends.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Kozik’s museum also contains numerous boards mailed in by people hoping to rid themselves of a cursed artifact. One, Kozik told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             ,
             <em>
             </em>
             came packed in five pounds of salt.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              But… does it work?
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Ah, yes. The eternal question.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Remember the Fox sisters, who sparked the spiritualism movement in the US back in the mid-1800s? In 1888, one of them admitted — then recanted — that it had all been a hoax, but the spiritualism movement persisted without her.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             To this day, there are many who believe that the Ouija board allows us to pierce the veil and seek advice from what lies beyond, or those who are so afraid of summoning a demon that they refuse to be near one.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-final_20221028181005.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1op6kf:mO3Lc_u7uVjEd5DNAyPfosWkxR2YRJ_8lhvhbRSVqUQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             The Ouija board remains mysterious to this day (Getty Images)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A more scientific explanation is the
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              ideomotor effect
             </a>
             , small movements we make without intending to or realizing we’re making them.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             It could explain how Peters conjured a name similar to a writer she loved, or how Bond spelled out the name of a patent employee he — a patent attorney — perhaps already knew.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             We’ll let you decide.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But one thing’s for sure: It turned into a pretty damn good business.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
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                In uncertain times like these, just the rumblings of a potential recession can strongly curb consumer spending.
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                Because inflation screws us all. And no matter what you sell, it’s important to meet people where they are.
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                So HubSpot surveyed hundreds to learn about their current priorities and purchasing habits. Read all about
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                 Is a potential US recession changing your spending habits?
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                 If a recession is declared, how will your home budget shift?
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                 During trying times, what did you spend on the most?
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                On the bright side, experts at IMF said a new recession would likely be short and shallow. Learn why below.
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