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332:, released in 1985 by Selchow and Righter. Also a tile-based game, it includes 144 letter tiles and four playing boards. Players receive 36 letters from which they try to make as many word combinations as possible. Butts called it "simultaneous solitaire". It never achieved the commercial success of
40:
257:, a popular pastime of the 1920s. Players draw seven lettered tiles from a pool and then attempt to form words from their letters. A key to the game was Butts's analysis of the English language. Butts studied the front page of
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was used. He then used each letter's frequency to determine how many of each letter he would include in the game. He included only four "S" tiles so that the ability to make words plural would not make the game too easy.
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was invented there. To memorialize his importance to the invention of the game, a street sign at 35th Avenue and 81st Street in
Jackson Heights is stylized using letters with their values in Scrabble as a
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In the early 1930s, after working as an architect but now unemployed, Butts set out to design a board game. He studied existing games and found that games fell into three categories: number games, such as
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to market and distribute the game. As of 2009, over 150 million sets had been sold worldwide, with between one and two million sets sold each year in North
America alone.
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Butts and his wife, Nina, who died circa 1979, were married for 54 years; they had no children. He died on April 4, 1993, nine days before his 94th birthday.
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factory. In 1949, the
Brunots made 2,400 sets and lost $ 450 ($ 5,763 in 2023). But the game was steadily gaining popularity, helped by orders from
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Clare
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department store. By 1952, the
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In 1948, the game was trademarked, and Brunot and his wife converted an abandoned schoolhouse in
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and game lover James Brunot, who made a few minor adjustments to the design and renamed the game
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Butts decided to create a game that utilized both chance and skill by combining elements of
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He was also an amateur artist, and six of his drawings were acquired by the
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150:(April 13, 1899 – April 4, 1993) was an American architect, famous for
487:"NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: JACKSON HEIGHTS;Rewriting The Story Of Scrabble"
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574:"Discover the history behind one of the World's Favorite word games!"
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532:"Historic Scrabble Sign Makes Triumphant Return To Jackson Heights"
710:"86-year-old inventor of 'Scrabble' markets 'Alfred's Other Game'"
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507:"For a Bereft Street Corner in Queens, a Red-Letter Day"
389:"Scrabble inventor Alfred Butts dies in New York at 93"
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In his 80s, Butts invented another game, titled simply
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World
English-Language Scrabble Players' Association
426:"Alfred M. Butts, 93, Is Dead; Inventor of SCRABBLE"
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19:"Alfred Butts" redirects here. For other uses, see
534:. Queens Gazette. October 26, 1945. Archived from
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179:and graduated in 1917. He then graduated from the
263:to calculate how frequently each letter of the
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8:
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954:
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814:
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746:"Scrabble: 60 facts for its 60th birthday"
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495:, October 1, 1995; retrieved May 28, 2009.
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16:American architect who invented Scrabble
965:Association of British Scrabble Players
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1487:People from Jackson Heights, Queens
1482:People from Poughkeepsie, New York
671:"'Killer dolls' for Christmas '85"
14:
1492:University of Pennsylvania alumni
1143:Brand's Crossword Game King's Cup
578:scrabble.hasbro.com/en-us/history
455:Tynes, Harcourt (July 28, 1985).
1502:20th-century American architects
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1436:
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1332:The Computer Edition of Scrabble
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424:Lambert, Bruce (April 7, 1993).
277:, but later changed the name to
271:Butts initially called the game
171:Alfred Mosher Butts was born in
505:Ember, Sydney (July 15, 2011).
138:Arrie Elizabeth Mosher (mother)
801:Picture of Alfred Mosher Butts
687:. February 12, 1985. p. 5
111:Architect, board game designer
1:
1497:Architects from New York City
1096:Scrabble Players Championship
726:. August 22, 1985. p. 12
21:Alfred Butts (disambiguation)
237:, New York, and the game of
980:Belgian Scrabble Federation
734:– via newspapers.com.
695:– via newspapers.com.
626:. London, UK. June 28, 2008
475:– via newspapers.com.
413:– via newspapers.com.
405:. April 7, 1993. p. 18
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1167:A Pumpkin Full of Nonsense
233:. Butts was a resident of
229:; and word games, such as
192:Metropolitan Museum of Art
181:University of Pennsylvania
102:University of Pennsylvania
18:
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937:
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359:"Draft Registration Card"
37:
1339:Hasbro Family Game Night
364:Selective Service System
298:Dodgingtown, Connecticut
177:Poughkeepsie High School
92:Poughkeepsie High School
1345:Internet Scrabble Club
1023:J. W. Spear & Sons
374:– via fold3.com.
221:; move games, such as
173:Poughkeepsie, New York
135:Allison Butts (father)
61:Poughkeepsie, New York
1325:Scrabble 2007 Edition
1106:National Championship
1086:Canadian Championship
720:Sunbury, Pennsylvania
592:"History of SCRABBLE"
119:Inventing board game
1507:Board game designers
1117:World Championships
894:Letter distributions
771:"Alfreds Other Game"
724:Ottaway News Service
646:"Alfreds Other Game"
465:Mamaroneck, New York
394:The Delaware Gazette
1091:School Championship
1050:Alfred Mosher Butts
1011:Selchow and Righter
750:The Daily Telegraph
681:Bennington, Vermont
559:New York Daily News
457:"Inventor (cont'd)"
310:Selchow and Righter
148:Alfred Mosher Butts
80:Rhinebeck, New York
32:Alfred Mosher Butts
1413:Words with Friends
1402:Duplicate Scrabble
1065:Harriet T. Righter
538:on October 6, 2015
511:The New York Times
492:The New York Times
431:The New York Times
317:Alfreds Other Game
281:after considering
260:The New York Times
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1458:
1427:
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1359:Scrabble Complete
1189:Scrabble Showdown
1174:Family Game Night
1158:Media & books
1038:
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676:Bennington Banner
598:on March 16, 2010
324:Alfreds [
279:Criss Cross Words
255:crossword puzzles
183:with a degree in
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594:. Archived from
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366:. February 1942
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467:. p. E-2
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1227:Predecessors
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1196:The Big Snit
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1075:Competitions
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958:Associations
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780:. Retrieved
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753:. Retrieved
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728:. Retrieved
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689:. Retrieved
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623:The Guardian
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600:. Retrieved
596:the original
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542:November 23,
540:. Retrieved
536:the original
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516:November 23,
514:. Retrieved
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74:(1993-04-04)
25:
1477:1993 deaths
1472:1899 births
1419:Wordscraper
1384:Bananagrams
1317:Video games
1286:Scrabble ME
1203:TV Scrabble
1183:(game show)
1030:Spin Master
970:NASPA Games
782:October 29,
730:October 29,
691:October 29,
471:October 29,
409:October 29,
370:October 29,
201:Board games
1466:Categories
1210:Word Freak
904:Word lists
755:January 4,
655:January 4,
630:January 2,
602:January 3,
437:January 3,
344:References
156:board game
53:1899-04-13
1300:Trickster
1256:spin-offs
1217:Word Wars
989:Companies
889:Challenge
884:Blanagram
580:. Hasbro.
340:website.
244:subscript
187:in 1924.
167:Biography
163:in 1938.
152:inventing
88:Education
1512:Scrabble
1441:Category
1407:Lexulous
1397:Clabbers
1351:Scrabble
1251:Variants
1234:Anagrams
1181:Scrabble
875:Anamonic
838:Scrabble
572:Hasbro.
334:Scrabble
302:Scrabble
291:Scrabble
265:alphabet
251:anagrams
239:Scrabble
231:anagrams
227:checkers
207:Scrabble
160:Scrabble
122:Scrabble
1451:Commons
1377:Alfapet
1307:Upwords
1131:Spanish
1121:English
1111:UK Open
860:Players
850:English
300:into a
129:Parents
1391:Boggle
1240:Lexiko
1126:French
1043:People
1018:Mattel
1001:Coleco
996:Hasbro
855:French
306:Macy's
274:Lexiko
82:, U.S.
63:, U.S.
1253:&
1136:Youth
879:Bingo
223:chess
219:bingo
1272:RSVP
929:OSPS
924:OSPD
784:2023
757:2020
732:2023
693:2023
657:2020
632:2009
604:2007
544:2014
518:2014
473:2023
439:2009
411:2023
372:2023
253:and
225:and
217:and
215:dice
154:the
69:Died
47:Born
919:ODS
914:NWL
909:CSW
685:UPI
327:sic
1468::
773:.
748:.
722:.
718:.
712:.
701:^
683:.
679:.
673:.
648:.
620:.
576:.
509:.
489:,
463:.
459:.
447:^
428:.
403:AP
401:.
397:.
391:.
380:^
362:.
293:.
283:It
246:.
194:.
829:e
822:t
815:v
786:.
759:.
659:.
634:.
606:.
546:.
520:.
441:.
55:)
51:(
23:.
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