In 1937 Parker Brothers, makers of Monopoly and other popular games, introduced the Melvin Purvis G-Men Detective Game. The object is to catch the "Public Enemy."
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| The period artwork is priceless. Note the old cars and the sparks from the radio tower. |
The game is a little more involved than most. You move both the G-Man and his prey. |
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| No doubt the movie theater alluded to in the game is the Biograph in Chicago, where Dillinger was killed, and where Purvis' "household word" notoriety began. |
The spinner, the "men" and the clue cards. Imagine the hours of fun for boys of the '30s, chasing the bad guy of their choosing, like "Pretty Boy" Floyd. |
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| Messages could be kept on the G-Men Telepad, on which you wrote on a thin sheet of opaque cellophane lying over a strip of wax. Lift up the cellophane and the message disappeared! |
The game came with four densely-printed pages of instructions. You didn't even have to download them from the Internet! If you'd like to read them,
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