During the Great Depression, the Fuld Company opened new factories to meet demand for the boards; over five months in , a single New York department store sold 50, of them.
In , the year after Parker Brothers bought the game from the Fuld Company, 2 million boards were sold, outselling Monopoly; that same year saw more American troops in Vietnam, the counter-culture Summer of Love in San Francisco, and race riots in Newark, Detroit, Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Strange Ouija tales also made frequent, titillating appearances in American newspapers.
In , national wire services reported that would-be crime solvers were turning to their Ouija boards for clues in the mysterious murder of a New York City gambler, Joseph Burton Elwell, much to the frustration of the police.
Ouija boards even offered literary inspiration: In , Mrs. Pearl Curran made headlines when she began writing poems and stories that she claimed were dictated, via Ouija board, by the spirit of a 17th century Englishwoman called Patience Worth. Merrill, for his part, publicly implied that the Ouija board acted more as a magnifier for his own poetic thoughts, rather than as hotline to the spirits. Ouija existed on the periphery of American culture, perennially popular, mysterious, interesting and usually, barring the few cases of supposed Ouija-inspired murders, non-threatening.
That is, until In that year, The Exorcist scared the pants off people in theaters, with all that pea soup and head-spinning and supposedly based on a true story business; and the implication that year-old Regan was possessed by a demon after playing with a Ouija board by herself changed how people saw the board. Almost overnight, Ouija became a tool of the devil and, for that reason, a tool of horror writers and moviemakers—it began popping up in scary movies, usually opening the door to evil spirits hell-bent on ripping apart co-eds.
Christian religious groups still remain wary of the board, citing scripture denouncing communication with spirits through mediums—Catholic. Even within the paranormal community, Ouija boards enjoyed a dodgy reputation—Murch says that when he first began speaking at paranormal conventions, he was told to leave his antique boards at home because they scared people too much. Parker Brothers and later, Hasbro, after they acquired Parker Brothers in , still sold hundreds of thousands of them, but the reasons why people were buying them had changed significantly: Ouija boards were spooky rather than spiritual, with a distinct frisson of danger.
In , rumors that Universal was in talks to make a film based on the game abounded, although Hasbro refused to comment on that or anything else for this story. Ouija boards are not, scientists say, powered by spirits or even demons. Ouija boards work on a principle known to those studying the mind for more than years: the ideometer effect.
In , physician and physiologist William Benjamin Carpenter published a report for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, examining these automatic muscular movements that take place without the conscious will or volition of the individual think crying in reaction to a sad film, for example. Almost immediately, other researchers saw applications of the ideometer effect in the popular spiritualist pastimes.
The effect is very convincing. As Dr. Moreover, in most situations, there is an expectation or suggestion that the board is somehow mystical or magical. Quite a lot, actually. Handle the Ouija board with respect and it won't disappoint you! Includes gameboard, planchette and instructions Ages 8 and up. Ouija and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro. Hasbro does not control and is not responsible for the availability of, or content on, linked third party websites.
Please be aware that your use of such third party's linked website is subject to their privacy policy and terms of use, which may differ from those of Hasbro. Skip to main content. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Humor Mysteries Ghosts Haunted Places.
By Stephen Wagner. Updated December 28, Featured Video. Astral Projection: Doorway to a New Dimension. The Risks and Dangers of Paranormal Investigation.
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