Anthony Ernest Pratt
Encyclopedia
Anthony Ernest Pratt was the inventor of the board game ‘Cluedo’.
, United Kingdom
and educated at St. Philip's School
Edgbaston (where J. R. R. Tolkien
, author of The Lord of the Rings
, went to school). His favourite subject was Chemistry
but he suffered from poor eyesight which affected his education somewhat. Anthony was a very gifted musician and a proficient pianist from an early age. When he left school, at 15, he wanted to pursue a career in chemistry and was apprenticed to a local chemical manufacturer. But with no formal qualifications in chemistry and a growing interest in music he went onto pursue a musical career.
and Iceland
. Also an aspiring composer (he was a huge fan of Edward Elgar
) he was at one time accompanist to the well known soprano Kirsten Flagstad
.
During the Second World War Anthony worked in an engineering factory in Birmingham that manufactured components for tanks. Working on a drilling machine he found the work rather tedious but it gave him time to think, including about the ideas behind Cluedo
. He made some good friends and remained there for the duration of the war.
and Agatha Christie
,the spark for Cluedo was created. At the time books like ‘The Body in the Library’ (1939) ‘And Then There Were Ten’ (1942) by the bestselling author Agatha Christie were enormously popular. So in 1943 Anthony and his wife, Elva, began designing a murder mystery board game. The original game was called ‘Murder’ with the artwork for the board itself being designed by Elva. Photograph of Anthony and Elva.
Anthony filed his original patent
application on 1 December 1944. He knew and had spoken to a close friend, Geoffrey Bull, who had invented the board game ‘Buccaneer’ and it was Geoffrey who introduced Anthony to Norman Watson, managing director of Waddingtons
, the games manufacturer. In February 1945 Anthony demonstrated the game to Norman Watson who immediately saw the winning formula of the game and, after a few minor modifications, decided to go ahead and manufacture it. It was Waddingtons who renamed the game ‘Cluedo’ (a combination of the words ‘Clue’ and ‘Ludo’, a Latin word meaning ‘to play’). But unfortunately material shortages in post-war Britain meant the game didn’t go into production until 1949.
Anthony Pratt was granted patent GB586817 ‘Improvements in Board Games' on 1 April 1947.
The aim of the game is to solve, by means of elimination and deduction, the mysterious murder of Dr. Black, the owner of Tudor Mansion, whose body has been found at the foot of the steps leading to the cellar – at a spot marked ‘X’. The winner is the first player to identify the murderer, the weapon used and the room in which the murder took place. The players use coloured playing pawns that represent the different guests; Colonel Mustard (Yellow), Professor Plum (Purple), Reverend Green (Green), Mrs. Peacock (Blue), Miss Scarlett (Red) and Mrs. White (White). All the potential murder weapons are shown by small props; Dagger, candlestick, revolver, rope, lead piping, and spanner. As originally invented, the game had more characters and murder weapons.
The board is laid out as the ground floor of Tudor Mansion showing all the rooms, corridors and secret passages: Hall, Lounge, Study, Library, Dining Room, Kitchen, Conservatory, Billiard Room and Ball Room. There are secret passages leading from the lounge to the conservatory and from the kitchen to the study, perfect for the murderer to slip away undetected!
There are small playing cards one representing each of the guests, murder weapons and rooms. At the start of the game a card representing a character, weapon and room are selected both secretly and at random from the pack and placed into a small envelope labelled ‘murder cards’. The winner of the game is the first person to correctly work out the identity of all three murder cards.
During the game, players, or guests, roll dice to move from room to room to make various enquiries about the murderer, murder weapon and scene of the crime. Once inside a room, the player can make an ‘accusation’ by calling a character and a weapon into that room “I suggest that the murder was committed in the Study by Colonel Mustard with the Candle Stick”. A player holding one of those cards must show the person making the ‘accusation’ who can then mark off that person, weapon or room from their Detective Notes. Throughout the game players take it in turn to question fellow players as, one by one, they are asked to reveal if they have a card that matches the room, weapon and character that is suggested by the person or guest making an ‘accusation’. By clever and patient deduction the players attempt to solve the murder of Dr. Black. The players keep moving around the board, making ‘accusations’ when entering rooms, until they are able to identify all three murder cards showing;
(1) Who committed the crime
(2) What was the weapon used and
(3) In which room the crime was committed.
(who obtained the American rights for the game) marketed the game as ‘Clue’ in America. Sold since 1949, it has been a bestseller ever since it first came out. More than 150 million have been sold in more than 40 countries and although the basic format of the game is the same the world over there are regional differences. For example in Germany, Miss Scarlett is known as Fraulein Ming, in Chile, the Reverend Green is a chef called Lettuce. In Finland, Colonel Mustard is Colonel Yellowbeak while in Switzerland he is Madame Curry. Dr Black is known as Mr. Boddy in America and Dr. Lemon in Spain. Mrs Peacock is Capitan Cleleste in Chile whilst the Norwegians refer to Mrs Peacock as Baronesse von Blauw.
The game is now made by the American toy manufacturer Hasbro
, which acquired both Parker Brothers and Waddingtons in the 1990s. Cluedo has, over the years, been made into various editions and spin-offs with just a few including: Scooby Doo Cluedo, Harry Potter Cluedo, Simpsons Cluedo and Cluedo Junior.
The current edition of Cluedo is called ‘Cluedo – Discover the Secrets’. Created in 2008 this modern version has a new setting and characters. The original characters have been replaced; Kasandra Scarlet, Jacob Green, Jack Mustard, Victor Plum, Eleanor Peacock Diane White. Tudor Close is now a Hollywood mansion with rooms that include a Spa, Pool, Guest House, Theatre, Patio, Living Room and Observatory. The murderer also has some new weapons to choose from, which include a baseball bat, trophy and dumbbell.
The Cluedo game has also been turned into a movie Clue
, a stage play, various books, and a television serial.
working for the Ministry of Labour helping demobbed servicemen and women to return to peacetime work.
In 1953, 4 years after Cluedo first went on sale, Waddingtons told Anthony that the game wasn’t selling very well, particularly in America, and offered him a cheque for £5000 (equivalent to £105800) for the overseas rights to Cluedo. This was a considerable sum at the time and with their daughter Marcia newly born, Anthony accepted the money. Such a large sum of money meant it was no longer vital for him to work and the money enabled him and his wife to buy a sweets and tobacconists shop in Warwickshire
where they settled for a while. However Elva was frequently ill and disliked her time there and this prompted a move to Bournemouth
where they lived for over twenty years, initially letting holiday flats. It was early in this time that Anthony worked as a solicitors Clerk, an occupation he held for about three years before retiring around 1962 (aged 59).
Eventually the Cluedo patent lapsed and in 1980 Anthony and Elva moved back to Birmingham where they both enjoyed their retirement years. Anthony continued to play and enjoy music and indulged his love of books including detective fiction.
Anthony Pratt passed away on 9 April 1994; he spent his last years at The Oaks residential home in Bromsgrove, near his daughter, after the death of his wife Elva in 1990.
Having given up the international rights to Cluedo in 1953 Anthony Pratt never received the same financial reward as the inventors of board games such as Trivial Pursuit
, Monopoly
and Scrabble
. But Cluedo remains an enduring classic, a perennial best seller and set the standard for the classic ‘Whodunit’ from the golden era of murder mystery.
Early years
Anthony Pratt was born in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and educated at St. Philip's School
St. Philip's School
St. Philip's RC Grammar School was a Roman Catholic grammar school for boys located on Hagley Road in Birmingham, England.-History:St Philip's was founded when two priests of the Birmingham Oratory took over an existing Catholic Grammar School in 1887...
Edgbaston (where J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, author of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, went to school). His favourite subject was Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
but he suffered from poor eyesight which affected his education somewhat. Anthony was a very gifted musician and a proficient pianist from an early age. When he left school, at 15, he wanted to pursue a career in chemistry and was apprenticed to a local chemical manufacturer. But with no formal qualifications in chemistry and a growing interest in music he went onto pursue a musical career.
Career
During the interwar years Anthony Pratt went onto become a successful musician earning a living playing piano recitals in country hotels and on cruise ships where he travelled to places like New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. Also an aspiring composer (he was a huge fan of Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
) he was at one time accompanist to the well known soprano Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...
.
During the Second World War Anthony worked in an engineering factory in Birmingham that manufactured components for tanks. Working on a drilling machine he found the work rather tedious but it gave him time to think, including about the ideas behind Cluedo
Cluedo
Cluedo is a popular murder/mystery-themed deduction board game originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, England in 1949. It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England. It is now published by the United States game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired its U.S...
. He made some good friends and remained there for the duration of the war.
Cluedo – or Murder at Tudor Close
It was during the Second World War that Anthony Pratt had the idea for a Murder Mystery Board game. Evenings spent behind wartime blackouts were a world away from the pleasant musical evenings and social gathering of friends – it was all such a dampener on people’s social lives. The idea for Cluedo came from his days spent playing musical concerts in country hotels where part of the evening’s entertainment would have been murder games. These would involve both actors and hotel guests playing the characters in a plot which involves the murder of one or more of the other guests. A country house with all its different, sprawling rooms with guests gathered for evenings dining and socialising, but a body is found murdered and all the guests fall under suspicion. By putting clues together the hotel guests must solve the mystery. These were very popular at the time and given this along with his love of detective fiction including that of his favourites Raymond ChandlerRaymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
and Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
,the spark for Cluedo was created. At the time books like ‘The Body in the Library’ (1939) ‘And Then There Were Ten’ (1942) by the bestselling author Agatha Christie were enormously popular. So in 1943 Anthony and his wife, Elva, began designing a murder mystery board game. The original game was called ‘Murder’ with the artwork for the board itself being designed by Elva. Photograph of Anthony and Elva.
Anthony filed his original patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
application on 1 December 1944. He knew and had spoken to a close friend, Geoffrey Bull, who had invented the board game ‘Buccaneer’ and it was Geoffrey who introduced Anthony to Norman Watson, managing director of Waddingtons
Waddingtons
Waddingtons was a publisher of card and board games in the United Kingdom. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and Wilson Barratt, under the name Waddingtons Limited...
, the games manufacturer. In February 1945 Anthony demonstrated the game to Norman Watson who immediately saw the winning formula of the game and, after a few minor modifications, decided to go ahead and manufacture it. It was Waddingtons who renamed the game ‘Cluedo’ (a combination of the words ‘Clue’ and ‘Ludo’, a Latin word meaning ‘to play’). But unfortunately material shortages in post-war Britain meant the game didn’t go into production until 1949.
Anthony Pratt was granted patent GB586817 ‘Improvements in Board Games' on 1 April 1947.
The aim of the game is to solve, by means of elimination and deduction, the mysterious murder of Dr. Black, the owner of Tudor Mansion, whose body has been found at the foot of the steps leading to the cellar – at a spot marked ‘X’. The winner is the first player to identify the murderer, the weapon used and the room in which the murder took place. The players use coloured playing pawns that represent the different guests; Colonel Mustard (Yellow), Professor Plum (Purple), Reverend Green (Green), Mrs. Peacock (Blue), Miss Scarlett (Red) and Mrs. White (White). All the potential murder weapons are shown by small props; Dagger, candlestick, revolver, rope, lead piping, and spanner. As originally invented, the game had more characters and murder weapons.
The board is laid out as the ground floor of Tudor Mansion showing all the rooms, corridors and secret passages: Hall, Lounge, Study, Library, Dining Room, Kitchen, Conservatory, Billiard Room and Ball Room. There are secret passages leading from the lounge to the conservatory and from the kitchen to the study, perfect for the murderer to slip away undetected!
There are small playing cards one representing each of the guests, murder weapons and rooms. At the start of the game a card representing a character, weapon and room are selected both secretly and at random from the pack and placed into a small envelope labelled ‘murder cards’. The winner of the game is the first person to correctly work out the identity of all three murder cards.
During the game, players, or guests, roll dice to move from room to room to make various enquiries about the murderer, murder weapon and scene of the crime. Once inside a room, the player can make an ‘accusation’ by calling a character and a weapon into that room “I suggest that the murder was committed in the Study by Colonel Mustard with the Candle Stick”. A player holding one of those cards must show the person making the ‘accusation’ who can then mark off that person, weapon or room from their Detective Notes. Throughout the game players take it in turn to question fellow players as, one by one, they are asked to reveal if they have a card that matches the room, weapon and character that is suggested by the person or guest making an ‘accusation’. By clever and patient deduction the players attempt to solve the murder of Dr. Black. The players keep moving around the board, making ‘accusations’ when entering rooms, until they are able to identify all three murder cards showing;
(1) Who committed the crime
(2) What was the weapon used and
(3) In which room the crime was committed.
Different Versions of Cluedo
Waddingtons produced Cluedo for the British market whilst Parker BrothersParker Brothers
Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...
(who obtained the American rights for the game) marketed the game as ‘Clue’ in America. Sold since 1949, it has been a bestseller ever since it first came out. More than 150 million have been sold in more than 40 countries and although the basic format of the game is the same the world over there are regional differences. For example in Germany, Miss Scarlett is known as Fraulein Ming, in Chile, the Reverend Green is a chef called Lettuce. In Finland, Colonel Mustard is Colonel Yellowbeak while in Switzerland he is Madame Curry. Dr Black is known as Mr. Boddy in America and Dr. Lemon in Spain. Mrs Peacock is Capitan Cleleste in Chile whilst the Norwegians refer to Mrs Peacock as Baronesse von Blauw.
The game is now made by the American toy manufacturer Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
, which acquired both Parker Brothers and Waddingtons in the 1990s. Cluedo has, over the years, been made into various editions and spin-offs with just a few including: Scooby Doo Cluedo, Harry Potter Cluedo, Simpsons Cluedo and Cluedo Junior.
The current edition of Cluedo is called ‘Cluedo – Discover the Secrets’. Created in 2008 this modern version has a new setting and characters. The original characters have been replaced; Kasandra Scarlet, Jacob Green, Jack Mustard, Victor Plum, Eleanor Peacock Diane White. Tudor Close is now a Hollywood mansion with rooms that include a Spa, Pool, Guest House, Theatre, Patio, Living Room and Observatory. The murderer also has some new weapons to choose from, which include a baseball bat, trophy and dumbbell.
The Cluedo game has also been turned into a movie Clue
Clue (film)
Clue is a 1985 comedy mystery film based on the board game of the same name . The film is a murder mystery set in a Gothic Revival mansion, and is styled after Murder by Death and other various murder/dinner parties of mystery...
, a stage play, various books, and a television serial.
Later years
After the end of the Second World War Anthony entered the British Civil ServiceBritish Civil Service
Her Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as the Home Civil Service, is the permanent bureaucracy of Crown employees that supports Her Majesty's Government - the government of the United Kingdom, composed of a Cabinet of ministers chosen by the prime minister, as well as the devolved...
working for the Ministry of Labour helping demobbed servicemen and women to return to peacetime work.
In 1953, 4 years after Cluedo first went on sale, Waddingtons told Anthony that the game wasn’t selling very well, particularly in America, and offered him a cheque for £5000 (equivalent to £105800) for the overseas rights to Cluedo. This was a considerable sum at the time and with their daughter Marcia newly born, Anthony accepted the money. Such a large sum of money meant it was no longer vital for him to work and the money enabled him and his wife to buy a sweets and tobacconists shop in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
where they settled for a while. However Elva was frequently ill and disliked her time there and this prompted a move to Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
where they lived for over twenty years, initially letting holiday flats. It was early in this time that Anthony worked as a solicitors Clerk, an occupation he held for about three years before retiring around 1962 (aged 59).
Eventually the Cluedo patent lapsed and in 1980 Anthony and Elva moved back to Birmingham where they both enjoyed their retirement years. Anthony continued to play and enjoy music and indulged his love of books including detective fiction.
Anthony Pratt passed away on 9 April 1994; he spent his last years at The Oaks residential home in Bromsgrove, near his daughter, after the death of his wife Elva in 1990.
Having given up the international rights to Cluedo in 1953 Anthony Pratt never received the same financial reward as the inventors of board games such as Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
, Monopoly
Monopoly (game)
Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...
and Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
. But Cluedo remains an enduring classic, a perennial best seller and set the standard for the classic ‘Whodunit’ from the golden era of murder mystery.
The Original Cluedo
- Anthony Pratt originally called his game “Murder!” and was a game for two to eight players.
- The original guests at Tudor Mansion were; Mr Gold, Colonel Yellow, Mr Brown, The Rev. Green, Professor Plum, Mrs Silver, Miss Grey, Miss Scarlet, and Nurse White.
- Originally large playing pieces represented the male characters whilst the female characters were represented by smaller playing pieces
- Initially the unfortunate Dr Black wasn’t to be the victim, instead a different murder victim was selected each time the game was played from amongst the nine character cards by drawing a card at random at the beginning of the game.
- In Anthony Pratt’s’ original design Tudor Mansion had ten rooms, including a gun room.
- And finally in the original design the murderer had an array of ten weapons from which to choose; an axe, cudgel, bomb, rope, dagger, pistol, syringe, a bottle of poison and a metal poker.
Further reading
- theartofmurder.com
- Anthony Pratt's Cluedo patent.
- www.cluedofan.com
- The Body in the LibraryThe Body in the LibraryThe Body in the Library is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942 and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence...
- 'Whodunit'WhodunitA whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
- Anthony Pratt's memorial
Books
- Parlett, DavidDavid ParlettDavid Parlett is a games scholar from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. His published works include many popular books on games and the more academic volumes "Oxford Guide to Card Games" and "Oxford History of Board Games", both now out of print...
, The Oxford History of Board Games: Oxford University Press,1999, ISBN-10: 0192129988 - Jaffe, Deborah, The History of Toys From Spinning Tops to Robots: The History Press Ltd, 2006, ISBN-10: 0750938498
- McDowell, Michael, Clue: A Novel: Fawcett, 1985, ISBN-10: 0449130495
- Cameron, Vicki, Cluedo Mysteries: Running Press, 2003, ISBN-10: 0762414049
- Treat, Lawrence and Hardie, George, “Cludeo” Armchair Detective: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd, 1983, ISBN-10: 0863180175