Ouija Board: Mystifying History of the Dreaded Talking Board Game
The Ouija board is a simple board with letters and numbers, and a planchette to point to them. It was invented by an attorney who marketed it commercially to turn a profit. I’m pretty sure the patent did not include portals to Hell.
Nevertheless, Ouija Boards have always been a source of scorn for religious fundamentalists, who believe they are tools of Satan. Ouija burnings and pleas to end their production still happen here in the digital age, when science and technology is supposed to have evolved us beyond those archaic belief systems conceived by early civilizations to explain the natural world.
So how did a toy manage to get such a fearful reputation?
A Brief History of the Ouija Board
The Ouija Board has a long and unusually sordid history for a board game. It was first brought to the commercial market by business man Elijah Bond in 1890 as nothing more than a parlor game. The “wonderful talking board” promised “never-failing amusement and recreation for all the classes.”
It became hopelessly entangled in the occult years later when Spiritualists adopted it as a tool for divining.
William Fuld took over production of the game in 1901 and named it Ouija, claiming the board itself gave him the name. Fuld skyrocketed the Ouija into popularity in the 1920s. He had often consulted the Ouija on matters of business. At one point the Ouija told him to “prepare for big business.” Fuld took the advice, building the large new factory which he would eventually fall from and die in 1927.
Fuld’s family carried on the business until 1966, when they retired and sold it to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers was sold to Hasbro in 1991. Since then, Hasbro has released many different versions of the Ouija, including glow in the dark boards and pink boards for girls.
Though it has often been described as a hoax and a con, the Ouija has no shortage of people terrified to use it. There is always someone with sweaty palms and heart palpitations when the board comes out.
Of course, any harmless children’s game that summons the dead and inadvertently causes demonic possession is bound to get a little flack, right?
Except, historically speaking, there doesn’t seem to be any documented incidents of Ouija Board happenings that should make anyone uneasy. The closest is the story of Pearl Curran.
