Inventions Trivia

Monkee, Mike Nesmith's mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, invented liquid paper. IBM was not interested, so she set up a cottage industry and sold it herself. IBM changed its mind.

Parker Brothers initially rejected Clarence Darrow's Monopoly game because they said it had "52 fundamental playing errors." So Darrow produced it himself. Parker Bros. also changed its mind.

Frenchman Marcel Bich invented the Bic pen. The "H" was dropped due to fears that English speaking people might pronounce it "bitch."

Trivial Pursuit took four years to catch on. Inventors John Haney, Chris Haney and Scott Abbott, from Canada, lost $45,000 promoting it before it finally caught on. They had hired an unemployed artist named Michael Wurstlin to design the logo and board. His payment was five shares in the company. By 1986, those five shares were worth $2,500,000.