Editing Scrabble (section)

==History==
[[File:Alfred Butts letter frequencies.JPG|thumb|right|Alfred Butts manually tabulated the frequency of letters in words of various length, using examples in a dictionary, the ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]'', the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'', and ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news|author=Tierney, John | url= https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/24/magazine/humankind-battles-for-scrabble-supremacy.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm | title=Humankind Battles for Scrabble Supremacy|work=The New York Times Magazine|date= May 24, 1998}}</ref> This was used to determine the number and scores of tiles in the game.]]
In 1931 in [[Poughkeepsie, New York]], the American architect [[Alfred Mosher Butts]] created the game as a variation on an earlier word game he invented, called ''[[Lexiko]]''. The two games had the same set of letter tiles, whose distributions and point values Butts worked out by performing a [[frequency analysis]] of letters from various sources, including ''[[The New York Times]]''. The new game, which he called ''Criss-Crosswords'', added the 15×15 gameboard and the crossword-style gameplay. He manufactured a few sets himself but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day.<ref name="fatsis">{{cite book |last=Fatsis |first=Stefan |title=Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players |isbn=0-14-200226-7 |author-link=Stefan Fatsis|title-link=Word Freak (book) |year=2002 |publisher=Penguin Publishing }}</ref>{{rp|98}}

In 1948, James Brunot,<ref>{{cite web|website=boardgamegeek.com|title=James Brunot entry on Board Game Geek|url=http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/23572/james-brunot}}</ref> a resident of [[Newtown, Connecticut]], and one of the few owners of the original ''Criss-Crosswords'' game, bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. Although he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged the "premium" squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also renamed the game ''Scrabble'', a real word that means "scratch frantically".<ref name="fatsis"/>{{rp|100}} In 1949, Brunot and his family made sets in a converted former schoolhouse in [[Dodgingtown, Connecticut]], a section of Newtown. They made 2,400 sets that year but lost money.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Edley, Joe|author2=Williams, John D. Jr. (With)|title= Everything Scrabble|publisher= Simon and Schuster|date= 2001|isbn=0-671-04218-1}}{{page needed|date=August 2012}}</ref>

In 1952, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot licensed the manufacturing rights to Long Island-based [[Selchow and Righter]], one of the manufacturers that, like [[Parker Brothers]] and [[Milton Bradley Company]], had previously rejected the game. "It's a nice little game. It will sell well in bookstores," Selchow and Righter president [[Harriet T. Righter]] remembered saying about Scrabble when she first saw it.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fatsis|first=Stefan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JfL_0ce6IQC&q=Harriet%20Righter&pg=PA171|title=Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players|date=2001-07-07|publisher=HMH|isbn=978-0-547-52431-3|pages=171–172|language=en}}</ref> In its second year as a Selchow and Righter product, 1954, nearly four million sets were sold.<ref name="slate2012">{{cite magazine |first=Stefan |last=Fatsis |author-link=Stefan Fatsis |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/gaming/2012/08/scrabble_cheating_the_real_story_behind_the_stolen_blanks_scandal_at_the_national_scrabble_championship_.single.html|title=The Case of the Stolen Blanks |date=August 17, 2012|magazine=Slate |access-date=2012-08-19 |quote=Scrabble transitioned from living-room novelty—nearly 4 million sets were sold in 1954—to competitive passion in the 1960s, when it landed alongside chess, [[backgammon]], and [[Bridge (card game)|bridge]] in smoke-filled games parlors in New York City. ... When the tiles were placed in bags during games, unscrupulous players could feel around for the blanks because they had no grooves, a tactic known as "[[Braille|brailling]]".}}</ref><ref name="fatsis"/>{{rp|104}} Selchow and Righter then bought the trademark to the game in 1972.<ref name="NSA_history">{{cite web |url=http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/info/history.html |title=History of Scrabble |website=Scrabble-assoc.com |date=2003-04-26 |access-date=2010-04-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100316172646/http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/info/history.html |archive-date=2010-03-16 }}</ref>

Meanwhile, [[J. W. Spear & Sons|JW Spear]] acquired the rights to sell the game in Australia and the UK on January 19, 1955.<ref name="fatsis" /> In 1986, Selchow and Righter was sold to [[Coleco]], which soon afterward went [[bankrupt]]. [[Hasbro]] then purchased Coleco's assets in 1989, including ''Scrabble'' and ''[[Parcheesi]]''.<ref name="NSA_history" /> [[Mattel]] then acquired JW Spear in 1994.<ref name="fatsis" /> Since then, Hasbro has owned the rights to manufacture ''Scrabble'' in the U.S. and Canada, and Mattel has held the rights to manufacture the game in other parts of the world.<ref name="NSA_history" />

[[File:Logo scrabble verd.tif|thumb|200px|''Scrabble'' logo used by Mattel from 2013 to 2020]]
[[File:Scrabble American logo.svg|thumb|200px|''Scrabble'' logo used by Hasbro in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] until 2008]]
In 1984, ''Scrabble'' was turned into a [[Scrabble (game show)|daytime game show]] on [[NBC]]. The ''Scrabble'' game show ran from July 1984 to March 1990,<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q7438684|id=tt0198227|title=Scrabble (1984–1990)}}. {{Retrieved|access-date=2012-08-19}}</ref> with a second run from January to June 1993. The show was hosted by [[Chuck Woolery]]. Its tagline in promotional broadcasts was, "Every man dies; not every man truly Scrabbles."<ref>{{cite web|website=media.wix.com|url=http://media.wix.com/ugd/006eaeaa43b0dd3b264ab20fc68e4499.ugd?dn=The%20Development%20of%20Scrabble.pdf |title=The Development of Scrabble|date=November 2010|access-date= 2013-03-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201172009/http://media.wix.com/ugd/006eaeaa43b0dd3b264ab20fc68e4499.ugd?dn=The%20Development%20of%20Scrabble.pdf|archive-date=2014-02-01|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2011, a new TV variation of ''Scrabble'', called ''[[Scrabble Showdown]]'', aired on [[The Hub (TV channel)|The Hub]] cable channel, which is a joint venture of Discovery Communications, Inc. and Hasbro.

''Scrabble'' was inducted into the [[National Toy Hall of Fame]] in 2004.<ref>{{cite web|title=Scrabble in the National Toy Hall of Fame |website= word-grabber.com - The Word Game Community|date= April 15, 2014|url=http://www.word-grabber.com/word-board-games/scrabble-national-toy-hall-fame}}</ref>

===Evolution of the rules===
The "box rules" included in each copy of the North American edition have been edited four times: in 1953, 1976, 1989, and 1999.<ref name="sauter">{{cite web |url=http://www.donaldsauter.com/scrabble-rules.htm |title=Scrabble – a Brief History and Evolution of the Rules, 1949–1999 |website=DonaldSauter.com |date=September 2010}}</ref>

The major changes in 1953 were as follows.
* It was made clear that:
** words could be played through single letters already on the board,
** a player could play a word parallel and immediately adjacent to an existing word provided all crossing words formed were valid,
** the effect of two premium squares was to be compounded multiplicatively.
* The previously unspecified penalty for having one's play successfully challenged was stated: withdrawal of tiles and loss of turn.

The major changes in 1976 were as follows.
* It was made clear that the blank tile beats an A when drawing to see who goes first.
* A player could pass their turn, doing nothing.
* A loss-of-turn penalty was added for challenging an acceptable play.
* If final scores are tied, the player whose score was highest before adjusting for unplayed tiles is the winner;<ref>{{cite web|title=Scrabble Game Rules|url=http://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/Scrabble_(2003).pdf|publisher=Hasbro|access-date=February 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916165951/http://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/Scrabble_%282003%29.pdf|archive-date=September 16, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> in tournament play, a tie is counted as half a win for both players.<ref name=":0" />

The editorial changes made in 1989 did not affect gameplay.<ref name="sauter" />

The major changes in 1999 were as follows.
* It was made clear that:
** a tile can be shifted or replaced until the play has been scored,
** a challenge applies to all the words made in the given play.
* Playing all seven tiles is officially called a "bingo" in North America and a "bonus" elsewhere.
* A change in the wording of the rules could have been interpreted as meaning that a player may form more than one word on one row on a single turn.