Editing Milton Bradley Company (section)

===Later years===
When Milton Bradley died in 1911, the company was passed to Robert Ellis, who passed it to Bradley's son-in-law Robert Ingersoll, who eventually passed it to George Tapley's son, William. In 1920, Bradley bought out McLoughlin Brothers, which went out of business after John McLoughlin's death.<ref name=Games/>

Milton Bradley began to decline in the 1920s and fell dramatically in the 1930s during the [[Great Depression]]. Fewer people were spending money on board games. The company kept losing money until 1940, when they sank too low and banks demanded payment on loans.<ref name=Information/>

Desperate to avoid bankruptcy, the board of directors persuaded James J. Shea, a Springfield businessman, to take over presidency of the company. Shea immediately moved to decrease the company's debt. He began a major renovation of the Milton Bradley plant by burning old inventory that had been accumulating since the turn of the century.

With the outbreak of [[World War II]], Milton Bradley started producing a universal joint created by Shea used on the landing gear of fighter planes. They also reproduced a revised version of their game kits for soldiers, which earned the company $2 million.<ref name=Information/> Milton Bradley did not stop creating board games, although they did cut their line from 410 titles to 150. New games were introduced during this time, such as the patriotic ''Game of the States'', ''[[Snakes & ladders|Chutes & Ladders]]'', and ''[[Candy Land|Candyland]]''.<ref name=Games/>

The advent of the television could have threatened the industry, but Shea used it to his advantage. Various companies acquired licenses to television shows for the purpose of producing all manner of promotional items including games.<ref name=Games/> In 1959, Milton Bradley released ''Concentration'', a memory game based on an [[NBC]] [[Concentration (game show)|television show of the same name]]; the game was such a success that editions were issued annually into 1982, long after the show was cancelled in 1973 (similar practices were used for box game adaptations of the game shows ''[[Password (American game show)|Password]]'' and ''[[Jeopardy!]]'').

Milton Bradley celebrated their centennial in 1960 with the re-release of ''The Checkered Game of Life'', which was modernized. It was now simply called ''[[The Game of Life]]'' and the goal was no longer to reach Happy Old Age, but to become a millionaire. ''[[Twister (game)|Twister]]'' made its debut in the 1960s as well. Thanks to [[Johnny Carson]]'s suggestive comments as [[Eva Gabor]] played the game on his [[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson|show]], ''Twister'' became a phenomenon.<ref name=Information/> In the 1960s, Milton Bradley games were licensed in Australia by John Sands Pty Ltd.

In 1967, James Shea Jr. took over as president of Milton Bradley (becoming CEO in 1968) succeeding his father. During his presidency, Milton Bradley bought [[Playskool|Playskool Mfg. Co.]] and the E.S. Lowe Company, makers of ''[[Yahtzee]]'', and ''[[Body Language (game show)|Body Language]]''.

During the 1970s and 1980s, electronic games became popular. Milton Bradley released ''[[Simon (game)|Simon]]'' in 1978, which was fairly late in the movement. By 1980, it was their best-selling item.<ref name=Information/>

In 1979, Milton Bradley also developed the first hand-held cartridge-based console, the [[Microvision]].

In 1983, seeing the potential in the new [[Vectrex]] vector-based video game console, the company purchased General Consumer Electronics (GCE). Both the Vectrex and the Microvision were designed by Jay Smith.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Milton Bradley marketed a series of games (such as ''[[HeroQuest]]'' and ''[[Battle Masters]]'') in North America that were developed in the United Kingdom by [[Games Workshop]] (GW) that drew heavily from GW's [[Warhammer Fantasy (setting)|Warhammer Fantasy]] universe, albeit without explicit reference to the Warhammer product line.