The Brunots initially set up shop in the living room of their home in Newtown, Connecticut.

Brunot bought the parts of his finished product from various manufacturers and assembled them there with the help of his wife. At first, they turned out just 18 games a day, painstakingly stamping letters on wooden tiles one at a time.

During 1949, their first year of production, they assembled and sold 2251 games in this way, losing $450 in the process. They continued to struggle in the years that followed.

By 1952, they were still losing money and ready to abandon the project. Brunot took a holiday to think things over.

He returned to find that word-of-mouth recommendation had brought in a deluge of orders. It was time to move to bigger premises, so they found an abandoned schoolhouse near their home in Connecticut and moved in.

In the fourth quarter, sales reached 37,000 units.