SCRABBLE, Some 1985 History & More

I absolutely love Scrabble® and I have a small collection of unique versions of the game. I was intrigued by a board I found at a thrift store in Placerville and just had to add it to the pile.

The game box is actually wrapped in a printed cover which is also a mailing label. Note the propaganda on the photographed game board, "The Right Combination, Kodak Copiers." Cool, right? The postmark is from 1985. As it turns out that was a big time in the Kodak Copier business. That year, the Eastman Kodak Company introduced the multi-featured Ektaprint 225 copier-duplicator, which it said was designed to challenge the Xerox Corporation's hot-selling 1075 copier. Like the 1075, the Ektaprint 225 could automatically make two-sided copies of both one- and two-sided originals without the intervention of the machine's operator. But it was extra special as it could also automatically insert slipsheets, pages of different colors or weights to highlight sections of reports. The Xerox 1075 couldn't perform that function automatically. By the way, these machines cost more than $50,000 in 1985 prices. Wow.

This promotional game was sent to an analyst at the Lockheed Corp., which also had a big year in 1985. It agreed to buy Metier Management Systems, "a group of five companies that produce Artemis, a computer-aided project management system. The Metier companies, founded in 1976 and incorporated in five countries, are privately held and their revenues are expected to reach $80 million this year", Lockheed said at the time. The companies were integrated into Lockheed's Information Systems Group, which included four other computer and data-processing operations.

Doesn't it sound like they probably made a whole lot of copies in 1985? Another question I have is how does a 34 year old game, sent to Burbank, make it to Placerville, and with its original mailing wrapper in perfect condition. I am so curious.