Odd as it may seem, the man who created Scrabble, Alfred Butts, was himself a bad speller. His wife, Nina, helped him with the spelling part as he was conceiving his word game.
Alfred fooled around with the creation of Scrabble for years. He started working on it at his home in Newton, Connecticut, in 1931. He painted wooden tiles, each with a letter of the alphabet, then kept trying to figure out the best point value for each letter based on frequency of use.
He went through several name changes for his game. He originally called it Lexiko, then Criss Cross, and finally, Scrabble.
At last, in 1948 - seventeen years after he began - Alfred was ready to copyright the name and rules. He took it to game manufacturer Selchow & Righter and they agreed to put it on the market.
For the man who couldn't spell so well, his invention became the best-selling word game in the world, and the second-best board game in sales, after Monopoly.
~Strange & Fascinating Facts about Famous Brands by Charles Reichblum
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