Uno

Fun for E v eryone! UNO

Lou Valade

In 1971, Merle and his son started debating on the rules of crazy eights. Crazy eights is a card game and it’s objective is to loose as many cards as possible while playing. After debating the rules of the game, Merle decided to creat his own game which he called ‘Uno.’ The game was named Uno because you only had to have one card left to win. Although Uno had a lot of similarities to crazy eight, but the games clearly had different rules. For example, in crazy eight you are free to assign which cards are used to skip, reverse or draw. However, Uno had special cards designed to: skip, draw, and reverse that you could use. Merle originally invented this game to play with his family and son, but when he realized how popular it had become with his family, Merle decided to make a business out of it. There are 108 cards, in a pack and of those there are 76 number cards, 24 Action cards and 8 wild cards. Uno cards have four colors: red, yellow, blue, green.

It actually took an effort from the whole family for it to be successful. They had to sell their house and borrowed money from their son in order to print 5,000 cards. After that, Merle and Marie brought a car and a van from the profits of their home and started traveling around the country doing demonstrations to sell their game. They wanted to be seen as professional as possible so they branded the car and trailer with ‘Uno- best game in America.’

The two managed to sell another 5,000 copies and re-order 10,000 that they would sell to retell stores. At first, it was only the small outlets that sold Uno but after a couple weeks, Uno was being sold by big outlet stores from other areas. Seeing how successful and popular the game was, Bob Tezak and his partners, Ed Ackman and Bill Apple brought the game from Merle in order to sell it internationally. Bob Tezak and his partners went on to create International games inc, which was a game and entertainment shop. The company gave 10 cent royalties on every copy sold, and gave Merle the initial amount of $50,000 for the rights of the game.

MAN WHO

Bob Tezak and his partners went on to create International games inc, which was a game and entertainment shop. The company gave 10 cent royalties on every copy sold, and gave Merle the initial amount of $50,000 for the rights of the game. Bob Tezak ran Uno out of his garage, he refurbished the brand by including clear instructions on how it was to be played as well as changing the packaging to a more aesthetically pleasing background. When the 1980s came around, everyone in the world wanted

WHO INV

After that, Merle and Marie brought a car and a van from the profits of their home and started traveling around the country doing demonstrations to sell their game. They wanted to be seen as professional as possible so they branded the car and trailer with ‘Uno- best game in America.’ The two managed to sell another 5,000 copies and re-order 10,000 that they would sell to retell stores.

STACK OF CARDS

CARDS

Bob Tezak ran Uno out of his garage, he refurbished the brand by including clear instructions on how it was to be played as well as changing the packaging to a more aesthetically pleasing background. When the 1980s came around, everyone in the world wanted to play Uno. It was not until 1995, that Tezzac accepted an offer by Mattel Inc, to buy International Games Inc.

I decided to dedicate this panthflet to Uno because of the amazing memories I have playing this game. Since I can remember, Uno has been at every party, birthday, and christmas gathering. I used to find the game quite tiresome but now I am thankful for all the memories it has brought me.

To this day, Uno is just as popular, if not more. According to the NPD game tracking recourse, Uno was dubbed ‘the world’s number one selling card game in 2018’.

YOU WIN!