[2] In the early 1930s, after working as an architect but now unemployed, Butts set out to design a board game.

[6][7][8] Butts decided to create a game that utilized both chance and skill by combining elements of anagrams and crossword puzzles, a popular pastime of the 1920s.

Butts studied the front page of The New York Times to calculate how frequently each letter of the alphabet was used.

[9] Butts initially called the game Lexiko, but later changed the name to Criss Cross Words after considering It, and began to seek a buyer.

In 1948, the game was trademarked, and Brunot and his wife converted an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, Connecticut into a Scrabble factory.

But the game was steadily gaining popularity, helped by orders from Macy's department store.