For decades, the Nathanson family has spent summers at their vacation house in Narragansett, where, as a family, they loved to play just about any word game.
About 12 years ago, that passion sent the family in pursuit of something new. The Nathansons were looking for a game that was faster, more competitive, more fluid and, most importantly, a game that all members of the family — regardless of age — could play.
After much experimenting, they came up with Bananagrams, a combination of Scrabble and a crossword puzzle, tied together with a speed component to get the competitive juices flowing.
What started as a family concoction quickly morphed into a thriving international business, with the family selling over 8 million copies of the game in more than 30 different countries and in different languages, as well.
“We really hit a sweet spot for people that are tired of digital,” Rena Nathanson, CEO of Bananagrams, told Rhode Island Inno. “People want a face-to-face interaction and to talk with each other.”
Bananagrams is played with 144 tiles, which start the game laid face down. Each player takes a certain amount of tiles and attempts to form words in a crossword-style layout. When a player successfully uses all their letters, they will say, “peel,” forcing everyone, including themselves, to take a tile from the bunch.
“We want a game in every classroom across the country."
At any time, a player can say the word, "dump,” if they wish to return a troublesome letter back to the bunch facedown, but they must take three letters in return. Play continues until there are fewer tiles in the bunch than there are players. At that point, the first player with no remaining letters shouts, “BANANAS!,” and is the winner.
The game can also be packed up easily and is great for travel.
Bananagrams was truly a family effort, led by Rena’s father Abe Nathanson, a family-loving man who loved wit, wordplay, silliness and most of all, seeing people have fun. Abe died in 2010 at the age of 80 due to cancer, but his passing did not slow down the game’s popularity.
After lots of great initial feedback from friends, the Nathanson family had 50 sets of Bananagrams made to test the market; they quickly sold out. Rena brought back 25 sets to London, where she lives most of the year, and those sold out, too.
After another 500 sold out, the Nathanson’s set up a stand at the International London Toy Fair and from there, they didn’t look back.
“We literally took orders the whole time, hand-over-fist,” said Rena.
Over the years, the Providence-based business has spun off different versions of Bananagrams such as wild tiles, which includes monkey tiles that you can play as blanks.
Then there is Party Bananagrams, which includes tiles that have rules on them such as playing with no thumbs or on one foot. Another iteration, My First Bananagrams, is the classic game, but with all lowercase letters to help young students practice.
The company has a school challenge, which started in the United Kingdom and then came to the U.S. As many as 45,000 students now compete, playing knockout games over the course of a few months until there is a winner. Bananagrams supplies free game sets to all participating schools.
“We want a game in every classroom across the country,” said Rena, adding that the game has won lots of awards for its educational impact. “It helps with literacy and the feedback that we have gotten from teachers is that it brings students of all levels together.”
The company is currently at 17 employees strong, six or seven of which have been there since the beginning. The company now has its own research and development department, where it is working to create new games, or find new games to acquire or license for distribution.
“We first invented this game as a family, the parents, siblings and children,” said Rena. “We never had any intention of becoming a commercial venture.”
