Mystery Date (game)

Mystery Date, 1965.

Mystery Date is a 1965 board game from the Milton Bradley Company, designed by Marvin Glass. It was marketed to girls 6 to 14 years of age, and was reissued in 1970, 1999, and in 2005. It has been mentioned and featured in the 1994 Disney film The Santa Clause, and parodied several times, including in the classic 1996 episode of The Simpsons, "Summer of 4 Ft. 2." In 2012 it was the inspiration for the title of a Mad Men episode that used the game's themes of dating, masculine desirability, and Russian roulette approach to opening a door as a metaphor.

Gameplay

Mystery Date can be played with 2, 3, or 4 players. The object of the game is to be ready for a date by acquiring three matching color-coded cards to assemble an outfit. The outfit must then match the outfit of the date at the "mystery door". The date is revealed by spinning the door handle and opening the plastic door on the game board. The five possible dates are:

• the "formal dance" date
• the "bowling" date
• the "beach" date
• the "skiing" date
• the "dud"

The date to be avoided is the poorly dressed "dud." He is wearing slovenly attire, his hair is tousled and his face sports a beard shadow. There was also a figure made out to represent a construction worker for another "undesirable" partner, as per prevailing values of the time.

In the 1970s game, a "picnic" date replaced the "bowling" date.

If the player's outfit does not match the date behind the door, the door is closed and play continues.

References

Mystery Date game board, 1965.

• The New York Times: "Online Shopper: Ouija Boards To Motherboards In Online Bazaar." November 16, 2000.
• The New York Times: "Online Shopper: Out for V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, but Missing Tiles." September 9, 2004.

• Fromberg, Doris Pronin, and Doris Bergen. Play from Birth to Twelve and Beyond: Contexts, Perspectives, and Meanings. Garland reference library of social science, v. 970. New York: Garland Pub, 1998.

External links

• Mystery Date 1965 television commercial
• Mystery Date at BoardGameGeek
• Mystery Date at MondoCollecto.Com
• Mystery Date at gamepart.Com