Bruce Whitehill
Alte Poststr 18, [email me for RI, USA address]
Eickeloh, Germany Email: brucewhitehill@gmail.com
Home page: www.thebiggamehunter.com
Resumé:
BRUCE WHITEHILL RESUME
Alte Poststr. 18 Telephone: 05164 / 80 22 70
29693 Eickeloh, Germany e-mail: brucewhitehill@gmail.com
PROFESSION Writer/Editor; Researcher/Historian; Teacher/Instructor
QUALIFICATIONS Extensive background in research, writing (creative and
technical) and editing.
Highly skilled in communication and team building.
Specialist in writing instructions and manuals. Computer literate.
EXPERTISE Expert at writing and editing non-fiction articles for
publication.
•Nationally recognized as the premiere writer on the history of American games—
author of two books and over 100 articles.
•Special interest in play and customs & artifacts of American pop culture.
•Specialist in developing and writing mystery scenarios for live theatrical
productions which incorporate the audience and use no stage.
PRESENT EMPLOYMENT
October, 2005 Word for Wort (DBA; self employed: translation services)
- present •Translator (with wife Sybille) of texts.
January, 1984 The Write House / Write-on-Schedule (DBA; self employed)
- Present Copywriter and consultant
•Write instructional and promotional copy for clients
•Write and edit brochures, procedural manuals
•Design questionnaires and recording forms
•Consult on marketing strategies, advertising campaigns,
licensing, and incentive programs
Freelance writer
•Write articles for national magazines, journals, and newspapers
Consultant to the Toy and Game Industry; Independent Game
Inventor
•Write and edit instructions, package copy, and catalog copy
•Develop promotional and marketing campaigns
•Inventor of “Change Horses” (Eggertspiele, 2008), “Drei” / “Three” (Puzzlewood,
2008); many others.
Clients have included Milton Bradley, Hasbro, Parker Brothers,
Think Fun, Pressman Toy Corp., Mattel, International Games, Winning Moves,
others.
June, 1984 The Mystery Game; Fun-in-a-Million (DBA; self employed)
- Present Founder and producer-director
•Write, produce, and direct original audience-participation
mysteries, mock jury trials, and social functions for public group events
•In the corporate arena, develop mystery puzzles that necessitate using
communication skills, problem solving techniques, and team work.
February, 2005 Knucklebones magazine
- March, 2008 Senior Contributor and columnist
September, 1969 Teacher/instructor (contractual assignments)
- 1990s •Teach English as a second language in Israel, Japan,
Australia, the USA and other countries.
EDUCATION
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California
M.A. program, Cross-Cultural Psychology (course work completed)
Graduate Student/Instructor
•Developed conceptual cross-cultural studies in communication.
•Instructor (part-time), S.F.S.U. faculty, Dept. of Speech
Communication.
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
B.A., Psychology
EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE
Senior Contributing Editor, Knucklebones games and puzzles magazine, 2004-2008
Editor, All in the Game newsletter, online at www.thebiggamehunter.com, 2001-
2005
Associate Editor, Games, Games, Games (international magazine, London), 1999-
2001.
Senior Editor, The Games Annual (national magazine), 1996-1998.
Editor, Game Times (national collectors' magazine)
Editor, B'nai B'rith District #1 Newsletter (professional journal), New York district
Editor, Hobart Film Guide, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Editor, The Eagle (government O.E.O. poverty program newsletter), Merced, CA
Editor, The Spectrum (science newsletter), Westbury, NY
AWARDS & ADDITIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Award Recipient, “Bradley-Parker Award” for lifetime achievement in games
research and promotion, from the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors; April
2008, Charleston, South Carolina.
Developer and instructor of a series of "Communication & Perception" courses for
BOCES and Adult Education and Continuing Education programs. Public speaker.
Member of the National Selection Committee for the National Toy Hall of Fame,
Strong Museum, Rochester, NY, 2002-present.
Author of the first interactive dinner theater mystery in New York, Murder on
Broadway, which played for one year at Sardi's restaurant, and of Audition for
Murder, (ran 6 months).
Board member: International Society for Board Game Studies; speaker at colloquia
in Florence, Italy (1999); Fribourg, Switzerland (2001); Barcelona, Spain (2002);
Marburg, Germany (2003); Philadelphia, PA (2004; organizer); Lisbon, Portugal
(2008).
Guest curator and visiting lecturer, Musée Suisse du Jeu (Swiss Museum of
Games), La Tour de Peilz, Switzerland (2003-2004); additional lecture in 2007.
Writer of over 500 questions and the director of a team of writers for the “Know It
All” edition of Trivial Pursuit, the popular Parker Brothers/Winning Moves game
(2000).
Founder of the international Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors (formerly the
American Game Collectors Association). Convention organizer & chairperson 1984,
1994, 2004, 2005.
Photographer of the cover photo for Massachusetts regional magazine;
photographs published in national magazines; awards for photography in California,
New Jersey, and New York.
Recipient of Educational Technology award for "Creative Video," San Francisco,
CA.
Subject of national TV/radio interviews on “F-X,” “Smart Money” (CNBC-TV), “On
The Road With Charles Kurault,” “The Joe Franklin Show” (WOR-TV), NPR’s
“Public Interest”; “The Collector” (HGTV {Home & Garden TV]), others; quoted in
Newsweek, Money, The Wall Street Journal, and other magazines. Multiple entries
online under “The Big Game Hunter.”
PUBLICATIONS: Books
Aller-Leine-Tal—Land der verborgenen Schätze / Valley of Hidden Treasures.
Eickeloh, Germany: 2008
Americanopoly—America as Seen Through its Games. Lausanne, Switzerland:
Musée Suisse du Jeu, 2004.
Games: American Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992 . Radnor, PA: Chilton
Books, 1992.
The Number File. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1988. (Hardy Boys
Mysteries, ‘Casefile #17,’ under Franklin W. Dixon pseudonym.)
PUBLICATIONS: A Sampling of Articles
“Ancient Amusements – Asia’s Antediluvian Distractions.” Singapore: Asian
Geographic #75, June 2010; feature, pages 80-87.
“Halma and Chinese Checkers: Origins and Variations.” Fribourg, Switzerland:
Step by Step, Proceedings of the 4th Colloquium of Board Games in Academia,
Editions Universitaires Fribourg, 2002.
“Women in Sports.” Fairfield, CT: WSHU radio, and NPR affiliate, 2002.
(Commentary on the advantages of greater women’s participation in sports,
broadcast for the program “She Got Game,” recorded at WRNI NPR studios in
Providence, RI.)
“American Games: A Historical Perspective.” Leiden, The Netherlands: Board
Game Studies, Vol. 2, The International Journal for the Study of Board Games,
Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University,
1999.
“Games: Cultural Recreation in the ‘50s--A Decade of Change.” Wynantskill, NY:
The Ephemera Journal, The Ephemera Society of America, December, 1993.
(Based on an oral presentation at the national meeting of the American Antiquarian
Society, October, 1993.)
“Jewish Image in Film and Television,” Rochester, NY, 1992; lecture series at the
Jewish Federation of Rochester, Etz Chaim Synagogue, and the Jewish
Community Center of Rochester.
"Collectible Glass," Spotlight magazine (Mamaroneck, NY), 1990; collecting
depression glass.
"Old Time Radio," Spotlight magazine (Mamaroneck, NY), 1990; collecting relics
and audio tapes of radio's golden age.
"The Mad World of Harvey Kurtzman," To Life magazine (Los Angeles, CA), 1989;
interview with Harvey Kurtzman, comic innovator and founding editor of Mad
magazine.
U.S. Trivia Trip. New York, NY: American Hotel and Motel Association, 1985.
(Game booklet)
Over 110 articles on American games and American culture published in regional,
national, and international publications, and online at www.thebiggamehunter.com.
-------------
In the games world:
Bruce Whitehill is the world's foremost authority on American games. As a
historian, he has written extensively on American games and game companies. His
book, "Games: American Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992," published by
Chilton Books, is the most authoritative work on the history of American games
and game companies ever published. His most recent book, "Ameriocanopoly:
America As Seen Through Its Games," (published by the Swiss Museum of
Games) looks at the chronology of American games manufacturing and the links
between game development in the USA and Europe. He is currently the Senior
Contributor for "Knucklebones" (games and puzzles) magazine, and has a regular
column ("The European Scene") in "Games Quarterly" magazine.
He is the author of the extended section on games in Grolier's New Book of
Knowledge encyclopedia, and his extensive study on the history of American
games and the U.S. games industry was a featured entry in the book, Board Game
Studies/2, the International Journal For the Study of Board Games, published by
Leiden University, The Netherlands. His articles appeared regularly in Antique Toy
World and Collectible Toys and Values, and he has written for numerous other
magazines; his report on the histories of early American games still being
manufactured appeared as a four-part series in Games International magazine in
England. He presented a lecture on American games history at a colloquium in
Florence, Italy, in 1999, and his paper was published in the official proceedings,
Board Games in Academia III. Mr. Whitehill was the senior editor of the now-
defunct, Games Annual, a monthly columnist for the collectibles magazine, Toy
Shop, and the associate editor for the monthly magazine, Games Games Games,
published in England. He is the editor of a periodic online games and puzzles
newsletter, "All in the Game."
Mr. Whitehill writes about games as they reflect American culture. As a result of
his expertise in games and recreational artifacts, he has been called upon to aid
and advise museum staff, appraise private collections, provide auction houses with
information and estimated values of games coming up for sale, and even provide
historical data for major game companies involved in litigation.
Known internationally as "The Big Game Hunter," Mr. Whitehill has the largest
diversified collection of antique American games in the world--over 400 U.S.
companies are represented from 1843 to 2000. He also has an impressive
collection of game advertisements, catalogs, books, and ephemera which he uses
to help him with his games research.
As a collector, he has been featured on Charles Kurault's "Dateline America,"
CNBC's "Smart Money," "The Joe Franklin Show," and on "Personal FX" on the FX
cable network, and "Public Affairs" on Fox TV (Rochester, NY). As a games expert
and historian, he has be spotlighted in such magazines as Grit , Woman's World,
Toy & Hobby World, and has been quoted in Esquire, The Los Angeles Times, The
Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, and numerous other publications. He was the
main feature in Rhode Island Monthly magazine, in September, 2003. He was the
guest commentator for a full hour on NPR, National Public Radio's "Public
Interest," on a special program devoted to games and their development. His
remarks about the design and merchandising of games appear in a chapter on the
marketing environment, in the college textbook, Marketing (Charles Lamb;
International Thomson Publishing). He was even the subject of an internationally
syndicated Ripley's Believe It Or Not! cartoon which was translated into various
languages for publication throughout the world.
Games are both an avocation and a vocation for Mr. Whitehill, who has spent
seventeen years as a game inventor and consultant to the Toy and Game industry.
He is the inventor of such games as "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" (Milton Bradley
Company's best seller for 1984), "The Fraggle Rock Game," "Snoopy Card Game,"
and "Centipede," among others; his "Championship Baseball" has been on exhibit
at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. His "The Psychedelic
Cipher Caper," a mystery party game for teenagers (published by Sandpiper
Creations, Buffalo, NY), was a parlor game extension of his other vocation: writing
and directing live-action, murder mystery dinner theater productions. His latest
game, "Stealth" (marketed by Talicor, Inc., Pomona, CA), an all-skill, two-player
strategy game in the tradition of "Stratego," was introduced at the International Toy
Fair in New York in 1995, and is still on the market. Mr. Whitehill continues to
develop game concepts for companies and independent inventors, and is expert at
analyzing and enhancing game play and writing detailed instructions.
As a prominent exhibitor of early games, he has had major game exhibitions at
museums in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California;
items from his large collection have been on display in galleries from Essex,
Connecticut, to Seattle, Washington, and his extensive selection of travel games
was viewed by thousands of people in a unique exhibit at the San Francisco
International Airport. His extensive collection of games themed around the
American West was sold to the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York.
Mr. Whitehill is the founder and past president of the American Game Collectors
Association, now known internationally as the Association of Game & Puzzle
Collectors, and has served on its board of directors for over nineteen years; the
organization is committed to the collection and preservation of games, jigsaw
puzzles, and mechanical puzzles, and to the research on the people and
companies that invented, designed, manufactured, and/or distributed them. Mr.
Whitehill spent over two years as editor of the AGCA newsletter for game
collectors and researchers, Game Times, and has organized two international
game conventions; he is hosting the 20th anniversary convention in Philadelphia in
May, 2004, and is responsible for the development of the organization's first
European convention, in April, 2005.
And, as "The Big Game Hunter," he has been able to uncover unusual games for
game company presidents, game buffs, and nostalgia lovers around the world.
As a dedicated writer, collector, and researcher, Mr. Whitehill, in the past two
decades, has added more to the collective body of information on American game
history than has been written in the last two centuries. He is committed to
conducting research on the game industry and to uncovering the histories of the
people who invented games and the U.S. companies that manufactured them. He
is exploring also the relationship between American games and games of the world.
Mr. Whitehill is continually discovering, amassing, and sharing new information
about this unique aspect of American culture, examining the effects of advertising,
licensing, and marketing, and exploring the role of games in U.S. education,
leisure, and family life.
Interests: travel, photography, curling, film, music, theater, antiques & collectibles
Published writer: Yes
Freelance: Yes |
