RESEARCH NOTE
Why Did People Start Saying a Family That Plays Together Stays Together?
In the newspapers we read, it was a working slogan of parent-teacher associations, city recreation departments and home clubs. They offered it as an answer to divorce in the 1930s and to teenage delinquency during the war.
A slogan with a job to do
Today the saying sounds like a greeting card. In the newspapers of the 1920s to 1950s it was a tool. Groups that worked with families used it as a program theme, a talk title and a reason to hold a picnic.
We cannot tell you why the first person said it. Nobody knows who that was. What we can show is who used it in print and what they hoped it would fix.
Where these quotes come from
Everything on this page comes from one search of Chronicling America, the Library of Congress newspaper archive. The quotes are the Library's machine-read text of each page. We have not viewed the page images. Machine reading makes mistakes, so treat the exact wording as provisional.
It is one free archive. Paid newspaper archives and book archives were not searched, so the true first use and the full list of users are unknown.
The 1920s: a parent-teacher slogan
The earliest match is from April 30, 1926. The Bismarck Tribune reported that the parent-teacher association in Braddock, North Dakota "believes firmly in the slogan" that "Families who play together, stay together" (Bismarck Tribune, 1926). The paper adds that it was well demonstrated at an event that week.
Two years later the line was in a parenting column compiled by the editors of Children, The Magazine for Parents. The column was about a habit, not a worry. It said "Families who have adopted regular home play evenings will assure you that" the saying is true, and described father, mother and children keeping a "date" after supper once every week or two (Searcy News, 1928).
The 1930s: divorce and the Depression
In the 1930s the line turns up as the theme of school meetings.
- San Antonio, 1936. A parent-teacher association used "Families that Play Together Stay Together" as its program theme, and the school principal spoke on it (San Antonio Light, 1936).
- El Centro, California, 1938. Leo DeCelles, a school principal, gave a parent-teacher talk with the saying as its title. This report states the worry outright. The paper says he described the American home as "disintegrating because of depression and divorce." It goes on: "DeCelles expressed his belief that playing together would be a remedy." (Imperial Valley Press, 1938).
That 1938 report is the clearest statement we found of what the slogan was for. A principal named a problem, family breakup, and proposed play as the cure.
The 1940s: the war and teenagers
During the war the worry in print shifts from parents splitting up to teenagers getting into trouble.
- 1941. An Ohio paper printed the plea "Families need to play together more. The family that plays together is the family that sticks together." (The People's Defender, 1941).
- 1943. The Evening Star in Washington, D.C. ran a Sunday magazine article on wartime teen clubs and delinquency. It reported "Many recreation departments go a step farther, training parents to organize" family games "under the slogan" of the saying (Evening Star, 1943). So by 1943 city recreation staff were using the line, and using it to train parents.
- 1945. In El Centro a parent-teacher association planned a picnic and play day "in keeping with the theme for the month", which was the saying (Imperial Valley Press, 1945). The next month in Lynwood, California the speaker at a parent-teacher talk on the saying was the town's police chief (Lynwood Press, 1945).
The machine-read text of that 1945 report is too broken to tell us what he said, so we will not guess.
Home clubs and social agencies
The line also moved beyond schools.
- Home demonstration clubs. A 1944 club column in Maryland applied the saying to clubs as well as families (Montgomery County Sentinel, 1944). In 1952 a Virginia paper reported that club members had concluded the saying was true, then asked "Just how does a club go about planning family fun?" (Peninsula Enterprise, 1952).
- Social agencies. In 1948 the Evening Star reported that the Washington Council of Social Agencies believed in the saying and was ready to supply families with information, "blueprints and personal consultation" (Evening Star, 1948).
What the pattern shows
Across about twenty-five years the same kinds of people used the line: school principals, parent-teacher groups, recreation departments, home clubs, a council of social agencies and a police chief. These were people whose work was other people's families.
They did not present the saying as a finding. In the reports we read it is a belief and a program. The 1926 group "believes firmly" in it. The 1938 principal "expressed his belief" that play would help. In the passages we read, nobody cites a count, a survey or a study.
The worry it answered changed with the times. In 1938 it was divorce and the Depression. In 1943 it was wartime delinquency. The remedy stayed the same.
Sellers picked the line up early too. That thread is on its own page: The saying as a sales line.
What this history does not show
It does not show that the remedy worked. A slogan being popular with people who cared about families is not evidence that play prevents divorce or delinquency. Whether it does is a separate question, and for families nobody has tested it. See Does play keep a family together?
The full picture
This page covers one question. The whole verdict on the saying, with its history and every source, is in our research paper: A family that plays together stays together: is it true?