Passing go and collecting smiles: 'Monopoly man' brings a chance for joy to sick kids

PROVIDENCE − Vincent Marzullo stood on the sidewalk along Dudley Street as harried drivers hurried past Monday afternoon, when one motorist stopped and rolled down her window.

“Are you the Monopoly Man?” she asked.

He said he was.

“Can I take your picture?” she asked.

Almost as quickly as the photo op began, it ended, as she snapped a couple of images, pulled into traffic and drove away.

That was hardly unusual for Marzullo, who more than a few people think bears a strong resemblance to Milburn "Rich Uncle" Pennybags, the official cartoon mascot for the Monopoly board game.

Marzullo often enhances the likeness by wearing a hat, tie and vest reminiscent of the cartoon character, almost everyday and everywhere. “If the Monopoly Man makes them smile, I can’t shut it down,” said Marzullo. “No matter where I go, I get stopped. I go to the PC games in Madison Square Garden, they put me up on the Jumbotron. People stop me in the aisle at Shaw’s, they want to take a picture of me.”

Marzullo, 76, is retired after half a century in government work, at county, state and federal levels.

“I’m in my encore,” he said. “I’m a free agent now.”

Helping sick kids smile at Hasbro Children's Hospital

Free agency includes volunteer work: On Sundays, he serves breakfast at the Matthewson Street United Methodist Church, where he serves dinner on Fridays. On Wednesdays, he runs the bingo at the DaVinci Center. On Mondays, he entertains children at Hasbro Children's Hospital.

The Hasbro gig stemmed from his government work when he got to know the folks at the Hasbro Foundation through his efforts organizing volunteers for a federal program. He retired in 2015 but found himself at the hospital two years later when his granddaughter needed eye surgery.

Seeing what went on at the hospital in 2017 came at the right time in his life.

“It was an epiphany at that point,” he said. “I was looking for meaningful volunteer work. It just immediately made sense.”

So, he got in touch with his contact at the foundation and signed up to volunteer at the hospital.

But one other thing was also going on in his life back then.

Uncle Pennybags lookalike grows his mustache and his heart

“At that time I had let my mustache grow, and I had been a collector of hats,” he said. “People looked at me and started calling me Monopoly Man.”

He figured the look could work well when volunteering at the hospital and said that there was talk of sending him to mascot school, getting a tailor to assemble a proper Monopoly Man outfit. But then, according to Marzullo, the lawyers got involved and nixed the idea.

Hospital spokeswman Elena Falcone-Relvas declined to discuss Marzullo's Monopoly Man persona. "Due to branding and copyright parameters it would be a conflict of interest for the hospital to support the appearance of an affiliation agreement with Hasbro," she texted The Providence Journal.

“I’m just a volunteer,” Marzullo said. “I’m the volunteer assigned to the playroom.”

“I’ll either play games with them or bring them crafts, Play-Doh, electronics,” he said. “The medical staff will use me when they’re treating a child to sort of distract them, and lessen the stress and the tensions.”

Marzullo, who describes himself as “a white guy from Brooklyn” who now lives in West Warwick, came to Rhode Island more than 50 years ago to attend Providence College, where he met and married his wife of 53 years, Josephine.

“I have a blessed life,” he said.

That includes having become the Monopoly Man, though Hasbro – neither the hospital nor the corporation – will acknowledge that.

So just call it a coincidence that the menu from which kids order their food when they're patients at the hospital features Rich Uncle Pennybags and a Monopoly board.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 'Monopoly Man' volunteers at Hasbro Children's Hospital