Sex in a Box: The Twisted History of Twister | Mental Floss Sex in a Box: The Twisted History of Twister filed under: games Like us on Facebook If it hadn’t been for Johnny Carson, Twister may have never gotten off the ground. On the May 3, 1966, episode of the Tonight Show, Carson took a few minutes to demonstrate the little-known new party game. His guest that night was the blonde bombshell actress Eva Gabor. After a few right foot reds and left hand blues, Carson and Gabor were playfully entangled and the studio audience was in hysterics. Twister went on to sell more than 3 million copies over the next year. “The game that ties you up in knots” sprang from the imagination of a St. Paul-based ad man / inventor named Reyn Guyer in 1965. Guyer’s firm, the Reynolds Guyer Agency of Design, was hired to do a local back-to-school promotional display for Johnson brand shoe polish. As Guyer tinkered with a colored polka dot paper mat to highlight kids’ shoes, he realized he might be onto something bigger – a game where people acted as the game pieces.

Guyer first called his invention King’s Footsie, testing it out on some fellow artists and designers. The fun that four people were having while crammed into provocative shapes onto a 4 x 6 mat was all Guyer needed to see. © Astapkovich Vladimir/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis “It didn’t make any difference what the game was at that point,” Guyer told me, “because we began to laugh so hard that it was obvious we were onto something.” Guyer pitched King’s Footsie to 3M, but they passed. He then hired game designers Charles F. Foley and Neil Rabens to help him further develop the idea. The three of them came up with eight different game ideas for the polka dot mat. The obvious winner was called Pretzel, a test of balance and skill that eventually became Twister. They then licensed Pretzel to Milton Bradley, and that’s where the story gets, well, twisted. Some accounts say that the company changed the name to Twister against Guyer’s wishes. But Guyer says that the name Pretzel was not legally available.

“Still, Twister didn’t seem to have the positive resonance that Pretzel did,” Guyer says, “nor did it really describe the game that well. But it’s solid proof that it doesn’t matter what you call something. Once you name it, that’s what it is.” Other accounts claim that Foley and Rabens walked off with the patent, taking credit for the invention. It’s true that theirs are the only names on the patent, but according to an interview with Rabens, on the day they applied for the patent, they signed over the rights to Guyer. They made a verbal agreement with him to get a certain percentage of profits, but Rabens says it was not honored. He and Foley soon went their own way, starting their own toy company. Guyer remembers it differently. “There is a patent, and quite frankly, I wasn’t part of it. Foley and Rabens did a fabulous job and we worked together on it. I feel badly that they didn’t stick around to develop a division of our company. People have a tendency to attribute new products to one person, and I’ve never, in any of the products I’ve developed, seen it happen that one person did it.

You share ideas and it’s a process.” Too Hot for the Sears Catalog Meanwhile, back in 1965, some execs at Milton Bradley were reportedly uncomfortable with Twister’s sexual undercurrent and felt it went against the company’s clean image. To others, the game – one vinyl mat, one plastic spinner - seemed like a profit-making dream. But in its first months on the market, Twister barely sold at all. Retailers were confused by it. “Sears didn’t think it was appropriate for their catalog,” recalls Guyer. Just as Milton-Bradley was about to give up hope, the PR firm that was promoting Twister tried a last-ditch idea, pushing it to the Tonight Show. After the spectacle of Carson and Gabor entwined, Guyer says, “people were lined up fifty deep at Abercrombie & Fitch the next day in New York, and Twister was born.” One of Milton-Bradley’s competitors accused them of selling “sex in a box,” but they countered with TV commercials that pushed it as a fun game for the whole family.

Looking at the commercials now, there is something slightly disquieting about the thought of a multi-generational pile-on, but in the ‘60s, there was no stopping Twister. It was named Game of the Year in 1967. And like the Hula Hoop, it became one of the biggest fad toys of the decade. Guyer attributes part of its success to timing. “Ideas that become iconic tend to break rules or norms. Twister broke the rules in a social setting. People had not up to that point been granted the possibility of being that close and enjoying it in a group setting.” Over 65 million people are said to have now played Twister, and it has found its way into all aspects of pop culture. Weird Al Yankovic and R.E.M have sung about it. Bill & Ted beat Death in a game of it in one of their movies. The characters on Friends played it. Twister tournaments have become popular fund-raising events for college fraternities and sororities. And in 1987, 4,160 students at University of Massachusetts set a world record, laying out mats for one big tangled marathon of Twister.

As for the game’s creators, Foley and Rabens went on to invent a few now-defunct games such as Grab a Loop and Bing-Bang-Boing, as well as the first plastic handcuffs. And in 1969, Guyer helped pioneer another landmark toy - the Nerf Ball. He remains an active designer, with his latest invention a new backyard game called King’s Court. 14 Playful Facts About The Milton Bradley Company | Mental Floss 14 Playful Facts About The Milton Bradley Company Getty Images Like us on Facebook Founded in 1860, Milton Bradley was one of the most famous, and longest running, board game companies in the world. Now a branch of Hasbro, the prolific company released classic games like Twister, Connect Four, and The Game of Life, as well as plenty of board games you've probably forgotten. Here are 14 facts about the Milton Bradley Company to break out at your next board game night. 1. THE COMPANY MIGHT NEVER HAVE BEEN FOUNDED IF LINCOLN HADN'T GROWN A BEARD. Before lithographer Milton Bradley launched his board game company, his most successful work was a portrait he’d drawn of a clean-shaven Abraham Lincoln .

When Lincoln grew his beard, Bradley’s illustration was no longer in demand, and his profits took a nose dive. To save his business, Bradley started making board games. 2. THE COMPANY'S FIRST GAME WAS THE CHECKERED GAME OF LIFE. Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain Bradley’s first game had a strong moralizing purpose: Landing on negative squares like “crime” and “idleness” would move players back in “life,” while positive squares like “honesty” and “bravery” would move them towards “happy old age.” To this day, an updated version of the game remains popular, though its title has been shortened, and its format changed a bit (“gambling” and “intemperance” will no longer set you back a square). 3. BRADLEY INSISTED ON GIVING AWAY FREE SCHOOL SUPPLIES—AGAINST THE WISHES OF HIS BUSINESS PARTNERS. Starting in 1869, company founder Milton Bradley began producing and distributing free supplies (including paints, papers, and geometric toys) to kindergartens in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the company was located.

Initially, his business partners went along with the idea, but when a recession hit in the 1870s, they demanded Bradley cease his charitable work. Bradley, a staunch advocate for the “kindergarten movement,” which encouraged early childhood education through creative play, refused. Instead, his friend George Tapley bought out his partners’ interests, and together, the two continued to supply Springfield kindergartens with a range of educational toys. 4. THE FIRST TRAVEL-SIZED GAMES WERE MADE FOR BORED SOLDIERS DURING THE CIVIL WAR. When the Civil War broke out, Milton Bradley briefly considered building weapons for the Union soldiers. But when Bradley visited the front lines and saw bored soldiers sitting around with nothing to do, he decided, instead, to give them the gift of games. Milton Bradley’s miniature versions of The Checkered Game of Life, distributed to soldiers during the Civil War, were the first mass produced travel-sized games ever made. 5. DURING WORLD WAR II, THE COMPANY BUILT PARTS FOR FIGHTER PLANES. By the time World War II hit, the Milton Bradley Company was close to bankruptcy .

Though they’d continued to make games through the Great Depression (including a 1935 game wistfully titled Easy Money), they hadn’t sold well enough to keep the company solvent. To save the company and help with the war effort, Milton Bradley stopped production of most of its board games, and began building gun stocks and universal joints for the landing gears of fighter jets. They also made small game kits for soldiers. 6. CANDY LAND WAS CREATED BY A POLIO PATIENT IN 1949. Released by Milton Bradley in 1949, Candy Land was the creation of a retired schoolteacher named Eleanor Abbott, who dreamed up the game while she was recovering from polio in a San Diego hospital. Abbott wanted to create a fun fantasy world to distract the youngest polio patients at the hospital from their disease, so she created a simple game full of bright colors and sweet characters. While the kids at the hospital were the first people to try out the board game, it went on to be one of the best-selling board games of all time after Abbott sold it to Milton Bradley. 7.

CRITICS ACCUSED TWISTER OF BEING “SEX IN A BOX.” When Twister was released in 1965, Milton Bradley tried to market it as an innocent party game that could be played by the whole family. But the company’s competitors, apparently scandalized by the physical closeness it facilitated between members of the opposite sex, accused it of being “sex in a box.” 8. CHUTES AND LADDERS WAS INSPIRED BY A 13TH-CENTURY INDIAN GAME. The original Indian version of the game, called Mokshapat and, later, Snakes and Ladders, was designed to teach Hindu values. Landing on snakes, representing different temptations, would send players back a few squares, where they’d metaphorically be re-born as a lower form of life. 9. THEY RELEASED THE FIRST HANDHELD CARTRIDGE VIDEO CONSOLE IN 1979. A decade before Nintendo revolutionized handheld video gaming with the Game Boy, Milton Bradley released the Macrovision—the first handheld video game device with interchangeable cartridges.

The company sold a range of games for the device, with basic sports simulations like Bowling and Baseball, as well as an adaptation of their hit board game Connect Four. 10. CONNECT FOUR HAS BEEN SOLVED. Created by a toy inventor named Howard Wexler, Connect Four was released by Milton Bradley in 1974. Fourteen years later, in 1988, a computer programmer named James Allen announced he’d solved the game. Allen figured out that the first player in any game can always win if they place their first piece in the board’s middle slot, and play perfectly throughout the rest of the game. But that doesn’t mean you should give up playing Connect Four: Playing a perfect game is still pretty complicated stuff, as the above video demonstrates. 11. THE INVENTOR OF OPERATION SOLD THE GAME TO MILTON BRADLEY FOR JUST $500. Operation was invented by an industrial design student at the University of Illinois named John Spinello in 1964. Spinello developed the game as part of a school project, for which he got an 'A.' A family friend got him a meeting with Milton Bradley executives, who offered him $500 for it on the spot. 12.

THE COMPANY RELEASED A DONALD TRUMP BOARD GAME IN 1988. Called Trump: The Game, the board game's slogan was, "It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you win!" Though the game, which included purchasing real estate with colorful paper money, looked suspiciously like a re-worked Monopoly, the back of the box promised, "Trump. It's like no other game you've ever played." 13. THEY'VE MADE GAMES BASED ON TV SHOWS, MOVIES, AND EVEN VIDEO GAMES. Milton Bradley has released board games based on everything from Pac-Man to Family Feud . A few of their more surprising adaptations have included the detective show Columbo , the movie Jumanji (which features a board game that sucks players into another dimension), and a huge range of Disney movies. 14. THE COMPANY WAS PURCHASED BY HASBRO IN 1984. The company is now considered a Hasbro brand. However, through the 1980s and '90s, they continued to produce new games under their own management, using their own facilities.

Nowadays, Milton Bradley primarily manufactures its greatest hits from last century, including Candy Land, Operation, and Twister. Board games that almost didn't pass Go - NY Daily News Board games that almost didn't pass Go Board games that almost didn't pass Go The Game of Life was inspired by The Checkered Game of Life where the players could land on Disgrace and Happiness. (RAY STUBBLEBINE/REUTERS) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, September 15, 2015, 1:40 PM They’ve become the most popular board games in American culture — but many of these family favorites struggled off the production line. A handful of the most classic games faced overwhelming odds to become a staple family tradition for generations. Here are some of the most famous games that nearly failed: The Game of Life The original Game of Life was a bit darker than its known today. Milton Bradley, the creator of the game, found his start in the lithography business and became popular for his prints of a clean-shaven Abraham Lincoln, according to The New Yorker. But when Lincoln grew a beard, Bradley lost his job.

Consequently, in 1860, he created The Checkered Game of Life — which was filled with lessons on living exemplary lives. The players moved their pieces along the board, starting from “Infancy” to “Happy Old Age,” where they could land on “Suicide” and “Disgrace” while learning about morality and gender roles, according to the website Strong. One hundred years later, investor Reuben Klamer gave the game a more appealing facelift to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Milton Bradley company. The game focused on consumerism — filled with paychecks and insurance payments and included a landing point at “Midlife Crisis.” Competitors of Twister called the game “sex in a box.” (Darryl Dyck/AP) Twister Although Twister became a frequent game at parties, many parents accused the Milton Bradley game of being “sex in a box” when it was released in the mid-1960s, according to the website Mental Floss. Originally called King's Footsie, Twister was the brain child of Reynolds Guyer — who thought of the game while working on a back-to-school promotional display for shoe polish, he told Mental Floss.

Guyer had artists and designers test out the game by packing four people onto the 4x6 mat to essentially be the game pieces, he said. "It didn't make any difference what the game was at that point," Guyer told the website. “Because we began to laugh so hard that it was obvious we were onto something." Execs at the company were hesitant to produce the game. And when they did decide to put it on the shelves, it didn’t sell. But on May 3, 1966, Eva Gabor joined Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” to play the game — which ended with the two entangled on the floor with everyone laughing. The game has been a must-have at parties ever since. Scrabble was created by Alfred Mosher Butts, who was fond of chess, crosswords and jigsaw puzzles. (CHRIS PEDOTA/KRT) Scrabble During the Great Depression, the recently impoverished Alfred Mosher Butts tried to hit it big by making a board game, according to BBC.

Influenced by chess, crosswords and jigsaw puzzles, the 32-year-old built the idea for Scrabble in his Queens apartment — but it took another 15 years for the game to catch on. To decide on the number and value of each letter, Butts is thought to have used inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's short story, “The Gold Bug.” The classic tale includes a pirate's treasure map that is decrypted by corresponding symbols based on how frequently they appear in the English language. The true founder of the game Monopoly, Elizabeth Magie, was originally unknown. (HO/REUTERS) Monopoly The real founder of Monopoly was deliberately written out of the history of the game, according to The New York Times. Inside the game box, players can read the story of a man named Charles Darrow, who allegedly created the game during the Great Depression to entertain friends, according to Smithsonian. But the tale is only half true. The real founder of the game was Elizabeth Magie — and she didn’t have such a favorable view of the rich. Inspired by her political beliefs, Magie created the Landlord's Game — a game that protested big monopolists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

Her game had two sets of rules — one for anti-monopolists where everyone was rewarded and one for monopolists where opponents are crushed. Charles Darrow was taught the later version of the game by friends, and eventually sold that idea to Parker Brothers. The company eventually paid Magie $500 for the patent in 1932 and struck a deal with Darrow — making him millions. Creator of Trivial Pursuit Chris Haney started experiencing panic attacks after putting all his money in creating the game. (HARBUS RICHARD) Trivial pursuit In December 1979, Chris Haney and Scott Abbott were drinking beers and playing scrabble while musing about the high the prices of board games, according to the website Inc. Forty-five minutes later, they forged the idea for Trivial Pursuit. Haney later quit his job and took his wife and child to Spain to research 6,000 questions for the game. In 1981, the first Trivial Pursuit was launched with cheap looks and vexing questions. But sales were mediocre at best.

Haney, who drained all of his cash to fund the game, started experiencing panic attacks and even did a stint in rehab when the board game seemed to be an epic fail. But a short time later, the game became the latest buzz after a successful PR campaign listed it as the best new product. The rest is, well, history. Tags: Inventor of Twister game dies at 82 | Fox News Inventor of Twister game dies at 82 Published July 11, 2013 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Email Print Dec. 16,1966: In this photo, co-inventors of the game "Twister" Charles Foley, left, and Neil Rabens demonstrate the game for Charles McCarty, foreground, president of Research and Development, Inc., in Minnesota. (AP/ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS) ST. PAUL, Minn.

– Twister called itself "the game that ties you up in knots." Its detractors called it "sex in a box." Charles "Chuck" Foley, the father of nine who invented the game that became a naughty sensation in living rooms across America in the 1960s and 1970s because of the way it put men and women in compromising positions, has died. He was 82. Foley died July 1 at a care facility in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. His son, Mark Foley, said Thursday that his father had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Foley and a collaborator, Neil Rabens, were hired in the mid-1960s by a St. Paul manufacturing firm that wanted to expand into games and toys. They came up with a game to be played on a mat on the floor, using a spinner to direct players to place their hands and feet on different colored circles. "Dad wanted to make a game that could light up a party," Mark Foley said.

"They originally called it `Pretzel.' But they sold it to Milton Bradley, which came up with the `Twister' name." The game became a sensation after Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on "The Tonight Show" in 1966. To be sure, the game got plenty of innocent play, too, becoming popular in grade schools and at children's parties. But its popularity among teens and young adults was owed to an undeniable sex appeal. Players would become tangled up, and various body parts -- male and female -- would inevitably come into close and embarrassing proximity. Players would often lose their balance and fall on top of each other in a heap. Hasbro Inc., which now manufacturers the game, said it continues to be a top seller. "What makes the Twister game timeless is the fact that it's always been about showing off your free spirit and just having some laugh-out-loud, out-of-your-seat fun," Hasbro said in a statement noting Foley's death. Mark Foley said his father made little money from Twister but that never seemed to bother him much. The game was not his first invention, and far from his last.

Born in Lafayette, Ind., Foley was just 8 when he made his first invention -- a locking system for the cattle pen at his grandfather's farm. As a young man he worked as a salesman, but his interest in games and toys led him to apply for a job at a toy company in the Minneapolis area. He moved his family to Minnesota in 1962. Over the years, Foley invented dozens of other toys and games. He also invented a product called un-du, a liquid adhesive remover. Mark Foley is now president of un-du Products Inc., based in St. Louis Park. Chuck Foley had lived in North Carolina for a number of years, but his son said he returned to Minnesota six years ago when his health began to decline, to be closer to his family. Foley's wife, Kathleen, died of breast cancer in 1975, and he never remarried. "He never stopped having fun," Mark Foley said. "He tried to think like young people thought. He never wanted to grow up, and he always maintained his enthusiasm for seeing things through the eyes of a child." Advertisement The Twister History Who invented Twister?

The United States Patent that was originally issued for the game Twister shows two names inventors of the game. They are Charles F. (Chuck) Foley The U. S. Patent 3,454,279 was filed on 1966-04-14 and excepted 1969-07-08. But there is an other name which you will find if you look into the books. It is Reyn Guyer. He gets the money. He kicked Chuck Foley and Neil Rabens out as they were the employees of Reyn's father. Unluckily for him he did not invented Twister, but he would have liked so. Although he always says he did, the United States Patent office says there is no Twister patent or anything related on his name. "Twister" Yeah! Well, Milton Bradley's got a def one. It's a Twister! (Twister! Twister! Twister!) Yeah, all the girls and homeboys Playin' Twister! (Twister! Twister! Twister!) Spin the spinner and call the shot. Twister ties you up in a knot. That's Twister. Yeah, Twister! Check it!

Right foot blue! (Right foot blue!) Left hand red! (Left hand red!) Left! Right! Yellow! Blue! Green! Yeah, Twister! Now, everybody's chillin' With the Twister. (Twister!) Wherever things are illin', You'll find Twister! (Twister! Twister!) That's Twister. Yeah, Twister! Yeah buddy! You gotta get it. Yeah Twister! From M.B.! All Thumbs Milton Bradley's competitors accused them of selling "sex in a box" when they released the phenomenally successful action game Twister in 1966. Twister was the first game in history to use the human body as a full-fledged playing piece, and, admittedly, the Milton Bradley Company released the game with a fair amount of hesitation. The company's fear of public criticism and its own skepticism about its potential for success were obliterated when Johnny Carson demonstrated the game on the "Tonight Show". And it didn't hurt matters that Eva Gabor, wearing a low-cut gown, was one of Johnny's guests that night. With Eva splayed out on all fours on the polkadot vinyl mat, Johnny twirled the spinner and took his turn.

When he climbed on top of Eva, the studio audience went into hysterics, screaming and laughing. Milton Bradley executives knew immediatly they had a huge hit on their hands. More than three million copies of Twisters were sold during its first year of release. Skill-and-action games were popular because they intrigued both adults and children. They satisfied a kid's natural tendency to by hyperactive, and made a unique addition to adult parties - after all, grown-ups need to have fun, too. Rick Polizzi and Fred Schaefer, Spin Again, Board Games from the Fifties and Sixties, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA 94103, 1991 ISBN 0-87701-830-8, p 116-117 The king of the sixties The king of the sixties game fads, though, didn't have playing pieces at all: The players themselves were the pices, and Twister brought a new meaning to the phrase "contact sports." The game, not surprisingly, was a huge hit on college campuses. In fact, it still is.

In 1987, a recordbreaking 4,160 contestants tied themselves up in knots playing a Twister marathon at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Twister was the subject of a huge publicity campaign when it was introduced in 1966. After Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor hooked themselves together in front of millions of viewers on the "Tonight" show in May of that year, the rush was on to buy the game. Considering the simplicity of its design (the vinyl sheet was the greatest expense of the package), Twister has been a profit-making dream for Milton Bradley. The goal of Twister was to outlast opponents by stretching and entwining your body like a human pretzel around a large vinyl sheet emblazoned with multicolored circles, without falling down. With more than two players, the vinyl sheet got so crowded that the results were often hilarious, and sometimes downright lewd. Other companies studied Milton Bradley's success with the teen-oriented Twister, and came up with goofier variations on the theme.

Parker Brothers created Funny Bones, a "social interaction" game that had cards with nursery rhyme commands like "head bone connected to the elbow bow," or "back bone connected to the hand bone." Players did what the cards said, often resulting in comical poses. Gil Asakawa and Leland Rucker, The Toy Book, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992, New York, ISBN 0-394-58076-1, p 178-179 Introduction to The Toy Book . Twister was Pretzel Back in 1965, Reyn Guyer was running a sales promotion firm he had founded with his father. Known for creating eye-catching in-store displays and innovative package design (clients included Pillsbury, Brach's Candies, 3M, and Kraft Foods), they were commissioned by a Wisconsin shoe polish company to develop a premium for use in a "send a buck and a box top" mail-in campaign. Guyer was toying with a notion that included color patches that went on kids' feet (along with a correspondingly colored walkaround grid), when it occurred to him that what he had come up with might work better as a game.

He called on one of the company's artists, who sketched out a giant board, then tested it out with a group of office workers divided into two teams. Seeing the fun in eight people-as-playing peices crammed on a 4*6 mat, a number of concepts emerged, eventually evolving into a game they called "Pretzel". Pretzel was picked up by the Milton Bradley company, who, against Guyer's wishes, changed the name to Twister. But even with the name change, the game still had trouble once it got to market. Major retailers balked, not sure where it fit in or if customers would understand it. Company fears that they might have a huge flop on their hands vanished, however, on May 3, 1966, when Twister was featured on 'The Tonight Show'. Helping matters was the fact that one of Carson's guests that night was Eva Gabor. All it took was one shot of Eva on her hands and knees, with Johnny climbing over her, and no longer was there any doubt what this game was all about. Further proof: during that first year alone, more than three million copies were sold.

David Hoffman, Kid stuff, great toys from our childhood, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA 94103, 1996 ISBN 0-8118-1162-X, $ 15.95, p 39 Toy History LET'S DO THE TWIST. TWISTER, the first game ever invented that required people to use their bodies as playing pieces, has been played by an estimated 65 million people around the world. TWISTER actually grew out of a project that inventor Reyn Guyer was working on for his father's design company. While trying to develop a promotion for Johnson's shoe polish, it occurred to Guyer that a polka dot paper mat he'd just created might better serve as a game...and TWISTER was born. (Milton Bradley Company) Dr. Toy at Toy History LET'S DO THE TWIST TWISTER, the first game ever invented that required people to use their bodies as playing pieces, has been played by an estimated 65 million people around the world. TWISTER actually grew out of a project that inventor Reyn Guyer was working on for his father's design company.

While trying to develop a promotion for Johnson's shoe polish, it occurred to Guyer that a polka dot paper mat he'd just created might better serve as a game...and TWISTER was born. (Milton Bradley) Twister Inventor Created Thousands Of Awkward Party Moments : NPR Twister Inventor Created Thousands Of Awkward Party Moments Embed Embed Twister Inventor Created Thousands Of Awkward Party Moments Twister Inventor Created Thousands Of Awkward Party Moments Embed Embed The Minnesota man who invited the party game Twister has died. Charles "Chuck" Foley was 82. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Chuck Foley was responsible for millions of awkward party moments since the 1960s. Normally, that's nothing to be proud of but if you're the inventor of the game "Twister," it's not such a bad thing after all. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Foley and his business partner, Neil Rabens, invented the game for Milton Bradley in 1966. They originally called it "Pretzel." If you're certain age there's no need to explain "Twister." But in case you need a refresher, the game is simple.

SIEGEL: You have four rows of four dots on a sheet of plastic on the floor. Each row of dots is a different color. And as this commercial from 1966 explains, a spinner tells each player in turn to put either a hand or foot on a particular colored dot. (SOUNDBITE OF "TWISTER" AD) UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Right foot, blue. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Right foot, blue. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Left hand, red. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Left hand, red. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Left. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Green. UNIDENTIFIED MAN AND WOMAN: (Singing) Yeah, "Twister." You got to play "Twister." CORNISH: Yeah, this can get embarrassing. Before long, up to four players were on the mat stretching in ways they never imagined - over, under the other players - as we said, awkward. SIEGEL: Everyone usually falls to the delight of everyone watching. But you win if you remain standing. The game was not a hit right away, even in the Foley house. Chuck Foley's son, Mark, explains.

MARK FOLEY: When he first brought it to us and said, here, you guys. How would you like to play with this? Well, we thought it was a wrestling mat. CORNISH: Some executives at Milton Bradley were concerned with the game that some critics were calling sex in a box. SIEGEL: Mark Foley. FOLEY: One of the things that Dad and Neil were very concerned about is the perception back in those days of two people - a man and a woman on a mat in a party game - really had to be done tastefully. And that's why they used cartoon characters in the original packaging, because it was less threatening from a moral perspective. SIEGEL: But when Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played "Twister" on "The Tonight Show" in front of a national audience in 1966, sales exploded. Chuck Foley never got all that rich off of "Twister." CORNISH: Or at least not nearly as rich as Milton Bradley but that didn't bother him at all much, says his son Mark. FOLEY: Dad did create items and products that he was passionate about. And then once he created it, he was off to a new one.

Dad was humble. He wasn't about what he did yesterday. It was about what he could create today or tomorrow. He just enjoyed creating items and products. SIEGEL: Chuck Foley, the inventor of "Twister," died this month in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was 82. (SOUNDBITE OF "TWISTER" AD) UNIDENTIFIED MAN AND WOMAN: (Singing) Get you all twisted and tangled, it's the "Twister." Spin the spinner and call the shot... Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. How to Play Twister Hopscotch How to Play Twister Hopscotch The games of Twister and Hopscotch are very well known family games , and Twister Hopscotch is a fun new way to play two classic games in one.

Two Classic Games Twister Hopscotch combines both individual games together creating the best of both worlds. Combining two fairly different games (with physicality and game field being the only similarities) was a small challenge. Twister Twister was the first game in history to use the human body as a way to play a game. Milton Bradley picked up the game and released it in 1966, but their competitors accused them of selling "sex in a box" which nearly brought the end to Twister. Public criticism and the company's own skepticism were put to rest when Johnny Carson, along with Eva Gabor, demonstrated the game on The Tonight Show . After its appearance on live television, Twister quickly became popular on college campuses (and still remains so today) because it was a simple, action-oriented party game. Hopscotch Though thought of as a casual street game, Hopscotch actually began as stamina and balance training for Roman soldiers in ancient Britain. Children began to imitate the soldiers and eventually drew their own game fields and created a point system. Hopscotch is played on a game field of a series of sequenced squares beginning with the number one.

A player tosses some sort of a marker onto the game field beginning with square number one. The marker must land completely within the lines or you lose a turn. You now have to hop to that square going in sequence, turn around, then return. Side by side squares must be straddled (left foot on left square, right foot on right square), and single spaces must be hopped onto with one foot. Besides the numbered spaces, there are also a few squares that you can incorporate onto the game field: Rest Your turn can end early if: You step on a line Step outside the game field Step on another square The ultimate goal is to complete the course running through each number. Complete square one, then toss the marker to square two and complete that one and continue until you finish the entire course. Twister Hopscotch The game is a combination of the fundamentals of both Twister and Hopscotch but combining and preserving both games was a challenging job. Taking the popular Twister and a game played on the streets such as Hopscotch and creating a completely unique game was done perfectly. Twister Hopscotch poses the question of how you will hop.

Will you have to maneuver the course in a zig zag or diamond pattern or just a straight line? That is where the Twister additive comes into play as the players spin the wheel and select the pattern and final color circle. Unlike the original Hopscotch, this game uses non-slip rings that are easy to set up (clean up too!), easy to move, and compact. You can also customize your own layouts. It is very easy to learn but nearly impossible to master. The features that make this game an instant success are: Perfect as an indoor activity for children especially on those bothersome rainy days. Customizable! Every game can be different as all you need to do is pull up the rings and replace them on a different path. Safety is always a priority for any indoor game and this one comes with non-slip rings made from vinyl that are not toxic. Twister Hopscotch is meant for children 4 and up and comes with the instructions, spinner, carrying case and 13 rings with 16 ring clips. The game retails for around $20.00, and you can find it at all major stores, including Wal-Mart .

Due to the nature of game' simplicity, the game can be easily be reproduced at home as a family craft project . Was this page useful?

Question: What party game, released by Milton Bradley in 1966, was called "sex in a box"?
Answer: Twister