Twister’s Weird 1966 Origin and Rise to Fame

Twister didn’t just show up at parties one day. It kind of slid into pop culture sideways and almost didn’t make it at all.

The game we all know as Twister was dreamed up in 1964 to 1965 by Reyn Guyer, along with Charles Foley and Neil Rabens. Back then, it wasn’t even called Twister. The working title was “Pretzel,” which honestly fits the whole tangled limbs concept pretty well.

When Milton Bradley Company picked it up and renamed it, the game officially launched in 1966. But here’s the part most people forget. It flopped right out of the gate. Like, stores didn’t want it. Critics didn’t get it. Some even dismissed it as “sex in a box” because of how close players had to get to each other. Sears reportedly refused to carry it. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Then came the moment that saved it.

On May 3, 1966, Twister was played on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, with Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor getting tangled up on live television. That one segment flipped everything. Suddenly, teenagers couldn’t get enough of it. What looked scandalous one month became must-have fun the next.

And the origin story gets even weirder the deeper you go.

The original idea was tied to a promotion for Johnson Wax shoe polish. The colored circles were supposed to show off different polish shades. Before “Pretzel,” Guyer even called an early version “King’s Footsie,” which sounds like something that never should have left the brainstorming stage.

The mat itself? That oversized vinyl sheet existed because they worked with a company that made shower curtains. Not exactly high-tech game design, but it did the job.

And if you think this was a one-hit wonder, think again. A few years later, in 1969, Guyer went on to invent the Nerf ball. So yeah, the same mind behind awkward party collisions also gave us one of the safest toys ever made.

Twister almost died as a bad idea. Instead, it became one of the most recognizable party games in history. Not bad for something that started as a shoe polish gimmick.