January 24, 2024 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the Milton Bradley game was about to be pulled from the shelves. Author Christopher Klein tells the story of how the late night talk host saved this iconic brand. We're telling this story because on January 23, 2005, Johnny Carson died.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
just about everything, as you know. And up next a
story by author Christopher Klein. He's the author of four books.
He's also written for The Boston Globe, The New York Times,
National Geographic, Smithsonian, and American Heritage. Here's Chris tell the
(00:30):
story of how Johnny Carson saved Twister. And we're telling
this story because on this day in two thousand and
five talk show legend, Johnny Carson died.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It's nineteen sixty five and Ren Geyer is working for
his Families Minnesota ad agency designing point of purchase displays
for products such as Pillsbury cake mix and three M tape.
And one day he's brainstorming ideas for a mail and
giveaway to promote back to school sales of a shoe
polish made by Johnson' Swax, thinking of something that was
tie in with shoes, and he gets his idea for
(01:03):
a new board game to be played not on a
tabletop but on the floor. He envisions a large mat
checker with squares on which players are the pieces. Geyer
found a large cardboard sheet drew twenty four colorful squares
in a four x six arrangement and called in coworkers
to play a game in which they moved around like
chess pieces. The game was a hit, and Geyer knew
(01:26):
he had an idea too good to waste on shoe polish.
He figured this could be a mass market game, but
the problem was he had no experience in the toy industry,
so he enlisted to help of industry veteran Charles Foley
and artist Neil Ravens to help them refine the concept.
Ravens came up with the idea of having players place
their hands as well as their feet on the game board,
(01:46):
while Foley thought of putting six circles of the same
color in four rows so that players would become entangled.
The Eveners even came up with a catchy retail name
for the game, Pretzel, because of its ability to twist
people into unique shapes. The game was simple to play.
A spinner told a player to put either a hand
or a foot on a particular color dot, and the
(02:07):
winner was the one who stayed up the longest without
elbows or knees hitting the ground. Pretzel required coordination, flexibility,
absolutely no hang ups about personal space. When Guyer's seemed
pitch Pretzel the GameMaker Milton Bradley, the company's head of
research and development. Meltaft was immediately sold. Other Milton Bradley executives, however,
(02:27):
thought the board game too provocative, that the idea of
being that close to someone, especially someone of the opposite sex,
was socially unacceptable. One company salesman even called it sex
in a box. Taft pressed ahead, though, and Milton Bradley
agreed to produce the board game, but with a new name,
since a toy dog called Pretzel was already on the market,
(02:48):
Milton Bradley changed the game's name to Twister and marketed
it as the game that Ties you up in knots.
Having grown up in the Midwest, though, Guyer disliked the
new moniker because it reminded him of deadly tornadoes.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Right foot blue, right boot blue, left hand red, left
hand red, left right yellow read yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Milton Bradley found a company that manufactured shower curtains to
produce Twister's vinyl mats and place cartoon characters onto packaging
to make the game more innocuous. It appeared, at first, however,
that the naysayers concerned about the game's sexual overtones were correct.
Major retailers who gathered at the annual Toy Fair in
New York thought Twister too risque as well. Sears Roebuck
(03:35):
wouldn't even include it in the company's Christmas catalog You.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Gotta Get It from MB.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
With demand flagging, Milton Bradley considered pulling Twister from the
market before it could cancel production, though the toy company's
public relations firm scored a coup by getting the game
onto the premiere late night television program in the United States,
BC's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The following program is
brought to you in living color on NBC from New York,
(04:14):
but the night Show starring Johnny Carton, This is emcmat
alone with.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Doc Simmers and an the NBC aucider inviting you to
join Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
With an average twelve million Americans tuning in every night,
the Tonight Show was among television's greatest showcases and Now.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
On the night of May third, nineteen sixty six, host
Johnny Carson played a game of Twister with glamorous actress
Ava Gabor, star of television's Green Acres. Sidekick Ed McMahon
worked a spinner and guffawed from his couch as Carson
and Gabor got down on all fours and contorted in
strange positions. The stars were not the audience was in stitches.
(05:00):
Impact of the hilarious segment on Twister sales was immediate.
The next day, customers deluged toy stars such as Fao Schwartz.
Promotional spots on art Link letters, House Party, and The
Mike Douglas Show also raised the game's profile, and Milton
Bradley's newspaper advertisements began to boast of the sensational new
party game seen by millions on TV. While kids and
(05:22):
adults alike were swept up in a Twister craze, teenagers
proved to be the game's sweet spot. During the nineteen sixties,
Twister became as much a staple of teenage basement parties
as shag carpeting and faux wood paneling. By December, Milton
Bradley's factories were turning out forty thousand boxes of Twister
a day, and it still wasn't enough to keep up
(05:43):
with holiday sales. The toy company even scrapped a plan
advertising campaign tied to New Year's Eve to allow its
production line to catch up with demand. By the end
of nineteen sixty seven, three million Twister games had been sold,
and it became one of the decades's most popular games.
When Twister was tried in the National Toy Hall of
Fame in twenty fifteen, actors recreated the moment when Carson
(06:05):
and Goobor saved the game from history's dustmen. Since Suster release,
an estimated sixty five million people have played Twister, proving
that it, unlike shag carpeting and fake wood paneling, was
no fat of the swinging sixties.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler for producing the piece,
and a special thanks to Christopher Klein for telling the
story of the night Johnny Carson saved Twister. And by
the way, what a coup for that pr firm. I mean,
Twister was dead on arrival. And by the way, it's
hard to imagine for people born, let's say, after nineteen
eighty to understand the power of the series catalog. And
(06:42):
if the Sear's catalog said no, it would be the
equivalent today of Amazon saying no. It was that powerful,
And my goodness, what a fun game. I know. It
was one of the great games at parties when I
was a kid, And what a great way to just
laugh and be stupid. And by the way that it's
enshrine to the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester,
(07:03):
New York, is no surprise. Sixty five million people have
played the game. A great piece of storytelling by Christopher Klein,
the story of how Johnny Carson Save Twister here on
Our American Stories because on this day in two thousand
and five, Johnny Carson died. Folks, if you love the
(07:32):
great American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the Our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to Our American
Stories dot com now and go to the donate button
(07:53):
and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's
Our American Stories dot Com.
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
just about everything, as you know. And up next a
story by author Christopher Klein. He's the author of four books.
He's also written for The Boston Globe, The New York Times,
National Geographic, Smithsonian, and American Heritage. Here's Chris tell the
(00:30):
story of how Johnny Carson saved Twister. And we're telling
this story because on this day in two thousand and
five talk show legend, Johnny Carson died.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It's nineteen sixty five and Ren Geyer is working for
his Families Minnesota ad agency designing point of purchase displays
for products such as Pillsbury cake mix and three M tape.
And one day he's brainstorming ideas for a mail and
giveaway to promote back to school sales of a shoe
polish made by Johnson' Swax, thinking of something that was
tie in with shoes, and he gets his idea for
(01:03):
a new board game to be played not on a
tabletop but on the floor. He envisions a large mat
checker with squares on which players are the pieces. Geyer
found a large cardboard sheet drew twenty four colorful squares
in a four x six arrangement and called in coworkers
to play a game in which they moved around like
chess pieces. The game was a hit, and Geyer knew
(01:26):
he had an idea too good to waste on shoe polish.
He figured this could be a mass market game, but
the problem was he had no experience in the toy industry,
so he enlisted to help of industry veteran Charles Foley
and artist Neil Ravens to help them refine the concept.
Ravens came up with the idea of having players place
their hands as well as their feet on the game board,
(01:46):
while Foley thought of putting six circles of the same
color in four rows so that players would become entangled.
The Eveners even came up with a catchy retail name
for the game, Pretzel, because of its ability to twist
people into unique shapes. The game was simple to play.
A spinner told a player to put either a hand
or a foot on a particular color dot, and the
(02:07):
winner was the one who stayed up the longest without
elbows or knees hitting the ground. Pretzel required coordination, flexibility,
absolutely no hang ups about personal space. When Guyer's seemed
pitch Pretzel the GameMaker Milton Bradley, the company's head of
research and development. Meltaft was immediately sold. Other Milton Bradley executives, however,
(02:27):
thought the board game too provocative, that the idea of
being that close to someone, especially someone of the opposite sex,
was socially unacceptable. One company salesman even called it sex
in a box. Taft pressed ahead, though, and Milton Bradley
agreed to produce the board game, but with a new name,
since a toy dog called Pretzel was already on the market,
(02:48):
Milton Bradley changed the game's name to Twister and marketed
it as the game that Ties you up in knots.
Having grown up in the Midwest, though, Guyer disliked the
new moniker because it reminded him of deadly tornadoes.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Right foot blue, right boot blue, left hand red, left
hand red, left right yellow read yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Milton Bradley found a company that manufactured shower curtains to
produce Twister's vinyl mats and place cartoon characters onto packaging
to make the game more innocuous. It appeared, at first, however,
that the naysayers concerned about the game's sexual overtones were correct.
Major retailers who gathered at the annual Toy Fair in
New York thought Twister too risque as well. Sears Roebuck
(03:35):
wouldn't even include it in the company's Christmas catalog You.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Gotta Get It from MB.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
With demand flagging, Milton Bradley considered pulling Twister from the
market before it could cancel production, though the toy company's
public relations firm scored a coup by getting the game
onto the premiere late night television program in the United States,
BC's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The following program is
brought to you in living color on NBC from New York,
(04:14):
but the night Show starring Johnny Carton, This is emcmat
alone with.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Doc Simmers and an the NBC aucider inviting you to
join Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
With an average twelve million Americans tuning in every night,
the Tonight Show was among television's greatest showcases and Now.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
On the night of May third, nineteen sixty six, host
Johnny Carson played a game of Twister with glamorous actress
Ava Gabor, star of television's Green Acres. Sidekick Ed McMahon
worked a spinner and guffawed from his couch as Carson
and Gabor got down on all fours and contorted in
strange positions. The stars were not the audience was in stitches.
(05:00):
Impact of the hilarious segment on Twister sales was immediate.
The next day, customers deluged toy stars such as Fao Schwartz.
Promotional spots on art Link letters, House Party, and The
Mike Douglas Show also raised the game's profile, and Milton
Bradley's newspaper advertisements began to boast of the sensational new
party game seen by millions on TV. While kids and
(05:22):
adults alike were swept up in a Twister craze, teenagers
proved to be the game's sweet spot. During the nineteen sixties,
Twister became as much a staple of teenage basement parties
as shag carpeting and faux wood paneling. By December, Milton
Bradley's factories were turning out forty thousand boxes of Twister
a day, and it still wasn't enough to keep up
(05:43):
with holiday sales. The toy company even scrapped a plan
advertising campaign tied to New Year's Eve to allow its
production line to catch up with demand. By the end
of nineteen sixty seven, three million Twister games had been sold,
and it became one of the decades's most popular games.
When Twister was tried in the National Toy Hall of
Fame in twenty fifteen, actors recreated the moment when Carson
(06:05):
and Goobor saved the game from history's dustmen. Since Suster release,
an estimated sixty five million people have played Twister, proving
that it, unlike shag carpeting and fake wood paneling, was
no fat of the swinging sixties.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler for producing the piece,
and a special thanks to Christopher Klein for telling the
story of the night Johnny Carson saved Twister. And by
the way, what a coup for that pr firm. I mean,
Twister was dead on arrival. And by the way, it's
hard to imagine for people born, let's say, after nineteen
eighty to understand the power of the series catalog. And
(06:42):
if the Sear's catalog said no, it would be the
equivalent today of Amazon saying no. It was that powerful,
And my goodness, what a fun game. I know. It
was one of the great games at parties when I
was a kid, And what a great way to just
laugh and be stupid. And by the way that it's
enshrine to the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester,
(07:03):
New York, is no surprise. Sixty five million people have
played the game. A great piece of storytelling by Christopher Klein,
the story of how Johnny Carson Save Twister here on
Our American Stories because on this day in two thousand
and five, Johnny Carson died. Folks, if you love the
(07:32):
great American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the Our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to Our American
Stories dot com now and go to the donate button
(07:53):
and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's
Our American Stories dot Com.
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.