April 8, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, believe it or not, the Milton Bradley game was about to be pulled from the shelves! Author and Our American Stories regular Christopher Klein tells the story of how the late-night talk host saved this iconic brand.
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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, of The New
York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and American Heritage. Here's Chris
tell the story of how Johnny Carson Saved Twister.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's nineteen sixty five and Ren Geyer is working for
his families in 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's Wax. And he's thinking
of something of a tie in with shoes, and he
(00:56):
gets this idea for a new board game to be
played not on a tabletop 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,
(01:18):
and Geyer knew 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, while Foley thought of
(01:40):
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 colored and the winner was the one who
(02:01):
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, thought the board game too provocative,
(02:23):
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, Milton Bradley changed the game's
name to Twister and marketed it as the game that
(02:46):
Ties you up and knots. Having grown up in the Midwest, though,
Geyer disliked the new moniker because it reminded him of
deadly tornadoes.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Right foot blue, right foot blue, left hand red hand
read right yellow red yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Wilton 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 to risque as well. Sears Roebuck
(03:28):
wouldn't even include it in the company's Christmas catalog you
Gotta Get It.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
From.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
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,
NBC's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
The following program is brought to you in living color
on NBRO New York at the Night Show starring Johnny Gutton.
This is emcmat Alone with Doc Simmers with an the
NBC auciser inviting you to join Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
With an average twelve million Americans tuning in every night,
the Tonight Show was among television's greatest showcases and Now.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
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 gaffawed 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.
(04:53):
The impact of the hilarious segment on Twister sales was immediate.
The next day, customers deluge toy stars such as fl 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
(05:16):
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
(05:36):
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 ensried in the National Toy Hall of
Fame in twenty fifteen, actors recreated the moment when Carson
(05:58):
and Gabor saved the game for histories dust been. 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 (06:13):
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
(06:35):
if the year'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
enshrined in the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester,
(06:56):
New York. Is no surprise sixty five million people have
played the game. A great piece of storytelling by Christopher Klein,
the story of Twister and how a late night talk
show host saved it and made it the game it
is today here on our American Stories Folks, if you
(07:31):
love the 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
(07:52):
donate button 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, of The New
York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and American Heritage. Here's Chris
tell the story of how Johnny Carson Saved Twister.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's nineteen sixty five and Ren Geyer is working for
his families in 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's Wax. And he's thinking
of something of a tie in with shoes, and he
(00:56):
gets this idea for a new board game to be
played not on a tabletop 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,
(01:18):
and Geyer knew 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, while Foley thought of
(01:40):
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 colored and the winner was the one who
(02:01):
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, thought the board game too provocative,
(02:23):
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, Milton Bradley changed the game's
name to Twister and marketed it as the game that
(02:46):
Ties you up and knots. Having grown up in the Midwest, though,
Geyer disliked the new moniker because it reminded him of
deadly tornadoes.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Right foot blue, right foot blue, left hand red hand
read right yellow red yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Wilton 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 to risque as well. Sears Roebuck
(03:28):
wouldn't even include it in the company's Christmas catalog you
Gotta Get It.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
From.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
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,
NBC's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
The following program is brought to you in living color
on NBRO New York at the Night Show starring Johnny Gutton.
This is emcmat Alone with Doc Simmers with an the
NBC auciser inviting you to join Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
With an average twelve million Americans tuning in every night,
the Tonight Show was among television's greatest showcases and Now.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Johnny.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
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 gaffawed 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.
(04:53):
The impact of the hilarious segment on Twister sales was immediate.
The next day, customers deluge toy stars such as fl 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
(05:16):
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
(05:36):
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 ensried in the National Toy Hall of
Fame in twenty fifteen, actors recreated the moment when Carson
(05:58):
and Gabor saved the game for histories dust been. 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 (06:13):
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
(06:35):
if the year'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
enshrined in the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester,
(06:56):
New York. Is no surprise sixty five million people have
played the game. A great piece of storytelling by Christopher Klein,
the story of Twister and how a late night talk
show host saved it and made it the game it
is today here on our American Stories Folks, if you
(07:31):
love the 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
(07:52):
donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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