The ultimate way to make guests relax and start laughing at a party, Twister is a game in which players turn a spinner that tells them which hand or foot to place on which colored circle on the large game board (a thin floor mat). Players' arms and legs become tangled, leading to falls and laughs. The object of the game is to be the last player to lose his or her balance.

Twister was released by the Milton Bradley Company (see entry under 1900s—Sports and Games in volume 1) in 1966 and was introduced to the American public on The Tonight Show (see entry under 1950s—TV and Radio in volume 3) on NBC. When viewers watched the show's host, Johnny Carson (1925–; see entry under 1960s—TV and Radio in volume 4), play the game with glamorous movie star Eva Gabor (1919–1995), it prompted three million people to go buy their...