In this file photo, from left, Jacob Jenkins, Ramone Robinson, Nelson Miller and Tairisha Sawyer play Twister in Edwardsville, Ill.ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota man whose Twister game launched decades of awkward social interactions at parties has died. He was 82.
Charles “Chuck” 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.