Charles Foley, inventor of iconic Twister party game, dies at 82
Charles Foley never received royalties for 1960s game dubbed by some 'sex in a box'
Twister called itself "the game that ties you up in knots". Its detractors called it "sex in a box".
Charles "Chuck" Foley, the father of nine who invented the game that became a naughty sensation in living rooms across the world because of the way it put men and women in compromising positions, has died at 82.
Foley and colleague Neil Rabens developed the game, known on the drawing board as Pretzel, for a design concern in St Paul, in the US state of Minnesota, in the mid-1960s. Originally manufactured by board-games firm Milton Bradley of Massachusetts, Twister was introduced in 1966 and has gone on to sell tens of millions of copies.
In 1969, Foley and Rabens were awarded a patent for their invention.
Currently made by Hasbro, Twister is inextricably knotted into late-20th-century popular culture. In a memorable send-up of the chess-playing scene in Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal, for instance, the 1991 film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey features its young heroes (Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter) playing Twister with Death. Death loses.