Kelsey McShane

USA TODAY

He's no movie star, not a rocket scientist, nor did he come up with a cure for cancer. But Neil Rabens did find a way to bring fun into millions of households.

In 1966 he was part of the team that invented the game Twister. Rabens and his coworker Charlie Foley were tasked with developing games for Reynolds Guyer Agency, which had already been toying around with the idea of a stand up game using human players as the playing pieces.

After plenty of brainstorming, road blocks, and sleepless nights, the two men created a game called "Pretzel" which would laterbecome the iconic game of "Twister."

The game had its huge break when Jonny Carson played Twister on the Tonight Show with Ava Gabor.

"The next day at Abercrombie & Fitch they were lined up," said Guyer.

Twister went on to become the gotta-have-it game of 1966 and a toy department fixture to this day. Rabensstill receives letters in the mail asking for autographs and he can't help but shake his head.

"It's not like I came up with a cure for hemorrhoids or something," laughs Rabens.

Click the video above to hear Rabens describe how he came up with the idea for the game first deemed "too risqué" for the Sears catalog.

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