Sixty years ago, Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played Twister on the “Tonight Show,” and the public took it as permission to buy the controversial game

The game has taken a variety of twists and turns. yulyao/Getty Images

Left hand, blue. Right foot, red. Sound familiar? These are just some of the instructions you might hear while playing the wildly popular party game called Twister.

The premise for the game, released in 1966 by game-maker Milton Bradley, came from a toy inventor named Reyn Guyer. While working for his father’s company, Guyer conceived the game as promotional material for Johnson Wax shoe polish’s back-to-school campaign.…