A lifetime spent on fun and games adds a twist

One night in 1966, "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson and a guest, the lovely Eva Gabor, were on the studio floor as they giggled and groped their way through a new game that was destined for tens of thousands of U.S. living rooms.

With his sidekick Ed McMahon's booming laughter in the background, the agile Johnny attempted to slide one foot to a color destination under Ava's arched back and lean back to plant his hand on another color, before they collapsed to the floor in laughter, delighting the in-studio audience of what was the country's favorite late-night show.

The happy inventor of Twister in 1966 was Reyn Guyer, a 31-year-old promotions pitchman at his father's St. Paul creative shop, who conceived the game in 1964.

"Believe it or not, I was working on a promotion for a polish for kids shoes when I got the inspiration for a game that uses people as playing pieces," said Guyer, 73. "And that became Twister."

Guyer, who is also the guy behind the Nerf Ball, continues to run a small company that invents toys and children's learning products. And next weekend at the Chicago International Toy and Game Fair Guyer, a guy who doesn't like croquet, will introduce another toy concept: KingsCourt, a kind of team-oriented croquet.

"I never liked playing back-yard croquet," Guyer said. "People are all over the place and nobody knows what the other is doing. This game includes mallets for striking balls. But it's simpler, involves teams and strategy and is more fun to play and watch."

KingsCourt will be introduced slowly, through high-end sporting goods and other stores where a "Royal Kings Court" wood-carved set will retail for as much as $500 and a smaller set will be available for $300.

Recalling the origins of Twister, Guyer, who now winters in Florida with Mary, his wife of 41 years, said, "I was thinking of a premium; send a buck and a product label. I went out with the artist and took a 4-by-6 sheet of paper and drew a grid and got eight people going from one corner to another. It took about three minutes and everybody was on the floor laughing.

"We took it to Milton Bradley, which is now part of Hasbro. And they are still making Twister."

If the KingsCourt game takes off, Guyer said, other manufacturers may take the concept to a lower price point. "There's nothing that can't be made cheaper," Guyer said. "When it catches on, we hope a company will come along and make some of the parts in plastic and bring the price down to around $100, which is where croquet languishes. But real croquet nuts can spend up to $5,000 on a mallet."

A game of KingsCourt involves a couple of teams of any number of players. Each team has a mallet, a King Pin, two sentries, and three balls. Each team takes turns with the mallet striking a ball in an effort to take out the other team's playing pieces. To win, one must knock over the King Pin, but not before the opponent's sentries have been eliminated.

Guyer had planned to be a journalist after college, but his father persuaded him to join his promotions company.

Guyer's idea for the Nerf Ball came about during the testing phase for a game about cavemen about 30 years ago. Guyer's team began throwing foam "rocks" at one another. Suddenly it dawned on Guyer: an indoor ball to which no mother would object because it wouldn't break a lamp or bruise a toddler.

Guyer is also the creator of Cinq-O, a dice game and the Curly Lasagna cast of characters and audiotape series.

Guyer will present at the Toy and Game Inventor of the Year Awards dinner Friday in Chicago as well as man his booth Saturday and Sunday.

Guyer is a St. Paul Academy and Dartmouth graduate. He and four of his children operate several businesses that include KingsCourt (www.Kingscourtgame.com); Winsor Learning, teacher-training products for kids and adults who have trouble reading; Wrensong Music of Nashville; the Curly Lasagna stories and songs; and Guyer's paintings and sculptures that he creates for corporate and private collections. It's all at ReynGuyer.com.

"Successful?" Guyer pondered the question. "I've been fortunate to have the opportunity ... to develop ideas and start several companies.

"Mary had to suffer though all the ideas and game testing. I have four kids in the business and a fifth, Lisa, our oldest, who has an upscale day-care business on Grand Avenue in St. Paul called 'Close to Home.'

"Success? It takes good fortune. I like to stress that I wasn't the only person involved in all this."

Neal St. Anthony • 612-673-7144