'50 States Of Fright' Episode 2 'Ball Of Twine' was inspired by real balls of twine in Kansas and Minnesota
Sam Raimi's '50 States Of Fright' has hit Quibi and delivered quite a few jump scares. The series chronicles spooky legends from different states in the USA, including the infamous tale of the 'Golden Arm', which is a story that has survived for more than 200 years. Two episodes have been released on the mobile-streaming platform, one of them being 'The Golden Arm', and the second, 'Ball Of Twine'.
In the second story 'Ball Of Twine', a woman and her daughter stop by in Kansas to see the 'Biggest Ball Of Twine', which is a tourist attraction for many passersby. While the mother, Susan (Ming-Na Wen), engages in conversation with a police officer, her daughter Amelia (Thailey Roberge), goes to see the Ball Of Twine. A pair of hands grab her and whisk her into the twine. After not finding her, Susan gets frantic and realizes that something is off in the town. She realizes that the townfolk are twine-people who serve the ball of twine. They try to turn Susan into one of them, by spitting twine into her, but she puts up a good fight. Armed with an ax, she is confronted by angry townsfolk. She fights her way through them and hacks her way through the Ball Of Twine. She discovers an unconscious Amelia, who is lying next to the corpses of two children. Susan realizes that these children are the dead kids of the man who made the ball of twine, and their souls are haunting the town and causing these supernatural events. And so, she resigns herself to fate and dies with Amelia.
'Ball Of Twine' has been inspired by two real-life balls of twine, which are located in Kansas and Minnesota. In Cawker City, Kansas, a man named Frank Stoeber created a ball that had 1.6 million feet of twine and 11-foot-diameter. Every August, a Twine-A-Thon is held, where more twine is added to the ball. By 2006, the twine ball reached 17,886 pounds and by 2013, it was estimated to weigh 19,973 pounds. It is still growing.
In Darwin, Minnesota, Francis Johnson began rolling the twine in 1950 and wrapped it every day for four hours every day for 29 years. The town celebrates Twine Ball Day on the second Saturday in August, every year. So far, there have been several claims of the 'heaviest ball of twine' in the US, including Branson and Wisconsin. Obviously it is not haunted as shown in the show but does make for a good story.