This story in the July 14, 1952 issue of Life magazine was very weird and quite racy for its time. The magazine got so many letters of complaint about it that the editors offered an apology in a subsequent issue. Entitled “Life Goes to a Fumble Party,” the story concerns a lascivious party game called “Fumble,” in which people removed and exchanged clothes, got into a pile on the carpet in the dark and the person who was “It” would grope them until correctly identifying someone. Then that person would become “It” and the feel-copping and cross-dressing would again commence. So much for the buttoned-down 1950s. Not even Eisenhower could apparently stop it.

It seemed the game was pretty much confined to upper-middle-class white people. Photographer Carl Iwasaki used special camera equipment to capture the lewd action in the dark. An excerpt from this insane story:

“In Denver, Colorado, where residents go in for vigorous outdoor entertainment like mountain climbing, people are now taking up a lively indoor entertainment called ‘fumble.’ Like blindman’s bluff, fumble is a game of identification. A person is chosen ‘it’ by drawing the high card from a deck. ‘It’ goes to another room while the other players add and subtract clothes, put on masks or disguise themselves in other ways.

When everyone is disguised, they all fling themselves down onto a huddle on the floor, making a confused tangle of bodies, arms and legs. Then the lights are turned off. ‘It’ reenters the room and, by fumbling among the tangled bodies, tries to identify the a person. If someone is identified, then he or she becomes ‘it.’ But if the fumbler makes an error, he must pay a penalty decided on by the group.

Two of Denver’s greatest fumble enthusiasts are Jack Campbell, owner of a piano company, and his wife Betty. To a recent party they invited Life photographer Carl Iwasaki. The guests, all seasoned fumblers, included a surgeon, a state senator, the granddaughter of a former U.S. senator and the daughter of an oil company president. After the lights went out and the fumbling began, Iwasaki photographed with infra-red film and infra-red flashbulbs, which make it possible to take pictures in the dark. The guests had such a good time they all agreed to play the following week. ‘Nothing melts the social ice like a game or two of fumble,’ said Mrs. Campbell.”