"Whiz Kid" Van Doren is lauded on the cover of Time in 1957 for having defeated champion Herb Stempel and subsequently going on to reign as champion himself on NBC's Twenty One. Van Doren won $129,000 as a contestant on the show. Not a bad amount of scratch by today's standards; imagine how much it was back in 1957!
Charles Van Doren in late 1959, as he prepared to testify before the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight, about how Twenty One and other such television "quiz" shows were rigged, and that he, Van Doren, was given the answers to the questions in advance by the show's producers.You can watch the actual broadcast where Van Doren defeated Stemple!
Today that would be $971,934.55. Yep, not too shabby!
ReplyDeleteThis is the story that inspired the movie Quizz Show, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is!
ReplyDelete