Charles Van Doren, a Quiz Show Whiz Who Wasn’t, Dies at 93

The New York Times ^ | April 10, 2019 | Robert D. McFadden

[EveningStar]

Charles Van Doren, a Columbia University English instructor and a member of a distinguished literary family who confessed to Congress and a disillusioned nation in 1959 that his performances on a television quiz show had been rigged, died on Tuesday in Canaan, Conn. He was 93.

He died at Geer Village, a retirement community, near his home in Cornwall, Conn., where he had lived for several years, his son, John, said.

In the heyday of quiz shows in the 1950s, when scholarly housewives and walking encyclopedia nerds battled on “The $64,000 Question” and “Tic-Tac-Dough,” Mr. Van Doren was a rare specimen: a handsome, personable young intellectual with solid academic credentials, a faculty post at a prestigious university and an impressive family pedigree.

His father was Mark Van Doren, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, literary critic and professor of English at Columbia. His mother, Dorothy Van Doren, was a novelist and editor. And his uncle, Carl Van Doren, had been a professor of literature, a historian and a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. Charles himself had bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a $4,400-a-year position at Columbia and an honest look about him.

[SamAdams76]

It wasn't all downhill for Martin Van Buren. After the big scandal, he went on to a long career at the Encyclopedia Brittanica where he was editor and vice president. He also wrote a number of books.

All in all, a successful and prosperous life. Now the Encyclopedia Brittanica is regarded as somewhat of a joke these days but remember that prior to the 1990s, the Encyclopedia Brittanica was very prestigious and many housewives bought the set from door to door salesmen in the hopes that their children would grow up into scholars. For the most part, the books would go mostly unread and maintain excellent condition for decades, until they ended up being sold in a flea market or given away to strangers.

But I have to tell you, there was once a time in America where having a bookcase in the den groaning with volumes of the EB was a clear marker that you were firmly entrenched in the middle class.

[foreverfree]

There’s a Van Dorn (not Van Doren) Street station on the DC Metro Blue Line (in NoVa).