Herb Stempel, Quiz Show Whistle-Blower, Is Dead at 93

NYT ^ | 5/31/20 | Robert D. McFadden

[Borges]

In the isolation booth, Herb Stempel bit his lip to show tension. He dabbed sweat from his brow and sighed into the microphone. And as 50 million viewers hung in suspense, he seemed to agonize over the question in his last appearance on the rigged NBC quiz show “Twenty-One.”

What movie won the Academy Award for best picture in 1955?

It was Dec. 5, 1956, and Mr. Stempel, a City College student from Queens, was in his eighth week on the show, posing as a nerdy know-it-all. He had won $49,500. But his new rival was Charles Van Doren, a golden-boy Columbia University instructor, and the uninspiring Mr. Stempel was scripted to take a dive.

“On the Waterfront,” he said, knowing the answer was “Marty,” one of his favorites.

While Mr. Van Doren went on to become the most celebrated (and, later, vilified) contestant of the quiz-show era, on the cover of Time magazine and inundated with fan mail and contract offers, Mr. Stempel might have become a forgotten man. Instead, he helped blow the cover off one of the major scandals of the age, telling the news media, prosecutors and congressional investigators that it was all a hoax.

Mr. Stempel, who became a high school social studies teacher in New York and later worked for the city’s Department of Transportation, died on April 7. He was 93. His death, which was not publicly announced, was confirmed by a former stepdaughter, Bobra Fyne.

[Dr. Sivana]

Not that I think they are giving them the answers but there are ways to favor certain people.

It is how Dr. Joyce Brothers got famous. Her topic was "boxing", about which she didn't know a whole lot, but research was easy, and she was bright. So she just got some almanacs, etc. and the questions came from those same sources. They thought a petite blonde answering questions about boxing would be cute.

[Dr. Sivana]

Ok but just to play devils advocate Donald Trump hosted his own reality show so where does that put us and him.

"The Apprentice", which I have never watched, is inherently subjective, whereas a quiz show isn't supposed t be. The forerunner to the "Bachelor" was "The Dating Game", and at the end of the program, right on the screen, it states that the young ladies were provided with questions. In real life, a young woman in the '60s might ask questions about home life and religious practices if she were serious, not "What kind of tree are you?" The producers wanted to make those flaky questions be the center of the show.

"The Apprentice" is entertainment, not a contest in the way that Fischer-Spassky is a contest, but more of a contest than WWE wrestling. No one has accused Trump of misrepresenting anything on t"The Apprentice", as far as I know.

[Carborundum]

It was quite a scheme by the producers. But Charles Van Doren certainly had more charisma. I met him at a VA Clinic some years ago. Interesting guy. Had gone on to build quite a life and did well after the dust settled on the scandal.

[Dr. Sivana]

I recall one game where one category was “The New Testament”. So if you were a Jewish contestant, you were just outta luck.

My dorm room won our college Jeopardy! tournament (room vs. room). I attended a Catholic college, but had been around Jews all my life, so when the category "Judaica" came up, I cleaned out the category for my team.

[Songcraft]

Alex Trebek always seemed inordinately fond of that Ken Jennings...

[Ezekiel]

"Everybody knows the magician doesn't cut the lady in half."

Or the baby as it were. You have to figure, that whichever lady was naive enough to believe Solomon would do that, would be too much of a simpleton to plot a baby swap.

The other one said fine, go right on ahead... calling his bluff, knowing that the king wouldn't actually cut a baby in half.

Quiz Show. Very entertaining Book.

[Leaning Right]

I am not Jewish. But I once was visiting a friend who was an Orthodox Jew. And he was taking this online quiz about Judaism. “I know all about that,” I said. I don’t even know why I said that. I know very little about Judaism.

“Okay,” my friend said, “Go ahead and take the quiz.” I did, and I got all 20 questions right.

How did I do that? It was a multiple choice quiz, and I just picked the answer choices that had the most words in them.

[oh8eleven]

One of my favorite movies, and I thought John Turturro did a great job portraying Stempel.
RIP Herbie ....

[Fresh Wind]

When I was a kid, a neighbor won $32,000 on the $64,000 question show. I have no idea if the win was legitimate, but he did get the money.

He used it to build a bomb shelter in his basement.

[xp38]

Thank you for the reply

[left that other site]

“The New Testament”

I always get 100% on that one. LOL! :-)

[TBP]

Such as?

[TBP]

I ran that category too (here at home.) It wasn’t that hard.

[TBP]

I know Jewish people with some knowledge of the New Testament.

[TBP]

Jeopardy! made Ken Jennings famous, and Jennings has been back numerous times and done a lot to promote the show. He still holds the record for most games won -- 74.

[yarddog]

Well Friday they had Kareem Abdul Jabbar talk about how Wild Bill Hickok’s childhood home was a station on the underground railroad.

Everybody knows all about that. You will find it at the highest levels of academia. Trouble is there is no real evidence that it even existed.

[smvoice]

The Rest of the Story is always more interesting than the story itself. Thanks!😊

[TBP]

How does that favor any particular contestant?

[yarddog]

It simply shows that they are corrupt which is necessary for cheating.

[left that other site]

Most of them aren’t.

We FReepers are a well-informed bunch! LOL!