[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'229016\' date=\'Oct 22 2009, 07:51 AM\']Refresh my memory, was Vivienne Nearing given help which Van Doren didn't receive, as opposed to Van Doren being ordered to take a dive as Herb Stempel was? And who was the announcer on Twenty One?[/quote]
It was fully orchestrated that Nearing would answer correctly and VanDoren would struggle with a level of drama appropriate to his unseating after a long reign as champion.
"Johnny Olson: A Voice in Time" page 223:
Van Doren’s four-month, on-air sham culminated with his stunning defeat by
attorney Vivienne Nearing. Games between the two intellectual titans ended in ties
for several weeks. Then, when it appeared that Van Doreen could have won more
than $150,000, the contestant said, “I couldn’t, because Al had informed me that I
would lose to her.”
On the evening of March 11, Jack Barry asked both Nearing and Van Doren
to name the kings of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Jordan, Iraq, and Belgium. Both
were isolated in their sound-proofed booths, and both contenders performed their
scripted parts flawlessly. In the orchestrated intellectual Olympics, Nearing won the
gold; Van Doren finally stumbled after he seemed to prod and probe every fiber of
his grey matter for the name of the king of Belgium.
VanDoren quote attributed in the book.
The game played out in studio 6B at NBC, and Johnny had visited the set. The announcer was Bill McCord.
Randy
tvrandywest.com
