"People Are Wonderful"

"Opposed to the dim uncertainty of the world of the educated man is the bright little circle of light in which the quiz-show contestant basks in his isolation booth. All is certainty there. One need not worry or be distressed. Only those questions are asked which have answers, and then only if the answers are available . . ."

--Charles Van Doren, September 1957

When he wrote these lines (in LIFE), soon after winning $129,000 on Twenty-One, Charles Van Doren was sneering at the intellectual futility of TV's quiz games. But by last week, Van Doren's words could be read less as sneer than as simple statement of fact. The office of New York District Attorney Frank Hogan dropped its last qualifying hedges, in effect said that Van Doren had admitted receiving both questions and answers on Twenty-One, as had his successor, Hank Bloomgarden (who won $98,500).

As he was getting ready to testify this week before the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight, Van Doren broke his silence briefly: "I've been getting just wonderful letters from wonderful people. I put the good letters in one pocket and the bad in another. When I looked I had 39 good letters in one pocket and there was only one bad one in the other pocket. I've been getting so much love from so many people that I just wish I could return it all. People are wonderful."

Big Payoff. Meanwhile, other former contestants began to sing. Manhattan Adman Arthur Cohn Jr. recalled his appearance on The $64,000 Challenge. At a warmup, said Cohn, his opponent came out of a private session with Associate Producer Shirley Bernstein (sister of Conductor Leonard Bernstein), positively popping with both questions and answers. Disgusted with what he was convinced was a fraud, Cohn took his beating, complained to the show's sponsor (Revlon), and insisted that his $250 consolation prize be donated to charity.

Tic Tac Dough Veteran Richard Clark was even angrier than Cohn, and for a different reason. In his 1958 appearances on the air, Clark won $22,500, but the producers' admission that the show was crooked, said he, has damaged his reputation. Reason: his friends will not believe that he was not in on the fix. He filed a $500,000 suit against NBC, the show's producers (Barry & Enright Productions) and the sponsor (Procter & Gamble). What's more, argued Clark, his eye on an even bigger payoff, the fix cost him a possible $40,000 in winnings. He sued for that, too.

Junketeering Press. So vigorously did the press pursue the day-by-day chronicle of shady shenanigans that TV spokesmen quit muttering "We were duped" long enough to fight back feebly. "What are the newsmen to criticize our ethics?" they asked. The New York Times's TV Critic Jack Gould (see PRESS) quoted unidentified network executives who accused almost all TV writers of being "junketeers," i.e., free loading travelers who let networks, ad agencies or sponsors pick up the tab for a trip. And as if to divest itself of any further blame for thus "corrupting" the press, NBC canceled a January junket that had been organized to take 80 reporters to the West Coast.

At least some businessmen began to realize that sponsors had their share of the responsibility for the scandal. In a speech to the Sales Executives Club in Manhattan, Philip Cortney, president of Coty, Inc., took a roundhouse swing at his archrival, Revlon (sponsors of The $64,000 Question, co-sponsors of The $64,000 Challenge). Businessmen who profited from rigged shows, said Cortney, should be called to account by congressional committees. Their "illgotten gains" should be donated to charity as "conscience money." Businessmen, Cortney concluded, ought to keep their hands off entertainment.

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