Word: doren
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...frequented by brainiacs and swells like publisher Bennett Cerf and arts advocate Kitty Carlisle, and quiz shows celebrated academics. Twenty-One scandalized the nation--and isn't it quaint to think of Americans being scandalized over a game show?--because people wanted to believe in intellectual Charles Van Doren, who was fed answers. Jeopardy! and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire follow that tradition, quizzing contestants on literature and science, things classy people are supposed to know about. Even Wheel of Fortune is, at least, about language skills...
...reputed to have declared at Commencement? Is education the discovery of our own ignorance (Will Durant), the art of living an ethical life (Hegel), the ability to listen to almost anything without losing our tempers (Robert Frost), life itself (John Dewey), our best chance at happiness (Mark Van Doren), or the opening of doors (Ralph Waldo Emerson...
...Cornell Woolrich, the famous mystery writer, received a fan letter from his old Columbia University professor Mark Van Doren, complimenting him on the movie adapted from his novel ?Black Angel.? Woolrich replied that he?d seen the film in a Manhattan theater and added, ?I was so ashamed when I came out of there. All I could keep thinking of in the dark was: Is that what I wasted my whole life...
...book "The Stingray," likened the potential fallout to the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s. The rigging of shows like "Twenty-One" led to national disillusionment and the establishment of FCC rules forbidding the fixing of competitions. But not only does this not yet look like a Charles Van Doren-scale shocker, I'm not sure whether one is even possible anymore. One reason has to do with the kinds of game shows in prime time nowadays. The other has to do with the people watching them...
...that, as the nation would learn several years later, is how a young English instructor at Columbia University named Charles Van Doren defeated a C.C.N.Y. graduate student named Herb Stempel and became the reigning Twenty-One champion for 14 weeks, ultimately winning $129,000. Van Doren became so famous and popular that when he finally lost his title, NBC gave him a $50,000 annual contract and a spot on its Today show. For a while, at least, America fell in love with an egghead, until the country learned he had been coddled...