Twenty One and the 1950s Quiz Show Scandals - Game Shows Part I

00:00This is World's Greatest Con. I'm Brian Brushwood.

00:06All right, it's 1957 and 200 people are getting pulled into a grand jury.

00:13They're all told the same thing.

00:16Tell the truth, you'll be on your way.

00:18But if you lie, you are going to be indicted on federal perjury charges.

00:24And these people aren't just anyone.

00:27We're talking about lawyers, professors, active military, respected individuals, people with a lot to lose if their reputations are tarnished.

00:40And fascinatingly, one by one, these individuals go to the grand jury and the overwhelming majority lie.

00:52They commit federal perjury.

00:55I mean, maybe it's the money, right?

00:58Money's got to be involved somewhere.

01:00But they lie for the money.

01:02Maybe it's a grand conspiracy. They're all in.

01:05If one person cracks, everything comes down. A cult?

01:10I mean, hell, that'd make more sense than the truth.

01:14Because the truth is, the real reason is something elemental in every single one of us.

01:20Something hardwired into our brains.

01:22All of us have a relationship with this.

01:25And it's a con man's job to exploit it.

01:29I'm going to tell you an epic story about fame and shame.

01:36About how our desire for one and the fear of the other can eradicate your morals.

01:44Reduce you to a pawn on somebody else's chessboard.

01:48But before we get to the heavy stuff, let's understand this phenomenon in a safer sandbox.

01:57A realm without any victims.

01:59Okay, this will be a weird segue.

02:03But have you ever been to a stage hypnotist show?

02:08Sometimes these shows are like at a Christmas event for a corporation.

02:12Sometimes you'll buy a ticket on the strip in Las Vegas.

02:15I always see them at these college freshman orientations.

02:18You know, those big events they do in the first one or two days when you come to campus.

02:23When they want you to bond together as a cohort and have shared experience.

02:29It's the perfect activity to get people to reveal stuff about themselves.

02:36In fact, put yourself back there.

02:39You don't know anybody.

02:40You don't know how any of this is going to go.

02:44But you do know that you want to fit in.

02:47There's a thousand other people in this packed, charged auditorium. You're excited. They're excited.

02:53You want to know them.

02:55They want to know you.

02:57Out walks a guy in an authoritative suit.

03:00Who explains to you that only one type of person can be hypnotized. A smart person.

03:08Somebody smart enough to exactly follow directions on cue.

03:13And no, you won't lose free will.

03:17But yes, you will experience something that you will remember for the rest of your life.

03:23And then comes the first part of how stage hypnosis works.

03:28He asks who here in this room would like to be hypnotized.

03:35This feels like a very small moment. It's not.

03:39It's the most important moment.

03:40The reason it's the most important moment is because you are self-selecting for compliance.

03:46You are entering a contract.

03:48You are saying, I am ready to play.

03:52You and 45 other freshmen go running up to the stage.

03:56You all get in a line.

03:58And what happens first is a very small ask.

04:02The stage hypnotist says, I want you to imagine you're getting very, very hot.

04:07Oh, what must that be like to be very, very hot?

04:11And of course you are hot.

04:13You're under a bunch of heat lamps. You're on stage.

04:16You're next to all these other sweaty bodies.

04:19You just ran 100 meters to get up here.

04:22After a few minutes of this, the language changes just a little bit.

04:26Now he just says, now you're getting cooler.

04:29But you know what he's talking about, right? I was hot.

04:33Now I'm getting cooler. Of course. Of course.

04:35Also, by the way, you are actually getting cooler.

04:37You worked up a sweat while you were up there on stage.

04:41Now all that sweat is starting to evaporate. You're getting cooler.

04:44So you begin to shake and shiver, cover yourself.

04:48And all the while, he's quietly eliminating people.

04:52He doesn't say elimination.

04:54What he says is, if I tap you on the shoulder, it just didn't work out.

05:00It was not really a punishment.

05:02But you know what you want.

05:03You know you want to stay up there on stage.

05:07You want to keep going.

05:09We hear directives and sleep.

05:11And we know while we're out there on stage, what he means is, act as though you just went into a slumber. Collect your thoughts.

05:22And you begin to watch as stranger and stranger things happen around you.

05:28Always happening to other people.

05:30Something amazing is about to happen.

05:32The person I'm touching right now, only the person I'm touching right now, in a moment, I'm going to ask you a question.

05:39And when I do, you will be unable to remember the number seven.

05:43And when he asks you to add together four and four, you say eight. He's like, great.

05:49So you must have eight fingers pointed up. Go ahead. Count them.

05:55One, two, three, four, five, six.

05:58What else are you going to do?

06:01And meanwhile, the audience is loving it.

06:03The laughter, the applause.

06:05I mean, you think of yourself as an introvert.

06:08You've never experienced anything like this.

06:10But right now, the attention is on you, and you are in full-on flow state.

06:15It melts all of these decisions about whether you're playing along or just following instructions.

06:22They all get blended together. Choices become instinctual.

06:26At the age of 18, a freshman at college, you've probably never experienced anything like this before.

06:33All you know is that it feels awesome.

06:36And when this dude tells you something to do, you do it.

06:41Everybody claps, and you feel great.

06:44And then, 40 minutes into the performance, he says to you out loud, you are Britney Spears.

06:58And you have a choice, because the hypnotist didn't lie.

07:03You do have free will.

07:06You can do anything you want at any moment.

07:10But you also know that of any two options, you want the one that's less painful.

07:16And in that moment, it would be more painful to stop the show, to say, this has been a wild ride, but I'm afraid, I'm outside of my comfort zone, I'm just going to head on down back to my seat.

07:34What's less painful is that you are Britney Spears.

07:39Every sexy bump and grind, touching your body in ways that you wouldn't even do alone in the bathroom. Everybody cheering, screaming.

07:54It's an ecstasy of improvisation that you have never experienced in your entire lives.

08:01Good God, the whole world stopped and shone a spotlight on you. It's calorie-free fame.

08:09There's no way you can lose.

08:13You'll be rewarded if your dancing is good.

08:16You'll be blameless if it's bad.

08:18The reliability of these reactions to fame and shame, that's what allows stage hypnotists to make a living doing this.

08:25Yes, hypnosis is a real phenomenon, but stage hypnosis is a different animal.

08:32Everybody on that stage were acting the way that they did for fame.

08:39The folks that stayed up there the longest did so out of fear that they would be eliminated and the shame that would come from that.

08:50Last season, we explained how common con man tactics were used to defeat Hitler of all people by the 20 committee.

08:58So this season, we'll do one better.

09:02The biggest scandal in television history, the downfall of the TV quiz show, 21.

09:1021 is so popular that a winning contestant is an instant celebrity.

09:17Overnight, they're a household name, and along with that comes money, money that you can use for yourself and your loved ones.

09:26But as it broadcasts, what tens of millions of viewers at home don't know is that most of the winners are in the process of making a deal with the devil.

09:38Each of them are crossing an ethical line that will eventually eradicate their reputation long after the fame and the money are gone, all in the service of producers who are playing a much more high stakes game.

09:52If you were told you were about to make more money in one night than you'd make in an entire year, that everyone in your block would hail you as a hero, that you could have a future in television, all you had to do was step in line and play along?

10:08All you had to do was cheat?

10:11What would you do?

10:13Don't say it out loud just yet.

10:16First, put yourself in a soundproof booth on live national television with 50 million people watching and answer this, how many points would you like to play for?

10:32Cons don't fool us because we're stupid.

10:36They fool us because we're human.

10:40And this might be the world's greatest con.

14:16Before we get to 21, we've got to talk about the show that it's desperately trying to take down.

14:39Yes, the $64,000 question.

14:41And now, the star of our show where knowledge is king and the reward king-sized, Hal March!

14:48All right, let's start here.

14:52Television is a kill-or-be-killed business.

14:55It's a business where you have to Everybody's got an idea and most people could pull it off if they're surrounded with the right talent.

15:01But even at its earliest moments, television is about getting those eyeballs, a connection to the viewer.

15:07There's no denying that in 1956, the viewer is connecting with the $64,000 question.

15:15It is the first major hit game show on TV.

15:20And yes, the game show format has been around since radio, but now you can actually see the contestants.

15:29You can see what they look like, how they fidgeted under the pressure or rocked it confidently straight through the answers.

15:35Also, remember where we are.

15:37This is the 1950s.

15:39Boys have come home from World War II.

15:43More of them came home from Korea.

15:46Prosperity is the name of the game.

15:48Everybody's home and they wanna make an empire for themselves.

15:52Cement is being poured on the suburbs that would go on to define American culture for the next 70 years and counting.

16:01And the game show embodies all of that.

16:03Average people who wanna make good, testing their own knowledge, winning big money, big prizes. Remember grandma's couch?

16:12One that had the plastic cover all over it?

16:18There was a day that couch was brand new.

16:20Let's go back to that day and let's sit on that couch and let's turn on the TV and watch the $64,000 question.

16:29Back for the third week, on our climb to the $64,000 question is our psychologist from New York City, whose category is boxing, Dr. Joyce Brothers. Dr. Joyce Brothers.

16:41Finally, what man, later famous in the boxing world, refereed the comeback attempt of an ex-champ against Jack Johnson at Reno, Nevada? Tex Rickert.

16:51You're right for $60,000. $60,000.

16:55Man, how 50s is this?

16:57First off, yes, that is the Dr. Joyce Brothers that you know and love.

17:04This is how she got famous.

17:05But one of the first big winners on $64,000 question is Catherine Kreitzer, in which she answers a series of questions about Bible verses.

17:14Here's what's important about Catherine.

17:16See, $64,000 question was kind of like who wants to be a millionaire?

17:21You have to answer a series of questions leading up to the big prize.

17:26And every win you get, you have a chance to walk away.

17:29Catherine hits that moment.

17:31She has a chance to be the first $64,000 winner by answering one question, but she doesn't.

17:36Given the opportunity to walk with $34,000 or risk everything, she takes the money.

17:45This is a really crucial part of the story and really of every con.

17:53Always value the money you have. It's your money.

17:56That's why you gotta be careful to not covet the money you don't yet have.

18:01$64,000 question is on CBS.

18:04Few clicks down the dial, NBC is getting covetous of those ratings.

18:09They try to buy the $64,000 question. They fail.

18:14They look to make their own. Enter Dan Enright.

18:19Dan Enright was born in 1917.

18:22Grew up in British Palestine in New York City.

18:31Enright was a revolutionary mind.

18:33And we're not just talking game shows.

18:36It's all kinds of audience participation shows.

18:39Shows where somebody from the audience tells an interesting story and boom, they're reunited with their long lost sister.

18:46Other ones where somebody is down on their luck and they get a new car.

18:51It's part produced, it's part improv.

18:52In 1947, Enright meets the man that would become his creative partner for the rest of his life.

18:58Stand-up comic, Jack Barry.

19:00Together, they pitch and produce TV game shows.

19:03Often ones that use Barry as the MC.

19:06In 1956, they come up with 21.

19:09The one questions are super easy.

19:12The 11 questions are often multiple parts and really, really hard.

19:16It's essentially like blackjack.

19:18And whoever hits 21 first wins.

19:20NBC likes it enough to shoot a practice round.

19:23Perfect, they're in the game.

19:25Oh yeah, 21, it has one major advantage over the $64,000 question.

19:31See, 64 is massive.

19:33And the contestants that make it far, they become huge stars.

19:39Old Bible quote in Catherine became a downright celebrity.

19:43But if you did the best you could on 64, it only lasted four weeks.

19:50All that hype for a month of ratings? Ooh, not 21.

19:5521 is set up so a winner could go on forever.

20:01Just keep winning and winning.

20:03Did you imagine the publicity? Imagine the attention? This is brilliant.

20:07Enright sets up the first test game and it sucks.

20:12It is super boring and here's why.

20:15According to Enright, either contestant could answer enough of the questions to make 21.

20:25One of the advantages of 64,000 is that the contestants got to pick one time that they're an expert in to answer increasingly difficult questions.

20:3421 changes the topic, every question.

20:37You have to find real savants, people who are super well-rounded about everything.

20:43What Enright may or may not know is that 64,000 also tries to make sure their contestants succeed.

20:51For example, to the home audience, the category is just opera.

20:55But the producers know that this guy is really an expert only in Italian opera.

21:01So all of his questions are only about Italian opera.

21:05No Russian opera, no French opera.

21:07So how are you going to get random people to push past a single round, let alone so many rounds they become huge stars?

21:17I mean, could she?

21:18Let's pause here to consider the ethics of what's about to happen.

21:26Yes, 21 is a TV show.

21:30Most TV shows are faked.

21:32Yes, $64,000 question is shaped to help contestants, but they don't get the questions beforehand.

21:39What Enright is considering is to give the questions, categories, and the answers to a contestant beforehand.

21:47I mean, what's the harm?

21:50Contestants get money, he gets ratings.

21:54Enright finds out real quick with his first big winner.

21:59He feels a little bit awkward coming out and asking a man to cheat.

22:04So Enright does something clever.

22:05He gives a pre-show quiz to the guy just to loosen his nerves a bit.

22:09It's only after he's in the booth on live television that the contestant realizes the practice questions that he already got are in reality the same questions being asked for keeps live on TV.

22:22But what do you do? It's money, right? Wrong.

22:26This contestant felt betrayed and made a fool of.

22:33He's worried about his reputation being branded as a cheater.

22:37He goes to Enright and demands to give the money back.

22:42Finally, Enright convinces him to keep it, just gracefully bow out.

22:46What do we say?

22:48You can't con an honest John.

22:50In another world, this would have been a wake-up call.

22:54In an alternate reality, Enright would realize from the reaction of the first winner that a man's reputation means a lot, more than thousands of dollars.

23:04Maybe the contestants shouldn't be treated just like props.

23:07Maybe we can make the questions easier or find another way.

23:12Nah, now we're rolling.

23:14Despite the contestant's moral panic, look, the plan worked.

23:18The only mistake is that he surprised the guy after the fact.

23:24He's gotta be up front.

23:26Enright needs somebody willing to take the money for nothing.

23:29Enright has to find a mark. Meet Herb Stemple.

23:32Herb's a studious guy who grew up in Depression-era New York.

23:38His father died at a young age.

23:46His mother moved the family to a poor area of the Bronx.

23:49And like most able-bodied young men, he enlisted, shipped off to Europe in the army.

23:54After getting back home from the war, he filtered through office posts in the army.

23:58Eventually ended up taking a job as a postal clerk in the Big Apple.

24:02That's where he got married, settled down, had a baby.

24:06And legitimately, Herb has an insane memory.

24:08As a kid, he did this radio quiz show.

24:11He remained undefeated for weeks.

24:13Picture Herb watching 21 and saying to himself, these questions are easy.

24:18He writes to the producer, Dan Enright, takes a sample quiz where according to Stemple, he gets 251 of the 363 questions exactly right.

24:29When Enright sees Stemple, he sees a story.

24:33A new father working his way through community college, a GI, this is America.

24:41Enright invites Stemple to come to his office for a meeting.

24:46Stemple can't do it because he has to babysit his kid.

24:52So Enright comes to him.

24:53There could be no surprises anymore.

24:55So Enright comes right out and says, would you like to make $25,000?

25:00Stemple is taken aback, but he knows the score.

25:04In my mind, he's thinking like, oof, 25 is a lot of money.

25:12Looks over at his kid playing with his toy trucks on the floor.

25:15You mean 25 and I don't even have to steal anything?

25:18Like if the owner of the bank was trying to give me money just to prove that rich people do business there.

25:24I mean, everybody wins, right?

25:25That's where Enright has him.

25:27We're gonna find out there's a lot more than money involved in a deal like this.

25:34And Stemple specifically is going to fight tooth and nail for it from the Bronx to the halls of Congress.

25:41But for now, it's a done deal.

25:4425K, I'll do what you say. That's my motto.

25:48This time, Enright has a partner.

25:52So he stage manages Stemple way more than the first guy.

26:00He gives him every point value he's gonna ask for, every question he's gonna get, every answer he's going to say right or wrong.

26:09He picks out a suit for Stemple to make him look frumpy and to wear the loudest watch he owns to heighten the tension.

26:16What do we say?

26:17All the effort into that first impression, the tableau.

26:22In the first four minutes of the program, Stemple wins $9,000, more money in a lump sum than he has ever seen in his entire life.

26:35Stemple's taking a big old fat bite of that forbidden fruit.

26:39He's all in on the belief that this is easy money and he is willing to bend the rules and conceal the truth from his friends, his family, the rest of the world.

26:51That $9,000, that's just the beginning.

26:53Stemple would eventually rack up nearly $70,000 in winnings, 1950s dollars.

26:58And he's got the chance to turn it into $100,000.

27:04I mean, sort of.

27:06See, Enright loves having a return winner and the press loves having a return winner.

27:16So Stemple becomes a minor New York celebrity, but there's one part of a returning champion that Enright needs to, let's say, make some adjustments for, the money.

27:28See, the sponsor of 21, Pharmaceuticals Inc.

27:31, and their product, Geritol, they furnish the show with a limited prize budget.

27:37If the total prize money for those 26 weeks is less than the money allotted, then it gets refunded to the sponsor.

27:46But if it's over that number, well, that comes out of Barry and Enright Productions.

27:51That means the show has to live within its means.

27:56And since Stemple was on his way to getting a big old fat paycheck, that payout simply wasn't feasible.

28:02And here is where the deal with the devil comes due first.

28:06Enright places in front of Stemple an agreement.

28:09It's retroactive to the very first appearance that Stemple made on 21, that night that he won $9,000.

28:18In plain language, it says, Stemple will agree to take less than his actual winnings on the show at the end of his journey.

28:30If he signs, he agrees to take $40,000 if he lands on anything between 60 and 80K, 50,000 on any earnings between 80 and 100K, and 60,000 on anything over 100K.

28:44Enright makes it very clear that he can either sign now or lose very badly and walk with less than the lowest amount offered.

28:56Flashback to that moment.

28:58Just a few weeks ago, Stemple's apartment, his son running around, Stemple let money trample his morals.

29:06Now even the money is being taken away.

29:09Stemple's obviously a bit blindsided.

29:12Enright tells him not to worry.

29:15Hey, Stemple, you're not just a postal clerk anymore.

29:20You're a TV star.

29:22And Enright just happens to be a TV producer.

29:24After Stemple's done on 21, he'll be a perfect fit for some other game show.

29:29Maybe even a panel show where he could simply just make money with his wit and intellect. Who's your boy?

29:35Who's Enright's good partner?

29:37Just sign the contract, Stemple. You smart.

29:40You say, oh, you're so smart, Stemple. You're the best.

29:45You'd be a TV star. Stemple signs.

29:48And from there, this point forward, absolutely nothing goes right for him.

29:55We're back in Enright's office.

29:58Stemple's there again, but this time it's a few weeks later.

30:09Stemple is the champion and his next show, he has his chance to cross the line of $100,000.

30:17But that's not gonna happen because Enright has to break some bad news to the kid.

30:24You gotta lose next week.

30:25This is where the ride ends.

30:28Hey, hold on, be cool. Who's your boy? Stempy.

30:31Stempy is not cool.

30:33He wants to know exactly who's going to replace him.

30:39Enright explains, ah, it's this elegant guy by the name of Charles Van Doren.

30:45He's an actor, a writer, and he's this professor at Columbia.

30:50I mean, he's from a famous intellectual family.

30:54You know what, enough about Charles Van Doren.

30:57The important thing, Stempy, is that you're gonna take a dive.

31:01Whoa, whoa, whoa, Stemp says.

31:03If Van Doren's from Columbia, Stemple is like from City College.

31:06What if they have a straight up game?

31:08I mean, don't just make me take a dive.

31:11We can play it fair, right?

31:13You can build it up like that.

31:15Rich kid versus poor kid.

31:16Now, that's good TV.

31:17Stemple is so desperate, he makes an offer.

31:20Stemple is willing to bet his entire earnings on a straight up, honest, legit game.

31:25Now, think about this.

31:26The whole reason he took the deal, the whole reason he was the perfect partner to Enright is because he was in it for the money. Boom, that's out. For what? One word, fame.

31:41Enright says, no, plan is the plan.

31:45The ratings have plateaued, and Stemple, it's time for new blood.

31:54Oh, and by the way, specifically, you're gonna lose on the question, which movie won best picture last year?

32:02You and I both know that the real answer's Marty, but you're gonna say, on the waterfront. This crushes Stemple.

32:09It's this one detail.

32:10It's this one honest fact that is going to live in his brain for decades.

32:17It'll eventually become a beast that consumes him.

32:21Not only does he have to take the dive, he has to humiliate himself in the process.

32:30But hey, who's walking away with $40,000 of negotiated winnings?

32:35Who's gonna maybe be on another one of our shows?

32:39Oh, did I mention who I called today?

32:43I was on the phone with Steve Allen. I'm just saying.

32:47This calms down Stemple.

32:49I mean, if nothing else, in this moment, he knows for a fact, at the very least, he is a legitimate TV star.

32:56Stemple, you have 15 points.

32:58The category is movies and movie stars.

33:01How many points do you wanna try for from one to 11? I'll try five.

33:06Which would give you 21 points, if you get this right, and you will be the winner again.

33:12What motion picture won the Academy Award for 1955?

33:15Later on, when Stemple talked about this moment, he would say he seriously thought full-on going rogue.

33:23Live, on TV, in that isolation booth.

33:26He could literally say whatever he wanted.

33:29The whole world was watching.

33:31When he was asked which movie won Best Picture, he really could just say Marty and win.

33:39He could retire with his winnings and walk off the set.

33:43By the way, that's another thing we should point out now that we're at the end of Stemple's run.

33:49Enright effectively controlled him in two ways when it came to the money.

33:53The first was the contract, where Enright convinced Stemple to take less money, pennies on the dollar, but the second was convincing him to keep playing.

34:01Much like sweet Bible quoting Catherine on $64,000 question, you could just take the money and go.

34:08The risk on the other side looks different when the producer is promising you the answers.

34:14I mean, until he decides to stop giving them to you.

34:19You always have the option to leave no matter what he says, and yet you feel like you don't want to leave.

34:26You feel like the path of least resistance is to just stay. I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember.

34:34You really want to take a guess at it?

34:37If not, I'll have to call it wrong, Herb. On the waterfront? No, I'm sorry.

34:43The answer is Marty.

34:45You lose five points, it puts you back down to 11.

34:49Better luck on the next round.

34:52How did that moment play for Enright up in the control room?

34:56Deep inside his head, what's going on?

34:58The Stemple experiment was a huge leap forward.

35:02The repeat winner idea was money in the bank.

35:05Ratings-wise, I mean, the problem with Stemple is he just couldn't break through to the next level, right?

35:13Oof, was he a bit of a handful. So neurotic, needy.

35:17Also that part where I promised him money and then a few weeks later took it away, that wasn't elegant.

35:23In this moment, Enright makes two decisions.

35:26Number one, his hands stay clean.

35:28From now on, all the rigging gets done by somebody whose name is not Enright.

35:32Number two, you pay the contestants up front.

35:35That way they can't complain when they don't get as much money as is on the board.

35:41The dollars are just points.

35:43And the new policy begins with that beautiful, intellectual, sexy mind of Charles Van Doren.

35:47He crushes Stemple and immediately becomes a supernova.

35:50Ratings go through the roof.

35:53The network is thrilled. How thrilled?

35:57After only 18 weeks on the air, they counter-programmed 21 directly opposite. I love Lucy.

36:05And they held their own.

36:08Here's a quote from CBS. Wah! Look. Sorry.

36:12So much of this is not because of Dan Enright's genius of feeding answers.

36:19It's because of that beautiful, sexy mind of Van Doren.

36:26He checks all of the boxes.

36:28Smart, good family, white, unmarried, white, artist, white. Also, he's white.

36:33Did you hear he didn't even own a TV before coming on 21? How adorable.

36:41But there is a downside.

36:43Because Van Doren is a legit academic, he does have a for-real reputation that he wants to uphold.

36:52I mean, apologies to Stemple and the post office, but the Van Doren family are tied to American institutions.

36:59The Pulitzer Prize and Columbia University.

37:01Ever heard of them?

37:03Young Charles is close to completing his PhD if he were revealed as a cheat. Why?

37:08Well, that simply cannot happen.

37:10As the spotlight grows hotter, Van Doren begins to have second thoughts.

37:15And unlike Stemple, he makes direct pleas to be allowed to leave the show.

37:21Enright says, nope, things are going way too well.

37:25In February of 1957, Van Doren is given the cover of Time Magazine.

37:32One month later, he finally gets his wish.

37:37He loses, I'm doing air quotes, you can't see him because it's a podcast.

37:44To a young female lawyer, and walks away with $129,000, over a million bucks in today's money.

37:50Bigger than that, he's given a contract by NBC that'll eventually see him make regular appearances on the Today Show.

37:59New champ, she gets $10,000 up front in the hopes that she can keep the momentum going.

38:06Ooh, damn, if you're Enright, things are going great.

38:09Show's not just stable, it's thriving.

38:12You just minted a bonafide cultural celebrity, now you gotta try again with a woman.

38:24That was progressive for the time, I assume.

38:27I mean, hell, maybe she could be another Dr. Joyce Brothers.

38:31Even better, looks like Van Doren came out ahead.

38:35Dude's getting marriage proposals a dozen a week.

38:37Looks like he's about to start a new TV career.

38:41This whole system is totally victimless.

38:42I mean, except for Stemple.

38:44God, he keeps calling.

38:45I mean, Enright keeps not answering, but Jesus, what does he want?

38:51Everybody knows him, he got $40,000.

38:55It's boring for TV, what, who said that?

38:58I mean, if he was good, he'd still be on the show, right?

39:02So here's the problem for Enright.

39:05No con is perfect.

39:06He got way ahead by risking the reputations of a veteran, a professor, and a lawyer so far, but the first to knowingly take the deal is feeling deep regrets.

39:18Stemple calls again and again.

39:20And then one day he shows straight up at Enright's office.

39:25Tells Enright he's broke.

39:28Even worse, he lent $8,000 to Stemple.

39:34$8,000 to a dude that lives in his building for a horse race fixing syndicate, and now this scary thug wants his money.

39:44So yeah, about that TV opportunity you were talking about.

39:47Oh no, there's still nothing for you.

39:50It's about now that Stemple begins to drop the bomb.

39:54Enright can make right on his promise or Stemple is going to go public.

40:02Says he's gonna go to the Justice Department.

40:04Stemple promises to snitch on everything.

40:07All right, hey Stempy baby, that can't happen.

40:10Enright explains to Stemple to calm down.

40:14First, you never got the answers in advance.

40:18Second, look, it's all gonna work out.

40:22Third, I think you need therapy.

40:24In fact, I'll be happy to pay for it.

40:27Here we go, one Dan Enright pays for therapy, blank check, there you go.

40:31Also, would you mind signing this piece of paper that says you never took the answers? Stemple signs.

40:36And that buys Enright a couple weeks.

40:38But in the meantime, Enright can't make good on his promises of TV work.

40:45So eventually Stemple cracks, calls a reporter about the whole situation.

40:50The reporter calls Enright, Enright calls Stemple.

40:53Fine, you win, you want your fame so bad?

40:57Booking you on a new quiz show, are you happy? No, he's not.

41:03He refuses, because now this isn't about fame, it's about pride.

41:07Stemple is gonna tell the truth and there's nothing Enright can do about it.

41:17And it's a noble gesture, but Stemple won't be a good messenger for long.

41:22Not only did he sign a letter saying he never took the answers, but Enright secretly recorded Stemple blackmailing him.

41:29So fine, Stemple, go to the press, go to the feds. Me, I'm untouchable.

41:33Untouchable like a big wig in a Hollywood movie.

41:40And funny enough, it's gonna be a Hollywood screenwriter who changes everything.

43:21Unlike most of our players, James Snodgrass knows this is bullshit.

43:26This is not how the biz should be operating.

43:32He knows that he is part of a conspiracy and he aims to come out smelling clean.

43:48So he pulls a trick, something that's known to copywriters around the world, that if you want to prove that you wrote the words before somebody else claims they did, send it to yourself, certified mail.

44:07And if you are ever challenged on when you knew these things you can present those sealed envelopes, open them in front of an audience, and prove that you were the true originator of the idea.

44:23For the three weeks that Snodgrass has the spotlight of 21 shown on him, he wants insurance.

44:31So he mails himself the answers that Dan Enright had provided him in certified mail and holds onto them, knowing that eventually they're gonna set him free. free.

44:44I don't know if Snodgrass is just inherently cocky, or maybe having those envelopes tucked in his back pocket helped gird his enthusiasm.

44:56But here's the difference.

44:59When Stemple thought about going rogue, considered ever so briefly the possibility that maybe he would just run wild, Snodgrass did.

45:09In Snodgrass's case, he's told, yeah, he'll take a dive, just like Stemple.

45:17And yeah, it's gonna be embarrassing, just like Stemple.

45:23But he's told that he's gonna misremember a line from one of his favorite poets, Emily Dickinson.

45:31Think about that moment, the exact same moment from two different perspectives.

45:37To Stemple's eyes, he gets told, you're gonna take a dive and it's gonna be about this question and this is the wrong answer you're gonna give.

45:52Snodgrass has the letters and no illusions about what this is.

45:58And Snodgrass interprets things very differently because he too is told when he's gonna take a dive and what answer he's gonna give.

46:07However, Snodgrass realizes that he now knows the definite right answer that he must not give.

46:16In the moments after his unexpected right answer, the producers run onto the set and they ask if Snodgrass is, hey man, are you feeling okay enough to compete? He says, yep. And they continue.

46:33But Snodgrass is in deep water now.

46:37He has no idea what the next questions are gonna be and he has to answer them fair and square.

46:44And this leads to a truly amazing moment.

46:46Here's host Jack Barry setting everything up in the rematch one week later.

46:51As you may recall, you each chose an 11 point question which asked for the five groups of bones in our spine.

46:58Now, Jim, your first answer was sacrum.

47:01Now, all I have here in front of me are these question cards and there are answers on there which are approved in advance of the program.

47:10Well, sacrum was not on the answer card so I had to rule you wrong.

47:14Then, Hank, you proceeded to name the five groups and you named as one of them coccyx.

47:19Well, my answer card did call for coccyx or coccygeal.

47:22So, I had to rule you right and you won an awful lot of money.

47:27Well, immediately after the program there were thousands of phone calls, hundreds from doctors and we found out that there was an inconsistency in the answers.

47:35We went through a great deal trying to find out how we should square this out with both of you in an effort to be fair in our decision and here's what we decided to do.

47:46We decided that you're both going to play the game over again at $3,500 a point right back where we were.

47:50But, Hank, NBC and our sponsors...

47:51Despite being furious at Snodgrass in the moment, Enright, he eventually comes around.

47:54I mean, this is a big draw. Lots of numbers.

47:57Snodgrass loses the rematch.

47:58In the short term, this whole going rogue stunt, yes, that turned out to be a win for the producer.

48:05The letters, though, that's our hidden snake in the grass just waiting for the perfect time to strike.

48:13Meanwhile, at this exact same moment, Stemple finally makes good on his threat and takes his story to the Southern District of New York's Justice Department.

48:23So far, this has been a story of people offering fame and people taking the devil's bargain.

48:32For the rest of the story, you've got to understand the power of shame.

48:44From an evolutionary perspective, shaming exile in a small band of a hundred villagers, that equals death.

48:52You know that image of the hands and the face being locked in while everybody throws fruit at them?

49:02The punishment is not the fruit.

49:05The punishment is the fact that the stocks are built to force the person inside to look at all the disapproval from their fellow villagers.

49:15Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about it in The Scarlet Letter.

49:18There are stories of people who committed crimes, and their one request is, please pull out my fingernails right now while nobody's looking, before the mob gets stirred.

49:31We are built in our core beings, our weird lizard brains, to associate shaming with death.

49:37All right, do me a favor.

49:39Think of the moment of your own personal biggest shame.

49:44A moment where you did something so embarrassing that you can't let go of it.

49:51When you did something that you knew that was going to stick with you for the rest of your life.

50:00The funny part is, I didn't even have to ask you to do that, because the moment I mentioned personal shame, you already went to work.

50:07You were already thinking of your personal lowest moment.

50:11Now imagine that the whole world knows about it.

50:14Everybody you know and love, and everybody they know and love, every single person on the planet knows it.

50:22I'm not doing this to be cruel.

50:26I'm about to reveal my deepest shame.

50:28Keep in mind, I'm a guy who will stick a nail in his eye, just to get you to clap.

50:36I built a career as a touring magician because I sought out every media opportunity I could get my hands on.

50:42If you had a TV show, local, national, a radio show, a morning program, an internet program, I wanted to be a part of it.

50:51And as a result, I did a lot of stuff, 99% of which I'm very proud of.

50:56Every appearance was just another clip, another scratch-off lottery ticket that might be the one that made me famous.

51:03Normally, I always do super polished material, but there was one time I had a goofy, one-off lark, an idea that I thought would be perfect just as a standalone bit on TV.

51:15It's a viral video, actually.

51:18And if you're like the rest of the world, you probably thought it was totally real.

51:23It's a grainy video where a magician, me, is about to slam his hand down onto a styrofoam cup with a knife hidden underneath.

51:31And for a split second, it really looks like the knife just goes right through my hand. The camera cuts.

51:49The next thing you see is my hand all bandaged, me with a sheepish grin saying, I said it as a joke to my friends over at the Tonight Show.

52:03And to my delight, they had me out to do it live on the show.

52:09And Asner said he was impressed.

52:13It's a flash forward a few years, and America's Got Talent is looking for magicians.

52:16Because I have this very, very simple one-note joke that I think is hilarious.

52:24Hell, if it's good enough for the Tonight Show, surely it's good enough for America's Got Talent.

52:31I send them the tape. They dig it.

52:34Drive up to Dallas with my wife and two kids.

52:38We get up there, spend an entire day in production.

52:41But when that moment comes and I walk out there, my seven-year-old daughter tears off a piece of her blankie and says, for luck, Daddy.

52:50I tuck it into my pocket.

52:52I mean, how easy is this going to be?

52:57The same trick that became a viral sensation, the same trick I did on the Tonight Show that Ed Asner called me, you fool with a smile.

53:10I'm just going to do it one more time.

53:14It didn't go well.

53:15Two of the four judges instantly thought I had actually injured myself live on stage.

53:20After buzzing, after cackling, I came back and realized that not only had the judges decided they didn't like being made the sucker, they were turning the audience against me.

53:35Even in that moment on stage, being booed by 2,000 people, I knew one thing.

53:43I wanted to bury this segment.

53:47Then the three-and-a-half-hour drive home and then the sitting there for three months being convinced that I had career cancer that was about to drop like a nuclear bomb, that I was going to be the sucker.

54:07If I had the chance to personally break into that place and destroy the tapes, I would have done it.

54:16That's the beginning of I would have done for fear of the shame that was coming.

54:23And then finally, the fateful night arrived.

54:25America's Got Talent in Dallas.

54:26Standing alone in my living room, I'm watching the show begin.

54:31And in the first four seconds, I am the first pop that they put in the coming up on this episode.

54:41My heart is pulsing and racing.

54:45I feel that tight band of ultimate anxiety.

54:48And I just think this is it. It's all over.

54:52And I watch through the first segment, the second segment, the third segment.

54:58And finally, we get to the fourth segment.

55:02This is the one where they round up all the joke acts, all the idiots who do everything wrong.

55:12And I'm not in it.

55:14I spent three and a half months agonizing about what I thought was going to be the end of my career for a moment that never showed up.

55:23And I dodged a bullet of shame.

55:28But for the people we're talking about in this story, they live with that shame for decades.

55:37It ultimately becomes the single line of their obituaries.

55:41It's 1957, and things are getting a bit hot in the game show world.

55:50There's whispers about talent grooming, meddling from title sponsors, out and out fraud starting to bubble up all through the press.

56:05Most of the stories, they never make it to print.

56:20The in-house attorneys at all of the press outlets, they're super scared of a libel suit from one of the newspapers.

56:27That's enough to kill the investigative reporting that initially goes into it.

56:31But in 1957, two national magazines both run articles compiling some of the allegations.

56:34Combine that with a prosecutor from the Justice Department who's calling for a grand jury investigation into industry-wide practices, and specifically, 21.

56:40NBC calls in Enright.

56:42Hey, man, what's going on?

56:44Enright says, oh, well, you know, he's never given any answers.

56:49And to prove that Stemple's a crank, he even plays for them the blackmail tape that he secretly recorded, shows them the signed note.

57:00That's good enough for the network.

57:04They ride with Enright, and that means there are some pretty powerful forces defending 21.

57:09In his book about the whole investigation, the prosecutor who impaneled the grand jury describes the pressure he was under.

57:15That pressure shows up in how many former members of the Justice Department who are now in private practices represent the interests of the network or Enright. Think about that.

57:28These are people who used to be the deciders of truth and fiction, and now they're working for one side or the other.

57:36He got overt hints that there might be a, you know, a future in politics for him.

57:43If you just let this one go.

57:47But the more Enright and the network stonewalled, the more this prosecutor pushes.

57:52And the whole time, Enright is thinking, dude, what's the crime here?

57:55The sponsor isn't complaining about theft or fraud.

57:57Network is getting what they paid for.

58:00The contestants, the contestants.

58:02Well, I mean, yes, technically, they're misrepresenting themselves on national television. Sure.

58:09But they're doing it because I'm telling them to.

58:13But you know what?

58:14From that first moment I walked into Stimple's dumb apartment, I was up front about what we were doing and what they were getting themselves into.

58:24I mean, they're actors, right?

58:25They're actors in a story I'm writing.

58:28I'm pretty much Shakespeare. And he's right.

58:29They are actors to him, but they are not actors by reputation.

58:33They're friends, they're family, they're business associates.

58:37They don't know them as actors.

58:40The pride that comes from the show is a lie.

58:47The act is a deception.

58:51This show is a con.

58:54But like so many people who have been conned, the shame of admitting it becomes a prison, a very cozy prison that people are willing to stay locked in forever.

59:06And at this moment, the prosecutors begin to interview former contestants, members of Enright's production staff, almost to a man, a lie.

59:19They say nobody gave any answers to anybody.

59:22The prosecutors say, look, man, you can lie to me now, but if you're called back for a grand jury and you're put under oath, that's perjury.

59:34That's a real crime.

59:37The grand jury is impaneled.

59:39The same witnesses who were just interviewed.

59:43called and again, almost to a man, they all lie again, all to protect their own reputations.

59:48That is the power of shame.

59:51Meanwhile, Enright goes full offense.

59:53He releases the Stemple tape publicly to combat press reports of what's coming out of the grand Enright is actively punishing the defector by ruining his reputation.

60:07And yes, this is a rough road for Enright.

60:14But at this moment, I mean, the most beloved champions are saying they're clean.

60:21The only guy who says it's rigged is on tape blackmailing the boss for another bite of TV fame.

60:30The network wants to believe them.

60:33They're putting all the a hold of the Snodgrass letters. The smoking gun.

60:37Word starts to get around to all of the ex-contestants. Guess what?

60:41The jig is up.

60:42Enright's assistant, the one who took over all the direct coaching after Stemple, he's indicted on two counts of perjury.

60:54Several of the contestants come back and tell the truth, hoping they'll get a reduced punishment.

61:02But mostly they're worried about one thing.

61:04When the grand jury minutes become public, are their names going to be in it?

61:09Are they going to be shunned?

61:11Will they be publicly shamed?

61:12Prosecutors say your names are going to be left out of this.

61:17All they want is the people that pulled this off.

61:21And yet Enright never submits to testimony.

61:24He never lies under oath.

61:26After nine months, the grand jury concludes.

61:2959 sessions, 200 plus witnesses.

61:32Out of all of them, only 50 told the truth.

61:34Now comes the best news for Enright.

61:36Against all precedent in these matters, the judge overseeing the grand jury seals the results.

61:44In his eyes, there's no crime committed.

61:47Therefore, no need to drag the names of all these fine people all through the press. That's it.

61:58That was Stemple's best shot.

62:00You went through the press, you got nothing.

62:03You went through the law, your results got buried in the front yard.

62:07Come at me, bro. I'm Dan Enright.

62:09At this point, there's only one organization left that can do a damn thing about it.

62:17The United States Congress.

62:18And that's exactly what happens.

62:20In 1959, television star and famous intellectual Charles Van Doren gets his doctorate.

62:25And yet only months later, he's on the run, avoiding phone calls from his lawyer.

62:31He's avoiding phone calls from his bosses, and he's avoiding the highest legislative body in the United States.

62:46This is the cost of shame.

62:49Congress opened an investigation into the fixing of television shows, and with it came the unsealed minutes of the grand jury investigation.

62:57Gone were the promises from the investigators that the names of the contestants would be protected.

63:04Once Stemple is called before Congress, he relishes in telling the truth.

63:09He narrates to the congressman beat by beat every move he made.

63:13There's a projection of a recording of one of his appearances.

63:17He points out where Enright told him to dot his brow for sweat, but never smear the makeup.

63:24Like a peak Las Vegas mentalist, Snodgrass opens on live television, one of his famous sealed envelopes, and reveals what's inside.

63:32And yet still, Van Doren remains elusive.

63:35He puts out a new statement, sticking to his original statement.

63:39He never received any answers.

63:41Congress has to issue a subpoena in order to get him to appear, but they can't locate him.

63:50Grand jury investigators would eventually say that Van Doren was, in part, so terrified of coming clean because he believed it would kill, literally kill, his father.

64:02I mean, it would certainly kill his career. Hell, careers, plural.

64:06Quite simply, he could not bring himself to face the repercussions that this shame was going to bring to his door.

64:13And yet, eventually, he comes clean.

64:16First to the investigators that he lied to, then to his attorney, then to his bosses, and finally, to all of America.

64:25He appears before Congress and tells the world that he's a fraud.

64:32In the Senate hearing room, the dramatic climax of the probe of fixed and rigged quiz shows Charles Van Doren's wife and father, poet Mark Van Doren, are in the audience.

64:47As committee chairman, Senator Orrin Harris opens the hearing.

64:52Charles Van Doren arrives to apologize and attempt to explain to the millions whose friendship and respect he had won.

65:00He admits that he received dramatic coaching and the questions and many of the answers, but his statement is a rueful and moving realization that for his wealth and fame, he paid a bitterly high price.

65:11He took the easy path, and he took the money, and he took everything that came with it.

65:17He's immediately fired from NBC.

65:19He's immediately fired from Columbia.

65:20He's indicted for lying to a grand jury, along with all the other big winners.

65:26Van Doren never appeared as a regular on TV again.

65:29He worked in West Coast academics for the Encyclopedia Britannica company, but never again as a beloved public figure.

65:37The New York Times obituary for Charles Van Doren, written in 2019, features this headline.

65:43Charles Van Doren, a quiz show whiz who wasn't, dies at 93. That's it.

65:49That's his whole reputation.

65:51That's all you get.

65:53You get to be the guy who was a faker on TV.

65:59Compare that to this obituary headline.

66:02Dr. Joyce Brothers, on-air psychologist who made TV house calls, dies at 85.

66:10Brothers also appeared at those hearings.

66:13She denied getting any answers, and her producers vouched for her.

66:16She got out clean and lived the dream.

66:19Van Doren lived with his shame for the rest of his life, for that one fateful decision, the one that would cap his career potential forever.

66:33Never indicted for anything at all is Dan Enright. Yeah, he's humiliated.

66:38Well, one of his own theses is proven right by this thing.

66:44Just after he's removed from day-to-day production on 21, now the Enright's not there with his cheating team and money machine?

66:57In the four weeks they went without the Dan Enright engine, 21 hemorrhaged $60,000 in prize money, way over the budget from Geritol.

67:10I mean, maybe you're thinking, oh, at least Barry and Enright Productions has to write a big old check, filter some of that money back out, right? Wrong.

67:18While Van Doren was on his epic winning streak, NBC bought Barry and Enright to make sure that 21 couldn't switch networks over to CBS.

67:30That was a $2 million deal, 1950s money.

67:32And then Enright gets a golden parachute to make himself scarce from NBC when everything goes bad.

67:38Flash forward a few decades.

67:40Enright is in Canada, eating weird bacon and drinking Molson ice.

67:44The only gig he can land is with Screen Gems Canada.

67:48This is the only American TV company that dared to base themselves in the minor leagues of Canadian television.

68:04During nights with the producers, this is at the bar after a shoot day, Enright spins tales of the story of 21.

68:20In his version, he's the fall guy.

68:22Everybody knew what was going on.

68:24The network knew, the sponsors knew, everyone.

68:27But he could never wrap his mind around why Stemple got so mad.

68:31What was so wrong about making money and being famous?

68:35And yet the answer was all around him.

68:38Why was a talented producer like Enright in Toronto and not Los Angeles or New York?

68:45Why was a man who used to make shows that would be watched by tens of millions of people and give away hundreds of thousands of dollars, making shows to be watched by a fraction of those people? Reputation.

69:01Believe Enright or not, the result of his shame is his exile to Canada, far away from the movers and shakers of real TV. Sorry, Canada. And yet, eventually...

69:11Enright gets another hit right here in America.

69:15He even brought Jack Barry back with him.

69:19And he eventually reestablishes Barry and Enright right in Los Angeles.

69:25The shame storm passed.

69:26I mean, yeah, talk to some friends at bars and maybe they wrote some of it down after his passing.

69:52But Enright never put his own words in a book.

69:57He did come close to doing it in dramatic fashion, too.

70:03In the early 90s, Enright gets word that a script about his scandal is getting traction in Hollywood.

70:10It's eventually going to become 1994's quiz show.

70:12And Enright is definitely the villain.

70:14Seeing it coming, I have to imagine that Dan Enright saw his own career cancer bomb coming.

70:20And just like me, he has that same thought of how do I blunt this edge?

70:26In my case, I did nothing.

70:29But Enright puts out a press release saying that he's making his own and it's going to be the real story.

70:37Movie never gets made.

70:39Dan Enright dies in 1992 before he ever had to sit through watching quiz show.

70:44Enright did his job.

70:46He got the ratings.

70:47But the path he took, the permanent damage he inflicted on the lives of every contestant, the shaming he himself engaged in to protect it.

70:57All of this might well be the world's greatest con.

71:01This episode of World's Greatest Con was written by Justin Robert Young and me, Brian Brushwood, your humble host.

71:15Production and research by Dog & Pony Show Audio in Austin, Texas.

71:21Credit to Primetime and Misdemeanors by Joseph Stone and Tim Yeoman.

71:30As well as television fraud, the history and implication of the quiz show scandals by Kent Anderson, which along with contemporary news articles, retrospectives and archive video made for the bulk of our research.

71:57Additional research by Rachel Oppenheimer.

71:59Of course, you guys have questions and we want to answer all of them at the end of the season.

72:08So get yours in by hitting us up at worldsgreatestcon at gmail. com.

72:13So we just heard a story about a TV game show.

72:18We found out that beneath that family-friendly veneer, there's a very cutthroat world in which some very colorful, we'll say, characters are attracted.

72:24I'm here to tell you that the story of 21 isn't an outlier.

72:30In fact, we're going to spend this whole season hanging around six different stories.

72:34We get to see the man screwing over the little guy, the little guy sticking one to the man, truly awful people competing honestly, the honest ones ruining their lives for the sake of greed.

72:48We're going to see federal agents burst through a door and find a hardened criminal shivering on top of a bathroom stall, a room of professionals wondering if a clever hoodlum just bankrupted their whole company.

73:01And we'll see a mysterious extraction so brazen that people still in the industry are left convinced they've been made fools of in front of the entire nation by a single bitter ex-employee.

73:13These are shows you've heard of, stories about super password, who wants to be a millionaire, the price is right.

73:22Game shows are an irresistible lure for anybody whose ears perk up when the idea of free money quick is brought up.

73:32Suckers and con men both.

73:34You probably know that the story you just heard is dramatized in the 1994 movie Quiz Show.

73:41It was a bit of a sensation back then, got nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

73:48And during all of that buzz, that led to one morning show appearance where they were looking for similar stories of similar game show dramas.

73:58And while it isn't the famous quiz show scandal that's playing in theaters, it is a story worthy of the big screen.

74:06And I determined that there was some sort of pattern, not easily.

74:11It took six months for me to actually work out all the patterns.

74:17But I went in and shoot the moon, so to speak.

74:21I decided that I would go for under thousand. That's Michael Larson.

74:24We just heard the story of a powerful producer fleecing good people.

74:28Next week, we're going to hear about the exact opposite, a devious mind whose thirst for those angles that would give him quick cash knew no bounds through ingenuity, deception and good old.

74:39practice, he's gonna rack up so much money on a TV game show that some people in the control room worry that he's about to bankrupt the network.

74:51That's next time on World's Greatest Con.

74:53Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this broker.

74:56Dog and Pony Show Audio you