Here's another episode of Twenty One, a rigged game show from the fifties. This is the episode in which the producers decided the time had come to get rid of their longtime champ, Herbert Stempel. He was deemed unappealing and "too New York" (i.e., Jewish) and they wanted to have him knocked off by this new guy, Charles Van Doren, and then have Van Doren go on to become an even bigger champion. Stempel was ordered to throw the question, "What motion picture won the Academy Award for 1955?" Stempel knew it was Marty but was forced to give a wrong answer and go bye-bye. You can see this occur about ten minutes into the show.
He later got mad over the whole thing, especially when the producers didn't make good on some promises of other work he believed they'd made to him. He wound up testifying against the show, revealing its backstage shenanigans, and that had a lot to do with bringing the whole thing crashing down. Some say a key motive was that he was jealous of what a huge hero and winner Van Doren became in the months following and felt all that should have been his. Van Doren confessed later in front of a Congressional subcommittee and was convicted of perjury for earlier testimony. He largely kept silent thereafter until just a few years ago when he wrote this article on what really transpired.
Anyway, you can see Herb Stempel take a dive and Charles Van Doren begin his winning streak in this episode brought to you once again by Geritol — a tonic that is still made and marketed, though with less grandiose claims than its makers made for it back when this show was done…
