Here are the first two sentences of Charles Van Doren’s biography in Wikipedia:
Charles Lincoln Van Doren (February 12, 1926 – April 9, 2019), was an American writer and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he testified before the United States Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One.
After the third sentence describing his subsequent career as a writer of multiple books and an editor for the “Encyclopedia Britannica,” the fourth sentence under the heading of Background reads:
Charles Van Doren was born in New York City, the elder son of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, critic and professor Mark Van Doren and novelist Dorothy Van Doren (née Graffe), and a nephew of critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Carl Van Doren.
Let us now note the obituaries upon his death, a mere three of countless headlines telling the same one-line tale:
Headline, ABC 7, New York:
Charles Van Doren, figure in game show scandals, dies
New York Times:
Charles Van Doren, a Quiz Show Whiz Who Wasn’t, Dies at 93
The Hollywood Reporter:
Charles Van Doren, Disgraced TV Quiz Show Champion, Dies at 93
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Charles Van Doren had a long—and by any conventional measure—distinguished career, first as a literature teacher, later as a writer and editor and teacher again who authored or co-authored 11 books (many of them multi-volume works) on topics ranging from Shakespeare, black history, a Union Army general, the history of knowledge, and the joys and benefits of reading books.
He was, in the parlance of the times when it really meant something, a “public intellectual.”
But two weights hung around the neck of his life and, tragically, defined his identity till the very end of his days.
By far the heaviest one was the scandal referenced above, when he rode to riches, glory and the cover of “Time” magazine by actively participating in a fraudulent scheme that fed him answers to the wildly popular “Twenty-One” television quiz show, which ran on NBC from 1956-58.
Which begets the question of the narrative arc of every person’s life, and what it will be judged by. Few people could survive a spotlight shining only on their worst moments, months, or even years.
Handsome and bright-eyed with a B.A. in liberal arts from St. John’s College and both an M.A. in astrophysics and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia, he was hailed (and pursued by thousands of females) as an amiable, telegenic genius for his seemingly encyclopedic knowledge that appeared to encompass the entire world.
He was also the perfect “next act” for the reigning champ he deposed—Herb Stempel, an eccentric working class Jew from Queens who had ridden an “everyman” image to his own great success until ratings plateaued and he was forced out.
That’s when the morally bankrupt producers found just the additional dollar signs they were hoping for in the quintessentially WASPish Van Doren.
The second weight was that of his heritage.
As if a successful novelist mother and prize-winning biographer uncle weren’t daunting enough, Charles’s father Mark was a poet, professor, critic and editor of tremendous gravitas and renown, a combination farmer-turned- Connecticut Yankee blueblood and reigning intellectual giant of his age. Mark Van Doren truly was a genius, was proud his son was seemingly following in his footsteps, but knew next to nothing (and cared even less) about Charles’s exploits in this strange new world of television stardom.
Apprised of his son’s “accomplishments” in this alternate, often low-brow universe, he doesn’t quite know what to think—until all the dark stain of the exceedingly public scandal engulfing his suddenly wayward son throws everything the family had stood for into turmoil.
Charles, however, as evidenced from the obituary headlines above, bore the brunt of the damage.
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I came back around to “Quiz Show,” the movie account of the scandal, the other night in homage to its director Robert Redford, who died on Thursday at age 89. It did not disappoint.
Gazing at Redford’s filmography, I immediately remembered “Quiz Show” as a taut and smart semi-thriller, holding me spellbound back in 1994, just as “Twenty-One,” the late ’50s weekly telecast it depicted, had done for an avid American television-watching public at the time.
The film is rife with themes of duplicity, betrayal, corruption, the wages of sin, and the shadow under which children of famous parents have to make their way in the world. It is also largely true to actual events and characters, though Redford, like all directors of historical or biopics, took some artistic license for dramatic purposes.
British actor Ralph Fiennes embodies Charles Van Doren as part impossibly informed intellectual and part matinee idol. Just under his bright countenance, Fiennes, in the tradition of all great actors, allows us to see the steady gnawing at Van Doren’s conscience and the fear in his heart as a tipped-off congressional investigator begins snooping around for the real story behind his raging game show success. (Redford had dispensed with the character of the Manhattan District Attorney who had previously initiated a criminal investigation following media reports of possible chicanery in the quiz show world; the artistically driven decision engendered some criticism amidst the vast preponderance of audience and critical raves the film earned.)
Van Doren fits most every criteria of a tragic hero, groomed for greatness and privileged beyond imagination. Almost haplessly, due to one fatal or a half-dozen minor flaws that add up to fatal, he finds himself descending into a tawdry scheme from which he convinces himself he can keep his distance.
Besides, the game show is a trifle, a sideshow, padding his bank account and social cache but far removed from the real work of his life in books and ideas and intellectual bonhomie. Or so he hoped.
Then, the sideshow takes a beastly turn, and increasingly, he resembles a hunted man on the lam rather than the good man he largely is. As his denialist house of cards folds in on him, he finally comes around to seeking release in a good cathartic confession.
Alas, it comes too late to sufficiently clean his slate.
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“Quiz Show” is a morality tale with no clear winners or losers besides the losses Charles suffered himself. His father, played to perfection by the classical actor Paul Scofield, survives with his own formidable reputation intact, but Scofield shows us the benumbing shock and confusion he had to feel.
Some historians cite the event as one plank in the American public’s gradual loss of innocence and self-identity as a moral beacon carrying the cause of truth, freedom and righteousness to all the world.
These nearly 70 years later, the notion of the public holding to account the lies and duplicity of politicians, big business and the partisan mediasphere seems almost quaint. Did this particular scandal help give us an initial shove onto the rocks of our current, seemingly intractable jadedness?
Perhaps.
What we do know is that despite the debacle of his fall from grace with “Twenty-One,” Van Doren went on to lead a productive and public life fully in accord with his basic orientation as an intellectually inclined seeker of knowledge and wisdom. One who spent his long second act living out the best parts of himself, but who could never escape, in one-line summations upon his death 60 years after the fact, that he was a “figure in game show scandals,” a “whiz who wasn’t,” and “disgraced.”
Which begets the question of the narrative arc of every person’s life, and what it will be judged by. Few people could survive a spotlight shining only on their worst moments, months, or even years. Life puts too many tripwires in front of us to fully escape the sirens of anger, lust, greed, envy and plain irrationality that always lie in wait for the human heart to stumble past.
At his Columbia graduating class’s 40th reunion, Van Doren offered some prepared remarks that made a case for his own redemption, to be sure, but also more broadly for the redemption of anyone who has fallen and gotten back up and on with the core business of their life:
“Some of you read with me forty years ago a portion of Aristotle‘s Ethics, a selection of passages that describe his idea of happiness. You may not remember too well. I remember better, because, despite the abrupt caesura in my academic career that occurred in 1959, I have gone on teaching the humanities almost continually to students of all kinds and ages. In case you don’t remember, then, I remind you that according to Aristotle happiness is not a feeling or sensation but instead is the quality of a whole life. The emphasis is on ‘whole,’ a life from beginning to end. Especially the end. The last part, the part you’re now approaching, was for Aristotle the most important for happiness. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”
From all we can observe, Van Doren found the equanimity he was referring to in those words, even to the point of generally approving but neither participating in nor taking an offered $100,000 payment for Redford’s “Quiz Show,” writing in a kind of confessional for “The New Yorker” magazine in 2008:
“Of course, I eventually saw the movie. I understand that movies need to compress and conflate, but what bothered me most was the epilogue stating that I never taught again. I didn’t stop teaching, although it was a long time before I taught again in a college. I did enjoy John Turturro’s version of Stempel. And I couldn’t help but laugh when Stempel referred to me in the film as ‘Charles Van Fucking Moron.’”
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“You’re a fraud, and you know itBut it’s too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the same…”
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Great reminder to view this film again, especially in the context of our current state of affairs where fraud, lying, duplicity, and all things wretched are no longer accompanied by shame and remorse. I am certain that viewing it now will serve to reinforce just how far we have fallen. Of course the anti-intellectual forces of our current administration would no doubt proclaim that all so-called intellectual elites are fraught with fraud and deception, not to mention television networks with the audacity to glorify them before national audiences.
I thoroughly enjoyed Quiz Show. Here’s a little quiz show of my own. (No Googling allowed, that’s cheating or Van Dorening.)
1) What actor portrayed the young Congressional lawyer investigating Twenty-One?
2) What hit TV show did this actor star in (his big break)?
3) What was the theme song to this hit TV series and who sang/wrote it?
4) What sex symbol Van Doren (no relation) dated Bo Belinsky, playboy Angel pitcher who once threw a no-hitter but for the remainder of his career stunk?
Redford’s less-known film the Conspirator is worth a watch. Plot: The trial of Mary Surratt, one of the accused conspirators in Lincoln’s assassination.
Trump acknowledges Scott Baio as a fine actor and great American. Nary a word about Redford or I’m not aware of any. Then, again, he called Meryl Streep not a good actress. On a similar note, Trump called General Jim Mattis, Secretary of Defense (not War) a poor general. Mattis countered with I’m the Meryl Streep of generals.
If you’re stuck on the quiz, Googling will be permitted! I won’t tell!
Excuse me. Amending question 3: Sang and wrote the song in this popular TV series’ final show.
Excellent, Drew. 3 out of 4. Song ending Northern Exposure was Iris Dement’s “Our Town”
Jay, I remembered it as really good end to end, but you know how things go sometimes: you come back to a film years or decades later and you’re a little embarrassed at your youthful lack of taste and good sense. Not this time! Give it a look—I barely scratched the surface here of all the meaty issues screenwriter Paul Attanasio and Redford set in motion.
Robert, I’ll give it a whirl:
Thanks for the tip on “Conspirator.” Will toss it on the list!
I missed this the first time around but it’s a banger! Great filmmaking, thanks for bringing it to my attention.