Charles Van Doren

Charles Van Doren recently wrote a piece for the New Yorker about his infamous rigged appearance on the game show Twenty-One, where both he and the reigning champion Herb Stempel had been coached as to who would win, what the questions would be and how they should act to create tension. (I guess everything, no matter how scandalous, will eventually be the focus of a nostalgic New Yorker piece.) Here, then, is Van Doren against Stempel on Twenty-One, where, as instructed, he hems and haws and answers questions at the last moment.