Herbert Stampel, whistle blower in quiz show scandals, dies at 93 – Variety
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Herbert Stampel, a contestant on NBC’s “Twenty-First” who helped show a case of fraud on a 1950s quiz show, died in April at the age of three.
The New York Times reports that his death was not announced publicly, but was confirmed by his ex-girlfriend, Bobra Fayne. Stampel was portrayed by John Tarturo in the 1994 play “Quiz Show,” directed by Robert Redford.
Stampel was born on 19 December 1926 in the Bronx, the son of Solomon and Mary Stampel. He was a gifted student with a brilliant memory. As a child, he was a P.S. 6 “Americana Quiz” on radio shows and remained undefeated for several weeks. He studied at the Bronx High School of Science and scored at the Genius level in IQ. Test. Stampel worked at the post office, served in the U.S. Army from 1946 to 1952, and was admitted to City College under the GI. Bill.
There were also fans of the Stampel Quiz Show’s “V. $ 4,000 Question,” “Tic Tac Toe” and “Twenty-First.” He wrote “Twenty-first”, took an exam and was invited to the show in 1956.
Stampel was provided with coaching about answers and directions on how to answer, and won nearly 50,000 50,000 in five weekly appearances on “Twenty-First.” Producer Dan Enright then chose Charles Van Doren, a professor of English instructors at Columbia University, to replace the show’s stamp. To answer the question of which film won the Academy Award in 1955, Stampel deliberately lost with the wrong answer, saying that it was “Waterfront” instead of “Marty”.
The promise to find another panel show slot for Ntite’s Stampel remained unfulfilled. Staples then called several reporters to say that the “twenty-first” had been rigged, and Enrat insisted that Stampel had lost. The scandal was published in 1956, when Albert Friedman, the “twenty-first” producer who trained Van Doren, was accused of lying. Van Doren was later convicted of second-degree false charges.
Following the scandal, Stampel became a high school social studies teacher in New York and later worked in the New York City Department of Transportation. He assisted in a 1992 documentary about the scandal of the PBS series “American Experience” and was a paid consultant for the “Quiz Show”, he also played Ralph Fines in the role of Van Doren. Stampel made a cameo appearance on the “quiz show,” featuring a different contestant interviewed by a congressional investigator, Rob Moro.
