Final Jeopardy: Stars of the 20th Century (9-26-24)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (9/26/2024) in the category “Stars of the 20th Century” was:
A 1927 N.Y. Times headline: “Witness Testifies” this woman “rewrote play and insisted on the spicy scenes because city liked them”
3x champ David Erb, a puzzle designer from Seattle, WA, is up to $90,754 so far. He can go over the $100K mark in Game 4 if he can defeat these opponents: Alex Michev, an attorney from Richmond, VA; and Maddie Carwile, healthcare program coordinator from New York, NY.
Round 1 Categories: William & Mary – That’s on Brand – National Symbols – Album Collection – The Group of 7 – Go Fish
Maddie found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “William & Mary” under the $400 on the 10th pick of the round. She was in the lead with $1,600. David and Alex both had $1,000. Maddie bet $1,200 and she was RIGHT.
On Feb. 8, 1693 the monarchs signed a document creating an institution named for them in this far-off colony show
Alex finished in the lead with $6,400. Maddie was second with $5,200 and David was last with $2,000. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Classic Novels – Tree People? – Great Landform – Psychology – Famous Fathers-in-Law – Begins & Ends With…
David found the first Daily Double in “Great Landform” under the $1,200 clue on the 2nd pick of the round. He was in third place with $2,000, $4,400 less than Alex’s lead. David made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
Some of these landforms at a national park named for them are called “windows” for the way they frame scenic views show
Maddie found the last Daily Double in “Psychology” under the $800 clue on the 17th pick of the round. She was in second place with $10,000, $1,600 less than Alex’s lead. Maddie bet $2,500 and tried succession theory. It was worth a try but it was WRONG.
David Levy popularized this 2-word term that came in handy for analyzing the Roy family’s dynamic on TV show
Alex finished in the lead with $16,000. Maddie was second with $13,900 and David was last with $4,400. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS MAE WEST?
The first sentence of the 3/31/1927 NYT headline actually ends with a period after “Insisted on the Spicy Scenes.” Even so, the “BECAUSE CITY LIKED THEM” part still seems to refer to the spicy scenes. The witness was a clothier named Harry Cohen who contributed $4,000 (about $72,000 today) to produce Mae West’s play “Sex” (1926). After some 339 performances, the entire cast, its author and the producers were arrested and convicted on charges of giving an immoral performance. 19 cast members were given suspended sentences. For refusing to shut the play down, West and 2 of the producers (Timony and Morganstern) were sentenced to jail for 10 days. Presumably, Harry Cohen was let off the hook for his testimony.
An article on handoutzine.com has a lot more on censorship in 1927, starting off with some of Mae West’s plays, including this one. They have graphics, including a picture of Mae West being hauled off in a paddy wagon (aka the Black Maria). The advertisement for West’s play describes it as “the story of a bad little girl who was good to the Navy.”
David thought it was Dorothy Parker. He lost $123 and finished with $4,277.
Maddie went with Virginia Woolf. That cost her $2,200 and left her with $11,700.
Alex had Gertrude Stein. He bet $12,000 and dropped down to $4,000. That made Maddie Carwile the new Jeopardy champ.
A triple stumper from each round. (Please don’t put the answers in the comments)
CLASSIC NOVELS ($2000) In this Gogol novel a scheming Pavel Chichikov seeks to buy from landowners names of their deceased serfs
FAMOUS FATHERS-IN-LAW ($1600) In 1953 Anthony Quinn won an Oscar for “Viva Zapata!” & this father-in-law won” for producing “The Greatest Show on Earth
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “INNOVATIONS”
Seen by a worldwide audience in 1970, black pentagons were added to these to help viewers follow them better on TV show
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A tough final as we got another triple stumper this week..
Two very strong challengers kept the tough champ at bay. Maddie wagered brilliantly. I wish more second-placers would do that. Alex had little choice other than to bet $12K. Greta Garbo was all I could muster.
Never saw the Roy family show, but figured out the 2-word dynamic from having read of their internecine struggles. Surprised she didn’t get it; the younger players seem to know all the cable shows I’ve barely heard of at best.
Knew Quinn’s FIL/director; & the multi-language anthem.
Way back in the day, my alma mater would play “Bill & Mary” in football and obliterate them. Second American college, I believe, after Hahvid.
Smart FJ wager by David. He knew Alex more or less had to bet $11801+ and get it wrong, and had to hope Maddie also bet large and missed FJ. As it played out, Maddie’s sage wager kept David from a 4th win since they all missed Final.
Another great game indeed, but David unfortunately wasn’t at his best tonight. As for FJ, one of us went for Mae West, but I settled for Greta Garbo.
I said (and said again and again) Clara Bow, the “It” girl.
Only the first half of the first round was cut off for me. It cut introducing Maddie, and returned with Maddie giving her diving story.
It looked like David gave half answers, making him his own worst enemy.
Knowing who the “It Girl” was when I was a teen in 1967 won me the “Jeopardy!” home game from Don Pardo as an audience member. I still have it!
Tonight’s game was partly preempted in most U.S. markets due to coverage of Hurricane Helene flooding in Florida.
Imo, those were all good guesses on the players’ part. The word Stars in the category didn’t necessarily point to an actress, yet Ken said “the actress here who spent 8 days in jail…was Mae West.
I didn’t know Mae West wrote plays or that she also wrote screenplays.
P.S. West got 2 days off of her 10-day sentence for good behavior.
We were so close to having a 4 day champion in David because he made a small bet to stay above Alex if he covers Maddie and that would have worked out in David’s advantage but Maddie went for a small small wager to keep David locked out and she won in a tough final. Maybe next time we’ll try to find another TOC qualifier.