Final Jeopardy: American Literature (7-11-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/11/2014), in the category “American Literature” was:
Published in 1925, it still sells 500,000 copies a year & was on the bestseller lists in 2013.
New champ Jen Fiero won $17,600 in yesterday’s game. On the last day of the week, she’s up against these two players: Sandy Carroll, from Avoca, IA; and Andrew Harris, from New York, NY.
Round 1: Andrew found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “A Bookish Category” under the $800 clue, the 4th clue chosen in the round. He was in the lead with $400, $200 ahead of Jen in second place. He bet the $1,000 allowance and thought it was Stephen King. That was WRONG.
In 1974 he sued & stopped the sale of a book of his “Complete Uncollected Short Stories”. show
Andrew finished in the lead with $5,400. Jen was second with $4,400 and Sandy was last with $1,600.
Round 2: Andrew found the first Daily Double in “Works of Art” under the $1,600 clue. He was in the lead with $7,400, $3,000 more than Jen in second place. He bet $2,500 and he was RIGHT.
Klimt’s last major project was a set of mural in this type of design, containing pieces of glass, gems, gold & enamel. show
Andrew found the last Daily Double in “‘L’ on Earth” under the $1,600 clue. With $11,500, he now had a $5,500 lead over Jen in second place. He bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
Grand Duke Henri reigns in this European nation whose name means “little fortress”. show
Triple Stumper: Somebody could have picked up that $2,000 with the last clue in “Dustin Hoffman’s Film Roles” if they happened to know “Gimpy grifter, Ratso Rizzo (1969)” from an Oscar-winning film considered by many to be in the Top 100 of all time.
Andrew finished in the lead with $16,700. Jen was next with $9,200 and Sandy was in third place with $4,400.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS “THE GREAT GATSBY”?
Although the clue states that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “still sells 500,000 copies a year”, it is pretty well known that the book did not sell well at all in 1925 or even during Fitzgerald’s lifetime for that matter. Newspaper Alum has a great article on the journey of “The Great Gatsby” from flop to classic (with many original reviews).
William J. Quirk takes an absolutely fascinating look into F. Scott Fitzgerald’s finances on American Scholar’s site, in “Living on $500,000 a Year“. That’s what Quirk estimates Fitzgerald’s yearly income would be in today’s money, although it did not come from his novels:
“His best novels, The Great Gatsby (1925) and Tender Is the Night (1934), did not produce much income. Royalties from The Great Gatsby totaled only $8,397 during Fitzgerald’s lifetime. Today Gatsby is read in nearly every high school and college and regularly produces $500,000 a year in Scottie’s [Fitzgerald’s daughter] trust for her children.”
Sandy got it right. She added $4,000 to finish with $8,400.
Jen also got it and doubled up. She finished with $18,400.
Andrew came up with “The Old Man and the Sea,” which was published in 1952. He lost his $1,700 bet and finished with $15,000.
So Jen Fiero remains champ with a 2-day total of $36,000. Anybody notice that Jen is taller than Alex Trebek?
2 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “British History”
This appointed position first held by John Dryden echoes a “Versificator Regis” of Richard I in the 12th century. show
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@vj, were you surprised at the Malcolm Gladwell “The Tipping Point” triple stumper? That left me speechless.
yes I was surprised, though was only expecting Jen to get it.
I was also surprised at how young corporate intelligence analysts look these days. LOL!
Andrew would have been a co-champ had he gotten FJ! right as he wagered for the tie. Jen broke the lock getting the $1600 clue in the Hoffman film roles category in the 29th clue of DJ!
playing for a tie seems to be the newest trend…
Andrew, “The Great Gatsby” is not required reading in Scarsdale, New York schools? Unbelievable.
@vj, I did notice how tall Jen was.
I noticed at the very end when they were standing around talking to Alex.
PS – IMDB says Trebek is 5’8″
really? he looks a little taller to me. but then game show hosts often wear shoes that “correct” the appearance. ray combs of family feud, who sadly committed suicide, looked kind of small even WITH the correction.
it’s what IMDB gives as his height, though that doesn’t mean it’s exact.
IMDB lists Justin Bieber at 5’9″ but Celebrity Heights says he is more like 5’6″ – 5’7″
Wow. That’s all?
bieber…yuck!!
as far as taller: maybe the podium is too high….? :-)just kidding. behind the lectern she looks as tall as sandy. so i guess sandy might have been on a podium while jen does not need one. and alex is what, about 5’11” or 6′?? but good for her to pull it off again.
the DDs were a joke though (ESP. #s 2 &3 were kid’s tournament level imho) fj was sort of easy. “the old man and the sea”?? if you know it was written by hemingway then you should also know that he was but 26 in 1925. hardly the age to write your best novel, unless you bite the dust right after you have finished it… sorry, that’s kind of rude, but you know what i mean. as a writer you mature and get better as you age, so hemingway was sort of out of the question.
and “midnight cowboy”? one of hoffman’s best movies. i guess all 3 are too young and may never have seen the movie. pity, but that film was released some 45 years ago. hoffman -imho again- is one of the best movie actors of the second half of the 20th century. his movies should be on everyone’s bucketlist, no?
sorry, i did not even notice that the “L” was being given in that dd. even without it, how many “little” monarchies are there in europe. and luxembourg is a constitutional monarchy,although headed by a Grand Duke and thus also referred to as a Grand Duchy.
(that it was little and sort of a monarchy/duchy/principality was also provided……)they might as well given andrew the money right away without even “playing” the dd clue. sometimes i wonder how dds are often a 1 and then a 10 on a scale from 1-10. it should be an average 7 or so, slightly more difficult than your average clue, so you know you would be “rewarded” if you get it in that particular category or “punished”,if you miss.but again, that’s just me.
As to Hemingway being 26, F. Scott Fitzgerald was only a few years older than him.
As to Midnight Cowboy, whether anyone going on J watches it or not, they should know about it just because it won the Best Picture Oscar. Older clues:
X-RATED $800: This 1969 buddy pic was the first X-rated film to win best picture
HITS OF THE ’60s $800: Nilsson’s 1969 hit “Everybody’s Talkin'” served as the theme song to this Oscar-winning film
DIRECT TV $2000: Directors who went from TV to film include John Frankenheimer & this John who made “Midnight Cowboy”
BOB DYLAN $500: Bob’s “Lay Lady Lay” was considered for this 1969 Jon Voight film, but didn’t make the soundtrack
MOVIES’ LAST LINES $1000: 1969: “We’ll be in Miami in just a few minutes”
yes, i agree. this movie – and many others – should be considered somehow being “public domain” in terms of knowing (about) it.
i know “public domain” refers to money, nobody has a copyright etc , but you know what i mean. intellectual “public domain”, so to speak. i could rattle off a few dozen movies that fit the category…..
‘Gatsby’ was written when Fitzgerald was 28, ‘The Sun Also Rises’ when Hemingway was 27. Seems silly to insult a plausible answer. The youth are will be just fine! I’m 29 and swept the Hoffman category, but did find it strange that the ‘Midnight Cowboy’ clue was in the $2000 spot!
It wouldn’t be a bad idea at all for a person planning to go on the show to go over the list of Oscar-winning movies and actually watch as many as they can, or in some cases, can stand. (I will never watch Silence of the Lambs).
Why won’t you watch Silence of the Lambs?
cause what I did see of it gave me the creeps
Yeah. It was effective. I don’t think that I could watch As Good As It Gets. Maybe a guy thing.
Here is a prime example of how not quite to bet the DD. Andrew swung at the first one (which he should have), so he knew he could come back by the time he had the lead for the second. He should have swung again. Here, I’m thinking 5000, try to take major control: Larissa Kelly, Ken Jennings, and yes, the biggest money winner of one day, Roger Craig. Then, the knockout punch in the third.
To be sure, if you don’t have a runaway, you’re just as likely to be caught by the person in second whether they are $1 behind or if you have 199% of their total.
My theory on DDs comes down to this: would I rather try to win on questions that only I am able (allowed) to answer, or a question that is open to three players.
depends in general on the category. if i would get a dd in “soccer”, “vienna”, “austria”, “german”, “the habsburgs” e.g. i would bet it all, no matter what the score is.
My point is that unless you choose a category for aggressive defensive purposes (to take away the chances for someone else), you are already in enough of a comfort zone to fire at it. Clearly it would be better to take the shot in your comfort zone (by yourself) than to gamble later in FJ.
Wouldn’t he have had to be more than $5K in that DD to wind up having 2x more than Jen?
Just to make sure that we’re talking about the same thing, I meant the second DD (which is, to me, the middle one, not the last one).
OK I’m talking about the third one. The way I saw it (disregarding the first round), he still wanted to be in the lead no matter what, but he was comfortable with a $500 lead on the first DD, but he wanted more of a cushion when he went with that $4K on the second one. But yes, I see your point about the first DD in the second round.
PS @eric – don’t miss that Shatner link I just left in the comments on the Spock post.
Thanks for the alert on Shatner. Augmented with something funny.
And keeping the lead is less important than taking chances to win, even late. If late, as long as the gamble doesn’t put you under half of the other’s score, go.
@vj, yes you were correct. Now you are beginning to sound like Julia Collins. Pay attention to specific dates and events. Congratulations.
well, not exactly — it’s just that they have clues on that duel often enough, so why not on the anniversary of it? And I wasn’t really specifically looking for it — it was only because I came across that sermon of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s pappy.
Hey, was I right about a Hamilton – Burr clue or was I right!?
Tight call.