Final Jeopardy: Historic Businessmen (8-2-21)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (8/2/2021) in the category “Historic Businessmen” was:
Born in the village of Waldorf, Germany in 1763, he arrived in the U.S. in 1784
8x champ Matt Amodio, a PhD student from New Haven, CT brought his winnings up to $291,200 last week. In Game 9, he takes on these two players: Kent Easter, a management consultant from San Diego, CA; and Anna Hendrick, a private investigator from Queens, NY.
A note on the FJ! clue: Everywhere I look, the village in Germany is spelled “Walldorf”
Round 1 Categories: The State I Rep in the Senate – From TV to Film – Knotty by Nature – Hodgepodge – Science – Hill & Mountain Idioms
Matt found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Hill & Mountain Idioms” under the $600 clue, with 12 clues left after it. He was in the lead with $6,400, $4,400 more than Kent in second place. Although he doesn’t put it this way, he made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
To do this means to exaggerate a problem into something much larger show
Matt finished in the lead with $14,200. Kent was second with $3,000 and Anna was last with $2,000. No clues went uncovered.
Round 2 Categories: American Rivers – Instrumental to the Song – Plays – “Y” in the Middle – Throne Out – At Home
Anna found the first Daily Double in “Plays” under the $800 clue on the 13th pick. She was in third place with $2,400 now, $17,800 less than Matt’s lead. She made it a true Daily Double but she was WRONG.
In the Czech play “R.U.R.”, which gave the world this word, one of them says, “Mankind is no more. Mankind gave us too little life” show
Matt got the last Daily Double in “Throne Out” under the $800 clue, with 12 clues left after it. In the lead with $23,400, he had $18,800 more than Kent in second place. He bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
This world leader renounced his throne on March 15th, 1917; 16 months later, he was dead show
Matt finished in the lead with $34,200. Kent was next with $7,400 and Anna was in third place with $400. No clues went uncovered.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Born in poverty, John Jacob Astor left his native Germany to work in his uncle’s business in London at age 16. He learned English and saved money to move to America by 1784, where he would become the country’s first multi-millionaire. In 1785, he married his landlady’s daughter, whose social connections enabled Astor to ally with prominent fur traders. Despite various setbacks, his fur trading business grew to such an extent that by 1830, he had a monopoly controlling 98% of the fur trade in the USA. Astor also shrewdly invested in real estate in New York, the city and the state, making another fortune.
Some of the many places named in Astor’s honor are: the Astorhaus in his native Walldorf, originally an orphanage and now a museum; Astoria, Oregon; Astoria, Queens; and, perhaps most famous of all, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and Hotel Astor in New York, founded by two of John Jacob Astor’s great grandsons. For a deeper look into his life, read his bio on Immigrant Entrepreneurship’s website.
Anna thought it was Bayer. That cost her $400 and left her with nothing.
Kent didn’t come up with anything. He lost his $2,600 bet and finished with $4,800.
Matt wrote down Morris. He lost $15,000 but he won the game with the remaining $19,200. Matt Amodio’s 9-day total is $310,400.
A triple stumper from each round:
INSTRUMENTAL TO THE SONG ($2000) Keyboardist on “You Make Loving Fun” (1977)
AT HOME ($2000) I’ll relax to some patriotic jazz with the 2021 album “The Democracy! Suite” from this man’s Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra septet
3 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Broadway Musicals”
Winner of 6 Tonys in 2017, it’s the first Broadway musical to focus on the subject of teens & social media show
IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS OR COMPLAINTS REGARDING GUEST HOSTS, PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK DIRECTLY TO JEOPARDY!
We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.
Matt is an interesting player. I have answered triple stumpers, including today’s Final, during Matt’s tenure, but Matt has given answers I have never heard of in my life such as “katydid”. Jeopardy is truly a great and humbling game.
Well, I know none of them have seen the Western series,“The Virginian”. It was set near the town named after the Wyoming river.
Regarding the final question, I thought that it might have been (Karl) Benz, but that was wrong also. In any case, this was another tough finale.
Whoops! He arrived in the United States in 1784, and not in 1884. Looks like I misread the answer!
Karl Benz is toooooo obscure.
Man, I can’t believe Matt lost $15,000! Still, he has won $310,400 in 9 games and passes Arthur Chu’s 11 game winnings of $297,200. Make it 10 tomorrow Matt!
Go Matt go!
9 down, 9 to go to run the table on the regular games for Season 37.
He executes a game strategy similar to James H. that moves horizontally rather than vertically, and beginning with high value clues.
I think this strategy is particularly effective because it doesn’t allow fellow contestants to become comfortable with a category (horizontal movement) and he jumps out to a quick lead with shock and awe (high value clues).
We start the week off with another triple stumper.
If anyone would like to catch David Faber talk about his experience as guest host on Jeopardy watch him on CNBC at 9 a.m. or record the show. You can also listen to the show on satellite radio which is what I normally have to do since I may be on the road during that time. He’s a true professional and knows business inside and out. Jeopardy hasn’t come on in my area yet. Not until 7 p.m. eastern time so I don’t know how he performed.
Shocked at the contestant from New York missing fj unless she moved there in adulthood and didn’t attend school in New York. I’m from New York and we learned about the Astor family from elementary school through high school. Maybe she’ll drop by FF and let us know. A big congratulations Matt.
I know that is just shocking. I mean think about it. That titanic hint should have lead her to JJ astor since I remember there was a daily double on it previously. I learned about the Astor family as well in elementary school. But still Bayer? That is a german phramaceutical company making aspercreme. There is Astor Place on the New york subway line. in the city. As a life long visitor to New york city and to Astoria, this was not that tough of a final.
A big congratulations to matt on getting 300K today! I think Matt could be our next super champ.
Lou, you are confused.
1) There’s nothing in the clue about the Titanic.
2) The Astor who died in the Titanic is not the same Astor as the one in today’s fj clue. Two different people.
3) Bayer, which is headquartered in Germany, has nothing to do with Asperecreme. Perhaps you were thinking about Bayer aspirin.
Yes, the Titanic sank in 1912. If the John Jacob Astor in the clue was on the Titanic, he would have been 149 years old. lol