Obit: Vivienne Nearing, 81, Lawyer Convicted in "Twenty-One" Quiz Scandal, Dies

[CrankyYankee]

Obit: Vivienne Nearing, 81, Lawyer Convicted in "Twenty-One" Quiz Scandal, Dies

Ms. Nearing made headlines in 1957 when she dethroned Charles Van Doren as champion on “Twenty-One,” the popular quiz show on NBC.
The glory of the victory came to an end and the headlines turned sour in 1960 when 14 contestants, including Ms. Nearing, were charged with second-degree perjury after falsely telling a grand jury that they had not been fed answers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/nyregion/15nearing.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin

 

[bpatrick]

Re: Obit: Vivienne Nearing, 81, Lawyer Convicted in "Twenty-One" Quiz Scandal, D

She and Van Doren, along with about a dozen other
defendants, received suspended sentences in 1962.
I'm not sure but I think Mrs. Nearing was disbarred
as a result of pleading guilty to the perjury charge.

BTW, her husband Victor, also a lawyer, was a
contestant on "Twenty-One" in January 1957 and
"lost" to Van Doren (I put "lost" in quotations since
the outcome was predetermined) and she was supposedly
on the show to avenge his "defeat." What we'll probably
never know is if Van Doren deliberately named Leopold
instead of Baudouin as the king of Belgium in order to
get off the show, as the movie "Quiz Show" suggests.

Mrs. Nearing's run on "Twenty-One" was rather brief,
only about two weeks. She left with $5500 when Dan
Enright and Al Freedman decided to make med student
Hank Bloomgarden the champ; he, too, pleaded guilty
to perjury and got a suspended sentence.