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Charity Trivia

Saturday night I did my tax-deductible part to support local civic light opera at an event somebody described as a "trivia bee." Several teams of exactly three people each crowded a stage and wrote down answers to questions read out loud, 30 seconds per question.

Each team had its personal scorekeeper, a volunteer from a local high school who saw what answer we wrote down to each question, ruled the answer right/wrong, and changed a number on a music stand so that the whole audience could see each team's running tally.

First they read us 30 straightforward questions and 20 teams (plus ties) would make the cut. Everyone's score would go back to zero. Then 20 slightly harder questions for 10 teams (plus ties) to make the cut, and again everyone's score back to zero. Then ten even harder questions to award 1st through 3rd, with sudden death to break any ties.

Our team made both the first two cuts, then blew a lead (I think - not sure how much of one because we were in the back corner and liked it that way) to fall into a first-place tie. Then we honked the sudden death question.

A random sample of the questions I happen to remember, in no particular order:

The most inane question of the early round (in my opinion): What year did Disneyland open? (Even if you've never read a quiz-bowl message board you realize why questions that look for an exact year are overrated, right?)

I thought "everyone" knew this but for some reason it impressed the hell out of the room: On Gilligan's Island, what was the skipper's real name? (Neither my teammates knew this and our team was the only one of ten to get it right!)

I can't believe a teammate and I both blanked on this, and managing to miss it is arguably the reason we weren't first place outright: Binney and Smith are famous for inventing what? (My atrocious guess was Life Savers.)

This inexplicably stumped the field: Two Broadway musicals each managed to be nominated for 11 Tony awards without actually winning any of them. Name either one. (You've definitely heard of one of them.)

Another one that I thought "everyone" knew but that stumped a lot of teams: After Jackie Robinson's debut, who was the NEXT African-American to play Major League Baseball?

The claim to fame of the mistress of ceremonies was the record for most victorious Jeopardy! appearances by a female contestant. She claimed to be embarrassed to read this question. For a split second I had no idea but then it was obvious: I, [woman's name], appeared in what Bill Murray movie?

Is this inane? It was one of about a bazillion Broadway questions, at least, and we missed it: How long in years was the first run of A Chorus Line? (The only downside to all the Broadway was that they had literally zero non-Broadway music questions. Boo!)

This question was either inaccurate or very carefully worded. Probably the latter. We got it right but most teams missed it: Name BOTH the TV shows [...] Rod Serling.

Last but not least, the sudden death choke: Who did Time Magazine name in 1927 as its first Man of the Year? (Bonus points to you the blog reader if you can solve for the incorrect guess I suggested when none of us could think of the right answer. A teammate's wild guess was FDR but I explained why 1927 would be too early for him.)

Posted by Matt Bruce at May 2, 2007 10:28 PM