RIP Elfrida von Nardroff
Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2021 10:10 pm
Elfrida von Nardroff, 96, Dies; Won Big Money on a Fixed Quiz Show
In 1958, she won more on “Twenty-One” than anyone else. But she became embroiled in a scandal that led to grand jury and congressional investigations.
Elfrida von Nardroff, who won more money than anyone else on the 1950s television quiz show “Twenty-One” — but who later pleaded guilty to lying to a grand jury in Manhattan about receiving questions and answers in advance — died on Nov. 11 in a hospice in Westhampton Beach, N.Y. She was 96.
The cause was a stroke, her niece Elizabeth von Nardroff said.
Over several months in 1958, Ms. von Nardroff charmed television viewers as she defeated one opponent after another on her way to winning $220,500 ($2.1 million in today’s dollars). That dwarfed the $129,000 (nearly $1.3 million) that the show’s most famous contestant, Charles Van Doren, an English instructor at Columbia University, had won in 1956 and 1957.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/busi ... -dead.html
In 1958, she won more on “Twenty-One” than anyone else. But she became embroiled in a scandal that led to grand jury and congressional investigations.
Elfrida von Nardroff, who won more money than anyone else on the 1950s television quiz show “Twenty-One” — but who later pleaded guilty to lying to a grand jury in Manhattan about receiving questions and answers in advance — died on Nov. 11 in a hospice in Westhampton Beach, N.Y. She was 96.
The cause was a stroke, her niece Elizabeth von Nardroff said.
Over several months in 1958, Ms. von Nardroff charmed television viewers as she defeated one opponent after another on her way to winning $220,500 ($2.1 million in today’s dollars). That dwarfed the $129,000 (nearly $1.3 million) that the show’s most famous contestant, Charles Van Doren, an English instructor at Columbia University, had won in 1956 and 1957.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/busi ... -dead.html