Dead Guy In An Envelope

[etaoin22]

here's the game on CHOM-FM in Mtl, and they say ask your friends for help......
The name of a defunct man is sought. Each day a listener can ask a question and make a guess. They've been asking and guessing for 31 days.

the dead guy is an American inventor born in the US in the 1800's

but not:

entertainer, baseball player,entrepreneur vowel for first letter of first name or m for first letter of lastname, producer of firearms, same last name as a tire company, US President, C for first letter of first name, african-american, chemist, or father-in-law of a Beatle, and did not die in the 1800's

Did not invent telephone, superglue, something computer-related,multi-track recording, anything food-related, rotary printing press, barcode, beverage, hubble telescope, zipper, slinky, musicl instruments, coca-cola or blue jeans.

Not JFK, Malcolm X, Bill Davidson, Abraham Lincoln, THomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, Granville T. Woods, Willis Carrier, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, Robert Fulton, Larry Hagman, Herb Peterson, Richard Drew, David Kearns, Edward Goodrich Acheson, Thomas Midgley, Jr, Joh Deere, Frank Zamboni, Raymond Dewalt, Jacob Davis, Seth Wheeler, Percy Spencer, James Wright, John DeLorean, Charles Goodyear, Levi Strauss, John S. Thurman, or Lewis Waterman.

I think the entire listenership of the radio station has been through the wiki of American inventors and ain't found it yet.

For two tickets to see Kiss FWIW, I will try to be the ninth caller in an hour and report back.

[ksbirchtree]

SWAG - George Washington Carver?

[etaoin22]

today's game report: Friday July 26, 2012

I do not get through: (not even to hear "try again"")

Caller from Ville-St-Laurent asks;

Did the dead guy invent the escalator?
Answer:
No.

Caller sounds discombubulated.
His dead guy guess:

Les Paul:
No.

Day 33 of game on Monday July 29.

(1) Contestant was probably going to guess Charles Seeberger, who was one of various inventors with similar patents, coined "escalator" as a trademark, and sold out to the Otis company, so he was not an entrepreneur.

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inven ... alator.htm

(2) Some weeks ago I had Les Paul or Fender from the Fender Bass as my best guesses, but musical instrument inventors have between then and now been ruled out.

(NB my current best guess is Robert Goddard of liquid fuel rocket fame and my backup would be Birdsill Holly the inventor of the fire hydrant.

[elwoodblues]

On a hunch I tried to look up the inventor of the adding machine and found this obscure name that seems to fit the criteria:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorr_Felt

(Unless he is considered an entrepreneur.)

[Bob Juch]

SWAG - George Washington Carver?

Not "food related" throws that out.

[Bob Juch]

SWAG - George Washington Carver?

Not "food related" throws that out.

As does "not C for first letter of last name."

[tanstaafl2]

Is it always a man? Or did a question clarify that already?

[etaoin22]

Is it always a man? Or did a question clarify that already?

yeah, the DJ who runs the contest refers to the dead guy not only as a guy, but as he, and all previous rounds have been real 'he"'s.
the station FWIW trends towards a male listenership not that TAWWT. the estrogeny station from the same company is down the hall and a little bit down the FM-band
the game is locally generated, AFAIK, and is not dependent on syndicated question material (unlike the execrable "Morning Impossible Question" promos heard across North America)

The dead guys are likely to be people one might have heard of in Montreal, and not only from Googling, and he DJ who runs the contest is good but not perfect in his knowledge.

[mrkelley23]

Think my next guess would be Richard Drew, who invented masking tape and Scotch tape.

[littlebeast13]

The title of this thread is just a little creepy...

lb13

[christie1111]

Found it!

[etaoin22]

The title of this thread is just a little creepy...

lb13

which made me research...

and come up with this....

the title has been used for somewhat different guessing or trivia games on different radio stations, sp evidently it is not a copyrighted or syndicated game. It has been done on WCBS-FM as a kind of 20 questions game with multiple callers on a single day. As opposed to a 1 question per day game....

When I searched, omeone''s blog came up on Google, who mucked up the "DGIAE" game on WCBS by forgetting he intended to say "Ronnie Van Zandt", but then got through on a completely different "caller 11 wins" game to get Rick Springfield tickets. The blogger said he "should have been prepared" because he was "the brother of one of the two persons to miss the first question on Millionaire."


http://delkytlar.livejournal.com/117347.html

Sound familiar??


NB I didn;t call today cause I couldn;t use tickets for tonight had I won. The caller failed. I will post in AM.

[silvercamaro]

The blogger said he "should have been prepared" because he was "the brother of one of the two persons to miss the first question on Millionaire."

Sound familiar??

His brother is Brian Fodera, who couldn't remember what Little Jack Horner pulled out of a pie.

[TheConfessor]

The blogger said he "should have been prepared" because he was "the brother of one of the two persons to miss the first question on Millionaire."

Sound familiar??

His brother is Brian Fodera, who couldn't remember what Little Jack Horner pulled out of a pie.

I expect to see Brian next week at TCONA in Las Vegas. He's actually a smart guy who can hold his own against pretty strong competition. I think almost all of the top winners in U.S. game show history will be there this year, plus a few top foreigners.
http://www.tcona.com/

[SportsFan68]

The title of this thread is just a little creepy...

lb13

which made me research...

and come up with this....

the title has been used for somewhat different guessing or trivia games on different radio stations, sp evidently it is not a copyrighted or syndicated game. It has been done on WCBS-FM as a kind of 20 questions game with multiple callers on a single day. As opposed to a 1 question per day game....

When I searched, omeone''s blog came up on Google, who mucked up the "DGIAE" game on WCBS by forgetting he intended to say "Ronnie Van Zandt", but then got through on a completely different "caller 11 wins" game to get Rick Springfield tickets. The blogger said he "should have been prepared" because he was "the brother of one of the two persons to miss the first question on Millionaire."


http://delkytlar.livejournal.com/117347.html

Sound familiar??


NB I didn;t call today cause I couldn;t use tickets for tonight had I won. The caller failed. I will post in AM.

So who was the dead guy?

[etaoin22]

lets update.

the answer is still uncertain.

However, contestant after contestant has chosen progressively lesser-known Americans and lesser known inventions -- one-hit intellectual wonders -- without success. I sorta lost interest. However...

The major host, Bilal Butt, who set the game is off x 2 weeks, with this being the last day for substitute afternoon jock Sharon Hyland. She has been warning us to "look between the lines' and not just at invention. And facts now known in addition to what I previously posted are that the dead guy had something to do with electricity, invented more than one thing, died after 1950, and is not in the Inventors' Hall of Fame (but probably should be, said Ms. Hyland).

I am wondering if Bilal looked out of the window in the (relatively new) CHOM studios in the east end to the islands to see the ruins of the old American Pavilion from Expo 67 aka Biosphere. i dunno if it IS visible from there, but it might be.

[Bob Juch]

How about Gano Dunn?

[etaoin22]

How about Gano Dunn?

That is a great guess, but I am 99.9% convinced it is Bucky Fuller, remembered in Montreal due to Expo 67, and the American Pavilion.

I heard Fuller speak in Ottawa at the opening of one of the major buildings on the Carleton U. campus, probably the Student Union, although it might have been Architecture. Din't understand a durn thing he was getting at.

[Bob Juch]

How about Gano Dunn?

That is a great guess, but I am 99.9% convinced it is Bucky Fuller, remembered in Montreal due to Expo 67, and the American Pavilion.

I heard Fuller speak in Ottawa at the opening of one of the major buildings on the Carleton U. campus, probably the Student Union, although it might have been Architecture. Din't understand a durn thing he was getting at.

But what did he do with electricity?

[etaoin22]

How about Gano Dunn?

That is a great guess, but I am 99.9% convinced it is Bucky Fuller, remembered in Montreal due to Expo 67, and the American Pavilion.

I heard Fuller speak in Ottawa at the opening of one of the major buildings on the Carleton U. campus, probably the Student Union, although it might have been Architecture. Din't understand a durn thing he was getting at.

But what did he do with electricity?

advised strongly against the use of fossil fuel derived transportation and electricity generation, and developed maps of potential renewable sources. estimated the true cost of a gallon of gas to be a million dollars.

[littlebeast13]

estimated the true cost of a gallon of gas to be a million dollars.

Before long, that's going to sound like a bargain....

lb13