The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Bob Zager on March 08, 2019, 12:26:22 PM
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Here is the article from: https://jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5085
I'd first heard of Frank Dillon, when he'd competed in the annual Joker's Wild tournament of champions, winning the first and second tournaments (with top prizes of $50,000 and $100,000 respectively), and finishing in second place in the third one (top prize--$250,000). He did not participate in TJW's $1,000,000 tournament.
Toward the end of the article he mentions he'd won a total of $1,000 and a set of Compton's Encyclopedia. I remember that Compton's was the "source authority," (thank you, Don Pardo!) originally, and I was a bit surprised to see no mention of a home game. I later realized they most likely didn't market such a game, yet!
I believe Frank Dillon competed in the first Jeopardy! Seniors Tournament in the current series.
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J-Archive corroborates--he was a semifinalist in the 1987 Seniors Tournament.
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Interesting read. Also interesting that in its infancy, Jeopardy was getting 1000+ inquiries per month for contestant auditions, with only around 40/month selected to appear.
I wonder how those numbers compare to all the other daytime game shows that were prevalent in NYC in the 60s and 70s.