MYTHOLOGIZING CHARLES VAN DOREN: THE 1950S, THE MEDIA, AND THE MAKING OF CULTURAL MEMORY by Heather Elise Fisher B.A., The University of Arizona, 1993 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2011 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Heather Elise Fisher It was defended on June 9, 2011 and approved by Brenton Malin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Carol A. Stabile, Ph.D., Professor, Department of English Jonathan Sterne, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies Ronald J. Zboray, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Communication Dissertation Advisor: Jane Feuer, Ph.D., Professor, Department of English and Department of Communication ii Copyright © by Heather Elise Fisher 2011 iii MYTHOLOGIZING CHARLES VAN DOREN: THE 1950S, THE MEDIA, AND THE MAKING OF CULTURAL MEMORY Heather Elise Fisher, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2011 The myth of Charles Van Doren, as recorded in mass media retellings of the 1959 television quiz show scandal, is a story of a good-intentioned, intelligent young man who was tempted by the muses of fame and fortune to make a deal with some television devils, then was involved in the cover-up of their deceptions, only to finally tell the truth and yet still pay dearly for his transgressions. The Charles Van Doren story this dissertation tells, however, is more about the loaded phrase “the 1950s,” which implies simultaneously contradictory narratives of progress and stagnation, assimilation and isolation, hope and fear; more about “the Media,” our “window on the world,” our reflection, our bearer of good dreams; and more about the business and government institutions that boosted their own public images while reaping in financial rewards—at the expense of Charles Van Doren, hundreds of other quiz show contestants, and the American public at large. Informed by audience reception, consumerism, cultural memory, genre, popular culture, and technology studies; Cold War history; feminist theory; historiography; literary criticism; mass communication research; media criticism; political economy; and television history, my research utilizes archival records, historical mass media, and other primary and secondary sources to tell a different story of Charles Van Doren than the one most often remembered. Chapter 1 is a tale of the commercial television industry in the Cold War and of the industry iv practices manipulated by quiz show producers for profit. Chapter 2 considers the female consumers the television industry wanted so desperately to reach and the social implications of intentionally including intelligent women as quiz show winners. Chapter 3 reconstructs the history of crafted symbolism attached to Van Doren across mass media. Chapter 4 features the voices of an American public clamorously protesting the larger American institutions they blamed for Van Doren’s fall. Chapter 5 assesses the ways Charles Van Doren has come to represent the quiz show scandal in our cultural memory as well as the significant relationships between the television industry and its regulatory overseers, which have shaped what gets remembered (and how), to protect their own interests. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... X INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 1.0 THE 1950S PRIMETIME QUIZ SHOWS AND THE ELEMENTS OF TELEVISION SUCCESS ........................................................................................................... 15 1.1 WE NOW RETURN YOU TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED ADVERTISER-SUPPORTED BROADCAST ................................................................ 18 1.1.1 A Domestic Medium ................................................................................... 21 1.1.2 Standard Programming Fare..................................................................... 25 1.1.3 Political Economy of Quiz Shows .............................................................. 27 1.2 PART COMPETITION, PART ADVERTISEMENT, PART MAGIC SHOW: THE ELEMENTS OF ATTRACTING AN AUDIENCE ................................ 30 1.2.1 Realism, Not Reality ................................................................................... 35 1.2.2 Dramatic Narrative ..................................................................................... 38 1.2.3 The Morals of the Stories ........................................................................... 41 1.3 CELEBRITIES AND THEIR CONSUMERS ................................................ 46 1.4 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 51 vi 2.0 “LAYING SIEGE TO THAT ENIGMATIC AND GLITTERING PRIZE, THE FEMALE CONSUMER”: PRIMETIME TELEVISION QUIZ SHOWS AND 1950S CONSUMER APPEAL .............................................................................................................. 54 2.1 THE IDEALIZED FEMALE CONSUMER ................................................... 60 2.2 VEHICLES FOR CONSUMERISM: 1950S PRIMETIME QUIZ SHOWS ... ............................................................................................................................. 65 2.2.1 The Female Contestants ............................................................................. 70 2.2.2 The Male Contestants ................................................................................. 82 2.2.3 Audience Responses to Sponsors ............................................................... 92 3.0 WILL THE REAL CHARLES VAN DOREN PLEASE STAND UP?: THE CONSTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTION OF A NATIONAL MEDIA IMAGE ...... 97 3.1 CELESTIAL ASCENDENCE, JANUARY-MARCH 1957 ......................... 102 3.2 A CONFLICTED NARRATIVE, APRIL 1957-AUGUST 1958 ................. 115 3.2.1 A Boy No More, April-July 1957 ............................................................. 116 3.2.2 Choosing Sides, August-December 1957 ................................................. 125 3.2.3 Shunned, January-August 1958 ............................................................... 133 3.3 TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, SEPTEMBER 1958-SEPTEMBER 1959 ..... ........................................................................................................................... 140 3.4 SHOOTING THE STAR, OCTOBER 1959-FEBRUARY 1962 ................. 149 3.4.1 Moving Targets, October 1959 ................................................................ 150 3.4.2 Taking Aim, November 1959 ................................................................... 157 3.4.3 Bull’s Eye, December 1959-February 1962 ............................................ 167 3.5 ALWAYS THE FOOTNOTE, 1962-PRESENT ........................................... 175 vii 4.0 A JURY OF PEERS: AT HOME WITH CHARLES VAN DOREN ................. 181 4.1 THE WRITERS ............................................................................................... 186 4.2 THE CORRESPONDENCE ........................................................................... 192 4.2.1 “That’s Entertainment” ........................................................................... 195 4.2.2 “A Sign of the Times” ............................................................................... 198 4.2.3 Conspiracies, Witch Hunts, and Scapegoats .......................................... 199 4.2.4 Education ................................................................................................... 202 4.2.5 Columbia’s Glass Houses ......................................................................... 205 4.2.6 Winning Combinations ............................................................................. 216 4.2.7 Student Protest Backlash ......................................................................... 218 4.3 COLUMBIA’S RESPONSES ......................................................................... 222 4.3.1 Standard Public Replies ........................................................................... 225 4.3.2 Kirk’s Personal Letters ............................................................................ 227 4.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 232 5.0 “SAY IT AIN’T SO”: UNMASKING THE CULTURAL MEMORY OF CHARLES VAN DOREN ........................................................................................................ 234 5.1 DON’T KILL THE MESSENGER: CONTAINING THE NARRATIVE, 1959 ........................................................................................................................... 239 5.2 NATIONAL TRAUMA, THE PRIME TIME ACCESS RULE, AND THE PREDICTABILITY OF PRODUCT CYCLES: THE 1970S AND 1980S .................. 259 5.3 ROBERT REDOFRD’S VAN DOREN AND THE 1996 TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT ................................................................................. 271 viii 5.4 WHO DOESN’T WANT TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?: QUIZ CRAZE REDUX IN THE 2000S .................................................................................................... 281 5.5 TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES ................................................................. 293 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................