I Pity the Fool! Trivia Quiz

Answer: P.T. Barnum

P.T. Barnum was a man of many interests, but he was essentially a showman. Despite serving as the Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut and two terms in the Connecticut legislature, his enduring fame comes from his circus business venture. While he had several memorable acts and exhibits - including the dwarf known as General Tom Thumb - perhaps the most infamous was the Fiji Mermaid.

The creature consisted of a young monkey's head and torso attached to the back of a fish, with the entire oddity covered in paper mache. Barnum rented the creature from another museum owner, and passed it off as having been captured by a Dr. J. Griffin, who was in actuality just an acquaintance named Levi Lyman. Barnum defended his hoaxes, claiming that he was serving the public by stirring their curiosity. Barnum lost possession of the original Fiji Mermaid due to a museum fire in the 1860s, but it was eventually recovered, and acquired by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Answer: Orson Welles

Broadcast on October 30, 1938, "The War of the Worlds" was a Halloween episode on the "Mercury Theater on the Air" series. The broadcast of the H.G. Wells story was directed and narrated by Orson Welles, and brought him both praise and criticism. Broadcast as a series of news-style bulletins, in the tense atmosphere that preceded the advent of World War II, many took it to be a real news broadcast. Afterwards, numerous lawsuits were filed, but all were dismissed, except one.

A man sued for the cost of a pair of shoes - claiming he had spent the shoe money instead to escape the Martians.

His suit was settled on Welles' insistence.

Answer: Charles Dawson

The Piltdown man was supposedly the missing link between ape and man, but it was in actuality a forgery. After Dawson presented the reconstructed skull fragments at a meeting of the Geological Society of London, the majority of opinions were skeptical. But, Dawson stood firm in his assertions.

In 1953, Piltdown man was proved to be a forgery, and afterwards several of Dawson's other finds were either proven to be, or suspected to be, fakes as well. And while it has not been proven that Dawson was the actual forger of the Piltdown man, the evidence weighs more heavily against him than against the other possible perpetrators.

Answer: Victor Lustig

A con artist who pulled off scams in several countries, Victor Lustig did indeed sell the Eiffel Tower - twice. Posing as a government official, and playing on the scrap dealers' greed, experience with corrupt officials and desire for status in the business community, Lustig stressed the need for secrecy and speed.

His first 'victim', Andre Poisson bought the tower - and also paid Lustig a hefty bribe - but was too ashamed to report the scam. Lustig's second 'victim', however, went to the police before the transaction was completed. After being arrested in 1935 on suspicion of counterfeiting, Lustig was eventually sentenced to 20 years on Alcatraz Island.

Answer: John Howard Griffin

In 1959, John Howard Griffin underwent a course of treatment to darken his skin, so he could travel the Deep South as a black man. The journalist wanted to determine the the day-to-day conditions experienced by blacks in the racially segregated region. Keeping notes of his journey, he encountered hatred, prejudice, curiosity and friendship, all of which he recorded in his journal. Griffin turned his six-week experience into the 1961 nonfiction book titled "Black Like Me".

Answer: Jack Barry

The quiz show "Twenty-One" was started by Jack Barry and Dan Enright, and from the start the episodes were rigged to provide a more entertaining show. While Barry denied knowledge of the rigging at the time, he later admitted to covering up for his partners - Enright, and the producer, Albert Freedman.
The matter came to light after contestant Herb Stempel lost on purpose in 1956, and went public about the affair. While he was initially dismissed as a poor loser, in 1958 his complaint gained credibility when his experience was substantiated by evidence of rigging on a different quiz show.
The 1994 film "Quiz Show", starring Christopher McDonald as Jack Barry, was based on the scandal.

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle

In 1917, two young cousins living in Cottingley, West Yorkshire, claimed to have seen fairies in their back garden. Sixteen-year-old Elsie Wright and ten-year-old Frances Griffiths took two pictures of the fairies, and while Elsie's father dismissed them as fakes, Frances' mother made them public in 1919 at a meeting of the Theosophical Society. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle became interested in the photographs, and sought the opinions of Kodak and Ilford Photo companies.

Despite their refusal to certify the photographs as authentic, Conan Doyle's interest remained piqued, and three additional pictures were taken in 1920. Conan Doyle used the pictures in two separate issues of "The Strand" - in 1920 and 1921 - and public reaction was mixed. In 1983 the cousins finally admitted to faking the first four photographs, although they both insisted that they had actually seen the fairies.

They disagreed about the fifth photograph though, with Frances insisting that that photograph was genuine.

Answer: Eugenia Smith

Eugenia Smith claimed in her autobiography that she had escaped the 1918 massacre of her family, and ultimately fled west in the company of two men. Her autobiography ends at that point, but her story does not. While her claims were unverified, she supposedly married a Croatian man, left him to go to America, and settled in the Chicago area.

She lived out her life being mostly supported and housed by a handful of Americans who believed her claim. Her memoir, "The Autobiography of H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia", was published in 1963, despite the continued controversy over the truth of her claim. All three of the wrong answers were also Romanov claimants, but not as Anastasia.

Answer: Milli Vanilli

Milli Vanilli was a pop duo featuring Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The concept of Milli Vanilli was created by songwriter/music producer, Frank Farian, and their success in 1988-89 was phenomenal, but less than honest. After it was revealed that they had lip-synched their songs, their Grammy Award was revoked, and the public backlash was brutal.

Despite claims that Farian had essentially trapped them into the deception, Morvan and Pilatus bore the brunt of the critics' and public's displeasure.

While they continued to be involved in the music industry, their careers were more or less tainted to the point where future success was impossible.

Answer: James Frey

James Frey presented his book, "A Million Little Pieces" as a gritty, no-holds barred memoir. Detailing his alcohol and drug addiction, imprisonment, violent altercations and rehabilitation, the memoir was published in 2003 by Random House. In 2005, it was an Oprah Winfrey Book Club selection, which led to The Smoking Gun investigation - which brought to light several inconsistencies between the memoir and the truth.

When confronted by Oprah Winfrey on her television show in 2006, Frey admitted that he had 'embellished' certain parts of his book, but defended his decision to do so.

In the aftermath of the scandal, an agreement was reached between Frey and the publisher whereby anyone who felt they had been misled into purchasing the book as a true memoir could request a refund (providing certain conditions were met).