Michael Larson
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Michael Larson, born Paul Michael Larson (May 10, 1949–February 16, 1999) was a contestant on the United States television game show Press Your Luck, winning $110,237 in cash and prizes. The show was taped on May 19, 1984; Press Your Luck episode #188.
Through a careful study of the "random" movements of the 18 square "Big Board" on the CBS game show Press Your Luck, Larson was able to determine that there were only five patterns used to determine the movements of the spinner used to award money on the show. Armed with this knowledge, he found that it would theoretically be possible to go on the game show, watch the patterns carefully, and hit squares containing money consistently.
Two of the eighteen squares on the game board always contained cash and an extra spin. They never contained the Whammy, the character in the show that takes away all cash and prizes a contestant has earned. Therefore, Larson reasoned, if he stopped on only those two squares, with foreknowledge of the patterns used on the game board, he could play indefinitely, never at risk of losing his money.
Larson arrived in Hollywood from Lebanon, Ohio, for a contestant tryout on Press Your Luck, having virtually no money to his name, and using most of what he had to make the trip. In his tryout interview, he described himself as unemployed, but an ice cream truck driver during the summer season, who wanted to be a contestant on the show. Two producers discussed whether to have him on the show after his tryout interview; one was suspicious of Larson and his reasons for trying out—the other was not. The final decision was to let Larson on the show.
Michael Larson's performance in Press Your Luck was notable for his complete lack of vocalization during spins, preferring to silently wait and watch the board, to stop at just the right moment. He concentrated carefully on every spin, and had honed his reflexes to stop at the right instant. All of these mannerisms were extremely unusual for a Press Your Luck contestant.
Odds in Press Your Luck find that a whammy is hit in approximately one out of six spins. By contrast, Larson managed a run of over 40 spins without hitting one. Larson's strategy began to fail him only as his human abilities reached their limits; a combination of stress and declining reflexes as the show went on was nearly his undoing. Nearly all of Michael's spins ended in the two "safe spots" on the board he knew he could stop on; several, particularly near the beginning and end of the second money round clearly did not go to plan. The "off spins" gave him trips to Kauai, the Bahamas, and a few money spaces.
At the end of the show, host Peter Tomarken asked Larson why he did not pass his spins (like most contestants in his situation would) after he built up such an insurmountable lead. Larson sidestepped talking about the way he really won the game by answering, "Two things: One, it felt right, and second, I had seven spins and if I passed them, someone could have done what I did."
After winning, CBS (Press Your Luck's network) found no reason Michael Larson could be denied his winnings, and they were paid to him. Part of his winnings were invested in real estate in Lebanon; the rest was withdrawn from the bank as cash. Larson believed in the "get rich quick" scheme. In a sign of eccentricity or irrationality, Larson withdrew his winnings in one dollar bills in the hope of matching a serial number against a radio game show that promised a $30,000 jackpot for a match.
Approximately $40-50,000 in the remaining cash was stolen from Larson and his then-common-law wife. Larson was divorced soon after.
In 1994, Larson appeared on ABC's Good Morning America in an interview, with the popularity of the movie Quiz Show, which had just been released. This was one of the few times he appeared in the limelight after the prize winning run in 1984.
Larson died of throat cancer in 1999 in Florida, while on the run from the Securities and Exchange Commission. He married three times and was survived by three children distributed throughout the marriages.
Larson's game was split into two episodes due to its exceptional running time, and these only aired once during the original run of the series, on June 8 and 11, 1984. CBS then suppressed them for 19 years. The episodes finally aired again, this time on Game Show Network, as part of a two-hour documentary called Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal, featuring interviews with Press Your Luck producers, Larson's family, and the two contestants that lost to Larson that day.
Currently, the 2 episodes can now be seen on GSN.
External links
- Michael Larson: Game Show Legend (http://gscentral.net/larsen.htm)
- 1994 interview with TV Guide (http://www.xanfan.com/pressyourluck/larson.htm)
- Press Your Luck: A contestant on the game show Press Your Luck racked up an amazing series of wins by memorizing the patterns of the prize board's sequence of lights (http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/whammy.htm) (Snopes.com)