Independent from Long Beach, California • 85

In his heyday as Bingo Baron of Signal Hill, Kid Mexico operated a Keno sh6w ivith, Sunday, November 15, I95t 5 'v- The Quiz That Couldnt Be Fixed By Sterling Bemis Who won the Academy Award for sound recording in 1941? Jack Whitney! piped Terrance. THE QUIZMASTER seemed not to. hear him. The correct answer, he stated, is Jack Whitney Some of the scholars pointed at the Quiz Kid and insisted he was a winner. What was that again? the quizmaster asked.

Jack Whitney, Terrance repeated. Too lateNuid the quizmaster. We already the question ourself. But as murmuring) continued, a bouncer approached Terrance and said, Here, Im gonna give- you ten bucks, but I dont want you to never come back. (Continued on Page 11) As a Signal HIM bingo operator, ICd Mexico ran a qua show that couldn't be fixerC no matter how hard ho tried, becauso.one man.bww.iho answers.

HTHERE WAS one quiz show that couldn't be fixed, no matter how hard its sponsor tried. It operated as furtively as possibleinSignal jjili. a city entirely surrounded by another city. Therq were times when the sponsor in question was convinced he had been surrounded by one man. This preyed on his mind to the extent that in later years he abandoned his career as a gambling man and turned preacher.

The sponsor was Tod Cornelius (Kid Mexico) Faulkner, an ex-pug who reigned for several years in the late 40s and early 50s as the Bingo Baron of Signal Hill. WHEN LEGALITY of his bingo enterprise was questioned. Kid Mexico resorted to subterfuge. He continued operating his Keno hall, but disguised the game as Whiz Quiz." In the Kids Koliege of Keno Knowledge, those who played Whiz Quiz at the regular tuition 25 cents for three Keno cards won a chance to answer a so-called primary question. Clutching his 'lucky Keno card, the game-winning scholar would be asked a rather elementary question, such as, For what President was the national capital named? A correct answer rewarded the student with an honorarium of, $25.

Under the law, however, Kid Mexico could not restrict his prize questions to Keno players. He was obliged to offer free-secondary questions to ail present after every game. The-non-paying kibitzers were eligible to answer secondary questions. These tended to be difficult, for Who was the 94th mayor of New York? A QUIET YOUNG visitor named Terrance A. Lynch raised his band on the historic evening when the question about New Yorks 94th mayor was asked.

William J. Gay-noil he exclaimed, and pocketed the cash prize from the surprised master-of -ceremonies. It turned out that Whiz Quiz had invented for Terrance. A retired Army truck driver studying under the GI Rill to become a baker, he had devoted-spar time iamemofe lzing numerous volumes of the World Almanac, movie magazines and other learned treatises. In a fortnight at the Kitty establishment, Terrance amassed several hundred dollars without expending a farthing for Keno cards.

He rattled off answers to the following second-4 ary questions: Q. In 1932 what was the average miles-per-hour for the Indianapolis Speedway Race? A. 104.089. Q. a newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize for the best editorial In 1933? A.

Kansas City Star. Q. Who was the 14th vice president? A. John C. Breckinridge.

The climax came evening when the embattled quizmaster asked as a secondary questldrn" This is the house that Kid Mexico's "leek" built when Keno and WMxQuIx combined lo rol the dollars on Signal HdL Mexico (Tod rauftner since, has turned to religion as his intended casing..