Wheel Of Fortune 2005
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Last year, Sony Pictures Mobile made Wheel of Fortune 2005, a game that functioned just like the TV show, minus the competition and fabulous prizes. Needless to say, the lack of rewards was one of.
Archive for Thursday, April 14, 2005
‘Wheeling’ to riches
Fortune strikes players from area
By Katie Bean
April 14, 2005
Kansas City, Mo. — Lansing-area mother and son Eileen and Sean Willcott bonded this past weekend when they appeared as teammates and contestants at a special taping of 'Wheel of Fortune' in Kansas City.
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They won't be bonding in Mazatlán, Mexico, the destination of a trip they each won on the show. Sean Willcott, who is getting married in September, will use the trip for his honeymoon; Mom, Eileen said, isn't welcome then.
'When we won it, I said to him, 'There's your honeymoon!' Eileen said. 'And he said, 'You're not coming!'
The Willcotts, of rural Leavenworth, and Alison Dessert, of Lansing, each had the opportunity to spin the big wheel this weekend as contestants on 'Wheel of Fortune.'
The long-running game show came to Kansas City to film episodes for the first time. Five shows a day were taped on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Bartle Hall.
Representatives with the show first came to Kansas City in October with the Wheelmobile, an RV outfitted with a traveling wheel and puzzleboard, to recruit contestants.
The weekend tapings featured Kansas City-themed elements on the set. The background represented the downtown skyline, and a video screen behind the contestants showed footage of Kansas City's famous fountains.
The Willcotts and Dessert all had tried out in October at the Wheelmobile.
The Willcotts were contestants on an episode during Mom and Me week, which will run May 2-6, the week before Mother's Day.
Photo by Katie Bean
Sean Willcott and his mother, Eileen Willcott, of rural Leavenworth, await their turn at the wheel before a special taping of 'Wheel of Fortune' in Kansas City. The Willcotts and Lansing resident Alison Dessert were contestants this weekend when 15 'Wheel of Fortune' shows were taped in Kansas City's Bartle Hall. The shows will air in May.
Eileen said she was fortunate she didn't have to choose a show partner from among her eight children. Several of her children had tried out for the show, but only Sean was called back.
Producers had contacted Sean, a Kansas State University senior in engineering and a 2000 Lansing High School graduate, in March to try out for Big 12 week on the show. He had indicated on his application that he also would be interested in appearing with his mom for Mom and Me week.
Eileen then received a call to try out for Mom and Me week but was cut in an early round. She said she had been sure she wouldn't be on the show, but she was still happy for Sean.
However, 'Wheel' called about two weeks ago to tell her she would be a contestant. Eileen said a representative from the show told her they knew she would be on the show when they dismissed her during tryouts.
The Willcotts fared well on the show. They won most of the rounds and earned more than $28,440, including $9,600 apiece in cash, before the final round, when a mother and daughter from Louisburg surpassed them to become the episode's 'winners.'
The Willcotts, longtime 'Wheel' watchers, said the show they appeared on would be broadcast May 4. Eileen said she probably would have a watch party with her family.
Dessert, 27, said she has watched 'Wheel of Fortune' for most of her life. She said her mom let her and her siblings watch the show because she thought it was educational. Dessert was a contestant on a Kansas City Week episode, which taped Sunday. Her show will air May 10, she said.
Dessert said persistence paid off in securing a spot on the show - she went to three stops of the Wheelmobile in October before being called onstage for a practice game.
Dessert said she read a book called 'Winning on the Wheel: An Unofficial Guide to Getting On and Winning at the Wheel of Fortune' and used a 'Wheel' game to pick up strategies and practice.
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Though she found both resources helpful, she ran into bad luck with the wheel at her taping. Her spins twice landed on 'Bankrupt' and once on 'Lose a Turn.' Though she came in last place on the show, she won $8,800. But she wasn't too disappointed.
'If last place is almost $9,000, I'll take it,' she said.
She said her main objective was to enjoy the experience.
'Yeah, it's fun to win a lot of money, but I was just focusing on having a good time,' Dessert said.
Dessert said she was well taken care of the day of the taping. Contestants were not allowed to bring cameras or cell phones; in fact, they could only talk to the show's staff and other contestants. However, Dessert said the face-to-face time paid off. When she was playing, she said she felt like she was playing against the wheel instead of the other players, so she could be happy for them when they won a round.
Dessert said most of her winnings would be used to pay bills, 'as boring as it sounds,' or possibly a new couch.
'It could be our 'Wheel of Fortune' couch,' she said.
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Three million dollars for an Oldsmobile? No wonder car collectors can’t stop talking about Penn Valley’s Alan Lewenthal
A$ his celebrity sprouted this spring, Penn Valley’s Alan Lewenthal latched onto a characterization of him by a newspaper writer in Colorado. “I’ve got ‘ice in my veins and the conscience of a burglar,’” Lewenthal quotes. That might sound a little Walter Mitty-ish for a 40-year-old Temple grad whose day job is VP and general manager of the kitchen-and-bath-supply company started by his father. But during 10 wild minutes of an auction that was captured on live television early this year, Lewenthal burst into prominence in the rich and surprisingly sharp-elbowed world of classic car collectors when he ran up the bidding on a shiny gold 1954 Oldsmobile to an unprecedented $3 million. Since no one knew his name, he became known for his outfit: Mr. Red Ferrari Hat. And when the gavel banged and he won the car, the burglar with ice in his veins burst into tears.
“That got everybody’s attention — everyone is talking about it,” says Richard Lentinello, editor of Hemmings Motor News, one of the bibles in the world of classic car collecting, which he estimates is a $12 billion-a-year industry.
Car collecting is a “bad drug,” Lewenthal says, and it hooked him when he was still a teenager. He and his father, Herb, were driving on the Atlantic City Expressway when a flatbed truck bearing a red 1957 Cadillac Coupe de Ville passed them. Herb Lewenthal started a shouted negotiation while traveling 60 miles an hour. He got the truck to pull over, and bought the Cadillac there on the shoulder of the road.
That started a fixation for father and son — “It kept us together when I was a teenager,” Alan says — that led to a collection of dozens of cars, including a 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, a 1971 Corvette convertible with 4,600 miles on the odometer, and a passel of Ferraris.
Still, Lewenthal might have remained an obscure hobbyist if he hadn’t encountered John Hendricks in 2004. Hendricks, the founder of the Discovery Channel and its many offshoots, recently started to develop a resort on some land he owns in Colorado, and got the idea of attracting guests with an auto museum. Hendricks was trying to purchase the cars himself, but after talking to Lewenthal, whom he had met through a couple of eBay sales, he hired him on for acquisitions for the Gateway, Colorado, Auto Museum. It’s scheduled to open next spring with more than 40 cars outlining the history of American auto design. The ’54 Oldsmobile for which Mr. Red Ferrari Hat bid so high is, Hendricks says, “our Mona Lisa.”
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Lewenthal spent much of this year traveling to auto auctions, knowing he had the deep pockets of Hendricks behind him. It’s not a bad second job. Auctions like these tend to be in posh resort spots like Palm Beach, Florida. Lewenthal had to retire his red Ferrari hat; after his star turn on the car-obsessed Fox SPEED Channel (at one point during the battle for the Oldsmobile, he had to be restrained from taunting his rival bidder), he wanted to be more low-key, he says. Car collecting was already populated by such celebrities as Jay Leno, Tim Allen and Nicolas Cage, but Lewenthal’s intense auction style has propelled him to a fame all his own.
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Now, with the collection at the Gateway Museum nearly ready for public exhibition, Lewenthal has switched gears slightly and opened a new 15,000-square-foot car restoration facility in Northeast Philly. Called Marquis Auto Restorations, it will spruce up the museum collection as well as handle remakes for other collectors. Lewenthal doesn’t plan to give up the family business, but he recognizes that this is his opportunity to move well beyond shower stalls and range hoods. “I know I’ve got the best skill there is for a car collector,” he says. “Cash.”