Introduction
On a school day early in September 1963, about two dozen Hicksville High seniors were summoned to a meeting. We were seated in a semi-circle of student desks, all facing a pair of chairs, in which sat two adults whom we did not know. More than a half century later, my memory is imperfect, but I believe that also present in the room, standing, were Principal Leon Galloway, Vice-Principal Raymond Rusch, a smattering of faculty members, and a few other strangers. I think that Mr. Galloway opened the meeting.
He explained that WNBC TV was about to launch a program in which high schools in Greater New York would compete against each other, represented by panels of students. The meeting had been called to select the students who would represent Hicksville High. The visitors seated in front of us were from the production company of the show, which was called “It’s Academic.”
For the next 90 minutes or so, they peppered us with questions about history, science, literature, the arts, politics, etc. Most questions focused on only one of those subjects, but some involved knowledge of more than one. We were to raise our hands as soon as we were confident of our answer, but to give an answer only if asked. When the questions stopped, we were thanked and politely dismissed.
The Team
Later that week, the selected pupils were notified. Hicksville would field a strong team, with a first-string panel of Stephen O’Brien, Barry Cressman, and Mel Bienenfeld; Steve was designated Team Captain. Two alternate panelists (to be used only in case of dire emergency) were also designated: “Chic” (Charles) Hassell and myself. The panel is shown here in a photo of a home TV screen which appeared in the 1964 Comet Yearbook.
I had sat in classes with Barry and Steve since Junior High, and I knew their respective abilities. Both were strong in terms of literature, writing, history, and culture. Steve was especially strong in French and Latin, was learning German, and dabbled a little in Hungarian. I did not meet Mel until High School, but I quickly learned that he was a proficient musician as well an exceptional math student. Mel earned the highest score ever attained by a Hicksville student in the annual competition of the Mathematical Association of America. I was confident that the Hicksville High panel would do well.
The Show
We went to the NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center to tape the show on Saturday, September 21, 1963. The host was Art James, who is shown in action at the beginning of this article. The show was broadcast the following evening, airing opposite “Mr. Ed,” a CBS series that featured a talking horse.
Hicksville’s opponents were Baldwin High and Mamaroneck High. As I recall, the competition was close in the beginning, and the lead changed several times. Later, Baldwin pulled ahead to stay. As a reward, Baldwin would advance to a playoff show, on which it would face two other first-round winners: South Side High (in Rockville Centre) and Regis High, a well-known Catholic school.
Post-Mortem
Although the show was brand-new to us, local versions of “It’s Academic” had been aired for several years by network affiliates in Baltimore and a few other cities. This was only the second show of the Greater NY version. The first NY show did not air until after our team was selected, and I don’t know of anyone in Hicksville who saw it. I wondered afterwards how well the selection criteria for the panels (we never knew what the criteria were) matched what was needed for the show. When you actually saw the show, you heard in its introduction that “teams from three high schools in the metropolitan area compete against each other both in the field of general knowledge and academic subjects.” That is, to have a good shot of winning on “It’s Academic” you had to know some unspecified stuff that definitely was NOT academic.
Doubtless, including non-academic questions in the show made sense for the show’s producers. The top contestants from all schools would have extremely similar academic backgrounds, and they probably would answer all the academic questions equally well. In a purely academic scenario, it was unlikely that any team would get too far behind to catch up: pupils who were not the strongest academically had been weeded out in the selection process.
Viewers, however, liked the excitement of dramatic come-from-behind victories, and that was why General Knowledge questions were shoehorned in. They destabilized the competition because they were hit-or-miss. You didn’t study for a Regents exam in General Knowledge; you acquired snippets of it by chance. Because of that inherent randomness, one might argue that General Knowledge questions were fair; on the other hand, panelists had been selected according to classroom learning.
General Knowledge often proved to be an Achilles Heel, and it was for Hicksville. As Chic Hassell and I sat together in the section reserved for Alternates, Hicksville was asked, “In the U.S. Army, what rank’s insignia features an oak leaf?” We both knew the answer, but he whispered to me, “These guys won’t know this,” and he was right. Dumbfounded, the panel could not even make a guess, and another team snapped up the discarded points. Hicksville never overcame that setback.
Incidentally, here is a 1960s insignia pin for a U.S. Army Major. I think it was designed with an excess of artistic license.
It was not much comfort to see the same thing happen to other teams. In the playoff show for the first-round victors, South Side looked strong early, but when asked to identify “a Polish hero of the American Revolution, after whom a highway has been named” it incorrectly responded “Tadeusz Kosciuszko.” Baldwin surged ahead by countering with “Casimir Pulaski,” but later it met doom on its own. When asked to identify “a 1920s dance craze that was named after a famous aviator” the Baldwin panel just sat in stunned disbelief. The game was nearly over, and they rushed through their remaining questions (i.e., the faster you answered, the more questions you got, and you might recoup lost points that way). In their haste, they made mistakes and sank into second place, miserable. South Side won after all.
Did winning or losing the show prove anything? Could anybody seriously think that one school was better than another because one teenager happened to have heard about a brief fad from two decades ago? If you’re curious, that dance was the Lindy Hop, an extremely athletic, throw-your-partner dance that eventually gave way to the different (and much tamer) Lindy. The latter was popular at HHS dances well into the 1950s.
Post Script
I kept in touch with Steve, but not with Barry or Mel. As I was writing this article, I wondered about them, and I did some online research, the fruits of which are included below. I have not attempted to contact either of them.
Before
AfterSteve
Here are “Before” and “After” pictures; the latter was taken a dozen or so years after the yearbook photo. In the interim, he not only grew hair; he also started boxing and lifting weights. Really.
He had intended to teach Latin, but that idea was abandoned (i.e., once the Roman Catholic church stopped saying Mass in Latin, the global number of Latin students dwindled to practically zero). Armed with a degree in Latin and Classical Greek, he instead embarked on a career of New York City administrative jobs.
Steve focused more on things that did not relate to his employment. He spent evenings and weekends improving his French, learning Russian and Spanish, and studying the literatures of those languages. He eventually earned a Masters, and then a Doctorate, in Comparative Literature. En route, Steve took many leaves-of-absence from his job, traveling to Paris or Moscow to study. He completed a Translator Program at the UN. To broaden his grasp of the languages he’d learned, he worked on contract at the Manhattan offices of an international bank. After retiring from NYC, he became a civilian instructor for college-level literature courses on U.S. Navy warships. Once his background became known to those onboard, Steve repeatedly was called upon to translate into Latin phrases that Naval personnel wanted to add to their tattoos!
Late in 2013, he was diagnosed with cancer, and began a regimen of chemotherapy, which seemed to progress well. Before it was completed, however, he suffered a fatal stroke, unrelated to his cancer. Thanks to his family, I had the honor of eulogizing my long-time friend at his Funeral Mass.
Barry
Per our yearbook, Barry intended to become a lawyer, but things evidently changed. Instead, he had a long career as a Pastor (the Presbyterian equivalent of what many other denominations call a “Minister”).
Following college, Barry attended a theological seminary, then went on to further theological studies, which included time at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, where he earned a Masters. He eventually became Pastor at a church in Titusville, Pennsylvania. There, he earned the respect of the Church members and, through his local community service, the respect of many other residents of Titusville and Crawford County. Now retired from his pastorate, he serves as President of the Crawford Heritage Community Foundation, a non-profit that manages over 150 charitable funds in northwest Pennsylvania. Barry’s “After” photo is fairly recent, and can be found on the website of the foundation that he heads.
Barry, if you’re out there, I’ll take a good-natured poke at you now, for allowing the Titusville newspapers to report that you hail, not from Hicksville, but from Oyster Bay!
Mel (2018)Mel
Unlike Steve and Barry, Mel went on to do what the yearbook said he wanted to do: teach mathematics. He earned both a Masters and a Doctorate from Cornell, and has taught at a number of colleges. But like his fellow one-time panelists, he found that life entails many things beyond job descriptions.
I don’t believe that I ever discussed politics or philosophy with Mel when I knew him, but online I’ve seen that he is an ardent, sincere, and outspoken socialist. For years, he has written blogs and articles that target injustices, seek to make society more fair, and promote changes that would make the lives of disadvantaged people more sustainable. It thus is not a surprise to see that he has been president of a union, and has negotiated faculty contracts with colleges. Indeed, his “After” picture is taken from the website of the Westchester Community College Federation of Teachers; it was included in a posting that discussed 2018’s contract negotiations.
I don’t know enough about Mel at this point him to say more, other than that he seems to have worked tirelessly, has not shied away from protest, and appears to have lived according to the principles he espouses.
