Cult Hero Michael Larson went from being a truck driver
to being a six-figure game show winner.
He won $110,000 dollars as a contestant on an 80s game show called Press Your Luck.
But after that, it was a giant roller coaster ride.
Larson was 35-years-old in 1984, and his win at that time, was the largest single-day total
ever won on a game show!
Ice Cream Guy Growing up, Larson was different from his
three siblings.
James, his older brother, remembers him as a well-meaning chap who was different from
the rest.
The same goes for his partner of 11 years, Teresa.
She recalls Larson as someone with a good heart and a constant thirst for knowledge.
Larson was an intelligent guy who took several college-level courses.
Unfortunately, he never finished and eventually settled for certification as an air conditioner
repairman.
In the summer months, he juggled two jobs: repairing ACs and driving an Ice Cream Truck.
Sadly, steady employment did not last very long.
Jobless in the early 1980s, Larson developed an interest in game shows and started watching
them on tv.
His appetite for game shows grew by the day.
He was so infatuated that he built a shrine of old TVs in his living room so that he could
watch multiple games simultaneously.
His favorite was a game called Press Your Luck.
Press Your Luck Back in the day, CBS was a channel that enjoyed
massive viewership across the United States.
The network capitalized on that by introducing the game show, Press Your Luck.
The concept of the game was pretty simple.
It featured a rectangular game board filled with squares indicating different cash amounts.
One contestant after the other would take time spinning the game board.
Randomly, the squares would light up, and the contestant would press a button to stop
the spin.
Lights illuminate whatever square they land on, and they win the prize shown.
This game also offered other giveaways like vacations, pool tables, and sailboats.
And as expected of any game, there were squares to steer clear of called the Whammy squares.
These squares featured a cartoon drawing of a red devil with a high-pitched raspy voice.
If a contestant landed on a Whammy, they'd lose all money and prizes they'd won so far.
So, if a contestant won, let's say, a few thousand dollars and a new sailboat, they
could stop spinning and keep their prizes.
Or, they could press their luck and keep playing for more money.
However, pushing on risks landing on a Whammy square and losing it all.
This game was simple and challenging at the same time.
Contestants would collect as many prizes as possible and try to stay in the game by winning
as many free spins as possible.
Your performance in a trivia round determined your initial spins.
The more questions you answer correctly, the more spins you get.
If Larson was good at anything, it was trivia.
Exploitation After countless hours of watching, analyzing,
and mastering game shows, Larson settled for Press Your Luck for a single reason—he had
learned of a secret weapon, and he believed he knew how to win.
He recorded every episode, studying them relentlessly until he noticed a flaw in the game's design.
Larson noticed that the randomizer wasn't so random after all.
It only had five patterns.
His confidence increased as he memorized the patterns, rewinding the tapes and checking
himself until he had had it down to a science.
Larson would later discover that the fourth and eight squares on the 18-square board always
contained cash prizes and never had a Whammy.
He also learned that the fourth square always had the top dollar values.
His research didn't stop at that, curious for more insights about the game; Larson learned
that contestants were awarded free spins in the second round of the game if they landed
on squares 4 and 8.
This information would prove vital, as Larson could retain control of the board in the second
round of the game for as long as he wanted, and he would do this simply by following the
patterns.
Many may argue that Larson's tactics amounted to cheating, but was he really cheating?
The guy spent countless hours locked up in a room studying the game, just like studying
for a big test.
So, it's more like he exploited weaknesses in the games' set-up and rules, something
that will come up after his big win.
LA Bound Larson felt it was time to head out and "press
his luck."
However, the flight to Los Angeles would cost him everything he had to his name.
He traded his savings for a flight to LA.
However, there is no guarantee that producers would pick him for the show.
He didn't even own appropriate clothes to wear for the cameras!
Thankfully, he found a 65-cent shirt in an LA thrift store, and you can see him wearing
it on the show.
So how does Larson ensure he gets picked to play?
He had watched the recorded episodes countless times and knew what the show's producers were
looking for from the contestants—he was more than ready.
Larson knew looking cocky or over-confident would jeopardize his mission, so he took a
chill pill and acted perky, excited, and self-deprecating during the screening process.
His down-on-his-luck ice cream truck driver from Ohio was the sob story they were looking
for.
Larson continued acting as expected, appearing overly excited, cheering on his fellow competitors,
bouncing on the seat, and lightly taking shots at himself when the host, Peter Tomarken,
asked him personal questions.
During the show, Tomarken asked Larson what he would do with the money if he ever won
it.
Larson jokingly replied, "hopefully, I'll make enough so I won't have to drive the ice
cream truck next summer."
But getting to be part of the show didn't come on a silver plate for Larson, even with
countless hours of study.
Bobby Edwards, the contestant supervisor, appeared suspicious of Larson's motives when
he first interviewed him on May 19th, 1984.
Something about Larson didn't sit well with Bobby, that or he just had an odd gut feeling.
However, Larson's sob story impressed executive producer Bill Carruthers, and he made it as
a contestant on the fourth episode of the taping season airing June 8th, 1984.
Win Streak Once he got on the show, Larson had his eyes
on the price.
But remember, he had to answer several trivia questions first to have a shot at enacting
his plan.
Larson, surprisingly, struggled at trivia, at one point thinking Franklin Roosevelt appeared
on the $50 bill (it's Ulysess S. Grant).
He only buzzed correctly for two of the four trivia questions and earned a total of seven
spins, putting him in third place.
However, being in 3rd allowed Larson to play first at the Big Board.
His pattern play was irregular at first and didn't line up with his proven strategy.
Was he trying to create a diversion, or did nerves get the best of his first few spins?
He hit a Whammy on his very first spin, which isn't particularly bad.
As fate would have it, he never hit a Whammy again.
His pattern strategy worked like a charm.
After a rocky start, Larson worked his way up to $10,000 and a vacation to Kauai.
He also added a sailboat to his pile of winnings.
After landing the sailboat, Larson's pattern of play improved immensely.
With every spin, he hit the target squares, 4 and 8.
Tomarken was stunned by how well Larson was doing and amazed that he never landed on a
whammy.
With his formula now firmly in motion, Larson kept his cool and continued.
He passed more and more milestone markers without using any of his four remaining spins.
And he kept going, first passing the $40,000 mark, then the $50,000 mark, and finally the
$60,000 mark.
Tomarken, fearing Larson would lose all his winnings by landing on a whammy, virtually
begged him to stop spinning, but he wasn't taking any of that advice.
Finally, Larson decided to stop once he hit the $110,000-mark, a run that included 40
spins on the board without hitting a whammy.
Of the 40 spins, 37 landed on cash prizes and free spins, and of the 37 cash landings,
he hit square 4 a total of 20 times.
This included hitting the same square six times in a row.
Larson also hit square 8 fifteen times, including two runs of three in a row.
After announcing he would not proceed with the spins, he raised his arms in triumph,
much to the excitement and amazement of the crowd, who were left with no option but to
award him a standing ovation.
Larson's run of 40 spins was so long that it couldn't fit into a single half-hour episode,
so his record-setting day split into two episodes.
His podium couldn't even display the dollar sign since they were only programmed to display
five digits plus the dollar sign.
His endless run didn't amuse the show producers, but they figured out that it would grab the
headlines and substantially improve the show's ratings if properly managed.
Sore Losers Larson's win didn't sit well with a handful
of individuals, mainly those from the CBS network who accused him of cheating.
Head of CBS daytime program at the time, Michael Brockman, later revealed in a 1994 interview
that something was wrong with Larson's play.
Following a tape review of Larson's record-setting episode, Brockman noticed some discrepancies.
Among them was Larson celebrating after several spins before seeing the prize, meaning he
knew he hit something positive.
They also noticed that Larson acted rather unimpressed by his earlier winning of the
Kauai trip and appeared puzzled as if he was expecting something different.
Following the review, CBS refused to pay Larson his grand prize and accused him of cheating.
However, every game comes with a specific set of rules.
There was nothing in the Press Your Luck rulebook that prohibited the use of patterns or memorization
to win the game.
CBS was forced to pay Larson his winnings.
But because Larson had surpassed the game's winning cap of $25,000, he wasn't allowed
to come back for the next episode, which is customary for winners.
Jeopardy works the same way, just without the prize cap.
Larson's dramatic win forced Press Your Luck producers to change up the formula.
The five original light patterns were changed every month.
By August 1984, the show's producers reprogrammed the board with 32 patterns, a change that
would ensure no other participant could use Larson's trick.
After all the push and pulls, Larson received his money in entirety and paid $30,000 in
taxes.
Aftermath They say luck knocks once at every man's door,
and that's what happened to Larson.
After returning home, Larson thought he could invest his money, putting $30,000 into a real
estate venture.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, so half of his newfound fortune was
gone in an instant.
Then, in November 1984, Larson learned of an Ohio radio show contest.
The hosts would read the serial numbers off $1 bills, and if you happen to have that bill
(like a lottery ticket), you'd win $30,000.
Larson must have seen this as an opportunity to recoup his investment losses, so he withdrew
the rest of his Press Your Luck winnings, about $40,000, in $1 bills.
Tired from staring at dollar bills all day, Larson and his then-girlf-friend went to a
Christmas party.
Sadly, someone broke into his house and made off with all the money.
Larson suspected his girlfriend of orchestrating the break-in and their relationship hit rock
bottom, finally ending with him being kicked out of the house.
Back at square one, Larson hopped from one place to another, searching for a job and
eventually landing a role at Walmart as an assistant manager.
In 1995, Larson packed up and left Ohio.
His friends and family would later discover that the SEC was investigating him for playing
a part in an internet lottery scheme that squeezed over $3 million from 20,000 investors.
Larson, though, was never prosecuted for fraud.
Larson's Legacy Larson passed away in February 1999, yet he
remains a cult hero, and his story has been immortalized in several documentaries.
In 2003, the Game Show Network produced a documentary about Larson's epic win calling
it 'Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal.'
The documentary included original footage from the record-breaking episode.
In 2018, Game Show Network released another documentary called 'Cover Story: The Press
Your Luck Scandal.'
From Larson's story, we can clearly tell that not every hero wears a crown.
However, to call his pay-day a Scandal doesn't seem very fair.
While his other life choices weren't ideal, what he pulled off that fateful day in 1984
proved that anything is possible if you study hard enough.
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