Senior Wins Thousands on ‘Millionaire’

For Scott A. Golder ’03, it came down to Anne of Green Gables and his quest for $1 million.

Golder, who competed on an episode of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” that aired Nov. 4 and 5, walked away with $16,000 after declining to answer the question, “Where were Lucy Maud Montgomery’s famous Anne of Green Gables books set?”

Golder auditioned to compete on the show last year and got a call from the Millionaire program this summer inviting him to New York.

“It was a lot of fun. I wasn’t nervous,” he said. “They paid for everything, of course.”

Golder successfully answered nine of the show’s 16 questions, but had used up his lifelines when he was faced with the question on Anne of Green Gables.

If Golder had chosen to answer, he could have moved from his $16,000 stockpile to $32,000. But he weighed his options—an incorrect answer would mean a $1,000 prize and not answering at all would let him leave with his $16,000.

“I stopped at that point. I had thought I knew the answer, but I don’t know, I figured I had a 75 percent shot of getting that right, and it wasn’t worth risking the 16K. I tried to play as conservatively as possible,” Golder said.

Anne of Green Gables, a series of books about an orphan girl, is set on Canada’s Prince Edward Island.

“I would’ve gotten it right. But I wouldn’t have wanted to risk it guessing on that,” Golder said.

Still, Golder is philosophical about his unsuccessful attempt to become a millionaire.

“Even if you go home with nothing, you’re still a winner. Even if you go home winning very little, it’s still a victory,” Golder said.

“I walked in there cold,” he continued. “There’s really not a lot of preparing you can do. I had gotten a couple of trivia books, but I ended up not even looking at them. There’s no way you can cover enough material to make it help.”

Golder, a linguistics concentrator, said he had only seen the show a few times before competing on it.

The show is syndicated on UPN in the Boston area—while it is now hosted by Meredith Villera instead of Regis Philbin, the ultimate prize is still $1 million.

The segment was taped in mid-August, but Golder had to wait until the show’s recent airing to taste his fame.

While he said not many of his friends from Harvard happened to see him on TV, his girlfriend Angie M. Boyce ’03 shared the experience with him.

“It was really exciting,” said Boyce, who accompanied Golder to the show’s taping. “I was sitting in the second row. I could’ve answered some of the questions, but some of them I would’ve had no idea. The questions are a lot harder now than they were when Regis was hosting.”

Boyce said the atmosphere at the studio made her unexpectedly anxious.

“I was nervous for him—I didn’t really get nervous until right before he got on. Scott wasn’t nervous at all until the very morning of, and then I think it hit him,” Boyce said.

Golder said he is still waiting for a worthy cause before spending his $16,000.

“I don’t want to just go and blow it on something,” Golder said.