"Gameshow Guru"  
John LaMantia has always wanted to be on a game show, any game show. He says the problem with most of them is that hopefuls have to travel to where the show is filmed, or wait for a tryout in a city where the number of contestants is often limited. Then came "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?"

Now, all John had to do was dial a number and get the right answers.
"This is all blind, which is good for me," laughed John. "I didn't have to put on an act at a tryout for a show. It was all skill. If you did these things, you'd get on the show. No politics to hamper your chances." So John did those things and wound up in New York with his wife.

He watched the first contestant win $250,000 before stepping down from the hot seat, leaving it empty and ready for John.

Put the following celebrities in the order in which they first hosted Academy Awards, from earliest to most recent.

  • A. Johnny Carson
  • B. Billy Crystal
  • C. Bob Hope
  • D. Whoopi Goldberg
That fast finger question landed John in the seat across from Regis.

"I was reasonably calm, some said boring," said John, who wasn't emotional on the show. "I had my game face on. I was concentrating on the questions." That concentration seemed to pay off. John made it through the first 12 questions without having to use a lifeline. He said keeping focused on the questions kept him from becoming a nervous wreck. But, it didn't help his wife, Ingrid.

"They showed her after every question," said John. "She was almost in tears toward the end." The end was the $250,000 question.

Upon his marriage in 1999, what title was given to England's Prince Edward?
  • A. Earl of York
  • B. Earl of Wessex
  • C. Earl of Windsor
  • D. Earl of Sussex
John wasn't sure, so he used a 50/50 lifeline. He still didn't know, so he polled the audience. The results were close 57-43%. Still uncertain, he used the last lifeline to call his father-in-law. His father sided with 43% of the audience, but also wasn't sure.

"I didn't want to risk $93,000," said John, who decided to walk away with a $125,000. The correct answer was "B". John and his wife, who announced that she was expecting a third child on the national TV show, headed back to Chicago.

On their way home, they stopped off at a Circuit City so they could catch Millionaire. John watched himself win $125,000 on about a dozen TV screens. He says no one at the store put two and two together and realized that he was the contestant, and his wife was the nervous wreck in the audience. And, no, not a single salesperson tried to sell him a TV, although someone probably should have considering he'd just won a lot of money.

Meanwhile, LaMantia's children were watching the show from home. Only his six-year-old daughter was able to follow along.

"We had our in-laws stay with the kids. They told me she cried when I quit," said John. "Then somebody explained how many Barbies she could get (with what I'd won). She was happy after that." Who wouldn't be? After all, with $125,000 you can buy a lot of Barbies.