“In the 1960s, nostalgic college students and others began to informally trade questions and answers about the popular culture of their youth. The first known documented labeling of this casual parlor game as “Trivia” was in a Columbia Daily Spectator column published on February 5, 1965.” (Wikipedia)
By the early 70’s “Trivia” had really caught on with my crowd. We prided ourselves on knowing the names of all of the actors in the Superman TV series and, initially, the only way to know this was to watch the credits and remember. No easy way to “look it up.” But by the early-to-mid 70’s trivia books were being published.
“The People’s Almanac was a series of three books published in 1975, 1978 and 1981 by David Wallechinsky and his father Irving Wallace, the novelist responsible for co-authoring the series The Book of Lists. The format of the almanac departs from a conventional almanac and included many obscure facts, lists and esoteric knowledge.” (Wikipedia)
In 1977 the first Book of Lists was published, one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace. Each book contains hundreds of lists (many accompanied by textual explanations) on unusual or obscure topics, for example:
- Famous people who died during sexual intercourse
- The world’s greatest libel suits
- People suspected of being Jack the Ripper
- Worst places to hitchhike
- People misquoted by Ronald Reagan
- Breeds of dogs which bite people the most, and the least
Trivial Pursuit (the game) came out in 1979 but it never caught on with our crew. Too… structured. Our trivia sessions were more free-form, sort of nerd rap.
During my radio period I co-hosted a daily talk show and once a month we brought in a couple of other folks and opened up the phone lines for trivia questions from listeners (Trivia Bowl). I can’t imagine how trivia could still be a thing in a world of Google and mobile phones. But it was fun while it lasted.
