Dr. Joyce Brothers wins $64,000 for boxing expertise
Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers put her boxing trivia to the test and came away with $64,000 on October 27, 1957. Brothers, who was appearing on the game show The $64,000 Challenge, took the top prize, competing against a team of seven boxers on boxing lore. This was her second time winning the program’s top prize—two years earlier she had claimed her first victory (when the show was called The $64,000 Question), also on the subject of boxing.
Brothers’ winning appearance not only garnered her a substantial prize, but also sparked her career as a talk-show psychologist. After her appearance on Challenge, Brothers was picked to co-host WATV’s show, Sports Showcase. In 1958, NBC offered Brothers her own talk show, The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show. The show, which counseled viewers on childrearing, marriage, and sex, was an instant success and soon became syndicated nationally. Brothers soon became a ubiquitous media presence offering her psychological expertise on numerous talk shows and often appearing as a celebrity guest on a variety of game shows.
In 1963, Brothers began writing a monthly column for Good Housekeeping. She also wrote a daily column that at its height was published in more than 350 newspapers, and has written several books, including What Every Woman Should know About Men (1982) and How to Get Whatever You Want Out of Life (1978). Her most personal and popular work was Widow (1990), which described Brothers’ emotional journey after the death of her husband in 1989 after thirty-nine years of marriage.
Sources: New York Times, December 7, 1955, Oct. 28, 1957; Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, pp.190-192.
How to cite this page
Jewish Women's Archive. "Dr. Joyce Brothers wins $64,000 for boxing expertise." (Viewed on December 1, 2023) <https://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/27/1957/joyce-brothers>.
What was the question she answerd?
Her story is more compelling than the subject of George Clooney's Quiz Show - and that was fascinating! Did she indeed win two times? I thought the second was before a court, when she, along with other contestants, had been accused of cheating. She said that appearance was far more stressful than the show as her professional reputation was on the line. Her accomplishment: for women, for fair play, for the small fry against the establishment is nothing less than astounding. When you look at that last question (I'd like to see all the others) it is difficult to imagine anyone answering it correctly. The prosecutors in the court case did their best to break her and miserably failed. That revealed how low and unfair their tactics were.
Umm... she was an 'expert' because the game show was famously rigged, & she was chosen to be an expert in something that seemed outrageous (like boxing) (this is well-known)
She was the funniest finest lady who could really get our attention and make good sense to us. Good bless her and all her good works