> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Game show winner spent years at SM library and Barnes and Noble - URL: https://www.smdp.com/game-show-winner-spent-years-at-sm-library-and-barnes-and-noble/ - Published: 2003-03-17T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T01:49:37.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Entertainment, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless *Ex-trucker spent years studying trivia in SM* Winning the grand prize on television’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” hasn’t changed Kevin Smith. The 53-year old retired truck driver still rides the bus around town, wears his clothes until they’re nearly worn through and gets a thrill out of obscure documentaries and thick almanacs. A lot of people even mistake the 10th winner of television’s top prize for a homeless person — like a woman downtown last year who stuck a $5 bill in his threadbare coat as she breezed by. Smith hobbled after her on his bad knee and tried to give her money back. He explained that he was just a “normal” guy and didn’t need charitable donations. “But she didn’t believe me,” Smith laughed. “So I pulled out four or five C-notes, and said ‘Look — I’m okay, really.’” The gray-bearded trucker — who says that he comes from “east of the mighty Mississippi” but now calls Los Angeles home — took home the top prize last month on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” after years of tireless study. He said he expects a check for the full $1 million to arrive “anytime between now and April Fool’s Day” and is bracing for his biggest fear — tax day 2004. Appearing calm on-screen, Smith said he walked on to the set of the show confident he had done everything he could to prepare. Adding to his easy demeanor was the fact that Smith was “so damn fatigued” from cramming during the nights leading up to the show. “I just kept studying until I fell asleep in the books,” said Smith, who brought several bags of reference books to his hotel room in New York. “I was so tired I was actually dozing off during the commercial breaks.” Smith began his rigorous game show training four years ago. He spent eight to 10 hours a day, five days a week in his two favorite libraries — Santa Monica and Brentwood. When the libraries turned people out at the end of the day, Smith strolled over to Barnes & Noble on the Third Street Promenade, using the bookstore as an after-hours library. Originally, Smith’s goal was to compete on “Jeopardy!” But the first time he saw “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” more than two years ago, Smith said he knew the all-the-time-you-need format was better suited to his style. “I thought, ‘Hey, that’s a good show. And you don’t have to hit a button like some Pavlovian specimen,’” he said. Living on a Teamster’s pension, Smith said he could never afford to actually buy the books he read at Barnes & Noble. But now, Smith said, he’s paying for the books that interest him — and taking them home. Roy Kotansky, a Barnes & Noble worker who holds a doctorate in classics from the University of Chicago, said Smith always has requests for special orders and questions about obscure texts. “The first time he came into the store, I thought he was kind of a pain,” said Kotansky, who Smith calls his “hero.” “I didn’t know what to think of him because there are a lot of strange people here. But I soon realized that was just his way.” On the TV program, Smith employed the “50/50 lifeline” — when the computer automatically eliminates two wrong answers from the total of four — early on to answer the $8,000 question about the rook piece in the game of chess. He used the “Ask the Audience lifeline,” his second, to poll the audience on a pop culture question: How many children does Ray Romano have on his television show? Smith said pop culture is not his bag, even though he regularly reads People and TV Guide from cover to cover. “You just know the question they ask will be from the one article you skip,” he said. Luckily, the audience came through, correctly answering “three.” Smith saved his final lifeline for near the end. On the $500,000 question he used his “Phone a Friend lifeline” to ask a “very smart” doctor friend to help crack this doozy: “‘And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,’ is inscribed in the lobby of what agency’s headquarters?” A) FBI B) CIA C) Department of Education D) Library of Congress After a long pause, Smith’s friend suggested D. Smith thought a bit longer, not sure if his friend’s suggestion was right. Finally, he remembered something from the only movie he sneaked away from his studies to watch. During a scene of “True Lies,” the characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis pass through the headquarters of the CIA. Suddenly Smith had the answer. He answered B and advanced to the $1 million question. “This is not the message to send to kids,” he said. “I played hooky for two-anda-half hours from my studies and I ended up winning $500,000.” The million-dollar question was a bit anti-climactic for Smith, who said he’s known the answer since he was a young boy. The question: “The U.S. icon ‘Uncle Sam’ was based on Samuel Wilson, who worked during the War of 1812 as a what?” A) Meat inspector B) Mail deliverer C) Historian D) Weapons mechanic Just to be sure he was reading everything correctly, Smith thought over the question at length, letting the crowd grow anxious as the pulse of the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” soundtrack grew more and more intense. Finally he answered “A,” the confetti fell and Smith became the 10th winner of the grand prize on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and the first winner since the show went into syndication last year. After the commotion subsided, Smith’s fatigue suddenly struck and he had to lie down backstage for three hours. “I almost asked for an ambulance I was so tired,” he said. “I could feel my heart — not stop beating — but after it beat, it didn’t feel like it was going to beat again.” Smith has had two “holy grails” in his life. The first is to be as lucky as his father by finding the right girl. He’s still searching. The second, Smith said, was to “make a lot of money” so he could take care of his mother and father, who Smith said gave he and his siblings “aplenty.” Smith’s father passed away before he won the prize, but Smith said he intends to look after his mother and sisters. “I didn’t win this for me,” Smith said. “I’m going to set something up so they’re taken care of.” Smith, a middle child of five, was first attracted to trivia when his older brother gave him a used copy of the “Information Please” almanac when he was seven years old. After graduating from high school, Smith bounced around a few universities “back east,” studying film for a couple of years before dropping out to pursue a 20-year career as a trucker. But rather than spend his time bantering with other truckers on the CB radio, Smith said he rigged up a contraption that received television audio and he spent hours each day listening to various documentaries and specials. “If I hit it right,” Smith said. “I could listen to a documentary or two, four network news shows and then Jay Leno’s monologue — which is basically the same as the news, but funnier.” His career as a trucker came to an early end two years ago, when Smith banged his clutching knee into a closed door at a friend’s house while rushing to fetch two Bud Lights from the refrigerator. Since then, Smith has devoted even more time to his quest for what he calls the “Trivia Tri- Fecta” — being a contestant on both the network and syndicated versions of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and “Jeopardy!” Smith lost an earlier bid at the million dollar prize on the network version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” in April of 2001, when he failed to make it to the “hot seat.” All that’s left now, Smith said, is to conquer “Jeopardy!” But Smith said he was-n’t sure if producers would give him the chance, even after what he called a studio-imposed “one-year game show prohibition” expires. “I think I’ll probably be black-balled,” said Smith. “They’ve never had a million-dollar winner on ‘Jeopardy!’ before.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 17, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031703.pdf?ref=smdp.com)