11mo ago

TIL That the Million Dollar 1988 McDonalds record winner was 13, had his mom claim it, she squandered a good chunk of it, had her BF steal what was left, lost his mom 10 years later,

www.vice.com

What Happened to the Winner of McDonald's $1 Million Flexi-Disc Contest?

16 comments

Well that was a truly sad story.
- Yeah, the article says
  What transpired in the nearly 30 years since the story unfolded is bittersweet
  and I was waiting for the sweet part. Turns out, apart from his mum's good intentions, everything in the story's pretty much on the bitter side.
  
  Like a lemonaide made from lemon juice, and just a dash of sugar......like literally a dash. Legally still bittersweet, but in reality just sour.
I can’t be sure it’s all true, but here’s what I heard: Some years after winning the money, Price sold the Price Is Right at a loss. Some say family members stole money from her. Some say she just didn’t know how to handle money, and that she took too many lavish vacations—to Dollywood, Guatemala, Hawaii, and Oklahoma City. She sold the annuity to get a larger lump sum up-front in lieu of regular payments. Her marriage fell apart, and one day, she awoke to find a boyfriend had cleaned out both of her bank accounts and left town, never to return.
- Ah yes, those lavish Oklahoma City vacations
  
  I think Oklahoma City has a pretty big casino and nightlife scene.
- Who the fuck vacations to Oklahoma City??? Sorry Oklahoma, but there is never any reason for an outsider to ever want to visit besides a 1 day sports event. If you didn't have football, you'd be as irrelevant as Albuquerque. But at least Weird Al made a song about Albuquerque.
  
  Oklahoma can go fuck itself but Albuquerque and new Mexico in general is awesome. We have unique food,culture and a environment that goes from arrid desert to high altitude cities. Never compare new Mexico to any shit hole city ever
Did they like not keep track of the winning record in some way? How did it end up being fake at the end?
- Just taking a shot in the dark, but the photo in the article suggests it was kept in between pages of a binder. Warm climate, cheap materials, and under pressure makes me feel the disc is just degraded not fake. Regular Vinyl can get easily damaged, I doubt a cheapo mini version would survive decades with absolutely no protection.
  
  Also possible that there may have been multiple in the household if so many were printed and mailed out? Maybe they turned the real one in for the prize money and then kept a non-winning one in a scrap book? Memories over time are weird so they could've convinced themselves that they kept the real one
  
  Makes sense - the article says it's just a regular piece of plastic, but it's printed and clearly isn't just a copy (unless you can photocopy onto plastic?)
- I'm guessing since they were super cheap and made to be disposable, they were not made to last.

16 comments