Millionaire Report from contestant Barbara Vollick

About the taping...

I was too, too tired by the time they got to me. I was the last contestant for the day, waiting NINE hours before being chosen.

By the time I was called, I was very emotionally drained. It is so difficult when you just don't know when you are being called. If they would give us the order right away, you can preserve your energy. Another problem I had was the fact that I am special dietary needs. I eat very small, high proetin meals throughout the day. I brought some protein bars with me, but brilliantly left them at the hotel. No problem, I figured, as during my last trip, they fed us a chicken snack, and I thought I would be all right. However, not this time. There was no snack, only pastries and fresh fruit, which I cannot eat. Thus, six hours without eating was my death knell.

Once I was called and placed back stage, I was shoved all over the place, first here, then this spot then that spot, four different times. I really wanted to vomit. Then came the hot seat, and I wanted to go home! Meredith was great, and we seemed to bond right away. After my $100.00 question, I felt a little better but still so darn unsure of myself. Finally I hit $1000.00 and felt at least I could go home with SOMETHING!



Now for day two.
After day 1, my cousin and I went to dinner, and I tried to relax. I was kicking myself for wasting my Ask the Audience on a question I really knew. Oh, well. I tried to relax and felt that with my pickup time of 12:00 noon, I figured I would be able to relax and get a good night's sleep. Wrong! I had a fitful night and kept dreaming that I was going to crash and burn on the $8,000.00 question! Talk about intuition working! So, lousy night's sleep, but I awoke in time to go get a great omelet for breakfast and get a great dose of protein. Now on to the show!

I was quite anxious over the next couple hours. I could not get that stupid dream (rather nightmare) out of my head about that &*%&^$8,000.00 question. Makeup done, talked a little to the next group of contestants. At least I knew I was going first. Although I could have stayed another night, I needed to get back home, as my work would not allow another day away from home. So I knew the minute my show was over, it was a mad dash back to the hotel, then off to the airport. Another stressor!

It was great seeing Meredith again, as she is so warm and sweet. We just clicked. She wanted to talk about my frog again, but they wanted to make sure I wouldn't get upset. So Trisha got the okay from me. Meredith and I were to walk out together, and as Meredith began her intro, she flubbed it, and we had to start all over again! Groan! After the talk about Charlie Brown, I took a deep breath and prayed that I would know the $4000.00 question. A snap question about a quote by FDR. I started thinking maybe this would be my day, but then came the dreaded $8,000.00 question!

I took a deep breath and felt like crying. A question about the movie, The Flamingo Kid. Of all the movies to ask me about! I am a movie buff, especially in the early 1980s. I saw just about everything and anything, except, of course, THIS MOVIE!! I tried my best not to use a lifeline, because, as far as I was concerned, I needed both my PAF and 50-50 to get past $32,000.00. Of course they edited the time I took to try to figure this out, but I had no resort but to use my PAF. I called John, and although he knew the answer, he was not definite about it. I did not want to flame out, and make my dream come true, so I burned my final lifeline. 50-50 left the same two answers John gave me, and what I thought it might be myself. Thank God I chose the right answer!

My next question dealth with science and math, my two worst subjects in the entire world. However I was able to deduce the answer and felt rather cool about it. At least my brain did not feel as drained as the day before. Now for $32,000.00. What fur is also known as Hudson seal or river mink? Oh crap! Who the heck did this stack? My worst enemy? No lifelines, my stomach doing somersaults. Crap, crap, crap!



I immediately eliminated chinchilla and ermine. These are rich women's furs and they like to brag about what they wear. I was torn between beaver and muskrat. I felt that river mink and Hudson seal had to be a water animal. I was actually talking out my answer for over 15 minutes. I just could not come to any conclusion and felt paralyzed. Then my stomach began to stage World War III, and I needed to run to the bathroom! Is this a horror story or what!! They stopped taping and took me to the bathroom. I thought I was going to vomit, but didn't. Just had a bad stomach. Then all of the stress hit me, and I began to cry. Poor Trisha did not know what to do. I thought Mr. Davies was going to kill me for stopping taping, and was going to toss me off the show! As I finally left the bathroom, I told Trisha that I might as well stop this and just take the $16,000.00. She thought I meant that I did not want to go back on the show, but was not the case. I wanted to finish. She called Davies over, and he proceeded to yak at me negatively, demanding that I get back into the chair and give him an answer either way in the next ten seconds!

I went back to the HS, determined just to walk with the $16,000.00 but the camera went on, and I said one more thing to Meredith and shocked myself and said A- final answer! I put my head down because I thought I threw away $15,000.00, I wanted to walk with at least $32,000.00. Then Meredith gave me the good news and I screamed!



I am a chicken gambler and always play it safe, but not this time! What joy! But when I saw the $64,000 question, I again thought crap! I'm outta here! However what is not seen is as I am deducing the answer, there was a a commercial break after I had the question for about two minutes and Davies came over and told me he wanted answer in the next few SECONDS!!

Report conducted January 2003.