The Guy Who Hosted the Whammy Show is Dead:
Michael Larson cheated the show for thousands at the height of its popularity. He had nothing better to do then sit at home and tape episodes, memorizing the pattern of the computerized screens and where all the whammies were. When he finally got to be contestant, he made thousands. I’ve never heard what Tomarken thought of this man, if he even had any thoughts on this man. I always held a vague admiration for his willingness to attempt such a wacky ploy.
If the whammies were little devil-type creatures who cackled when you “landed” on them, then Peter Tomarken was an angel disguised as a gameshow host. Tomarken had taken up piloting small planes not to fulfill his thrillseeking jollies, but for a very noble and respectable cause. He was a volunteer for a nonprofit group that transported needy patients, via airlift, to hospitals, free of charge. The plane was headed to the UCLA Medical Center in San Diego when it plunged into the bay. The patient, Luis Garr, actually survived the crash. He had this to say of the experience, “The wings were still floating so I was, `Get out! Get out!’ because the door was still available to get out and nobody came out. So the plane kept going down, down, down.”
In an age where most celebrities die flying their small dangerous plane for no other reason than secretly loving death and needing to smell it at the highest possible altitude (ie., John Denver and JFK, Jr.), Peter Tomarken needs to be remembered as a man who loved life so much that he was willing to risk his own wife’s so that Mexicans without health insurance could be spared expensive medi-vac chopper bills.
A true American heroes. No whammies indeed. There will be no whammies where you are Peter, you rogue of the Pacific coastline, no whammies at all.
