Trivial matters

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

What was the name of the bartender on "The Love Boat"?

Who was Mussolini's right-hand man?

Cartoonist Al Capp died in 1979. Which comic strip did he create?

If answers pop to your mind - or not, but you're curious - then you're a candidate for Trivia Night at Red's.

With its second running March 6 - the perfect night for Oscars trivia while creative juices still were flowing from the Academy Awards extravaganza the night before - Trivia Night at Red's Wines and Blues in downtown Kalispell is showing every sign of being a hit.

Chalk it up to the combined creative spark from a couple of Flathead High School social science teachers and lightning-fast response from Red's.

Genia Allen-Schmid was the real instigator, but Bruce Guthrie was just a half-step behind.

In October and November, Allen-Schmid organized a trivia tournament for Flathead sophomores, juniors and seniors, carried out in the old College Bowl format.

It brought back some good memories. While living and teaching in Spain years ago, she had spent many a lively evening in an Irish pub filled with like-minded locals and internationals enthusiastically pumping out their trivia knowledge as fast as questions were fired at them.

So, she thought, why not recreate it here in Kalispell?

"Bruce said, 'Yeah!'" Allen-Schmid said of her colleague's immediate support. "He's our trivia buff in the school."

Guthrie has a little history of his own. He used to be the College Bowl organizer for schools in Chicago, where the event was elevated to a conference-level competition.

Taverns in the Windy City also tapped into the trivia trend, with several subscribing to the Sprint Co. service aired in nightspots across the United States. So Guthrie patronized the contests, in which tavern teams displaying the greatest speed, most correct answers and highest number of rounds came out on top.

And the two Kalispell teachers were familiar with the weekly trivia night sponsored at Sean Kelly's in Missoula.

"We wanted to do that without having to organize it ourselves," Guthrie admitted.

So Allen-Schmid got in touch with her friend Jana Goodman, co-owner of Red's.

Goodman loved the idea and called Sean Kelly's to see how it's done. A day later, she reported back to the teachers. Right away, she knew she had a winner.

"[Guthrie] said, 'I'll move from Whitefish if Red's starts trivia,'" Goodman said.

Goodman put in her order for trivia questions from Brainstormers, designated the first Monday of every month as Trivia Night at Red's, and threw open the doors Feb. 6.

The place came to life as tables full of people had dinner and joined in on the pencil-and-paper challenge while an announcer read questions over the microphone.

It just happened that the teachers' table did very well.

"You want to have Bruce on your team," Allen-Schmid said, remembering how he popped off answer after answer.

Guthrie took no credit for exceptional intelligence but, after so many years of life experiences, he said something was bound to stick.

"It's a joyful way to employ things in your head," Guthrie said.

The night's success had nothing to do with the teachers, both said. It was the community's enthusiastic turnout, filling tables with groups of friends and co-workers who caught the spirit.

One table of red-clothed buddies called themselves the Democrat Society as they answered questions about literature, pop culture, movies, dictators and even Michael Jackson. The teachers logged in as the Acid Jazz Reflux.

Five or six rounds of questions spread across two or more hours that first night.

"The level of camaraderie was great," Allen-Schmid said. "You meet with your co-workers outside the work setting" and just have fun.

They both praised the symbiotic relationship between Red's and its patrons.

"When a business in your town steps up to do something to enhance your community, [that's great]," Guthrie said.

In keeping with the spirit of the event, he said he resisted the urge to bone up on Oscars facts for last week's Trivia Night.

"Either you know it or you don't," he grinned.

"Throw out any question and I might know something about it," Guthrie said. "It requires no expertise. The more you've been around and the more you opened yourself to the world, the better it goes. That's what it's all about."

Check it out during the next Trivia Night on April 3. The action starts at 7 p.m. As the poster says, "grab your smart friends" and head to Red's.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.