Edwin "Ed" Goodgold (died May 7, 2021) was an American writer, music industry executive, academic administrator. He is known for coining the term "

trivia Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. It can be contrasted with general knowledge and common sense. Latin Etymology The ancient Romans used the word ''triviae'' to describe where one road split or forke ...

" in 1965. He was also the first manager of

Sha Na Na Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll doo-wop group. Formed in 1969, but performing a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs, it simultaneously revived and parodied the music and the New York street culture of the 1950s. After ga ...

Biography

Goodgold was born in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He attended

Samuel J. Tilden High School Samuel J. Tilden High School is a New York City public high school in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City. It was named for Samuel J. Tilden, the former governor of New York State and presidential candidate who, although carryin ...

and graduated from Columbia College in 1965. Goodgold was a history major at Columbia and was features editor of the ''

Columbia Daily Spectator The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' (known colloquially as the ''Spec'') is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after '' The Harvard Crimson'', and ha ...

'', where he introduced the term "trivia" in a February 25, 1965 article, saying that “Trivia is a game played by countless young adults, who on the one hand realize they have misspent their youth and yet, on the other hand, do not want to let go of it." In trivia, "participants try to stump their opponents with the most minute details of shared childhood experiences," he wrote. At Columbia, Goodgold held Q&A sessions in dorm lounges with his classmates, trading questions about popular culture of their youth, and hosted a late-night call-in trivia show on WKCR-FM. He also created one of the first intercollegiate Quiz bowls open to the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

and the Seven Sisters colleges in October 1965 and February 1967. Goodgold also wrote the 1966 book,''Trivia,'' with Dan Carlinsky, introducing the subject to a national audience. After college, Goodgold studied at the

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in ...

and was manager for the rock-and-roll group

. He then served as Americas manager for the English rock band

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

. In 1992, Goodgold retired from his music industry career and took up an administrative position in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

as assistant to the associate dean. Goodgold died on May 7, 2021, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodgold, Ed 20th-century births 2021 deaths American writers Sha Na Na members Columbia College (New York) alumni New York University School of Law alumni New York University people Trivia People from Brooklyn