MovieChat Forums > Real Genius (1985) Discussion > Did anyone else figure...

Did anyone else figure...

posted 8 years ago by davetruman68
10 replies | jump to latest

Did anyone else figure out if it was feasible for Laslo to send in all those entries and win 35% of the prizes?

Contests like that rule that you can summit as many entries as you want but you have to have them handwritten. IF his machine makes it look like he hand wrote all of them then he didn't break any rules.

[–] davetruman68 8 years ago

I didn't think it was feasible, because the postage even back then would have been very expensive (for all the entries). Back then it was $.21 for the 1st ounce.

[–] rufusrawls 8 years ago

might be allot of money for postage but his winnings would cover it

[–] davetruman68 8 years ago

Considering all the taxes you have to pay on the winnings too, I think it may just end up a push.

[–] rufusrawls 8 years ago

yea the taxes part suck, but there is a story where a bunch of people at a prestigious school did the same thing in real life. I'm sure Lazo ended up only taking home 80% of what he won.

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 5 years ago

Was Lazlo paying the postage or was the university unwittingly paying it? Also I don't think it has to be handwritten just that each entry must be sent individually. You cant pack ten into a single envelope.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Assuming that Laslo paid post card rate per entry, it would have cost $231,000 for postage alone in 1985.

[–] ExTechOp (2747) 5 years ago

I know a guy from the CalTech frat that actually pulled off that stunt. They're the reason why entries have to handwritten on official entry forms (they'd printed their entries on dot matrix computer paper - that's how long ago it was).

They didn't have to mail in anything, though - there were bins at every McDonald's where you could fill out and drop off entries, so they just stuffed them all with their own homemade entry forms.

Looked like Lazlo was doing the same thing - generating "handwritten" entries with his machine and dropping them off by the box-load.

The CalTech frat boys didn't win an RV, but they won a TV set and a bunch of other appliances for their frat house.

[–] Bloodworth79 (5569) 5 years ago

Do we know what he got...did be win a winnebago? And a trailer full of stuff.

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 3 years ago

I wasn't aware you could deliver entries like that by hand? Makes more sense than paying all the postage.