Some attribute their good fortune to a lucky charm or rabbit’s foot, but Celeste Green credits her recent ride on the money train to rhinestones.
The Naperville resident thanks the patience of her family, especially her 11-year-old son, Justin, who helped her apply tiny rhinestones on the bright green shirt she wore when she won about $46,500 in prizes, including a trip for two to Madrid, Singapore and Los Angeles and a 2012 Ford Focus on “The Price is Right.”
“The night before I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics,” Green said. “I bought all the rhinestones they had. I was doing that at midnight. My son finished it for me. He thinks he is the reason I won.”
The shiny gems on Green’s shirt outlined a phrase suggested by her husband: “The future is bright when the Price is Right.”
Green, a Spanish teacher who grew up watching the game show with her grandmother, said she does not know for certain how she was chosen as a contestant. It could have been the carefully crafted T-shirt, her short interview with the show’s producers or the fact that she stood for six hours straight while others waiting to get on the show sat in bleachers before the Jan. 3 taping.
“For the effort she put in and the excitement she had, I was so happy she got to go on,” Green’s husband Bob said.
And when she was asked to “come on down” as a contestant, Green said she didn’t hear her name being called at first.
“We sat in the audience, and I was the first one called down,” she said. “I didn’t know the show had started. Even on camera, I am looking at the stage, I’m not even excited — I was confused.”
Once she finally cheered her way up to contestants’ row, she lost the first few bids, but then bid the exact price on several appliances. Green moved on up to hug the show’s host Drew Carey and played Pathfinder, a game in which the contestant stands in the middle of a grid of numbers and must step to each digit in the price of a car.
Green technically did not win the car while on the show, but to her surprise, a CBS representative called her three weeks after taping to say they had the incorrect price of the car. Because of this pricing error, she will receive the Ford Focus after all. Green said the news couldn’t have come at a better time since her current car has about 280,000 miles on it.
Celeste Green celebrates with Drew Carey after spinning the wheel. (Submitted photo)
After playing Pathfinder, Green advanced to the Showcase Showdown where she bid on the three trips.
“It’s so confusing because it’s so much noise,” Green said. “People are yelling, and I am trying to zero in on my husband. He put fingers up. I bid $24,000. It was $24,753.”
“Normally, she doesn’t listen to me,” Green’s husband said. “She just places her own bid, but she listened me.”
After she won the Showcase Showdown, Green’s husband and their friends poured on stage to celebrate.
“We were just stunned,” Green’s husband said. “The whole experience was surreal. (Carey) was just a really down-to-earth guy. He was like a regular guy.”
“Everybody on the set, they were just unbelievably nice. (The models) just looked porcelain to me. If I hugged them, they might break. I didn’t want to mess up their hair,” Green said, laughing.
Video: Watch Green’s win on “The Price is Right”
Green said it would take up to 90 days to receive her winnings. Since she has to use the three trips within a year, she has to act fast and is going to Madrid during spring break.
Green had to keep her televised win a secret from her friends and family, including her son Justin and daughter Jada for a month — until the show aired Feb. 6.
“That was torture,” she said. “My kids — they didn’t go on the show. They could tell I was excited.”
While the show has already aired, Green’s friends and family can still nab a couple copies of the show from her husband.
“He’s very proud. He made like 30 copies,” she said, laughing. “ I said, ‘what, are you selling them out of the trunk of your car?’”
Looking into the future, Green said she might try to keep the winning streak alive by one day trying out for “Wheel of Fortune.” But until then, she still is treasuring the memories of her experience and her upcoming vacations.
“My mother’s friends said, ‘I tried to get on that show for 40 years,’” Green said of how she is the envy of all her friends. “It’s second to going to the White House.”
