That show was a panel show. To Tell the Truth featured someone of renown and two people pretending to be him/her. Four show-biz people on the panel had to guess which one was the real person.
The show would have been a disaster if the two phoneys were left to wing it. They got some help. One of the show’s staff members was Willie Stein, a former songwriter. He explained to his local newspaper how they found the fakes. This story is from the Yonkers Herald-Statesman, October 25, 1960.
Willie Stein Seeks 'To Tell The Truth' But Teaches Six Persons A Week To Lie
By HONEY JOAN ALBERT
For a man who pledges to tell the truth, Willie Stein is in a funny business. As associate producer of CBS TV'S panel show "To Tell The Truth," it's his job to teach six people a week to lie about everything they can.
It's not really as bad as it sounds because it's all a game and everybody knows it — everybody except Polly Bergen, Tom Poston, Kitty Carlyle and Don Ameche. They're the panelists on the show who try to guess who's what he says he is and who isn't. The whole idea comes across better in the watching than in the telling.
"Many odd things have happened to me looking for imposters," said Mr. Stein, who lives at 15 Manor House Drive, Dobbs Ferry. "If I see someone walking down the street, or just sitting quietly in the subway, I'll approach him and tell him I can use him on television."The "approach" system doesn't always work so well. Once he saw a lady boarding a bus he thought would be perfect as "a side partner for a store detective. When he told her so, she headed for the policeman on the corner. Mr. Stein walked quickly in the other direction.
Another time, he almost followed a girl into the locker room of Hunter College for Women in New York City. This time a policeman volunteered his services without ever, being asked. It didn't take too long before Mr. Stein began to carry credentials and avoid the line, "Do you want to be on television?"
"Finding people, briefing them, and preparing them for the show is a very intricate business," he explained. "We work only from week to week because it takes that long- to get everything in readiness."
The week's show has its beginnings on Wednesday and Thursday evenings when the staff gathers to submit names of the central or "real" characters. People will write in to make themselves available but this practice is not encouraged as it is on Truth's sister shows, "I've Got a Secret," and "What's My Line."
From Magazines, Newspapers
"A man might write that he shot down 30 Japanese planes in the war, but we once had on the show a man who shot 3,000 enemy soldiers and received the Congressional Medal of Honor. "We find out about people like this from magazines and newspapers, Mr. Stein explained.
Finding people in the flesh isn't so hard to do because the staff will make it its business to gather in the places which will attract the type of person needed. An "outdoorsy" person with a ruddy complexion might best be found at a football game, for example. "When we set out to select the three spots each, week from the big pot. we must remember that we're aiming for balance and appeal for all," Mr. Stein cautioned. If we have a serious personality we'll balance him with a man in the next spot who will appear amusing to the audience. There are 750 people who will be watching in the studio."
The next step for Mr. Stein is to draw up a list of the kind of people he needs, with all the physical characteristics carefully stated. Then the staff is on its own.
Interviews Thousands
All day Monday and Tuesday, he interviews people five or ten minutes at a time—so he must size them up accurately and quickly. He sees approximately 50 people a week but the staff takes pictures of each prospective contestant so the files are jammed with thousands of photos. Mr. Stein, in the four years he's been with the show, estimates that the number of candidates he's spoken with has also run into the thousands. Sizing them up gets more accurate all the time.
"The first quality I look for, even before appearance, is intelligence," said Mr. Stein. "I try to determine accent and background also. Similarity to the essential character isn't important, in fact, we stay away from people who are too similar."
Tuesday evening, the wrangling begins again, not for the central characters who have already been chosen, but for the imposters. After they are decided upon, Wednesday is set aside for the briefing sessions. The central character will lecture on his profession to the others, and Mr. Stein, thanks to a bout with the encyclopedia the night before, will fill the gaps. He learns a lot of things that way.
Never Reject A Candidate
"We never totally reject any one candidate," Mr. Stein said. "If we don't use someone for one show, we'll hold him over for another so that everyone who comes to us may eventually be used." He recalled the case of one girl initially selected for a partner to a champion swimmer. She was rejected four more times and finally showed up as a dog-shower.
Friday, the show is ready to go with everyone supposedly knowing how to say that he is what he isn't, with a straight face and a head filled with details about someone else's life. It's a foregone conclusion that every contestant has a good memory.
Everyone except a memory expert, that is. Once Mr. Stein chose one as a partner to a spy in World War II. The expert called before show time to say he had forgotten where he was supposed to be and what time he should be there.
"Goofs" Could Fill Book
The "goofs" that have occured on the show could fill a book. Once a girl who had to stand on a platform wailed that she was afraid of heights, with some minutes to go for show time. Mr. Stein told her to take off her high heels and march — she did — trembling, but the panelists never knew.
"Another time, we had on a Siamese princess with a hard name to pronounce. The first imposter stumbled, the real princess had the intelligence to stumble too, and the third panelist did the same. The show was saved," Mr. Stein said.
Rarely do people refuse to be a contestant, unless business committments prevent. They can win up to $333 and no one goes home with less than $50 because each time a panelist casts an incorrect vote, it's $250 for them. It pays to be a convincing liar.
In recent shows, Mr. Stein has lined up such teams as the man in charge of the animal quarantine station with a carpet designer and a cocoa bean buyer, a baseball trainer with an ice skating instructor and a parking lot owner, and a collector of funds for an advancement society and Garry Moore's assistant.
Records 'Private Hits'
Mr. Stein isn't new to television, or even radio. He had experience in both media as a parody and special material writer for some five shows in 10 years. And most people remember Nat King Cole's "Orange Colored Sky" which he penned 10 years ago. He can claim the credit for 60 records, even though he describes them as "private hits."
Larry, 7, and Judy, 16 months, may well follow in their dad's footsteps. He's convinced they have an ear for music. He's proud of them and of his wife, Ruth, whom he married 12 years ago. They're looking for a new home in the vicinity, and they'll probably take with them their "go away" mat, but they don't mean it.
Mr. Stein was born in New York City, and earned his degree in advertising from night school at City College of New York. Dobbs Ferry residents four years, the Steins are active in the Parent-Teachers Association, the Greenburgh Hebrew Center, and participate in community drives. Mrs. Stein is a member of Hadassah and a recent chairman of the cancer drive.
Stein once told New York magazine how he almost tackled a 6-foot-10 man on Lexington Avenue, and asked him if he could come on the show as an imposter for NBA star George Mikan. The man replied “I am George Mikan.”
He left the show some years before it went off the air (temporarily) in 1968. Among his later stops was the daytime version of the David Letterman Show. Stein died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 92.
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