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"To Tell The Truth": How did one get to be an imposter?

I

ixnay

I always wondered if TTTT pulled their imposters off the street for their 5 minutes of fame before returning them to obscurity. (Finding the "central characters" [the non-imposters] was no doubt more of a science. :))

Will the real TTTT historian at R-I please stand up... and educate us on the imposter selection process? ;D

ixnay
 
Pulling people off the street, if they could pass for
whatever the "central character" was, was basically
the way they did it. New Yorkers became accustomed
to "TTTT" casting people coming up to them and inviting
them to be on the show. Impostors were given an
extensive briefing by the truth-teller, but were also told
to hold onto basic facts (names of relatives, their birthday,
etc.) in case they blanked; after all, the impostors could
say anything, but the "central characters" had to tell the
truth or forfeit their cash winnings.
 
I wonder if aspiring actors/actresses/musicians applied for impostor gigs, too. I've seen a You Tube clip were Rex Reed, the movie critic, was one of the fakes.
 
And when their 15 minutes of impersonation were over they were no longer imposters.
 
Every so often they'd have a hidden "central character" who wore a mask over his or her head because it was either someone who might be recognized (someone who'd made news and been seen on TV) or someone who had to hide his appearance out of concern for his safety. One of those was a man who had been a double agent. a Polish secret agent who defected to the West and would only tell his story on TV if he wore a bag over his head. All the imposters had to sound like the real spy--who spoke English fluently but, as you might expect, with a Polish accent.

TV humorist and writer Henry Morgan, who was a fulltime panelist on another Goodson-Todman game show (I've Got A Secret), was one of the imposters. He did a good enough impression of a Polish accent that he got a couple of votes from the panel.
 
Just as on the day Dorothy Kilgallen died, she appeared on
"TTTT" pretending to be Joan Crawford (the show had been
taped a few days earlier), and on CBS's 3:25 5-minute newscast,
Douglas Edwards broke the news that Kilgallen had died during the
night.
 
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