To Tell the Truth Another part of the Committee for Reunion with England’s saga also had a connection with the University of Pennsylvania. In John’s senior year at Penn, he lived in the Stouffer College House and made a number of close friends. Among them was Nina Zirato, whose father, Bruno Zirato, Jr., was the producer for the syndicated TV game show To Tell the Truth. In July, after the appearance of the Committee’s ad on the back cover of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the coverage in the New York Times, Bruno contacted John about appearing on To Tell the Truth as a 20th Century Tory and Co-Chairman of the Committee for Reunion with England. The show provided airfare to Manhattan, plus two nights in a hotel near the CBS studios at 51 W. 52nd St., where the syndicated game show was recorded. My memory of all this is a bit fuzzy, as it was a whirlwind two days: flying to JFK Airport, taxi to Manhattan, checking in at the hotel, and then going to CBS for the recording. I believe I stayed at the Warwick Hotel, located at 65 W. 54th St., two blocks north of the CBS Building. The Warwick was a grand old hotel first opened in 1927, and it was showing its age in 1975. I do remember going to the hotel’s bar, only to discover that the dress code required a blazer, which I was not wearing on a hot, humid July evening. Apparently, it was not unusual for customers to appear sans jacket, as the maitre d’ quickly offered me a spare jacket and ushered me to the bar. My memory of the recording of the episode is also a bit fuzzy. I don’t believe that the regular host, Gary Moore, was there for my episode. I think the substitute host was the former baseball player Joe Garagiola. I can’t remember who all the celebrity panelists were, but I do distinctly remember Kitty Carlisle and Bill Cullen being members of the four-person panel. I had never been in a TV studio before, so there was a great swirl of things to observe. What sticks most with me was learning that a full week of episodes was shot in one day, but that to create the illusion that each show was produced on a different day, the celebrity panelists changed their attire in the breaks between recording each episode. As fans of the old game show will remember, the game consisted of the panelists trying to determine which one of three contestants was telling the truth about his profession, hobby, or some other characteristic that gave him 15-minutes of fame (actually it was less than 10 minutes). Since I was the one “telling the truth,” my goal was to give honest but vague answers to the questions. I’m afraid I ended up being too convincing, as all four panelists picked me as the Tory. (I seem to recall that several panelists recognized one of the imposters as the son of Dorothy Kilgallen, who had been a well-known Broadway columnist and a regular on another famed game show, What’s My Line?) Since I was recognized as the truth-teller, I did not receive a cash prize. I did receive several product consolation prizes, which were shipped to me later in the year. I remember one of the prizes being a year’s supply of Turtle car wax, which did me little good as I did not own a car. I never saw the episode of To Tell the Truth on which I appeared. It was in afternoon syndication, and I was never at home when the program ran on Richmond television. I have searched in vain for a recording of the program. I tried first at the Paley Center for Media (formerly known at the Museum of Television & Radio), which is located at 25 W. 52nd St., just down the block from the CBS building and next door to the 21 Club restaurant. On our once frequent trips to Manhattan, my wife and I would always visit the Paley Center to watch their recordings of old TV shows, but their holdings did not include To Tell the Truth from that portion of 1975. I have also searched in vain on YouTube, which does have many older episodes of the game show. Next: Final Coverage