Another fascinating thing to consider is that in the span of about twenty years, we went from major, A-list stars like Jimmy Stewart and Lauren Bacall helping contestants win a few hundred dollars on Password to barely employed actors like Mary Cadorette and Nathan Cook helping contestants win $100,000 on Pyramid.
I'm watching some early I've Got A Secret episodes where Garry Moore always takes pains to mention that of COURSE the celebrity is playing for his favorite charity. A star is not going to sully his hands with the eighty dollar grand prize. But as prize money went up and star power went down, you can bet that a lot of "celebrities" were looking very greedily at the money they were winning for other people!
