Bob Barker: the unlikeliest of traditions dies with Barker’s real death
“Did you hear that Bob Barker died?”
It was the staple hoax of every drum corps summer. It was a tribute to our gullibility as members with news from the “real world” when we were living within the drum corps bubble. And it was something that spread, annually, across many drum corps each summer. But how did this annual “tradition” get started? Chalk it up to a couple of Bluecoats who wanted to test the waters on how far a rumor could spread in a drum corps summer.
The original hoaxsters were a pair of Bluecoats horn players, who in the summer of 1988 wanted to see how quickly news of an event outside the drum corps summer could spread. David Hayes (Mellophone, 1988-90) says, “being an avid Price is Right fan, the idea of Bob Barker passing away would be innocuous enough.” Hayes also picked on Barker because in 1986 he stopped dying his gray hair prior to the start of taping for the new season. It sparked media concern that perhaps there was an underlying health problem.
David Hayes & Walt Omiecinski in Bluecoats 50th Anniversary Alumni Corps, 2022.
But Barker’s death wasn’t the first rumor the two concocted. Partner-in-hoax, Walt Omiecinski (Mellophone, 1984-88) recalled, “the game wasn’t originally aimed at Bob Barker, we started a ton of rumors about what was for dinner, who beat whom and by how much out west and what absent staff member was missing because they had been fired. Hayes continued, “we brought it up in casual conversation and as the summer went on the word of his fictional passing had actually spread beyond the Bluecoats organization and into other corps.”
Omiecinski added that they would intentionally seed the rumor among members who were easy to pull the gag on and were likely to spread it. With the Price is Right being in reruns for the summer, and before the Internet and cell phones in the hands of members, there was no way for anyone to actually verify the story.
But the Bob Barker ruse was the only one that grew legs and traveled outside the corps. Omiecinski said, “I credit that to how believable a rumor it was, and how much time we spent after our performances wandering around and talking to our friends in Star, Phantom and our friendly rivals from Toledo and Canada.” And those folks would in turn chat with their friends from other corps.
It made real celebrity deaths something of a little suspect. Amy Todt Urenko (Color Guard, 1991) said, “Michael Landon, from Little House on the Prairie, really DID die during tour in '91 and no one would believe it because of the Bob Barker hoax: ‘Yeah, & so did Bob Barker, right?’ “ Dale Criswell (Baritone, 1989-90) said upon hearing the news of the actual death this past weekend, “I fell for this once…”
While time marched on, so did the annual rumor. And when members had cell phones and instant connectivity to the internet, it didn’t stop people from falling for the bit. Sean Cartner (Trumpet, 2009-10) said, “it was alive in the 2009 and 2010 season too, the iPhone was only a few years old and most of us never looked at the news on tour.” The legend grew so strong, that David Holifield (Baritone, 2000-03) may have been the most financially invested in the bit, purchasing a commemorative brick on the Lucas Oil Stadium grounds as it was being built that simply reads “In Memory of Bob Barker, Let’s Go Blue”. Amongst a sea of bricks supportive of the Indianapolis Colts, the drum corps joke will live in perpetuity.
The myth of Bob Barker’s annual death was so widespread across time and corps that not only was his actual death met with skepticism but also with cherished memories. Said Evan Kleve (Soprano 2001, Trumpet 2002), “No celebrity death has ever blown up my Facebook feed like Bob Barker, not even Prince, oh how I love drum corps!” While not in the same vein as the Silver Penny or Six Words, the “tradition” of Bob Barker’s passing was almost as significant to corps legend.
The Bluecoats like to remember our family members who have passed with In Memoriam Leaf Badges. Several alumni, both tongue-in-cheek and seriously, have asked for some sort of appropriate remembrance be done to recall Mr. Barker and his place in corps history. He was as much of our summer as PB&J, Laundry Day and bus breakdowns. J. Brandon Scearce (Baritone, 1992, 1994) poignantly noted, “he had his own six words: ‘have your pets spayed and neutered.’ “ Sounding the final bell, Omiecinski says, “we’ll need to make up a new game now.”
