Goodbye to a Game-Show Giant

AS THE EXUBERANT AND ENDURING HOST OF THE PRICE IS RIGHT, BOB BARKER WAS AN INVALUABLE ENTERTAINER

- TOM GLIATTO, JP MANGALINDAN

1923-2023 ВОВ BARKER

According to The Price Is Right host Bob Barker, the appeal of his classic giveaway show was irresistible. "From cabdrivers to executives, everyone's interested in what things cost," said Barker, who was 99 when he died Aug. 26 at home in Los Angeles. And he knew how to fire up that interest into a price-tag frenzy as the show's contestants excitedly tried to guess the retail value of lawnmowers, appliances, groceries-even a submarine. However, he later recalled, "someone realized that a contestant could go down in their prize and never be heard from again, so we stopped that."