Bob Barker Through the Years: From Radio Host to ‘The Price Is Right’ Icon
usmagazine.comFrom radio to television, Bob Barker is an icon in the entertainment industry and a household name among generations.Decades before becoming a beloved game show host, Barker was born in Washington State where his father, Byron John Barker, worked as a high line electrician.
After spending his formative years on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota with his mother, Matilda “Tilly” Valandra, Barker and his mom moved to Missouri after she remarried.While in high school, Barker attended an Ella Fitzgerald concert where he met his future wife, Dorothy Jo Gideon.
The two began dating when he was 15 and married in 1945 while he was on leave from the United States Navy Reserve. At the time, Barker wanted to be a professional athlete. “My dream was to pitch for the St.
Louis Cardinals,” he told the Television Academy Foundation in March 2008. “Only one thing prevented it. A total lack of talent.”After graduating from college, he and Gideon lived in Florida, where he began his career in entertainment as an announcer for a Palm Beach radio station.
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