Priceless Memories - Bob Barker [74]
These marches and protests took place all across the country, from New York to Beverly Hills, and were huge in drawing attention to fur boycotts. Our rallies were successful beyond our wildest expectations. The nationwide protests got tremendous media attention.
The rallies I attended were organized by Trans-Species Unlimited, and its director Steve Siegel called me “the most vocal spokesman for the antifur movement in the world.” Steve may have exaggerated a bit, but I liked it. There were signs that read “Shame,” “Vanity,” “Fur Is Murder,” and “If You Don’t Buy Them, They Won’t Kill Them.”
The protesters picketed in front of department stores and heckled customers wearing fur coats. There were some heated exchanges. By 1989, there were rallies and protests in over ninety cities across the country on Fur Free Friday. There were coffins filled with furs, there were coats splashed with red paint to symbolize blood, and there were demonstrations in front of department stores from Boston to Denver and from New York and Pennsylvania to Orange County, California. People wore simulated leg traps. The people behind this cause were and are a very passionate group. They carried tape recorders broadcasting the cries of wounded animals. In Europe, I recall, activists spit on people who wore fur coats. It was a turning point, no question.
Over 120 different animal rights groups participated in the marches around the country, and while we focused on fur, the marches and demonstrations were drawing attention to animal cruelty on many levels, including the clubbing of seals, the mistreatment of animals in captivity, and the horrors conducted in the name of medical research. The antifur movement is dear to my heart, but our protests had a ripple effect across all animal rights issues.
As the movement grew and I participated in the marches, I received stacks of mail. We were making a difference. Fur sales dropped. People stopped buying them. We wanted to make people feel embarrassed and humiliated to be seen wearing fur, and we succeeded.
My association with the beauty pageants was a positive one. Though it came to an end because of my concern for animals, that does not mean I did not love the experience with the pageants. I traveled all over the world. I worked with wonderfully dedicated professionals, and beautiful young ladies from many countries of the world. It was a pleasure and an honor to be involved with Miss USA and Miss Universe for so many years.
12
Touching Bases from Happy Gilmore to the Rose Parade
I spent more than fifty years on television, but I appeared in only one film and that was Happy Gilmore. It was released in 1996, and I appear in the movie for only a few minutes, but that brief appearance proved to be hugely popular, especially with young men. I did The Price Is Right for more than ten years after that movie, and to the last day, I never taped a show that someone in the audience did not bring up Happy Gilmore and my role in the picture. I had no idea how popular that film—and that fight—would become.
Happy Gilmore was a comedy starring Adam Sandler. He was not only the star of the picture, he was also a writer and one of the producers. He wrote that bit in the movie for me, without ever telling me or talking with me about it. He just wrote it. In the scene, Adam Sandler’s character, Happy Gilmore, gets into a fight with me on a golf course. It is all played for laughs as he wrote it. When Adam had a finished script, he sent it to my public relations representative, Henri Bollinger, and asked if I would do it.
I read the script, and when I discovered that I won the fight, I knew I wanted to do it. I had studied karate for eight years with Chuck