Priceless Memories - Bob Barker [9]
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We also did a lot of outdoor stunts and jokes on the show. There was an office building next to the NBC studio at Sunset and Vine. It was about three stories, I guess. One day we hung a piano up there, coming out of the third-floor window on a cable. Then we had one of our guys on the street, holding a rope. We fixed it so it appeared he was holding up the piano by holding the rope—but of course he wasn’t. A young man came walking down Vine, and our man called out to him, asking him to help him for just one minute. Our man says, “Please, sir, I’m holding that piano up there, and it’s very expensive. Would you please just hold it for one moment while I go into the building for my helper? But for goodness sake, don’t drop it. Don’t leave. Hold that piano.”
The pedestrian said, “Sure.” So he’s holding the rope, and then there’s a little jerk on the rope, and the piano kind of moves, and all of a sudden the whole thing breaks off and the piano comes crashing down to the street. The fellow dropped the rope and took off running up Vine Street as fast as he could go. I’m calling out on a speaker to him, “Hey, it’s Bob Barker. You’re on Truth or Consequences.” But he just kept running and running. We never caught him or located him later, so we couldn’t give him his prize. More’s the pity, but the audience loved it.
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We did another stunt outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre that played splendidly. We had a small truck parked in front of the theater, in the back of which was a cage filled with straw and a sizable chimpanzee. Only it wasn’t a chimpanzee. It was actually a fellow named Janos Prohaska, and he could convince you that you were with a chimp when he was in costume. He was amazing. Anyway, he’s in the cage, and Milt Larsen, one of our writers, was up there on the back of the truck. He held the cage door closed and waited for the right-looking guy to come by, someone perfect for the joke. Here came a man, a big broad-shouldered fellow, who we found out later had played professional football for the Los Angeles Dons. Milt says to the guy, “Excuse me, sir, would you help me for a moment? I have my chimpanzee in here, and this lock isn’t working properly. I have to go into the theater to get my tools. Would you just hold the door shut for me for a couple of moments?”
The man says yes, he’d be happy to. So the former football player gets up there and holds the cage door, and Milt says thank you and goes into the theater. There used to be a restaurant next to Grauman’s, and that’s where I was lying down beside our hidden camera. The cameraman and I are watching this gag unfold. We had hidden microphones all over the place. The chimp appeared to be over in a corner, asleep, but after Milt goes into the theater, the chimp wakes up and starts throwing a little straw around the cage. Now this big virile man holding the cage door starts talking baby talk to the chimp. “That’s all right, baby. Daddy will be right back. Just relax, baby, it’s all right.”
And the chimp moves around a little more and moves toward the door.
The baby talk continues. “It’s all right, baby. Back up, baby. Get back, baby. Daddy will be right back.”
He’s still baby talking to the chimp when all of a sudden the chimp grabs the cage door and flings it open. Now the guy has dropped the baby talk, and he’s yelling, “Back, you son of a [bleep]. Back, you [bleep]! Down!” And the chimp keeps after him, and now the man runs into the theater with the chimp chasing him, and he’s yelling the whole time, “Leave me alone, you [bleep]. Down! Back, you son of a [bleep]! Don’t touch me!” Bleep this and bleep that, and you bleepedy bleep bleep!
I was laughing so hard I couldn’t even get up off the floor. We called it our bleep consequence. We played it on the air just like it happened—with all of the bleeps.
So Milt comes out and tells him it’s all right. It’s not really a chimp. It’s Janos Prohaska pretending to be a chimp. And I’m still laughing on the floor, but I finally crawl out of the hiding