D.J., soldier, gift shop owner is drawn to Darin
Editor's note: Sixth in a series about First Night performers.
This store owner will perform as Bobby Darin for the Youngstown celebration.
By KATIE LIBECCO
VINDY.COM CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Bob Barko Jr. lives for nostalgia.
He's run Steel Town Studios, a gift shop that specializes in Youngstown pop culture, for six years. The store, at 8 N. Phelps St., sells Youngstown souvenirs and has many 20th-century artifacts of area history.
"Youngstowners are nostalgic and sentimental; so am I. It's a perfect fit," said Barko, 37.
So it only makes sense that Barko would carry that love for history to his performing.
He'll perform at the PharMor Center, 20 Federal Plaza, at 11 p.m. New Year's Eve as part of the First Night Youngstown New Year's Eve celebration. His gallery, Steel Town Studios, will also be open from 6 to 10 p.m. that night.
Barko's performing began by answering an advertisement in the newspaper for a disc jockey at The Boathouse in Boardman. When he worked there, karaoke was becoming more popular in the Mahoning Valley. While in Japan with the military, Barko had experienced karaoke a number of times and enjoyed singing.
"DJ'ing got old. But singing was fun," Barko said.
He and a friend sang Darin's "Mack the Knife," but he began experimenting with some of the other Darin songs offered at karaoke venues.
"He's in my range and I always liked that era," Barko said.
Barko said he had known "a little" about Darin, but learned more when the movie "Beyond the Sea," written, directed by and starring Kevin Spacey, was released in 2004. Darin died at age 37.
"[Darin] just died way too young. He's one of those people that you have to think, 'If they were alive, where the heck would they be today?" Barko said.
Barko said he began working on a Darin tribute show in 2004 and approached coordinators of a charity car show that he knew would have an Elvis impersonator to see if he could perform. They agreed, but Barko's practice for his first performance was cut short when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
"It was the night of Labor Day and I got a call from my National Guard Unit," Barko said.
Barko was in the Ohio Army National Guard for 11 years. He now is a member of the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, working in public affairs.
He said wore headphones and practiced quietly when he got a chance, while documenting the Katrina recovery efforts in the South for the Air Force and base publications.
"I got back in time to do the benefit show in Austintown," Barko said. "But, as you could expect, it obviously wasn't as polished as it could have been."
The next chance for him to perform the Darin tribute was at First Night Youngstown last year, where he sang outside "for easy escape," he said.
Although this is only his second year as a First Night performer, he has been involved with the event since he designed the logo for First Night 2002, in December 2001.
Barko said he keeps Steel Town Studios open late for downtown visitors. The store is part gift shop, part Youngstown museum.
"[Steel Town Studios] started out as doing graphic design, with this Youngstown thing on the side. But the Youngstown pop culture thing started taking on a life of its own," Barko said.
He did his first Youngstown print in 1996, followed by the first of his three Idora Park prints, in 1997.
His most recent release is inspired by the Chevrolet Centre. Barko said the painting has a theme similar to murals created as a part of the Works Progress Administration, featuring three separate panels to tell the story of the facility. The print was released Dec. 2 at the Butler Institute of American Art's 36th Annual American Holiday Arts and Craft Show at the Chevy.
Barko sells apparel and memorabilia featuring Youngstown icons and sayings. His most popular item is a bumper sticker he created that reads simply, "YO," and in smaller print below, "Youngstown, Ohio", similar to the popular "OBX" Outer Banks stickers.
Barko said the artifacts in the store, like Isaly's milk jars and pieces of Idora Park's ackrabbit roller coaster were not his original idea. In fact, he said, the collection of pieces of Youngstown's history came about as an accident while researching places that appeared in his paintings.
"As it turns out, there's always a story. I found that people would have stuff in boxes, drawers, chests or in attics that they wanted to share with everybody, but didn't have a place," Barko said.
As a result, many of the items in the gallery are on loan or are donations from local residents. Other items came from investigating the local venues himself, finding small pieces of nostalgia on the way. But, Barko said, none of the antiques part of the displays are for sale.
More about Steel Town Studios is available by & lt;a href="http://www.steeltownstudios.com" & gt;clicking here. & lt;/a & gt;
klibecco@vindy.com
Photo by Katie Libecco