President Clinton’s campaign used the phrase on many occasions in his 1992 run for office. It followed a campaign stop in Peoria by President Reagan on behalf of then-Congressman Bob Michel and was titled, naturally, “Does it Play in Peoria?” In 1982, an article in Time magazine addressed the “highest unemployment rate in 42 years” and stated that “recovery remains elusive”-words with an all-too-familiar ring.
The phrase has been used in reference to many politicians since the Nixon Administration. In a 1999 Journal Star article, he’s quoted as saying, “‘In some conversation or another in the White House…I said, ‘How is this going to play in Peoria?’ meaning how is the average American going to react to this?” The same article notes that Tom Brokaw came to East Peoria in 1992 to host NBC Nightly News, using the Peoria skyline as a backdrop when “gauging the city’s political climate in advance of that fall’s presidential election.” John Ehrlichman was credited with reviving the phrase while working in the Nixon White House in the early 1970s. Not only was Peoria a test market for consumer products, it was-and remains-an ideal place to take the “pulse of the nation” on political campaigns and proposed legislation. Pampers’ disposable diapers, McDonald’s’ McRib sandwich and New Coke were all marketed in Peoria before being sold across the nation. “Perhaps most important,” notes Wikipedia, “at one time Peoria closely reflected the diversity of the United States population in terms of race, income, age, rural and business interests, educational background and other key criteria.” For this reason, not only was Peoria often the first stop on show tours, in the 1960s and ‘70s it became one of the nation’s strongest test markets for consumer products. It is located in the heart of Illinois as well as the heart of the nation. The success of this resilient phrase can be attributed to the fact that the population of Peoria was fairly representative of the country as a whole.
Bill Adams asserted in a 1989 Journal Star column that if a show did “bomb in Peoria,” one of several things happened: “The production was either rewritten, recast or otherwise improved, or it was canceled altogether.” Wikipedia explains that phrases like ‘It bombed in Peoria’ had recognizable meaning from one coast to the other.
This was ostensibly because Peoria was a tough audience. In the vaudeville era, it was believed that if an act received good reviews in Peoria, it would do well nationwide. While no one can say for certain who coined the expression, it was comedian Groucho Marx who made it popular. Dating to the vaudeville era-the early 1880s through the early 1930s-the popular saying has retained its meaning for over a century. Google the phrase “Will it play in Peoria?”, and you’ll get more than a million results.
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