Celebrant Pam Vetter


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Celebrity Death Beeper : Beep…Beep…Beep… "Oh, my! Who died?"

Pam Vetter
December 10, 2008

American Chronicle Article

There is a web site with nearly 23,000 subscribers who want to be notified when celebrities die.

Welcome to the Celebrity Death Beeper.

"I am always trying to come up with web site ideas with my friends. In October 1999, my friend Jon Smith and I were watching TV when we saw news of the death of a celebrity--I don't remember who it was. Jon said simply 'celebrity death beeper' and that was all it took. I told him it was a good idea but we didn't discuss it. We both just nodded. In about 8 hours, I had completed the first version of the software. A few other friends besides Jon are considered founders because of their support," webmaster Tony Orciuoli explained. "It was one or two guys at first. As the idea got out to others, I received lots of encouragement as well as some valuable ideas and resources. That being said, I am the sole designer, creator, and maintainer of the site."

Celebrity Death Beeper has worldwide reach, although 89% of its members are from the United States, "because the Celebrity Death Beeper software scans U.S. news sites."

When it comes to featuring significant deaths, Celebrity Death Beeper is selective. "If the Celebrity Death Beeper sent out an email for every person that showed up in the news, very few people would use our service. You wouldn't want to receive that many emails. The Celebrity Death Beeper software includes hundreds of filters to weed out not so famous people. This process is necessarily subjective. People sometimes get surprisingly emotional when I write back that the celebrity in question never appeared in the national news. I've had people write in about local news anchors, city councilmen, and friends. You can't make everyone happy."

Celebrity Death Beeper does receive tips about breaking news when a celebrity dies.

"One guy writes in regularly and beats the Associated Press wire by hours. I don't know how he does it," Tony admits. "As far as the best tip, I guess it might be when friends of Dr. Albert Hoffman, who first synthesized LSD, let me know at least a day before any national news sources reported it. I've gotten tips about some very famous celebrities hours before it was widely reported. Someone close to the person like, let's say, a lawyer will occasionally drop me an email. I'd rather not say which celebrities to protect my sources, plus I really can't remember which celebrities were involved!"

There have been times when Celebrity Death Beeper has beaten the mainstream media in sharing news of a death, but "I usually have to wait for a news source to report it so that I can corroborate the tip. I'd like to use these tips to get the jump on a story, but it's not easy. I'm the only employee. It is literally a full-time job because I've been on call more or less without interruption for the past 9 years. So that I can cancel beeps if I see fit, the Celebrity Death Beeper software emails me 10 minutes before sending out a headline to everyone who's signed up. I've been awakened in the middle of the night too many times to remember. I could just shut off my phone and let the software take care of itself, but part of me is curious to know who died and part of me wants the service to be the best I can make it."

Growth of the web site seems as guaranteed as death is part of life. "I think the Celebrity Death Beeper will grow indefinitely. I haven't done much to make money off of the site, but I have some ideas that may or may not ever become a reality. It's not a priority. I think the site is pure the way it is and I hate to tamper with that." Meanwhile, people are fascinated when a celebrity dies and Tony remains aware of the interest. "Part of it has to do with seeing the mighty fall in such a sublime and final way. Joe down the street wasn't so mighty. Celebrities are almost like people we know because we're bombarded with news about them. It's natural to care about someone to whom we feel connected. We might not feel as connected to Joe down the street. When all is said and done, the death of a celebrity is big news. Some people just want to be the first to know so they can tell their friends. Apparently, quite a few people play this sort of game. And some people want to know for their death pools, where they bet on who will die next."

With an honest attempt to keep John Q. Public informed, people still have questioned the webmaster's integrity. "There have been several accusations of racism because so-and-so E-list celebrity was not reported. If I was a racist, why do I sometimes report the death of someone who is race X and other times not? And wouldn't I be happy to report that the person is dead if I was a racist? Unsatisfied with my logic, people have unsubscribed. This is strange and sad to me. Believe it or not, I've been accused of racism because I would not report on the death of a city councilman from a not very big city, and for the death of a sibling of a famous person. Others want to know about obscure pseudo-celebrities. 'There was a guy who appeared in 2 episodes of--insert name of totally obscure TV show from the 50s or 60s--I think his name was John or Don. Is he alive?' Why are they even asking? Is it for some kind of off-the-wall bet they have with a friend? Usually IMDB.com has the answer. I know there are some hilarious questions I've been asked over the years. The funniest to me happens when people don't realize that the Celebrity Death Beeper is automated. They think I'm sitting around day and night manually searching for news and emailing it out."

While there is a curiosity about death, Celebrity Death Beeper seems to have cornered the market on this particular angle of fame.

"I'm not familiar with many other death sites, but I suppose that one big difference is that the Celebrity Death Beeper is basically 100% automated. I can cancel beeps using a computer or cell phone but if I ignore the site for years, it is designed to run itself. I have occasionally left the Celebrity Death Beeper unattended, like when I go camping and can't receive a cell phone signal. Once I went to Europe for three weeks and didn't bring my phone. No one seemed to notice," Tony remembered. "Another difference is that the Celebrity Death Beeper is extremely focused in what it does. It emails out news about recently deceased celebrities. There are few bells and whistles and this gives the site a retro, circa 1998 feel, which I like."

Tony's long-term hope for Celebrity Death Beeper makes this writer smile.

"At 100,000 subscribers we're going to run it into the ground. That is really our tenet. I don't know what it means to run it into the ground. Have you ever heard of a site so popular just imploding for no reason? My crazy artistic side is intrigued by this idea, but I do hold a special feeling in my heart for the Celebrity Death Beeper, so I kind of doubt I could kill it." Tony adds, "CelebrityDeathBeeper.com is a free service. We will never spam you, so try it out!"

For more information or to sign up for notifications of celebrity deaths, visit www.CelebrityDeathBeeper.com.

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