"Buffalo Bob" Smith (November 27, 1917 – July 30, 1998) guest starred on Happy Days as himself in the Season 2 episode "The Howdy Doody Show" (episode #17). Bob, of course, was and is still known to many as the now iconic former host of the immensely popular 1950's children's TV show Howdy Doody. Say, kids, what time is it? Buffalo Bob would ask his Peanut Gallery of children ages 3 to 8, gathered in an NBC studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza every afternoon, five days a week, in the late 1940s and 1950s.
It's Howdy Doody time, the children in the audience would respond with the lung power that only children of that age can demonstrate. And then they'd sing their Howdy Doody theme song, set to the tune of Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay: "It's Howdy Doody time, It's Howdy Doody time. Bob Smith and Howdy, too, Say 'howdy doo' to you. Let's give a rousing cheer, 'Cause Howdy Doody's here." "It's time to start the show, So kids, let's go!" Howdy Doody was the first daily show NBC produced in color and the first to have live music.
Career[]
Bob, born Robert Emil Schmidt in Buffalo, NY, got his start in radio in Buffalo. He started at WGR (AM) but switched from WGR to WBEN's late morning radio slot in 1943, as part of a move which also brought Clint Buehlman's early morning show over from WGR to WBEN at the same time. (The WBEN morning slot had opened when its host, future NBC-TV personality Jack Paar, was drafted into the military.) WBEN first brought Clint Buehlman's popular early morning show, which ended at 9am, followed by 15 minutes of local news, over from WGR.
Then, Buffalo Bob appeared at 9:15 am. Soon thereafter, Smith would win the #1 spot in late mornings for WBEN and McNeil tumbled to second in the Buffalo market. His popularity in Buffalo won the attention of NBC, which brought him to New York after the war to host early mornings on flagship station WNBC, a post he held through the early 1950s before concentrating on television. For a time between 1947 and 1953 he appeared mornings on WNBC while hosting and producing the daily Howdy Doody Show, and, as they say, "The rest was history".
Howdy Doody was based on a caricature of Bob's sister, Esther. Esther was employed at Sattler's department store in the drapery department and Howdy was the spit and image of her. Smith also was known as a singer and musician, appearing on many top shows of the time before and even after becoming nationally known for the Howdy Doody Show. At first it aired on Saturdays, then on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and finally, five times a week.[1] In 1954, Mr. Smith suffered a heart attack and for a time, he did the show from a studio built in the basement of his home in Mount Vernon, New York. He returned to the NBC studio in 1955. The final NBC Howdy Doody episode aired in 1960. Later, in 1976, Smith reunited with longtime show producer Roger Muir and several of the original cast to produce a new daily syndicated Howdy Doody Show.[1] For many years in the 1950s, Buffalo Bob and Howdy were on Monday to Friday at 5:30 P.M. After the theme, they'd be joined for an hour by their friends, some human, some made of wood. These included Clarabell the Clown, human, (he said nary a word but hopped around honking a Harpo Marx-type horn to signal yes or no and spraying Buffalo Bob with a bottle of seltzer); Chief Thunderthud, human, official representative of the Ooragnak Indians (Ooragnak was kangaroo spelled backwards) and Princess Summerfall Winterspring (played by actress Judy Tyler).[1]
Death[]
Bob made a live infomercial appearance to promote Howdy Doody Entertainment Memorabilia on July 3, 1998, on QVC. That was his last appearance. Smith died of cancer a few weeks later on July 30, 1998, in a hospital in Hendersonville, North Carolina, just three days before puppeteer Shari Lewis, whose show took over the time slot that Howdy Doody had previously occupied.[2]
Appearance on Happy Days[]
In the episode The Howdy Doody Show, Bob, along with Clarabell the Clown (played in the episode by HD producer/writer Bob Brunner) both drop the Cunningham house and talk Richie, who was able to sneak over to the dressing room area and take a snapshot of Clarabelle taking off his makeup as with the intent of using it as "the latest scoop" to meet the deadline for an assignment for his school newspaper, out of selling the picture fearing that it could jeopardize Clarabell's career.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Severo, Richard. "Buffalo Bob Smith, 'Howdy Doody' Creator, Is Dead at 80", The New York Time (nytimes.com), July 31, 1998.
- ↑ "Bulletin insert" (MS Word), Pinecrest Presbyterian Church, August 16, 2009, p. 5. Retrieved on 2009-12-27. (dead link: July 2017)
