By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
BOSTON – Rex Trailer is, without a doubt, one of the most beloved figures from Boston kids TV shows from days gone by. Dressed in a cowboy outfit and guitar in hand, Trailer hosted “Boomtown” on WBZ-TV Channel 4. He and his succession of sidekicks entertained local children on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 1956 to 1974 and it was an instant success.
A real cowboy
The Texas native originally hosted a children’s series in Philadelphia for Westinghouse but was soon given a choice to work at two other Westinghouse stations: Boston or Cleveland. He chose Boston and on April 28, 1956, the new morning program “Boomtown” was established. The show also established Rex Trailer as a local celebrity. The television personality was a real cowboy and recording artist who often displayed his skill with trick roping, horse-riding tricks, handling a bullwhip, and shooting. However, he did stop using weapons on the show after Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1968.
Every episode of “Boomtown” opened the live show with Trailer in a pre-recorded bunkhouse setting, singing or performing a slapstick comedy routine alongside a sidekick, with the first being Dick Kilbride as Pablo. After Kilbride died, he was replaced with Terrence Currier who played the bewhiskered Cactus Pete from 1967 to 1969. Bill O’Brien came along as Calvary soldier Sgt. Billy. Trailer warmly greeted his young fans with, “Howdy Folks,” to which they replied, “Howdy Rex!”
A taste of the Old West
Aside from enjoying the cartoons or watching Trailer ride his horse, Goldrush, into town from the bunkhouse to the old western town of Boomtown, with its hitching posts, an opera house, storefronts, and jail, kids also loved the theme song, a song that is said to have been “as sticky as the molasses used for grandma’s cookies on the old frontier.”
Another appealing part of the show was the “wanted man” segment where two kids got to be appointed as “sheriff” and “deputy,” shown a wanted poster of a thinly disguised studio audience member and assigned to pick out the “wanted” child marching amongst the other children (or posse) who paraded through the sheriff’s office. This was a wonderful way to give every youngster a chance to be seen on the screen as they waved toward the camera to family and friends watching. An estimated 200,000 kids appeared on “Boomtown” during its run and approximately four million watched by television or saw Trailer at one of his many appearances across New England.
Disability awareness
“Boomtown” was one of the first shows to prominently feature mentally and physically disabled children in the audience, a conscious decision made by Trailer. He even led a wagon trail across the state to raise awareness about children with disabilities in 1961.
Michael Bavaro, Trailer’s manager said, “Back in the 1950s, all that stuff was kept behind closed doors and people were put in institutions. Rex used TV to create awareness and included kids with disabilities as part of the audience. He said, ‘Come on and mingle in with the rest of the kids.’”
Rex Trailer was inducted into the Massachusetts Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000 and into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2007. He died in 2013 while visiting family in Florida for the holidays. He was 84.
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