Beloved Boston cowboy Rex Trailer dies at 84
BOSTON (AP) — Rex Trailer, the native Texan beloved by a
generation of New England children for the cowboy skills he demonstrated on the
Boston-based television show "Boomtown," has died. He was 84.
Trailer died Wednesday at his family's home in Florida, said
his friend and manager Michael Bavaro. He had fallen ill with pneumonia in
Florida over the holidays, but the exact cause of death was not immediately
clear.
"Rex Trailer left this earth peacefully last night
surrounded in love and song by his family," the family announced on his
website. "While everyone's prayers and support have been of great comfort
to Rex, he decided it was time to go home. Rex and family thank all of you and
love you."
"Boomtown" ran on Boston television from 1956
until 1974. Trailer hosted the show, singing, playing guitar and showing off
the horse-riding, roping and other cowboy skills he had learned as a boy on his
grandfather's ranch in Texas.
The show was an instant success when it first aired, the
live studio audience enraptured by Trailer's Texas twang. It aired live every
Saturday and Sunday morning for three hours. More than 250,000 kids appeared on
"Boomtown" over the years and more than 4 million watched from home,
according to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Trailer was inducted
in 2007.
In addition to the cowboy action, the show offered
educational games and films, cartoons and outdoor adventure.
"He was a visionary in a lot of ways," Bavaro
said. "He was doing educational children's television before there was
educational children's television."
The show was one of the first where mentally and
physically disabled children were prominent in the audience, a conscious
decision by Trailer.
Some people associated with the show were concerned when
a disabled child was on the show. "Some people thought he would cause a
ruckus, but Rex said 'No, let him on,'" Bavaro said.
In 1961, he led a wagon train across the state to raise
awareness about children with disabilities.
Trailer has been honored for his lifetime commitment to
disabled children, especially muscular dystrophy.
He also taught on-camera performance and production at
Emerson College in Boston since the mid-1970s, and ran his own production
company based in Waltham that produced commercials, industrial films and
documentaries.
Trailer got into show business on the advice of the ranch
hands on his grandfather's farm. He got a job as a production coordinator with
the Dumont Network in New York and worked his way up to producer and director.
It was in New York where he first became an on-air talent as host of the
"Oky Doky Ranch."
He hosted western-themed TV shows in Philadelphia for
five years before landing in Boston in 1955. His original 13-week contract with
WBZ-TV lasted nearly 20 years. When "Boomtown" went off the air,
Trailer doffed his cowboy hat and hosted a science-themed children's show for
several years called "Earth Lab."
His reach was so wide that in 2011 a state senator
introduced legislation to make Trailer the "Official Cowboy of
Massachusetts."
His family said a memorial service is being planned.
TRAILER, Rex (Rexford Traylor)
Born: 9/16/1928, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.
Died: 1/10/2013, Florida, U.S.A.
Rex Trailer’s westerns – actor, singer:
Oky Doky Ranch (TV) – 1949
Ridin’ the Trail with Rex Trailer (TV) – 1951-1955
Boomtown (TV) – 1956-1974
The Way West – 1967 (cowboy)
No comments:
Post a Comment