Tar Heel Profile
By Bill Weekes
Where Buffalo Bob Roams
Since 1991, pioneering television great Buffalo Bob Smith has
made his home at Flat Rock in the North Carolina foothills.
In a way. North Carolina is home
again m ihe htill'alo. Buffalo Bob.
dial is. ol I iowdv I foody lame.
Called one ol I lie 10 legends ot tele¬
vision l>\ Disliev Studios, Hnllalo Hob
Smith, idol to millions ol kid' during
die I ale I'.MOs and '50s. lias been mak¬
ing bis home in Hal Roc
к
since 1991.
Buffalo Bob and Mil, his wife ol 35
years, live* in an expansive home oil a
hill overlooking die Insli. undulating
fairways of Kenmurc Country Club,
just a few miles down the road (L’.S.
Highway 25) from where another leg¬
end, ( ail Sandhill g, once resided.
At age 78. Smith is still quite active,
making autograph appearances with
famous spoi is figures, pl.iving celebrity
golf tournaments, doing benefits at
children s hospitals and occasionally
visiting malls with tin* mainstay of the
old "Howdy I food v Show,” Clarabcll
the Clown. Smith brought to North
Carolina a wealth of memorabilia he
has collected since 1947. when he was
part of a group of talented showmen
who hel|>ed get the television age ofT
the ground. Smith came up in the
business with otliei pioneering giants
such as Ktnic Kovacs, Sid Caesar.
Milton Beile and Kdward R. Murrow.
Buffalo Boh and his Howdy Doodv
puppet made television ,i habit for kids
ages 3 to 10. doing so for 13 years.
Kven today, many a professional man
and woman may still hold real in their
mind's eye stu b places as Doodyville,
Pioneer Village and the Peanut
Callery. Many an adult may fondly
recall the personae of F1ubh-a-dubb.
Dills I >.illi«-. Chief riiundcrlhug.
Princes Summer-Fall-Winicr-Spring
and even \ill.ini Finius T. Bluster. And
who among grown-ups today might
not. Iioiii time to time, still conjure up
faint memories of Clantbell's bleating
horn?
Yet it all hinged on the rapport
Buffalo Bob Smith al Iwmr in Flat Rock with Howdy Doody.
engendered with c hildren by a young
Buffalo Boh. the great while leader of
the Siugafoo.se Indians (as the story
goes), .mil his i eddish-haired. Ireck-
Icd-faced (one frec kle lot each of the
United States) sidekick, I lowdy Doody.
Games, sing-alongs. qttestion-and-
answer sessions with kids, special
guests and storylines (like Mr. Bluster
wanting to steal all the Faster eggs)
made the kids a captive audience for
2.543 shows from December 27. 1947,
through ScptemlM-r 30. I960.
The show, ailing 5:30 to 6 p.m. week¬
days for several yeais. emerged as a
phenomenon — a television fiist of its
kind and. for a long while, one without
competition.
Лее
ending to Smith, the
show focused on two tilings that
appealed to youngsters: fantasy and
slapstick. I he slapstic
к
was made up of
such things as the shell game, busting
balloons and everyone’s favorite stunt:
sneaking up and squirting someone
with seltzer water.
"The puppets, however, weren't fan¬
tasy." Smith saw today. "The stories
were fantasy, but the kids thought the
puppets were real. And we treated the
puppets that way. We would say 'put
the microphone on I lowdy.' never 'on
the puppet."’
The “captivity” of Smith’s audience
became apparent in 1948. While vot¬
ers were being amazed at the results of
the national election. NBC executives
were equally astonished by the num¬
ber of requests — a quarter-million —
for “Howdy Doody lor President- but¬
tons by young fans. It showed potential
sponsors that somebody out there was
watching this new
show — a lot of
“somebodies."
Among these
somebodies were
Smith's sons. Robin,
Ronnie and. later.
Chris. How did
Smith envision their
coping with How¬
dy’s whirlwind of
popularity?
“When we started
the show." Smith
recounts, “Robin
was 6 and Ronnie 4
and a half. They
were glued to the
set, fascinated with the program. I’d
come home, and they’d say. 'Hey,
Daddy, do you know what Clarabcll
did to Buffalo Bob today?’ And they’d
tell me all about it. Whether they were
putting me on ot not, I don’t know.
On the one li.ind, I was Daddy, while
BufTalo Bob was this other guy on the
TV. It’s a very dillicult thing to explain.
But they loved the show and wore their
llowdv Doody cowboy shirts to
school."
The show’s popularity zoomed.
Recpiests by the million came in for
tickets; a place in the "Peanut Gallery"
was highly prized. Fat sighted pregnant
women wen* requesting seats for their
unborn. Smith appeared on Murrow’s
“Person-to-l’erson” inlet view show and
was working two other live shows as
well — a morning radio show and a TV
variety show. With special appear¬
ances, the pace was exhausting. In
1954. Smith suffered a heart attack,
which sidelined him from full activity
for a year. Hr did commercials, howev¬
er. from Pioneer Village, a studio in
the basement of his home in New
Rochelle. New York, and made short,
periodic visits to the show.
By the mid-1950s, as television tech¬
nology grew and markets became
№11 Wreta
The Slalc/rirccmbcr 1995
32
