Buffalo Bob Smith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Buffalo Bob Smith (Robert Emil Schmidt) (November 27, 1917 – July 30, 1998) was the host of the popular children's show Howdy Doody.
Born in Buffalo, New York, he attended Masten Park High School.
Buffalo Bob got his start in radio as a singer and musician, appearing on many top shows of the time before becoming nationally known for the Howdy Doody Show.
He had a summer residence in Princeton, Maine as well as owning radio station WQDY in Calais, Maine. He was well liked by locals, and occasionally MC'd local events.
After his retirement, Smith retired to North Carolina becoming a member of Pinecrest Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
He died in Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1998.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ "Buffalo Bob Smith, 'Howdy Doody' Creator, Is Dead at 80", New York Times, July 31, 1998. Retrieved on 2007-08-21. "Buffalo Bob Smith, a singing piano player and chatty radio disk jockey who created Howdy Doody and then teamed up with the puppet on one of early television's most enduring children's shows, died of cancer yesterday at a hospital near his home in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Mr. Smith was 80. "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 1940's and 1950's."
