Boomtown (1956 TV series)

Rex Trailer's Boomtown
Rare footage from the Boomtown show is included in Bavaro's documentary. © 2005 TrailMixx Pictures

Boomtown was a weekend children's show on WBZ-TV in Boston, Massachusetts that ran from 1956 through 1974.

The show was a live, three-hour broadcast hosted by Rex Trailer, a singing cowboy. The first hour of the show always took place in the bunkhouse set, where Trailer and sidekick(s) would engage in slapstick comedy and tomfoolery. The practical reason for this segment was that it would have been too difficult to have a young studio audience in place for that first hour. Trailer would then mount his horse, Goldrush, and (in a stock introductory sequence accompanied by his dramatic song, "Hoofbeats") ride across a "prairie wide" onto the western-themed Boomtown studio set with its live audience for two hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Somehow, he and his crew were able to convincingly re-create the Old West on Soldiers Field Road in Brighton for generations of viewers.

With a natural ease and charisma, Trailer led his young studio audience (or "posse") in contests of skill and singalongs. Trailer also regularly demonstrated his considerable cowboy skills, which he picked up while spending his childhood summers on his grandfather's ranch in Texas. In addition, Rex worked with guests who made educational presentations, took part in skits, and he introduced the cartoons that rounded out the program, including Popeye, Davey and Goliath, The Mighty Hercules among others. He was aided on the show by a succession of sidekicks over the years, including Pablo, Cactus Pete, and Sgt. Billy, played by Dick Kilbride, Terrence Currier and Bill O'Brien, respectively.

One recurring, memorable segment of Boomtown was set to the music of Hey, Look Me Over. Rex would appoint two children sheriff and deputy, and hand them a wanted poster showing another member of the studio audience thinly disguised. As the music played, the entire "posse" would march through the sheriff's office, waving for the camera (and for their families and friends watching; the segment ensured that every child had a chance to be on screen at least once). Trying for a prize, the young lawmen would attempt to pick out the person shown on the poster as he passed through the office.

Trailer had moved from Philadelphia (where his TV series had ended) to Boston to host Boomtown on a short-term contract, but the show ended up running for almost two decades. Two-hundred thousand children appeared on Boomtown during its run, and another four million watched on TV or saw Rex at his many personal appearances across New England. Trailer essentially played himself, so he was never caught out of character: kind, quietly confident, eminently capable, and wholesome. Parents and children alike responded to Boomtown's subtle, integral messages encouraging respect for others and nature. Rex Trailer settled in the Boston area permanently where he remained a major local celebrity decades after the final episode of Boomtown aired. Trailer died in 2013.