Rex Trailer

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Rex Trailer is a Boston, Massachusetts based television personality and broadcast pioneer.

Rex Trailer was born in 1929 and grew up just outside of Fort Worth, Texas. He learned his cowboy skills while spending summers on his grandfather’s ranch. As a rodeo performer, he met western movie star Gabby Hayes who hired him to work at his Catskills summer ranch for kids. Hayes encouraged him to break into television as an on-air personality.

In 1947, Trailer went to work for the DuMont Television Network in New York City as a production coordinator. He later became the host of the network's Oky Doky Ranch. This show featured Rex Trailer as a cowboy and Oky Doky was a cowboy puppet.

Although this has some obvious similarity to the Howdy Doody show, Oky Dokey had already been established in local television before being moved to the network, so there is some debate of who came first.

After the Oky Doky series ended, Trailer heard that the Westinghouse TV station in Philadelphia (WPTZ) needed a host for a Western-style children's show. Rex Trailer and his horse "Gold Rush" moved to Philadelphia and hosted television shows from 1950 until 1956. "Ridin’ the Trail with Rex Trailer" featured him as the host for movie westerns. He also had a daily 15 minute program featured songs, games and dances with Trailer and his guitar. This show went by various names, including "Hi-Noon with Rex Trailer", "Saddlebag O' Songs" and "Rex Trailer's Ranch House".

In 1956, Rex Trailer moved to Boston and hosted a weekend-morning children show Boomtown on WBZ-TV that ran through 1974.

A documentary film also titled, "Rex Trailer's Boomtown" was produced by Milford, Massachusetts native Michael Bavaro. The filmed was broadcasted on WBZ-TV on June 18, 2005 as a special and was nominated for a New England Emmy award for best historical documentary. The broadcast version of the film and archive material were presented to and are now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York City.

Rex Trailer continues to work in the television industry, and teaches on-air performance at Emerson College in Boston. He still makes regular personal appearances, and performs live on occasion, even performing at a couple of Boston rock clubs in the last few years as a special guest.