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Robert Weston Smith – aka Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith (1938 – 1995) was a gravelly-voiced, American disc jockey who became world famous in the 1960s and 1970s under the stage name of Wolfman Jack. Early Career Born in Brooklyn, Smith was a fan of disc jockey Alan Freed who helped to turn African American rhythm and blues into rock and roll music. Freed originally called himself the "Moondog" after New York City street musician Moondog. Freed both adopted this name and used a recorded howl to give his early broadcasts a unique character. Smith's adaptation of the Moondog theme was to call himself Wolfman Jack and add his own sound effects. The character was based in part on the manner and style of bluesman Howlin' Wolf. In 1962, Smith took his act to the border when the Inter-American Radio Advertising's Ramon Bosquez hired him and sent him to the studio and transmitter site of XERF at Ciudad Acuña in Mexico. It was here that Wolfman Jack invented his own style of border blasting by turning the airwaves into one long infomercial featuring music and off-the-wall products. Film, Television, and Music Career In the early days, Wolfman Jack made sporadic public appearances, usually as a Master of Ceremonies for rock bands at local Los Angeles, California clubs. At each appearance he looked a little different because Smith hadn't decided on what "The Wolfman" should look like. Early pictures show him with a goatee; however, sometimes he combed his straight hair forward and added dark makeup to look somewhat "ethnic." Other times he had a big afro wig and large sunglasses covering his eyes. It wasn't until he appeared in the 1969 film, "A Session with the Committee" (a montage of skits by the seminal comedy troupe The Committee) that mainstream America got a good look at Wolfman Jack.
Subsequently, Smith appeared in several television shows as Wolfman Jack. They included The Odd Couple; What's Happening!!; Vega$; Hollywood Squares; Married… with Children; and Galactica 1980. He was the regular announcer and occasional host for The Midnight Special on NBC from 1973 to 1981. He was also the host of his self-titled variety series, The Wolfman Jack Show, which was produced in Canada by CBC Television in 1976, and syndicated to stations in the US. He helped promote Clearasil in radio and TV commercials in the '70s. In the '80s he promoted the Honda motorcycle the "Rebel" in television commercials. He also furnished his voice in The Guess Who's 1974 tribute, the top 40 hit single, "Clap for the Wolfman." A few years earlier, Todd Rundgren recorded a similar tribute, "Wolfman Jack", on the album Something/Anything?. Canadian band The Stampeders also released a cover of "Hit the Road Jack" in 1975 featuring Wolfman Jack; the storyline of the song involved a man named "Cornelius" calling Jack on the phone, telling him the story of how his girlfriend had thrown him out of the house, and trying to persuade Jack to let him come and stay with him (at this point, Jack ended the call). His voice is also featured in the songs "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" by Sugarloaf and "Did You Boogie With Your Baby (In the Back Row of the Movie Show?)" by Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids. A clip of a 1970s radio advertisement featuring Wolfman Jack urging registration with the United States Selective Service (aka "the draft") is incorporated into the Depeche Mode cover of the song "Route 66". Those radio advertisements were extracted from half hour radio programs that were distributed to radio stations across the country. His syndicated music radio series was sponsored by the United States Air Force, designed as a weekly program-length public service infomercial to promote the benefits of joining the Air Force. The series ran from 1971 until 1977. In July 1974, Wolfman Jack was the MC for the Ozark Music Festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds, a huge three-day rock festival with an estimated attendance of 350,000 people, making it one of the largest music events in history. In 1989, he provided the narration for the US version of the arcade game DJ Boy. His voice was not used in the home version of the game, due to memory limitations. Radio Caroline
As a part of this process Wolfman Jack was set to deliver the morning shows on the new station. To that end Wolfman Jack did record a number of programs which were never aired due to the failure of the station to come on air according to schedule. (It eventually returned from a new ship in 1983 which remained at sea until 1990.) Today those tapes are traded among collectors of his work. Final Days Wolfman Jack died of a heart attack in Belvidere, North Carolina, on July 1, 1995, age 57. The day before his death, he had finished broadcasting his last live radio program, a weekly program nationally syndicated from Planet Hollywood in downtown Washington, D.C. Wolfman Jack said that night, "I can't wait to get home and give Lou a hug, I haven't missed her this much in years." Wolfman had been on the road, promoting his new autobiography Have Mercy!. When he got home, he entered his house, hugged his wife, said "Oh, it is so good to be home!", and died in his wife's arms. His business, Wolfman Jack Productions (based in Hertford, North Carolina), is still listed in the local telephone book. |
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| Article courtesy of www.wikipedia.org |  |
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