Buck Barry
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Buck Joseph Barry, born Chester Burry (February 12, 1917 in
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
– December 4, 1997 in
El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
) was an American actor and radio and television personality.


Early career

In his early career, Barry appeared in small roles in several movies starring
Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...
, and was a featured performer in a touring Wild West Show. He gained fame as a host for a live Saturday morning and daily afternoon children's television show. Both were broadcast on television station WOOD-TV, the NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, MI.


Radio

Barry was also well known to early rising factory workers in the Grand Rapids area, with his morning
radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...
on WOOD am 1300, which was simulcast on WOOD FM at 105.7. Barry had an encyclopedic knowledge of cowboy and American Indian lore. He started his
morning show Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a lo ...
with a spirited yodeling cowboy song which he accompanied with an
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
. Barry shared stories of American Indian lore and cowboy legends, interspersed with recorded music. In his radio broadcasts, he spoke to listeners as if he were sitting at their kitchen tables. He often shared postcards from listeners on vacation, and saluted local listeners' birthdays and anniversaries. His programs were flexible rather than adhering to a strict format.


Buckaroo Rodeo


Weekday broadcasts

On television, he hosted the ''Buckaroo Rodeo''. Locally, he was as popular as Buffalo Bob or Captain Kangaroo. Initially he hosted the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday shows while Don Melvoin as Fireman Freddie covered Tuesdays and Thursdays. In time, Melvoin stepped away from his role and Barry became the Monday through Friday host. Barry used the Thunder and Lightning Polka from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr., for his show's opening theme; he sang the Coopersville Yodel, live, at the close. During the ''Buckaroo Rodeo'' days, an audience of boys and girls sat in bleachers on the stage to watch '' Popeye'' cartoons and '' 3 Stooges'' shorts. The show was one of the first children's TV programs to have a racially-integrated studio audience. Barry occasionally sang a cowboy song, did a rope or whip trick, or twirled his twin six guns. The sponsors provided candy, potato chips, and other snacks. Among gifts he received for being on the show were brass statuettes of Thunder, his horse.


Weekend programs

For a little while during the 1960s, Barry's show expanded to an hour on Saturday mornings on WOOD-TV 8, and featured a wider range of entertainment and games. The programs, with the pistol-packing cowboy and his white horse Thunder, ran for more than a decade from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s. The original Thunder died in a stable fire at some point during the show's run. Subsequent to the stable fire, the national network TV show named This is Your Life, hosted by Ralph Edwards, honored Barrys career. It was announced by Ralph Edwards at the show's conclusion, that enough money had been raised by the fans, allowing Barry to purchase his next horse, which Barry named Thunder II. Barry hosted the high-rated afternoon ''Popeye Theater'' (the original name of the show was the ''Buckaroo Rodeo''), which featured repeated airings of ''The Three Stooges'', and were often followed by admonitions from Barry, warning his children viewers not to try a particular dangerous Stooges stunt, such as hitting someone in the head with a hammer. Throughout the 1960s, Buck Barry's big Buick station wagon was well known among children in West Michigan. Gold in color, the Buick had fake wood sides with "BUCK BARRY" written in large cursive on both sides using real rope. The hood was adorned by a large pair of forward-pointing Texas longhorns. Part of the Barry show was a section called "Can Buck Do It?" where Barry attempted various feats, such as tearing a telephone book in half. Barry was known for his on-air flubs, stuttering, and malapropisms, often hopelessly but humorously mangling commercials for such long-time sponsors as BeMo Potato Chips.


Retirement

During his television years in Michigan, Barry was known for visiting and performing for children in local hospitals. Barry retired in the early 1970s to
El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
, where he lived for 25 years, and continued to perform occasionally. He died in 1997, preceded by his wife, Violet.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Buck 1917 births 1997 deaths American radio personalities American male television actors 20th-century American male actors Actors from St. Joseph, Missouri Male actors from Missouri