Ken Meyer interviews William O'Brien, SGT. Billy from Boom Town!
WBCA Podcasts
City Talk with Ken Meyer (William O‘Brien)
(upbeat music) - WBCA radio is proud to present City Talk where fascinating conversation is alive and well with your host, Boston radio veteran Ken Meyer. - Well, hello again everybody. If you grew up in Boston in the '50s and '60s and early '70s, I'm sure you're familiar with the TV show Boomtown which starred Rex Traylor and one of the principal people that was involved in it and in television in general is with us on this edition of City Talk and it's Sergeant Billy, Sergeant Billy O'Brien. Billy, how are you? Nice to have you with us. - I'm very well Ken, how are you doing? - I'm doing well, I'm doing well. - Right, let's go back and I mean way back. Tell me about you and growing up and Gabby Hayes and Rex Traylor and how all that came together for you and take your time doing it. - Well, it's quite a long story actually. I, Rex came to Boston, I believe it was in 1956. So I was just a kid back then and during the early '60s like 60, 61, a friend of mine by the name of Lou Chafella was a member of a group called the Junior Redmond and what they, well it was a Redmond group and I think they were actually a band but they dressed up as Indians and they did parades. Anyway, this guy was a Junior Redmond so he was, he's always dressed up with an Indian so Rex had called there looking for an Indian which were the personal appearances and so Lou signed on to that. Well, when Lou signed on then Rex said, well, you know the kids who would be interested in, you know, being horse-handlers and Koopa-Scoopers if you will and so he recruited me so at age 15 I was working, started working with Rex. Now, Rex was a big hero back in the late '50s, early '60s. So it was pretty exciting for me to do that and you, you know, we went into the studio so we got to see how everything was done. So at the time Rex's sidekick was a guy by the name of Dick Kilbride who played a character by the name of Pablo and so anyway, I did some, I kind of worked with Rex from till I went in the service and when I got out of high school I went in the service and when I went in the service I was a guitar player and a banjo player. I was in a folk group just before I went in the service and I was a banjo player and nobody played the banjo back then. I mean, it was the folk music was pretty popular but, you know, you couldn't really learn how to play because nobody really taught how to play the bi-string banjo so you kind of had to pick it up by ear. And anyway, I ended up in the service and I ended up in between our new show over in Korea, played my banjo there, did a lot of television work over there and when I got, and then I came back and I went to the Fort Meyer, Arlington National Cemetery and I was in the case on outfit which was a horse outfit like the horses that do their ceremonies for the, you know, the president, President Kennedy and et cetera. This was actually about a year or so after that. So I ended up in the case on outfit in the honor guard and eventually rose to the rank of Sergeant so I was a cavalry sergeant, if you will. So when I got out, Rex contacted me and wanted to know if I wanted to get back on the personal appearance and that really did not. I was doing nightclubs at the time so Dick Kilbride who, as I said, played Pablo, he got me my first manager. And so I played all the bars and Boston fathers mustache and probably Bostonian brandies, et cetera. And then Rex had me come on the show to a couple of personal appearances, you know, guest appearances and of course it kind of clicked and I was a cavalry sergeant so we developed, especially when we wanted to be Colonel Billy, but I was much too young to be a Colonel. I was only like 21. So we, we said, well, I said, why don't we just be charge and Billy because that's what I was and so Sergeant Billy was born and part of my uniform actually was the actual uniform that I had when I was in the army of the group, et cetera. But so that's how it started as Sergeant Billy. So what happened was I started to really like it and I was trying to work my way in, but again, I was pretty young and then unfortunately, Dick Kilbride, he died in 1966 and so Rex was started looking around for a new sidekick or replacement for Pablo and again, I was too young. I really wanted the part, but I was too young to move in and inexperienced as well. So a guy by the name of Terrence Currier came on the show and he was played a character, Cactus Pete. So Cactus Pete and I became, Terry and I became very good friends and we did a lot of personal appearances together and then we did, when we were doing the television show, we were three of us at one point in time and then Terrence kind of lost interest and went down to Washington, D.C. and ended up working at the arena stage down there. And so Han developed his acting abilities, which were great and did movies and stayed down there. So I kind of segued in that way and then I became the sidekick and actually I was the longest sidekick of them all because Rex and I were together, I think we did our last show just before he died, matter of fact, I think it was him before he died. So I was with him for over 50 years. So we knew each other very well. I was much younger. I was about 18 years younger than him. So again, the eighth spread in the beginning was made difficult, but after that, it didn't. It just worked perfect. So I segued into the show, really loved it, really enjoyed it. And I got, probably my recognition mostly came from Crimson Travel 'cause we did every year, Rex and I would go out to California and do the Rex trailer Crimson Travel California tour, which lasted from 1969 to the ninth. 1995. So we, every year we'd go out to California and we'd take a bunch of kids with us that I remember Dave Presky came in the office one day, said, "How would you guys like to run a trip to Disneyland?" And of course, I had never been there. So I said, "That's great." I think Rex had been there, Terry hadn't been there. But we said, "Oh, that's great." And we did it as a station promotion. And so we just double taped the shows and then we went out there for a week. - We said to Dave, "What is this all about?" And he said, "Well, we're gonna take a bunch of kids out there. Give me land, Hollywood. Not to bury ghosts down." And we said, "Oh, well, who's gonna watch these kids?" And so I will have chaperones for every eight kids will have one chaperone, which is a teacher. So we said, "Well, how old are these kids have to be?" And he said, "Well, as long as they're eight and older, and we're thinking eight and older, my goodness." So we said, "Well, how do we decide to make a determination as to whether we're going on?" He said, "Well, if we fill a 707, then we go." And we said, "Wow, 130, 140 people." So we said, "Well, whatever." So we thought it would be exciting and we took a film crew with us, so we were able to use a lot of the footage for the television show. So we went to the, I remember we did the show and we showed up at the airport and there were like 700 or 800 people. And we went, "Oh, my God." So that first trip, we had so many people, it was amazing. And then we took all these people out to California and we toured Disneyland twice, not to bury ghost town, San Diego, Sea World, at the time there was a place called Lion Country, Hollywood, Beverly Hill. And so we did commercials for Crimson Travel forever for 25 years. So people remember me not so much from the actual television show, which was on Saturday morning, Saturday and Sunday mornings. They remember me pretty much for the commercials that we did for Crimson Travel because they were aired all over the place for probably five or six months before the trip. So it was, most of my recognition came from. So anyway, the show was canceled in 1973 from WBC, we were on WBC and Rex was on there for 18 years. So I was on there for about seven. Then we did a little stint on 10.25 in Boston for from 76 to 78. But again, we were still doing the California tour. So we were, for all practical purposes, still getting a lot of exposure. - Yeah. In fact, I remember those commercials because they were aired with a fellow that I worked with named Larry, something or other. Of course, remember them all the time, but let's go back even further. And if we can delve a little bit into Rex's background because it's my understanding from talking to a friend of both of yours and my Jean Hardigan that he was originally from Texas and was discovered by Gabby Hayes and did some work on the Dumont Network, which was a short live, but memorable network for some of the shows that had had on it and worked for the Westinghouse people (audio cuts out) - Yeah. Well, actually Rex was born in I guess, 3rd of Texas, which they, I'm not really familiar with Texas, but he did come to New York eventually. - From Philadelphia and eventually. - Yeah, but I'm not sure if we're cutting out here. He was on the Dumont Network and he had a show called Okidoki Ranch. - I love that title. - Yeah, and Okidoki was a marionette much, much like how you do it. And so he was on the Dumont Network for probably two or three years. And then he, I don't know if they were owned by Westinghouse or Westinghouse, bought them out or whatever, but he ended up working for Westinghouse and he had the opportunity to go, I think Baltimore or to Boston and he chose to go to Boston. And that's how he ended up on WPC. But he was a cowboy, there's no question about it. I mean, we did, when you just mentioned Gene Hardigan, Gene Hardigan was on one of our California tours and we, on one of the trips, we went to a dude ranch, this huge dude ranch. And of course there was an arena and outside arena and all of our folks were sitting in the bleachers and of course Rex comes riding out on a palamino and I come riding out on another horse and Gene Hardigan says, "I didn't even know you guys could even ride horses." (laughing) I said, "You kidding?" I said, "I was 18 months in the cavalry "and we rode every single day." The last thing I wanted to see when I got out of the army was another horse, but Rex used to do stunt riding and everything, he was a true cowboy and he would do rope trip trips and he was going to Larry it and do all that stuff. And it was the, was the palamino, was this gold rush by any chance? - Yeah, gold rush, we went through many gold rushes. (laughing) But the, yeah, the first one, it was gold rush and it was a very, the poor horse as it turns out, he was a little bit mean at times and, you know, he would nip, they had to be careful. And then when I was a horse handle, that's what horse it was at the time, he, you know, he would try to nip, nip you and we'd come to find out he had a huge tumor the sides of a grapefruit in his shank area and so he was sheet area. So he was nasty, the poor guy, even the poor horse, he was just probably uncomfortable most of the time. Well, once they found that out, it was not good, I guess. But we went to many, many gold rushes over the years and yeah, but Rex was, Rex was kind of like me, he was a Renaissance guy, he did, he was a pilot, you know, he worked in aviation, he was very fond of flying. If he could fly, he would fly. We did a lot of personal appearances. We'd fly fourth of July, we'd probably do two or three shows where we flew in and helicopters and if it was a big enough show then the horse would show up, the trailer would show up with the horses and we would perform. And that was actually pretty tough to do back then because the speaker system now, it's unbelievable what you can do but when you're playing in a stadium with just a regular microphone, what you get is that feedback, you know, you're trying to sing a song and it sounds okay to you, but by the time it gets out and comes back from the stadium, there's a little delay. So it was extremely difficult to do until we got monitors in front of you so you could hear what you were actually saying. But we flew all over the place. Now, Rex, I don't know how many people know this, was quite a singer. I mean, I know he did the theme song for "Boomtown" and he also had a record called "Hootbeats" and he sang them both. - Right, yeah, he actually did some work with Vaughn Monroe. - No kidding. - Yeah, I think that Vaughn was the one that kind of encouraged him to do more with his singing voice. And actually, the orchestration behind "Hootbeats" was pretty elaborate. I mean, there was a full orchestra behind him when he recorded that. And "Hootbeats" was the song he wrote and the crystal theme song to the show, "Boomtown." Yeah, he did a little, actually he wrote a lot of songs that he did one that I was surprised, never really took off. It was called "Power of the Pony" and it was right around Christmastime and it was, you know, "Power of the Pony" was helping Santa get across, you know, Indian reservations, you know, deal with outlaws, et cetera. And there was a coloring book and everything. And I was surprised that it wasn't picked up by somebody as an animated cartoon, much like Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer. - Mm-hmm. Now, take us back. And WBCTV was responsible for at least two shows that I know of that are landmarks as far as Boston TV history is concerned. One, of course, was "Boomtown" with Rich trailer. And the other one was with big brother Bob Emery. Did you get to know him at all? - Oh, yes, yeah. Bob was up the year when I was at WBCTV, but he used to come into the show occasionally, we had him on. And he was a terrific guy. I remember watching him when I was in grammar school coming home for lunch, and take a glass of milk and salute the President of the United States. - Ah, I was just gonna ask you, I couldn't wait. I had to ask you if you'd drank a toast to the President. - Absolutely. Every lunch time. - There's a few of them that could have used it these days, I'll tell you. - Yeah. But he was a great guy. He got accused, I don't know if you know this story, but he got accused of saying something off air, or on air that he thought was off air. And it was an expression that out of holes, a little bees. And it wasn't him. He wrote a book called "That On Hold" a little bit, but it wasn't about that, it was about something else. But anyway, it was not him. It was a guy by the name of Uncle Don, out in, I think, Chicago, and it was a radio show. - Actually, it was New York. - Was it New York? - It was New York. - It was a New York. - Well, but Bob was accused of that for years, and I had been, you know, at parties with my wife, Helen and I would be at a party, and people would say, "Oh yeah, well, you know Bob Emley?" And I'd say, "Yeah, Bob, great guy." Oh yeah, well, I heard him say, "No, you didn't." You didn't hear him say that at all. "Yes, I did." I remember saying, you said, "What?" And no, no, you didn't. And that's how those stories get spread around. I mean, everything that we ever did, Rex was conscious of his image so much that you just had to be careful doing anything. If you're out to dinner with your wives or whatever, you know, you had to be, you're on all the time. Actually, I do have to say that when the show was canceled, we were doing five and six personal appearances a weekend and television shows and they were bright and early on Saturday morning. So, it reached a point where it was almost like a relief when the show was canceled. And I know that sounds weird, but it's demanding and as a kitchen entertainer, you're never off. You, wherever you go, you know, if you're out with the guys and you want to have a beer, you really had to give it a lot of thought or the guys you were with because you were held to a higher standard. - Now, I don't think people realize and you kind of glossed over it, but these shows were done live on the air as it happened. They weren't videotaped. They didn't go live to tape like the prices right and other shows are now. You got it as a friend of mine used to say, "Live and in living color." - Oh, yeah, and we were doing three hours on Saturday morning and two and a half was taped on Sunday, but the live show was Saturday. And what you said now is you might have had a 10 second delay, but everything was live. And we used to pull pranks on Rex all the time just to kind of get him. We'd set the clocks ahead so that he would think we were going on. We actually got another five to 10 minutes and we'd say some ridiculous thing in the bunkhouse 'cause the bunkhouse was the first hour segment of the show. And then we'd set up the premise for the whole show for the day. And if somebody, if the Disney was on parade was in, Disney on the ice was in, they'd come in the show. And whoever was in town, the circus, whomever, they would come on the show until we'd set up the show would be wrapped around all that. That's one of the reasons the show really couldn't be rerun when it finally was being taped because it was topical. I mean, it was what was going on at the time. And so it'd be difficult to show that. And yeah, but it was live. And when you do live television, I have to say that that really was the best training you could possibly get because you just had to think about everything you were saying and doing and making sure that it was correct. And that was all that lived. I mean, our producer, directors, we had many Lou Yacabello, Dave Seaborn. I had Dave Seaborn as my director probably most of the time. But we'd have a production meeting and it's okay, this is, you know, Dorothy Amill's gonna be here tomorrow and nice compared. So that's what the show's about. Oh, so now we'd have to go into the bunkhouse and add live, you know, an hour. And of course we'd always, we would set something up. You know, we'd have some kind of a, you'd have to have an intro and an outro. So the director knew when to cut out away and go to commercial, but we would do something ridiculous, you know, something I'd be afraid of the dark or something. And what "Boomtown" was was there's a lot of lessons. I was kind of the kid who always got in trouble or did things incorrectly and rex was committed. No, no, we gotta do it this way, do it. So it was a, it really was an educational show. It wasn't just, you know, tongue and cheek and buffoonery, but I mean, with a lot of that. But there was always a lesson delivered. And we always played games. And the games we played on the show dealt with numbers or spelling or whatever. So it was, it really was an educational show for kids. - Now, I know people like Jackie Gleason never believed in rehearsals. Did you guys rehearse before the shows at all? - No. No, we'd have a production meeting. If we used to be on Friday afternoon, we'd have a production meeting for the weekend. And again, it was just whatever we decided to do or say. Now, I have to say this that when Rex and I were not on the air, I mean, we would practice routines, you know, much like Abbot and Costello and things like that. But I remember we'd go out to dinner with our wives, my wife Helen and Rex's wife Cindy. And we'd be out to dinner and Rex and I would go through it, you know, 'cause we'd have to show the next day. We'd go through a routine. And the women would just look at us and say, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Of course it is. That's why it's funny, but it's ridiculous. No ink. And to this day, my wife, I will tell jokes and she'll go, "That's not funny, that's ridiculous." I said, "Of course it's ridiculous." That's why it's funny. So it was, as far as rehearsals go, we, once we had our PA, which our personal parents down, it was like, it was probably no different than any of these big entertainers. You know, they get their shows squared away and they get out and they do it. And that's pretty much what we did. The ad living came in when you were at a different location and you had a kind of, you know, deal with that if you were at a park or something, obviously you made references to the parks and the attractions and all the rest of that stuff. But one funny story, we would go out to one funny, I got a million of them. We'd be out in California and one year, we took 2,300 people. - Wow. - Right, one week, 2,300 people. The Dave Preskey was a guru, he was amazing. He, logistically, I don't know how they ever did it, but I mean, think about it. We had, we'd have like 50 buses and the buses would all rotate. You know, they would drop people at Disney and then somebody else would be at Knott's Ferry Farm or whatever. It was absolutely incredible for logistics of this. So we were at Universal Studios one time. And I don't know if you remember the actor, Clue Googler. - No, that one I don't remember. - He was on every Western out there. Real good looking guy and it was under Virginia and he was on a million of them. But anyway, he was recording at Universal Studios. So we went out on this, one of these outdoor sets that they use for stunts. You know, could have been boating, could have been, you know, whatever. So we're on this stage. We've got like 2,300 people and we got the whole place filled with our people. So they would, you know, they'd introduce Rex. Rex would go out and then he'd introduce me and I'd go out and the crowd goes crazy. But they're with us, you know, so. So then we introduced Clue Googler and he kickens out and everybody goes, "Oh yeah, that's great." And I remember afterwards Clue says to me, "Who the hell are you guys?" (laughing) I said, "Wait a minute, we brought these people with us. "There are people, you know, this isn't your audience. "These people are with us." So, and we didn't many times and the actors we would have come out on the stage. They'd be like, "Oh, that's nice." But they were all into us. And because we brought them there. I mean, and not only that, we were with them 12 hours a day. I mean, when they went to California with Rex and Sergeant Phillip, we were with them all the time. At the parks, dinner, breakfast, we were with them all the time. So they felt as though we were one big family and that's the way David wanted it to go. One, and because it was a lot of work, I mean, there were times we'd come into the hotel room at the end of the day and have to wipe the smiles off our faces because they've been on all day. And so it was extremely difficult to do, but very rewarding. It was, you know, we were a big deal to that. - Right, now you very casually glossed over the name Dorothy Hamill. Did you have celebrity guests on "Bouta"? - Oh, sure. Yeah, whoever came to town. I mean, I wasn't there, but Gene Autry was on the show. The guy who played "The Range Rider." These may be going back. - Mahoney, Dick Mahoney. - Jock Mahoney, yeah. - Jock Mahoney. - Yeah, that's the probably before you, even, but-- - Oh no, oh no, I met him in person. - Yeah. - I met him in person. - Yeah, he was a nice guy and we had, but whenever anybody, we had the Irish rovers. Whoever came to town, they ended up on the show. And, but Dorothy Hamill was one of them. And I remember they, I had an assignment. I had to go to the Boston Garden. And at the time, Dorothy Hamill was sick. So they had whoever a stand-in was, I don't remember, but she was obviously a very similar to Dorothy Hamill and obviously very good. And I was to get out and put on skates and go out and skate around with this girl. So I, you know, I showed up at the rink and we had a camera crew there. And if I get out to put my skates on now, the Bruins were just kind of out practicing. So they're kind of lingering around waiting, you know, seeing what's going on. And so I get out and I'm doing these crossovers and pirouette. I mean, I was a hockey player, but so I knew how to skate. But now I got to act like a bumbling idiot or, you know, buffoon. So I'm stumbling around the place coming off the bench. And I remember Bob York comes over and he says, "Bill, that's pretty good skating out there. Pretty good demonstration." And I was mortified. But so we used that film on the show. And of course, in those days, we used to shoot 16 millimeter film with a hag stripe. I don't know if you know what that means, but it wasn't tape. It had to be processed. It had to be developed. That's why in the old days, you used to hear that they'd give a story at six o'clock. And they'd say film at 11. And the reason they said that was because the film hadn't been processed yet, but they had to report. But then they would show the report and the film at the news at 11. Now, you also briefly mentioned Howdy Dooney. Now, Bob Buffalo Bob Smith was a friend of mine. And I used to go see him perform. And he always used to talk about-- because that show was live as well. And he used to talk about things that happened that shouldn't have happened. And so it leads to the inevitable question to you. Did anything like that happen on "Boomtown?" All the time, all the time. But it found that we would not discuss. But I mean, things that would just be a mistake. But I mean, there were times when there was a little kid and we had the crew or the kids were the guests, and they would line up "Boomtown Streets" on both sides. And one little boy was yanking on my banjo and my arm. And he started to build it, started to build it. Now, we're on the air. And I said, hold on. And then, so now, one of our sponsors was Hoods and we got hoodsies. And the other one was Drake Cakes, I think, or Hostess. Hostess Cakes. This one kid says, he says, we had handed out ice cream and cupcakes to these kids. So this kid comes up to me and he says, "Do I have to build it? You want to see my food?" I went, what? He says, "Do you want to see my food?" I said, OK, so he opens his mouth. Of course, his mouth is full of ice cream and chocolate cupcakes. And I went, oh, that's bad. Oh boy. We had one thing that Rex-- if the camera was on, Rex would never make a mistake. Never let-- he would never show pain, never do anything that would disrupt the show. And one time, we had this balance beam, because we had some kids who were doing-- might have been in the junior Olympics or something like that. But we had this balance beam, we had these kids do that. So when we were going to go to a different routine, I picked up the balance beam. Rex says, "Well, pick up that mood over here." So I picked it up and when I turned it, I hit him right in the shins with this thing that was weighed about 50 pounds, and I can tell. I can tell it is by the look in his face that it hurt. So, we'll be right back, folks, right after this very important message. So they cut away. He goes behind the set, and he goes, "Yeah, ooh!" One of the craziest things that happened on Boomtown was you may know this story. We had-- one time we had-- there were three of us on the show, Rex Terry and I, Rex connected to people. We had a tiger on. And the tiger was GT for a good tiger. And now we've got 125 kids in the studio. And so this trainer comes out with a full grown bangle tiger. And this is, again, live. So you-- what happens happens? Now, the tiger-- I was in the T booth, and Terry-- I cactus peat, Terry was out there standing next to Rex. And Terry used to have boots that were just open toed. So this, for some reason, this tiger was attracted to it. So the tigers started wrapping his paws around Terry's leg. So Terry's getting real nervous about this. So the trainer jerks the leash of the tiger and says, "No, GT." Well, GT jumps up on his hind legs and floors the trainer. Oh, boy. And the kids are going, oh, this is great. Oh, wonderful. I'm in the T booth going, oh, my god. We're going to have mayhem. So Rex-- being Rex, Terry's just panics and leave. The trainer's going, get him off, get him off, get him off. So Rex comes over, grabs the leash, pulls the leash back and says, GT, bad tiger, down, GT. The dog-- the tiger settles down, lays back down, and the trainer gets up. And the trainer's obviously shaken. And again, we'd say, OK, folks, we'll be right back, right after this very important message. And the trainer took the tiger off the set and back into the cage, and we're going, oh, my god. You have any idea what could have happened. But we had live animals on all the time. We had an elephant on. We had a-- we had a camel. And I don't know if you've ever been close to a camel. No, I have not. But you don't want them. You don't want them. They're not exactly the most aromatic animal to be around. But the-- oh, yeah. We had a thing called Critic Corner. John McFarland used to command every week, and he'd bring in some exotic pet. And many times, there were just huge animals. And if we had a-- if we had the circus in town, then they'd bring an elephant over. So it was-- it was-- No. Tell you what, and it was an experience of a lifetime. And it just set the stage for everything else I did in my life. I know, on one hand, you said when the show ended, it was kind of a relief. But what was life like after "Boomtown?" And besides doing the Crimson Travel trips? Well, I was a pilot. I was-- when I was doing the television show, I was still a full-time pilot. I also did a stint at Berkeley College and music all at the same time. So you're doing a show-- you're doing shows on the weekend. I'm flying, and flight instructing during the week. And I was going to college during the week as well. I did that for about a year and a half. And that really was tough. But flying was probably my career at that point. I was forced back into that full-time. And that was-- I became a cheap pilot. And ran a beach craft dealership in Beverly. And I taught at the Hanscom Field Tech Aerospace. And executive flyers, I was a flight instructor for those guys for a while. And then I ended up as an air traffic controller, because it couldn't get in the airlines, because the Vietnam War ended in '73. And the market was flooded with pilots. So I just couldn't get a job, even though I ended up by-- I have 7,000 hours now, but I don't plan anymore. But couldn't get a job. So I ended up in the FAA as an air traffic controller. And went out to Oklahoma City. And I had-- my daughter was about 2 and 1/2. I had a son on the way. So my son was born when I was in the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. And then they came out. And we spent a couple of months out there, and then back home again. And I was assigned to Hanscom Field. Then there was a big strike. Actually, I transferred down to Cape Cod. The tower chief was going to promote me to supervise her. And he said, what is your ultimate goal? I said, well, I really like your job, which is the tower chief. So he said, well, you're going to have to get some radar somewhere. So go to Boston, or Otis, or up in Vermont. They had radar facilities up there. So I said, Otis, and I said, it's not a military. He said, yeah, but the control tower and the radar room is civilian, so you could go there. So I went down and transferred down to Cape Cod. And that's where we ended up living for the next 40 something years. And then I got fired by the president in '81 when they had the big air traffic strike, which I did not want to do. But when everybody in your facility goes out, it'd be just my luck to strike and be over in a week. And man, I'm just scabbed. So I was forced into that. And then when I got out, I ended up in financial services because I just moved on with my life. And that's really where I spent the lion's share of my career as a financial consultant. You imagine Sergeant Billy as a financial consultant? No. Excellent, no. Yeah, so I did that. And I semi-retired from that. I'm now with Satura Advisors. And I had a company with my partner, Joe Sullivan, on Cape Cod called Comprehensive Strategies. And we did financial planning for-- we were together to I hired him back in '84. And then we became partners, probably '87. So we were together for 25 years. And so that business is still going strong. Al Stanton is one of the new advisors down there. He's doing a great job. So anybody else is doing financial planning? I'm not connected with it anymore. So as I say, I'm semi-retired. But from an entertaining career, I did-- Rex and I did a show at Foxboro Stadium. My Helen and I were going on vacation. And Rex says, listen, we've got to do a bit at Foxboro Stadium. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, this now-- this was probably in the '90s. So country music was big. And they would have these big country music shows with 40, 50,000 people. So we ended up going to Foxboro Stadium. And my wife says, oh, my goodness. Nobody's going to remember who you are. I'm going to be so embarrassed for you. I said, that's what I said. Well, I do a couple of songs, a couple of jokes, and we're on vacation. So while we get there, and the first thing they do is they assign my wife a bodyguard. So she's going, hm, this is kind of like this. We go up on this huge-- well, before we go on, there's a bunch of entertainers that, you know, big names that were there. Clint Black, I think-- who else was the Kenny-- I can't even use it anyway. Kenny Rogers? No, no, no, no, but Faith Hill and all of these-- and then we kind of just getting started. So we go on-- the stage is huge. I mean, the speakers are like the size of houses. It's unbelievable. And so Rex goes out, and they said that we were surprised guests. We went on the schedule. So they didn't-- nobody knew we were coming. So Rex goes out, they introduce Rex, and the crowd goes crazy, about 50,000 people. And so he said, they have brought a long buddy of mine from a ranch, Sergeant Billie, and they go crazy. So now we're floating. I mean, we're saying, oh my goodness, this is unbelievable. So I said, Rex said, so what do you think, Bill? And I said, I cannot believe that all these people came to Fox Post Stadium just to see me. And the crowd goes, yeah. So we did about 20 minutes. Then we'd go off, and they want to do autographs. And the bodyguards wouldn't let us. They said, later, this is what we do. We sign autographs. Oh, you're not doing it today. So they wouldn't let us sign autographs. It was an exhilarating experience, because I don't think that's the biggest audience live. I've ever performed in front of them. You look back out in the audience. And all you can see, you see your face. And then you see your head. And then you see a smile. And then you see a fella. And you don't really see anything, you know? So it was quite an experience. And then my wife said, when I got back in the car, she said, all right, you're just Bill O'Brien again. So knock on to the celebrity. All right. Now, in fairness to you, we have something-- we have two somethings, actually-- that you're involved in now. So before we play the first one, tell us about this. It's kind of like a whole-time radio. Yeah, and that's exactly what it is. There's a fellow by the name of Jerry Robbins who recruited Sam Donato, who had done a lot of work with Jerry, and actually Rex had done a couple of short stories with Jerry as well. He has a company called Colonial Radio Theater. And they produce half-hour or hour audio shows, just like old-time radio. And he's taken some of the old stories and re-written him in his own way, or like a new show, a new segment. And they've got a gazillion of them that he's producing. I apologize for that phone. That's all right. Don't worry about it. And what he did is he asked if I would be interested in doing a thing called Adventures of Sergeant Billy and Corporal Sam. And so I hadn't done radio before. I mean, a little bit, but nothing to speak of. And radio is tougher than television. Let me tell you, as you probably know. Because if you're selling a dish, you can hold the dish up on television and say, look at this dish, isn't this wonderful? But if you're trying to describe that dish on the radio, it's a lot more difficult. And also, if you're on television, you're on a set, so you experience what you're surrounding. But when it's radio, and they say you're in a bar, and all you see is a microphone, and then the person next to you who's reading a script, it's extremely difficult. And it was really, really a lot of fun to do. But anyway, we did this series called The Adventures of Sergeant Billy and Corporal Sam. And Sam Donata was a guy who used to play a character actor on the show. He was very good at it, too. He was not full-time, but he would be there when we wanted to do a certain character. So he is the one that played my sidekick. So I had a sidekick, so a change which was great. So these are-- there are 12 shows. There's two series of six shows each. They can be downloaded. And you can find them on colonialradio.com or Amazon, or any of the outlets, iTunes. And you can just ask for Sergeant Billy as mentioned to Sergeant Billy and Corporal Sam. And you can download these shows, which are great. If you're not driving somewhere, and you've got a long drive ahead of you, and you've got two hours before you just plug these in, or at CD, or download them, and play the show. But the premise is that we're out in the Old West again, back. This takes place in the 1870s. And it's like an f-troop type of thing on the radio. We play two bumbling NCOs. And the Colonel's doing his best to try to get rid of us. So he keeps sending us out on these missions that we're going to disappear. And so the first series, basically, it's about the cavalry payroll being stolen. And then we're sent out to try to retrieve it. And he has-- there's currently no intentions of us if we're doing it, but he just figures that the last few guys went and didn't come back. So this would be a great way to get rid of us. So the first part is actually we're with the general. And we're supposed to be driving to-- we're on a stage coach, which Sam and I are driving in the Colonel's-- the general, I'm sorry, is in the coach. And so this is what actually takes place on that first show. So if we want to take a listen. All right. Let's listen. Alfie, I'm afraid the butt stops here. What do you mean? Corporal Sam and me can't let you take that strong box. Oh, no. Oh, no. We can't. We can't. I've got a gun. He's got a gun. Hand the strong box over. We'll keep it with us in the driver's seat. You get back inside the coach, and we'll continue on to Fort Stockade. Ha. I think that means he's ain't going to do it. We've spent enough time babbling. Now. You can't shoot us. Why not? Because we're entered in the amateur night at the Band of Bo Saloon. We're going to win first prize. Why don't you come see us? You can see a great show. Have a snore to rut gut. Play a game of chuck-a-lock afterwards. How did you two buffoons ever get into the army? I enlisted. I don't know about you. Well, I enlisted too. I'll never forget it. I had one of my famous Sunday morning hangovers from the Saturday night before. And I thought I was walking into church to make amends for my wicked ways. But it was actually the recruiting office for the cavalry. Imagine my surprise when-- When you shut up? Why you ask me? You two have got to be the stupidest. Ah, never mind. Get out of the way. Where are you going? You ain't going to shoot us? Why waste the bullet? Oh, OK. And the real tragedy of this whole thing is that the guy who paid my sidekick, Sam Donato, passed away just after making that second series of shows. He was the consummate actor, worked as sick as he was. He still managed to put down the fact when required and backed me up in some of the song and everything. And he's going to truly be missed. And it's unfortunate Jerry and I were talking about this the other day. And there's too bad because there was so many more that we could have done. The premise was fun. It was really entertaining. And the folks loved it. Yeah, it's kind of like slapstick comedy on radio. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's like up to up on the radio. OK, so let's play the other one. Did Colleen say where she was going after she'd locked you in the cell? Now, where were your parents? I have a hunch there right outside. Stay down. I know you're in there. I told you, boy. Boy, he's 50 of these a day. Will you shut up? Sorry, Sarge. Mr. I don't know what your name is. Call it paw, paw, cup and hopper. And I'm with more, more cup and hopper. Yep. I'm Sergeant Billy, and I'm in here with Corporal Sam and 10 other troopers. So throw your guns down, get your hands in the air, and walk towards the front door. 10 troopers? I'm fooling them. Oh. I'm going to count to two-- What's that sound? What sound? Mean that hiss? Yeah. Oh, must have been that stick of dynamite that threw in through the window. Oh. Dynamite? Quick, get it. Got it? I got it. Throw it back out the window. Quick, look out. These two are playing rough. And so real loco is we had these people who were all crooks. We were trying to arrest them all. And then mom, pop, cup and hopper. They show up, and they're trying to steal the payroll. It was really quite convoluted. But it was pretty funny, pretty funny scene. You know, when I listen to that, I can't help think of how advanced gun smoke was on radio with their sound effects. And if they had that kind of equipment that you guys use now, what they could have done with that radio show. Oh, amazing, that's really amazing. And you know what, I appreciate more now those radio shows when I listen to them, when I'm driving these old ones. Either these guys and gals were unbelievable. And to do it, when you have like that whole scene you just heard, we're in a studio. We're not in the cell. We're not in the jail. It's all been, it's all imagination. And it is fun. It was a lot of fun. That was my first stint at it. And... - Hey, one other question before I let you go. When you were doing "Boomtown," how did you get your audience? How did you get your kids? Did you... - Actually, there was... We were sold out for a year. And what would happen was people would write to the studio. And then our program coordinator would send them an invitation and we would have 125 kids on each show. Now, what we would do when we taped... In the old days we used to tape on Friday Sunday and then Sally would be live. Well, it didn't make a lot of sense then. So we just set up the set on Saturday and did both shows. So the parents would be sitting in kind of a semi little small bleachers area behind offset. And the kids would be in the studio. And then... So that would be like 125 of them every show. And the show was sold out for over a year. So you couldn't get tickets. I mean, we had a... We had a... If somebody come up to me, somebody would call me a friend and say, "Please, please, can you get us on the show?" And I'd have to write a letter to my program coordinator and say, "Please admit these." Yeah, it was book solid. I'm sure that a lot of them were. Back then, you know, we had... Ed Mcdonald was doing "Ninja Mudd" and Frank Caprush was doing "Bozo" and "Dick Beach" was over at 38 doing "Willy Whistle." And all these... I don't know if I'm not sure if those guys had as many in the audiences we did. 'Cause we had a whole town, so... I think that kind of programming is missing today. In television. Yeah, and it was fun too. It was a lot of fun. And let me tell you something. There's nothing more sincere than a kid. If they don't like it, you're gonna know they don't like it. If they like you, they're gonna tell you they like you. They're very honest, they're very sincere. If they're having a good time, they'll have a good time. If they're not having a good time, they're not having a good time. It was so much fun working with them because they're real people. Yep. Well, listen, if you wanna talk about real people, put yourself in that category. I, it was a pleasure to get to know you again. I know we've met at BZ, but it was a, I'm sure a long time ago. Yeah. Larry Bush was probably here. Yeah. But it's been really great to have you on and to be able to share in that enthusiasm that you're able to project just sitting here talking. And it's been a real kick for me. And I wanna thank you so much for taking time and sitting here for 55 minutes and just reminiscing about good old days that have gone by. Well, thanks for having me, Ken. I mean, it's good that you remember, you know, it's been a long time. I mean, people, when people come up to me and remember, I'm flattered because it's been so long, so. Well, again, I appreciate your doing this and thank you again for your time and that will do it for this edition of City Talk. Thanks for listening to another great conversation with Ken Meyer and friends. You can contact Ken by email. He addresses kjmyr7@gmail.com. That's kj-m-e-y-r7@gmail.com. Tune in next time for more conversation with Ken Meyer on City Talk. (upbeat music)