The curious acquaintance of John Otto and Boss Hogg

       By Steve Cichon
       steve@buffalostories.com
       @stevebuffalo

Bennett class officers in 1946, featuring John Otto (leopard print tie), and Sorrell Booke (far right, standing).

Your first inclination might be to assume that that radio star in question was Class President John Otto — who would go on to a more than 50-year career in Buffalo radio as the erudite dean of Western New York talk show hosts.

Otto, however, didn’t become a familiar voice in the night (on the radio, on the telephone) until after serving in the Navy following graduation.

The class valedictorian, however, had already been appearing in locally produced radio dramas for more than a decade, won a contest on WGR with his impersonation of Hitler, and was considered a regular actor on WEBR by the time he was a sophomore at Bennett.

Sorrell Booke, the son of physician Dr. Sol Booke, spent much of the ’50s, ’60, and ’70s as a character actor on television. He was seen on “Guiding Light,” “Car 54, Where Are You?,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “MAS*H,” “Gunsmoke” and “All in the Family.”

Booke’s most famous starring role came in 1979, when he started playing Jefferson Davis “Boss” Hogg on “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

While the man who’d become Boss Hogg was tallying 132 television acting credits, mostly in guest starring roles, his Bennett classmate was also burning up the airwaves.

John Otto’s broadcasting career began as a disc jockey and newsman on WBNY Radio, before moving to WGR, where he spent most of the 1960s as a “jack-of-all-trades” on both WGR Radio and WGR-TV Channel 2.

John Otto, hosting on WGR-TV, Channel 2.

Otto hosted children’s shows, was a TV weatherman, and hosted a local TV talk show, as well as the radio work that he’d be best known for, starting with a program called Extension 55 on WGR.

Remembered for his brilliance, class, and unparalleled ability to put the English language to its best possible use on live radio, Otto died in 1999, still hosting his “nighttime conference call of all interested parties” as many as six nights a week.

After “The Dukes of Hazzard” ended its seven-year run in 1985, Booke continued to act in guest starring roles on shows like “Newhart” and “Full House,” while also becoming quite prolific as a voice actor on animated children’s shows.

Sorrell Booke as Boss Hogg.

Booke died in 1994 at the age of 64.

Bennett’s snack time hangouts of the 50s & 60s

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

It’s a bit of Happy Days in North Buffalo.

A defining feature of any high school experience is what you ate and how you ate it. But during the post-war and baby boomer years, the students at Bennett High School, Main & Hertel in Buffalo, not only enjoyed eating– but also seemed to do a pretty decent job of chronicling lunch time and snack time.

Boys drink milk from Kart’s Dairy, across Main Street from Bennett High School, in the Bennett cafeteria in the 1956-57 school year. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Looking through newspapers and yearbooks and a pile of other resources, here are some great photos showing what teenage-life was like for the students of North Buffalo, University Heights, Central Park, Parkside and other neighborhoods in the north-central part of the city.

Some of the locations are obvious, but some of the them aren’t labelled. If you have any idea which soda fountains, coffee shops, or pizza places are represented in these photos– from Hertel, to University Heights, to The Central Park Plaza– please drop me an email at steve@buffalostories.com.

Van Slyke Pharmacy and Luncheonette, Hertel Avenue corner of Parkside Avenue. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Bennett students Judy Silverstein, Lynda Sturner, Bonnie Sandler and Sunny Weinstein at an unnamed soda fountain, 1957. Possibly Bargar and Wright’s pharmacy at Hertel and Colvin?  What do you think? Any idea where this photo was taken? Email steve@buffalostories.com (Buffalo Stories archives)

Bennett boys eating pizza, 1957. Do you know where? Drop me an email, steve@buffalostories.com (Buffalo Stories archives)

Larry Nadel, Judy Rovall, Susie Silverman, Alan Carrel, Jane Stiller and Irwin Falk eating hamburgers and sodas,at The Salad Bowl Restaurant– in what was then The Delaware Shopping Plaza, later the Great Arrow Shopping Plaza, and today, Marshall’s Plaza.  (Buffalo Stories archives)

Bennett girls doing homework, talking on the phone, and drinking Queen-O, 1959. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Girls eating pizza in front of the jukebox, 1959. Any idea which pizza joint? Drop me an email, steve@buffalostories.com (Buffalo Stories archives)

Coffee, water, and a jukebox remote. 1957. Louis Trachtman writes: “These guys are (left to right) Richard Kulick (now deceased); Gordon Cohen (now deceased), Elbert Siegel and Murray Munshen.  I feel certain this photo was taken at the Salad Bowl on Delaware Avenue, which was a popular “hangout” for teen agers from North Buffalo.  We all graduated from Bennett High School together, class of 1957. ”  That sounds definitive to me– but earlier, two folks thought it might be Clarence’s Diner. Clarence would give the kids food for helping keep the place clean, and would even let kids fry their own french fries. Clarence’s Diner was in a typical storefront building at Hertel and Starin, where Deep South Taco now stands. (Buffalo Stories archives)

 

 

 

Mister S Hamburgers. Now the site of the LaSalle Metro Station, just north of Hertel, before the viaduct was removed. 1967. (Buffalo Stories archives)