By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
Typically, when Buffalo Bob Smith enthusiastically shouted the question, “Say kids, what time is it?” the answer enthusiastically shouted back was, “It’s Howdy Doody Time!”
That wasn’t the case in this series of Bells Markets TV ads from the early 1970s.
“It’s Bells Supermarket Time,” the peanut gallery shouted from the vegetable aisle at Bells.
Robert Schmidt was born in Buffalo and attended Fosdick-Masten Park High School (now City Honors School), and began a radio career on WGR and then WBEN with lifelong friend and early on-air partner Clint Buehlman.
As Bob Smith, he moved to New York City radio in 1947, and when he started hosting a children’s television show shortly thereafter – adding the nod to his hometown to his stage name, becoming Buffalo Bob Smith.
The video shows three 30-second commercials which aired on Buffalo television in the early 1970s.
They were transferred from 16 mm film as a part of the Buffalo Stories Film Conservation Initiative.
