Wolfman Jack Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bob Smith

Can there possibly be a bigger difference between someone's real name and his/her professional name? Bob Smith must be nearly as common as John Doe.

Answer: born into a prosperous family in NYC, NY

Wolfman was the second child born to a family that lived in a big stylish Manhattan apartment.

Answer: a juvenile delinquent

Wolfman was a bright but lackluster student. As he explained it, "If you don't find where you belong at home, you go looking for it in other places." With various pressures tugging at its seams, his once-stable family fell apart and his parents divorced.

Despite their best efforts, his older sister and the family's beloved maid couldn't provide the firm hand he needed, and he started hanging around with a neighborhood gang.

Answer: down in the coal bin of his family's brownstone apartment building

Wolfman and his buddies cleaned out an old coal bin that went unused after the heating system of the brownstone where the Smiths lived was converted from coal to oil. It became the perfect meeting place for them to hang out, play records, and listen to whatever they could find on the dial of their transoceanic radio.

Answer: apprenticing at one of the four stations his dad owned

A natural schmoozer, Wolfman found easy acceptance by the people who hung around star performers in shows that he went to see. He didn't care what he had to do, so long as he could be a part of the backstage excitement.

Neither his father nor his father's second wife were sympathetic to their son's interest in R&B radio, or his disinterest in doing what he was supposed to!

Answer: teasing nieces and nephews at bedtime

As a young man Wolfman lived with his sister and her family for a time, and he loved being part uncle and part big brother to her kids. After they'd gotten into their pajamas he'd drape a dark blanket over his shoulders and say, in his deepest voice, "The Wooolfman is coming down the hallll ... coming to your doooor ... coming to get you and eat you up!" And then he'd cup his hands in front of his mouth and go "Awooooooo!"

Answer: door to door encyclopedia salesman

He was actually a resounding success selling Collier's Encyclopedias door to door! He sold enough to trade in his faded Buick for a snazzy Ford convertible. That prompted him to try his hand at being a Fuller Brush salesman --- at which he also did very well!

Answer: rhythm and blues

He says he was "positively the only one in the whole school that wanted to work for a rhythm and blues radio station." Most of his classmates wanted prestigious careers playing classical music, while a few wanted to be sportscasters. None of them understood his goal at all.

Answer: Daddio of the Radio

"Daddio of the Radio" was Porky Chedwick, a legend in the Pittsburgh PA area.

Answer: in the middle of a Mexican desert

Exactly how Wolfman Jack got to that radio station, and stayed at it as long as he did, makes for a long but very interesting story.

Answer: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

After hooking up with the Air Force and Armed Forces Radio, "The Wolfman Jack Show" in syndication really took off. Although the Vietnam War was raging at that time, he never talked to men and women in the military about war, a subject they knew all too well.

Instead, he took them into the Wolfman's Happy House for jokes, wisecracks, and some soulful fun! For the rest of his life, in venues across the country, vets came up to tell him how his radio show had helped them get through hellish days and nights.

He considered those expressions of gratitude among the highest compliments he ever received.

Answer: The Midnight Special

"Johnny Rivers and Friends" was the title of a radio show and song released by a group with that name. "Hullabaloo" aired on NBC for less than two years in the mid-'60s. "SNL" debuted in 1975, airing Saturdays, while "Midnight Special" aired Fridays, actually a bit after midnight. If you want a time capsule of '70s music and fashion, find some way to view tapes of that show.

Answer: American Graffiti

George Lucas was one of the thousands of teenagers who regularly tuned in to Wolfman Jack. He found it fascinating that a deejay could relate well enough to what his listening audience was thinking and feeling that he nearly became part of their lives.

A budding USC film school student at the time, Lucas approached and signed Wolfman Jack, who plays himself in the film. The rest is history. "American Graffiti" is a classic of late 50's/early 60's teenage angst, and if you haven't seen it, put it on your list!

Answer: Rush Limbaugh

There were virtually no top radio deejays or rock'n'roll performers that Wolfman Jack didn't work with or at least meet during the course of his career. Rush Limbaugh, whose show debuted in 1988, is associated with conservative talk radio, a whole different genre.

Answer: Guess Who

Burton Cummings, the leader of the band that scored big with "These Eyes", "No Time", and "American Woman", wrote that tune. You might still find it at your favorite musical venue.

Answer: Phil Donahue

Wolfman Jack did "The Phil Donahue Show" in the mid-1970's. Years later they ran into each other again at the Kentucky Derby. Phil lost an opportunity to make some fast bucks when he decided not to take Wolfman up on a hot tip about a horse that was considered a very long shot. The race ended in a dead heat, but that horse was declared the winner!

Answer: Mike Love

You can get some pretty strange credentials from some pretty strange places!

Answer: He stayed married for more than 30 years to a woman he met in a Fred Astaire dance studio.

The first time he laid eyes on her, he became smitten with Lou Elizabeth Lamb, a shy girl from North Carolina who became the love of his life. She finally agreed to marry him, and they took off together on the grand adventure that was life with the Wolfman. Few show business marriages last as long -- even fewer that have to compete with 'sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll.'

Answer: two, a son and a daughter

Joy Rene Smith is deceased, and Tod Weston Smith had worked in the business as a concert promoter.

Answer: "Have mercy!"

You can't call yourself a Wolfman Jack fan if you got this wrong! "Have mercy, baby!"