Rex Trailer was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and spent his childhood summers at his grandfather's quarter horse ranch in Thurber, Texas, where he developed a passion for horses and the cowboy lifestyle. He owned his first horse at the ranch, where he was taught trick roping, bullwhip handling, and guitar playing by the rodeo riders who worked there. Trailer also learned square dance calling and sang with a group called "The Rambling Rustlers".
As he grew older, Trailer joined a rodeo and met movie star Gabby Hayes, who hired him to work at his summer ranch for kids in the Catskill Mountains of New York. This experience had a profound impact on Trailer, and Hayes encouraged him to pursue a career in children's television as an on-air personality.
In 1947, Trailer began working for the Dumont Television Network in New York City, initially as a scenery painter, but quickly rose through the ranks to become a production coordinator and then an assistant director. He eventually became the host of his own show, "Oky Dokey Ranch", which featured him as a cowboy and a cowboy puppet named Oky Dokey.
Trailer's next television venture was "Ridin' the Trail With Rex Trailer", a western-style children's show that aired from 1950 to 1956. When the television station was sold to NBC, Trailer had two years remaining on his contract and was offered a job with Westinghouse in either Cleveland or Boston. He chose Boston and "Boomtown" was born, running from 1956 to 1974.
Throughout the run of "Boomtown", Trailer had a number of sidekicks, including Pablo, Cactus Pete, and Sergeant Billy, and made numerous appearances throughout the Boston area. He also teamed with a local travel agency to take children on trips to California theme parks called "Rex Trailer Goes West" and was an advocate for children with disabilities.
After "Boomtown" ended, Trailer hosted a syndicated science series called "Earth Lab" until 1979. Besides being a cowboy, Trailer was a licensed pilot, skydiver, scuba diver, and water skier, and an accomplished singer, releasing two recordings in 1950, "Cowboys Don't Cry" and "Hoofbeats", which was used on "Boomtown" to bridge the scene between the bunkhouse and the Boomtown set.
Trailer was married to Karoline "Cindy" Trailer from 1956 until her death in 2010. In 2012, he continued to appear in events in towns all over Massachusetts, and passed away at the age of 84 in Florida on January 9, 2013.
