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From: Joe Moore
Date: 14 Jul 2000
Time: 21:53:32
Remote Name: 64.92.83.95
Pioneer disc jockey Wolfman Jack dies at 57
Wolfman Jack, the rock 'n' roll disc jockey whose gravelly voice and wolf howls made him one of the nation's most recognizable personalities, died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 57.
The Wolfman collapsed shortly after returning home earlier in the day, said Lonnie Napier, vice president of Wolfman Jack Entertainment.
He had just completed a 20-day trip to promote his new book "Have Mercy, The Confession of the Original Party Animal," about his early career and parties with celebrities.
"He walked up the driveway, went in to hug his wife and then just fell over," said Napier from the Wolfman's home, about 120 miles east of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Born Robert Smith in Brooklyn, the Wolfman came to prominence in the early 1960s on XERF-AM, playing the latest rock 'n' roll on a Mexican station that broadcast at 250,000 watts, five times the power allowed on any U.S. station at the time.
His howls and yips, and the blues and hillbilly records he spun blanketed much of the United States all night long.
In between cuts, he would hawk plastic figurines of Jesus, coffins, and inspirational literature, and exhort his listeners to "get yo'self nekkid."
Though already well known, it wasn't until he played himself in the 1973 movie American Graffiti that America saw the face that went with the voice. Many early listeners assumed he was black.
"It took the Wolfman from a cult figure to the rank of American flag and apple pie," he once said of the movie.
After American Graffiti, he began doing various advertising campaigns and appeared in more than 40 network TV shows. He also had his own syndicated TV show, The Wolfman Jack Show.
In the 1980s, the Wolfman became host of Rock 'n' Roll Palace on The Nashville Network, featuring performers such as the Shirelles, the Coasters, Del Shannon, Martha Reeves and the Crickets.
"It's real American music - what rock 'n' roll originally was before people turned it around and sideways and upside down. From 1958 to 1964, that's real rock 'n' roll. Then the Beatles hit and everyone sounded like them. They didn't give our boys long enough," the Wolfman said in a 1988 interview.
He also had played host on a weekly TV show called The Midnight Special for eight years, leaving in 1982.
More recently, the Wolfman had been doing a weekly syndicated radio show for Liberty broadcasting from a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Washington, D.C. His last show, picked up by about 70 stations, was Friday night.
"He had just done one of his best shows," Napier said. "He was feeling really good."
The portly Wolfman had recently lost 40 pounds through diet and exercise, Napier said.
"But he still smoked his Camels. He was going to live the way he lived," he said.
The Wolfman's name came from a trend of the '50s, when disc jockeys took nicknames such as Moondog or Hound Dog. He enjoyed horror movies, so he took the name Wolfman.
Todd Rundgren, the Guess Who, Leon Russell and Freddie King all wrote songs about him.
He credited his voice for his success.
"It's kept meat and potatoes on the table for years for Wolfman and Wolfwoman. A couple of shots of whiskey helps it. I've got that nice raspy sound."
He is survived by his wife, Lou Lamb Smith; a daughter, Joy Rene Smith, 33; and a son, Tod Weston Smith, 31.