Rex Smith "Boys Keep Swinging" 1985

I remember this show. It was about adolescent boys and physical and emotional maturity development. Bob ("Captain Kangaroo") Keeshan hosted.

Rex was freaking adorable, could sing, could move (sort of).

Why did his career go down the shitter, DL?

I think the choreography went right over the head of many.

How? Why? It was the 80s

One of the dancers is named David Axelrod.

That's um... SURELY they knew what they were doing? Did they hear Bowie's lyrics? I mean, the way the camera lingers on the football players' asses... for one thing.

Rex Smith has had interesting life. You posting this caused me to dig up this piece about the son he never knew he had -- until that son came to see him in the Canadian production of Sunset Blvd and stared at him from the front row of the audience. Mary!

Captain Kangaroo was a known pig bottom. Clarabell was his first furry persona, and once Mr. Greenjeans turned him out his kinky side escalated and he became a committed cum dumpster.

I used to have a record album featuring only Rex's face, and his beautiful feathered hair, on the front.

Playgirl tried and tried to convince him to pose for a centerfold, since his wife had been a Playboy Playmate. I imagine it would be veeery popular.

I had a copy of US Magazine that I loved when I was a teen. It featured Rex standing by a pool with just a guitar covering his naked body. One side was bare. Can't find the photo online but it was great.

[quote] Playgirl tried and tried to convince him to pose for a centerfold

Please tell me you're not talking about Captain Kangaroo.

R8, I had it on cassette. 😀

Rex was a real flash in the pan. Wasn’t it some TV movie that made him famous? And some song like You Take My Breath Away or something? Cock breath more like.

He was in a TV movie called Sooner or Later (1979) — also the theme song name. He played a 17 year old guy who was in a band and also taught guitar lessons. A 13 year old girl had a crush on him, she lied about her age and they started dating. The kind of movie that would NEVER be made today (thankfully).

Girls in my school were obsessed with that movie r14. It was like porn to them.

He had a big hit in The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway and went on to an ok Broadway career.

I follow him on twitter. Last I saw he was working on a Disney cruise ship playing the father in their production of Beauty and the Beast and doing concerts about his life as a teen idol.

He was supposed to star opposite Miss Dunaway in the replacement cast of Sunset Boulevard in LA. I wish he would tell stories of that like could she sing? As said above after that closed they gave him the Toronto company with Diahann Carroll.

The movie is on YouTube.

It's fairly evident that anyone responsible for actual culture was dead of AIDS by the time they filmed this.

Why, hello.

Jackie Oh! was a fan.

Shirt? What's a shirt?

R20 I'm positive that photo was on the back of one of his albums.

Mr. Red Shorts.

Friday afternoon cocktail bump.

Rex was hot but bland and dull.

R21 The back of his first record. My sister loved him.

What a treat watching him and young Kevin Klein in Pirates of Penzance.

Leather vest.

Chills!

With Rachel Sweet in 1981. Anyone remember her?

Oh, the late-late-70s/pre-AIDs 80s. What a truly glorious time. Never fully appreciated.

Rex was gorgeous. So sad he did not turn out to be a gay.

Meh. We were hotter!

Rex Smith was known to have a huge cock that he was proud to display upon request.

He's mentioned in the Andy Warhol Diaries, showing up at a premiere commando and in pants so tight he may as well have been naked.

He's currently selling real estate on the west coast, but still occasionally performs.

What's his OnlyFans?

[quote] As said above after that closed they gave him the Toronto company with Diahann Carroll.

From Dunaway to Diahann. God, show business is cruel.

God I loved this movie.

R19, Jackie looks like a rape victim in that photo.

He was on As The World Turns for a few years - but his boring character and story was the cure for insomnia.

He was the Matthew Morrison of his day.

I never forgot this photo of him sort of nude with a guitar

R37 actually.....wow, that's spot on.

Meh. I was hotter in the late '70s...and I still am.

I remember that stupid "Soon or Later" movie. It co-starred Denise Miller as Jessie, who falls for Michael, he of the feathered blonde hair. She's only 13 (he's 17) but she wants to win his love so she learns to apply makeup to make her look 16, and voila! He gets the hots for her. He pressures her for sex until finally she admits she's only 13 and tells him she loves him. He drives her home and tells her goodbye and she weeps and weeps and eats an entire pan of fudge. But later when she's having her guitar lesson he shows up, tells her he loves her too, and they agree to "take it slow." He's 17 and wants a 13 year old as a girlfriend? Yech! I can understand how teenage girls would swoon over this movie. A gorgeous blonde haired musician boyfriend who loves you but is willing to wait until you grow up a little before having sex with you....SIGH. This tv movie was made into a YA novel; there were a couple of sequels to it. Seems Jessie and Michael finally had sex and he leaves for rock star stardom but comes back down on his luck and an alcoholic? Will Jessie take him back? Who knows? Who cares?

I also remember a story about Rex Smith in The Star that said he was having a "sizzling affair" with Tatum O'Neal. It featured photos of them kissing in some club. I guess it was true what one of his parents said about him "He has terrible taste in women."

was a host on Solid Gold for a while I think. He did a lot and went quite far with not a great deal of talent or charisma. But he was pleasantly sexy and non-threatening and was basically a kind of chorus boy who made good for quite some time there. Now, he still looks good for his age and seems like a nice guy. I’d do him in a heartbeat.

Truly r37 is some kind of sage. That is such an astute comparison!

Much handsomer face than Matthew Morrison's, but he was not as good a singer.

He was actually kind of a big deal at his peak in the late 70s and early 80s, much more so than Matthew Morrison has ever been.

I remember him in The Pirates of Penzance, a made for television production with Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstadt and Angela Lansbury, which I owned on VHS tape. Rex's legs and ass looked fantastic in those tight pants.

I remember during the opening sequence of that "Knight Rider" knockoff (except with a motorcycle in place of the car) he starred in, there was a shot of Rex wearing nothing but a red Speedo, trapped inside a clear tube which was slowly filling up with foam. Nice imagery for teenaged gay me.

[quote] a shot of Rex wearing nothing but a red Speedo, trapped inside a clear tube which was slowly filling up with foam

Apparently while filming that show he was filling up some Canadian frau with his own batch of foam.

I was curious, and found his complete discography on Spotify. His theatrical voice is best in small, measured doses.

Sporting trousersnake at R45.

He should have gotten naked for Playgirl, and it sounds like he liked to show it off, agents be damned.

Rick Springfield stole his career!