Randy Eli
Grothe / DMN
Bill
Bragg, 55, now the voice of Big Tex, was a finalist in April's
audition.
|
State Fair of Texas officials Friday announced the seventh and newest
voice of Big Tex, not with a boom but with a whisper.
Bill Bragg, 55, of Richardson, a free-lance broadcast engineer, will
greet fairgoers next fall with the traditional drawling, "Howwwdy ...
folks!" – a role that requires him to broadcast for 24 consecutive days
from a booth not very affectionately known as the "doghouse."
Mr. Bragg confirmed the appointment in Texas fashion.
"As of today, I am the voice of Big Tex. Case closed," Mr. Bragg said.
State Fair spokeswoman Nancy Wiley said fair officials picked Mr. Bragg
because "we worked with him before, and we just felt he could do a real
good job."
The low-key decision contrasted with the high-visibility contest last
April in which five finalists – Mr. Bragg included – auditioned before
the gathered media.
At that time, Mr. Bragg lost to Sonny Ray Stolz, who quickly sought to
become a high-profile figure. Mr. Stolz abruptly resigned in November,
critical of the working conditions and contending that fair officials
had subjected him to sarcasm, public humiliation and a lack of respect.
Fair officials denied those allegations. But Ms. Wiley was clearly
hoping Friday that the quiet nature of the selection process might have
a more placid result.
"This is the way we always used to do it," she said. "Running it as a
public contest didn't have a real happy ending."
Jim Lowe, who died in 2000, was the voice of Big Tex for most of the
last five decades. Mr. Lowe's last year as the voice of Big Tex was
1998. Dan Alexander took the job for two years but stepped down after he
and his family moved to Arizona.
Mr. Bragg has had on-the-job training of a sort. For the last two years,
his voice greeted callers to the State Fair information line.
"I did it partly in the Big Tex voice and partly in my own voice," he
said. "If I did it all in that slow Big Tex voice, the State Fair would
be over before you got off the phone."
Mr. Bragg is a graduate of Hillcrest High School and worked as a
broadcast technician for KDFW-TV for 27 years. In 1983, he founded the
Yesterday USA radio network, which specializes in broadcasting old radio
shows.
He has played bit parts in movies – most notably, a bank teller in
Bonnie and Clyde – and "a loud-mouth guy in a movie theater" in
television's Dark Shadows, he said.
Mr. Bragg calls being the voice of Big Tex "the hardest job at the
fair." He said he would try to hold the position longer than his
predecessor.
"Virtually everything I do will be different," he said.
He declined to be more specific.
He is equally laconic about how he achieves the voice of Big Tex.
"I just shut my eyes and open my mouth, and it just comes out," Mr.
Bragg said. "It seems to fool everybody."
