For Boston readers of a certain vintage, Bob Gamere isn’t merely the inspiration for a noise rock band of little repute‘s imaginary record label. Through his boozy tenures at a succession of New England television and radio stations, along with a stint in the 80’s calling Harvard football, Gamere was a very compelling character, kinda like a more intense William Devane. While WBZ counterpart Bob Lobel cut a palsy, proto-Kenny Mayne figure, Worcester native Gamere was decidedly old school. As in, the school of “i’m gonna beat you to death for looking at me funny” — even in the placid setting of the afternoon “Candlepins For Cash”, Gamere seemed like the wrong guy to fuck with.
At some point in the late ’80’s, Gamere began appearing in tiny ads in the back of the Boston Herald, pitching his tout acumen as “The Great Gamere”. Sadly for the 68 year old former sportscaster, that handle might’ve been his undoing. From the Boston Globe’s Jonathan Saltzman :
Robert Gamere, the veteran sportscaster who hosted the local TV show “Candlepins for Cash” through most of the 1970s, was arrested yesterday on federal charges of transporting and possessing child pornography.
Several hours later, in a firm voice, the Brookline resident pleaded not guilty in US District Court in Boston to a three-count indictment of distributing child pornography over the Internet on two separate dates last year and of possessing child pornography on his home computer. The indictment was unsealed yesterday.
Terry Ann Knopf, a journalism lecturer at Boston University who got to know Gamere as a television critic for The Patriot Ledger and contributing writer for Boston magazine, said the arrest marked the latest tragic chapter in a troubled life.
Gamere was a skilled and likable broadcaster whose personal demons led to erratic behavior and caused him to bounce from one media outlet to the next, often after being fired, she said.
“It’s kind of a sad story of somebody who was very talented and had an unfortunate knack for throwing it all away,” she said.
Gamere worked as a sportscaster at a number of local TV and radio stations, but he is best-known to many in Boston as the host of “Candlepins for Cash” on Channel 7 from 1973 to 1980.
Afterward, he worked for five years as a sports anchor at WLVI-TV but was fired in 1989 after charges of assault and sexual harassment were brought against him by a Malden man. The charges were later dropped.
In June 1988, he was stabbed four times while walking in Boston’s Fenway section in the early morning. He eventually recovered, resumed his work, and competed in the Boston Marathon.
Gamere had made his television play-by-play debut in 1970 for the New York Yankees on WPIX but was let go after one season and replaced by Bill White.
my sister emailed me this last week which led to an all day back and forth about what we imagined the personal lives of dick albert, chet and nat, bob lobel, joyce kulhawik, and bruce schowegler were probably like.
we have vivid imaginations and are easily amused.
When I was a teenager my friends and I with our fake IDs went into Daisy Buchanans. There we saw Bob totally drunk draped over a young girl. I found it particularly unnerving since I knew him and his family from Charles River Park. I believe I even babysat for him a couple of times.
Mr. Gamere was a real “elbows on the bar” type of guy for which everyone, it seems, has an anecdote involving drink, back-slapping, fists & knives, and eventually children.
The pugilistic journeyman microphone jockey has gone from drinking bars to the bars of a penal colony. God rest his restless soul.
“Pull a postcard and let’s find out who’ll be your pin pal at home.”