American Pickers’ Mike Wolfe Felt A Special Connection To The Roadside Oddity Wolf Boy – Looper

In the second episode of Season 9, “Step Right Up,” Mike Wolfe and his longtime “American Pickers” co-host, Frank Fritz, stumbled upon the creepy Wolf Boy. Created by artist Homer Tate, the papier-mâché humanoid was touted as a genuine creature back in the day to get folks to check it out for a small fee. The seller got it from Tate’s Curiosity Shop back in the 1940s, and Wolfe was certain he had to be the next one to own it. “As soon as I picked him up, I felt a connection, but then, when I heard his name, ‘Wolf Boy,’ it was like I found my long lost brother,” Wolfe said, hence why he was more than willing to drop $100 on the former roadside attraction.

While many would agree that Wolf Boy is a rather strange and difficult-to-look-at creation, there’s no denying just how hard Homer Tate worked on all of his roadside attractions. In fact, some of them even included real animal bones and human hair, further adding to the desired level of realism he was aiming for. Then again, the papier-mâché base of most of his odd artistic renderings has made his works increasingly rare over time. Sideshow, carnival, and oddity expert David “Doc” Rivera told AZCentral in 2018, “You don’t see them often, and usually when you do, they’re in bad shape, which is a shame.”

The years have not been kind to Homer Tate’s creations, but his legacy and that of his art will endure for years to come. The “American Pickers” crew certainly made the right call picking up the somehow still relatively intact Wolf Boy.