Bob Nowotny
Contributing Writer
Bob is, without a doubt, the one SmackRef who really can pull off wearing a hat.
Although his dream to wear the baseball cap of a major league player never materialized (he grounded out in his only at-bat in Wrigley Field against Hall-of-Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins), Bob has found solace in producing four independently-financed feature motion pictures and a number of successful television productions. His work includes The Legend of Billy the Kid — an Emmy Award-winning documentary for Disney.
Bob is the author of two books: The Way of All Flesh Tones: A History of Color Motion Picture Processes, 1895-1929, considered to be the definitive resource on the topic. He also penned The Best of Need-To-Vent!, a compendium of pithy movie reviews, sports trivia oddities and caustic observations dealing with the human condition that is promoted as being “America’s Number One book when you are doing Number Two!”
With a deep-seated loathing for political correctness and anything that is “born again,” Bob has been heavily influenced by the likes of H. L. Mencken, George Carlin and Lisa Lampanelli. Â A Libertarian, Bob ran a hotly contested 2010 race for the Texas State Legislature. As it turned out, the voters in his district by a small majority favored Bob returning to his duties as a contributor to Movie Smackdown! where he has been welcomed back on the condition that he not ask us to pay for TV commercials.
When he’s not venting, Bob can be found punching holes in the sky with his Cessna 172. Even accounting for the wide-open highways to be found in Texas, he still feels his chances of hitting anything are less up there.