Hopalong Cassidy
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For the American football player, see Howard "Hopalong" Cassady.
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy-hero, created in 1904 by Clarence E. Mulford and appearing in a series of popular stories and later novels. Here the character appears as a rude, rough-talking 'galoot'. Beginning in 1935, the character, played by William Boyd was transformed into the clean-cut hero of a series of 66 immensely popular films, only a few of which were based on Mulford's works, but which led, in turn, to a comic book series modelled after the films.
On June 24, 1949, Hoppy became the first network Western television series, airing on NBC. At first NBC fashioned the shows out of the films after paying Boyd, who owned the TV rights to his films, a quarter-million dollars for them. [1] The footage later shot for the TV series starred Boyd, with Edgar Buchanan as his sidekick "Red Connors" and numerous tie-ins. The theme music for the TV show was written by veteran songwriters Nacio Herb Brown (music) and L. Wolfe Gilbert (lyrics). The show ranked number 7 in the 1949 Nielsen ratings. The Mutual Broadcasting System began broadcasting a radio version of Hopalong Cassidy in January 1950; at the end of September, the show moved to CBS Radio, where it ran into 1952.[1]
In 1950, Hopalong Cassidy was featured on the first lunch box to bear an image, causing sales for Aladdin Industries to jump from 50,000 units sold the previous year to 600,000 units sold. He also appeared on the cover of national magazines, such as Look, Life and Time. There was also a series of children's dinnerware released, as well as roller skates, soap, wristwatches and jackknives.[2] The success of the show and tie-ins inspired several juvenile TV Westerns, including The Gene Autry Show and The Roy Rogers Show.
Louis L'Amour wrote a handful of Hopalong Cassidy novels, which are still in print. In 2005, author Susie Coffman published Follow Your Stars, containing new stories starring the character. In three of these stories, Coffman has written the wife of actor William Boyd into the stories.
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