One of my earliest cowboy heroes was Hopalong Cassidy. Created in 1904 by Clarence E. Mulford, he first appeared in a series of popular stories and novels, finally galloping onto the silver screen beginning in 1935, with ex-silent screen star William Boyd (1895-72) in the character's saddle. In print, Hopalong was a rude, rough-talking “galoot,” but Boyd transformed him into an easy smiling, clean-cut hero in 66 immensely popular films. In the late ‘40s, Boyd brought Hoppy to TV, and that’s where I discovered him – or perhaps a little earlier, at Saturday matinees. As portrayed by the white-haired Cassidy, Hoppy wore mostly black (including his hat, contradicting the long-standing western rule that only villains wore black hats). He was reserved and well spoken, with a fine sense of fair play, often called upon to intercede when dishonest characters took advantage of honest citizens. He usually traveled with two companions: one young and trouble-prone with a weakness for damsels in distress, the other comically awkward and outspoken (a formula adopted by both Autrey and Rogers in their own kid-aimed TV shows). A succession of actors played the sidekicks, but Boyd filled Hoppy's boots until he rode off into the last sunset in 1972 – a sad day for us former buckaroos.
Hopalong Cassidy
One of my earliest cowboy heroes was Hopalong Cassidy. Created in 1904 by Clarence E. Mulford, he first appeared in a series of popular stories and novels, finally galloping onto the silver screen beginning in 1935, with ex-silent screen star William Boyd (1895-72) in the character's saddle. In print, Hopalong was a rude, rough-talking “galoot,” but Boyd transformed him into an easy smiling, clean-cut hero in 66 immensely popular films. In the late ‘40s, Boyd brought Hoppy to TV, and that’s where I discovered him – or perhaps a little earlier, at Saturday matinees. As portrayed by the white-haired Cassidy, Hoppy wore mostly black (including his hat, contradicting the long-standing western rule that only villains wore black hats). He was reserved and well spoken, with a fine sense of fair play, often called upon to intercede when dishonest characters took advantage of honest citizens. He usually traveled with two companions: one young and trouble-prone with a weakness for damsels in distress, the other comically awkward and outspoken (a formula adopted by both Autrey and Rogers in their own kid-aimed TV shows). A succession of actors played the sidekicks, but Boyd filled Hoppy's boots until he rode off into the last sunset in 1972 – a sad day for us former buckaroos.
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