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Welcome to the William Boyd - Hopalong Cassidy Page
This page is dedicated to my favorite cowboy hero of the Silver Screen, Radio and Television, Hopalong Cassidy.
There is a day in my life that is very special to me and one that I haven't and never will forget. It was the day when I was a small child back in the nineteen-fifty's, that I had the good fortune and pleasure to meet in person, and just for a few moments, actually got to talk to the great Hopalong Cassidy.
There was a promotion at one of the banks in the town I lived in for the Hopalong Cassidy Savings Club. The savings club was a way to give kids an incentive and opportunity to save their money in a real bank account, and for five dollars you could open a Hopalong Cassidy savings account and receive a certificate, a badge with Hoppy's picture on it, a plastic bust of Hoppy, plus a savings passbook with an embossed picture of Hoppy on it. The Hoppy bust, was a small bank you could put your pennies, dimes and nickels in through a slot in the crease of his hat.
My mother got us up early that morning and took my sister and me to the bank to open a savings account for both of us and for us to meet Hopalong Cassidy, for he was making a personal appearance at the bank that day. I was so excited about actually getting to meet Hopalong Cassidy in person. After listening to Hopalong Cassidy on the radio for many hours and watching him on television and riding with him many times when I played at being a cowboy, the time for me to actually meet Hoppy in person had come. Finally, after standing in a long line for about an hour, which seemed to me to be an eternity, it finally became my turn to meet Hopalong Cassidy. With my mother holding my hand and coaching me on, I slowly walked up to him kind of shy like and hesitant, for he was really bigger in real life than he was on television and I was getting just a little nervous and unsure about meeting him. Now I just happen to have my holster with my two six-guns on , and when I walked up to him. Hoppy looked at my pistols and said, "You’re not gonna draw on me, are you son ?," Now with Hoppy saying this, it really shocked me, and I didn't want Hoppy to think I was there to shoot him! I quickly replied, Oh! No sir, I would never shoot at you!" He then ruffled my hair and laughed that unforgettable laugh of his, and slapped his knee, and said, "Well pardner, that's good to know, for you look as if you could draw mighty fast". Then I realized he was just kidding about me shooting him and this made me more relaxed and I was able to talk to him then. I think Hoppy could see that I was just a little scared of him, and I think it was Hoppy's way of getting a scared little kid to relax and be at ease. He was great with kids and truly loved kids and loved being around children and you could actually feel this love coming from him. At all of his personal appearances he always made sure that all of the kids that came would have the opportunity to meet him.
Even today, after more than fifty years have passed, I can still remember the day I got to meet and talk to Hopalong Cassidy as if it had happened yesterday, and I can still hear that one of a kind laugh of his, and feel his hand on my head ruffling my hair. That was one of the best moments of my life, and a moment in my life I will never forget.
I think Hoppy was one of the greatest men who have ever lived on this earth, he worked hard and did a lot to make this world a better place to live and he not only entertained us, but he made a lot of us kids feel wanted and very special.
 
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William Boyd Wasn't...
a star who sang and dance, He never was a professional football, baseball or basketball player, nor did he box or play tennis or race cars. He never was like these so-called hero's and movie stars of today, who think drugs, money and sex are the most important things in their lives and only think of their fans as a vehicle to get those things. No he wasn't anything like the so-called hero's or screen stars of today. But he was, a sincere and humble servant to his fans. Hoppy truly loved and appreciated all of his fans, and thought only of their welfare and happiness.
William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd was a sincere and humble servant to his fans and was merely HOPALONG CASSIDY, who always had a big smile, waved, and shook hands.
He was simply...Mr. Good guy...everybody's favorite cowboy...everybody's FRIEND, BUDDY, PAL and IMMORTAL HERO
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William Boyd - Hopalong Cassidy
Born June 5, 1895 in Hendrysburg in Belmont County, located 26 miles east of Cambridge, Ohio
Died September 12, 1972 Laguna Beach, Ca.
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William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd...
was once a famous silent movie star, playing many parts and was a major attraction in "Talkies, but bad luck hit for a while. But, when Boyd read the script of Hopalong Cassidy, he knew how he wanted to play him. After awhile, he convinced everyone else how Hoppy should be played and the rest is history. After Boyd play Hoppy in the first Hoppy movie, William Boyd was concerned with only one character -- a fictitious, black hated, cowboy that absorbed nearly the entire personality of the man who portrayed him on the screen. Although offered many other parts in other movies, Boyd refused them all. He never wanted to play another part in any movie, but Hoppy, and when he was making a Hoppy movie, he couldn't have been happier.
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William Boyd was "Hopalong Cassidy",
and "Hopalong Cassidy" was William Boyd,
the two personalities were intertwine
with each other, and the two
were of the same great man.
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When Boyd was a silent star...
there were two William Boyd's in the movies. The first was a successful star of the silent screen and was well on his way to making a name for himself in talkies. The second was only semi-successful as an actor. One night the police raided the home of the second William Boyd and discovered a den of iniquity -- gambling, illegal liquor and pornographic films.
The Hearst newspaper chain printed a story about the raid, but got the two Boyd's mixed up. The picture of William Boyd, the silent movie star, was placed on the story instead of the real culprit. Although hasty retractions were printed, the first William Boyd's career was virtually destroyed. He then began a long slide toward obscurity until rescued by the dashing foreman of the Bar-20 Ranch four years later.
Pulp author Clarence E. Mulford had been writing his Bar-20 stories for quite a while. These stories featured a foul-mouthed, whisky guzzling cow hand who hobbled along with a limp -- Hop-A-Long Cassidy. Producer Harry Pop Sherman planned to make a series of westerns based on Mulford's books and he needed a cheap actor for a supporting role. William Boyd who had already slid as far as he could go, readily accepted the part. When he got his script and began reading, Boyd's fertile imagination was fired up. Hop-A-Long was a part that he could get into, but the old reprobate's personality needed some serious adjustments. Boyd knew how to fix the character and Bill approached Harry ‘Pop’ Sherman with his ideas about Cassidy and proposed that he take the role himself. Pop at first wanted to keep the Cassidy character as Mulford had wrote him, but Bill was persistent and finally changed Sherman’s mind. The first Hop-A-Long Cassidy western appeared in 1935. In the next film, all the dashes were eliminated in the name and he became simply Hopalong Cassidy -- Hoppy for short.
It soon became apparent to Bill, and everyone around him, that his personal identity was merging with the character, and there was good reason. On screen Cassidy was very understanding, fatherly, and gentle, but when he became riled, woe is to the villain. Hoppy, in essence, was everything Bill wanted to be. So he changed his personality and became Hopalong Cassidy. The minute I start acting, I'm out of character, Bill once told an interviewer.
The Hoppy's were slick, beautiful productions with gorgeous photography (most were shot around Lone Pine and Mt. Whitney) and perhaps the best musical scores of any of the B westerns. They were well-scripted and well-acted. Hoppy's sidekicks included George Windy Hayes (he was later known as (Gabby), the hilarious Scottish comedian Andy Clyde, Russell Hayden, Jimmy Ellison and others. Supporting players included Victor Jory, Russell Simpson, a very young Robert Mitchum, Betty Bronson, and nearly all the well-known heavies of the period. They were immensely successful.
After four dozen films for Paramount and United Artists, Bill and Sherman began having disagreements about production. Sherman went to United Artists management with an astounding proposal. He wanted to recast the role of Hoppy. Bill had become so enmeshed in the part, Sherman said, that he was difficult to handle. In fact, Sherman had filmed a test of his assistant, Dick Dickson, in a white wig and hat as a substitute. But the executives knew what everyone else in America knew. Without Bill, there would be no Hoppy. They wisely rejected this proposal.
When Bill discovered the scheme, he was livid. He pulled out of the series altogether, refusing to make another film and soon after, made plans to acquire Sherman's option so that he could produce his own Hopalong Cassidy films as he saw fit. It took three years and he had to sell everything he owned to raise the cash, but was able to purchase Sherman's option to shoot six Cassidy westerns a year. He then bought the rights to the 54 westerns that Sherman had already made.
Bill made 12 more Cassidy westerns, but they were inferior to the original product and United Artists pulled their financing of new pictures in 1948. Bill was now stuck with 66 westerns that were unsalable.
One day a technician told Bill that it was possible to show films in the new medium of television -- that everything didn't have to be live. That was the answer, Bill thought, sell the old films to television. The only problem was that he had to obtain full ownership of the character, which he had to purchase from Clarence Mulford.
Mulford was never too keen on Bill's interpretation of Cassidy, but was willing to talk business. Once again, Bill sold or mortgaged everything he owned and was able to obtain the rights. He was so poor that when he was invited to appear on the Milton Berle show, he didn't have the money for a plane ticket.
Bill re-edited and released the older Paramount and United Artists features to television and they were the first films from major studios to hit the tube. Then he went into the production of a series of half-hour television shows. He was also one of the first to license merchandise. There were Hopalong Cassidy radios, Hopalong Cassidy drinking straws, Hopalong Cassidy comic books, Hopalong Cassidy cowboy outfits -- hundreds of products. Bill became a multi-millionaire.
Legend has it that William Boyd hated kids, but nothing could be further from the truth. His own son had died of pneumonia in the early 20s and he had mourned the boy for years. As Hoppy, Bill dedicated his life to children, even writing the Hopalong Cassidy's Creed for all American Boys and Girls, gave millions to children hospitals and children charities, and it wasn't unusual to see him, dressed in his Hoppy regalia, unexpectedly appear in a children's hospital, making his way through the wards.
During personal appearances, he was Hopalong Cassidy in the flesh and not William Boyd in costume. The two had become so synonymous that when Bill died in 1972, a number of obituaries actually identified the departed as Hopalong Cassidy. To the public, and to Bill, the two men were one.
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