”Like all heroic tales, the story is an intertwining of many lives, including Grace Bradley, a 12 year-old girl who fell in love with a charismatic silent film star and ten years later fulfilled her childhood vow to marry him, and William Boyd, a fading actor inspired by love and gratitude to dedicate his life to the character that became a beacon to the world.”
William Boyd ( Hopalong Cassidy) & Grace Bradly Boyd
William Boyd, playboy, social drunk and womanizer transforms into the honest, straight-shootin’ dedicated role model in the role of Hopalong Cassidy.A fading career as an obscure B-Movie, urbane, romantic leading man; revitalized by a role in contradiction to his life at that point. Hopalong represented an affirmation of American myth, the element of redemption and part of a cultural iconography with a twist. He was white haired and wore black and was reserved and well spoken.Unusual, since to that time in American culture, black was associated with mourning and Italian fascism.
A meditative type of warrior within a context of fast action and the vagaries of the wild west in the new world; highlighted by excellent outdoor photography by Russell Harlan.
”The strength of this commercial empire, however, rested with the character Hopalong Cassidy and the values he personified on the TV screen. Astride his pure white horse, Topper, the silver-haired Cassidy was a puritanical figure whose crusade for justice was always accomplished with understated flair. Hoppy never smoked or chewed tobacco. When he entered a saloon he avoided alcohol and usually ordered sarsaparilla. When he spoke with his guns drawn on a desperado, he was grammatically efficient. “Drop them guns on the ground unless you’re gonna use ‘em,” and “Alright, Johnny, tie ‘em up. They’re through for the day” were authoritative and typically terse orders from Hopalong Cassidy…Hoppy was all business. No woman ever won his heart. In fact, in all his films Cassidy kissed a woman only once, and she was on her deathbed at the time.”
Boyd mortgaged everything he owned to buy the character rights and backlog of movies in making the switch to then new network television. for which the series became the first networked t.v series and made his risk worthwhile as he made millions on his gamble on cross merchandising, licensing and derivative products from lunch boxes to jack knives. This established a new marketing pattern based on television popularity and appeal to the youth market carefully exploited by the Beatles in the 1960′s.
Ironically, German born intellectual Herbert Marcuse was described by fellow intellectual Theodor Adorno as a devoted and loyal fan of Hopalong Cassidy, about the only form of popular entertainment to which attracted any interest on his part. Marcuse, known as the ”father of the new left”, was a philosopher, social theorist and political activist.” His theory of “one-dimensional” society provided critical perspectives on contemporary capitalist and state communist societies and his notion of “the great refusal” won him renown as a theorist of revolutionary change and “liberation from the affluent society.” Consequently, he became one of the most influential intellectuals in the United States during the 1960s and into the 1970s.”
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Hopalong Cassidy and Topper
COMMENTS
I am 62 Years old. I Was just getting drunk at a party and trying to remember the name “Hopalong Cassidy” Will forward this url to the person who did not know who i was talking about. Was saying there was this cowboy who always wore black and was quite old. As a kid, i never understood why he had to be so old. And because he was so old, it was difficult to identify with him. My first confrontation with the generation gap…which did not exist then. But Hop Along was great and that was the problem – HE was the best cowboy on television. And …sadly…he was a really old man. Did they think we did not notice?
thanks for reading. I think he was just ahead of his time. He was a ”statesman” or senator cowboy. A cowboy as one of the three mages
Hi Dave!
I don’t know how far back the german fascination with the american west goes, but it was there. Situating Marcuse in there does not surprise me at all. It seems as tho the corporates and other powers that be or would be have declared there shall be no more men in black, just survivors and lost and etc. leaning together.
-mason
The French also share a similar affinity; though it is tempered by a near obsession with the culture of the First Nations. Be Well,
Dave
My Parents took me to California when I was four years old. We stayed a hotel and when we came down to dinner, the head waited told me that Hoppalong Cassidy was having his dinner at a table in the main dining room. I marched up to him, held out my hand and said “Hi Hoppy”. He looked down, took my hand and said “Hiya pardner” I was in heaven. Uncle Hoppy took me into LA to see tha Paramount Lot and gave me a lot of items that he was selling. I even have a book that he autographed to me to this day.
Of all the Cowboy stars, William Boyd is at the top of my list
great story. Thanks for sharing