HOPALONG CASSIDY

Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by author Clarence E. Mulford who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character. In Mulford's early writings, the character appears as rude, dangerous, and rough-talking. Beginning in 1935, the character ‒ as played by movie actor William Boyd ‒ was transformed into a clean-cut, reserved, and well spoken silver screen hero. He possessed a fine sense of fair play and was often called upon to intercede when dishonest characters were taking advantage of honest citizens. "Hoppy" and his white horse, Topper, usually traveled through the west with two companions - one young and trouble prone with a weakness for damsels in distress, the other comically awkward and outspoken.

Having appeared in a series of sixty-six immensely popular films, Boyd thought that Hopalong Cassidy might have a future in television. And after spending $350,000 to obtain the rights to the Hopalong Cassidy character, books, and his old films, he approached the fledgling NBC television network. The initial broadcasts were so successful that NBC could not wait for a television series to be produced and simply re-edited the old feature films down to broadcast length. On June 24, 1949, Hopalong Cassidy became the first network western television series.

The enormous success of the television series made Boyd a star. And in something that now might seem like a move backwards, 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 until 1952.