Hopalong Cassidy: On The Page, On The Screen
by: Francis M. Nevins
It began in the waking dreams of a young civil
servant in Brooklyn who spent evenings,
weekends and vacations putting into words an old
West he had imagined but never seen. Story by
story, novel by novel he created a vast canvas
centering around a Texas ranch he called the
Bar-20 and the men who made it the focus of their
loyalty, chief among them a red-headed
liquor-swilling young puncher with a noticeable
limp, Hopalong Cassidy. Clarence E. Mulford
(1883-1956) was one of the most remarkable
Western writers America has produced. His
fictional universe is an immense saga, written over
a third of a century, in which Cassidy and the other
main characters go adventuring, fall in love, marry
and have children, grow old and eventually take
part in the adventures of the next generation.
Mulford’s life and world are explored in detail in
the first several chapters of this book.
In 1935, the now prosperous author signed the
contracts that brought his world and characters to
America’s movie theaters—or at least so he hoped.
But, except for a handful of character and place
names, the 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies, made
between 1935 and 1948, starring William Boyd as
Cassidy, turned out to have almost nothing in
common with Mulford’s fiction. Those films
captivated audiences on their first release. The
finest of them were hailed by Western lovers as
classics of the genre and, restored for satellite and
DVD, continue to excite viewers today. This book
covers all 66 Cassidy movies in depth. The final
chapter recounts what happened in the late 1940s
and early 1950s when Hoppymania swept the
country as the films migrated to the infant medium
of television, generating new celebrity and a
huge fortune for William Boyd and quite a
bit of money for Mulford too.
Hopalong Cassidy: On The Page, On The Screen
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BKSP-102
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Films
on Video
