| Hoppy and Topper |
| HOPALONG CASSIDY |
| Hoppy and Grace William Boyd and Grace Bradley Boyd |
“Follow your stars in peace, old timer.” The handsome silver haired cowboy said.
Tears in his eyes as he held his dying friend in his arms. The cowboy, Hopalong
Cassidy, the movie, Hopalong Cassidy Enters (1935), the actor, the very talented
William Boyd.
I found Hoppy one sleepless night when I turned on the Westerns Channel and saw a
beautiful lady of autumn years talking about the love of her life. Her voice breaking as
she spoke of the first time they met. “He put out his arms and I walked right into
them.” she said. It is the priceless, timeless love story of how a literary cowboy and a
lady changed this actor’s life. They have changed mine too.
William Boyd once told a group of fans, “In 1935 I met a man I admired, Hopalong
Cassidy. I became that man. Hoppy is the good side of me and I want to thank all the
kids here and around the world because they’re the ones who have made my success
possible.”
In 2003 , I met that same man, in spirit, and the woman whose faith, love, loyalty, and
inspiration allowed him to become Hopalong Cassidy. It changed both of their lives
for the better and mine too.
I grew up in the late 1950’s with TV cowboys. Saturday night in our house was
Gunsmoke. It was a family ritual; we would all gather around the television and watch
Marshal Matt Dillon take care of the bad guys. The B Western cowboys were just
names to me…Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Buck Jones. I had never seen any of
their movies.
My first brush with B Westerns was when the old Nashville Network ran Gene Autry
movies everyday, in the early 1990’s, with Mr. Autry and Pat Buttram as hosts.
It wasn’t until 2003 that I found and fell in love with a handsome, silver haired, blue-
eyed
cowboy who wore a black hat, and rode a magnificent white stallion. William Boyd’s
smile and natural charisma, as Hopalong Cassidy grabbed at my heartstrings. I was
only fifty years late, for he had charmed a whole generation before me.
William Boyd was a very talented and popular leading man in the 20’s and 30’s, in
both silent films and talkies. Your typical Hollywood screen idol, he enjoyed his wine,
women, and parties. His career almost ended when a case of mistaken identity
occurred.
There was another actor in Hollywood with the same name. When his house was
raided for drugs, the papers ran the story, but used our William Boyd’s photo. The
studio he worked for immediately canceled his contract. The paper later printed a
retraction, but the damage was already done.
His acting career hit rock bottom until a few years later he was offered the role of
Buck Peters in Paramount’s new movie making venture of Clarence E. Mulford’s
books about a cowboy named Hopalong Cassidy.
But Mr. Boyd wanted the role of Hopalong Cassidy. He said he liked the name and
thought that kids would like it too. He made Hopalong Cassidy into a character all his
own. William Boyd’s life improved when he met Hoppy in 1935 and when he met
Grace Bradley two years later.
Their love story and life together is a true fairy tale romance. When I had the distinct
privilege and pleasure of meeting Grace she told me she had fallen in love with him
when she was twelve years old living in New York. She saw him in the 1926 Cecil B.
DeMille’s silent epic, The Volga Boatman.
Eleven years later, 1937, she was a budding actress in Hollywood herself. She got a
call from a man saying he was William Boyd, asking her to go out with him. She
thought it was one of her friends playing a trick on her as they all knew she had a
terrible crush on him all those years. She didn’t believe the voice on the phone until he
laughed that distinctive laugh of his and she knew it was William Boyd.
They went out and three weeks to the day they were married. The rest is the true love
that songwriter’s write about and hopeless romantics like me dream about. She gave
up her career for him and as he said later, “Grace first gave me love, then loyalty, then
inspiration.”
She loves him still; I could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice. I wish I could
have met him too, but meeting Grace I think have. My little collection of Hoppy stories
and poems were inspired by both of them.
I love writing my Hoppy stories. When I write I picture Mr. Boyd speaking my words
and acting out my scenes. He was such a talented actor and the Hoppy character we
love was all his own. The walk, the talk, the smile, a tip of his hat to a lady, a pat on
the back to his sidekicks and we can’t forget Topper who had a personality all his own.
It was the simple goodness and honesty that Hoppy portrayed to all who watched.
They are movies that I wish the kids of today could see.
I can’t imagine my life now without Hoppy and Grace. I have met so many wonderful
people who feel the same way. We need to keep the memory of William Boyd and
Hopalong Cassidy alive. So I put my Hoppy stories and poems in a book I call,
Follow Your Stars, to share with all who still love the old Westerns and who love
Hoppy and Grace.
Go to my FanFiction page and my Poetry page to read some excerpts from Follow
Your Stars. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
I would like to thank U S Television Office, Inc. (USTO) who gave me special
permission to use the photos and the name of Hopalong Cassidy in my book. USTO is
the direct successor to William Boyd Enterprises, who own the name, character, film,
stories, and personal likenesses of the character, Hopalong Cassidy.
| "Follow your stars in peace, old timer." a scene from the first Hopalong Cassidy movie, Hopalong Cassidy Enter,(1935) starring William Boyd |
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| William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy |
| William Boyd June 5, 1895 September 12, 1972 |
| Grace Bradley Boyd September 21, 1913 September 21, 2010 |