Hopalong Cassidy

Hopalong Cassidy

The Gem Theater always offered great western fare for the kids at the Saturday Matinee. Yes, sometimes we found The Bowery Boys or Tarzan, and even Jungle Jim and Bomba, but westerns were a mainstay almost every Saturday morning.

One character was always a good draw for kids, and that was William Boyd’s Hopalong Cassidy and his white horse Topper.

Like most of the movie heroes, Hoppy was also delegated to other medias. He was a product of the pulp magazines, as seen above.

Comic books also his potential.

And later paperbacks and hardbacks.

With television also came product and toys. There were cowboy gun sets, lunch boxes, model statues, and numerous other items. I ended up with a coffee mug from somewhere. Hoppy also visited Wichita Falls and rode Topper in the parade. I missed it, but my mother saw him. As you can see from the picture above, William Boyd also appeared at military bases, even overseas. The shot above was taken in the early 1950s at an Army Post in Germany.