Hopalong Cassidy Music

Hopalong Cassidy was the western character played by William Lawrence Boyd (1895-1972)
in 66 films between 1935 and 1948,
the longest running series of any fictional movie character.

William Boyd also made 52 half-hour television programs and 104 half-hour radio episodes that were broadcast in the early 1950s. He was one of the top box office western stars from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s. William Boyd didn't just play the part, he LIVED the part.
He was loved by millions of adoring fans and was known by just one name: "Hoppy."

There were many actors who played Hoppy's sidekicks, including Britt Wood, Brad King,
Jay Kirby, George Reeves (later SUPERMAN on television),
Jimmy Rogers (son of Will Rogers), and Rand Brooks.

There were also his two main comic sidekicks:
George Hayes (as Windy) and Andy Clyde (as California).

Robert Mitchum also began his acting career in a Hopalong Cassidy western: BAR 20 (1943).

The first time a trio of cowboys received top billing was in Hopalong Cassidy westerns.

Shown left to right: Johnny Nelson (Jimmy Ellison), Windy Halliday (George Hayes), and Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd).

First film as a threesome: BAR 20 RIDES AGAIN (1935)

Jimmy Ellison in Hoppy films from 1935-1937
Geoorge Hayes in Hoppy films from 1935-1939

Shown left to right: California Carlson (Andy Clyde), Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd), and Lucky Jenkins (Russell Hayden).

Russell Hayden in Hoppy films from 1937-1941
Andy Clyde in Hoppy films from 1940-1948

In 1998, Roger Hall wrote to a national directory and
asked them to put in an entry for William Boyd's birthday.
They agreed to put it in the directory that year and every year afterwards.

Look in this directory on June 5 and you'll see the announcement of the
"William Boyd Birth Anniversary" (June 5, 1895) in

While it is true that Hopalong Cassidy was not a singing cowboy,
there are singers and singing groups featured in these westerns,
especially during the 1930s and early 1940s.

According to the script for the first Hopalong Cassidy film in 1935,
he was supposed to sing "Following the Stars" (Dave Franklin - Sam H. Stept)
in the last scene while he is riding off into the sunset.
It is difficult to tell if he is really singing
but even if William Boyd sang with the other two actors,
he never did sing again in a Hoppy film.

Besides the songs in the Hoppy films, there were also talented music directors,
such as Boris Moross who worked for many years at Paramount.
Highly skilled composers were also employed to write the background scores.
These composers included:
John Leipold (who did 8 Hopalong Cassidy scores),
and Victor Young (who did 4 of them).
Both of these composers received Oscars for other films.
John Leipold received his Oscar for John Ford's STAGECOACH in 1939,
and Victor Young received an Oscar posthumously for
Mike Todd's Oscar-winning film, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, in 1956.

In the first film of the long-running series, titled HOP - A - LONG CASSIDY (1935), "Following the Stars" was sung by Jimmy Ellison as Johnny Nelson -- he wasn't a strong singer
but did very nicely in making the song an important part of the film's story.

The first singing group featured in a Hoppy western was Chill Wills & His Avalon Boys, who sang in BAR 20 RIDES AGAIN in 1935, and again in THE CALL OF THE PRAIRIE in 1936.
But only their voices were heard on the soundtrack.

Two years later The St. Bendan's Boy Choir directed by Robert Mitchell were featured in
THE FRONTIERSMAN in 1938. They sang a bunch of traditional songs.

The next year, the first singing quartet known as The King's Men,
sang two songs in THE RENEGADE TRAIL.
The first one was "Lazy Rolls The Rio Grande"
with a solo by future singing cowboy star, Eddie Dean.
The other song was "Hi Thar, Stranger!"

One of the members of The King's Men was Ken Darby, who later worked at 20th Century Fox Studios as an arranger, songwriter and conductor. He received three Oscars for his work on muscals:
THE KING AND I (1956), PORGY AND BESS (1959), and CAMELOT (1967).

To read about Ken Darby's work with the young singer in LOVE ME TENDER, click here

Most of the early singing groups for Hopalong Cassidy westerns like TRAIL DUST (1936) and
HILLS OF OLD WYOMING (1937) were not identified on the film credits. But the later ones were:

Brad King & The Jimmy Wakely Trio: STICK TO YOUR GUNS and TWILIGHT ON THE TRAIL (1941)

The Sportsmen Quartette with Thurl Ravenscroft: LOST CANYON (1943) - "Jingle, Jangle, Jingle"

You can watch the movie trailer for the first Hoppy western in 1935 at

Hopalong Cassidy on YouTube

See also this YouTube channel for more video clips at

Hopalong Cassidy

Alan Livingston
and
The Capitol Record Readers

By Roger Hall

NEW!

Beginning in 1946, there was a series of children's records produced under the Bozo the Clown logo.

They were released by Capitol Records and were the idea of this creative record producer...

Alan W. Livingston (1917-2009)

The first record produced by Livingston in the series was
Bozo at the Circus and it became a million seller.

He produced several sets known as "Record-Readers,"
which included an illustrated picture book.

These record sets became
a big hit with kids everywhere,
especially the ones for Hopalong Cassidy,
who was at his peak in 1950.

This was the first children's record set to make it
to the Top Ten on the pop charts...

HOPALONG CASSIDY AND THE SINGING BANDIT
was available with two 78 rpm or 45 rpm records.

The cast of characters for this record set:

Bill Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy
Andy Clyde as California
Rand Brooks as Lucky
and Topper as "Himself."

There was also an 18 page illustrated story booklet which accompanied the records.
This set included a cute song with lyrics by Alan Livingston and music by Billy May,
an accomplished arranger and conductor who worked with many great singers,
including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee.

The SINGING BANDIT song was sung by Lucky and begins:

There's a man you've seen on the television screen,
He's the kind I'd like to be,
He can ride and shoot and is plenty smart to boot
That's Hopalong Cassidy!

Listen to this complete story of
HOPALONG CASSIDY AND THE SINGING BANDIT
by clicking here.

There was another Record-Reader released by Capitol Records in 1950,
HOPALONG CASSIDY AND THE SQUARE DANCE HOLDUP

It featured the same cast of characters and was again
written and produced by Alan Livingston,
with music provided by Billy May.

Later on, Alan Livingston became the President of Capitol Records
where he signed up Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and
The Beatles among others.

Other Hopalong Cassidy stories by different writers
were also released on Capitol records,
such as these titles:

"Hoppy's Good Luck Coin" by Hamilton Richards
"The Legend of Phantom Scout Pass" by Steve Graham

"Hopalong Cassidy and The Two-Legged Wolf" by Charles Shows

NEW!

Hopalong Cassidy Arrives On Television

Here he comes,
Here he comes,
There's the trumpets,
There's the drums,
Here he comes, Hopalong Cassidy,
Here he comes!

These words are from the television series theme song,
with lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert (1886-1970)
and music by Nacio Herb Brown (1896-1964)

Though some of the Hopalong Cassidy were shown earlier in Los Angeles and New York, the first NBC TV network showing was on June 24, 1949.

Entertainment writer, Susan Sackett wrote that William Boyd was "a gambling man, he hocked everything to purchase the TV rights to the films and his character...he sold the first package of Hoplaong Cassidy television episodes - edited down versions of his films - to New York's local station WNBT. They were an overnight success, and by 1950 his show ranked in the top 10...children worshipped Hoppy, and the character became the first merchandising phenomenon."
-- From "Following the Stars" - Music and Memories of Hopalong Cassidy

All of his TV shows, including 10 full length feature films, are now available on this DVD collection:

Hopalong Cassidy: The Complete Television Collection

The Hopalong Cassidy opening and closing
TV theme is included on this nostalgic CD collection:

Television's Greatest Hits, Volume 4:
65 TV themes from the '50s and '60s

Hear the complete TV theme, titled "Hopalong Cassidy March,"
as recorded by Frank DeVol in 1952
on this excellent 2 CD set with many popular themes and songs,
including "Hoppy, Gene And Me" sung by Roy Rogers:

Treasury of the West, Volume 2

Read more at The Old Corral B-Westerns web page here

If you are a Hopalong Cassidy fan or collector, you know about
the hard-to-find Look magazine from August 29, 1950.

You may have asked yourself -- who is that young boy
sitting on Hoppy's lap on the Look magazine cover?

You'd think my parents would have purcahsed a copy of the magazine
when it came out in 1950.

But they didn't. Why not?

This photo at shows me with a smile on my face
because I'm mighty pleased to be finally holding
a framed copy of that Look magazine.

How did that magazine cover from August 29, 1950 come about?

If you want to read the whole story why it took me
45 long years to get a copy of that treasured Look magazine,
you should get my illustrated e-book:

I was included on several pages in Joe Caro's illustrated collector's guide.
The boy in the photo next to mine in the "Hoppy's Kids" section
of Caro's book later became
President of the United States.

Have you guessed his name?

This "Hoppy's Kid" happens to be a young boy from Arkansas.

Both photos and many others
are included in Joe Caro's colorful illustrated
collector's guide book:

Former President Bill Clinton has written
the Preface to the new lavishly illustrated book
by Grace Bradley Boyd and Michael Cochran titled,
Hopalong Cassidy: An American Legend.

To read the book review

Follow Your Stars is an enjoyable collection of
NEW Hoppy short stories and poems
all written by the author, dedicated to William "Hoppy" Boyd and
his beautiful wife, Grace Bradley Boyd.
It includes many photos from Hoppy movies
with Lucky, California, Windy, Topper and the rest of the Bar 20 crew,
and wonderful photos of William and Grace Boyd like this one...

There are three illustrated e-books available on CD-ROM
which tell how one fan got to meet his favorite cowboy hero,

Hopalong Cassidy
(William Boyd)
and
the beautiful Mrs. Hopalong Cassidy
(Grace Bradley Boyd)

Read the stories written by Roger Hall,
who was the boy on the 1950 Look magazine cover
with Hopalong Cassidy.
Click on this link for the

Are you interested in songs connected with Hopalong Cassidy
for a possible future performance or a CD?

"Every kid needs a hero. Hopalong Cassidy takes the place of Buffalo Bill, Babe Ruth, Lindy, and all the rest.
He's everything that young America admires and wants."
(December 1950)

There were many articles written about Hopalong Cassidy, especially in the early 1950s, when he was at the peak of his popularity.

One of the most interesting ones was a Coronet magazine article, "The Inside Story of Hopalong Cassidy" by Dwight Whitney, in the December 1950 issue.

His [Hopalong Cassidy's] Saturday radio program, sponsored by General Foods, is heard on 151 CBS stations from coast to coast. His movies, the cause for all the furor, are televised from 60 stations. Last summer his second record album, Hopalong Cassidy and the Singing Bandit, sold 200,000 before issuance. During his personal appearance tour with the Cole Bros. Circus, the crowds broke all attendance records. From these various sources, Boyd stands to make well over $1,000,000 this year.

A DVD with many pictures from
Hopalong Cassidy Festivals and Reunions
between 1999 and 2009
in Cambridge Ohio.

To reserve your copy of this limited edition DVD,
write to:

Hopalong Cassidy e-books -- about meeting William Boyd and being on the cover of a national magazine.

The Avalon Boys -- Chill Wills and his singing group who performed in two early Hoppy films.

The Old Corral -- Chuck Anderson's great website dedicated to B-western stars, including Hoppy.

Western Clippings -- latest news and info about the newsletter and books by Boyd Magers.

Dorothy Sebastian -- A great site with many wonderful photos of William Lawrence Boyd, his +fourth wife Dorothy Sebastian, and his+ fifth wife Grace Bradley.

Laura Maynes in 1917

Ruth Yeager Miller in 1921

Elinor Virginia Crow in 1926

Dorothy Sebastian in 1930

Grace Bradley on June 5th, 1937

Grace Bradley married William Boyd on his 42nd birthday.
They remained married until his death in 1972.
Later, this wonderful lady became known and loved as
"Mrs. Hopalong Cassidy." She has now written her memories
about herself and her late husband in the handsome new book titled,

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