DOWN T.V. WESTERN MEMORY LANE

HOPALONG CASSIDY RIDES AGAIN

Anguish and Boyd saw the potential for bringing Hopalong Cassidy to the small screen-the character as played by Boyd was a known, proven quantity that parents could trust, and that children liked.

Equally important, fledgling television station, frozen out from showing virtually any celluloid by the movie studios, would jump at the chance to license anything derive from the motion picture capital, even a hero from B-westerns of the late 1930's.

Fortunately, the estate of Clarence Edward Mulford, the character's creator, believed that the public was tired of Hopalong Cassidy.

Boyd convinced them to sell him the remaining rights to the character, including the television rights.

The Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox

Boyd and Anguish now had the rights to show the old movies on television, or make new adventures for any medium they chose. Doing new shows was out of the question, however, and even exploiting what they had secured was difficult, because they had no money left to edit the films for TV.

Toby Anguish started to personally syndicate the show-he's considered to be the first person ever to syndicate a film program nationally and internationally.

And he found exactly what he and Boyd hoped they would find among the dozens of stations spread across the country-managers and programmers eager to pay for Hopalong Cassidy.

The movies were edited down to 30- and 60 minute programs, and Hoppy premiered on TV on August 7, 1948.

What followed was the stuff dreams are made of. By 1949 Hopalong Cassidy Enterprises was worth $200 million-just for the licensed imitations of his outfits! The new, young TV audience couldn't get enough of Hopalong Cassidy.