Hopalong Cassidy (radio program)

CBS produced an audition episode of a Hopalong Cassidy program that was broadcast in the summer of 1941 as part of Forecast, a series of pilots for potential programs. After that, little, if anything, was heard about a Hopalong Cassidy radio production until five years later. An item in Radio Life in 1946 commented, "Radio's gone western with a vengeance, as if you didn't know!" and reported that a radio version of the Cassidy movies would be heard "in the near future."{{cite magazine|title=Hopalong Rides Again|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/46/Radio-Life-1946-07-21.pdf#page=10&search=hopalong |page=10 |accessdate=15 November 2020|magazine=Radio Life|date=July 21, 1946}} That "near future" turned out to be two years.

The program has been classified as both a "juvenile adventure program"Reinehr, Robert C. and Swartz, Jon D. (2008). The A to Z of Old-Time Radio. Scarecrow Press, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-8108-7616-3}}. P. 129. and a "western adventure drama." As was true of the movies and television programs featuring Hopalong Cassidy, "the character was much more civilized than the rough-cut character portrayed in the novels" by Clarence E. Mulford. In contrast, the revised Cassidy was described by radio historian John Dunning as "a knight of the range, a man of morals." A newspaper story about the program's debut on Mutual commented, "The radio broadcasts will be specially scripted to highlight the personality, mannerisms and unusual adventures of the steely-eyed, justice-dealing, gun-toting cowboy hero."{{cite news|title=New Chapter Is Added to Success Story Of the Creator of 'Hopalong Cassidy'|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19500101&id=MTlPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lk4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3082,373867|accessdate=9 February 2015|agency=St. Petersburg Times|date=January 1, 1950|page=39}}

William Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy, as he had in the movies featuring that character. Dunning wrote: "Boyd had one of radio's perfect voices. His voice could do anything – comfort a bereaved widow one moment, scare the boots off her husband's killer the next. It was strong, virile, and straight to the point. And that Hoppy belly-laugh became famous. It was one of his trademarks."Dunning, John. (1976). Tune in Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925–1976. Prentice-Hall, Inc. {{ISBN|0-13-932616-2}}. pp. 289–290.

Andy Clyde, "the resident old coot sidekick from the later movies" had his same role in the radio program.{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture |date=2000|publisher=Gale|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3409001180.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329173256/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3409001180.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-03-29|accessdate=7 February 2015|title=Hopalong Cassidy|via=HighBeam}} Each episode's opening referred to Clyde's character, California Carlson, as "'the same California you've laughed at a million times.'"

After a slow start (when producers Walter and Shirley White "were paying production costs for new episodes as money came in from initial clients"), the popularity of Hopalong Cassidy on radio began to increase. In 1948, a Hopalong Cassidy television series began, first shown on KTLA in Los Angeles, California.{{cite magazine|title=KTLA: A history of television firsts |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Site-Technical/Engineering-Broadcast/Archive-Broadcast-Engineering-IDX/BC/IDX/BC-1978-11-OCR-Page-0035.pdf |accessdate=15 November 2020 |magazine=Broadcast Engineering |page=33 |date=October 1978 }} That series included both edited versions of Cassidy's movies and new episodes made for TV. "One medium fed on the other," Dunning wrote, and "for two years [Boyd] was as big a media hero as the nation had seen."

Both the radio and the television versions of Hopalong Cassidy benefited from the existing popularity the Cassidy character had developed through movies. The producers made good use of that popularity in promoting the syndicated program to stations and advertisers. An ad in the 1949 issue of Broadcasting Yearbook proclaimed:

"THIRTEEN YEARS OF MOTION PICTURE POPULARITY BEHIND IT! (NO OTHER RADIO SERIES CAN MAKE THIS CLAIM!) An action-packed film trailer will be shown in over 10,000 theatres announcing the radio series! "HOPALONG CASSIDY" comes to radio with a fabulous following ... a ready made audience for sponsors!{{cite book|last1=King|first1=Art|title=Broadcasting Yearbook|date=1949|publisher=Broadcasting|location=Washington, D.C.|page=422|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1949/1949-BC-YB.pdf#page=424 |accessdate=15 November 2020}}

{{Portal|Radio}}

• Death Valley Days
• Gene Autry's Melody Ranch
• The Roy Rogers Show

{{Reflist|2}}

• [http://www.audio-classics.com/lhopalongcassidy.html Log of episodes of Hopalong Cassidy from Audio Classics Archive]
• [http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logh1007.htm Log of episodes of Hopalong Cassidy from Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs]

• [https://archive.org/details/HopalongCassidy2 Streaming audio of Hopalong Cassidy episodes (including audition program from 1941) from Internet Archive]

Category:American children's radio programs

Category:Western (genre) radio series

Category:1948 radio programme debuts

Category:1952 radio programme endings

Category:1940s American radio programs

Category:1950s American radio programs

Category:American radio dramas

Category:Mutual Broadcasting System programs

Category:CBS Radio programs

Category:Radio programs based on films

Category:Radio programs adapted into television shows