In which we discover from old Hopalong Cassidy 78 rpm records that Merchandising is not such a new concept.
28/04/2015
Pictured at left are the cover and label of one, and sadly just the label of another old 78 rpm record I have just dug up from my parents' cupboard, resurrecting some old memories from my childhood.
The back cover is actually the more interesting. There is the stamp of local retailer Les Mills, an Olympic champion who had an appliance store, AND a shoe shop, and went on to become a very successful businessman in the Fitness field (ha-ha), and eventually Mayor of Auckland. There are ads for other records: - One ad is for the second, label-only one shown at lower left; Hopalong Cassidy and the Haunted Gold Mine There are others I particularly remember as played on the children's story radio program; Eddie Cantor - Maxie the Taxi dinky pinky featuring Stan Freberg Hopalong Cassidy and the Two-Legged Wolf Below is the story of how I came to be looking for them. While cataloging the 16" LP records in my previous post "WWII-era Portelec phonograph and records", I found one entitled "MELODY ROUND-UP Boyd and Clyde". (Refer image 2nd to bottom) The word Clyde was actually obscured, but fortunately there was some annotation on the sleeve which held the missing information. (Refer image at bottom) The annotation was a bit hard to read, and I resorted to the Internet to confirm my reading as "386 WILLIAM BOYD. HOPALONG CASSIDY ANDY (CALIFORNIA) CLYDE (RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE)". Andy Clyde was a Scotsman who found fame and fortune in Hollywood, beginning in the Silent era, and among other career highlights, Wikipedia says "Clyde is well remembered for his roles as a comic sidekick, usually teaming with William Boyd in the Hopalong Cassidy series, as "California Carlson" (a role he also played in the Hopalong Cassidy radio program)..... Clyde also worked on the Hopalong Cassidy "record readers" issued by Capitol Records in the 1950s." The old 16" probably has one of those radio shows, at a guess. My two 78s would have been used in the "record readers" series, (see crop from the back cover, below.) but as far as I can remember, all I had was just the records, and not the accompanying book of illustrations for the story. Naturally, I was led on to read more about William Boyd, and his Hopalong Cassidy character.
Rather inappropriately, "the character of Hopalong Cassidy was created in 1907 by Clarence E. Mulford [1883-1956] as a foul-mouthed cow-hand with a limp – thus the name 'Hop-A-Long'. Mulford wrote 28 Hopalong Cassidy novels..." The above site continues with a nice summary: - "William Boyd [1895-1972] was hired to play a minor character in the first Hopalong Cassidy feature film in 1935 (a cheap 'B-movie'). Seeing possibilities in the script, Boyd talked producer Harry Sherman into improving Hoppy's persona and to let Boyd play the lead role. Boyd eventually starred in 66 Hopalong Cassidy feature films between 1935 and 1948 – with his white stallion Topper – during which time Boyd shrewdly acquired the rights to the Hoppy movies and to Mulford's books. The savvy Boyd owned the Hoppy TV series [52 half-hour episodes] outright, and was one of the first to merchandise such a character: he endorsed everything from milk to hair tonic to breakfast cereal, and made deals for manufacture of Hoppy-brand bicycles, clothing, lunchboxes, watches & clocks, radios, cookie jars, sleeping bags, pocket knives, coloring books and more – even barrettes for the girls. Hoppy memorabilia is today a hot ticket on eBay and elsewhere." Wikipedia: - "In 1950, Hopalong Cassidy was featured on the first lunchbox to bear an image, causing sales for Aladdin Industries to jump from 50,000 to 600,000 in one year. In stores, more than 100 companies in 1950 manufactured $70 million of Hopalong Cassidy products, including children's dinnerware, pillows, roller skates, soap, wristwatches, and jackknives."
Here is a page with current items available at popular site ETSY. As you can see, there was no opportunity lost. However, many fan sites are also keen to point out that he would not endorse anything he did not approve of, and was keen to make the character one of high moral standards. I note the Big Ranch Fire story is subtitled "...a valuable lesson on fire safety", and is a warning against playing with matches. Full Boyd biography at Wikipedia. |