"Hopalong" William Boyd— Tom Mix Of 1941

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 187, 9 August 1941, Page 15

"Hopalong" William Boyd— Tom Mix Of 1941

J.JAVE you seen Hopalong lately? Hopalong, that bright, lusty young man perennially on the qui vive for anything a kind of illustration for those advertisements showing what an oversize rubber band and a pair of dumbbells will do for your biceps and chest development. We say Hopalong because William Boyd is Hopalong Cassidy and vice versa.

By Theodore Strauss

Hopalong Cassidy. in the event that you have not got around to anv of the neighbourhood theatres of | late, is to our youngest generation [ what Tom Mix was to their fathers. For seven years now this two-gun I Robin Hood in chaps and spurs has been summarily disposing of sundrv varmints and cahoots to the betterment of the poor and the health of the nation. Second in Popularity To-day. Hopalong is by actual count second in popularity onlv to that crooning cowhand. Gene Autrv. Mr. Boyd has no desire to lift his voice in song. Once Harry Sherman, his producer, tried to get him to warble a little ditty and Mr. Bovd responded with a croaking baritone that shook the sound track. After that Mr. Sherman let him alone. During these seven years Mr. Boyd has made some 36 pictures in the Hopalong series. Now they are made at the rate of six a year. They average a cost of slightly less than 100.000 dollars (roughly £17.000) each and a profit of 100 per cent, which is a better rate of return than that of most super-productions. What's more, the series seems destined to go on forever, judging by its increasing popularity, especially

—and this shows what romantic Jellows cowboys really are—in such American States as Montana. \Yyotiling and Arizona and the country districts of other countries, where the lowing herd is wont to roam. Most of the films,- Mr. Bovd explained, are made with a location company of at least sixty-five, and they are made fast. Working hours are from sunup to sundown. The average shooting schedule takes two weeks, and that means thirty to forty scenes a day. The shooting is more or less "from the cuff." The script is there, but everybody ad libs a little and Mr. Boyd usually paraphrases things to suit his own style. Alter all. by this time, he has begun to feel mighty like Hopalong himself. They Like Privacy /That leaves Mr. Boyd with about nine months of the year to do as he pleases—and he does precisely that. He and Miss Grace Bradley (Mrs. Boyd) travel a month or so each year, usually going to New York to catch the theatre season at its height. The rest of the time thev just hibernate on their little ranch in Ventura County 40 miles north of Hollywood. Their gate is padlocked against intruders, the inn which takes their telephone calls is 17 miles away. Where other stars live within hallooing distance of six cocktail parties, the Boyds live within earshot of the sea. They putter around mostly. Miss Bradley, industrious housewife that she is. has supervised the stowing away in deep cellars of four years' supply of canned food and drink, the inventory of which she will recite at a moment's notice. Mr. Boyd, though he has a couple of horses in his stables, prefers golf to riding. He confessed the other day he didn't much care for horses, anyway. He doesn't even care much about being an actor. He's content simply to be a plain, easy-going country

gentleman leading a domesticated existence. But he does admit that his sinecure as llopalong is about the best job he could find. Besides, after all these years, Hopalong has affected him in other ways—"sort of I brought out my better "nature,"' he says with a grin. i Like most children's heroes he doesn't smoke or drink or say unseemly expletives in his pictures. He avoids romance as if it were the plague. Once, in a death scene, he chastely kissed Evelyn Brent on the forehead. The kids didn't like it a I bit. j