Alternately known as Hop-A-Long and Hop-Along Cassidy, this Western series had a long run, beginning with Paramount in 1935 and moving over to United Artists in 1943. This pressbook is United Artists’ theater promotion-push for five of Hop’s movies released in 1948.
When Paramount stopped making the films, “Boyd himself produced several more features for United Artists until the movie series finally petered out in 1948. Seeing an opportunity in television, Boyd gambled his entire savings, including mortgaging his home, and bought the rights to the character and all of the films made up to that point. He then arranged for them to be shown on TV, introducing them to a new generation of youngsters. He also started a big marketing campaign, with lunch boxes, drinking glasses, toys, etc. It made him a millionaire. Boyd then produced two years of new Hopalong Cassidy TV shows, concluding in 1954 when he retired except for occasional live appearances, which he continued until his death in 1972. After his passing, Boyd’s widow, actress Grace Bradley, continued to support and promote the Hopalong Cassidy movies until she died on her 97th birthday in 2010” (Cinema Revisited: Hopalong Cassidy (1935), James L. Neibaur).
