Well fortunately for us, especially those that love B westerns. Some mammas let their babies grow up to be cowboys. One of my favorites is William Boyd, AKA Hopalong Cassidy (above). As commented on in John Fords Cowboy Kings of Western Fame ( a set of beautiful drawings of western stars with a printing limited to 500 sets), William Boyd’s fantastic smile, hearty laugh, amazing stunts and a great screen persona brought people including me and my mom into the theater. He was characterized as the epitome of gallantry and fair play. He had no bad habits and to take a line from top gun, he didn’t fire until fired upon.
Like most people, when you first start collecting there’s so much to learn and you make mistakes along the way. At Cinevent (www.cinevent.com) I purchased a one sheet from Cory Glaberson (www.reelartstore.com), one of my favorite dealers, from a movie serial called The Lost City 1935.
Colt Comrades Poster
I apologize up front for the photography artifacts. I decided not to remove posters from their frames for photography. I bought the poster because I loved the image and I was interested in collecting paper on William Boyd. I didn’t know the serial starred William “Stage” Boyd another actor with the same name. When I looked at the poster I thought the actor with the sword on one knee was William Boyd . Actually it is Kane Richmond. So you might say a comedy of terrors er errors. Well I learned later that a newspaper account of a scandal involving William Stage Boyd was published with William Boyd’s picture and was detrimental to what had been a solid career for William Boyd in silent films. But as they say when one door closes another opens. William Boyd eventually found his way into westerns and became Hopalong Cassidy. One of my favorite Hopalong collectibles is the Colt Comrades (1943) lobby card set The cast included Robert Mitchum and George Reeves. Here is a nice example from the set (see above). Hoppy looks like he’s about to pummel Bob Mitchum. Yes he grew up to be a cowboy but he had substantial roles in silent movies. Here in the Volga Boatman1926, directed by DeMille, he played Feodor a different type of comrade (right) and later in 1927 as Simon of Cyrene in DeMilles King of Kings (left).
Now getting back to the lost city, having bought the poster I felt compelled to watch the serial. One of the last chapters in the serial had a clip very reminiscent of a scene from another movie.
Stay tuned for the next episode of My Favorite.
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