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Take a wonderful trip back to your youth -- or the
youth of your father -- and spend time with the great cowboy matinee
heroes of the 1930's-40's and 50's. Those Wide Open Spaces gives you an
intimate inside look at the men, women, and horses that rode across
theater screens in every town, large and small, throughout this nation
every Saturday afternoon for more than three decades.
Between these 448 pages you will find more than 220 old photographs
(many quite rare; some never published before)of individuals that kids
really looked up to, dreamed of becoming, and really missed when they rode
off into the sunset. Among the great names are: Hopalong Cassidy, Roy
Rogers, Gene Autry, Rocky Lane, Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Wild Bill
Elliott, Charles Starrett, Rex Allen, Sunset Carson, Bob Livingston,
Buster Crabbe, Tim Holt, Buck Jones, Tom Mix, and many, many more. Also
included are biographies on some of the famous "Queens of the Silver
Screen" including Linda Sitrling, Virginia Mayo, Nell O'Day, Peggy
Stewart, and Anne Jefferys to name a few. And who could forget the mighty
steeds these heroes rode in those great B-Westerns? Horses such as: Topper
(Hopalong Cassidy), Silver (The Lone Ranger; also Buck Jones' horse),
Tarzan (Ken Maynard), and Papoose (ridden by Little Beaver -- aka Robert
Blake -- in the Red Rider series).
As long as there are little boys...as long as the little boy in many of
us never grows up...there will be a void in our lives -- a longing for
those special days in our youth when there were true heroes (both living
and fictional). Bring back those days when childhood actually meant being
a kid and nothing more.
From the Inside Flap As long as there are little boys...as long as the
little boy in many of us never grows up...there will be a void in our
lives -- a longing for those special days in our youth when there were
heroes (living ones and fictional ones). For many leafing through this
book, there is a remembrance of men going off to and coming home from war;
there are images of figures standing tall against all manner of odds;
there was a peaceful time when childhood meant that kids could be kids and
nothing more.
While this is a book dedicated to the memories of ficitional heroes
long gone, the strength of recollection makes it possible to close one's
eyes and literally go back to the days of Saturday matinees, cowboy
heroes, villainous bad guys, six-shooters that did their job without the
need for visual portrayls of agony and gore, and horses latered up from
the chase. Remember Charlie King, the mustachioed bad guy who usually wore
black and probably holds the record for being shot more times in
B-Westerns than any other villan? Remember those rocks -- you know, the
ones that our hero rode by once, maybe twice, maybe even more while trying
to apprehend some gang of bank robbers or carrle thieves? Those are the
rocks pictures on the cover (front and back) of this book. Those rocks are
a part of Americana -- they're part of our lives.
Those Wide Open Spaces is an effort of love. The author has spent much
of his adult life collecting visual memories of those wonderful days of
the matinee hero and presents them here in a tribute to the names
thatremain emblazoned in our hearts and minds.
About the Author Hank Williams has been an avid collector of movie
cowboy history since he was a kid. Born in the small rural town of
Cumberland Furnace, TN, he grew up in the era of the one-reeler B-Western.
Before serving in the U.S. Army and playing semi-pro baseball, Hank spent
many an unforgettable Saturday working at the State Theater and watching
one hero after another ride across the screen. After a career that spanned
writing songs, producing sessions at Columbia studios in Nashville,
running a small independent film company, and promoting some of
Nashville's finest country music performers, Hank moved to Florida where
he spends much of his time writing about his favorite subject and playing
the state's many golf courses. Currently he is putting together another
book on cowboy heroes and villans.
Excerpted from Those Wide Open Spaces by Hank Williams. Copyright ©
2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved Brief Cuts from Chapter
1: "In those happy days of youth, a wonderful thing used to happen
every Saturday morning -- some 60 years ago or so. I remember going to the
local movie house, shelling out my hard earned dime and entering a world
of excitement and adventure. After standing in line to get my ticket and
once inside, I'd head for the snack bar for a Coke and a box of popcorn
and then I'd be off to find a good seat."
"...If you were interested in westerns, either in print or on
film, at any time from 1905 till the middle-50's, the name Hopalong
Cassidy meant something. Between 1905 and the mid-30's, the name described
the red headed, tobacco spitting, limping Arthurian knight who was the
main character in a long series of novels and short storeiss written by
Clarence E. Mulford."
"From 1935 through the late-40's, it meant the silver-haired,
black-dressed hero of the saddle. Thoe most famous hero of the West was
galloping across the nation's movie screens on his white horse
Topper."
"From 1949 until the middle-to-late-50's the name meant the
premier cowboy star of the early years of commerical TV. Hoppy was the
first TV super star. Since then the name has been almost forgotten..but
not forgotten by all."
"...Although he was born William Lawrence Boyd on June 5th 1895,
the son of a construction worker, he was known to millions of youngsters
-- as he galloped across the silver screen between 1935 and 1948 o his
beautiful while stallion Topper -- simply as 'Hoppy.' Hoppy rode with
ruggedly handsome pals Russell Hayden, Jimmy Ellison and durable sidekicks
George 'Gabby' Hayes and Andy Clyde (who played 'California Carlson' and
co-starred with Hoppy in 1940 in Three Men From Texas and would be Hoppy's
sidekick through 1948 when the last hopalong Cassidy theater western
(Strange Gamble) was released in October of that year."
"...Boyd founded a club called Hoppy's Troopers and its membership
rivaled that of the Boy Scouts of America. It had a Hopalong Code of
Conduct, which preached loyalty, honesty, ambition, kindness and other
virtues."
"...When television dawned, Bill "Hopalong" Boyd was
there. Within a year, NBC had paid Boyd a quarter of a millio dollars for
the weekly presentation of the Hopalong Cassidy movies. Within two years,
Hoppy appeared in a comic strip that was syndicated by the Los Angeles
Times. He was seen in over 15 million comic books that first year. 50
milion records were sold in the first month. More than fifty products
featured the cowboy's regalia. He became wealthy exhibiting his old films
on his own television show and marketing the tie-in products. The
merchandising included Hopalong Cassidy lunch boxes, pajamas, wallpaper,
bicycles (with handlebars shaped like steer horns and a spot for a six
shotter on the frame), cookies, pocket knives, watches, compasses, hair
cream, toothpaste, records, gus, hats, chaps, books, belts, candy bars,
peanut butter, and roller skates with spurs. Hoppy also had a gum company,
but Boyd would not license his bubble gum. By 1950 Hoppy was seen on 63 TV
stations and heard on 152 radio outlets. One hundred-and-fifty-five
newspapers carreid his adventures in their comic sections. William Boyd
got rich from Hopalong Cassidy by having the foresight and the wisdom to
buy the TV rights to the films in the 1940's. As a result, Hopalong
Cassidy became the first TV cowboy hero!" |
