Word: boyd
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...When Boyd went on a personal-appearance tour across the U.S., he was constantly surrounded by fearsome crowds; 85,000 people rushed through a Brooklyn department store in four short hours simply to take a look at him, and 350,000 people jammed mid-Manhattan streets when he appeared outside the New York Daily News building to advertise the Hopalong Cassidy comic strip...
This phenomenon has had almost as strong an effect on the self-made cowboy as it has on his juvenile admirers. Boyd-who, at 55, is an erect, ruddy man with a direct gaze, a quick smile, and a surprising air of authority and command-now has an almost evangelistic attitude about his success. He discusses himself in the third person-as "Hoppy" or "this character"-and seems to feel that he has retapped the same deep vein of American character which made the Old West, and that it is both his fate and his duty to strengthen the fiber...
...sanctity of this semi-mystical relationship goes beyond mere words. When a department-store manager suggested that crowds which had come to see Hoppy were duty-bound to buy something in return, the people's friend promptly punched him in the nose. A fortnight ago in Manhattan, Boyd attended an evening performance of the new Ethel Merman musical, Call Me Madam. Crowds in the lobby immediately crushed around him, but when the manager tried to extricate him he roared: "Hey-you! Let go my sleeve. These are my friends, my friend, and I'll come into your theater...
...Last Roundup. Although Boyd takes a human delight in making a fast buck, his attitude toward the licensed products which made him most of the $800,000 (before taxes) he earned this year is one of really Hoppy-like restraint. He has refused to license bubble gum, sharp-pointed tops, and nine out of ten of the other products on which he has been asked to put his name, and has insisted on reasonable prices and good quality before giving his blessing to manufacturers...
Part of this attitude may well stem from pure Hopalongishness-a state of mind which has caused Boyd to cease all personal appearances at which his "friends" are charged an admission. But part of it is shrewd business practice. Boyd has no illusions that his popularity can continue at its present rate and he hopes to convert Hoppy from a television idol into a brand name before the roof falls...