Mr. Boy watches Power Rangers and various super heroes, mostly on Blockbuster DVDs. I’m sorry he’s missing Hopalong and his horse Topper, which I watched in shadowy black and white on "Footlight Theater" in the mid-1950s. But he might find Hoppy shallow, as I occasionally did.
Hoppy was a Californian but his Bar 20 ranch was "in Northwestern Texas," according to the official fan site by the owners of his copyright. "The town in the [original] novel is called Buckskin. Population of one hundred inhabitants, located in the valley of the Rio Pecos fifty miles south of the Texas-New Mexico line."
Even better known than Hopalong was the actor who played his sidekick, Windy, Gabby Hayes, who went on to play second banana to Roy Rogers, the King of the Cowboys.
Think I’ll give it a try, anyhow, with this $7 DVD of five Hoppy westerns from the 1940s. Afterall, I introduced Mr. B. to the inane Power Rangers. Maybe I can work the trick a second time, and he’ll foresake the PR’s Kung Fu moves, in favor of Hoppy’s historically-accurate high-crowned cowboy hat, a cap pistol and even some silver spurs for his sneakers.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 