Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy
It’s easy to dismiss rituals as just the historical trappings of ancient religions. Something very beautiful, but having little relevance to our contemporary lives. Nothing can be further from the truth.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. explained the genesis of symbols and rituals as things essential in the lives of people who weren’t able to read. That explains their importance during medieval times. But how do you explain its power in 2010? Is there something so fundamental that it crosses all religious and non-religious lines?
Organizations ranging from the local Moose’s Lodge to street gangs view rituals differently. For them, rituals distinguish its members from “outsiders.” Ritual is a way of saying we’re different, we’re special. It may involve the tasseled hats of Masons, the use of bones in Odd Fellow initiations, or the violent retribution a new Blood gang member is expected to deliver against a rival.
Rituals do all of these things, but these are only surface explanations for their power. Rituals serve two important psychological functions.
The first is to give us a connection to the past. Although many people want to run away from their past at full speed, most find there is something unsatisfying when they reach their destination. Robert Penn Warren said that history cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity. Ritual is that link with our personal history, whether it is in the form of something religious or just a simple event in our past.
A number of years ago, I went back to the small eastern Pennsylvania town I lived in until I was fifteen years old. On Main Street I found the Roxie Theater, the place I spent every Saturday afternoon hiding my face whenever Frankenstein appeared and wildly cheering The Lone Ranger as he disarmed the bad guys without ever killing anyone. It was in the morning and the theater wasn’t opened to the public, but the front door was unlocked. I walked in and asked the manager if he would allow me to wonder through it; to relive some of the most joyous moments I had as a child. “Of course, knock yourself out,” he said.
I walked past the refreshment stand, imagining ordering a box of popcorn, went through the entry door on the right, walked down the aisle, and found my favorite seat on the end of the10th row that I sat in 50 years ago. As I settled into it, the images of my past flooded my mind: Abbot and Costello, Hopalong Cassidy, Buck Rogers, and every one of the Our Gang Kids. The only thing missing was scattered Ju-Ju Bees that would hold my Buster Browns firmly to the floor.
It was a ritual I was performing that was as sacred as any associated with a religion. Just like an ancient religious ceremony it pulled me back to an important part of my life.
Ritual is not inherently related to religion. It can involve supplication through the act of kneeling for Catholics, touching one’s head to the ground for Muslims, prostrating by Buddhists, or in my case, watching a movie that isn’t there. Finding the objects of a past and important experience can create a sense of peacefulness that’s difficult to describe.
Ritual can also provide closure for the present, whether it’s offering a final prayer for the passage of someone we don’t even know, or as I did a few years ago, attending a friend’s celebration of the passing of her Golden Retriever, who was surrounded with flowers, incense and friends remembering their wonderful times with him.
Ritual is an important psychological event that has served, currently serves, and will continue to serve a basic need of life: It connects us with the past and grounds us in the present. Cutting oneself off from it, cuts oneself off from our history and forces us to stand alone in the present.
Stan Goldberg, Ph.D is the author the award-winning book Lessons for the Living, a memoir of his experiences as a bedside hospice volunteer.
Senior Citizens: If you remember sending for autographed pictures, which movie stars were they?
I remember sending for a couple. Hopalong Cassidy was my childhood idol and father figure. And I sent
for his. My husband sent for a few of his cowboy hero’s autographs and later to Ronald Reagan. He
said the only personal autograph was from RR who had a personal inscription in ink, not copied. He
felt Reagan the better man for putting his own pen to his picture and sending it on. He also got a ride to
school in the car of a top cowboy celebrity in town. Too bad no press was on hand at the time.
I met in person and received autographed pictures of – Hop-along Cassidy, Roy and Dale Evens, Sunset Carson, Ves Parker, Martha Ray. – Sorry for not looking up the proper spellings.
Buckaroo Barry’s Hopalong Cassidy Theater
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Hopalong Cassidy and the Singing Bandit Capitol Records 78 RPM Record Reader $75.00 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #24 Western Golden Age Comic $35.95 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #25 Western Golden Age Comic $27.95 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #26 Western Golden Age Comic $29.95 |
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Hopalong Cassidy & the Square Dance Holdup Capitol Records 78RPM Record Reader $75.00 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #12 – Crowley Pedigree Copy (Fawcett, 1947) CGC VF/NM 9.0 $129.95 |
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Bill Boyd Western #1 Feb 1950 Fawcett Western Hopalong Cassidy $69.99 |
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Bill Boyd Western #5 Aug 1950 Hopalong Cassidy $19.99 |
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Bill Boyd Western #6 Sept 1950 Hopalong Cassidy $24.99 |
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Bill Boyd Western #7 Oct 1950 Hopalong Cassidy $24.99 |
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HOPALONG CASSIDY COMICS GOLDEN AGE PDF FORMAT ON CD $7.99 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #15 Jan 1948 Fawcett Western $29.99 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #25 Nov 1948 $24.99 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #27 Jan 1949 $31.99 |
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Hopalong Cassidy #39 Jan 1950 Painted Cover $17.99 |
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Hallmark School Days Lunch Box: 1950s Hopalong Cassidy 1999 Hallmark Cards, Inc. production. Hopalong Cassidy tin lunch box, with handle and clasp. Numbered and with certificate of authenticity. 6 inches in width, 5 inches in height, 2.75 inches in depth. See seller’s description for tin number…. |
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Hopalong Cassidy Lunch Box Keepsake Ornament $7.00 Hopalong (William Boyd) was the first hero to be immortalized on a lunch box. That trend-setting event is reflected in this set of ornaments- the lunch box opens and closes, and the coordinating design represents the drink container…. |
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Social/hopalong Cassidy Photo Mugs Hopalong Cassidy directs a gunfight …. |
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Hopalong Cassidy (Old Time Radio) $21.43 A soft-spoken paragon of virtue on the range, Hopalong Cassidy brought law, order and justice to the frontier. He was a model of integrity, courage, hard work, tolerance, patriotism, chivalry and good-natured decency – and he attempted to instill these values in his young listeners – all while delivering action-packed entertianment. Cassidy, the creation of Clarence E. Mulford, who dreamed of the… |
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Hopalong Cassidy (Old Time Radio) $27.59 For decades a popular hero of novels, short stories, and movies, Hopalong Cassidy became a seemingly overnight entertainment phenomenon when he burst in to the new medium of television in 1949. Shortly thereafter, he moseyed over to his very own radio series. William Boyd stars as Hoppy in this collection, riding out from the Bar 20 astride his trusty horse Topper in 20 digitally restored and rema… |
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Hopalong Cassidy – Vintage Radio Western Classics $8.99 … |
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Hopalong Cassidy-Pride of the West [VHS] $12.99 … |
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Hopalong Cassidy: Trail Dust [VHS] $12.99 Trail Dust – Hoppy, mindful of the famine threatening the country, persuades other ranchers to combine their herds and offer them at a fair price to a relief committee sent to buy cattle to feed a starving population. Cassidy leads a collective cattle drive, but greedy profiteers set out to sabotage his efforts, and they’ll kill any man brave enough to stand in their way. Borderland – A mysteriou… |
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Hopalong Cassidy: The Dead Don’t Dream [VHS] $7.86 … |
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Hopalong Cassidy: The Complete Series $20.50 The excitement and spirit of Hopalong Cassidy’s popular “B” westerns were brought to the TV screen when William Boyd starred in his own series, which ran on NBC from 1949 to 1951. Dressed in black, Hoppy fought outlaws with help from sidekick Red Connors (Edgar Buchanan) and Topper, his horse. Standard; Soundtrack: English. 52 episodes on 6 discs. 21 2/3 hrs…. |
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