Hopalong Cassidy A western that was greater than The Roy Rogers Show or Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch. Hoppy was a hero to one and all. He and his sidekick, California Carlson, roamed the Southwest in thrilling stories week after week. Almost every tale had a little mystery in it, and almost every story ended with Hoppy’s boisterous laugh. Clarence Mulford, the author of the Hopalong Cassidy stores, created a hard-fisted, rough and tough cowboy, nowhere near or like the lovable Hoppy of the movies and radio series. He became a hero in black and on a white horse – a super hero of the West. He rescued damsels and cowboys in trouble, along with ranchers and bankers and railroad owners always against the bad guys – robbers, thieves, rustlers and the like. The radio series were a hard sell. And the owners could find no takers. When this series began it was offered to the various networks. They wanted nothing to do with it so the owners had to sell it in syndication. But, after a short time it became extremely successful and later on it was heard on the Mutual and CBS networks. The show ranked number 7 in the 1949 Nielsen ratings. The Mutual Broadcasting System began broadcasting a radio version of Hopalong Cassidy in January 1950; at the end of September, the show moved to CBS Radio, where it ran into 1952.