BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dale Smith and his 1950 Hopalong Cassidy bicycle, now worth $4,000.
(Michael Snyder photo)
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Roy Rogers was good, but he wasn't the best.
In the world of cowboy collectibles, it's Hopalong Cassidy who gets the most interest and the highest prices, local dealers say.
Hopalong "Hoppy" Cassidy was a film character, played by William Boyd, in 54 movies produced from 1935 to 1944 and televised in the early 1950s.
Mr. Boyd, a Cambridge, Ohio, native, wore black clothes and rode a white horse named Topper. The cowboy was named for his bad knee, where he was shot, of course, by cattle rustlers. Mr. Boyd died in 1972.
Ten-cent children's Hopalong books, like Hopalong Cassidy Lends a Helping Hand, are going for $18 at Signs of Our Times, Lebanon, where a Hopalong cap gun (no holster) is priced at $134.
But the most highly sought guns go for as much as $600, says Signs owner Michael Longoria. And a "double-bubble" wall clock, manufactured in Cincinnati to promote "Hoppy's Favorite Milk" is worth $2,500.
