Harry Sherman, ‘Hopalong Cassidy’ Producer, has Abiding Faith in Appeal of Westerns (1937) 🇺🇸
“Hopalong Cassidy, Hollywood, California.”
Presented by David J. Hanna
So addressed, arrive hundreds of letters each week for William Boyd, and Uncle Sam’s postmen deliver them without a question. A tribute, indeed, to the actor’s sterling characterization of the swashbuckling film hero of Clarence Mulford’s famous stories.
But, even more significant, is the tribute to the man behind the Hopalong Cassidy of film fame, the man whose vision and abiding faith in the universal and everlasting appeal of outdoor action films created and has sustained the finest series of westerns ever made — Harry Sherman.
Four years ago, when Sherman first fostered the idea of a Hopalong series, the western market was very close to the lowest ebb in film history. By virtue of his demonstration that there is, and probably always will be, a market for Class A‑1 “horse operas,” the entire field has been revived. To compete with the Sherman product, other producers have been compelled to pour more money into their westerns than ever before.
Not content to skimp by using the cheapest talent and technicians, Sherman sought for people who were the best in their respective lines. No hack directors, cameramen, script writers would satisfy this Man With An Idea; he sought people who could give him the classic westerns he desired. How fully his judgment has been justified can be best appreciated by those who know that the Hopalong Cassidy films play many theatres where the very mention of the word “western” was taboo.
Within the next few weeks, Sherman will start on his first of the 1937–38 schedule. For the thirteenth time, he will take the three central characters — the adventurer, his pal and the old pioneer — and start them off on a new adventure.
“And believe you me, that’s some job,” remarked Mr. Sherman, as we reminded him that he was the only producer of pictures ever to sustain one, much less three, characters through an entire series of pictures.
Yes, it has been done with detective yarns, the Tarzan stories and some comedy pictures. But in none of these instances has the producer been confronted with the problems that Sherman has to overcome in his Hopalong series. Charlie Chan can go to China, Tarzan has both the jungle and civilization, but Hopalong and his pals must remain the same, be in the same locale, the West, and confine their activities to the period of forty years ago.
Yet for the past two years Sherman has found it possible to overcome these limitations and inject into each and every production a wealth of entertainment value. Sherman, an outdoor man, knows his West, understands its history and presents it as he feels it should be done.
“Westerns are perennial,” our host told us. “Ever since the beginning of the motion picture industry, they have been sure-fire attractions — if properly made. True, they went into a decline some few years ago. but look at their popularity today.
“The greatest single factor in favor of Western pictures is the West itself. Its bigness, the natural beauty of its scenery, and the romance and legends that have been built up about it ever since the early pioneers left the East to explore the plains and the mountains make it a fertile field for adventure fiction.
“Sure, I’ll admit it’s enough to drive anyone daffy to figure out what to do with Hopalong Cassidy in picture after picture, but again the West comes to our aid. It is so vast that it is certainly big enough to hold our three characters for quite some time. Even more fortunate,” he went on with a sly smile, “is the fact that our budget is not quite so limited as most producers of Westerns, which allows us to choose location sites far beyond the budgets of other companies.”
Although for the past two years, Sherman has confined his activities to producing only the Hopalong pictures for Paramount release, this year a Rex Beach story, “The Barrier,” will be filmed. Budgeted at about three hundred thousand dollars, Edward Ludwig will direct. Should this first into the higher bracket outdoor film division prove successful, it will mark the beginning of another series on Sherman’s program.
But regardless of how extensive his pictures may become or how large his organization may grow, it is the Hopalong character which is close to the heart of this producer. The character means far more than most people can imagine a fictional person might mean to a man, for it is through the Hopalong series that the producer returned once more to the limelight.
Originally a distributor, he started in the industry as a franchise holder in the mid-west. At the same time Louis B. Mayer was in Boston and Sol Lesser on the Pacific Coast. A chance trip to Hollywood brought him into contact with D. W. Griffith. Together they went to Pomona, where from eleven o’clock until two-thirty, they saw the unreeling of “The Birth of a Nation.” For one hundred thousand dollars he bought the rights to the picture west of the Mississippi. The investment netted him a fortune estimated at nearly a million dollars. Shortly later he entered production.
But the old saying that a millionaire hat a harder time keeping his money than making it proved no exception when it came time for Harry Sherman to hit the financial skids. That is until he hit upon the idea of producing the Hopalong pictures.
Above all, Sherman, like too few producers, visualizes picture making as an art, a strange trait, perhaps, for a Western producer. He enjoys, too. giving youngsters their first break. The most notable, of course, is Jimmy Ellison [James Ellison], who after winning his spurs in Sherman productions, is now off on what promises to be a startling career. Paula Stone, Jean Rouveral, Gail Sheridan are others in whom producer Sherman has shown confidence.
Nor does this gentleman of the motion picture industry lose touch with some of the veterans, whose pioneering in the old days is responsible for the development of pictures. Clara Kimball Young, Chester Conklin, Agnes Ayres all may be glimpsed from time to time in the Hopalong pictures. It is his simple way of giving them “a break.”
As we bade Harry Sherman goodbye, the realization suddenly caught us that he was, after all, pretty much like his protégé, Hopalong himself. Forthright, simple, a man who has built a career on honesty and unselfishness in work that he really loves.
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Collection: Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, April 1937