WILLIAM "HOPPY" BOYD - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: BILLY ECKSTINE - HFSID 143806

WILLIAM BOYD and BILLY ECKSTINE
Album leaf signed "Hoppy" by William Boyd, best known for playing Hopalong Cassidy, and singer Billy Eskstine
Autograph Note signed: "To Pamela/Good Luck/Hoppy" and, on verso, "Billy Eckstine", both in blue ink.4½x3¾, with rounded left edges. BOYD (1895-1972) first starred as Hopalong Cassidy, a western hero who dressed in black and rode a white horse ("Topper"), in 66 features filmed between 1935 and 1948. He personally acquired the television rights to the films and edited the features into 30 and 60-minute segments. The series proved so popular that Boyd filmed an additional 52 episodes for television in 1951 to 1952. Hopalong Cassidy was televised on NBC from 1949 to 1951 and was syndicated from 1952 to 1954. In 1952, the year he signed this document, Boyd was also also seen in a cameo as "Hoppy" in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which was directed by Cecil B. DeMille, who had launched Boyd's career as a matinee idol when he cast Boyd as the romantic lead in The Volga Boatman (1926). In 1956, Boyd would be DeMille's first choice to play Moses in The Ten Commandments, but Boyd turned down the role, thinking that his association with "Hoppy" would hurt the film. ECKSTINE (1914-1993), born William Clarence Eckstein, possessed one of the most distinctive voices in popular music, a deep tone with a unique vibrato. He also played trumpet, trombone and guitar. Eckstine had his own band from 1943 to 1947, featuring such then and future jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis. Pen skipped in places while writing Boyd's signature, which is still legible. Neatly torn from album at left edge. Otherwise in fine condition.