The Orphan

Clarence Edward Mulford was born on February 3rd, 1883 in Streator, Illinois. As a 21 year old he created, mainly from library research, the world famous character Hopalong Cassidy. The version that most people know from Films, TV or radio is a sanitized version of what Hollywood and the actor William Boyd, who played Hopalong wanted you to see – a clean living, ever dependable and reliable man. In reading these books you’ll come across something altogether different. Here you will find the original Hopalong Cassidy; a hard-drinking, rough-living wrangler who would sometimes pepper his sentences with ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ and was much closer to the characters of the real West even if his expletives seem mild today. But he is one of the great characters of America.