Newsletter June 2024

Carl’s Corner

by Carl Amari

Hopalong Cassidy 

by Carl Amari

Fictional cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy was created in 1904 by author Clarence E. Mulford in a series of short stories and novels based on the character.  Beginning in 1935, William Boyd starred as Hoppy in 66 popular films.  On screen, the white-haired Bill “Hopalong” Cassidy was clad strikingly in all black, rode a white horse named “Topper” and thwarted dishonest characters that took advantage of honest citizens.  By 1946, Hopalong Cassidy became the first network Western television series.  Capitalizing on the success of the films and TV series, Mutual radio began broadcasting a weekly radio version in 1950 starring William Boyd as Hoppy with Andy Clyde as his comedic sidekick “California Carlson.” By 1950 more than 100 companies were manufacturing $70 million of Hopalong Cassidy product, including children’s dinnerware, lunch-boxes, pillows, roller skates, soap, wristwatches and pocketknives.  

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CARL AMARI:  

BOLD VENTURE and BOSTON BLACKIE fans – THANK YOU – we saved both series! 

As most of you know, I have licensed the entire Frederic W. Ziv library of more than 10,000 original radio shows.  Mr. Ziv was one of radio’s premiere radio producers and syndicators.  

The Ziv library contains 41 different radio series including the entire runs of BOLD VENTURE, BOSTON BLACKIE, I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE FBI, PHILO VANCE, THE CISCO KID, MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FAVORITE STORY and many more.  

Mr. Ziv preserved these radio shows on “unplayed” 16 inch transcription discs, which have been stored in a climate-controlled warehouse for more than 60 years.  If these episodes are not transferred, they will never be heard by the world.  

We launched two Kickstarter campaigns to raise the funds to transfer all 78 BOLD VENTURE and all 218 BOSTON BLACKIE radio shows.  Thanks mostly to YOU the HOLLYWOOD 360 listeners, we were successful in saving both of these series.  We already made the transfers for the 78 BOLD VENTURE shows and are in the process of making the transfers for all 218 BOSTON BLACKIE shows. 

If you were one of the 200+ Kickstarter pledgers for BOLD VENTURE you have your digital downloads or audio CDs by now.  If you pledged toward BOSTON BLACKIE you will receive your digital downloads or audio CDs as soon as we’ve completed the transfer of all 218 episodes, which we expect to be before June 2024.  

If you did NOT pledge and you’d like to receive the complete runs of BOLD VENTURE and BOSTON BLACKIE via digital download or audio CDs, call us at 815-900-7535 and speak to a live operator.  Because BOSTON BLACKIE is 218 episodes, we are offering a 3-pay option.  

LEND ME YOUR EARS by Lisa Wolf
ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, Billy Joel

RELEASED: 1977

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“That song was released as a single back in 1977, I think. It was not really doing very well, just languishing in the charts. Then it was banned by a radio station in New Jersey at a Catholic university. The minute the kids found out it was banned, they ran out in droves and it became a huge hit. If you tell kids they can’t have something, that’s what they want. I don’t understand the problem with the song. It’s about a guy trying to seduce a girl but, at the end of the song, she’s still chaste and pure and he hasn’t got anything. So I never understood what the furor was about. But I did write a letter to the archdiocese who’d banned it, asking them to ban my next record.” ~ Billy Joel

Billy Joel’s 1977 hit “Only the Good Die Young” has become one of the most iconic and enduring songs in his extensive catalog.At the heart of the song is a young man’s pursuit of a Catholic girl named Virginia. As the lyrics suggest, the narrator would “rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints”, believing that the “sinners are much more fun.” The song’s origins trace back to Joel’s own high school days, when he had a crush on a Catholic girl named Virginia Callahan. “When I wrote ‘Only the Good Die Young,’ the point of the song wasn’t so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust,” Joel explained. He brought the finished song to his band, where drummer Liberty DeVitto helped shape the song’s signature shuffle rhythm.

Upon the song’s release, some religious groups and Catholic schools, such as Seton Hall University, banned the song, perceiving it as an attack on their faith. But Joel maintained that the song was not meant to be anti-religious, but rather a celebration of youthful indulgence.

Melissa Etheridge performed her unique version of this song at a 2014 Billy Joel town hall event hosted by Howard Stern. Etheridge explained that she grew up playing Joel’s songs in piano bars and cover bands, but she never had the chance to perform this one, which was one of her favorites.

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