Standing outside in the oppressive heat and humidity of Miami at eleven o’clock in the morning was not what Roy’s mother expected. She and Roy, who was five years old, were waiting in a long line to enter a theater in order to attend a free advance screening of the new Hopalong Cassidy movie and have an opportunity to obtain the autograph of William Boyd, the actor who had portrayed “Hoppy”, as the cowboy hero was familiarly known, in movies and in a television series for more than twenty years. William Boyd had been a leading man in silent films and early talkies before taking on the black-clad character of an Old West crime fighter. Boyd had been a matinee idol in his youth, was renowned as a ladies man, and now, in his fifties, he sported a full head of wavy, snow-white hair that crowned a still-handsome face.
“I don’t know how much longer I can take this,” Roy’s mother said to him. “There’s no shade and no place to sit down. I know how much you like Hoppy, Roy, but maybe we just ought to wait and see the movie when it opens.”
This was in 1952, when westerns were very popular. Most of the kids waiting in the hot sun were dressed like Hopalong Cassidy, wearing stovepipe-high black cowboy hats, black shirts and pants, with a white bandanna tied around their neck and double holster gunbelts housing a pair of white-handled cap pistols.
“But Mom, Hoppy’s here!” Roy said. “I want him to sign his name on my hatband.”
Before Roy’s mother could complain again, many of the kids began shouting and pointing.
“Look!” cried Roy. “There he is! It’s Hoppy!”
William Boyd, dressed in full Hopalong Cassidy regalia, was walking slowly along the line, shaking hands with the kids, nodding politely and tipping his hat to their parents. When he got to Roy and his mother, the actor stopped and looked her over carefully. Kitty was in her mid-twenties and still as attractive as she was only a few years before when she had been chosen the University of Texas beauty queen.
“Is this your son?” William Boyd asked her.
“Yes, his name is Roy. He’s a great admirer of yours.”
“Of Hopalong Cassidy’s, you mean,” said Boyd. “Howdy, Roy. And, if I may ask, what is your name Roy’s mother?”
“Kitty.”
William Boyd smiled and took off his hat. Even though there was no breeze, it seemed as if his long white hair were blowing in one. His teeth were sparkling white and even.
“It’s extremely hot standing out here, Mr. Boyd. I don’t think Roy can take the sun much longer. I know I can’t.”
“Come with me, Kitty, and Roy. I should be getting back inside anyway.”
Roy and his mother stepped out of line and accompanied Hopalong Cassidy to the theater entrance.
Once they were inside, Roy’s mother said, “Oh, thank God, it’s air-conditioned.”
The night before, Kitty had told her friend Kay on the phone that she had decided to leave her husband, Roy’s father, who was in Havana, Cuba, doing business with the Morabito brothers, both of whose wives Kitty disliked. She would send her husband a telegram this afternoon, then take the phone off the hook. It would be nice to live someplace that was cooler, Kitty thought, like San Francisco. She and Roy’s father had gone there on their honeymoon. Nights were windy, she could wear her fur coat and not have to pin up her hair every day to keep the back of her neck from sweating.
“I’d like to send Roy a few souvenirs, Kitty,” said William Boyd. “Where can I reach you?”
A young woman wearing a red-satin cowgirl blouse with a yellow bandanna tied around her neck came over and stood next to him. She was smiling brightly and holding a clipboard and a pen.
“Penny here will take down your contact information,” Boyd said. “I have to go backstage now to get ready for the show. It’s been swell meeting you, Roy.”
The actor reached down and shook Roy’s right hand.
“And a pleasure to have met you, Kitty.”
“Thank you for rescuing us, Mr. Boyd,” she said.
“Bill, you can call me Bill. I’ll be in touch.”
“Hoppy, could you sign my hat?” Roy asked.
“Please,” said Kitty.
“Please,” said Roy.
William Boyd replaced his tall black hat on his head. Penny handed him her pen, he signed Roy’s hatband, gave the pen back to Penny, tipped his hat to Kitty and walked away.
Roy’s mother gave Penny the telephone number of the Delmonico Hotel, where they were temporarily living, she explained, and Penny thanked her, then hurried after the actor.
“Do you think he’ll really send me something, Mom?”
“He said he would, Roy. Yes, I believe we’ll be hearing from Mr. Boyd.”
“He said to call him Bill, remember?”
The other kids and their parents began filing into the theater.
“Come on, Mom, we’ve got to get seats.”
“Oh, Roy, I don’t think I’m up to it. The sun really took a lot out of me. We’ll see the movie another time. Soon, I promise.”
Kitty took Roy’s hand and they fought their way through the crowd until they were back outside on the sidewalk.
“Don’t be sad, darling,” Kitty said, “you got to meet Hoppy personally and he signed your hat. He even knows your name.”
“He knows yours, too.”
“Uh huh. I could go for a cold milkshake, couldn’t you?”