Educational Centers of America

11/11/2025

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His career was destroyed when newspapers confused him with a criminal. He sold his ranch to buy his old films. That bet made him television's first millionaire.
This is the story of William Boyd—a man who lost everything twice and came back richer each time.
William was born in 1895, the son of a day laborer in Ohio. When he was seven, his family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, chasing better opportunities that never quite materialized. Then, while he was still in his early teens, both his parents died.
At 14 years old, William Boyd had to quit school and become the man of the family. He worked as a grocery clerk. He worked as a surveyor. He worked in the Oklahoma oil fields—brutal, dangerous work that aged men before their time.
By the time he was in his early twenties, William's hair had already gone gray.
In 1919, he decided to take a chance. He'd heard stories about Hollywood, about ordinary people becoming stars, about a new industry that was making dreams come true. So he packed what little he had and headed to California.
His first job in Hollywood was as an extra in Cecil B. DeMille's "Why Change Your Wife?" (1920). It paid almost nothing, but William was smart. He spent what money he had on fancy clothes—the kind of clothes that made him look like he already belonged. Then he made sure to position himself where DeMille would notice him.
It worked.
DeMille saw something in the gray-haired young man with the striking looks. In 1926, he cast William Boyd as the romantic lead in "The Volga Boatman," a major studio picture. Almost overnight, William became a matinée idol. Women loved him. Studios wanted him. By the late 1920s, he was earning upwards of $100,000 a year—extraordinary money for that era.
The orphaned son of a day laborer had become one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
Then everything collapsed.
When sound came to movies in the late 1920s, the entire industry transformed overnight. Some stars made the transition. Many didn't. William Boyd found himself without a contract and unable to find work. His type of silent-film stardom didn't translate to the new medium.
He was going broke.
Then it got worse.
In 1931, newspapers ran a story about an actor named William Boyd being arrested on gambling, liquor, and morals charges. The problem? It was a different William Boyd—a stage actor named William "Stage" Boyd.
But the newspapers ran the wrong picture. They ran our William Boyd's photograph alongside the arrest story.
His reputation was destroyed overnight. Studios that were already hesitant to hire him now wouldn't touch him. The scandal—entirely false, entirely not his fault—followed him everywhere. His career didn't just stall. It died.
By the mid-1930s, William Boyd was broke, unemployed, and blacklisted in Hollywood through no fault of his own. The second time he'd lost everything.
Most people would have given up. William didn't.
In 1935, a producer named Harry Sherman was casting a low-budget Western based on pulp-fiction stories about a character called "Hopalong Cassidy"—named for a limp caused by an old bullet wound. It wasn't glamorous. It wasn't big money. But it was work.
William Boyd took the role.
But he didn't just take the role—he transformed it.
The original Hopalong Cassidy from the pulp stories was a rough, to***co-chewing, hard-drinking cowboy. William decided to do something different. He made Hopalong Cassidy a hero children could look up to. His "Hoppy" didn't smoke. Didn't drink. Didn't chew to***co. Didn't swear. Rarely even kissed a girl. He let the bad guy draw first, always fought fair, and represented honor and integrity.
William Boyd understood something most people in Hollywood didn't: parents wanted heroes their children could admire.
The films were wildly successful. From 1935 to 1943, William made 54 Hopalong Cassidy films for Harry Sherman. Every single one made at least double its production costs. After Sherman dropped the series, William produced and starred in 12 more independently from 1946 to 1948.
He was successful again. Stable again. He'd bought a ranch. He was comfortable.
And then he made the decision that would change everything.
In 1948, television was new. Most people didn't own TV sets yet. Nobody knew if this experimental medium would even last. The big studios thought television was a fad that would fade. They certainly didn't think old Western movies had any value on TV.
But William Boyd saw something they didn't.
He approached Harry Sherman and the other rights holders and offered to buy the complete rights to all 66 Hopalong Cassidy films. They thought he was crazy. Who would pay good money for old B-westerns?
To raise the purchase price—around $350,000 (roughly $4.5 million today)—William sold his ranch. He bet everything he had rebuilt on a hunch about television.
Everyone thought he'd lost his mind.
Then television exploded.
TV stations were desperate for content, especially for Saturday morning programming when kids were home. William Boyd licensed his Hopalong Cassidy films to NBC. Within months, "Hoppy" was one of the most-watched shows in America. By 1950, over 50 million people—nearly a third of the U.S. population—were watching Hopalong Cassidy every week.
But William Boyd didn't stop there.
He became the first person to truly understand what television merchandising could be. He licensed Hopalong Cassidy lunch boxes. Toy guns. Cowboy hats. Comic books. Radio shows. Records. Anything parents would buy for their children, William Boyd put Hopalong Cassidy's face on it.
At one point, there were more than 2,000 Hopalong Cassidy products on the market.
The royalties poured in. By the early 1950s, William Boyd was making more money than any television star in America—more than Milton Berle, more than Lucille Ball, more than anyone. His income from Hopalong Cassidy exceeded $70 million over his lifetime (well over $700 million in today's dollars).
The orphaned son of a day laborer, who'd lost everything twice, who'd been falsely disgraced and left for broke in his forties, had become television's first self-made millionaire.
And he'd done it by owning his content.
William Boyd's decision to buy the rights to his films created the blueprint for every entertainment empire that followed. Walt Disney watched what Boyd did with Hopalong Cassidy and applied the same merchandising strategy to Mickey Mouse. George Lucas would later insist on owning the merchandising rights to Star Wars—a decision that made him billions—directly citing Boyd's example.
William Boyd didn't just save his own career. He invented the modern entertainment business model.
But here's what makes his story so powerful: he could have been bitter. After being falsely accused, blacklisted, and left broke in Hollywood, he could have become cynical. Instead, he chose to create something wholesome. He chose to be a hero worth watching. He chose integrity over cynicism.
Hopalong Cassidy represented the values William Boyd wished he'd seen more of in Hollywood—fairness, honor, courage without cruelty. He didn't just play a character. He lived up to one.
William Boyd died in 1972 at age 77. By then, Hopalong Cassidy had faded from popular culture—tastes had changed, Westerns had fallen out of favor. But his impact never faded.
Every time you see a Star Wars action figure, you're seeing William Boyd's legacy.
Every time a studio fights to own intellectual property rights, they're following the path he pioneered.
Every time an entertainer builds an empire on merchandising, they're walking the trail William Boyd blazed when everyone said he was crazy to buy his old Western films.
The orphaned teenager who worked in oil fields.
The matinée idol who lost everything when the movies learned to talk.
The innocent man whose career was destroyed by a newspaper's mistake.
The cowboy who bet his ranch on television and won.
William Boyd proved that losing everything isn't the end of your story—it's just the middle. That being falsely accused doesn't have to define you. That the most visionary bets look crazy until they pay off.
And that sometimes, creating something good for children is worth more than any amount of gritty realism.
He sold his ranch to buy 66 old cowboy movies.
That bet made him television's first millionaire and changed entertainment forever.
Not bad for a day laborer's son who never gave up.

10/13/2025

I Nephi 13
12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.

13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.

14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise⁠; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten.

15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful⁠, like unto my people before they were slain⁠.

16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them⁠.
Happy Columbus Day!

11/29/2024

11/28/2024

04/06/2022

03/01/2022

HB 60 is being praised left and right as the grand solution to vaccine mandates. It is being heralded as an accomplishment of conservative values and a true triumph of their legislative prowess. The reasons are simple: no vaccine required, by anyone or for any reason, for the most part, and no government intrusion into our private lives. It seems, on the surface consistent with these values, and that is the reason it is gaining so much wide support among the so called “champions of liberty”. However, there comes a time when people of good conscience and intent must call for a pause, and to reflect about the long-term problems this bill in particular may be creating, regardless of the righteous principles it tries to espouse.

HB 60 is not a bastion of personal freedom. In fact, it could not be further from it. Under the guise of protecting the right of the individual, what it actually does is remove from our most important right. It can very much be seen as a violation of the principles of the First Amendment, specifically the right of assembly, or the right to not assemble, just as the freedom to speak carries with it the right NOT to speak. The freedom of association is just as integral a part of the First Amendment as the other freedoms outlined or implied within. HB 60 flies in the face of it, and destroys this very important right. Who are we in the role of legislating to deny a store owner their right of a sense of security within the confines of their own store? Whether the vaccines work or are safe is a conversation all should have with their own doctors and arriving at their own conclusions without the pressure of politics or force of government. That has been the rallying cry of the right for two years, yet all of a sudden, we are abandoning it because here we find ourselves in the comfort of being in the majority, and in the unique position of oppressing those who disagree wit us, yet find themselves with a very real fear as they perceive it. Who are we to say they have no right to fear? Banning the mandate, and under the guise of discrimination no less, turns those who would cry they are oppressed into oppressors, and is a mandate. There is no other way to look at it. That is the principle that the liberty minded have espoused for decades. Are you upset that someone won’t make you a cake because they disagree with you? Order one somewhere else. We condemned the left for using the full force of government in that case, we should do so now.

Now of course, that is not to say that the right of privacy to all is secured in this given situation. It is true that this is not the case. However, the remedy already exists in law, both federal and state, and if we are finding those inadequate, then we should focus on why they are so. We have a state law regarding patient privacy, and what employers and business can pry when it comes to people’s personal health conditions. We can easily extend these protections to include covid related illness and conditions, including vaccination status. Why are we not then? Why are approaching this as a discrimination issue? In fact, this bill when originally introduced was a direct amendment to our nondiscrimination laws, placing it on the same line as race and gender. While we have since amended the bill to say otherwise, the spirit of it remains. It is still approaching it through those lenses, and the courts can and will use it in the future as a precedent to further limit our rights. And for what? What have we to gain from going down this path when we can simply add this to existing patient privacy code? If your fear is the non-enforcement of the code, let’s focus on enforcement. If we don’t enforce existing law, why should we expect to enforce new law? We should be looking at this as a privacy matter. We don’t ask, they don’t tell, but if you want to go around bragging about it, then you create an environment where the other party feels unsafe, and rightly so, and looking at the purpose of this law through the lenses of discrimination, as this bill does, only reenforces that.

HB 60 is bad law. It is bad in principle, it is bad practice, and it is bad in precedent, both of itself and of that which it will inevitably create. We will have situations where the unvaccinated will flaunt it to their bosses, their coworkers, to fellow shoppers, further driving a wedge between both parties, and there will be nothing that can be done. There are other mechanisms in the law which will reach the same result we are seeking without compromising our integrity in principle and the law. We should be focusing on those instead of treating this as a situation of them versus us. We can achieve our goals of reopening the state without compromising the rights of either side. Perhaps we should ask why those whose job it is to foster unity amongst the people are so dead set on instead creating animosity.

12/08/2021

Today we observe the 80th anniversary of the day Roosevelt said would forever live in infamy. 80 years ago today air and naval forces of Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii without warning or provocation. The loss of lives was nearly 3000, and some remained permanently entombed in their watery graves. To those who lost their lives that day we pay homage in the most reverent of terms. We bow our heads in despair if the suffering endured by them and the loved ones they left behind. But we also look to their steadfastness and sacrifice for inspiration. We lost the battle, but we won the war. The forces of tyranny and fascism lost that war. Yet today we find ourselves still embattled with those same evil principles. Forces that seek to destroy the freedom of choice, of conscience, of worship, to seek out our own destinies. This enemy, unlike the foreign invaders of old hide amongst us. They have infiltrated every level of government, they are taking care of your children’s education, and they have launched an all out attack on the very freedoms those men and women died to defend. As we remember the sacrifices made that day and in the years that followed, let us remember more than how they died, but why they died. What they have their lives for, and ask ourselves if we have lived our lives and directed our nation’s affairs to be worthy of that gift. I invite my fellow Americans to ask themselves that question on this hallowed day and to always strive to be worthy of God’s gift of liberty.
God bless America!

09/17/2021

Few people recognize this day anymore, and many more than do actively seek to destroy what it stands for. Modern education would like to label this day as the day a group of white men came together to oppress others, but nothing could be further from the truth. This was the day of adoption of not only the document that governs us, but the culmination of thousands of years of a drive to freedom and self governance. The principles that are enshrined in our divinely inspired constitution are eternal, and while not invented by those men, certainly their genius allowed them on this day to adopt them. What makes the constitution so unique that we can do firmly and confidently declare it to be the closest to perfection of any constitution or other established government for that matter, in the history of the world? That question has been posed many times, but few understand the very basic principles it espouses. The main takeaways of this political genius can be summarized in three basic concepts, which few people have ever truly grasped but are nevertheless the true revolution that is found in that document.
First, the acknowledgment of inalienable rights granted to man by God on an EQUAL basis. All rights and powers exist in nature and by virtue of our mere birth. The heavens are the source of all power, rights, and authority. Second, the government derives its powers from the people, not the other way around. The question that is often asked is what are the people allowed to do, when the question should really be what are they NOT allowed to do. The rights of the individual should be infinite and exhaustive while that of the government limited and specific. The powers of government are those found in nature granted to the individual, and only those which individuals have expressly granted a government is legitimate in that entity. Anything beyond is despotism. Third, to ensure the proper role of government is maintained, power and authority is separated and distributed both vertically and horizontally, and a system of checks and balances dictates how that power is distributed. This serves the purpose of ensuring no one individual or office holds too much power and control over the citizens.
If these three concepts were universally understood and applied, few battles for freedom would need to be waged. That is the role we as citizens and patriots of a free loving country have to play, to educate our children, our neighbors, and elected officials. To hold them accountable to their roles, and ensure that God’s gift of freedom always remains with us, and that we may be worthy of always receiving it.