Image ID:  FHS3263
Image Date:   July 15, 1950
Image Title:   [The "real" Smokey Bear visits Hopalong Cassidy, 1950.]
Image Caption:   Caption 1: No. 13 -- Hopalong Cassidy receives a Smokey Bear "thank you" note from C. M. Granger, Acting Chief of the U. S. Forest Service, for his help in preventing forest fires. Hoppy transcribed a series of public service radio messages on fire prevention in cooperation with the Advertising Council, State Foresters, and U. S. Forest Service.

Caption 2: Hopalong Cassidy, in Washington with a circus, gets a thank you visit from Smokey the Bear July 15 for lending a helping hand in stopping forest fires and wildlife destruction. Christopher Granger presented the placard to Cassidy, making the cowboy star a member of Smokey's Club of Who's Who in Fire Prevention.

Caption 3: [Cassidy, aka actor William Boyd, sits on white horse ("Topper") accepting placard from Granger, who stands on the ground. Circus tents, truck, and people in background. Smokey the bear cub is not pictured.]

[This image is one of many promotional photos taken of Smokey (not pictured in this image) in 1950 (see also FHS image ID# FHS3253-3254 and FHS3256-3262). The bear cub was cared for by New Mexico Game Warden Ray Bell after being injured in the 1950 Capitan Gap fire in New Mexico's Lincoln National Forest. The cub was named "Smokey Bear" after the character created in 1944 by the Forest Service and the Advertising Council, and donated by the Forest Service to the National Zoo in Washington, DC where he remained until his death in 1976.]
Photographer:   [unknown]
Use Restrictions:   Permission from the Forest History Society required for any use of this image.
Repository Contact Information:   Forest History Society, Inc.; 701 William Vickers Ave., Durham, NC 27701; Tel.: (919) 682-9319; Fax: (919) 682-2349.