“Hi Yo Silver and Away!” may be one of the most famous lines to ever be said on radio, film and television. With his grand- nephew The Green Hornet appearing on the big screen, we thought that we might pay a little respect to the Hornet's grand-uncle, The Lone Ranger. The character has a long and successful run in almost every aspect of the media. While he may be the most successful western series every created, oddly enough he was born in the car capital of America, Detroit.
In 1932 radio was coming into its own and just about to become king in the marketplace. Newspapers are still strong and America loves its magazines, but this new means of delivering entertainment invisibly through the air is spreading like wildfire. Even as the Depression builds, people want their own wireless box and will do what they can to get one.
This escalation in the new medium's popularity means that the medium needs new shows and plenty of them. At the time the nationwide network system had not really fully developed so local programmers had a lot more leeway when it came to filling the airwaves with original programming. And not all of it was coming from New York City. Local stations were doing what they could to get their programming hours filled so they could rake in advertising revenue.
In Detroit George Trendell was running radio station WXYZ. The station was broadcasting a series called Warner Lester, Manhunter; a series created and written by Fran Striker. A freelance writer who had done time at stations in New York, Buffalo and Cleveland, Striker had been writing radio programs since he had dropped out of college in the late twenties. Adept at comedies, westerns and crime shows, there was little that Striker could not write. Trendell called Striker to tell him about an idea he had for a new Western show.
Taking Trendell's sketch of an idea, Striker filled in almost all the details. Through the end of 1932 Striker begins preparing The Lone Ranger. He incorporates ideas and plot lines from his earlier western Covered Wagon Days and the basic format of the Lone Ranger takes form quickly. From the silver bullets to Silver the Lone Ranger's horse, much of what he created is still in use today.
Striker decides to make the Ranger the embodiment of decency. Knowing that the Ranger has to have someone to talk to, and that since the program is aimed at young boys (which advertisers are desperate to reach), it is decided to give him a loyal companion.
While the majority of the Ranger’s legend was developed by Striker, Trendell also contributed to the character’s nature. While Striker initially saw a playful and cavalier character, Trendell moves the Ranger into a more stern and officious manner. There is little moral ambiguity in the portrayal of the Ranger that the two men finally arrive at.
The new character-driven western received a brief trial run on a radio station in Buffalo at the end of 1932. On January 30, 1933 WXYZ in Detroit begins broadcasting The Lone Ranger. Since then he has seldom, if ever, been off the air or not in print.
Popular from the get-go, The Ranger becomes one of the shining stars in a new nationwide distribution chain known as The Mutual Network in 1934. Kids everywhere just love him and Mothers appreciate the clean and straightforward nature of the show.
The Lone Ranger quickly moved into newspapers as his strip debuted in 1936. It would be another twelve years before he appeared in comic books. In 1948 Western Publishing and Dell created the first issue of the stand alone title. The character was so popular that Tonto and Silver even got their own titles.
Over in pulps The Lone Ranger got his own magazine a lot quicker. The Lone Ranger Magazine had its debut with a cover date of April 1937. More about The Lone Ranger Magazine will follow in a minute.
In 1938 The Lone Ranger makes his screen debut in movie houses as a Republic Serial. The studio made another Ranger serial in 1939. Trendell had signed away the creative rights to the character so that meant Republic, who was notorious for changing the characters they bought, could do anything they wanted with the character. Trendell, who knew he had a hit character, was not pleased with Republic's results. But the Ranger became the biggest serial hit since Flash Gordon by Universal, so there was little he could say.
There have been a few other big screen adaptations of The Ranger with the most recent being the 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger. WB did a two hour TV Movie with an eye towards a permanent TV series, but that never materialized. Since early 2000 several companies have tried to bring the character back on the big screen. As recently as 2010 it was announced that Johnny Depp would be playing The Ranger’s faithful companion Tonto as soon as production began.
Even with all this activity, many feel that the greatest incarnation of the Ranger was on television. The show debuted on ABC in 1949 and quickly became the fledgling network’s biggest hit. The series stayed on in one form or another until 1957. Clayton Moore won everlasting fame for his earnest and strong portrayal of The Ranger. But few know that he had been replaced for two seasons in mid-run by actor John Hart.
Today readers and collectors have two options of reading Lone Ranger stories. Dynamite Entertainment just reached the twenty-fifth issue of their main Ranger title. It features a striking black cover with a lone silver bullet in the right hand cover. They also just published a collected edition of The Lone Ranger and Tonto series as a trade paperback.
You can find out more about the title by visiting your local comic book store or going to the Dynamite Entertainment website at http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/htmlfiles/. Dynamite is also doing a great job with The Green Hornet series as well. Fans of either series owe it to themselves to try at least one issue of the title that they aren't currently reading.
Adventure House is one of the best places to find reprints of the original books themselves. They are currently reprinting the original issues of The Lone Ranger Magazine from 1937. Faithfully reproduced down to the original cover art and ads, the titles they publish are a wonderful reminder of the days before comics were everywhere. The publishing house's work on The Lone Ranger may be their finest yet.
John Gunnison, Owner and Publisher of Adventure House, has seen his best sales in years with the first two reproductions of The Lone Ranger Magazine (the official title of the pulp). Issues #1 and #2 were massive sellers and a few are still available through the Adventure House site as well as Amazon. He recently told comicspriceguide.com that “The response to the first two Ranger books has been incredible. We are rushing our third reproduction into print and expect to see it on newsstands by early July of this year.”
According to Gunnison, there were only eight issues of The Lone Ranger Magazine. They were published from April until November of 1937. Gunnison continued by saying. “We aren’t exactly publishing the reprints in chronological order, but we do plan to eventually publish all eight issues exactly as they originally appeared all those years ago. There is certainly a great demand for them”.
You can order issues of The Lone Ranger Magazine, Spicy Detective and the many other pulp titles carried by Adventure House at http://www.adventurehouse.com/index.html.
Comic fans may want to note a "behind the scenes" connection between The Lone Ranger and Superman. The Lone Ranger Magazine was published by Trojan Publications. The company also published other more notorious pulps such as Spicy Mysteries, Spicy Adventures and Spicy Detective as well as Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective.
These pulps were so popular that Trojan had a few bucks to spend. Seeing that the marketplace around them was taking off with this new idea called “comic books”, Trojan began publishing a line of comic periodicals that quickly morphed into what we know today as DC.
What exactly was The Lone Ranger’s relationship with The Green Hornet? The Lone Ranger had a nephew named Dan Reid. This nephew was the father of Britt Reid who became the Green Hornet making the Lone Ranger the Green Hornet’s grand –uncle. This connection was devised by Trendell and Striker when they created the Hornet in 1936.
Much of The Ranger’s mythology has become part everyday American culture. Lenny Bruce had a famous routine about the Lone Ranger and Bill Cosby referenced the character as well. Johnny Carson did a couple of routines as the Masked Man on The Tonight show and even in 2011, jokes about Tonto and Silver Bullets need little explanation to anyone.
But the most famous part of the show may be the iconic music used to introduce each episode. That music perfectly captured the excitement promised by each show. Many know it as The William tell Overture, but the music is actually the finale of the piece. The technical title is “March of the Swiss Soldiers” and it was written by Giochino Rossini.
The show was famous for using classical music by other composers as well. The original reason may have been because that the music was in the public domain, thereby saving the producers a good bit of money. The by-product of their wise budget considerations is that millions of kids were introduced to different types of classical music. Just like in a good Warner Brothers cartoon.
The Lone Ranger is one of the most recognizable American characters ever created. He is as well known today as Tarzan or The Wizard of OZ. If you have never been exposed to the character and wonder why he has lasted so long, pick up a good book by Dynamite Entertainment or one of the classic reprints from Adventure House today. You will see why he has lasted so long.
