Josh Price

Com. 290
The Lone Range


The Lone Ranger first appeared to us through radio on WXYZ out of Detroit Michigan. On January 30, 1933 " Hi-Yo, Silver" was heard, and the long time sponsor of the show was General Mills, which would stick with The Lone Ranger on in to Tv (Rothel 30). The radio show ended in 1954, between its start and end, The Lone Ranger had made its transition from radio to the big screen. "The Lone Ranger" serial put out by Republic Pictures was like a tv series that appeared each Saturday, but instead of being on tv it played at the movie matinee (Largent). The first one on these appeared in 1938 (Largent).
The main cast was The Lone Ranger and his horse Silver; and Tonto and his horse Scout. Now there were many people that played The Lone Ranger and Tonto, both on radio and tv. George Seaton was the first Lone Ranger for radio from January 30, 1933-April 1933 (Largent).

The second was Jack Deeds who only played for two episodes (Largent). Earle Graser was the next to follow in the Lone Ranger role for radio from April 16, 1933-April 1941 (Largent). One of the most remembered of the rangers is Brace Beemer who played the Lone Ranger from April 1941-September 3, 1954 (Largent).

Beemer’s voice was so well known that Clayton Moore, a tv actor that played the Lone Ranger, tried to imitate his voice for the tv series (Largent).

Some of the Lone Rangers from its days as a serial by Republic Pictures are Lee Powell and Robert Livingston (Largent). Powell appeared in the serial "The Lone Ranger" 1938 (Largent). Livingston appeared in the serial " The Lone Ranger Rides Again" 1939 (Largent).

The most famous Ranger of all was Clayton Moore who appeared in almost all of the tv series and in the two Lone Ranger movies (Largent). Moore appeared from 1949-50 and 1950-57 on "The Lone Ranger" tv series, and later in the two movies "The Lone Ranger" in 1956 and "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold" in 1958 (Largent).

John Heart filled the short time Moore was absent (1951-52) (Largent).

Tonto was played on radio by John Todd from January 30, 1933-September 3, 1954 (Largent). Chief Thunder-Cloud played Tonto in the serials "The Lone Ranger" and "The Lone Ranger Rides Again" 1938-1939 (Largent).

The most remembered actor to play Tonto was Jay Silverheels he played in "The Lone Ranger" tv series from 1949-1957, "The Lone Ranger" movie 1956, "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold" movie 1958 (Largent). Silverheels was a full blooded Mohawk Indian, but played Tonto who was Potowatomie Indian.

The Lone Ranger tv series first appeared September 15, 1949, some of the original sponsors were General Mills with Cheerios and Tootsie Roll (Bulger). The tv series ran for 221 episodes in all (Jensen). Not long after the tv series came out it was bought by the Wrather Corporation. Wrather bought all the rights to the entire "Lone Ranger" property from George W. Trendle who owned WXYZ radio, all the radio programs, 182 half-hour Trendle-produced tv programs, the comics, and the rights to all the merchanding (219).

After the buy out Wrather went on to produce 39 new color "Lone Ranger" series, the first of their kind, for the 1956-1957 tv season (219). The new series came on at 7:30pm Thursday, September 6, 1956 on ABC-tv (219). CBS aired the reruns on Saturdays and in Canada it was aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation stations (225). In 1956 "The Lone Ranger" went international in Great Britain, airing on the BBC (225). "The Lone Ranger" series went into reruns in 1957-58 on national and regional tv until 1961. It is still being show now in many U.S. and other countries (Rothel 225).

There were two full length films made " The Lone Ranger" and "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold" . "The Lone Ranger" was filmed at Warner Brothers studios in 1956 (Rothel 225). The film made $1,550,000 in the U.S. and ranked 65 out of 109 movies released that year (235). The second film " The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold" was shot in 1958, both of these films stared Clayton Moore has " The Lone Ranger" and Jay Silverheels has "Tonto" (Rothel 235). Besides making tv series and movies Wrather also made 78 six and a half minute "Lone Ranger" cartoons for tv (240). They ran from 1966 to 1969 on CBS-tv, Saturday mornings (Rothel 240).
The Lone Ranger won many awards and commendations. It was awarded the " Gold Mike" award by the American Legion Auxiliary (241). This award is give for " Best Program for Youth on Radio" (Rothel 241). It received commendations by the Boys Scouts of America, the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, the National Safety Council and the Parent-Teacher Association (Rothel 241).

Some interesting things you make want to know about "The Lone Ranger" is one that " Kemo Sabe" is a Potowatomie Indian phrase meaning "faithfull friend" or "trusty scout". The bullets The Lone Ranger had were silver and that stood for law and order, fair play, and honesty. Even though The Lone Ranger used 12,684 silver bullets in his career he didn’t ever kill anyone with a silver bullet (Rothel 237, 238).

The genre of "The Lone Ranger" radio show, tv series, and movies would be classified as a Western, something you don’t see very much in this day and time. The scheme is as split between romantic and mimetic. The Lone Ranger is more of the romantic character, because he is seen has being the model of all that is right, superior to the audience. Tonto on the other hand was more mimetic in that he was equal to the audience and was not seen as superior in any way. He was more of a helper to The Lone Ranger.

Bibliography

Largent, Mark Richard. "Largent's Lone Ranger Page."

[http://www.ticnet.com/mlargent/LR1.html]. Nov. 30, 1998.

Bulger, Rick. "The Lone Ranger." [http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/7286/]. January 1999.

Jensen, Steven. "Clayton Moore, The Lone Ranger"

[http://members.tripod.com/~ClaytonMoore/lrepisod.html]. February 13, 1999.

Rothel, David . Who Was That Masked Man? . A.S. Barnes & Company, Inc. , 1981.