Cover of “The Lone Ranger” novel by Fran Striker published in 1936
It is with great anticipation and excitement that we “true fans” await the July 3rd release of the Disney feature simply titled, The Lone Ranger. Nothing more has to be said than that to get our blood pumping fast.
Sadly, in this day and time when masked superheroes are all the rage, the principle market for that Masked Man and Tonto have no idea who he is. I’m speaking of course about the pre-teens and younger children. It has not been a part of their life, like it was with baby boomers.
The Lone Ranger became such a part of Americana that many people today may think he was a real person. Like any other good work of fiction, the Lone Ranger was created by a very talented writer named, Fran Striker.
The Zane Gray novel The Lone Star Ranger, was the basis of the name. WXYZ Radio executive George W Trendle assigned Striker the job of creating a new Western radio series based on the character Zorro.
That show debuted as a local Detroit area radio show on January 30, 1933, but soon moved to the Mutual Radio Network. It has been often stated by those involved, that the Mutual Network was formed to carry The Lone Ranger in markets where the bread company sponsor operated bakeries.
April 8, 1941 headline announcing the death of Earle Graser, at that time, the voice of the Lone Ranger
The first Lone Ranger was George Seaton, who quit the role after five months, moved to Hollywood and became a well known director. Earle Graser took over the role and built such a national following that when he died in a car wreck in 1941, newspapers reported The Lone Ranger had died! This shocked the youth of America, and almost caused the program to be cancelled. Graser’s announcer, Brace Beemer, took over the role and played it until the radio show went off the air in 1954. Radio’s Brace Beemer and TV’s Clayton Moore made the character the national institution it is today.
Along the way, two popular Lone Ranger Republic serials (in 1938 and 1939), two feature films and a television series starring Clayton Moore, and hundreds of books, magazines and comics (mostly written by Striker) cemented the origin story in our minds. The characters Lucas Striker and Amy Striker in the 1981 film, The Legend of the Lone Ranger were named in honor of Fran Striker.
Unfortunately, very little good Lone Ranger material has been available to the American public since the marginally successful animated television show aired on CBS between 1966 and 1969. Along the way we have been subjected to weak incarnations like The Legend of The Lone Ranger in 1981 and the aborted Warner Brothers Lone Ranger television series in 2003.
Clayton Moore’s Hat, guns, and the famous mask
Not to mention, one of the America’s biggest public relations blunders, happened in 1979 when Jack Wrather, then owner of the rights to the character, won a lawsuit against Clayton Moore barring him from wearing the mask. The national backlash against the film company, no doubt nailed the lid on the coffin of the 1981 film.
So far Disney appears to have done everything right. Mass marketing of the picture, with a good budget and positive news releases have built up interest. But in retrospect, they did the same for last year’s John Carter. Let’s hope history does not repeat itself.