We went to see the new Lone Ranger movie a couple of days ago. I liked the movie, but if I was a Lone Ranger purest I probably wouldn’t have. The movie took a lot of liberties with the actual story, and while entertaining, it wouldn’t please those that thought it should follow the original Lone Ranger theme.
The Lone Ranger was one of my favorite radio shows when I was young — it always started with, “A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi Yo Silver!’ The Lone Ranger. With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early west. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger rides again!”
I’m sure I didn’t get words exactly right, but that’s how every episode of the Lone Ranger started. The tory of the origin of the Lone Ranger (and the movie held somewhat accurate in that respect) was that a posse of six members of the Texas Rangers were ambushed by a band of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish. There was one lone survivor of the ambush and an Indian named Tonto stumbled onto the scene and recognized the survivor as the man who saved his life as a boy. He nursed the man, who it turns out is named John Reid, back to health. One of the Rangers that was killed was John’s older brother, Daniel Reid — a captain in the Texas Rangers. Since the outlaws believed all the rangers were dead, Tonto fashioned a black mask from the material of Daniel Reid’s vest to conceal John’s identity. After the Cavendish gang is brought to justice, Reid continues to fight evil and crime under the alias of the Lone Ranger.
The movie was somewhat true to the general story, but left a lot of things unexplained that the younger generation might wonder about. For instance the use of silver bullets — the Lone Ranger decided to use only silver bullets to remind himself that life, too, is precious and, like his silver bullets, not to be wasted or thrown away. According to the original story, the Lone Ranger’s horse (Silver) was a wild horse and the Lone Ranger saved him from an enraged buffalo — in gratitude, Silver chose to give up his wild life and be a faithful companion to the Lone Ranger. Before acquiring Silver, the Lone Ranger rode a horse called Dusty.
Tonto’s horse was ignored in the movie, but in the radio program, his horse was named Scout. I remember hearing Tonto say, “Git-Um up, Scout” on the radio. (That phrase was used as an advertising line in the 1970s to promote the Scout utility vehicle.)
While we’re on the subject of Tonto, the movie made it clear that Tonto was of the Comanche Tribe. If I remember the radio show correctly, he was a member of the Potawatomi Tribe, although I have heard that he was originally supposed to be Apache. In whatever native American language he spoke, Tonto supposedly meant “wild one.” Tonto is famous for calling the Lone Ranger, “Kemosabe.” That word means “trusty friend” or “trusty scout.”
During the movie, Daniel Reid’s son (Britt) played a fairly significant role in some of the scenes. I don’t remember Britt being mentioned much in the radio program, but he grew up and had a radio show of his very own — Britt became the Green Hornet. Seems like they had “spin-offs” way back in the 40s.
Now getting back to the Lone Ranger/Tonto relationship. The movie united the two for the first time as adults. The original “story” says that the Lone Ranger saved Tonto as a boy. I don’t remember ever listening to the radio program and Tonto not being there, but the fact is the first dozen or so Lone Ranger radio programs didn’t include Tonto. In those first programs, the Lone Ranger spent a lot of time talking to himself while traveling across the desert — that, of course was necessary to make things clear to people listening on the radio, but it began to make him sound like a wandering crackpot. Tonto was introduced on the radio program so the Lone Ranger had someone to talk to.
So the Lone Ranger told Tonto, “Only you, Tonto, know I’m alive. To the world, I’m buried here beside my brother and my friends… forever.” And Tonto replies, “You are alone now. Last man. You are lone ranger.” “Yes, Tonto, I am… the Lone Ranger.” “um, that right, Kemosabe.”
And then, the way the movie should have ended: The Lone Ranger riding away on his white stallion, Silver, shouting “Hi-Yo Silver! Away!” Then someone had to ask, or maybe even a sub-title — “Who was that masked man, anyway?”
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