Comics With or Without Pulp Talkback: Episode 7 - The Lone Ranger
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In a time when outlaws were overrunning the West & law was handled with posses. Where Native Americans were driven from their land. A masked Ranger rode for justice & peace with his partner Tonto. (2:10:15)
Listen here.
Listen here.
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Westerns were already popular when LR came along. The tradition started with the dime novels, which gave mostly fictional accounts of “real life” cowboys (good and bad). The 1903 silent film The Great Train Robbery kicked it to another level, and westerns were one of the most popular genres of the silents. When the talkies came along, the westerns’ popularity faded a bit. The Lone Ranger helped revitalize the genre.
That 10" Lone Ranger action figure? I had one, along with Silver. (I think it helped that my dad was a Lone Ranger fan when he was a kid.) It was pretty cool. Everything was removable. The hat, the holster, the outfit, Silver’s bridle and saddle. The saddlebags even opened and had a little space to hold stuff. Silver was supposed to be able to stand (using the stand it came with) on only its back legs, but the joints on mine were a little too loose, and it was almost impossible to get it to stay up. The pictures below are not mine, but at least you can see what they looked like.
Let's not forget the Aurora Model kits.
And speaking of the comics, I liked the Lansdale/Truman mini-series from Topps, particularly their portrayal of Tonto. It’s a little closer to their Jonah Hex weird/horror take than perhaps I’d prefer—that’s just what Lansdale does—but it worked fine as a four-issue series.
Btw, there are still people that Cowboy. Admittedly, not a lot, but they still exist. I'm not talking about rodeo participants. I'm talking about folks that rope and brand and round up strays. Working Cowboys.
Anyway, when I was a wee boy I spent a lot of time at my Grandparents. They lived in extreme SE Colorado. Once you got out of town you can see the Oklahoma and Kansas borders. Grandma was pretty strict. We didn't get to watch a lot of television. It was the 70's and once the few chores we had were finished, she preferred that we ride bikes around town all day rather than sit in front of the TV. The one show she would let us watch was Lone Ranger.
Grandma loved Cowboys.
A few years back, Grandma was visiting my Mom & Dad. It was after dinner and we were watching Lonesome Dove on Television. I thought it was over the top non-sense and wasn't paying much attention to it. Then Grandma said, very quietly, "I knew men just like that when I was a little girl." That comment made me sit up and pay attention.
She started telling us stories of a town in even more extreme SE Colorado named Boston. From her stories, this town sounded more like a Pirate's Cove then an incorporated municipality. This town was close to a river that marked the boundary of the nearest law enforcement. People would cross the river and steal livestock, equipment, etc. and then haul ass back across the river. Crazy stuff. I've found a couple of museums that have microfiche copies of the town newspaper. Need to get there and read these. If the stories are half as juicy as the stories Grandma told, then it's got to be some good reading.
Enough reminiscing.
I Iiked the Dynamite title. Actually I liked both Zorro and Lone Ranger. Zorro quite a bit more then LR. I didn't like what a quick read LR was, and I didn't appreciate how the artist made the old west look like the surface of the moon. Everything was tan without a speck of vegetation anywhere. I wish Fracovilla could have illustrated both books. That would have been awesome.
Boys. DO NOT DISPARAGE FILMATION! In it's time they did some great work with classic properties. Lone Ranger, Zorro, Tarzan, Batman, Flash Gordon. They're all brilliant.
Willian Conrad is awesome!
Quick aside. Conrad was the voice of Matt Dillon on the radio broadcast of Gunsmoke. As a professional courtesy, he was invited to tryout for the roll of Dillon on television. I think the screen test was Dillon sitting behind his desk, a man runs in pleading for the Marshall's help. Dillon stands up and they all run out of the Marshall's office.
William Conrad is built like a fireplug. When the scene comes to the point where Conrad stands up. The chair he was sitting on rises with him.
Found the intro to the 66 cartoon while bumping around Youtube. I've never seen this.
This thing is really out of sync. Sorry about that.
And I agree with you on the Filmation shows. They were decent cartoons, once you got past the stock footage and cheesy sound effects. Filmation actually tried to get the rights to Lone Ranger in 1965, but got scooped by Format Films. When Filmation finally got the rights in ’79, they asked Moore and Silverheels to voice LR and Tonto, but were turned down. They did get a Native American, Ivan Naranjo, to voice Tonto though, and they made Tonto smarter than in previous incarnations. Conrad did indeed voice the Ranger, though in the credits he's listed as J. Darnoc.
The first season it was part of The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Hour. The next season it was The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Hour. The third season (reruns only—no new episodes) it was The Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Show, but only ran on Sundays in select markets.
M
But, yes, check out his excellent books (including the ones we did together).
@nweathington, I own a copy of the comic above. A couple years ago the local historic society, of which I'm a member, held a picnic for the community and asked people to bring memorabilia. I brought the LR comic along with a Captain Marvel Adventures and a few others to display. You would not believe how many old women wanted to fight me for that LR comic. THEY LOVED HIM! The common thread was the radio show. All of them had stories of sitting around the radio waiting for the Lone Ranger.
The Lone Ranger is my favorite western character and he holds a special place in my life. Both my grandpa (my mom's dad) and my grandma (my dad's mom) loved westerns. My grandpa was an over-the-road truck driver, he was home maybe once or twice a month so when he was home I wouldn't leave his side, which meant weekends filled with watching westerns. Anytime we were at my grandma's it was the same thing. I loved sitting next to them and watching the television reruns. It was my grandma that introduced me to the radio show.
M