When one hears Gioacchino Rossini's "William Tell Overture," one thinks of the legendary archer - that is, if you're an expert in both classical music and historic folk heroes. But to several generations of audiences - both young and old - the legendary musical composition has also been linked to another folk hero who has also been a pop culture icon for over a half-century (and certainly far more famous than even William Tell himself): The Lone Ranger.
The Lone Ranger, along with his Native American sidekick Tonto, remains one of many fictional icons that has thrived in just about every kind of media that's been part of both the 20th and 21st entertainment industry - and, more often than not, has become an American institution, just like Superman, Batman, Tarzan, and Charlie Brown, to name just a few. And unlike other pop culture heroes whose popularity has faded a bit decades after they first appeared (like The Shadow and Buck Rogers), The Lone Ranger has remained in the public eye, not only because of what he stands for - but also because he represented the basic idea of what a hero could and should be, an ages-old belief that's still valid in the real world today, but under different circumstances, especially in the post-9/11 world. (How The Lone Ranger might react to today's movie and TV action heroes - especially the high body counts that they rack up on-screen -- if he existed in the real world of today is a subject probably worthy of debate.)
The Lone Ranger would even inspire one of his descendants to serve the cause of justice - namely, The Green Hornet, who debuted roughly three years after that of his ancestor's. Over thirty years later, The Lone Ranger would also serve as an inspiration to yet another pop culture icon - Happy Days' Arthur "Fonzie/The Fonz" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) -- which was fitting, since the 1970's TV sitcom was set during the 1950's, the decade when The Lone Ranger had gained a new generation of fans via television (and it wasn't much of a stretch to have both characters meet in a 1981 episode of Happy Days, if only briefly).
The Lone Ranger made his debut in the early-1930's, when the United States and the rest of the world was already affected by the Great Depression, its long-reaching effects changing the lives of a generation that had enjoyed prosperity during the 1920's, and was now facing both financial misery and personal heartbreak. The 1930's were also represented by military aggression overseas (thanks to Japan - and by decade's end, Germany and Italy) that would pave the way for the Second World War in September, 1939. It was a decade in which heroes - both real and fictional -- were needed to inspire and encourage a generation to rise above personal hardship and tragedy and not only better themselves, but also help those around them. In the United States, the American public would find a hero in President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal programs would help put the country back on solid footing, in more ways than one.
Yet, real-life heroes and idols like FDR weren't the only ones that Americans idolized during the 1930's - they also found fictional icons whose exploits helped them escape the pressures of the world that they lived in at the time, as well as brightening their already-difficult lives in an equally-difficult decade. From Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop on the silver screen to the newspaper comic strip exploits of Tarzan, Popeye, and Flash Gordon, these pop culture icons entertained the audiences of their day - and perhaps, gave them not only the hope that their lives might get better, but also the courage and strength to make it so. When The Lone Ranger radio series first debuted on Detroit's WXYZ on January 30, 1933 (the same day that Adolf Hitler become German chancellor), the character was already on his way to becoming an American institution. (The series would later air on Mutual, then NBC's Blue Network [now called ABC Radio].)
The series' opening narration (spoken by several announcers for the majority of The Lone Ranger's media history, including - more often than not - broadcasting legend Fred Foy, who worked on both the radio and TV versions) remains an example of its enduring popularity: "A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty 'Hi-yo Silver!' The Lone Ranger!" (In later years, the following catchphrase would added to the opening narration: "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.... The Lone Ranger Rides Again!")
When George W. Trendle first created The Lone Ranger, he and chief writer Fran Striker probably found inspiration in not only legendary western author Zane Grey's 1915 novel The Lone Star Ranger (no doubt inspiring both the radio hero's name and back story) -- but also German author Karl May's Wild West stories of Old Shatterhand and the Apache chief Winnetou, the latter inspired by James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales; the above-mentioned literary sources would help Trendle and Striker in developing the relationship between The Lone Ranger and Tonto. In addition, The Lone Ranger was also probably inspired by the legendary British folk hero Robin Hood and Johnston McCulley's literary creation Zorro, who like the Ranger, were dedicated to helping the common man; Zorro would also inspire The Lone Ranger in a larger sense, since both heroes wore masks to hide their secret identities (just like later masked heroes, including Batman, The Phantom, etc.) -- but The Lone Ranger had another reason for keeping his identity a secret.
