November 14, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, a fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty “Hi-Yo Silver!” — it's the story of the Lone Ranger. Stephen Eoannou, author of Yesteryear, tells the story of how a tenacious scriptwriter out of Buffalo and a shrewd businessman out of Detroit managed to create one of America's most enduring cultural figures
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.
The show where America is the Star and the American people,
silver Bullets, the William Tell overture, and the phrase kimusabi
all were thrust into the cultural mainstream at the height
of the Great Depression in nineteen thirty one with the
Lone Ranger. Here to tell the story of the Lone
(00:31):
Ranger is Stephen Iwanu, author of the book Yesteryear, which
is about the creators of the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Take it Away.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Stephen, with his faithful Indian companion, the daring, unresourceful, masked
(01:02):
Rider of the Planes, led the fight for law and
order in the early Western United States. Noware in the
pages of history. Can one find a greater champion of justice?
In response to hundreds of requests from interested listeners, this
Loan Ranger program will retell the story of the origin
of the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
George W.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Trundle was born in Ohio in eighteen eighty four. He
graduated from law school in nineteen oh eight and his
specialty was contract law and negotiation, and he was very
good at his job.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
He had a.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Shrewd mind, a keen sense of business, acumen and really
a good business instinct, knowing when to get in and
went to get out of various endeavors. One of his
first investments, even before he had graduated law school, was
in Nickelodeon. These were the forerunners of the movie theaters
and palaces that would come later. They were storefronts, they
(02:07):
were dark, they were kind of smoky and cramped uncomfortable
wooden chairs, and they had a reputation for attracting unsavory characters,
either owners or people just hanging out. Local government officials
didn't really like them too much. They thought it was trouble.
(02:27):
But trunda was drawn to them because he thought he
could make money from them. He saw this as something
that people were drawn to. But the film industry was
changing and they began to produce longer and longer films.
Trundle he thought that the days of the Nickelodeons were
(02:50):
numbered because people would want to go and watch these
longer feature films and something more comfortable, and so he
put together a group of investors and they built the
Columbia Theater, which was the first large movie house in Detroit,
and it was literally an instant success. People would line
(03:12):
up to go watch the movies in a comfortable setting,
totally different than what the Nickelodeons were. By the end
of nineteen twenty eight, Trendall owned twenty movie theaters throughout
the Detroit area, and again he had that keen sense
of timing when to get in when to get out.
He sold all twenty of those theaters right before the
(03:35):
stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine, and he insisted
on cash. He didn't want stocks, he didn't want promissory notes.
It had to be cash. But the depression didn't skip
over Trendall. He saw his network drop from three million
dollars to about a quarter of a million dollars. I'm
(03:57):
still very well off, but his finances were going in
the wrong direction, and he was looking for something to
invest in, to make cash, to make money quickly, and
radio was growing. Radio was quite different than it is today.
(04:19):
Radio was the fastest growing medium in the United States
in the late twenties and early thirties. Having a radio
in the home was a big deal because now you
were connected from outside your community and you could hear
programs from New York, Saint Louis, Chicago, Detroit, even in
(04:41):
your little hometown. The radio stations had full in house
orchestras that would play between shows to introduce shows, to
set the mood during radio dramas. Radio stations had their
own theatrical troupe, you know, their own performing artists, their
own radio actors that would perform locally produced talent. And
(05:06):
he knew that. He thought that was the next big
opportunity in entertainment. Even during the depression, he thought people
and he was right, would finance radios to have in
their home. No longer could they go out. They didn't
have the cash to go out. So now the entertainment
had to come into their house. And so he bought
radio station WGHP and change the call letters to WXYZ,
(05:32):
and their tagline was WXYZ, the last.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Word in Radio.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
And he had a vision of growing it into a
network of stations. But he was a tough customer. He
was losing money, and he would keep two sets of
books and he would show the fake set to his
employees and say, you're going to have to take a
pay cut. I mean, look how bad the radio station's doing.
(06:00):
Take a pay cut. I'm gonna have to fire you.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I have to let you go.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
And of course there are no jobs during the depression,
so his employees had no alternative but to take the
pay cut. Same thing when he was hiring people, he
would say, uh, you know, I look at my books.
I can't afford to pay you much. I can't afford
to pay you for the first month that you're gonna
work for me, which of course he could, and so
a lot of times he had people working gradus for
(06:24):
him on the promise that better days were coming. So
he was very frugal and it was during this time
that he earned the nickname the Miser of Motown. One
of the biggest moves that he made as a radio
station owner was to sever ties with Columbia Broadcasting. So
this meant that WXYZ would no longer have access to
(06:47):
the syndicated shows that CBS was producing, and Trendall's thought
process was, we'll produce it locally, We'll use local and
freelance talent, and it will be cheaper than paying CBS.
And so it was a business decision that made him
pivot away from that nationally syndicated broadcasting to locally produce broadcasting,
(07:08):
and that's when his life in France.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Striker's life intersected.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
how the Lone Ranger came to be here on our
American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell
about this great country, and especially the stories of America's
(07:35):
rich past, know that all of our stories about American history,
from war to innovation, culture and faith, are brought to
us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place
where students study all the things that are beautiful in
life and all the things that are good in life.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And if you can't get.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
To Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
learn more. And we continue with our American Stories and
(08:12):
our story on the Lone Ranger with Stephen Iyuuanu. When
we last left off, Stephen was telling us about the
miser of Motown, George W. Trendall, who led a cost
saving crusade at his flagship radio station in Detroit WXYZ
during the Great Depression. It was because of this that
(08:33):
he'd become acquainted with a little known station manager and
scriptwriter out of New York named Franz Striker.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Let's return to the story.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's funny.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
I have no idea how I heard about Franz Striker.
I think someone had mentioned in passing that, oh, the
guy that wrote the Lone Ranger lived in Buffalo, which
is my hometown, and I thought, well, that can't be right.
I'm a Buffalo writer. I would know if the man
who invented created the Lone Ranger was from here.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
And I looked it up. I googled it, and sure enough,
he was a Buffalo guy.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
I was surprised and mad at myself, and I found
out not only was he a Buffalo guy, he was
a neighborhood guy. He went to high school about two
blocks where I was living in a part of Buffalo
called the Elmwood Village, and he lived over on Granger Place,
which is just a few.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Blocks north of me.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
And then I dug some more and I thought, not
only did he create the Lone Ranger, he also created
the Green Hornet, the biggest of all game public enemies
that even the Tea men cannot RecA.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And sergeant President of the.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Yukon the Challenge of the Yukon.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And I had never heard of him, So now I
was really curious how someone could have such an impact
on twentieth century American pop culture, and the common person
doesn't know his name.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
The Ranger was.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
The first real hero that was extensively marketed. Think of
fan clubs and spin off toys, giveaway items eighteen Lone
Ranger novels in hardback. The Lone Ranger has been an
enduring character for the last ninety years. And then I
(10:29):
did some more research, and depending on how you look
at it, he was part of the best deal in
entertainment history or the worst business deal in entertainment history.
A lot of times you hear about these authors and
you know they have, you know, terrible traumatic childhoods.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Striker was just the opposite.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Striker was born in Buffalo on August nineteenth, nineteen o three,
to Frank and Addie Striker, and by all accounts, he
had a very healthy and wholesome family life. In upbringing fishing, hunting, gardening,
he had developed a love for the outdoors. He was
(11:13):
a very smart, very precocious child. He was always very curious.
He was always inquisitive, drawn to new things, and he
was a joiner. He loved to join clubs, science clubs
and church clubs and youth groups. He ran track. He
was in the band. He played the saxophone. He was
(11:33):
on the student newspaper, and he sold his first short
story and his first nonfiction article to a local Buffalo
paper when he was only twelve years old. He was
on the drama club, He was in the chemistry club,
and when he went to the University of Buffalo after
he graduated high school, he couldn't decide on a fraternity.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
He knew he wanted to be in one, but he couldn't.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Decide, so he pledged multiple fraternities, and he got in
trouble for it. He was called in front of the
I think the dean of academic.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Affairs or student affairs.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
And said, hey, you can only pledge one fraternity, and
Franz said, how can I pick one?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
They're all such interesting, great guys.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
While he was in college, he was a chemistry major,
but what happened was his interest in theater outgrew his
interest in chemistry, even though he was fascinated by it.
He had up in his writing studio an old chemistry set,
but it was all covered in dust because he was
always pounding away on his Remington sixteen typewriter. It was
(12:33):
about nineteen twenty seven when he decided to leave Buffalo
and go to New York City and he got a
job with the Harry Miller Production Company, which produced live
stage shows in New York City. This was a key
moment in Striker's life because even though he was only
with the company and in New York City for a year,
this is where he was exposed to professional theater, professional directing,
(12:59):
professional act and more importantly, professional script writing. So when
Striker came back from New York City in nineteen twenty eight,
his plan was to break into the theater. He found
that kind of difficult, not difficult to be involved, but
difficult to be paid. So he was drawn to the
next big thing what he thought was the next big
(13:20):
thing in entertainment, and that was radio. He took a
job with WEBR. He would do announcing, he would do
news reporting. He occasionally would step in and act on
the radio, even though he was never really comfortable or
talented in that regard. He even played his saxophone with
(13:41):
the WBR orchestra on occasion. Striker was promoted to wbr's
station manager, so now he was much more focused. Instead
of wearing all those different hats, he was really in
charge of radio dramas, directing them in writing them, and
(14:05):
this is course where he flourished. He always had that
affinity for writing, going back twenty he was twelve years old,
and now he was able to do it professionally, and
here his scripts performed live on the air. So nineteen
twenty nine was it was probably one of the most
exciting times of Striker's life.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
We are told by the opposition that we.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Must have a change, that we must have a new news.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
The stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine sent the
nation and the world reeling into an economic depression. Unemployment
rate in the United States was twenty four percent, twelve
million Americans were out of work, and over a quarter
of a million families had lost their homes. And the
Striker's family was not immune. Striker became their financial supporter.
(14:58):
They became his dependent. So by nineteen thirty two, you know,
he was supporting a dozen family members, his parents, grandparents,
aunts and uncles.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
They were all.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Dependent on Striker to survive the depression. So Striker was
extremely prolific writing radio dramas because he had to be,
and it transformed into kind of a side business. He
loved the idea of taking scripts that he had already written,
(15:32):
had already aired, he owned all the rights, and selling them.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Into other markets.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
I think of the early days of streaming services now
where everyone was scrambling to get content.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Same thing. In nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
All these radio stations needed content to be performed live,
and Striker was mailing out these scripts kind of cold
call mail amount cold to the stations. Now, this is
nineteen thirty two, so there's no copy machines, there's no printers.
It was a typewriter and a carbon paper, and he
(16:07):
would try to hit the key, strike the keys as
hard as he could to get two or three copies
out of one typing session, because everything had to be retyped,
and so he would literally wore out the Remington sixteen typewriters,
which was his favorite typewriter. And sometimes they would be
live on the air and Striker was in the other
(16:30):
room still typing up the script to how the show
would end, and so he'd had one eye on the
keyboard and one eye on the clock, knowing he had
to finish the next page of the script, or next
two pages of the script before there was dead air.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You know, these early days of radio.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
There was a lot of excitement about creating these radio
scripts for live radio, and then, of course there was
that financial necessity of branching outward and reselling them to
support his family. One of the radio stations that bought
his scripts was WXYZ out of Detroit, and the first
(17:07):
script that George W. Trendle, the owner of WXYZ and Detroit,
bought was an old series called Warner Lester. Trendall was
impressed with that script, and he requested more and more
scripts from Striker. So by the end of nineteen thirty two,
strike was supplying WXYZ with six half hour scripts per week.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
When we come back, more of this remarkable creative story,
also a remarkable business story. How these things happen, how
these ideas happen, How these characters happen, These characters that
live in the American fabric long after the authors and
creators die. The story of how the Lone Ranger came
(17:52):
to be continues here on our American Stories. And we
returned to our American stories and our story on the
(18:12):
Lone Ranger and how it came to be with author
Stephen Iyuuanu, author of the book Yesteryear, when we last
left off, Stephen was telling us about how Franz Stryker
had become the primary breadwinner for his entire family during
the Great Depression, making a lot of money on the
side by selling repurposed radio drama scripts to George W. Trendall,
(18:38):
the owner of the Powerhouse Signal in Detroit WXYZ. Little
did both of them know one of those scripts was
about to become a gold mine. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
So nineteen thirty two, WXYZ and George W. Trendall had
been counting on Striker for a lot of their radio content,
and December of that year, Striker received a letter from
the creative director from WXYZ saying, you know, we thought
about it, and we think we wanted to do a
(19:17):
Western series. Put all the hocum in it. That was
the word they used, hokum. You know, the mass rider,
the rustler, the girl tied to the railroad tracks, two
gun bank robber. Can you write something like that? And
so Striker thought, well, of course I can. So he
(19:38):
dug out a series that had aired two years earlier
on WEBR called cover Wagon Days, and for whatever reason,
he chose episode ten of that series to rewrite this
new Western, and he came up with a new hero,
the Lone Ranger. It's a debate where the Ranger came from.
(20:03):
I mean, certainly in that letter from WXYZ they mentioned
a masked rider, but that's as far as it went,
and a lot of people think it's still being debated
that maybe he was influenced by a real life figure,
a man named Bass Reeves. Bass was a runaway slave
(20:24):
and he stole a Confederate horse, according to legend, and
wrote it out to the Oklahoma Territory.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Oklahoma Territory during the Civil.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
War years was kind of a refuge for deserters, outlaws,
runaway slaves, a real interesting mix. And according to legend,
when Bass Reeves got out there, you know, he lived
with the Creek and the Seminole tribes and that's when
he learned how to shoot.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And again this is.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Tall tales, but they said that he was good with
either hand with rifle or pistol and shoot the hind
leg off of a.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Fly from one hundred yards away.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
But once the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, bass Reeves was
made a US Marshal and he took his job seriously.
Let's just say that he arrested over three thousand outlaws.
He brought in twenty of them dead, saying that he
killed them in self defense. And he had the reputation
(21:24):
of being someone who was for the common people, the
everyday folks, and he thought it was a sacred duty
to protect him from these outlaws.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
And he would occasionally wear.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
A mask disguising himself as an outlaw to infiltrate their gangs.
And remember that he had lived with the Indian tribes,
and so he had a friend who was a Native
American who would sometimes travel with him. And he also
had this interesting calling card. He would throw silver dollars.
(21:58):
So if you brush down his white stallion, he liked
to ride a pale horse, a dark figure on a
pale horse. If you brush down his horse and feed
them oats, he'd tossed you a silver dollar. If you
pointed out or gave him information about an outlaw he
was looking for, he would throw a silver dollar. And
sometimes when he would ride out of town, he would
just throw the silver dollar to whoever would find it.
(22:21):
He was buying goodwill, certainly, but that became his calling card.
Pop culture historians look at Bass Reeves figure and say,
here's a mask rider on a big white horse throwing silver.
He had to be the inspiration for the Lone Ranger. Now,
fran as I said, at an early age, was a
(22:42):
keen reader and writer, and he had a vast library,
especially of Western books, because he took his job of
writing The Lone Ranger seriously. So would Striker have known
of Bass Reeves? I think certainly.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Well, there were many others whose criminal plans were to
be challenged by a Lone Ranger, his faithful Indian companion
Tuttle and his great horse Siver.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
The Ranger actually premiered in Buffalo on WABR, not on WXYZ.
They wanted to do a test run and that was unusual.
So I think from the very beginning everybody thought that
this Lone Ranger character that Striker came up with was
a little different, had a lot of potential.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
And then they took it to Detroit.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Striker was continuing to write the Lone Ranger scripts in
Buffalo and he was getting paid four dollars a script,
so it was the start, and it wasn't until November
of twenty three, so almost you know, eleven months of
broadcasting before they were able to attract a sponsor, which
was Gordon Bakery. Once the Bakery came on board, there
(23:51):
was an infuse of cash. They were able to market
the Lone Ranger more, advertise it more, and offer it
to other radio stations to tie in as part of
a limited syndication. And when that happened, that's when the
Lone Ranger really took off. Part of the appeal of
(24:13):
the Lone Ranger was because he was born, if you will,
during the depression. A lot of people felt that this
and rightfully so, this depression was no fault of their own.
Their homes were taken, their jobs were taken, and there
was no real justification for that.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
And here comes a fictional character on the radio who.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Was always helping the little guy, going after the people
that were trying to take something from them that they
didn't deserve, and here was a figure that was protecting
them getting back what was stolen.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
They wanted someone that to ride.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Into their lives, you know, restore their jobs, restore their homes,
bring back the repossessed furniture, and on radio, the Lone
Range was doing that. The very first episode that covered
Wagon Day's Repurpose script dealt with a sayer who was
trying to steal the rights of a mind. This prospector
(25:12):
had been searching for gold and silver all his life
and had nothing to show afford. And the essayer knew
that there was, you know, a lot of money to
be had in that mine. And it was the Lone
Ranger who ended and silver, actually who kicked over an
old chimney and found the hidden documents that proved that
(25:32):
the prospector was the one who was the rightful owner
to the mind that was trying to be stolen by
big wigs. And that really resonated with the people in
nineteen thirty three, in nineteen thirty four, there was just
a groundswell of people interested, especially the children, especially the kids.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
And Striker always went out of his way to.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Make sure that the Lone Ranger always repped presented goodness,
always conducted himself in a moral way. He made the
decision early on that unlike Bass Reeves, he would never
kill anybody.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
He would only shoot to wound and shoot in self defense.
And he actually.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Wrote out the criteria for the Lone Ranger's behavior. Once
it got so big that he had staff writers working.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
For the Lone Ranger is never shown without his mask
or some sort of disguise at all times. The Lone
Ranger uses perfect grammar and precise speech, completely devoid of slang.
The Lone Ranger never wins against hopeless odds, i e.
He's never seen escaping from a barrage of bullets merely
by riding into the horizon. Names of unsympathetic characters are
(26:45):
carefully chosen, avoiding the use of two names as much
as possible, to even avoid further by curious association. More
often than not, a single nickname is selected. Criminals are
never shown in unenviable positions of power and wealth, and
they never appear as either successful or glamorous. The Lone
Ranger does not drink or smoke in Saloon scenes are
(27:08):
usually interpreted as cafes with waiters and food instead of
bartenders and liquor.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
The story of how The Lone Ranger came to be
continues here on our American Stories, and we return to
(27:39):
our American stories and the final portion of our story
on the Lone Ranger and how it came to be
with author Stephen Iowanu, author.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Of the book Yesteryear Again.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Go to Amazon or the usual suspects and buy this book.
As you can tell by now, Stephen knows how to
tell a gripping story.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
When we last left off, George W.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Trendall and Franz Striker had struck gold with Fran's repurpose
script of a lesser known radio drama called Covered Wagon Days,
and within a year of initial broadcast, the Lone Ranger
had swept across the nation. The things were about to
get a bit money for Franz Striker, in particular, with
(28:22):
a peculiar and enticing offer from George Trendall. Let's return
to the story.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
And this has been described by Stryker's son as either
the best deal in entertainment history or the worst deal
in entertainment history, depending on how you look at this.
Trendall knew of Striker's personal situation. He knew how much
he was getting paid, you know, four dollars a script.
(28:53):
He knew that he had over a dozen family members
that he was supporting, not counting his wife and now
two children. And so he offered Striker a contract to
write exclusively for WXYZ. And it was more money than
Striker had ever made. It was enough to take care
(29:16):
of his extended family that he was supporting still and
live comfortably, to be honest with you, and it was
also did something else, a guaranteed job security through the depression.
There was a stipulation, however, the stipulation to get this contract,
this exclusive writing deal with WXYZ, the nice salary, the
(29:39):
Striker had to sell Trendle all rights to.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
The Lone Ranger for ten dollars. So Striker was torn.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
He knew at this point that The Ranger was going
in a direction that he had never experienced. I don't
think anyone knew it was going to become as big
and as enduring as it did, but they knew, and
certainly Trendall knew that this is a potential moneymaker. On
the other hand, Striker had all these models he had
(30:11):
to feed. He couldn't turn down the author It was
just too much for him to pass on.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And I think perhaps the best.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Explanation of why Striker did this is in the Lone
Ranger Creed that he wrote, and by all accounts from
family and friends, this creed was an extension of Striker's
own beliefs, almost like the Ten Commandments of behavior for
the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I believe.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
That to have a friend, a man must be one
that all men are created equal, and that everyone has
within himself the power to make this a better world.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
God gives you firewood, but you need to gather it.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
That this government of the people, by the people, and
for the people shall live always and.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Taking care of nature, which goes right back to Striker's childhood.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
In My Creator, My Country, My Fellow Man, one.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Of those tenant states that man should live by the
rule of what is best for the greatest number. And
I think that explains why Striker took that worst possible
deal long term for his family, and.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
He signed the rights away for ten dollars.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
One of the tenants of the creed is that truth
alone lives on forever. And I think as it became
unclear in Muddy who was the actual creator of the
Lone Ranger, I think that tenant gave him some comfort.
So Striker signs the contract. The Lone Ranger becomes this
(31:56):
national phenomenon, and strikers on the payroll of WXYZ, And
to Trendle's credit, he honored the contract throughout the entire depression.
Once the depression was over, Striker asked for a raise.
He hadn't gotten one since thirty four, and the miser
motown promptly fired Striker because by that point, The Lone
(32:19):
Ranger had been on the air for you know, six
seven years. They had the blueprint, they had the kind
of story arc to follow, They had strikers notes on
how the Ranger you know, should kentuckt themselves at all time.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
They had the creed. But what happened was the.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Quality of writing dropped off so much after Striker's brief
absence that the sponsors for the various shows that he
was writing pressured Trendle and hiring to hire him back
with the Rays, and Trendall didn't want to lose his sponsors,
so he reluctantly hired Striker back at the higher salary.
(33:02):
About this time in the nineteen forties, Trendall started claiming
in interviews and in articles that he was the creator,
not just the owner of the rights, but he was
the creator.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
It was his idea of the Lone Ranger, not Strikers.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
And like anything else, if you repeat a line long enough,
people believe it, and so it gained strength. More people
thought that George W. Trendle was the creator of The
Lone Ranger, and in fact, even in his authorized biography
on the front cover, it says George W. Trendle the
(33:41):
creator producer of The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, Sergeant Press
and the Yukon, etc. And even the last movie with
Johnny Depp. If you stay until the credits roll at
the end, you'll see based on the.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Characters created by George W. Trendall.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
There was even a story circulating that Striker wasn't brought
in to work on the Lone Ranger script until after
it had aired. Striker handled all this with grace, and
(34:16):
as you should think about it, he could see how
much money, how much revenue The Ranger was producing for Trendle,
now that Trendall had the rights, all the toys, all
the spinoff products, all the giveaways, the movies, the books,
the comic books, and it could have been him, but
he handled it with grace. When he was asked in
private by his friends or family, he would say that, well,
(34:40):
the people in the radio industry they know the truth
and leave it at that. If he was interviewed, he
would say, only God creates. Striker never brought up the controversy.
He never confronted Trendle with the Lie, and he continued
to work for Trendall up until the Low Ranger lights
(35:01):
were sold for three million dollars, which is a record
sale at that time. And of course, you know the
money I went to Trendle. I think it did bother Striker.
It had had to. Striker really did give his all
and cared about the Ranger and felt a responsibility to
(35:24):
the Rangers fans, especially the kids, to make sure that
he was an example, a true hero to those kids
growing up. It had to hurt. Unfortunately, Striker was killed
in a car crash in nineteen sixty two, still a
young man. I think he was only fifty eight years old,
and he didn't live long enough to write his memoirs
(35:45):
and tell his side of the story. And I think
that premature death, in his not writing his autobiography, gave
life to the lie because it could it continued really
to this day. I think the Lone Ranger is an
(36:06):
iconic American hero and figure. I think he is recognized
by everybody worldwide. He is an enduring, bankable media star.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Striker.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
You know, he used to say that the people in
the radio business know, and that's true. He's in the
national Broadcasters Hall of Fame. But he doesn't have the notoriety.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
He's not acknowledged.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
People don't know who he is. The average person doesn't
know who he is. But he is, in fact, just
on the lone Ranger in the Green Hornet if that
was the only two scripts he ever wrote, just on
those two creations and deserves a place as one of
the most influential and successful radio drama scriptwriters. His accomplishments
(36:58):
they were huge. You'll be hard pressed to find someone
who had such an impact and whose character were able
to move from radio to television to film.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
To books to comic books.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
You'd be hard pressed to find a character that generated
that much revenue for such a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery and a special thanks to
author Steven Iuuanu and his book Yesteryear is available at
Amazon or The Usual Suspects And what a story he told.
And by the way, was it the best or worst
deal of all time? It was the worst deal of
(37:43):
all time. I mean, clearly Striker had to take care
of his family and may not have been a risk taker.
But boy, if you want to do the wrong thing.
Do what Trendall did and become the greatest schmuck in history.
He could have just tied the guy in for a
nice piece of the profits still made a heck of
a lot of money himself. The story of how the
Lone Ranger came to be here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.
The show where America is the Star and the American people,
silver Bullets, the William Tell overture, and the phrase kimusabi
all were thrust into the cultural mainstream at the height
of the Great Depression in nineteen thirty one with the
Lone Ranger. Here to tell the story of the Lone
(00:31):
Ranger is Stephen Iwanu, author of the book Yesteryear, which
is about the creators of the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Take it Away.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Stephen, with his faithful Indian companion, the daring, unresourceful, masked
(01:02):
Rider of the Planes, led the fight for law and
order in the early Western United States. Noware in the
pages of history. Can one find a greater champion of justice?
In response to hundreds of requests from interested listeners, this
Loan Ranger program will retell the story of the origin
of the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
George W.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Trundle was born in Ohio in eighteen eighty four. He
graduated from law school in nineteen oh eight and his
specialty was contract law and negotiation, and he was very
good at his job.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
He had a.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Shrewd mind, a keen sense of business, acumen and really
a good business instinct, knowing when to get in and
went to get out of various endeavors. One of his
first investments, even before he had graduated law school, was
in Nickelodeon. These were the forerunners of the movie theaters
and palaces that would come later. They were storefronts, they
(02:07):
were dark, they were kind of smoky and cramped uncomfortable
wooden chairs, and they had a reputation for attracting unsavory characters,
either owners or people just hanging out. Local government officials
didn't really like them too much. They thought it was trouble.
(02:27):
But trunda was drawn to them because he thought he
could make money from them. He saw this as something
that people were drawn to. But the film industry was
changing and they began to produce longer and longer films.
Trundle he thought that the days of the Nickelodeons were
(02:50):
numbered because people would want to go and watch these
longer feature films and something more comfortable, and so he
put together a group of investors and they built the
Columbia Theater, which was the first large movie house in Detroit,
and it was literally an instant success. People would line
(03:12):
up to go watch the movies in a comfortable setting,
totally different than what the Nickelodeons were. By the end
of nineteen twenty eight, Trendall owned twenty movie theaters throughout
the Detroit area, and again he had that keen sense
of timing when to get in when to get out.
He sold all twenty of those theaters right before the
(03:35):
stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine, and he insisted
on cash. He didn't want stocks, he didn't want promissory notes.
It had to be cash. But the depression didn't skip
over Trendall. He saw his network drop from three million
dollars to about a quarter of a million dollars. I'm
(03:57):
still very well off, but his finances were going in
the wrong direction, and he was looking for something to
invest in, to make cash, to make money quickly, and
radio was growing. Radio was quite different than it is today.
(04:19):
Radio was the fastest growing medium in the United States
in the late twenties and early thirties. Having a radio
in the home was a big deal because now you
were connected from outside your community and you could hear
programs from New York, Saint Louis, Chicago, Detroit, even in
(04:41):
your little hometown. The radio stations had full in house
orchestras that would play between shows to introduce shows, to
set the mood during radio dramas. Radio stations had their
own theatrical troupe, you know, their own performing artists, their
own radio actors that would perform locally produced talent. And
(05:06):
he knew that. He thought that was the next big
opportunity in entertainment. Even during the depression, he thought people
and he was right, would finance radios to have in
their home. No longer could they go out. They didn't
have the cash to go out. So now the entertainment
had to come into their house. And so he bought
radio station WGHP and change the call letters to WXYZ,
(05:32):
and their tagline was WXYZ, the last.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Word in Radio.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
And he had a vision of growing it into a
network of stations. But he was a tough customer. He
was losing money, and he would keep two sets of
books and he would show the fake set to his
employees and say, you're going to have to take a
pay cut. I mean, look how bad the radio station's doing.
(06:00):
Take a pay cut. I'm gonna have to fire you.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I have to let you go.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
And of course there are no jobs during the depression,
so his employees had no alternative but to take the
pay cut. Same thing when he was hiring people, he
would say, uh, you know, I look at my books.
I can't afford to pay you much. I can't afford
to pay you for the first month that you're gonna
work for me, which of course he could, and so
a lot of times he had people working gradus for
(06:24):
him on the promise that better days were coming. So
he was very frugal and it was during this time
that he earned the nickname the Miser of Motown. One
of the biggest moves that he made as a radio
station owner was to sever ties with Columbia Broadcasting. So
this meant that WXYZ would no longer have access to
(06:47):
the syndicated shows that CBS was producing, and Trendall's thought
process was, we'll produce it locally, We'll use local and
freelance talent, and it will be cheaper than paying CBS.
And so it was a business decision that made him
pivot away from that nationally syndicated broadcasting to locally produce broadcasting,
(07:08):
and that's when his life in France.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Striker's life intersected.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
how the Lone Ranger came to be here on our
American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell
about this great country, and especially the stories of America's
(07:35):
rich past, know that all of our stories about American history,
from war to innovation, culture and faith, are brought to
us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place
where students study all the things that are beautiful in
life and all the things that are good in life.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And if you can't get.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
To Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
learn more. And we continue with our American Stories and
(08:12):
our story on the Lone Ranger with Stephen Iyuuanu. When
we last left off, Stephen was telling us about the
miser of Motown, George W. Trendall, who led a cost
saving crusade at his flagship radio station in Detroit WXYZ
during the Great Depression. It was because of this that
(08:33):
he'd become acquainted with a little known station manager and
scriptwriter out of New York named Franz Striker.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Let's return to the story.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's funny.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
I have no idea how I heard about Franz Striker.
I think someone had mentioned in passing that, oh, the
guy that wrote the Lone Ranger lived in Buffalo, which
is my hometown, and I thought, well, that can't be right.
I'm a Buffalo writer. I would know if the man
who invented created the Lone Ranger was from here.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
And I looked it up. I googled it, and sure enough,
he was a Buffalo guy.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
I was surprised and mad at myself, and I found
out not only was he a Buffalo guy, he was
a neighborhood guy. He went to high school about two
blocks where I was living in a part of Buffalo
called the Elmwood Village, and he lived over on Granger Place,
which is just a few.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Blocks north of me.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
And then I dug some more and I thought, not
only did he create the Lone Ranger, he also created
the Green Hornet, the biggest of all game public enemies
that even the Tea men cannot RecA.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And sergeant President of the.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Yukon the Challenge of the Yukon.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And I had never heard of him, So now I
was really curious how someone could have such an impact
on twentieth century American pop culture, and the common person
doesn't know his name.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
The Ranger was.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
The first real hero that was extensively marketed. Think of
fan clubs and spin off toys, giveaway items eighteen Lone
Ranger novels in hardback. The Lone Ranger has been an
enduring character for the last ninety years. And then I
(10:29):
did some more research, and depending on how you look
at it, he was part of the best deal in
entertainment history or the worst business deal in entertainment history.
A lot of times you hear about these authors and
you know they have, you know, terrible traumatic childhoods.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Striker was just the opposite.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Striker was born in Buffalo on August nineteenth, nineteen o three,
to Frank and Addie Striker, and by all accounts, he
had a very healthy and wholesome family life. In upbringing fishing, hunting, gardening,
he had developed a love for the outdoors. He was
(11:13):
a very smart, very precocious child. He was always very curious.
He was always inquisitive, drawn to new things, and he
was a joiner. He loved to join clubs, science clubs
and church clubs and youth groups. He ran track. He
was in the band. He played the saxophone. He was
(11:33):
on the student newspaper, and he sold his first short
story and his first nonfiction article to a local Buffalo
paper when he was only twelve years old. He was
on the drama club, He was in the chemistry club,
and when he went to the University of Buffalo after
he graduated high school, he couldn't decide on a fraternity.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
He knew he wanted to be in one, but he couldn't.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Decide, so he pledged multiple fraternities, and he got in
trouble for it. He was called in front of the
I think the dean of academic.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Affairs or student affairs.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
And said, hey, you can only pledge one fraternity, and
Franz said, how can I pick one?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
They're all such interesting, great guys.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
While he was in college, he was a chemistry major,
but what happened was his interest in theater outgrew his
interest in chemistry, even though he was fascinated by it.
He had up in his writing studio an old chemistry set,
but it was all covered in dust because he was
always pounding away on his Remington sixteen typewriter. It was
(12:33):
about nineteen twenty seven when he decided to leave Buffalo
and go to New York City and he got a
job with the Harry Miller Production Company, which produced live
stage shows in New York City. This was a key
moment in Striker's life because even though he was only
with the company and in New York City for a year,
this is where he was exposed to professional theater, professional directing,
(12:59):
professional act and more importantly, professional script writing. So when
Striker came back from New York City in nineteen twenty eight,
his plan was to break into the theater. He found
that kind of difficult, not difficult to be involved, but
difficult to be paid. So he was drawn to the
next big thing what he thought was the next big
(13:20):
thing in entertainment, and that was radio. He took a
job with WEBR. He would do announcing, he would do
news reporting. He occasionally would step in and act on
the radio, even though he was never really comfortable or
talented in that regard. He even played his saxophone with
(13:41):
the WBR orchestra on occasion. Striker was promoted to wbr's
station manager, so now he was much more focused. Instead
of wearing all those different hats, he was really in
charge of radio dramas, directing them in writing them, and
(14:05):
this is course where he flourished. He always had that
affinity for writing, going back twenty he was twelve years old,
and now he was able to do it professionally, and
here his scripts performed live on the air. So nineteen
twenty nine was it was probably one of the most
exciting times of Striker's life.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
We are told by the opposition that we.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Must have a change, that we must have a new news.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
The stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine sent the
nation and the world reeling into an economic depression. Unemployment
rate in the United States was twenty four percent, twelve
million Americans were out of work, and over a quarter
of a million families had lost their homes. And the
Striker's family was not immune. Striker became their financial supporter.
(14:58):
They became his dependent. So by nineteen thirty two, you know,
he was supporting a dozen family members, his parents, grandparents,
aunts and uncles.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
They were all.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Dependent on Striker to survive the depression. So Striker was
extremely prolific writing radio dramas because he had to be,
and it transformed into kind of a side business. He
loved the idea of taking scripts that he had already written,
(15:32):
had already aired, he owned all the rights, and selling them.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Into other markets.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
I think of the early days of streaming services now
where everyone was scrambling to get content.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Same thing. In nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
All these radio stations needed content to be performed live,
and Striker was mailing out these scripts kind of cold
call mail amount cold to the stations. Now, this is
nineteen thirty two, so there's no copy machines, there's no printers.
It was a typewriter and a carbon paper, and he
(16:07):
would try to hit the key, strike the keys as
hard as he could to get two or three copies
out of one typing session, because everything had to be retyped,
and so he would literally wore out the Remington sixteen typewriters,
which was his favorite typewriter. And sometimes they would be
live on the air and Striker was in the other
(16:30):
room still typing up the script to how the show
would end, and so he'd had one eye on the
keyboard and one eye on the clock, knowing he had
to finish the next page of the script, or next
two pages of the script before there was dead air.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You know, these early days of radio.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
There was a lot of excitement about creating these radio
scripts for live radio, and then, of course there was
that financial necessity of branching outward and reselling them to
support his family. One of the radio stations that bought
his scripts was WXYZ out of Detroit, and the first
(17:07):
script that George W. Trendle, the owner of WXYZ and Detroit,
bought was an old series called Warner Lester. Trendall was
impressed with that script, and he requested more and more
scripts from Striker. So by the end of nineteen thirty two,
strike was supplying WXYZ with six half hour scripts per week.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
When we come back, more of this remarkable creative story,
also a remarkable business story. How these things happen, how
these ideas happen, How these characters happen, These characters that
live in the American fabric long after the authors and
creators die. The story of how the Lone Ranger came
(17:52):
to be continues here on our American Stories. And we
returned to our American stories and our story on the
(18:12):
Lone Ranger and how it came to be with author
Stephen Iyuuanu, author of the book Yesteryear, when we last
left off, Stephen was telling us about how Franz Stryker
had become the primary breadwinner for his entire family during
the Great Depression, making a lot of money on the
side by selling repurposed radio drama scripts to George W. Trendall,
(18:38):
the owner of the Powerhouse Signal in Detroit WXYZ. Little
did both of them know one of those scripts was
about to become a gold mine. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
So nineteen thirty two, WXYZ and George W. Trendall had
been counting on Striker for a lot of their radio content,
and December of that year, Striker received a letter from
the creative director from WXYZ saying, you know, we thought
about it, and we think we wanted to do a
(19:17):
Western series. Put all the hocum in it. That was
the word they used, hokum. You know, the mass rider,
the rustler, the girl tied to the railroad tracks, two
gun bank robber. Can you write something like that? And
so Striker thought, well, of course I can. So he
(19:38):
dug out a series that had aired two years earlier
on WEBR called cover Wagon Days, and for whatever reason,
he chose episode ten of that series to rewrite this
new Western, and he came up with a new hero,
the Lone Ranger. It's a debate where the Ranger came from.
(20:03):
I mean, certainly in that letter from WXYZ they mentioned
a masked rider, but that's as far as it went,
and a lot of people think it's still being debated
that maybe he was influenced by a real life figure,
a man named Bass Reeves. Bass was a runaway slave
(20:24):
and he stole a Confederate horse, according to legend, and
wrote it out to the Oklahoma Territory.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Oklahoma Territory during the Civil.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
War years was kind of a refuge for deserters, outlaws,
runaway slaves, a real interesting mix. And according to legend,
when Bass Reeves got out there, you know, he lived
with the Creek and the Seminole tribes and that's when
he learned how to shoot.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And again this is.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Tall tales, but they said that he was good with
either hand with rifle or pistol and shoot the hind
leg off of a.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Fly from one hundred yards away.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
But once the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, bass Reeves was
made a US Marshal and he took his job seriously.
Let's just say that he arrested over three thousand outlaws.
He brought in twenty of them dead, saying that he
killed them in self defense. And he had the reputation
(21:24):
of being someone who was for the common people, the
everyday folks, and he thought it was a sacred duty
to protect him from these outlaws.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
And he would occasionally wear.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
A mask disguising himself as an outlaw to infiltrate their gangs.
And remember that he had lived with the Indian tribes,
and so he had a friend who was a Native
American who would sometimes travel with him. And he also
had this interesting calling card. He would throw silver dollars.
(21:58):
So if you brush down his white stallion, he liked
to ride a pale horse, a dark figure on a
pale horse. If you brush down his horse and feed
them oats, he'd tossed you a silver dollar. If you
pointed out or gave him information about an outlaw he
was looking for, he would throw a silver dollar. And
sometimes when he would ride out of town, he would
just throw the silver dollar to whoever would find it.
(22:21):
He was buying goodwill, certainly, but that became his calling card.
Pop culture historians look at Bass Reeves figure and say,
here's a mask rider on a big white horse throwing silver.
He had to be the inspiration for the Lone Ranger. Now,
fran as I said, at an early age, was a
(22:42):
keen reader and writer, and he had a vast library,
especially of Western books, because he took his job of
writing The Lone Ranger seriously. So would Striker have known
of Bass Reeves? I think certainly.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Well, there were many others whose criminal plans were to
be challenged by a Lone Ranger, his faithful Indian companion
Tuttle and his great horse Siver.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
The Ranger actually premiered in Buffalo on WABR, not on WXYZ.
They wanted to do a test run and that was unusual.
So I think from the very beginning everybody thought that
this Lone Ranger character that Striker came up with was
a little different, had a lot of potential.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
And then they took it to Detroit.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Striker was continuing to write the Lone Ranger scripts in
Buffalo and he was getting paid four dollars a script,
so it was the start, and it wasn't until November
of twenty three, so almost you know, eleven months of
broadcasting before they were able to attract a sponsor, which
was Gordon Bakery. Once the Bakery came on board, there
(23:51):
was an infuse of cash. They were able to market
the Lone Ranger more, advertise it more, and offer it
to other radio stations to tie in as part of
a limited syndication. And when that happened, that's when the
Lone Ranger really took off. Part of the appeal of
(24:13):
the Lone Ranger was because he was born, if you will,
during the depression. A lot of people felt that this
and rightfully so, this depression was no fault of their own.
Their homes were taken, their jobs were taken, and there
was no real justification for that.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
And here comes a fictional character on the radio who.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Was always helping the little guy, going after the people
that were trying to take something from them that they
didn't deserve, and here was a figure that was protecting
them getting back what was stolen.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
They wanted someone that to ride.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Into their lives, you know, restore their jobs, restore their homes,
bring back the repossessed furniture, and on radio, the Lone
Range was doing that. The very first episode that covered
Wagon Day's Repurpose script dealt with a sayer who was
trying to steal the rights of a mind. This prospector
(25:12):
had been searching for gold and silver all his life
and had nothing to show afford. And the essayer knew
that there was, you know, a lot of money to
be had in that mine. And it was the Lone
Ranger who ended and silver, actually who kicked over an
old chimney and found the hidden documents that proved that
(25:32):
the prospector was the one who was the rightful owner
to the mind that was trying to be stolen by
big wigs. And that really resonated with the people in
nineteen thirty three, in nineteen thirty four, there was just
a groundswell of people interested, especially the children, especially the kids.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
And Striker always went out of his way to.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Make sure that the Lone Ranger always repped presented goodness,
always conducted himself in a moral way. He made the
decision early on that unlike Bass Reeves, he would never
kill anybody.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
He would only shoot to wound and shoot in self defense.
And he actually.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Wrote out the criteria for the Lone Ranger's behavior. Once
it got so big that he had staff writers working.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
For the Lone Ranger is never shown without his mask
or some sort of disguise at all times. The Lone
Ranger uses perfect grammar and precise speech, completely devoid of slang.
The Lone Ranger never wins against hopeless odds, i e.
He's never seen escaping from a barrage of bullets merely
by riding into the horizon. Names of unsympathetic characters are
(26:45):
carefully chosen, avoiding the use of two names as much
as possible, to even avoid further by curious association. More
often than not, a single nickname is selected. Criminals are
never shown in unenviable positions of power and wealth, and
they never appear as either successful or glamorous. The Lone
Ranger does not drink or smoke in Saloon scenes are
(27:08):
usually interpreted as cafes with waiters and food instead of
bartenders and liquor.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
The story of how The Lone Ranger came to be
continues here on our American Stories, and we return to
(27:39):
our American stories and the final portion of our story
on the Lone Ranger and how it came to be
with author Stephen Iowanu, author.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Of the book Yesteryear Again.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Go to Amazon or the usual suspects and buy this book.
As you can tell by now, Stephen knows how to
tell a gripping story.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
When we last left off, George W.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Trendall and Franz Striker had struck gold with Fran's repurpose
script of a lesser known radio drama called Covered Wagon Days,
and within a year of initial broadcast, the Lone Ranger
had swept across the nation. The things were about to
get a bit money for Franz Striker, in particular, with
(28:22):
a peculiar and enticing offer from George Trendall. Let's return
to the story.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
And this has been described by Stryker's son as either
the best deal in entertainment history or the worst deal
in entertainment history, depending on how you look at this.
Trendall knew of Striker's personal situation. He knew how much
he was getting paid, you know, four dollars a script.
(28:53):
He knew that he had over a dozen family members
that he was supporting, not counting his wife and now
two children. And so he offered Striker a contract to
write exclusively for WXYZ. And it was more money than
Striker had ever made. It was enough to take care
(29:16):
of his extended family that he was supporting still and
live comfortably, to be honest with you, and it was
also did something else, a guaranteed job security through the depression.
There was a stipulation, however, the stipulation to get this contract,
this exclusive writing deal with WXYZ, the nice salary, the
(29:39):
Striker had to sell Trendle all rights to.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
The Lone Ranger for ten dollars. So Striker was torn.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
He knew at this point that The Ranger was going
in a direction that he had never experienced. I don't
think anyone knew it was going to become as big
and as enduring as it did, but they knew, and
certainly Trendall knew that this is a potential moneymaker. On
the other hand, Striker had all these models he had
(30:11):
to feed. He couldn't turn down the author It was
just too much for him to pass on.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And I think perhaps the best.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Explanation of why Striker did this is in the Lone
Ranger Creed that he wrote, and by all accounts from
family and friends, this creed was an extension of Striker's
own beliefs, almost like the Ten Commandments of behavior for
the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I believe.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
That to have a friend, a man must be one
that all men are created equal, and that everyone has
within himself the power to make this a better world.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
God gives you firewood, but you need to gather it.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
That this government of the people, by the people, and
for the people shall live always and.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Taking care of nature, which goes right back to Striker's childhood.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
In My Creator, My Country, My Fellow Man, one.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Of those tenant states that man should live by the
rule of what is best for the greatest number. And
I think that explains why Striker took that worst possible
deal long term for his family, and.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
He signed the rights away for ten dollars.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
One of the tenants of the creed is that truth
alone lives on forever. And I think as it became
unclear in Muddy who was the actual creator of the
Lone Ranger, I think that tenant gave him some comfort.
So Striker signs the contract. The Lone Ranger becomes this
(31:56):
national phenomenon, and strikers on the payroll of WXYZ, And
to Trendle's credit, he honored the contract throughout the entire depression.
Once the depression was over, Striker asked for a raise.
He hadn't gotten one since thirty four, and the miser
motown promptly fired Striker because by that point, The Lone
(32:19):
Ranger had been on the air for you know, six
seven years. They had the blueprint, they had the kind
of story arc to follow, They had strikers notes on
how the Ranger you know, should kentuckt themselves at all time.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
They had the creed. But what happened was the.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Quality of writing dropped off so much after Striker's brief
absence that the sponsors for the various shows that he
was writing pressured Trendle and hiring to hire him back
with the Rays, and Trendall didn't want to lose his sponsors,
so he reluctantly hired Striker back at the higher salary.
(33:02):
About this time in the nineteen forties, Trendall started claiming
in interviews and in articles that he was the creator,
not just the owner of the rights, but he was
the creator.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
It was his idea of the Lone Ranger, not Strikers.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
And like anything else, if you repeat a line long enough,
people believe it, and so it gained strength. More people
thought that George W. Trendle was the creator of The
Lone Ranger, and in fact, even in his authorized biography
on the front cover, it says George W. Trendle the
(33:41):
creator producer of The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, Sergeant Press
and the Yukon, etc. And even the last movie with
Johnny Depp. If you stay until the credits roll at
the end, you'll see based on the.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Characters created by George W. Trendall.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
There was even a story circulating that Striker wasn't brought
in to work on the Lone Ranger script until after
it had aired. Striker handled all this with grace, and
(34:16):
as you should think about it, he could see how
much money, how much revenue The Ranger was producing for Trendle,
now that Trendall had the rights, all the toys, all
the spinoff products, all the giveaways, the movies, the books,
the comic books, and it could have been him, but
he handled it with grace. When he was asked in
private by his friends or family, he would say that, well,
(34:40):
the people in the radio industry they know the truth
and leave it at that. If he was interviewed, he
would say, only God creates. Striker never brought up the controversy.
He never confronted Trendle with the Lie, and he continued
to work for Trendall up until the Low Ranger lights
(35:01):
were sold for three million dollars, which is a record
sale at that time. And of course, you know the
money I went to Trendle. I think it did bother Striker.
It had had to. Striker really did give his all
and cared about the Ranger and felt a responsibility to
(35:24):
the Rangers fans, especially the kids, to make sure that
he was an example, a true hero to those kids
growing up. It had to hurt. Unfortunately, Striker was killed
in a car crash in nineteen sixty two, still a
young man. I think he was only fifty eight years old,
and he didn't live long enough to write his memoirs
(35:45):
and tell his side of the story. And I think
that premature death, in his not writing his autobiography, gave
life to the lie because it could it continued really
to this day. I think the Lone Ranger is an
(36:06):
iconic American hero and figure. I think he is recognized
by everybody worldwide. He is an enduring, bankable media star.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Striker.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
You know, he used to say that the people in
the radio business know, and that's true. He's in the
national Broadcasters Hall of Fame. But he doesn't have the notoriety.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
He's not acknowledged.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
People don't know who he is. The average person doesn't
know who he is. But he is, in fact, just
on the lone Ranger in the Green Hornet if that
was the only two scripts he ever wrote, just on
those two creations and deserves a place as one of
the most influential and successful radio drama scriptwriters. His accomplishments
(36:58):
they were huge. You'll be hard pressed to find someone
who had such an impact and whose character were able
to move from radio to television to film.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
To books to comic books.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
You'd be hard pressed to find a character that generated
that much revenue for such a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery and a special thanks to
author Steven Iuuanu and his book Yesteryear is available at
Amazon or The Usual Suspects And what a story he told.
And by the way, was it the best or worst
deal of all time? It was the worst deal of
(37:43):
all time. I mean, clearly Striker had to take care
of his family and may not have been a risk taker.
But boy, if you want to do the wrong thing.
Do what Trendall did and become the greatest schmuck in history.
He could have just tied the guy in for a
nice piece of the profits still made a heck of
a lot of money himself. The story of how the
Lone Ranger came to be here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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