July 16, 2024 • 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 Eoannu, 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 endearing 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. Take it Away.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Stephen, with his faithful Indian companion Tuntle, the daring, unresourceful,
(01:02):
masked writer 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 3 (01:26):
George W. 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. He had a shrewd mind,
a keen sense of business acumen and really a good
(01:49):
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 were dark,
they were kind of smoky and cramped uncomfortable wooden chairs,
(02:15):
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.
But Trundle was drawn to them because he thought he
could make money from them. He saw this as something
(02:35):
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
numbered because people would want to go and watch these
longer feature films and something more comfortable, and so he
(02:59):
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
up to go watch the movies in a comfortable setting,
totally different than what the Nickelodeons were. By the end
(03:19):
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
stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine, and he insisted
(03:39):
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 networth drop from three million
dollars to about a quarter of a million dollars. I'm
still very well off, but his finances were going in
(04:00):
the wrong direction and he was looking for something to
invest in, to make cash, to make money quickly. And
radio was growing following don IoT. Radio was quite different
than it is today. Radio was the fastest growing medium
(04:24):
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 your little hometown. The radio stations had full
(04:45):
in house orchestras that would play between shows, to introduce shows,
to set the mood during radio dramas. Radio stations had
their own theatrical troops, you know, their own performing artists,
their own radio actors that would perform locally produced talent.
(05:06):
And 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 w XYZ, the last word in Radio.
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
(05:54):
and say, you're going to have to take a pay cut.
I mean, look how bad the radio station's doing. Take
a pay cut. I'm gonna have to fire you. I
have to let you go, 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
(06:14):
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 gratus for 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
(06:37):
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 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
(07:00):
decision that made him pivot away from that nationally syndicated
broadcasting to locally produce broadcasting. And that's when his life
in France 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.
And if you can't cut 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
(08:10):
with our American Stories and 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
(08:32):
because of this that he'd become acquainted with a little
known station manager and scriptwriter out of New York named
Franz Striker. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's funny. 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.
(09:09):
And I looked it up. I googled it, and sure enough,
he was a Buffalo guy. 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
(09:31):
few blocks north of me. And then I dug some
more and I thought, not only did he create the
Lone Ranger, he also created the Green Hornet.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The biggest of all game public enemies that even the
team men cannot REACHA.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And sergeant precedent of the Yukon, the Challenge of the Yukon.
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
(10:05):
doesn't know his name. The Ranger was 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
(10:27):
last ninety years. And then I 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. Striker was just the opposite.
(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.
He knew he wanted to be in one, but he
(11:54):
couldn't decide, so he pledged multiple fraternities, and he got
in trouble for it was all in front of the
I think the dean of academic Affairs or student affairs,
and said, hey, you can only pledge one fraternity, and
Franz said, how can I pick one? They're all such interesting,
great guys. While he was in college, he was a
(12:14):
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 about nineteen twenty seven when he decided to
(12:36):
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
(12:56):
professional theater, professional directing, professional action, and more importantly, professional scriptwriting.
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
(13:18):
the next big thing, what he thought was the next
big 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
(13:40):
with 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,
(14:05):
and 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. We are told by
(14:26):
the opposition that we must have a change, that we
must have a new news. 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,
(14:46):
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, they became his dependent. So by
nineteen thirty two, you know, he was supporting a dozen
family members, his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. They were
(15:09):
all 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 into other markets. I think of the early days
of streaming services now where everyone was scrambling to get content.
Same thing in nineteen thirty two. All these radio stations
needed content to be performed live, and Striker was mailing
out these scripts kind of cold call mail amount cold
(15:55):
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 would try to
hit the key, strike the keys as hard as he
could to get two or three copies out of one
(16:15):
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 room
still typing up the script to how the show would end,
and so he'd had one eye on the keyboard and
(16:36):
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, you know,
these early days of radio, 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. Now, one
(17:00):
of the radio stations that bought his scripts was WXYZ
out of Detroit, and the first 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
(17:24):
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 3 (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 masked rider,
the rustler, the girl tied to the railroad tracks, two
gun bank robber. Can you write something like that? And
so Striker thought, of course I can. So he dug
(19:39):
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.
(20:00):
It's a debate where the Ranger came from. 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 and he stole
(20:25):
a Confederate horse, according to legend, and wrote it out
to the Oklahoma Territory. Oklahoma Territory during the Civil 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
(20:47):
Creek and the Seminole tribes and that's when he learned
how to shoot. And again this is tall tales, but
they said that he was good with either hand with
rifle or pistol and shoot the hind leg off of
a fly from one hundred yards away. But once the
Emancipation Proclamation was announced, bass Reeves was made a US marshal,
(21:09):
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 of being someone who was
for the common people, the everyday folks, and he thought
(21:30):
it was a sacred duty to protect him from these outlaws.
And he would occasionally wear 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.
(21:55):
He would throw silver dollars. 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 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 write
(22:17):
out of town, he would just throw the silver dollar
to whoever would find it. 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
(22:39):
I said, at an early age, was a 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 2 (22:56):
Well, there were many others whose criminal plans were to'll
be challenged the Lone Ranger, his peaceful Indian companion Tottle,
and his great horse Silver.
Speaker 3 (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. And then
(23:29):
they took it to Detroit. 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
(23:50):
Bakery came on board, there 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.
(24:12):
Part of the appeal of 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. And here comes a fictional character on the
(24:33):
radio who 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. They wanted
someone that to ride into their lives, you know, restore
(24:53):
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 had been searching for gold
(25:13):
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 the prospector was the one who
(25:34):
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, and Striker always went out of his
way to make sure that the Lone Ranger always repped
(26:00):
presented goodness, always conducted himself in a moral way. He
made the decision early on that unlike Bass Reeves, he
would never kill anybody. He would only shoot to wound
and shoot in self defense. And he actually wrote out
the criteria for the Lone Ranger's behavior. Once it got
so big that he had staff writers working for.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
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 carrious 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 smut, and 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 of the book yesteryear again,
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. When we last left off, George W.
(28:03):
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
(28:23):
a peculiar and enticing offer from George Trendall. Let's return
to the story.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
And this has been described by Striker'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 that 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, Striker
(29:40):
had to sell Trendle all rights to the Lone Ranger
for ten dollars. So Striker was torn. 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
(30:01):
that this is a potential money maker. On the other hand,
Striker had all these models he had to feed. He
couldn't turn down the author It was just too much
for him to pass on. And I think perhaps the
best explanation of why Striker did this is in the
(30:25):
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 4 (30:40):
I believe 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 3 (30:51):
God gives you firewood, but you need to gather it.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
That this government of the people, by the people, and
for the people, shall live always.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And taking care of nature, which goes right back to
Striker's childhood.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
In My Creator, My Country, My Fellow Man.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
One 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 he signed
the rights away for ten dollars. One of the tenants
(31:33):
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.
(31:54):
The Lone Ranger becomes this national phenomenon. 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
(32:18):
by that point, The Lone 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. They had the creed. But
what happened was the quality of writing dropped off so
(32:41):
much after Striker's brief absence that the sponsors for the
various shows that he was writing pressured Trundle 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. About this time in the
(33:03):
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. It was his
idea of the Lone Ranger, not Strikers. And like anything else,
if you repeat a line long enough, people believe it,
(33:25):
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 creator producer of The Lone Ranger,
Green Hornet, Sergeant Press in the Yukon, etc. And even
(33:47):
the last movie with Johnny Depp. If you stay until
the credits roll at the end, you'll see based on
the characters created by George W. Trendall. There was even
a story circulating that Striker wasn't brought in to work
on the Lone Ranger scripts until after it had aired.
(34:12):
The Striker handled all this with grace, and 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
(34:32):
handled it with grace. When he was asked in private
by his friends or family, he would say that, well,
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
(34:56):
continued to work for Trendall up until the Low Ranger
lights were sold for three million dollars, which is a
record sale at that time, and of course, you know,
the money all went to Trendle. I think it did
bother Striker. It had to. Striker really did give his
(35:19):
all and cared about the Ranger and felt a responsibility
to 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
(35:40):
years old, and he didn't live long enough to write
his memoirs and tell his side of the story. And
I think that premature death and his not writing his
autobiography gave life to the lie because it could it
continued really to this day. I think the Lone Ranger
(36:05):
is an iconic American hero and figure. I think he
is recognized by everybody worldwide. He is an enduring, bankable
media star. Striker. 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
(36:26):
doesn't have the notoriety. He's not acknowledged. 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. That was the only two scripts
he ever wrote, just on those two creations, and deserves
(36:47):
a place as one of the most influential and successful
radio drama scriptwriters. His accomplishments 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
(37:09):
television to film, to books to comic books. 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 Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to
author thieven 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. Take it Away.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Stephen, with his faithful Indian companion Tuntle, the daring, unresourceful,
(01:02):
masked writer 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 3 (01:26):
George W. 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. He had a shrewd mind,
a keen sense of business acumen and really a good
(01:49):
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 were dark,
they were kind of smoky and cramped uncomfortable wooden chairs,
(02:15):
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.
But Trundle was drawn to them because he thought he
could make money from them. He saw this as something
(02:35):
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
numbered because people would want to go and watch these
longer feature films and something more comfortable, and so he
(02:59):
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
up to go watch the movies in a comfortable setting,
totally different than what the Nickelodeons were. By the end
(03:19):
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
stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine, and he insisted
(03:39):
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 networth drop from three million
dollars to about a quarter of a million dollars. I'm
still very well off, but his finances were going in
(04:00):
the wrong direction and he was looking for something to
invest in, to make cash, to make money quickly. And
radio was growing following don IoT. Radio was quite different
than it is today. Radio was the fastest growing medium
(04:24):
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 your little hometown. The radio stations had full
(04:45):
in house orchestras that would play between shows, to introduce shows,
to set the mood during radio dramas. Radio stations had
their own theatrical troops, you know, their own performing artists,
their own radio actors that would perform locally produced talent.
(05:06):
And 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 w XYZ, the last word in Radio.
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
(05:54):
and say, you're going to have to take a pay cut.
I mean, look how bad the radio station's doing. Take
a pay cut. I'm gonna have to fire you. I
have to let you go, 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
(06:14):
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 gratus for 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
(06:37):
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 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
(07:00):
decision that made him pivot away from that nationally syndicated
broadcasting to locally produce broadcasting. And that's when his life
in France 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.
And if you can't cut 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
(08:10):
with our American Stories and 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
(08:32):
because of this that he'd become acquainted with a little
known station manager and scriptwriter out of New York named
Franz Striker. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's funny. 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.
(09:09):
And I looked it up. I googled it, and sure enough,
he was a Buffalo guy. 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
(09:31):
few blocks north of me. And then I dug some
more and I thought, not only did he create the
Lone Ranger, he also created the Green Hornet.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The biggest of all game public enemies that even the
team men cannot REACHA.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And sergeant precedent of the Yukon, the Challenge of the Yukon.
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
(10:05):
doesn't know his name. The Ranger was 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
(10:27):
last ninety years. And then I 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. Striker was just the opposite.
(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.
He knew he wanted to be in one, but he
(11:54):
couldn't decide, so he pledged multiple fraternities, and he got
in trouble for it was all in front of the
I think the dean of academic Affairs or student affairs,
and said, hey, you can only pledge one fraternity, and
Franz said, how can I pick one? They're all such interesting,
great guys. While he was in college, he was a
(12:14):
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 about nineteen twenty seven when he decided to
(12:36):
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
(12:56):
professional theater, professional directing, professional action, and more importantly, professional scriptwriting.
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
(13:18):
the next big thing, what he thought was the next
big 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
(13:40):
with 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,
(14:05):
and 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. We are told by
(14:26):
the opposition that we must have a change, that we
must have a new news. 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,
(14:46):
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, they became his dependent. So by
nineteen thirty two, you know, he was supporting a dozen
family members, his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. They were
(15:09):
all 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 into other markets. I think of the early days
of streaming services now where everyone was scrambling to get content.
Same thing in nineteen thirty two. All these radio stations
needed content to be performed live, and Striker was mailing
out these scripts kind of cold call mail amount cold
(15:55):
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 would try to
hit the key, strike the keys as hard as he
could to get two or three copies out of one
(16:15):
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 room
still typing up the script to how the show would end,
and so he'd had one eye on the keyboard and
(16:36):
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, you know,
these early days of radio, 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. Now, one
(17:00):
of the radio stations that bought his scripts was WXYZ
out of Detroit, and the first 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
(17:24):
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 3 (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 masked rider,
the rustler, the girl tied to the railroad tracks, two
gun bank robber. Can you write something like that? And
so Striker thought, of course I can. So he dug
(19:39):
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.
(20:00):
It's a debate where the Ranger came from. 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 and he stole
(20:25):
a Confederate horse, according to legend, and wrote it out
to the Oklahoma Territory. Oklahoma Territory during the Civil 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
(20:47):
Creek and the Seminole tribes and that's when he learned
how to shoot. And again this is tall tales, but
they said that he was good with either hand with
rifle or pistol and shoot the hind leg off of
a fly from one hundred yards away. But once the
Emancipation Proclamation was announced, bass Reeves was made a US marshal,
(21:09):
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 of being someone who was
for the common people, the everyday folks, and he thought
(21:30):
it was a sacred duty to protect him from these outlaws.
And he would occasionally wear 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.
(21:55):
He would throw silver dollars. 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 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 write
(22:17):
out of town, he would just throw the silver dollar
to whoever would find it. 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
(22:39):
I said, at an early age, was a 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 2 (22:56):
Well, there were many others whose criminal plans were to'll
be challenged the Lone Ranger, his peaceful Indian companion Tottle,
and his great horse Silver.
Speaker 3 (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. And then
(23:29):
they took it to Detroit. 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
(23:50):
Bakery came on board, there 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.
(24:12):
Part of the appeal of 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. And here comes a fictional character on the
(24:33):
radio who 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. They wanted
someone that to ride into their lives, you know, restore
(24:53):
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 had been searching for gold
(25:13):
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 the prospector was the one who
(25:34):
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, and Striker always went out of his
way to make sure that the Lone Ranger always repped
(26:00):
presented goodness, always conducted himself in a moral way. He
made the decision early on that unlike Bass Reeves, he
would never kill anybody. He would only shoot to wound
and shoot in self defense. And he actually wrote out
the criteria for the Lone Ranger's behavior. Once it got
so big that he had staff writers working for.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
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 carrious 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 smut, and 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 of the book yesteryear again,
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. When we last left off, George W.
(28:03):
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
(28:23):
a peculiar and enticing offer from George Trendall. Let's return
to the story.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
And this has been described by Striker'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 that 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, Striker
(29:40):
had to sell Trendle all rights to the Lone Ranger
for ten dollars. So Striker was torn. 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
(30:01):
that this is a potential money maker. On the other hand,
Striker had all these models he had to feed. He
couldn't turn down the author It was just too much
for him to pass on. And I think perhaps the
best explanation of why Striker did this is in the
(30:25):
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 4 (30:40):
I believe 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 3 (30:51):
God gives you firewood, but you need to gather it.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
That this government of the people, by the people, and
for the people, shall live always.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And taking care of nature, which goes right back to
Striker's childhood.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
In My Creator, My Country, My Fellow Man.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
One 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 he signed
the rights away for ten dollars. One of the tenants
(31:33):
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.
(31:54):
The Lone Ranger becomes this national phenomenon. 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
(32:18):
by that point, The Lone 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. They had the creed. But
what happened was the quality of writing dropped off so
(32:41):
much after Striker's brief absence that the sponsors for the
various shows that he was writing pressured Trundle 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. About this time in the
(33:03):
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. It was his
idea of the Lone Ranger, not Strikers. And like anything else,
if you repeat a line long enough, people believe it,
(33:25):
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 creator producer of The Lone Ranger,
Green Hornet, Sergeant Press in the Yukon, etc. And even
(33:47):
the last movie with Johnny Depp. If you stay until
the credits roll at the end, you'll see based on
the characters created by George W. Trendall. There was even
a story circulating that Striker wasn't brought in to work
on the Lone Ranger scripts until after it had aired.
(34:12):
The Striker handled all this with grace, and 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
(34:32):
handled it with grace. When he was asked in private
by his friends or family, he would say that, well,
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
(34:56):
continued to work for Trendall up until the Low Ranger
lights were sold for three million dollars, which is a
record sale at that time, and of course, you know,
the money all went to Trendle. I think it did
bother Striker. It had to. Striker really did give his
(35:19):
all and cared about the Ranger and felt a responsibility
to 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
(35:40):
years old, and he didn't live long enough to write
his memoirs and tell his side of the story. And
I think that premature death and his not writing his
autobiography gave life to the lie because it could it
continued really to this day. I think the Lone Ranger
(36:05):
is an iconic American hero and figure. I think he
is recognized by everybody worldwide. He is an enduring, bankable
media star. Striker. 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
(36:26):
doesn't have the notoriety. He's not acknowledged. 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. That was the only two scripts
he ever wrote, just on those two creations, and deserves
(36:47):
a place as one of the most influential and successful
radio drama scriptwriters. His accomplishments 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
(37:09):
television to film, to books to comic books. 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 Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to
author thieven 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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