August 12, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, The Lone Ranger, with his cry of “Hi-Ho Silver!” has become an American institution ranking with Paul Bunyan in the realms of folklore and legend. The History Guy remembers Bass Reeves, John Reynolds Hughes, and forgotten history of the Wild West.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who is simply known as
the History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of
thousands of people of all ages on YouTube. The History
Guy is also a regular contributor here on our American Stories.
The Lone Ranger with his cry of Hio Silver has
become an American institution, ranking up there with Paul Bunyan
(00:34):
in the realm of folklore and legend. Here's the History
Guy with the fascinating story behind the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The world, it seems, enjoys a good Western. Movies about
the American Wild West were the most popular genre in
Hollywood from the early beginning of film through the nineteen sixties,
and the genre of Western was being used to scribe
films as early as nineteen twelve. Stories in the American
West have been popular across a number of genres, from
books and comic books to film and radio. Wild West adventures,
(01:08):
usually featuring cowboys and gunslingers, have gained worldwide popularity, as
popular in Europe and Asia. It seems as they are
in the nation where they supposedly happen, But the Western
as an entertainment genre only rarely depicts the reality of
life from the American frontier, and the intersection of fiction
and reality offers an interesting glimpse into both the world
of the entertainment viewer and the real Western pioneer. And
(01:31):
there is a great example of that in one of
the most popular of the fictional Western heroes and the
little known real Western lawmen, who were the closest thing
to the Hollywood legend. So return to us now to
those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out to the past,
come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver I Life.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The Lone Ranger arrives again. The Lone Ranger first wrote
into the hearts and minds of listeners courtesy Detroit area
radio station w x y Z, with the title role
voiced by actor George Seaton, who later won two Academy
Awards for screenwriting and said that he invented the famous catphrase,
Hi Oh Silver because he couldn't whistle. W XYZ aired
(02:20):
over three thousand radio episodes of the show, featuring a
Texas ranger who fought outlaws accompanied by his faithful Indian
companion Tanto. According to the story, The Lone Ranger was
one of six Texas Rangers who were caught in an
ambush by the despicable Butch Cavendish gang. Later, a friendly
Indian appears upon the scene and finds that one of
the Rangers has survived. Tanto buries the dead Rangers, but
(02:43):
makes six grave markers to hide the fact that one survived.
He then nurses the injured Ranger back to health. The
Rangers forced to wear a mask conceals identity since he
was supposed to have died as he fights for justice
against Butch Cavendage and his gang. The show was a
classic Western and was popular partly because of the Rangers'
strict moral code, which represented American values at the time
(03:06):
and included phrases like to have a friend, a man
must be one, and all things change but truth, and
that truth alone lives on forever. He only used silver
bullets because they reminded him that life is precious and,
like the bullets, shouldn't be wasted. Along with the radio show,
The Lone Rangers spurred two film serials in the nineteen thirties.
(03:27):
A popular television show that ran over two hundred and
twenty episodes between nineteen forty nine and nineteen fifty seven,
two different cartoon series, a newspaper comic strip that ran
for more than thirty years, dozens of adventure novels and
comic books, a video game, and hundreds of various toys,
and seven feature films. And, in one of the lesser
(03:47):
known connections, The Lone Ranger spawned a popular spinoff property
wherein according to the original radio program, Dan, the Lone
Ranger's nephew, who appeared in both the radio show and
on television, had a son who again took on the
role of bass crime fighter as the Green Hornet. But
the popular fictional character raises a question, was there a
(04:07):
real Lone Ranger. The answer is possibly. In nineteen fifteen,
novelist Zane Gray wrote a novel called The Lone Star Ranger,
which itself was adapted for four different feature films. The
character in the novel is fictional, but the novel was
dedicated to a real Texas Ranger named John Reynolds Hughes.
Hughes was known as one of the most effective of
(04:29):
the Texas Rangers, and notably when another Texas Ranger captain
was killed in an ambush, Hughes, one of the Rangers'
best trackers, relentlessly pursued the gang that had committed the ambush,
somewhat like the story told in The Lone Ranger. While
he was a rancher in Travis County, Texas, Hughes had
tracked down a group that had stolen horses from his
and other ranches. After the attention of the Texas Rangers,
(04:51):
who recruited him, he served as a Ranger for twenty
eight years, the Texas Rangers longest serving member. Well Hughes
certainly in inspired saying Gray, who had traveled with him.
It is less clear that he inspired the Lone Ranger,
but his was certainly a story of a dedicated Texas Ranger.
But when talking about the Lone Ranger, there's another story
(05:11):
as well, that of Lawman bass Reeves, who was, according
to one biographer, the closest real person to resemble the
Lone Ranger. Bass Reeves was born a slave in eighteen
thirty eight, and, as was common at the time, took
the last name of his owner. Sometime in the early
eighteen sixties, he parted ways with that owner, some say
because he had a fight with his owner after a
(05:32):
card game, and others credit talk of freeing the slaves
during the Civil War, but for whatever reason, Reeves escaped
slavery and went to live in Indian Territory modern day Oklahoma,
living among Cherokee, Seminole, and Creek Indians and learning about
the territory and many of the people's languages. He became
a crack shot with both a pistol and a rifle.
(05:52):
After the war, when the Thirteenth Minute passed and he
no longer had a fear being returned to slavery, he
moved to Arkansas, where he became a successful rancher and
had ten children. Indian Territory was notoriously lawless, and many
outlaws fled there to escape justice. In eighteen seventy five,
President Grant appointed a new judge of the US Court
for the Western District of Arkansas with the goal of
(06:13):
addressing lawlessness in the Indian Territory. The judge then appointed
a former Confederate general as the new U. S. Marshal,
who then hired two hundred deputy U. S. Marshals, some
of whom were among the most famous lawmen of the West.
Having heard of Reef's knowledge of the Indian territory and
familiarity with its people. The new Marshal hired him as
one of those deputies. Bass Rheves became the first black
(06:36):
deputy U S. Marshal west of the Mississippi. He served
for more than thirty years and in that time arrested
more than three thousand outlaws. He survived numerous gunfights, even
having his belt and hat shot off, but never once
took a bullet. He was one of the most feared
and respected lawmen of the territory. He was known for
dressing fastidiously and for wearing two Colt pistols with the
(06:58):
butts pace forward for a quick as was common for
many Americans of the time and certainly former slaves. He
never received a formal education and so never learned to
read and write. Before he went on patrols, which could
take months at a time, he would have someone read
the outstanding warrants to him, which he could recite from memory.
At first reason seem nothing like the Lone Ranger. He
(07:20):
wasn't even a Texas Ranger and was never shot, more
or less nurse back to health by a faithful Indian companion.
But deputies in the Indian territory, would often travel only
accompanied by a posse member who would be a Native American.
Although he was most known for riding a red stallion
with a white blaze that highly resembled Tanto's horse Scout
from the Lone Ranger television series, he was also known
(07:41):
to ride a white horse, and while he did not
wear a mask, he was known to use disguises when
capturing outlaws. It is not hard to see how this
dedicated lawman traveling alone with his Indian companion catching the
bad guys could be seen as as one biography described him,
the closest real person to resemble the Lone Ranger. In
the end, there's no compelling evidence that either John Reynolds
(08:03):
Hughes or Bass Reeves directly inspired the creation of the
radio character. The creators of The Lone Ranger in fact
indicated that the character was inspired not by real lawmen,
but by Robin Hood and the Western actor Tom Mix.
But both Hughes and Reeves certainly bore some resemblance to
the legendary masked hero and remind us that the lone
lawman to spensing justice on a wild frontier is not
(08:25):
completely a fabrication. Of the entertainment industry. There were, in fact,
some actual good guys in the wild West, even if
they did not always wear a white hat. It is
telling that Hughes and Reeves were somewhat similar stories. Both
had spent time and largely when the skill that served
them in the Indian territory. Both had been successful ranchers,
where they developed a vested interest in protecting the people
(08:47):
settling the frontier from lawlessness. Both served long and distinguished
careers in law enforcement, part of the special breed that
bridged the gap between the wild West and the modern era,
and both were true heroes, even though neither is nearly
as well known as the fictional Bone Ranger. Bass Reeves
died of kinney disease in nineteen ten at the age
of seventy one. John Hughes, in ill health and depressed
(09:10):
as all of his old friends had passed away, treachically
took his own life in nineteen forty seven. He was
ninety two.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And what a great job by the history guy. And
as is so often the case in fiction, it's often
a merger of fact and fiction, and it's hard for
anybody to remember a great story by the history guy.
Go and google his name and check out his work
on YouTube. The story of the man behind the mask,
the real Lone Ranger, exposed here on our American Stories
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who is simply known as
the History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of
thousands of people of all ages on YouTube. The History
Guy is also a regular contributor here on our American Stories.
The Lone Ranger with his cry of Hio Silver has
become an American institution, ranking up there with Paul Bunyan
(00:34):
in the realm of folklore and legend. Here's the History
Guy with the fascinating story behind the Lone Ranger.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The world, it seems, enjoys a good Western. Movies about
the American Wild West were the most popular genre in
Hollywood from the early beginning of film through the nineteen sixties,
and the genre of Western was being used to scribe
films as early as nineteen twelve. Stories in the American
West have been popular across a number of genres, from
books and comic books to film and radio. Wild West adventures,
(01:08):
usually featuring cowboys and gunslingers, have gained worldwide popularity, as
popular in Europe and Asia. It seems as they are
in the nation where they supposedly happen, But the Western
as an entertainment genre only rarely depicts the reality of
life from the American frontier, and the intersection of fiction
and reality offers an interesting glimpse into both the world
of the entertainment viewer and the real Western pioneer. And
(01:31):
there is a great example of that in one of
the most popular of the fictional Western heroes and the
little known real Western lawmen, who were the closest thing
to the Hollywood legend. So return to us now to
those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out to the past,
come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver I Life.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The Lone Ranger arrives again. The Lone Ranger first wrote
into the hearts and minds of listeners courtesy Detroit area
radio station w x y Z, with the title role
voiced by actor George Seaton, who later won two Academy
Awards for screenwriting and said that he invented the famous catphrase,
Hi Oh Silver because he couldn't whistle. W XYZ aired
(02:20):
over three thousand radio episodes of the show, featuring a
Texas ranger who fought outlaws accompanied by his faithful Indian
companion Tanto. According to the story, The Lone Ranger was
one of six Texas Rangers who were caught in an
ambush by the despicable Butch Cavendish gang. Later, a friendly
Indian appears upon the scene and finds that one of
the Rangers has survived. Tanto buries the dead Rangers, but
(02:43):
makes six grave markers to hide the fact that one survived.
He then nurses the injured Ranger back to health. The
Rangers forced to wear a mask conceals identity since he
was supposed to have died as he fights for justice
against Butch Cavendage and his gang. The show was a
classic Western and was popular partly because of the Rangers'
strict moral code, which represented American values at the time
(03:06):
and included phrases like to have a friend, a man
must be one, and all things change but truth, and
that truth alone lives on forever. He only used silver
bullets because they reminded him that life is precious and,
like the bullets, shouldn't be wasted. Along with the radio show,
The Lone Rangers spurred two film serials in the nineteen thirties.
(03:27):
A popular television show that ran over two hundred and
twenty episodes between nineteen forty nine and nineteen fifty seven,
two different cartoon series, a newspaper comic strip that ran
for more than thirty years, dozens of adventure novels and
comic books, a video game, and hundreds of various toys,
and seven feature films. And, in one of the lesser
(03:47):
known connections, The Lone Ranger spawned a popular spinoff property
wherein according to the original radio program, Dan, the Lone
Ranger's nephew, who appeared in both the radio show and
on television, had a son who again took on the
role of bass crime fighter as the Green Hornet. But
the popular fictional character raises a question, was there a
(04:07):
real Lone Ranger. The answer is possibly. In nineteen fifteen,
novelist Zane Gray wrote a novel called The Lone Star Ranger,
which itself was adapted for four different feature films. The
character in the novel is fictional, but the novel was
dedicated to a real Texas Ranger named John Reynolds Hughes.
Hughes was known as one of the most effective of
(04:29):
the Texas Rangers, and notably when another Texas Ranger captain
was killed in an ambush, Hughes, one of the Rangers'
best trackers, relentlessly pursued the gang that had committed the ambush,
somewhat like the story told in The Lone Ranger. While
he was a rancher in Travis County, Texas, Hughes had
tracked down a group that had stolen horses from his
and other ranches. After the attention of the Texas Rangers,
(04:51):
who recruited him, he served as a Ranger for twenty
eight years, the Texas Rangers longest serving member. Well Hughes
certainly in inspired saying Gray, who had traveled with him.
It is less clear that he inspired the Lone Ranger,
but his was certainly a story of a dedicated Texas Ranger.
But when talking about the Lone Ranger, there's another story
(05:11):
as well, that of Lawman bass Reeves, who was, according
to one biographer, the closest real person to resemble the
Lone Ranger. Bass Reeves was born a slave in eighteen
thirty eight, and, as was common at the time, took
the last name of his owner. Sometime in the early
eighteen sixties, he parted ways with that owner, some say
because he had a fight with his owner after a
(05:32):
card game, and others credit talk of freeing the slaves
during the Civil War, but for whatever reason, Reeves escaped
slavery and went to live in Indian Territory modern day Oklahoma,
living among Cherokee, Seminole, and Creek Indians and learning about
the territory and many of the people's languages. He became
a crack shot with both a pistol and a rifle.
(05:52):
After the war, when the Thirteenth Minute passed and he
no longer had a fear being returned to slavery, he
moved to Arkansas, where he became a successful rancher and
had ten children. Indian Territory was notoriously lawless, and many
outlaws fled there to escape justice. In eighteen seventy five,
President Grant appointed a new judge of the US Court
for the Western District of Arkansas with the goal of
(06:13):
addressing lawlessness in the Indian Territory. The judge then appointed
a former Confederate general as the new U. S. Marshal,
who then hired two hundred deputy U. S. Marshals, some
of whom were among the most famous lawmen of the West.
Having heard of Reef's knowledge of the Indian territory and
familiarity with its people. The new Marshal hired him as
one of those deputies. Bass Rheves became the first black
(06:36):
deputy U S. Marshal west of the Mississippi. He served
for more than thirty years and in that time arrested
more than three thousand outlaws. He survived numerous gunfights, even
having his belt and hat shot off, but never once
took a bullet. He was one of the most feared
and respected lawmen of the territory. He was known for
dressing fastidiously and for wearing two Colt pistols with the
(06:58):
butts pace forward for a quick as was common for
many Americans of the time and certainly former slaves. He
never received a formal education and so never learned to
read and write. Before he went on patrols, which could
take months at a time, he would have someone read
the outstanding warrants to him, which he could recite from memory.
At first reason seem nothing like the Lone Ranger. He
(07:20):
wasn't even a Texas Ranger and was never shot, more
or less nurse back to health by a faithful Indian companion.
But deputies in the Indian territory, would often travel only
accompanied by a posse member who would be a Native American.
Although he was most known for riding a red stallion
with a white blaze that highly resembled Tanto's horse Scout
from the Lone Ranger television series, he was also known
(07:41):
to ride a white horse, and while he did not
wear a mask, he was known to use disguises when
capturing outlaws. It is not hard to see how this
dedicated lawman traveling alone with his Indian companion catching the
bad guys could be seen as as one biography described him,
the closest real person to resemble the Lone Ranger. In
the end, there's no compelling evidence that either John Reynolds
(08:03):
Hughes or Bass Reeves directly inspired the creation of the
radio character. The creators of The Lone Ranger in fact
indicated that the character was inspired not by real lawmen,
but by Robin Hood and the Western actor Tom Mix.
But both Hughes and Reeves certainly bore some resemblance to
the legendary masked hero and remind us that the lone
lawman to spensing justice on a wild frontier is not
(08:25):
completely a fabrication. Of the entertainment industry. There were, in fact,
some actual good guys in the wild West, even if
they did not always wear a white hat. It is
telling that Hughes and Reeves were somewhat similar stories. Both
had spent time and largely when the skill that served
them in the Indian territory. Both had been successful ranchers,
where they developed a vested interest in protecting the people
(08:47):
settling the frontier from lawlessness. Both served long and distinguished
careers in law enforcement, part of the special breed that
bridged the gap between the wild West and the modern era,
and both were true heroes, even though neither is nearly
as well known as the fictional Bone Ranger. Bass Reeves
died of kinney disease in nineteen ten at the age
of seventy one. John Hughes, in ill health and depressed
(09:10):
as all of his old friends had passed away, treachically
took his own life in nineteen forty seven. He was
ninety two.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And what a great job by the history guy. And
as is so often the case in fiction, it's often
a merger of fact and fiction, and it's hard for
anybody to remember a great story by the history guy.
Go and google his name and check out his work
on YouTube. The story of the man behind the mask,
the real Lone Ranger, exposed here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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