I'm so very grateful to Rachel C., who wrote the first review of this character/actor, because I didn't know that one could write a review of anything other than places to eat and places to sleep on YELP. So, now that she's "educated me," I'll add my own 2¢ to this page.
The television series is one year older than I am, because it premiered in 1948 (in TV's infancy), while I didn't make my own "debut" until 1949. The radio series began in 1933 at WXYZ in Detroit, the brainchild of George W. Trendle Sr. (the station owner) and staff writer Fran Striker, who wrote most of the radio plays.
When I moved to Honolulu, Hawaii (1981) and joined Mensa® in 1986, I had the honor of meeting (and becoming friends with) George W. Trendle Jr. (also a Mensa® member), the son of one of The Lone Ranger creators and the person who, as a retired attorney today, owns the exclusive rights to THE GREEN HORNET character, who is Britt Reid, the great-grandnephew of John Reid (The Lone Ranger's true name).
I grew up listening to the Ranger's adventures on radio and later, the television series (plus 2 major motion pictures) and the one reason that this character was slightly more popular with me than Superman, was because he solved crimes and captured "the bad guys" using only his wits and his superior fighting abilities. In short, he was a normal human being just like me, who could not see through walls (nor fly through them).
The character was (and still is!) as the late FBI Director John Edgar Hoover once said, "The single greatest force for good, in the United States of America!" I agree.
But here is another thing that the character taught all of us kids who "came of age" in the 1940s, 50s and 60s: It is perfectly OK to have a best friend who is NOT of your own race.
Because of the influence of The Lone Ranger and Tonto on my youthful mind, I matured knowing that regardless of skin color or ethnicity, "There is only ONE RACE, and it is the HUMAN race."
On June 15, 2013, one of my very best friends astounded me by presenting me with "THE LONE RANGER COLLECTOR'S EDITION," (UPC: 0-37117-07053-4), which he purchased at Best Buy®.
I now have all 221 TV episodes of the Clayton Moore (& John Hart) series, plus both movies that starred Clayton Moore, along with all kinds of information about the character, its origins and little-known facts that I can share with others.
For those who have small children, this is a character to whom your kids need to be introduced and exposed.
His adventures, 80 years later, are truly wholesome fun for everyone! read more