February 28, 2022

THE LONE RANGER "The Silver Colt"

22 minutes

Aired in syndication around July 19, 1954. The Lone Ranger was played by several actors:

John L. Barrett, on test broadcasts on WEBR in January 1933;

George Seaton (under the name George Stenius) (January 31 – May 9, 1933);

Series director James Jewell, for one episode;

An actor known only by the pseudonym "Jack Deeds", for one episode;

Earle Graser (May 16, 1933 – April 7, 1941). On April 8, Graser died in a car accident; and, for five episodes, the Lone Ranger was unable to speak beyond a whisper, with Tonto carrying the action. In addition, six episodes broadcast in August 1938 did not include the Lone Ranger's voice other than an occasional "Hi-Yo Silver!" in the background.[28] In those episodes, Tonto carried the dialog;

Brace Beemer (April 18, 1941 to the end), who had been the show's deep-voiced announcer for several years;

Fred Foy (March 29, 1954), also an announcer on the show, took over the role for one broadcast when Beemer had laryngitis.

Tonto was played throughout the run by actor John Todd (although in a few isolated occasions, he was replaced by Roland Parker, better known as Kato for much of the run of sister series The Green Hornet). Other supporting players were selected from Detroit area actors and studio staff. These included Jay Michael (who also played the lead on Challenge of the Yukon, or Sgt. Preston of the Yukon), Bill Saunders (as various villains, including Butch Cavendish), Paul Hughes (as the Ranger's friend Thunder Martin and as various army colonels and badmen), future movie star John Hodiak, Janka Fasciszewska (under the name Jane Fae), and Rube Weiss and Liz Weiss (later a married couple, both actors in several radio and television programs in Detroit, Rube usually taking on villain roles on the "Ranger", and Liz playing damsels in distress). The part of nephew Dan Reid was played by various child actors, including Bob Martin, James Lipton, and Dick Beals.

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