Fran Striker - script writer for the Lone Ranger serials

(details from an article by J. Brian III)

Fran Striker was a free-lance script writer from Buffalo, who had done a series called Warner Lester, Manhunter, which WXYZ had already used and liked. On the strength of it, owner, George Trendle, telephoned Striker and told him what he had in mind for his new Western drama serial. Striker took it from there.

The Lone Ranger's Appearance

Striker began by visualizing the Ranger as just over six feet tall and weighing around 190 pounds - a good working build for a Western hero. Such a man, riding a super-horse with silver shoes, would naturally have the finest possible equipment; ivory-handled guns, for instance. The silver shoes reminded Striker of a former series in which he had identified Robin Hood by silver-tipped arrows, so he gave the Ranger silver bullets for the same purpose. Bullets and shoes dictated the super-horse's name: Silver. 

Hi-Yo

As a final identification, Striker groped around for a special call that the Ranger could use when he wanted Silver to come or to gallop off, "Yippy!" and "Git-up!" were commonplace. Besides, the last syllable had to be a long one, so that the actor could sustain it, "Hi-Yi, Silver! Awa-a-ay!" was close to the idea; Striker wasn't satisfied with it, but he let it go through.

The signature to the first script was: "Come along, Silver! ... That's the boy! ... Hi-yi! (hearty laugh) ... Now cut loose, and awa-a-ay! (Hoofs pounding harder and fade-out)."

Striker's Ranger was a happy-go-lucky swashbuckler who laughed at the discomfited crooks as he rode off. Trendle saw him as a sterner character, "the embodiment," in his own phrase, "of granted prayer." So presently all suggestions of humour were erased; the Ranger never smiled again. Trendle didn't like the "Hi-yi," either. For days after the unofficial broadcast, the staff galloped around the studio shouting "Hi-Yo!" and "Hi-Yi!" History does not preserve the name of the genius who finally evolved "Hi-Yo!"

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In order to develop the plots, the Lone Ranger needed someone to talk to and  someone who could ferret out evidence of wrongdoing and present it for action. In other words, he needed a side-kick. 

Striker knew that the kids who were the target audience wouldn't stand for any of the "mushy stuff" that went with a female off-sider, so his solution was to create a loyal Indian companion. For a name, he went back to another of his old serials, a mystery which had featured a semi-savage named Gobo. He juggled the vowels around with a fresh set of consonants, and that's how Tonto was born. 

The Wholesome Nature of the Scripts

Striker's script conventions were based on simple psychology and common sense.

None of the dramatic action could have occurred in the home. Indians might attack, cattle might stampede, a bridge might collapse, but there was never a prowler.

Physical handicaps were mentioned only when they were vital to the plot and then only briefly. Striker said he always pictured a person similarly handicapped listening to the program in company - if he thought that person might be embarrassed or uncomfortable with what was presented, he cut it out of the script.

It goes without saying that the Ranger didn't drink, gamble or smoke. Villains sometimes did; they could also shoot to kill, but the actual killing was never dramatized. Either the shot came at the end of a scene, or it was immediately followed by a burst of music.

Villains were allowed to snarl, "You rat!" (or "snake," or "polecat"), but neither the Ranger nor Tonto ever used such language!

Legal Considerations

With one eye on the possibility of lawsuits, villains were never given surnames -  so they had to take turns with Muggsy, Butch, Scar, Slim, Pete and Lefty. 

The morning after Striker had some Mexicans raid an American farm, he got a sharp protest from the Mexican consul in Detroit. Thereafter all villains were Americans or, as a compromise, half-breeds. Here, too, a form reply soothed irate patriots: "One criminal is never considered representative of his race or races."

Bloopers

When the station repeated a number of episodes on the Ranger's sixth anniversary,  the Ranger and Tonto were together when they found Silver in the first episode. In the second, the Ranger was riding Silver when he met Tonto. No one noticed the blunder. 

Another that slipped by was "Hark! I hear a white horse coming!" 

The oddest blunder of all seems to have startled the audience too much to question it: the screech of an automobile siren was heard right in mid-program. Tonto, resting between scenes, had put his feet up on a horn box used in the previous program.

Striker's Literary Output

Striker wrote 60,000 words a week every week - the equivalent of the Bible every three months. The cumulative birth pangs of the 10,000 different characters he has spawned shattered four typewriters.

His 156 Lone Ranger scripts a year, plus 365 Lone Ranger cartoon strips, plus twelve Lone Ranger novels, plus editing the movie versions, plus his tremendous correspondence, account for two thirds of his output. He also wrote 104 Green Hornet scripts and fifty-two Ned Jordan, Secret Agent scripts a year for WXYZ. His working day was fourteen hours and he was paid $10,000 a year, or around a third of a cent a word.

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