The P.A. and I got into a discussion about the recent Knight Rider Festival 2010. Yeah, the show that launched a 1000 heartaches over some former soap star turned prime time hunk – mixed with enough geek stuff to get us guys away from the Pong games. Ooops… showing my age a bit too much.
The event started with a character playing the Lone Ranger riding down the Fremont Street Experience. He was riding a Palomino horse that wasn’t too cool about media cameras getting into his face. This Lone Ranger to Michael Knight was a bit of a stretch, but I can understand the symbolism, she could not. That wasn’t the argument.
The argument was on the horse. For whatever reason, I thought he rode a Palomino. She said he rode a white horse. Surprising enough…. The P.A. knew the correct answer to a TV trivia question… A first I am sure.. The Lone Ranger rode a white horse. Tonto rode a paint palomino named Scout.
What was interesting was the trip down memory lane in researching the answer. I never knew how the whole story started and found it a bit interesting. Including the part about how they financed themselves. How many shows reveal that little piece of information??
According to Wiki Entertainment:
Though there have been several variations of the Lone Ranger’s origin over the years, the basic story has remained the same.
Six Texas Rangers, including brothers Dan and John Reid, were tracking a gang of desperadoes led by the notorious Butch Cavendish. Led by a tracker named Collins, who was actually a member of the Cavendish gang, the Rangers were lured into a canyon called Bryant’s Gap, and ambushed. Except for young John Reid, they were all slaughtered.
Reid managed to crawl to safety near a water hole where he was later found and nursed back to health by a friendly Indian named Tonto. Tonto remembered Reid, who had once saved Tonto himself. “You Kemosabe,” said Tonto; “it mean ‘trusty scout.’” Tonto now vowed to stay with him as the “lone” Ranger vowed to avenge the deaths of his brother and their comrades.
Six graves were left to hide the fact that one man lived to fight. Realizing that if his identity were known, he would be a marked man, Reid had Tonto make a mask from the vest of his dead bother. The Lone Ranger now needed a mount. Remembering a magnificent wild white stallion he had once seen, the Lone Ranger and Tonto set off for the Valley of Horses. They found the stallion wounded and about to be gored to death by a wild buffalo and the Lone Ranger was forced to kill the buffalo. Tonto and the Lone Ranger nurse the horse back to health. Time goes by and the horse is up and running around. “It’s a magnificent animal,” the Ranger tells Tonto. “It reflects like silver from the sun” Tonto says. “Silver” says the Ranger, “that’s what we’ll call him. Silver. Here Silver, come here big fellow.” The horse starts to run away but there’s something in the Lone Ranger’s voice that draws him back and to the ranger’s side. The Lone Ranger then begins the training process and soon, he’s riding Silver while Tonto rides his horse, Scout.
After this has been accomplished, the Ranger tells Tonto it’s time to see an old friend of his named Jim, a retired Texas Ranger, who knows about a silver mine that the Reid brothers owned and operated. The Lone Ranger, Tonto and Jim ride to the old silver mine. There the Lone Ranger asks Jim to work the mine for him so he and Tonto will have spending money and then asks Jim for something unusual. “Jim, I want you to make for me silver bullets” the Ranger says. “Silver?” Jim asks. “Why in the world would you want silver bullets?” The Ranger explains that the silver bullets will be a symbol of justice. “Say, that’s a great idea” Jim says. “I can make them right here in this mine.”
And for you Hoff Fans,… Here is a picture of the modern day Lone Ranger…
