Tonto and the Lone Ranger are fictional characters that have enjoyed multiple creative expressions. The Lone Ranger first appeared on WXYZ radio in Detroit in 1933. Tonto first appears in episode eleven. His part on the radio program was voiced by John Todd over the next twenty-one years. A book series followed along with movies, TV and comic books. Lone Ranger films cast various actors as Tonto, most recently Disney cast a dead crow wearing Johnny Depp in the role. For most of us though Tonto is personified by Jay Silverheels, who played the character through the long running TV series opposite Clayton Moore.

The origin of the relationship between Tonto and the masked man comes in two versions. By the original radio script Tonto was to be the fall guy in a mine swindle murder scheme foiled by the Lone Ranger. In the later version, Tonto comes upon a band of Texas Rangers ambushed and left for dead by the Butch Cavendish gang. Five rangers are indeed dead. One clings to life. Tonto nurses him back to health. They dig a sixth grave and the Lone Ranger dons his mask. Way better than the original, that story stuck.

Radio Tonto rode a horse named White Fella. Republic Pictures cast the horse as a paint in 1938, thinking two white horses confusing. It worked. White Fella became a paint, called Scout. Tonto had some Native American detractors for pidgin English some found demeaning. Somebody always does.

With all due respect to all those other fine actors who played the part, Jay Silverheels owns the character. A Mohawk, Silverheels was born Harold Preston Smith in Canada on Indian land near Hagersville Ontario. An accomplished Lacrosse player, his Silverheels stage name is adapted from his Lacrosse nickname. His film career played support to some of the brightest lights in feature film in the fifties and sixties; but the role that defined his career is sidekick to, “Who was that masked man?”

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Ride easy,
Paul