Issue 126 March 1, 2019 Volume 31 No. 1 THE OFFICIAL CHRONICLE FOR THE LONE RANGER FAN CLUB MEMBERS HIGHLIGHTSHIGHLIGHTS ININ THISTHIS ISSUEISSUE Happy Spring! WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH! By: Nolan Greer Reporters and Contributers Page 2 in this Issue TONTO’S TALE Page 3 Nolan Greer—#652 [email protected] B-WESTERN-COWBOYS, TLR, AND “COWBOY CODES” Jeff Kepley - #721 [email protected] By: Dr. Jim Vickrey, Ph.D., J.D. Page 4 Steve Rosinski—# 496 Watch Party Producer IN SEARCH OF OUR LEGEND-THE LONE RANGER [email protected] By: Jeff Kepley Dr. Jim Vickrey, Ph.D., J.D. —#635 Page 9 [email protected] Steve White—#346 CHARACTER OVERVIEW EPISODES 3 [email protected] By: Steve White Page 12 Annie Little—#606 [email protected] HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR MEMBERS! The Lone Ranger Fan Club Page 14 [email protected] FROM THE EDITOR By: Annie Little Page16 OFFBEAT FACT By: TLRFC Page 17 Page 1 Issue 126 March 1, 2019 Volume 31 No. 1 Women’s History Month By: Nolan Greer TLRFC Member # 652 March is Women’s History Month. In honor of the 92 women who appeared on the NOLAN GREER Lone Ranger TV series, below are brief biographies of a few of these fantastic women. I am sure you will find their private lives very interesting. These have been excerpted from my new book, Women of the Lone Ranger Television Series. I hope you enjoy. Greta Granstedt LR Episode and character’s name: 1950 Outlaw Town (Edith Burke) 1950 Bad Medicine (Lucy Andrews) 1951 Two Gold Lockets (Mary Lindon) 1953 Sinner By Proxy (Mary Lambert) Born Greta Irene Granstedt on July 13, 1907 in Scandia, Kansas, she was also known as Eraine Grand, Elaine Grandstadt, or Elaine Grandstedt; she stood 5’1” and her parents were from Sweden. In 1922 at age 14 she shot her boyfriend Harold Galloway and was sent to reform school. After release, she was married 8 times including NYC mayor John O’Brien; had one adopted son, Christopher Michael. She modeled in San Francisco; was a Broadway star in New York City and retired in 1970 after appearing 117 times on Broadway, films and on TV from 1927 to 1964. She passed on October 7, 1987 at the age of 80 in Los Angeles. Some of her appearances: Three NYC Broadway plays (1934-Tomorrow’s Harvest, 1935-If a Body, 1937-Thirsty Soil); Perry Mason; Peter Gunn; Lassie; Loretta Young Show; Dragnet; Sky King; Buck Privates. She acted with: Alan Ladd, Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, Craig Stevens, Herschel Bernardi, Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Burl Ives, Kirk Douglas, Gene Barry, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Hedy Lamarr, and Victor Mature. Gail Davis LR Episode and character’s name: 1950 Buried Treasure (Edith Foster) 1950 Spanish Gold (Nora Spencer) 1951 Friend in Need (Ruth) 1952 Trial by Fire (Mary Webster) Gail was born Betty Jeanne Grayson in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 5, 1925, but she was often called “Bootsie” by her friends. She was 5’2” and under 100 pounds; her father was an Arkansas State Health Officer; she majored in dance and drama at U of Texas. Her name was changed by Gene Autry (they did 15 films together) and it was alleged that she had an affair with him for many years. She reportedly did all her own stunts. She was an avid swimmer, golfer, rodeo rider, and trick shot artist (her father taught her to shoot); and in 2004 she was installed in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth, Texas. She married 3 times and had one daughter (Terrie Davis in 1952). She has a Star on the Hollywood Page 2 Issue 126 March 1, 2019 Volume 31 No. 1 Walk of Fame (2/8/60) as the first woman to command the lead in a western TV series (Annie Oakley - 81 episodes 1954-7). Gail won a “Golden Boot” award in 1994 and even recorded children songs for Columbia Records. She died on March 15,1997 in Los Angeles from cancer. Some of her many appearances: Andy Griffith Show; Cisco Kid; Gene Autry TV show (15 times); Death Valley Days; and Kit Carson. She appeared 45 times until 1961. She acted with: Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Roy Rogers, Johnny Mack Brown,Stan Kenton, June Christy; Van Johnson, Janet Leigh, John Wayne, Patricia Neal, Ward Bond, Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Eddie Cantor, Joan Davis, Ann Southern, Allan Ladd, Danny Thomas, Ron Howard, James Garner, Fess Parker, Frances Bavier, Don Knotts, Ronald Reagan Wanda McKay LR Episode and character’s name: 1950 Paid in Full (Sue Craig) 1951 Trouble at Black Rock (Ella Neeley) 1952 Word of Honor (Nancy Hope) Dorothy Ellen Quackenbush was the birth name of Wanda McKay born on June 22, 1915 in Portland, Oregon. She attended grammar school in Portland, then moved to Fort Worth Texas where she graduated Fort Worth Polytechnic High School. She then moved to NYC where she became a model for many national magazines. She became the Chesterfield (cigarette) Girl in their national ad campaign; won Miss America Aviation; became a model for Trans-World Airline (TWA) in 1938. Wanda married Benjamin Wallace Roscoe III in 1941 and divorced in 1942. They had 1 child. On May 20 1977 she married Hoagy Carmichael until his death on December 27, 1981. She was chosen one of the most beautiful models in the country by NYC photographers. In 1940 hailed as the “most kissed girl in Hollywood” and was a guest of honor at the 1939 Miss America Pageant. After retiring from acting, she started a construction company in southern California building homes with her brother. Wanda died on April 11, 1996 in Rancho Mirage, California at age 80 of cancer. Some appearances: Ten Thousand Bedrooms; Range Rider; Cisco Kid; Kilroy was Here; The Deer Slayer; Law and Order; Virginia; and The Farmer’s Daughter. She had 59 appearances until 1957. She acted with: Martha Raye, Richard Denning, Fred MacMurray, Duncan Renaldo, Lana Turner, Fernando Lamas, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine. “We catch outlaws. Not do it for reward. Why Sheriff always offer us reward? We ride for justice and help make living safe for others - Me think that best reward. “ Tonto’s Tales Page 3 Issue 126 March 1, 2019 Volume 31 No. 1 B-Western-Cowboys, TLR, and “Cowboy Codes” By: Dr. Jim Vickrey, Ph.D., J.D. TLRFC MEMBER # 635 “Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality.” -- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), American divine. Dr. Jim Vickrey “Discourses on morality[,] and reflection on human nature, are the best means we can make use of to improve our minds, gain a true knowledge of ourselves, and recover our souls out of the vice, ignorance, and prejudice which naturally cleave to them.” -- Joseph Addison (1672-1719), English essayist. The plots of the B-Westerns we saw at The Bijoux, The Strand, and other small theatres in the ‘40s and ‘50s – and heard on radio and viewed on TV—almost always communicated, at least implicitly, a set of values. They came in the form of moral lessons reflecting and reinforcing the values taught in Middle Class American homes, especially in the Midwest and South, but in most such homes throughout the land. As I have argued in my book, ROY, “ROCKY” & RED RYDER; “HOPPY,” DURANGO & MO[O]RE…, the printing of which has been delayed until this year, the studios specializing in B-Westerns, particularly Republic Studios, the Twentieth Century Fox of such movies, deliberately played to Middle Class moral sensibilities with the stories and themes they portrayed, because of the improved commercial prospects accompanying them. As Michael Wood put it in his AMERICA AT THE MOVIES (1975) (NY: Basic Books), the public can be “extraordinarily resistant to rubbish and to masterpieces, when they fail to strike the right chord. The movies … dreamed up an America all on their own, and persuaded us to share the dream. We shared it happily because the dream was true in its fashion – true to a variety of American desires …” (23). The dream struck a chord, one that we enjoyed hearing and seeing, especially in the form of B-Western motion pictures, which were simultaneously the cause and effect of such chord-playing, at least in part. As Richard M. Hurst stated in his outstanding little book, REPUBLIC STUDIOS: BETWEEN POVERTY ROW AND THE MAJORS (2007) (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press), citing a study by Frederick Elkin, the action of B-Westerns “often centered around a small town in which law and order was just coming into its own. The characters were ordinary ranchers, miners, and a few town-folk. The basic characteristics of these films were action and simplicity. The standard B Western [sic] became a continual series of chases, rescues, gun battles, and fist-fights to appeal to the basic unsophisticated audience. Moral values were those of a Judeo-Christian society, and in the conflict between good and evil, good was invariably held up as right. Those on the good side were honest, loyal sympathetic to the oppressed, and had a respect for just law. On the other side, the evil were treacherous, callous, ruthless, and had a contempt for the underdog. It was implied without subtlety that justice and morality were worthy of great risk, and those who fight to achieve the worthy goals were honored and respected” (156). Moreover, according to Hurst, B-Westerns “emphasized the rich and exciting heritage of America,” including “[r]ugged individualism, frontier equality, and other popularly accepted characteristics of the Western way of life.