The Lone Ranger

"Hi Yo, Silver!"

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi Yo, Silver!" The Lone Ranger. "Hi Yo, Silver, away!" With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early west. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger rides again!

I have loved the Lone Ranger ever since I was a child, and now they (some of them) are being repeated on Talking Pictures TV in the UK, also Champion the Wonder Horse and The Cisco Kid. I never learned The Cisco Kid's intro and outro (except I think the outro was "Pancho: Hey, Cisco, then Cisco: Hey, Pancho." Did you know that 'Pancho' is the nickname for Francisco? You can't say that it's short for Francisco, as it's nothing like Francisco. We have Ted, Dick and Bob that aren't short versions of the proper names, but they do bear a sort of resemblance. But how do you get from 'Francisco' to 'Pancho'? It would be a bit confusing if they called the Cisco Kid's partner Francisco, wouldn't it? 'Cisco' being short for San Francisco.

I learned the intro for the Range Rider and Champion the Wonder Horse before I was 10. Did you know that one of the episodes of Champion has different words to the song? It's on YouTube, Episode 2, "Crossroad Trail". Where it goes "The time will come when everyone will know the name of Champion, the Wonder Horse" in every other episode (as far as I know), in episode 2 he sings "Out West there's not a man who doesn't know the name of Champion, the Wonder Horse."

There's quite a bit of dispute about Hi-yo or Hi-ho. Buck Jones, whose horse was also named Silver, took Republic Pictures studio to court in 1939 claiming that "Hi ho, Silver" was his and that Republic had copied him in the Lone Ranger. (This was before the TV series starring Clayton Moore). It's all rather confusing but you can read it here: https://medium.com/@nathanielhebert/hi-yo-silver-hi-ho-silver-and-the-murky-history-of-the-lone-rangers-catchphrase-9860e4433f23

Republic denied the claim, saying that the Lone Ranger cried "Hi, ho, Silver, away" (An extra comma after 'Hi' and an extra word after 'Silver' that requires a comma after 'Silver'. Jones lost the case, but it was reported by some papers as the "Hi ho, Silver" case and by others as the "Hi Yo, Silver" case – with as many variations of punctuation and capitalisation as you can come up with.

There is one section of the article where the author gets it wrong, IMO. He says "Actor Clayton Moore, confused over his catchphrase." showing two newspaper reports. In one of them Moore says he shouts "Hi Yo, Silver", not "Hi Ho, Silver"; in the other it is reported by other people that he shouted "Hi Ho Silver", which is not the same thing at all as saying that Moore was confused.

I guess you might need to read the original radio scripts or the early books to see what Fran Striker (or Gaylord Dubois) intended. But it makes no difference to me, the Lone Ranger on TV always shouted "Hi-yo, Silver!" at the start, and "Hi-yo, Silver, away!" at the end. Moore's adopted daughter, Dawn Angela Moore, confirms it here: https://eu.thespectrum.com/story/entertainment/2016/09/26/daughter-remembers-lone-ranger/91131060/

Regards

Albert

Jay Silverheels as Tonto

(his horse was called 'Scout')

Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger

Information about Clayton Moore

The first episode explained how the Lone Ranger got his name and mission to clean up the West. As John Reid he had been one of six Texas Rangers bushwacked by the merciless Butch Cavendish Hole in the Wall Gang, but who had been saved from death by a kindly Indian named Tonto, who said, 'You only Ranger left. You Lone Ranger now.' By a tremendous coincidence, the Lone Ranger had saved the life of the selfsame Indian many years before. 'You kemo sabe,' said Tonto, 'it means "trusty scout". ' And stopping only to don his mask, the Lone Ranger set off to avenge his comrades and right wrongs in nineteenth century Texas accompanied by his Indian companion and his horse, Silver.

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Tonto and The Lone Ranger

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