The New Tonto (in the new lone ranger film)

I heard it was canned.

According to its IMDb page, the studio is aiming for a 2014 release.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210819/

I wonder if the filmmakers are going for camp or gritty or inbetween in terms of tone.

Hiyo, Silver away!!!!

I wonder if Johnny Depp will use warpaint for eyeshadow?

I never thought of Tonto as being misused. It's part of a formula. In every sidekick film the hero is conceived to be a superior being and the sidekick always takes orders. There is in most such teams an underlying mutual respect. Being Indian, like Tonto, or Filipino, like the Green Hornet's sidekick is irrelevant to these type of series, I think.

I wonder if Jay Silverheels is still around or is he dead?

Silverheels died in 1980. There is a Jay Silverheels, Jr., but I don't know anything about him.

I think they did a bad thing with Clayton Moore. He was actually promoting it and giving free publicity but the studios are greedy.

When I was growing up, the Lone Ranger was Brace Beamer, the voice through the entire radio run of the show. He was off for a few months and a substitute filled in temporarily. I was so disappointed in Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger, I could have cried.

We only had comic books with him on the cover. Later on we saw him on TV. Now there are old dvd of the Ranger. I liked his guns. They were fancy. Black leather holster and silver guns.

Yeah, exactly!

hehe, Johnny Depp as Tonto. Maybe he should have stuck to playing pirates?

Just remembered Kemosabe. Is Tonto gonna call the Lone Ranger Kemosabe? Is Tonto's horse still gonna be Scout? Are they still gonna use the William Tell overture as a them song?

I realize that you guys don't have the answers to these questions. But this enquiring mind wants to know.

That was my first major disillusion with television. As did we all, i had imagined the Lone Ranger, and i was outraged when i saw it on teevee. The guy didn't look right, the clothes were bullshit . . . i wouldn't watch it.

So why aren't they hiring an Indian to play the Indian?

because Ed Ames is dead. (Mingo)

The TV Lone Ranger, from the few episodes I watched, did not have the depth of the radio character. For instance, we learned on the radio that the man who calls himself the Lone Ranger fought for the Confederacy. In one episode, a group of Confederate veterans contacts the Ranger, to beseach him to join with them (in Mexico? I forget) to build a new army to renew the conflict. The Ranger declines. I don't recall the gist of his speech to those men, because it was too many years ago.

Birth Name
Harold J. Smith


Height
6' (1.83 m)


Mini Biography
Jay Silverheels was born on a reservation in Canada to a Mohawk chief. He was a star lacrosse player and a boxer before he entered films as a stuntman in 1938. He worked in a number of films though the 1940s before he gained some notice as the Osceola brother in Humphrey Bogart's film Key Largo (1948). Most of his roles consisted of bit parts as "Indian." In 1949, he would work in a movie called The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) with another "B movie" actor named Clayton Moore. It was later that same year that Jay would be hired to play the faithful Indian companion, Tonto, in the television series "The Lone Ranger" (1949). This role, while still playing the "Indian," would bring Jay the fame that his motion picture career never did. As Tonto, on his horse Scout, Jay could show up where the Ranger could not and some of the time he would be shot at or beat up for his trouble. Jay would play Tonto in all the episodes except for those that he missed when he had his heart attack. In those episodes, he was replaced by the Ranger's nephew, Dan. However, Clayton Moore would miss the third season when he was replaced by John Hart. Jay would reprise the role of Tonto in two big-screen color movies with Moore, The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). After the series ended in 1957, Jay could not escape the typecasting of Tonto. He would continue to appear in an occasional film and television show, but he would become a spokesman to improve the portrayal of Indians on TV.

Depp said in some interview that he is part native american.

John Hart was also that masked man
by Joe Southern
For one season, in 1952, Clayton Moore was replaced as the Lone Ranger on the popular television series. For 52 episodes, John Hart dashed across the television screen as the man behind the mask.

John Hart played the part from 1952 to 1954 on 52 episodes when Moore held out in a contact dispute.

While Hart has done numerous television and film projects, he is often most remembered as the "other" Lone Ranger.

Before his death hart commented in an interview; "I've dined out on it forever," Hart said in a telephone interview.

"It's never bothered me at all," he said. "I went on and did 'Hawkeye' and did other things."

His counterpart, however, took to the mask and played the role to the hilt.

"He (Moore) decided to be the Lone Ranger and he made it his job and he did it very well," Hart said. Prior to temporarily replacing Moore, Hart made two guest appearances on the show as one of the heavies opposite the masked man.

After the show ended in 1957, he made two cameo appearances as the Lone Ranger on television, once on an episode of "Happy Days" in the 1970s and later in 1981 on "The Greatest American Hero."

Hart's last connection to the legendary masked rider of the plains came in 1981 in The Legend of the Lone Ranger.'

"I worked on 'The Legend of the Lone Ranger.' I played an old editor of a Western country paper," he said.

While his character was hanged by the bad guys early in the film, Hart's involvement lasted well beyond the bit part.

"The guy who played the Lone Ranger was such a disaster," he recalled. "Having been the Lone Ranger they got me into doing all his press conferences and stuff.

Working in the lead role on the television series was enjoyable for Hart. He said he made a lot of friends through it and forged a close relationship with Jay Silverheels, who played the faithful Indian companion, Tonto, throughout the series and the two theatrical releases that followed. He was with Silverheels shortly before he died in 1980 following a series of strokes.

"He was a sweetheart of a person," Hart said.

Work on the television series was challenging. The 52 episodes Hart did were all shot in a matter of weeks.

"We worked six days a week, every other week. We worked Monday through Saturday. The scripts ran 30-some pages ... We shot every (episode) in two days.

"I'd have anywhere from 15, 16, 17 pages of dialog to memorize. I'd get up at 5 a.m. with a cup of coffee to start memorizing my lines," he said.

Being a real cowboy in his younger days, Hart was able to do things that Moore and others couldn't do, especially with the great, white horse Silver.

"I was very attracted to the horse, Silver. He was half Arabian and half American saddle bred," he said.

He said Silver was very jumpy and difficult to ride.

"Clayton wouldn't ride him, the radio guy (Brace Beemer) wouldn't ride him ... I took him when I knew I had the part. I took him out and rode him for a few days ... When we started shooting he was very friendly. I wore spurs, but I didn't have to spur him," he said.

In revealing another little-known tidbit about the show, he said Silver and Tonto's horse, Scout, didn't get along.

"They hated each other, it was really funny. We'd pull up and have some dialog and the horses would start nipping at each other and dancing around," he said.

To compensate for that, the saddles were placed on sawhorses for close-up scenes. "Then, they'd bring in the real horses and we'd ride out," Hart said.

One of the biggest mysteries of the old '50s television show is why Hart replaced Moore in the middle of the series. Some sources say George W. Trendle, who created the character, fired Moore because he was becoming too closely associated with the Lone Ranger.

But Hart subscribes to the more widely held belief that Moore, in a dispute with producer Jack Chertok, held out for more money.

"I have no idea (why Moore came back)," he said. "I had long been gone and happy doing other things. Clayton was bound and determined to be the Lone Ranger. I'm sure it was over money ... He (Chertok) was the cheapest guy I ever worked for."

In addition to "The Lone Ranger," Hart has appeared or starred in many movies and television shows. He wore the hero's mask in "The Phantom" and had lead roles in "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans," "Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy," and "The Adventures of Captain Africa."

On television, he made numerous appearances in "Rawhide" and also showed up on such programs as "Sky King," "Sgt. Preston," "Dallas," "The Addams Family," "Leave it to Beaver," "Perry Mason," "Bat Masterson" and "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," to name a few.

His first film appearance was in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Buccaneer." He went on and did several projects with DeMille.

"He took a liking to me and kept me on the show," Hart said.

He has worked with several old Hollywood greats, including Lon Chaney Jr., who was his sidekick in "Hawkeye," and Olympian/actor Buster Crabbe.

"Buster and I were old friends. I knew him before the '32 Olympics," he said.

He also recalled the time he had a "nice scene with Elizabeth Taylor."

He said he considers his work as Hawkeye to be his favorite part.

"The stories were good, the thing was a wonderful show," he said.

But only 39 episodes were made, despite the show's popularity, because of a dispute between the producer and the advertisers.

In more recent years he wrote a cookbook called "Cowboys in the Kitchen." He also sold autographed pictures for $20 each (plus $4 shipping).