Synchrocinematic Tonto

We should always consider, through respect and heritage, the legacies that live on through synchromystic media and cinema in the blood of our own and others. The opening of The Lone Ranger is no exception.

My maternal grandmother Nellie Gray's father, John Gray, was a full-bloodied Eastern Band Cherokee. First Nations people's flows through the genes of many Americans.

Synchrocinematic Tonto

Tonto is going to be the major focus of the new Lone Ranger film because of the actor - Johnny Depp - who is playing that role. 

Tonto, of course, is a fictional character, the American Indian companion of The Lone Ranger, another one of the popular American Western characters for the Lone Ranger series, created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. It is a character that can have pathos, humor, strength, and irony.

In 2013, Tonto does take "center stage," as so many media reviews have noted, in this new version of The Lone Ranger. Some have said a Native (Western First Nations) American should have played the role. But, of course, in a brave new colorblind world, everyone would do best to play any fictional roles they can do well, no matter the ethnicity and racial overtones. While I may have issues with the continued bad choice of "Redskins" for a professional football team, the notion of an AfricanAmerican playing a Caucasian role (in whatever movie) or a basically Caucasian actor playing a Native (in The Lone Ranger) makes some sense to me.

The [original Lone Ranger] radio series identified Tonto as a chief's son in the Potawatomi nation. His name translates as "wild one" in his own language. For the most part, the Potawatomi did not live in the Southwestern states, and their regalia is different from that worn by Tonto. The choice to make Tonto a Potawatomi seems to come from station owner George Trendle's youth in Mullett Lake, Michigan. Located in the northern part of the Midwest, Michigan is the traditional territory of the Potawatomi, and many local institutions use Potawatomi names. Other sources indicate that Camp Kee Mo Sah Bee belonged to the father-in-law of the show's director, James Jewell. According to author David Rothel, who interviewed Jewell a few months before his death Kee Mo Sah Bee and Tonto were the only two words that Jewell remembered from those days. Tonto's name may have been inspired by the name of Tonto Basin, Arizona.
"Tonto" is also a common Spanish and Italian word meaning "stupid." Interestingly, "Kee Mo Sabe" comes pretty close to "que no sabe," roughly Spanish for "clueless one" (i.e. "tonto"). Source.

For those that understand that the differences between a Mohawk and an Apache may be as great as that between a white actor who is part Creek and a Dini, you get it. After all, the character of Tonto was portrayed most famously on television by Jay Silverheels, a Canadian Mohawk First Nations actor - not a Southwestern Amerindian.

Johnny Depp, who plays Tonto in the new film, was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, and raised in Florida, as the youngest of four children of Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. Nick Barratt, a researcher for the BBC genealogical TV program Who Do You Think You Are?, stated in 2011 he had traced Depp's family name, Deppes, to 14th-century French Huguenots living in England. Depp has surmised that he is part Native American, saying in 2011, "I guess I have some Native American [in me] somewhere down the line. My great-grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek." Source.

I’d actually seen a painting by an artist named Kirby Sattler, and looked at the face of this warrior and thought: ‘That’s it’. The stripes down the face and across the eyes… it seemed to me like you could almost see the separate sections of the individual, if you know what I mean. There’s this very wise quarter, a very tortured and hurt section, an angry and rageful section, and a very understanding and unique side. I saw these parts, almost like dissecting a brain, these silvers of the individual. That makeup inspired me. ~ Johnny Depp

Depp's statements sound like the introspective transfiguration comments of Bob Dylan, detailed by Andrew Griffin and myself, recently. Maybe Bob Dylan should have played Tonto, but he didn't. He already played Alias in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and it seems to be Depp's time in history to play Tonto.

Let us see how this opening night at the movies unfolds!

Lone Ranger Death

Water. Bridger. Death.

Authorities say a crew member who died working on a set for the upcoming Johnny Depp film The Lone Ranger is a 48-year-old man from Redondo Beach, California.
The coroner's office announced on September 24, 2012, the man's name was Michael Andrew Bridger.

(This Michael Andrew Bridger is not be confused with Michael Andrew Bridger, who was born on October 5, 1943, with that name but today employs the name Michael Morpurgo, OBE, FKC, AKC, an English author, poet, playwright and librettist, best known for his work in children's literature about the coastline and the sea. Indeed, his contributions to Oxfam's Ox-Tales were in the "Water" selection.)

The Lone Ranger's Bridger was pronounced dead on September 21, 2012. The 48-year-old was in scuba gear cleaning a pool to be used on the film set in Acton, which is in northeast Los Angeles County, California. Early indication is that Bridger may have suffered a heart attack, but the final coroner's report is forthcoming.

A spokesman for producers Walt Disney said: “We regretfully confirm that a Lone Ranger crew member has passed away after being taken to a local hospital. Our full support is behind the investigation into the circumstances of this terrible event.”

Walt Disney Studios is producing the film The Lone Ranger as an upcoming action Western film directed by Gore Verbinski. The film stars Armie Hammer in the lead role and Johnny Depp as Tonto. It is due for release on July 3, 2013. Source.

Tonto

Tonto is going to be the major focus of the new Lone Ranger film because of the actor playing that role. Tonto is a fictional character, the American Indian companion of The Lone Ranger, another one of the popular American Western characters for the Lone Ranger series, created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker.

The character of Tonto was portrayed most famously on television by Jay Silverheels, a Canadian Mohawk First Nations actor. 

Johnny Depp, who plays Tonto in the new film, was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, and raised in Florida, as the youngest of four children of Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. Nick Barratt, a researcher for the BBC genealogical TV program Who Do You Think You Are?, stated in 2011 he had traced Depp's family name, Deppes, to 14th-century French Huguenots living in England. Depp has surmised that he is part Native American, saying in 2011, "I guess I have some Native American [in me] somewhere down the line. My great-grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek." Source.

I’d actually seen a painting by an artist named Kirby Sattler, and looked at the face of this warrior and thought: ‘That’s it’. The stripes down the face and across the eyes… it seemed to me like you could almost see the separate sections of the individual, if you know what I mean. There’s this very wise quarter, a very tortured and hurt section, an angry and rageful section, and a very understanding and unique side. I saw these parts, almost like dissecting a brain, these silvers of the individual. That makeup inspired me. ~ Johnny Depp

(Depp's statements sound like the introspective transfiguration comments of Bob Dylan, detailed by Andrew Griffin and myself, recently.)

The Lone Ranger is The Green Hornet's Great-Uncle

The Lone Ranger is a fictional character, a masked ex-Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in a radio show conceived either by WXYZ radio station owner George W. Trendle and by Fran Striker, the show's writer. The radio series inspired a spin-off called The Green Hornet, which depicts the son of the Lone Ranger's nephew Dan, Britt Reid, originally played by Al Hodge, who in contemporary times fights crime with a similar secret identity and a sidekick, Kato. In the Green Hornet comic book series published by NOW Comics, the Lone Ranger makes a cameo through a portrait in the Reid home. Contrary to most visual media depictions, and acknowledged by developer/original scripter Ron Fortier to be the result of legal complications, his mask covers all of his face, as it did in the two serials from Republic Pictures. However, the properties have been acquired by separate owners and the familial link has been ignored in the Western character's various incarnations. The Lone Ranger-Green Hornet connection is part of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, which connects disparate fictional characters. 

The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. The name of Captain Reid's son, the Lone Ranger's nephew, a later character first introduced in the radio series, who became a sort of juvenile sidekick to the Masked Man, is also Dan Reid. When Trendle and Striker later created The Green Hornet, they made this Dan Reid the father of Britt Reid, alias the Green Hornet, thereby making the Lone Ranger the Green Hornet's great-uncle. 

The Green Hornet's Kato on television was played by Bruce Lee. 

Sources 1 & 2.

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