The Lone Ranger

Black-and-white illustration of a man riding a horse and black text on yellow background. 

The Lone Ranger is a fictional character in American culture. He is known as a masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with the help of his Native American friend, Tonto. The Lone Ranger first appeared in a 1933 radio show written by Fran Striker. The inspiration for the character is unclear, but possibilities include Zorro, Robin Hood, Texas Ranger captain John R. Hughes, and Bass Reeves, the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River. The popular radio series gave rise to a series of books, comic books, several movies, and a television show that aired from 1949 to 1957. The Lone Ranger was known to conduct himself by a strict moral code, and some of the actors who played him took their position as a role model for children seriously, and tried to live by the same creed. 

Several tropes of popular culture originated from The Lone Ranger. The title character would shout "Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!" to his white stallion, and Tonto would encourage his own horse with an occasional, "Get 'em up, Scout!" Tonto usually referred to the Lone Ranger as "Kemo sabe," which was described as meaning "faithful friend" or "trusty scout". It's possible that the word is a derivative of "gimoozaabi," an Anishnaabe word (part of the Algonquian language family) meaning "he looks out in secret". The rights to The Lone Ranger and associated characters were acquired by Universal Pictures in 2016 for $3.8 billion.