Following the adage, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all," negative book reviews are not my cup of tea. Ed Andreychuk's recent book, The Lone Ranger on Radio, Film and Television, released a couple months ago by McFarland Publishing, warrants an exception. Honestly, this is not a bad book. But the price McFarland charges, along with a major flaw of knowing there is more information about The Lone Ranger on the internet vs. what can be found in this book, left a bad taste in my mouth. Having researched the subject for more than a decade, including archival collections across the country, I may be one of the few who could be highly critical. There are nuggets of information I would rarely expect anyone to have and with this disclosed, the myths and errors that continue to be reprinted in multiple reference guides and fanzines, are expected. But those type of flaw will not be exposed here.
Andreychuk's book is 182 pages thick, index and table of contents included, but information about The Lone Ranger is minimal. The entire first chapter is devoted to the history of the Texas Rangers. What that directly has to do with The Lone Ranger radio and television program, I do not know. Naturally, I skipped those seven pages and moved on to the second chapter. On page 11, the author cited James Jewell being responsible for creating the name of Tonto, a.k.a. "Wild One," which was, as everyone in the OTR hobby knows, created by Fran Striker and "Wild One" was never used on the program. Andreychuk also claimed Trendle hired a Native Indian to replace actor John Todd, but we all know that is also inaccurate. Two pages into the chapter devoted to the radio program and already observed two errors.
Beginning with chapter three, focusing on the cliffhanger serial produced by Republic, I found myself skimming various paragraphs due to unnecessary padding. What I mean by "unnecessary padding" is information that steers away from the title and subtitle of a book. The flaw continues throughout the remainder of the book. There are pages loaded with brief biographies of supporting cast members, and their non-Lone Ranger-related screen credits, that made me wonder why background production on the television programs, cartoons, movies and serials were not covered extensively. Actress Lisa Montell, for example, receives coverage of her screen career for half of page 114. It would have been enjoyable to know what her involvement was with The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, rather than acknowledge her screen credits on television's Cheyenne and The Gene Autry Show.
From pages 50 to 80, there is an episode guide for the television program. Episode number, title, broadcast date, actors and a one or two sentence plot summary is all that can be found. No behind-the-scenes trivia, no on-screen bloopers, or quotes from cast and crew. This is going to come off as an insult but you can get more information about the television episodes on IMDB. And thirty pages of the book devoted to this guide.
In short, for someone who cannot afford Dave Holland's From Out of the Past, or Dick Osgood's WYXIE Wonderland (recently reprinted), this might fill a void on your bookshelf. Expressing disappointment is difficult for me so I guess this book review serves as a warning to consider other options.
