Fran Striker (born Francis Hamilton Striker) (1903 – September 4, 1962) was an American writer for radio and comics, best known for creating The Lone Ranger. 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... is the 247th day of the year (248th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ... The Lone Ranger. ...

Early life

Born in Buffalo, New York, Striker attended Lafayette High School and the University of Buffalo where he was a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity. He soon dropped out of college, first serving a brief stint in New York City with an amateur theatrical company, and then returning to Buffalo and joining the staff of radio station WEBR, working as an announcer. He moved to WTAM in Cleveland, Ohio in 1929, where he served as announcer, continuity writer, and wrote his first radio drama script, a biography of Stephen Foster. Lured back to WEBR as station manager, Striker wrote material ranging from skits to half hour mysteries and Western scripts. Nickname: Location of Buffalo in New York State Coordinates: , Country State County Erie Government  - Mayor Byron Brown (D) Area  - Total 52. ... Lafayette High School, Buffalo, New York Lafayette High School is the oldest public school in Buffalo that remains in its original building; a stone, brick and terra-cotta structure in the French Renaissance Revival style, by architects August Esenwein and James A. Johnson. ... University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (UB) (also known as SUNY Buffalo) is a coeducational public research university, which has multiple campuses located in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, USA. Offering 84 bachelors, 184 masters and 78 doctoral degrees, it is the largest and most... Theta Chi (ΘΧ) is an international college fraternity for men. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Cleveland redirects here. ... For other persons named Stephen Foster, see Stephen Foster (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Striker soon drifted to freelancing, creating and writing his own series and selling them to stations across the United States. He began a long association with station owner George W. Trendle and radio station WXYZ in Detroit, which was trying to make a name for itself as a producer of radio drama, creating and writing the early series Thrills of the Secret Service, Dr. Fang, and Warner Lester, Manhunter (which introduced Mike Axford, later a supporting character on The Green Hornet). George Washington Trendle born July 4, 1884 in Norwalk, Ohio, was a Detroit, Michigan lawyer and businessman, best known as the producer of the Lone Ranger radio and television programs. ... WXYZ is the ABC affiliate in Detroit, Michigan. ... Detroit redirects here. ... The Green Hornet is a fictional crimefighter created to be the hero of an American radio program that ran on WXYZ (a local Detroit station), the Mutual Broadcasting System and the network known through its succession of various owners as NBC Blue, the Blue Network and the ABC Network from...

The Lone Ranger

Late in 1932, Striker began working on The Lone Ranger; his earliest scripts were largely reworked from a prior series of his, called Covered Wagon Days. A letter from George W. Trendle dated Monday, January 30, 1933 clearly gives Striker credit for creating the character. However, by 1934, Striker was pressured by Trendle to sign over his rights to the Lone Ranger and Trendle claimed credit as the creator. This sparked long term controversy over the creation of The Lone Ranger, extending as far as a 1960 television appearance by Striker on To Tell the Truth, which mentioned his role in the character's creation. George Washington Trendle born July 4, 1884 in Norwalk, Ohio, was a Detroit, Michigan lawyer and businessman, best known as the producer of the Lone Ranger radio and television programs. ... is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nipsey Russell, Peggy Cass, Bill Cullen and Kitty Carlisle from the 1969-78 version. ...

The actual first "trial" episodes of The Lone Ranger were broadcast on WEBR in Buffalo, NY prior to the official "premiere" on WXYZ. These first broadcasts starred Buffalo actor John L. Barrett weeks before George Stenius (who later changed his name to George Seaton and became a film director) played the role. When the Lone Ranger series began to gain popularity, Trendle convinced Striker to move to WXYZ, where he eventually became head of WXYZ's script department. In Detroit, James Lipton portrayed the Lone Ranger's nephew, Dan Reid, during the early 1940s. George Seaton (April 17, 1911 - July 28, 1979) was an American playwright, film director and producer. ... James Lipton (born September 19, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American writer, poet, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. ...

Striker was extremely prolific. In addition to writing 156 Lone Ranger scripts a year, he wrote The Green Hornet (built around the Lone Ranger's descendant, Britt Reid),and a short-lived series called Ned Jordan Secret Agent and scripted various Lone Ranger novels, two movie serials, and the Lone Ranger comic strip. He contributed scripts to Challenge of the Yukon (which was later adapted for television as Sergeant Preston of the Yukon). Striker's work as a comic writer extended to stints on The Green Hornet comic books and writing the 1945 newspaper strip The Sea Wolf. DVD front cover for The Adventures of Captain Marvel, one of the most celebrated serials for both Republic Pictures and of the sound era in general. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Challenge of the Yukon was a long-running radio series that began on Detroits station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet). ...

Striker's later work included stints on the television versions of The Lone Ranger and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, which were initially being produced while the radio series were still on the air. He provided the stories for many television episodes by reworking old scripts from the radio series. Other writers adapted the stories for television and were credited as the "scriptwriter". Striker's credit was given as "From the Radio Program Edited by Fran Striker".

Striker died in a car accident in 1962, at the age of 59, in the midst of moving with his wife and children. His final work was a historical novel, One More River, published posthumously.

The characters "Lucas" and "Amy Striker" in the 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger were named in honor of Fran Striker. The title The Legend of the Lone Ranger has been used for at least two motion picture treatments of the story of The Lone Ranger, a Western character created by George W. Trendle. ...

Sources

• Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507678-8
• Osgood, Dick (1981). Wyxie Wonderland: An Unauthorized 50-Year Diary of WXYZ Detroit.Ohio: Bowling Green University Press.
• Bisco, Jim (2005). Buffalo's Lone Ranger: The Prolific Fran Striker Wrote the Book on Early Radio.Western New York Heritage, Vol 7, Number 4, Winter 2005.

External links

• Fran Striker at the Internet Movie Database
• Fran Striker at the Radio Hall of Fame