Happy Thanksgiving! What are you watching this weekend? I’m working on a new book and reading and relaxing, not watching TV. In the course of reading, I came across an article in the July/August 2013 issue of Smithsonian. The issue features significant historical objects that the Smithsonian Natural Museum of American History has in its collection; one of these is the Lone Ranger’s mask. From “Behind the Mask”: “The original mask was purple felt, a color that showed up better on the black-and-white screens of the day and was annoyingly hot to wear on location under the desert sun.” “The character Tonto is a noble figure, even as a sidekick, brave and loyal and resourceful. The actor Jay Silverheels played him with remarkable dignity….In the pilot episode, Tonto rescues the Texas Ranger, who is the lone survivor of an ambush by an outlaw gang. Tonto makes the mask, to conceal the man’s identity from the bandits who think he’s dead, and gives him a name: Lone Ranger.” With its rousing bumper music (from William Tell’s Overture by Rossini—I could have sworn this was by Tchaikovsky, but it’s not), iconic rearing white horse, and hoof-pounding plots, the TV series was a huge hit in the war-weary 1950s. In his “Story” seminars for screenwriters these days, Robert McKee advises writers to study old TV series like this (and others like the World War II drama, “Combat”) for the economy with which they unspool coherent action-packed stories in under thirty minutes. As “Behind the Mask” notes, “’Tonto,’ which has no known meaning in any Native American language, means ‘stupid’ in Spanish.” The “Me go now” sententious dialogue of 60 years ago is now known as “Tonto-speak,” an ugly caricature. So there you have it, my friends. Cultural values change, as they must. I wonder how critics 60 years from now will dissect our culture.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 02:04:22 +0000
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