Tonto
Tonto is a fictional character and the Native American (either Tonto Apache, Comanche, or Potawatomi) companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and television series and other presentations showcasing the characters' adventures of righting wrongs in 19th-century Western United States.
Tonto made his first appearance in the 11th episode of the radio show, which originated from the Detroit, Michigan, radio station WXYZ. Although he became well known as the Lone Ranger's friend, Tonto was created simply so the Lone Ranger would have someone to talk to. Throughout the radio run, which spanned 21 years, Tonto was primarily played by American actor John Todd, with only a few exceptions.
Chief Thundercloud portrayed the character in the Republic movie serials The Lone Ranger and The Lone Ranger Rides Again. At this point, Tonto had been depicted on the radio series as a somewhat elderly sidekick. This serial established the better-remembered image of Tonto as a handsome young tribal warrior in buckskins. Since then, the only deviation from this image has been Johnny Depp's portrayal in Disney's 2013 film, The Lone Ranger, the latest depiction.
Jay Silverheels portrayed the arguably best-remembered version in The Lone Ranger television series, which was the highest-rated television program on the ABC network in the early 1950s and its first true "hit."
Ivan Naranjo, a Blackfoot/Southern Ute actor from Colorado, voiced the character in The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour.
Michael Horse portrayed Tonto in the film The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981).
Character
Tonto made his first appearance in the 11th episode of the radio show The Lone Ranger. Two conflicting origin stories have been presented for the character of Tonto and how he came to work with the Lone Ranger. In the original presentation on December 7, 1938, Reid was already well-established as the Lone Ranger when he met Tonto. In that episode, Cactus Pete, a friend of the Lone Ranger, recounts how the masked man and Tonto first met. According to this tale, Tonto was caught in an explosion when two men dynamited a gold mine they were working on. One of the men wanted to kill the injured Tonto, but the Lone Ranger arrived and forced him to administer first aid. The miner then decided to keep Tonto around, intending to frame him as a fall guy when he later planned to murder his partner. The Lone Ranger thwarted both the attempted murder and the framing. No reason was given in the episode for why Tonto chose to travel with the Lone Ranger instead of continuing on his own.
A different version was presented in later episodes of the radio drama and at the beginning of The Lone Ranger television series: Tonto rescues the only surviving Texas Ranger from a party that was ambushed by the outlaw Butch Cavendish. Tonto recognizes the ranger as someone who had saved him when they were both boys. He refers to him as "ke-mo sah-bee," explaining that this phrase means "faithful friend" in the radio series or "trusty scout" in the television series, according to his tribe's language. In the 2013 film, Tonto translates the term as meaning "wrong brother." Tonto buries the dead rangers, and the Lone Ranger instructs him to dig a sixth empty grave to give the impression that he, too, is dead.
The radio series identified Tonto as the son of a chief in the Potawatomi nation. Originally from the Great Lakes region, most Potawatomi had been relocated to the midwestern states by the 19th century. The decision to make Tonto a Potawatomi may have stemmed from station owner George Trendle's youth in Mullett Lake, Michigan, which is within the traditional territory of the Potawatomi. Many local institutions use Potawatomi names. Trendle derived the name "Tonto" from the local Potawatomi, who told him it meant "wild one" in their language. Other sources suggest 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 shortly before his death, Kee Mo Sah Bee and Tonto were the only two words Jewell could recall from that time. Alternatively, Tonto's name might have been inspired by Tonto Basin in Arizona. In the first novel of a series published by Grosset and Dunlap, Tonto is described as a "half-breed." Although credited to Fran Striker, this book was actually written by Gaylord du Bois. Later books in the series were authored by Striker, maintaining continuity with the radio series.
In the 2013 theatrical feature film of The Lone Ranger, Tonto is portrayed as a disgraced Comanche tribesman and the last of the wendigo hunters. It's revealed that Tonto is suffering from severe mental illness and survivor's guilt after inadvertently causing his tribe's massacre at the hands of the film's villains. To justify his actions, he convinces himself that the cannibalistic Butch Cavendish is a wendigo, a mythical creature used in Native American ghost stories to frighten children. The character wears black-and-white face paint and a deceased crow on his head. According to Johnny Depp, who played Tonto, the inspiration for the costume came from a painting titled I Am Crow by Kirby Sattler.
In Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, "tonto" translates to "dumb," "moron," or "fool." In the Italian version, the original name is preserved, while in the Spanish dubbed version, the character is renamed "Toro" (Spanish for "bull") or "Ponto."
Tonto's horse
Tonto originally rode a horse named "White Feller" (White Fella/Fellah). When filming the 1938 Republic movie serial The Lone Ranger, it was deemed confusing to have two white horses, so the producers made "White Feller" a pinto horse, believing that a pinto, being partly white, could still be called "White Feller." Following the film's success with audiences, the radio series decided to make Tonto's mount a pinto as well. For several episodes, Tonto's new horse went unnamed, referred to only as "the paint horse" or simply "Paint." Eventually, the name "Scout" was adopted.
External links
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Tonto ]
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