Hi-Yo, Silver! The Lone Ranger is perhaps vintage radio drama’s single most famous creation. Yet the Masked Man’s formative years from 1933 until 1938 are essentially lost to us because no recordings were made. Original scripts DO survive, and Project Audion has selected episode #266 (out of nearly 3000!) from October 12 1934 to recreate. In 1934 the Lone Ranger and Tonto are not quite as we remember them, and the story — featuring a cattle rancher, the coming of the railroad, and a “greasy half-breed” named Magdalena — is rough-edged, less sensitive and streamlined than in later years. But this was the Lone Ranger that took the country by storm during the Great Depression. Now, for the first time in nine decades, this early version of the Lone Ranger rides again!

The cross-country cast of Project Audion’s transcribed-live recreation includes

Lone Ranger: Dennis Thompson

Tonto: Ken Raney

Announcer: Greg Vestal

Steve Greencliff: Norman Cline

Magdalena: Pete Lutz

Tad Brewster: Scott McKinley

Gwendolyn Wiggs: Angela Young

Mother Wiggs: Sharon Grunwald Father

Jerimy Wiggs: Chuck Daugherty

Larry Groebe produced, directed, and cleaned up after the horses.