Michigan's Vigilantes Ride Again!

Hey everyone! It's been a long while since I posted. Almost a year! I hope everyone saw Disney's "The Lone Ranger" movie. I know the critics hated it and I'm sure the purists will poo-poo it, but I thought it was a fun, if flawed, ride!

In any event, I've had some events recently in my personal life that have led me to believe that I could turn this interest in the history of the Ranger and Tonto from a part time internet fascination and into an actual book! It'll be a while (likely another full year) before that can happen, but in the meantime I'm going to start posting here again with renewed – and in fact redefined – focus. From here on out, the bulk of my research into the Ranger's history will center on his days in Detroit/Michigan and the impact that city had on his creation.

To that end, look what I found today!

This button was for a Green Hornet Fan Club at WCMU – the public radio station located on the campus of Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Though the look of the character is Striker's classic full-masked version, this button was actually made in the 1960s at the earliest. I'm not sure if it was created before or after the Van Williams/Bruce Lee TV series, but it was made in honor of WCMU's then re-airing of the original WXYZ broadcast episodes.

The most hard data I can find on the Club's origins come from this posting on the Hake's auction site. There, we learn it was made by the Bastian Bros. printing company, which is still around after 115 years of business! Furthermore, the auctioneer thinks it was made in the early 1970s, and I found this PDF of a newsletter for the Old Time Radio Club of Buffalo from January 1977 that lists WCMU as a current broadcaster of old radio shows. That link comes via the amazing Old Time Radio Researchers Group whose site has an amazing wealth of resources on this stuff – including this reprint of a not-so flattering George Trendle profile and this overview of WXYZ.

I'd love to track down anyone associated with the original '60s/'70s club at CMU. I'm betting that that was the perfect time to be researching Detroit's radio history. Maybe the folks on this Vintage Detroit TV and Movie board will have some leads, but first I'll want to read Dick Osgood's now legendary WYXIE Wonderland book or David Carson's Rockin Down The Dial history of Detroit radio.

But all in all, I'm feeling pretty good about where things are at right now!