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God Bless America
By Jerry L. Ginther
If you are a senior citizen into your seventh decade of life, you'll probably remember that not everyone had a television set in the 1950s. In our neighborhood you would have been hard pressed to find two or three in any given city block. Some of our neighbors who did possess this marvelous invention would invite a few of the local kids into their homes to watch the Saturday morning programs. As a matter of fact, refreshments were often served. We were blessed to have had two such families in our neighborhood.
As economic conditions improved throughout America and televisions decreased in price, their presence became commonplace in more and more homes. Ladies could watch the soap operas rather just listen on the radio as they did their household chores. Radio stations seemed reluctant to surrender and continued to broadcast the daily episodes well into the fifties.
The only drawback to TV was viewing confined one to the room where the television set was located. So addicting was this new form of entertainment that it ushered in a new craze. They were called TV dinners and small, portable trays on which to eat them superseded the dining room table on many evenings.
When we were kids we were glued to the black and white TV screen watching the Saturday morning westerns, which included The Lone Ranger, The Roy Rogers Show, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickok and Sky King to mention a few."
You may remember that these westerns always featured law-abiding men and women bringing the bad guys to justice. There was a moral to each episode, crime doesn't pay and the only reward was jail. A major lesson to be learned was, no matter how elaborate the plan, the criminal always got caught. Lawbreakers and their schemes were never glorified. The hero's reward was the heart of a beautiful lady and the admiration of the town's citizens. Sometimes there was even the hint of romance when Roy would sing to the enamored lady before riding off into the sunset. There were no sad endings.
In the cartoon department we had Mighty Mouse who came to "save the day." This little mouse could stop a speeding freight train and saved many damsels in distress.
These shows were followed by the Sealtest Big Top, an hour of amazing circus performances. The featured attractions were everything you would hope to see when a circus came to town. There were trapeze acts, lions, tigers and elephants, tumbling acts and bare back riding stunts.
Most of the kids would have to take off to their respective homes at about that time, because the show aired during the noon hour, and manners would dictate that we didn't over stay our welcome. Also, polite manners were required if your presence was to be permitted on following Saturdays. Any negative report reaching home would preclude future excursions.
We all know, now, that these early black and white westerns are where we became familiar with the concept that the good guys wear white hats. Even though the Lone Ranger wore a black mask he also wore a white hat and rode a white/silver steed. However, in every episode the white hat never prevailed over the presence of the black mask. The silver bullet was usually his authenticating credential. Surprisingly, everyone seemed to know the identity of a masked-man who fired silver bullets and rode a silver stallion, but minus the silver bullet his integrity was at risk. Still, at the end of every episode folks were asking, "Who was that masked man?" If no one remembers much about the Lone Ranger series, that line and "Hi Yo Silver Away" are two lines that will live permanently in our memories as long as we live.
The Lone Ranger was a creation of Francis (Fran) Stryker. Fran also created the Sergeant Preston character.
Copyright © 2002 - 2018 Jerry Ginther, All rights reserved worldwide
