Press & broadcasting / Literature / Film & TV
Fran Striker
1903–1962 · radio and comics writer
Buffalo writer who scripted The Lone Ranger for Detroit's WXYZ and moved to Detroit to run the station's script department, co-creating The Green Hornet and Sergeant Preston.
- Born
Buffalo, New York- Died
Elma, New York
aged 59- Birth name
- Francis Hamilton Striker
- Detroit years
- 1930s–1950s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Striker was writing radio serials in Buffalo when George W. Trendle, owner of Detroit's WXYZ, began buying his scripts. Late in 1932 he adapted his own Western material into The Lone Ranger, which premiered on WXYZ in January 1933; the trial episodes had aired first in Buffalo. Striker was paid a few dollars an episode and, under money pressure during the Depression, signed his rights to the character over to Trendle in 1934. Once the show was a hit, Trendle persuaded him to move to Detroit, where he became head of WXYZ's script department and turned out a staggering volume of copy: Lone Ranger radio scripts, novels and comic-strip continuity, as well as The Green Hornet (1936), Ned Jordan, Secret Agent (1939) and Challenge of the Yukon, whose hero was Sergeant Preston. The station's Detroit actors and Striker's pages together made WXYZ a national drama producer. He died in a car accident near Buffalo in 1962.
Highlights
- Wrote the early scripts of The Lone Ranger, which premiered on WXYZ in January 1933
- Head of WXYZ's script department in Detroit
- Co-created The Green Hornet (1936) and Sergeant Preston of Challenge of the Yukon
- Also wrote Lone Ranger novels and newspaper comic-strip stories
- Signed the Lone Ranger rights over to George W. Trendle in 1934
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1930s–1950s
Maccabees Building (former WXYZ studios)
WXYZ's home, where Striker headed the script department that fed The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet and Challenge of the Yukon.