Fred Foy- The Voice of the Lone Ranger

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking to the best known voice of radio announcing, Fred Foy. For any fan of radio drama, his voice rang out "From out of the past comes the thundering hoofbeats of the Lone Ranger and his great horse Silver" from 1948 to the Lone Rangers radio demise in 1955.

Fred Foy, still enthusiastic about the medium that he helped make magical, first became interested in drama while in High School in Detroit. As with all aspiring actors, nobody was interested in this unknown. But, his break came when Kerns station with whom he performed dramas on Mondays and Wednesdays for free, offered him the opportunity to host an interview show. In the late 1930's, he cut his teeth whenever he could doing it all. Assembling, scripting, scheduling, interviewing, and any other task that needed doing, he did it to hone his craft. He, in our conversation, regarded the early years as a learning experience.

In 1940, he joined WXYZ. Auditioning for bit parts, he performed on the Green Hornet, Lone Ranger, and Sergeant Preston. In 1942 he joined the war effort and returned in 1946. When Harry Goldner left the Ranger program in 1948, he auditioned along with hundreds of others. He won, and joined a soon to be legendary cast.

I asked him if the cast at the time thought they were part of history, he said no. All they knew was that the show was beautifully written (either by Fran Striker, Dan Beatty or the other writers) and that the show had an amazing following. Playing twice weekly for 23 years, north americans stayed glued to their radio sets and Brace Beemer and John Todd were the Lone Ranger.

Performing the show live was "exciting" and a great thrill he said. There were no retakes, if you made a mistake, you picked up your next line and carried on like it never happened. The biggest impact of live recording was being "up", because you had to. Snooze, and you could get lost in the desert dust figuratively.

The players in the Ranger drama were present at the studio. The recording studio was on the top floor of the old WXYZ studio. Fran Striker and the writers had their office on the 2nd floor, while George Trendle hid in his office. Brace Beemer performed each show only once as he was so competent that Fred Foy would read his lines during the practice and Brace would come in for the broadcast. Fran Striker JR and SR were friends of Fred, and frequently dropped by. Charles Livingstone, the director, was an extraordinary man to work with and moved onto the TV series upon Fran Strikers insistence.

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