The Lone Ranger

[Kitty]

So someone posted this on the old time radio facebook group, and I was shocked to see that his catchphrase wasn't "Hi-ho, Silver!" It's "Hi-yo, Silver!" I'll repost my reply to the post here.

Screenshot_20210105-114859.jpg (369.23 KiB) Viewed 2460 times

I might sound like a dunce announcing here that I did NOT realize that The Lone Ranger says "Hi-yo!" I always thought it was "Hi-ho!" Furthermore, if he HAD said "Hi-ho!" He would have most certainly meant "Heigh-Ho!" which I just learned means "expressing boredom, resignation, or jollity." according to the Oxford dictionary. This put even more light on the fact that the seven dwarves were not just saying a fun little rhyme, but were expressing a kind of resignation about going to work. Funny how little things like that will turn into a snowball effect of enlightenment.

[dachshundonstilts]

"Heigh-ho, everybody!" had been Rudy Vallee's catchphrase since 1928, so that was sort of "taken" for radio purposes.

Curiously, the early scripts for The Lone Ranger had him shouting "Hi-yi!" for a catchphrase. This was deemed unsatisfactory, and it was less than a minute before airtime when they finally worked out "Hi-yo, Silver!"

[Mrs. Danvers]

I can always remember running around saying Hi-Ho Silver. But not so, it is a misheard lyric! The announcer man is clearly saying Hi-Yo Silver at the end. I loved The Lone Ranger TV show when I was a wee lass.

https://youtu.be/hxIuIxqo2So

[dachshundonstilts]

As a kid I remember seeing some of the color TV episodes where they had the theme song that started "Six Texas Rangers, hi-yo, hi-yo..." and it sounded pretty clear to me then that they weren't singing "hi-ho." But my wife thought it was "hi-ho" until fairly recently.

[Kitty]

I guess it's just one of those things that will be forever misquoted, such as "Play it again, Sam," which Ilsa never actually said.

[Mrs. Danvers]

Or in The Wizard of Oz, when the Munchkins are singing the "Lullaby League And Lollipop Guild" song, a lot of people think they are saying the Lollipop Kids.

[Kitty]

Or in The Wizard of Oz, when the Munchkins are singing the "Lullaby League And Lollipop Guild" song, a lot of people think they are saying the Lollipop Kids.

Right! I know I thought that as a child.