Why Does the Lone Ranger Wear a Mask?

That's right. He didn't want the Cavendish gang to know any of the rangers they'd attacked had survived. He was with the rangers when they were bushwacked and he himself was nearly killed. Anyway, the first few episodes of the radio series didn't mention a mask and the series didn't start with the origin of the Lone Ranger like the TV version did. I think the mask was added a few episodes later to give the character some sense of mystery. I do know that the story of the Cavendish gang came about as a special story to celebrate the character's tenth or twentieth year on the radio and to explain the origin of the mask because listeners then were always writing in to ask the same question YOU just asked! I remember reading an old interview with the writer of the series, Fran Striker, who said that Ranger's mask was annoying for him because in just about every story he had to have a character expressing alarm at seeing the Ranger wearing a mask and the Ranger would have to reassure them he was not an outlaw before the story could continue.

I may have some vagueness here about the Ranger's story's origin but I'm pretty confident I'm right. And if I'm not, I'm sure somebody will let us know....!

It's like in Batman Begins, how Ra's explains to Bruce about using theatrics to become something more than a man -a legend.

I suspect that the mask gave the Lone Ranger a sense of mystery that enhanced his reputation amongst outlaws.

That was why he likely continued wearing the mask after bringing the Cavendish gang to justice.

As far as I remember, the only time Moore appeared without the mask was when he was in disguise, usually as a grizzled old prospector. But always with some kind of facial hair.

"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

I watched this show all the time when I was little, and it bothered me that I never saw his full face. He either had the mask on or was wearing a disguise that had a beard covering his lower face, like the Old Prospector.

It wasn't until I happened to see an old Nyoka serial that I finally saw what he looked like. I recognized his voice first, and then checked the credits to make sure (I had to be older than 7 at that point, because I could read).

Hi Smokehill Retrievers and all others,

Thanks everyone for the replies. When I asked the question, five years ago, I was thinking about secret identities throughout history. You can find them going back to Socrates and the Bible. In ancient mythology, the Gods often adopt secret identities to fool people, Zeus disguising as a bull to seduce Io, for example, or Demeter disguising herself as a nurse.

I agree the Lone Ranger's mask thing really doesn't make any sense. Perhaps doing it for a short time to capture the Cavendish gang made sense, but once that was done, it really lost its reason for being. One can imagine that he would use it occasionally to gain the trust of outlaws, but to wear it all the time seems crazy. He's just scaring everybody for no reason.

I remember thinking it was really cool as a kid that he looked like a bad guy, but he was really a good guy. In the binary world I grew up in, the good guys always showed they were good and the bad guys always showed they were bad, so it was this fundamental transgression that I found appealing. Perhaps, this is also an explanation for the success of Batman.