How is this for coincidence – The Green Hornet radio show premiered on the same radio station as the Lone Ranger, three years almost to the day later. The Lone Ranger’s last name was Reid; the Green Hornet was…Reid. Both had a trusty horse. Both fought crime and injustice. Both had sidekicks — Tonto for the Ranger and Kato for the Hornet. It would really be a remarkable coincidence…if it wasn’t all planned.

On this day, January 31, in 1936, The Green Hornet radio show premiered, beginning in much the same fashion as The Lone Ranger — classical music, narrator introduction and all. The Hornet’s secret civilian identity was Britt Reid, “a daring young publisher”, and a (vaguely distant) blood relative to the Ranger.

The Hornet’s sidekick also ran into a bit of controversy. While he was better-spoken than Tonto, he looked vaguely Japanese — a fact that did not play well when the war against Japan began in 1941. Kanto’s origins were quickly hushed up following war’s outbreak, but they were not forgotten – in 1942 a daring air raid over Japan featured a bomber called “The Green Hornet.”