George W. Trendle
| George W. Trendle | |
|---|---|
| Born |
George Washington Trendle July 4, 1884 Norwalk, Ohio |
| Died | May 10, 1972 (aged 87) Grosse Pointe, Michigan |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Writer, Editor, Publisher, Producer |
| Notable work |
The Green Hornet The Lone Ranger |
George Washington Trendle (July 4, 1884 – May 10, 1972) was a Detroit lawyer and businessman best known as the producer of the Lone Ranger radio and television programs along with The Green Hornet. He is entombed in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery.
During the 1920s, George W. Trendle was a Detroit, Michigan, lawyer who had established a reputation as a tough negotiator specializing in movie contracts and leases. Trendle became involved in the Detroit area entertainment business in 1928 when local motion picture theater owner John H. Kunsky offered Trendle 25 percent ownership in exchange for his services.
Kunsky had been an early investor in Nickelodeons beginning in 1905. In 1911, he built the first movie theater in Detroit. It was the second movie theater in the nation. By 1928, he owned twenty movie theaters, including four of the largest first-run theaters in Detroit.
Kunsky was being driven out of the theater business when Adolph Zukor acquired the Detroit area film exchange known as the Cooperative Booking Office and began pressuring local theater owners to sell out to Paramount. Trendle negotiated to sell Kunsky's theatres for six million dollars. Zukor transferred the theaters to a Paramount subsidiary named United Detroit Theatres. In 1948, Paramount's monopoly became the focus of an antitrust suit initiated by the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers (SIMPP).
As part of the deal, Trendle and Kunsky were proscribed from ever reentering the movie business in Detroit. However, Zukor apparently recognized Trendle's talents and hired him to manage the Paramount theaters in Detroit. Trendle is credited as having built the historic Alger Theater, which opened August 22, 1935, on Detroit's east side. Trendle was fired from the United Detroit Theatres for "negligence" in 1937.
Trendle and Kunsky formed the Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting Company in 1929 after purchasing Detroit radio station WGHP. The radio station's call letters were changed to WXYZ.
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