Lone Ranger Costume Sells for Big Bucks

A Lone Ranger outfit that was worn by the show’s star, Clayton Moore, while making public appearances sold for $195,000 at a Waco, TX auction on Saturday, July 12. The signature light blue shirt, pants, cowboy hat, guns and belt, boots and red kerchief were estimated to sell for $40,000 less than that, according to Reuters..

The outfit went to an anonymous buyer. The previous owner was Waco businessman Bob Davis, who was an avid collector of Old West and Texas memorabilia. His son, Earl Davis, said his late father bought the outfit for more than $100,000 after the 1999 death of Clayton Moore. “He was a big fan of the Lone Ranger and watched the show when it originally ran. He really wanted it so he got into a bidding war to buy it.”

Here is a youtube of Clayton Moore doing an Aqua-Velva commercial back in the day.

Did you know that that the producers of the Lone Ranger TV series once replaced Clayton Moore with actor John Hart, over an alleged salary dispute. The public wasn’t having it and they had to get Moore back. Hart played the Lone Ranger at various other times, and he is the one who appears in this 1982 “Happy Days” episode called “Hi Yo, Fonzie Away”, when the Fonz gets to meet his childhood hero, and paraphrases the famous ending of every Lone Ranger episode — who was that masked man?

In his autobiography, I Was That Masked Man, Clayton Moore said he really didn’t know why they brought in John Hart because he didn’t ask for a larger salary.