On Christmas Eve in 1986, Clayton Moore flew into Houston, Texas, and discovered his luggage was lost, an unfortunate, but rather commonplace, event at airports. But then his bag could not be found.
In his suitcase, Moore, who planned on riding in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day, had packed his Lone Ranger Colt pistols, gunbelt, two costumes and 36 silver bullets. “Fortunately, the mask was with my wife and I on the plane along with my white hat,” the actor told reporters.
Within a few weeks, gun collector Jack Hendlmyer notified police that a Houston airline baggage handler had sold the Lone Ranger pearl-handled Colt pistols to him; after hearing about the theft on news reports, he shipped the guns back to Moore. “I never kissed a girl on The Lone Ranger show—I only kissed Silver—but when they handed my revolvers back to me, I kissed the guns,” Moore recalled in his memoirs, I Was That Masked Man.
The thief got 600 hours of scooping horse poop at the Houston police stables, one month in jail and 10 years probation. Moore never recovered those two costumes and silver bullets, but he tipped his hat to the Texas Rangers who had helped him get back his gunbelt and six-shooters. “Kemo sabe, these Texas Rangers are good men,” Moore told the press on January 15, 1987, adding, “My mask was taken away from me a number of years ago, but I had faith that I would get it back. I knew I would get my guns back.”
Moore’s famous black mask had been stripped from him after the owners of the Lone Ranger series sued him. Upset that he had to substitute sunglasses for the mask, Moore found solace in his fans who stood by him and recognized him as the one and only Lone Ranger. Some fans still feel that strongly about Moore (nothing against Armie Hammer, but not everyone cares to see him step in as the Lone Ranger in this summer’s Disney remake). The lawsuit was dropped in 1985, and Moore donned the black mask again for his appearances with his fans, up until his death in 1999.
Only a lucky few of Moore’s many fans walked away with Lone Ranger treasures, from the Clayton estate, at Brian Lebel’s Old West Auction on June 22, 2013. The top lot that sold from the collection is the very gun rig that Bohlin owner Danny Lang Jr. made on December 29, 1986, so that Moore had the proper gear for his appearance at the New Year’s Day parade.
True to form, the auction also boasted notable Old West collectibles. Overall, collectors sold more than $1 million worth of memorabilia at the auction.
Photo Gallery
All 86 bits owned by Ned and Jody Martin and used as the primary study group for their landmark book with Kurt House, Bit and Spur Makers in the Texas Tradition, bid in at $120,000. Some of the early masters working in Texas between 1870 and 1970 whose bits are included in the collection are: J.O. Bass, C.P. Shipley, P.M. Kelly and Oscar Crockett.
Henry Nordhaus relocated from San Antonio, Texas, to Deming, New Mexico, in 1887, where he made this Colt Sheriff’s Model gun rig with modified jockstrap holster; Nordhaus is among those credited as inventing the Texas jockstrap holster, which was dropped low to facilitate a quicker draw for the shooter; $11,000.
A.B. Webster, former mayor of Dodge City, Kansas, and proprietor of the Alamo Saloon, owned this .45 caliber Colt Single Action with one-piece ivory grips. Webster was known for bringing about one of the most famous Old West photographs of all time, the Dodge City Peace Commission photo (above), after he tried to run his competitor, Luke Short, out of town. (From left, standing) W.H. Harris, Luke Short, Bat Masterson, W.F. Petillon; (seated) Charlie Bassett, Wyatt Earp, Frank McLean and Neil Brown; $7,500.
Judge Albert O. Wallace is more popularly known for fining Ike Clanton, for carrying a firearm on the streets of Tombstone, just before the famous O.K. Corral gunfight in 1881.Various items gathered from the Wallace family scrapbook hammered down for $14,000 at the auction. These documents included: a lease Wallace notarized for Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, James Earp and T.J. Drum to bring water to their Grasshopper Mine in Tombstone; a carte de visite image of Kansas lawman Ed Masterson (far left) and an August 1881 bill from Wyatt Earp to the City of Tombstone for water tickets and the removal of a dead dog, payable to Wyatt Earp for $1.50 (left).
Clayton Moore (above) introduced TV audiences to the Texas Ranger when The Lone Ranger premiered on ABC in 1949. The Lone Ranger’s double-rig gun holster crafted by the Edward H. Bohlin company and his Nudie costume captured the top bids for the collection, selling for $27,500 each. The white, 5x beaver Stetson he wore in the role bid in at $7,000.
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Meghan Saar is the former editor of True West, the world’s oldest, continuously published Western Americana magazine. She has worked in niche publication content development since 2002, and she has a B.S. in Journalism and Creative Writing from the University of Arizona—Tucson.
On Christmas Eve in 1986, Clayton Moore flew into Houston, Texas, and discovered his luggage was lost, an unfortunate, but rather commonplace, event at airports. But then his bag could not be found.
