He Was That Masked Man
The Clayton Moore Story
Clayton was born in Chicago September 14, 1914 and says he knew at a very early age that he wanted to be one of those western stars he would see on the movie screen.
He moved to Hollywood in the 1930's and appeared in a variety of movies but really made a name for himself in the movie serials produced by Republic Pictures.
He would usually play the good guy
as he did in 1949's "Ghost of Zorro"
Sometimes he played one of the "good"
bad guys as in 1947's "Jesse James Rides Again"
In 1949, Clayton had just finished "Ghost of Zorro" when he found out about a new TV show based on The Lone Ranger. George Trendle, the man who owned The Lone Ranger copyright, asked Clayton if he would like to play The Lone Ranger. Clayton promptly answered, "Mr. Trendle, I Am The Lone Ranger."
Clayton played The Lone Ranger from 1949 until the series went off the air in the mid-1950's as well as in two movies, "The Lone Ranger" and "The Lone Ranger And The Lost City Of Gold."
After that, he continued to make personal appearances as The Lone Ranger. He also appeared in several TV commercials for Jeno's Pizza Rolls, Dodge, Aqua Velva and Amoco.
Clayton says that he would have liked to end his career as The Lone Ranger by appearing in one final show or movie.
The scenario, as described by Clayton in his book "I Was That Masked Man", is that, following the death of Tonto, the now elderly ranger would find a young man bordering between good and bad. He takes the young man under his wing and trains him. After the training is completed, and with his back to the camera, Clayton takes off his mask and hands it to the "new" Lone Ranger. Clayton would then climb up on his horse and slowly ride off into the sunset.
But that was not to be, which is probably for the best anyway, because, as most people know, there really was only one Lone Ranger...and, as Clayton said, "I Was That Masked Man!"