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Lone Ranger Fan Club |
| Clayton Moore |
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You have reached the home
of the Lone Ranger Fan
Club. Click on the links
below to explore the best
source of information on the
Web about the Lone Ranger
and Tonto. Be sure to click
on the "Join the Fan Club"
button to learn how to
become a Lone Ranger
Deputy and receive The
Silver Bullet newsletter!
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| Meet the other Lone Rangers (More to be added later) Click here for John Hart Click here for Fred Foy |
| Jack Carlton "Clayton" Moore Sept. 14, 1914 - Dec. 28, 1999 |
About Clayton Moore
Jack Carlton "Clayton" Moore was born Sept. 14, 1914 in Chicago. He passed away Dec. 28, 1999. To legions of fans
he was the Lone Ranger.
As he said at the end of his book, I Was That Masked Man, "It doesn't matter that I am Clayton Moore, an actor, and
that the Lone Ranger is a legendary figure of folklore. In more ways than I can count, we have become one and the
same. I have absorbed parts of him, and he has taken on the best elements of my personality. Until the day I am taken
to that big ranch in the sky, I will continue to wear the mask proudly and to do my best to live up to the standards of
honor, decency, respect, and patriotism that have defined the Lone Ranger since 1933."
Jack Carlton "Clayton" Moore was born Sept. 14, 1914 in Chicago. He passed away Dec. 28, 1999. To legions of fans
he was the Lone Ranger.
As he said at the end of his book, I Was That Masked Man, "It doesn't matter that I am Clayton Moore, an actor, and
that the Lone Ranger is a legendary figure of folklore. In more ways than I can count, we have become one and the
same. I have absorbed parts of him, and he has taken on the best elements of my personality. Until the day I am taken
to that big ranch in the sky, I will continue to wear the mask proudly and to do my best to live up to the standards of
honor, decency, respect, and patriotism that have defined the Lone Ranger since 1933."
Moore was the son of Sprague C. and Theresa Violet Moore.
He had two brothers, Sprague and Howard. Even at an early
age, Moore was a performer. He was a trapeze artist as a
young man and performed with a group called the Flying
Behrs. His high-flying stunts even took him to the 1934
Chicago World's Fair.
Hollywood attracted Moore and it wasn't long before he was
making movies and hanging out with movie stars. He found a
lot of work at Republic Pictures and became known as the
King of the B's for his work in movie serials. Uncle Sam
interrupted his budding career during World War II. He
married Sally Allen during the war. It was his second
marriage. His first, to Mary Francis, lasted less than a year.
In 1949 he was cast to play a role that would forever change
his life -- Moore became the Lone Ranger. The show
debuted on Sept. 15, a day after his 35th birthday. Moore
played the part for the first two seasons. He was replaced by
John Hart for the third season, but returned for the fourth
and fifth seasons.
He did two Lone Ranger movies in 1954 and 1958. Moore
accepted very few movie roles after that, preferring instead
to make his living making appearances as the Lone Ranger.
In December of 1958 the Moores adopted Dawn Angela
Moore.
Disaster struck in 1979 when the Wrather Corporation
placed a restraining order on Moore, prohibiting him from
wearing the mask and appearing as the Lone Ranger. Two
years later a new Lone Ranger was introduced when The
Legend of the Lone Ranger hit theaters. The movie quickly
bombed, fueled by the backlash over Moore's mask.
Very quietly, in 1985, the restraining order was lifted and
He had two brothers, Sprague and Howard. Even at an early
age, Moore was a performer. He was a trapeze artist as a
young man and performed with a group called the Flying
Behrs. His high-flying stunts even took him to the 1934
Chicago World's Fair.
Hollywood attracted Moore and it wasn't long before he was
making movies and hanging out with movie stars. He found a
lot of work at Republic Pictures and became known as the
King of the B's for his work in movie serials. Uncle Sam
interrupted his budding career during World War II. He
married Sally Allen during the war. It was his second
marriage. His first, to Mary Francis, lasted less than a year.
In 1949 he was cast to play a role that would forever change
his life -- Moore became the Lone Ranger. The show
debuted on Sept. 15, a day after his 35th birthday. Moore
played the part for the first two seasons. He was replaced by
John Hart for the third season, but returned for the fourth
and fifth seasons.
He did two Lone Ranger movies in 1954 and 1958. Moore
accepted very few movie roles after that, preferring instead
to make his living making appearances as the Lone Ranger.
In December of 1958 the Moores adopted Dawn Angela
Moore.
Disaster struck in 1979 when the Wrather Corporation
placed a restraining order on Moore, prohibiting him from
wearing the mask and appearing as the Lone Ranger. Two
years later a new Lone Ranger was introduced when The
Legend of the Lone Ranger hit theaters. The movie quickly
bombed, fueled by the backlash over Moore's mask.
Very quietly, in 1985, the restraining order was lifted and
Moore was once again allowed to appear as the Lone Ranger. The next year Sally Moore passed away. Six months
later Moore married Sally's nurse, Connie, but they divorced within three years. Moore married Clarita Petrone in 1992
and they remained together until his death in 1999.
Moore lived a life true to the Lone Ranger Creed. His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is the only one to include his
character's name. Though many men have played the part of the masked man in the past seven decades, only one will
truly be remembered as the Lone Ranger -- Clayton Moore. Rest in peace Kemo Sabe.
later Moore married Sally's nurse, Connie, but they divorced within three years. Moore married Clarita Petrone in 1992
and they remained together until his death in 1999.
Moore lived a life true to the Lone Ranger Creed. His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is the only one to include his
character's name. Though many men have played the part of the masked man in the past seven decades, only one will
truly be remembered as the Lone Ranger -- Clayton Moore. Rest in peace Kemo Sabe.
| Nowhere on the Internet will you find a greater champion of Clayton Moore than on Steve Jensen's Clayton Moore Web site: http://members.tripod.com/~ClaytonMoore/index.html. |
TM
| Click here to see Clayton Moore get his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. |
By Joe Southern
The Silver Bullet
No one is more closely associated with the Lone Ranger than Clayton Moore. And no actor has so closely
associated with a character than Moore has with the masked man. Using his own words as quoted from his
book “I Was That Masked Man,” co-authored by Frank Thompson, we take a look at the life of the man who
brought joy, hope and happiness to millions of fans across the country and around the world.
“I suppose I was destined to be a patriotic American from the day I was born in Saint Luke’s Hospital on the
South Side of Chicago. My birthday, September 14, 1914, was the 100th anniversary of the writing of ‘The Star
Spangled Banner.’”
He was born Jack Carlton Moore. It wasn’t until he got to Hollywood that producer Eddie Small changed his
name to Clayton.
“I was born, the youngest of three boys, to Theresa Violet Fisher and Sprague C. Moore. My brother
Sprague was four years older than I was, and Howard was just nine months older.”
As a teenager, Moore became involved in athletics at the Illinois Athletic Club. There he befriended Johnny
Weissmuller. He learned to swim and, more importantly, to be a trapeze artist. He connected with Johnny Behr,
who invited Moore to join his Flying Behrs.
“Our biggest break came when we were booked at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair. We performed there for
the greater part of that summer. I would travel to the fairground on the El to do two shows a day, an afternoon
and an evening show,” he said.
After a brief move to live with his great-aunt in Florida, Moore dropped out of high school just weeks shy of
graduation to tour with the Flying Behrs. “I loved the athletic challenge of what we were doing, but even more, I
loved performing in front of appreciative audiences. Little by little, I began to realize that show business was my
future — not trapeze work, but acting,” he said.
Following the advice of his oldest brother, Moore got into modeling, first in Chicago, then in New York.
His modeling career led him to Hollywood where he pursued his dream of becoming a cowboy actor. After a
rough start, Moore began to get parts in films, first at Columbia Pictures and then at Warner Brothers. He was
hired away to MGM and six months later signed on with Edward Small Productions to play in “South of Pago
Pago.” He never did get the part, but he did get something else.
“Besides the money, Edward Small would make another big change in my life. He didn’t think that my name,
Jack Carlton, had enough personality. He asked me what I thought about changing it to Clayton Moore, which
he thought had a nice ring to it,” he said.
While Moore was still working as a contract player, he was hired to escort Lupe Velez, the Mexican Spitfire.
They never dated as such but went out to a lot of glamorous spots where Lupe could get publicity.
Moore began getting better parts, including a role in “Kit Carson” (1940). Just before it’s premier, Moore
married Mary Francis. It was a stormy marriage that ended in less than a year. A short time later Moore left
Small to work for Republic Pictures.
“I’ll never forget the first day I walked through the gates of Republic Pictures. … Back in the silent days,
comic genius Mack Sennet had run the place, but now it was a Western paradise. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry,
and John Wayne were Republic’s biggest stars. I felt as though I really come to the right place. But it would be
quite a while before I appeared in a Republic Western,” he said.
Before getting into Westerns, Moore made what was probably the best of his Republic serials — “The
Perils of Nyoka” (later changed to “Nyoka and the Tigermen”).
Around the time he was filming “Perils,” Moore and Velez attended a pool party where Moore met Sally
Allen.
While working on “Black Dragons” in 1942, Moore was drafted into the Army. While he was stationed in
Kingman, Ariz., he married Sally. In 1945 he was transferred from Kingman to the motion picture unit in Culver
City. A short time later he was honorably discharged and went back to work at Republic Pictures. For the next
four years he worked in numerous serials, enough to earn him the title “King of the B’s.”
“‘The Ghost of Zorro’ completed filming in February 1949, and the first episode was released on April 12. I
thought that it had turned out well and was proud of what we had accomplished. But there was no reason to
think of ‘The Ghost of Zorro’ as anything other than just another serial. I went home to wait for my next
assignment from Republic, eager for rest after taking off the Zorro mask.
“What I didn’t realize is that I wouldn’t work for Republic again for a while. And as for masks — I was about
to put one on that I would never truly take off again,” he said.
In the summer of 1949, Moore took on a role that would redefine his life. “So, when my agent told me in the
spring of 1949 that I was being considered for the leading role in a proposed television version of ‘The Lone
Ranger,’ I was thrilled — and more than a little scared,” Moore said.
The nerves, however, quickly passed when he finally met Lone Ranger creator/owner George Trendle.
“Mr. Trendle looked directly into my eyes. ‘Mr. Moore,’ he said — he didn’t call my Clayton, never got that
informal — ‘would you like the part of the Lone Ranger?’ I stiffened up just a little bit and my knees stopped
quaking. I looked back at him and said, ‘Mr. Trendle, I am the Lone Ranger!’”
The next day he was introduced to Jay Silverheels, the man who would play the part of Tonto. “As we
shook hands for the first time, I felt as if I had known Jay Silverheels for a long time,” Moore said.
“My first costume was made by Frank Acuna, an independent costumer. It was very similar to the standard
Lone Ranger costume except that the first mask was slightly smaller and covered less of my face. The mask
was made of plaster and molded right to my face, then covered with purple felt. I developed the molded mask.
In previous movies, masked men had trouble moving around because the mask hindered their vision. But with
this mask I had no trouble at all,” he said.
“We began production on the series on June 21, 1949. Even by the standards of the day, our budgets
were low. For the first two seasons, ‘The Lone Ranger’ cost $12,500 per episode. Our sponsor General Mills
raised the budget to $15,000 in 1951, $17,000 in 1952 and $18,000 by 1954. Today it isn’t unusual for a four-
minute music video on MTV to cost a million dollars. We were masters at stretching a buck,” Moore said.
While Moore didn’t make much money doing the show, it did find a way to earn a little extra off of it.
“But remember the opening scene in front of Lone Ranger Rock, where Silver rears up? That’s me. I did all
the rearing of the horse. Not because I thought I was such an excellent horseman that no one else could rear
Silver as well as I could, but because every time they used that shot to advertise the show, I got fifty dollars. So
I made sure that every time we reared that horse, I was on him,” he said.
The shows were cheap and quickly made, but that didn’t stop the actors from enjoying the experience.
“In one episode Jay had a tongue twister of his own. We rode into the scene, dismounted, ran up a short
hill, crouched down at a fallen log, and Jay said, ‘Kimo Sabe, me see snoke sniggle,’” he said.
One time on the set Silverheels came away from a fight scene walking funny. When Moore found him in his
trailer, Silverheels was holding his chest. He’d had a heart attack. While he was recovering, the scripts were re-
written to have Tonto away. The Dan Reid character was introduced to fill in the gap.
In the show’s third season, in 1952, John Hart replaced Moore. During that time Moore returned to
Republic Pictures and made the last of his serials. Not long after Moore returned to “The Lone Ranger” the
character was sold by Trendle to Jack Wrather for $3 million. Moore played the Lone Ranger for the rest of the
run from 1954 to 1956, starring in 169 of the 221 episodes. He also starred with Silverheels in two major motion
pictures, “The Lone Ranger” (1956) and “The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold” (1958).
“Although neither of us was through with the characters yet — not by a long shot — we would never again
appear in film or on television in adventures about the Lone Ranger and Tonto,” he said.
The year 1958 was very memorable for Moore. He made a famous tour of England and returned home to a
major event. He and Sally adopted a baby girl, Dawn Angela Moore.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Moore continued to appear as the Lone Ranger at public appearances
and on television commercials. He quit acting in order to portray the masked man for a living. But in 1975
something happened to threaten that. The Wrather Corp. demanded that he stop representing himself as the
Lone Ranger. At a hearing in August of 1979, a judge did the improbable — he ripped the mask off the ol’ Lone
Ranger. “It felt like a slap in the face,” he said.
Things didn’t get much better. The next year Jay Silverheels died.
“I could only hope that Jay, wherever he was, knew how much I loved him and respected him and how much
of an impact he had on my life and so many other lives,” Moore said.
In 1981, “The Legend of the Lone Ranger” opened and immediately flopped. “Lone Ranger fans across
the country were so angered by my treatment during this whole ordeal that they stayed away in droves. …
When ‘The Legend of the Lone Ranger’ bombed at the box office, many people expected me to feel smug and
satisfied. But I would never wish failure on anyone,” he said.
The year 1985 brought a mixed blessing. With Jack Wrather’s passing, the restraining order was lived and
the mask was returned. But Sally became ill and passed away the next year. Moore married two more times
after that.
“It doesn’t matter that I am Clayton Moore, an actor, and that the Lone Ranger is a legendary figure of
folklore. In more ways than I can count, we have become one and the same.”
The Silver Bullet
No one is more closely associated with the Lone Ranger than Clayton Moore. And no actor has so closely
associated with a character than Moore has with the masked man. Using his own words as quoted from his
book “I Was That Masked Man,” co-authored by Frank Thompson, we take a look at the life of the man who
brought joy, hope and happiness to millions of fans across the country and around the world.
“I suppose I was destined to be a patriotic American from the day I was born in Saint Luke’s Hospital on the
South Side of Chicago. My birthday, September 14, 1914, was the 100th anniversary of the writing of ‘The Star
Spangled Banner.’”
He was born Jack Carlton Moore. It wasn’t until he got to Hollywood that producer Eddie Small changed his
name to Clayton.
“I was born, the youngest of three boys, to Theresa Violet Fisher and Sprague C. Moore. My brother
Sprague was four years older than I was, and Howard was just nine months older.”
As a teenager, Moore became involved in athletics at the Illinois Athletic Club. There he befriended Johnny
Weissmuller. He learned to swim and, more importantly, to be a trapeze artist. He connected with Johnny Behr,
who invited Moore to join his Flying Behrs.
“Our biggest break came when we were booked at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair. We performed there for
the greater part of that summer. I would travel to the fairground on the El to do two shows a day, an afternoon
and an evening show,” he said.
After a brief move to live with his great-aunt in Florida, Moore dropped out of high school just weeks shy of
graduation to tour with the Flying Behrs. “I loved the athletic challenge of what we were doing, but even more, I
loved performing in front of appreciative audiences. Little by little, I began to realize that show business was my
future — not trapeze work, but acting,” he said.
Following the advice of his oldest brother, Moore got into modeling, first in Chicago, then in New York.
His modeling career led him to Hollywood where he pursued his dream of becoming a cowboy actor. After a
rough start, Moore began to get parts in films, first at Columbia Pictures and then at Warner Brothers. He was
hired away to MGM and six months later signed on with Edward Small Productions to play in “South of Pago
Pago.” He never did get the part, but he did get something else.
“Besides the money, Edward Small would make another big change in my life. He didn’t think that my name,
Jack Carlton, had enough personality. He asked me what I thought about changing it to Clayton Moore, which
he thought had a nice ring to it,” he said.
While Moore was still working as a contract player, he was hired to escort Lupe Velez, the Mexican Spitfire.
They never dated as such but went out to a lot of glamorous spots where Lupe could get publicity.
Moore began getting better parts, including a role in “Kit Carson” (1940). Just before it’s premier, Moore
married Mary Francis. It was a stormy marriage that ended in less than a year. A short time later Moore left
Small to work for Republic Pictures.
“I’ll never forget the first day I walked through the gates of Republic Pictures. … Back in the silent days,
comic genius Mack Sennet had run the place, but now it was a Western paradise. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry,
and John Wayne were Republic’s biggest stars. I felt as though I really come to the right place. But it would be
quite a while before I appeared in a Republic Western,” he said.
Before getting into Westerns, Moore made what was probably the best of his Republic serials — “The
Perils of Nyoka” (later changed to “Nyoka and the Tigermen”).
Around the time he was filming “Perils,” Moore and Velez attended a pool party where Moore met Sally
Allen.
While working on “Black Dragons” in 1942, Moore was drafted into the Army. While he was stationed in
Kingman, Ariz., he married Sally. In 1945 he was transferred from Kingman to the motion picture unit in Culver
City. A short time later he was honorably discharged and went back to work at Republic Pictures. For the next
four years he worked in numerous serials, enough to earn him the title “King of the B’s.”
“‘The Ghost of Zorro’ completed filming in February 1949, and the first episode was released on April 12. I
thought that it had turned out well and was proud of what we had accomplished. But there was no reason to
think of ‘The Ghost of Zorro’ as anything other than just another serial. I went home to wait for my next
assignment from Republic, eager for rest after taking off the Zorro mask.
“What I didn’t realize is that I wouldn’t work for Republic again for a while. And as for masks — I was about
to put one on that I would never truly take off again,” he said.
In the summer of 1949, Moore took on a role that would redefine his life. “So, when my agent told me in the
spring of 1949 that I was being considered for the leading role in a proposed television version of ‘The Lone
Ranger,’ I was thrilled — and more than a little scared,” Moore said.
The nerves, however, quickly passed when he finally met Lone Ranger creator/owner George Trendle.
“Mr. Trendle looked directly into my eyes. ‘Mr. Moore,’ he said — he didn’t call my Clayton, never got that
informal — ‘would you like the part of the Lone Ranger?’ I stiffened up just a little bit and my knees stopped
quaking. I looked back at him and said, ‘Mr. Trendle, I am the Lone Ranger!’”
The next day he was introduced to Jay Silverheels, the man who would play the part of Tonto. “As we
shook hands for the first time, I felt as if I had known Jay Silverheels for a long time,” Moore said.
“My first costume was made by Frank Acuna, an independent costumer. It was very similar to the standard
Lone Ranger costume except that the first mask was slightly smaller and covered less of my face. The mask
was made of plaster and molded right to my face, then covered with purple felt. I developed the molded mask.
In previous movies, masked men had trouble moving around because the mask hindered their vision. But with
this mask I had no trouble at all,” he said.
“We began production on the series on June 21, 1949. Even by the standards of the day, our budgets
were low. For the first two seasons, ‘The Lone Ranger’ cost $12,500 per episode. Our sponsor General Mills
raised the budget to $15,000 in 1951, $17,000 in 1952 and $18,000 by 1954. Today it isn’t unusual for a four-
minute music video on MTV to cost a million dollars. We were masters at stretching a buck,” Moore said.
While Moore didn’t make much money doing the show, it did find a way to earn a little extra off of it.
“But remember the opening scene in front of Lone Ranger Rock, where Silver rears up? That’s me. I did all
the rearing of the horse. Not because I thought I was such an excellent horseman that no one else could rear
Silver as well as I could, but because every time they used that shot to advertise the show, I got fifty dollars. So
I made sure that every time we reared that horse, I was on him,” he said.
The shows were cheap and quickly made, but that didn’t stop the actors from enjoying the experience.
“In one episode Jay had a tongue twister of his own. We rode into the scene, dismounted, ran up a short
hill, crouched down at a fallen log, and Jay said, ‘Kimo Sabe, me see snoke sniggle,’” he said.
One time on the set Silverheels came away from a fight scene walking funny. When Moore found him in his
trailer, Silverheels was holding his chest. He’d had a heart attack. While he was recovering, the scripts were re-
written to have Tonto away. The Dan Reid character was introduced to fill in the gap.
In the show’s third season, in 1952, John Hart replaced Moore. During that time Moore returned to
Republic Pictures and made the last of his serials. Not long after Moore returned to “The Lone Ranger” the
character was sold by Trendle to Jack Wrather for $3 million. Moore played the Lone Ranger for the rest of the
run from 1954 to 1956, starring in 169 of the 221 episodes. He also starred with Silverheels in two major motion
pictures, “The Lone Ranger” (1956) and “The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold” (1958).
“Although neither of us was through with the characters yet — not by a long shot — we would never again
appear in film or on television in adventures about the Lone Ranger and Tonto,” he said.
The year 1958 was very memorable for Moore. He made a famous tour of England and returned home to a
major event. He and Sally adopted a baby girl, Dawn Angela Moore.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Moore continued to appear as the Lone Ranger at public appearances
and on television commercials. He quit acting in order to portray the masked man for a living. But in 1975
something happened to threaten that. The Wrather Corp. demanded that he stop representing himself as the
Lone Ranger. At a hearing in August of 1979, a judge did the improbable — he ripped the mask off the ol’ Lone
Ranger. “It felt like a slap in the face,” he said.
Things didn’t get much better. The next year Jay Silverheels died.
“I could only hope that Jay, wherever he was, knew how much I loved him and respected him and how much
of an impact he had on my life and so many other lives,” Moore said.
In 1981, “The Legend of the Lone Ranger” opened and immediately flopped. “Lone Ranger fans across
the country were so angered by my treatment during this whole ordeal that they stayed away in droves. …
When ‘The Legend of the Lone Ranger’ bombed at the box office, many people expected me to feel smug and
satisfied. But I would never wish failure on anyone,” he said.
The year 1985 brought a mixed blessing. With Jack Wrather’s passing, the restraining order was lived and
the mask was returned. But Sally became ill and passed away the next year. Moore married two more times
after that.
“It doesn’t matter that I am Clayton Moore, an actor, and that the Lone Ranger is a legendary figure of
folklore. In more ways than I can count, we have become one and the same.”
Clayton Moore, in his own words
Excerpts from his book 'I Was That Masked Man'
Excerpts from his book 'I Was That Masked Man'