Posted in 1956, Clayton Moore, The Lone Ranger on April 10, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Bob Madison (who moseys through this blog quite a bit) and I were emailing back and forth yesterday about Clayton Moore and The Lone Ranger. I remembered this page (inside back cover) from the 1956 Dell Giant comic The Lone Ranger Movie Story and thought it was worth sharing.
The article is called “Filming The Lone Ranger Movie.” Click and it gets large enough that even I can read it.
Posted in 1956, Clayton Moore, The Lone Ranger on January 31, 2013 | 4 Comments »
The Lone Ranger made its radio debut 80 years ago today. To mark the occasion, here’s a lobby card from the 1956 feature version of the TV series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels — a modest little Western I’ve loved since I was a kid.
Posted in Books, The Lone Ranger on November 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Came across this book cover today: The Little Big Book The Lone Ranger Outwits Crazy Cougar. Written by George S. Elrick, who wrote a lot of these things, it was published by Whitman in 1968. I read this over and over as a kid — and I’m thinking it’s time to revisit it over Thanksgiving.
Anybody else ever read this?
Posted in 1959, 20th Century-Fox, Clayton Moore, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Fred MacMurray, Lippert/Regal, Television, The Lone Ranger on September 18, 2012 | 13 Comments »
Here’s Gloria Talbott, Fred MacMurray and the great John Dierkes in The Oregon Trail (1959), which after much speculation and lots of blog-commenting time, is finally available from the Fox Cinema Archives MOD program. As one of the CinemaScope films Lippert Pictures produced for 20th Century-Fox in the late 50s (The Fly was one, too), it’s something I’m looking forward to.
Though I’m thrilled about this release, which has been officially listed as widescreen, I have a gripe. If what you see at left is indeed what the packaging looks like, I’m disappointed. A quick Google image search turns up better stuff than that — in color, too. Maybe they should reach out to the collector community — namely, us — for access to better material.
Thanks to John Knight for the tip.
On a completely unrelated note: my daughter and I watched a couple episodes of The Lone Ranger last night — one with James H. Griffith and the other with Hank Worden. What a treat.
Posted in 1956, 1958, Clayton Moore, The Lone Ranger on September 14, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Clayton Moore
September 14, 1914 – December 28, 1999
Clayton Moore spent so much time saying hello to kids and signing autographs, and I never got to meet him. What a drag.
To me, The Lone Ranger TV show and the features (The Lone Ranger, 1956, and 1958′s The Lone Ranger And The Lost City Of Gold) are pure joy. There are so many ways you could criticize them, yet they’re all perfect.
Clayton Moore (from his autobiography, I Was That Masked Man): “The greatest thing about working on the feature was that the pace was much more leisurely. On the series, we would shoot at least 12 pages of script a day, sometimes as much as 15 to 18, but for the film, we would shoot maybe four or five. That’s still working pretty fast compared to some productions, but it seemed like a vacation to us.”
Of course, he did so much more over the course of his career, like those great Republic serials, but how can you top being The Lone Ranger?
Posted in 1958, Festivals, screenings, The Lone Ranger on April 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Clarion Sundance Plaza Hotel
Winston-Salem, NC
July 20-23, 2011
You can find out more about the show here. This is their 34th year! As always. there will be guests, screenings and a dealers’ room.
One of the guests is Lisa Montell who appeared in The Tomahawk Trail (1957) and The Lone Ranger And The Lost City Of Gold (1958).
Posted in 1958, Books, The Lone Ranger on April 12, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Bruce Lander, who passes through 50 Westerns From The 50s quite a bit, sent me a copy of The Western Film And TV Annual from 1958. (That’s not it above — the ’58 volume has Dale Robertson on the cover.) These books, put together by F. Maurice Speed in the UK, make a wonderful resource. Lots of stills. Interviews (Audie Murphy and Jock Mahoney in this one). Info on the real West.
Of course, earlier volumes (it first appeared in 1947) don’t include TV. Features covered in this one include Decision At Sundown (1958), The Hired Gun (1957, black and white CinemaScope, with Rory Calhoun and Anne Francis) and Day Of A Bad Man (1958, starring Fred MacMurray and Marie Windsor). I’m dying to see those last two.
Thanks a million, Bruce. Now to track down the rest of the decade.
Posted in Television, The Lone Ranger on December 23, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Fred Foy, the announcer on The Lone Ranger and so many other things, has passed away at 89.
Posted in Pre-1950, The Lone Ranger on July 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Came across a copy of the Lone Ranger Safety Club certificate over the weekend. It was a different design than the one above (see inset), but the pledge is the same. It dates from The Lone Ranger’s radio days, 1938 to be exact. (I was shown this by Mr. Fred McGee.)
Thanks to the TV show’s constant availability in syndication and now on dollar-store DVDs, it’s easy to forget that The Lone Ranger’s popularity started long before Clayton Moore ever donned the mask.
My Solemn Pledge to The Lone Ranger.
1. I promise not to cross any street except at regular crossings and to first look both ways.
2. I promise not to play in the streets.
3. I promise to always tell the truth.
4. I promise not to cross any street against red signal lights.
5. I promise to be kind to birds and animals.
6. I promise not to hitch hike or ask strangers for rides.
7. I promise to keep myself neat and clean.
8. I promise not to ride on running boards or fenders of cars.
9. I promise to promote safety at all times and encourage others to join this safety movement.
It is the duty of every Lone Ranger Safety Club member to memorize and observe these rules at all times.
Posted in Character actors, George Montgomery, James H. Griffith, The Lone Ranger, William Castle on April 12, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Today I’d like to celebrate James Griffith, a character actor who doesn’t get near the recognition he deserves. That’s him in Rails Into Laramie (1954), in the green shirt, holding the double barrel shotgun.
Mr. Griffith was a musician first and foremost — a one-time member of Spike Jones’ band, but his busy acting career took off and lasted into the 80s. If you have a pulse and have ever sat in front of a television set, chances are good you’ve seen him. He’s in multiple episodes of Dragnet, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Batman and Emergency!, to name just a few. To give you an idea, the Internet Movie Database (not the most trustworthy of references) gives him over 200 actor credits.
Griffith both scored and appeared in Bullwhip (1958), and he co-wrote, scored and acted in Russ Meyer’s Lorna (1964). Standout film roles — his feature work is made up largely of Westerns — include the airline manager at the end of The Killing (1956), Pat Garrett in The Law Vs. Billy The Kid (1954) and a great turn as the ailing Doc Holliday in Masterson Of Kansas (1954, below with George Montgomery).
How many actors can say they worked for Stanley Kubrick, William Castle and Russ Meyer? Now that’s a career!
