The Region - News from Dec. 30, 1986

Actor Clayton Moore, 73, of Calabasas, who starred as the Lone Ranger in 195 episodes of the television show between 1949 and 1956, was in the slightly embarassing position of reporting to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s station in Malibu that he’d lost two suitcases containing $20,000 worth of the Masked Man’s gear on a flight from Houston to Los Angeles International Airport. There was no evidence that the luggage was stolen, deputies said. And the airline was attempting to track the suitcases down. Among the missing items: two Lone Ranger outfits, two pearl-handled, silver-plated Colt .45 revolvers, and 50 sterling silver bullets with “Lone Ranger” engraved on each, his gun belt and his holsters. He hadn’t lost his white hat, said sheriff’s Sgt. Kent Scholton, because he was wearing that. But what about the trade-mark mask? Well, Moore admitted a bit ruefully, he hadn’t lost that either--it was in his wife, Connie’s, purse.