Hi Yo! Salute to the Lone Ranger Set in Lone Pine

The 60th anniversary of the Lone Ranger will be commemorated June 5-6 in a rocky canyon near Lone Pine, where an ambush scene in the first 1938 Republic Pictures serial about the fictional Texas Ranger was filmed. In the story, which originated in a 1933 radio drama, the Ranger was the lone survivor of an ambush, who then adopts his black-masked persona and rides with an Indian named Tonto.

Clayton Moore, who was TV’s first Ranger, will attend the event, which is sponsored by the Lone Pine Film Festival organization. On the evening of June 5, the festival will offer a concert in the canyon, performed by the 28-piece CinemaSound orchestra of Los Angeles area studio musicians. Selections will be from the “Lone Ranger” radio and TV shows, as well as other Western films that have been shot in the Lone Pine area.

The canyon is in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine--a frequent location for Hollywood productions since 1920. The Eastern Sierra Nevada community is north of Los Angeles on State Route 395.

The festival also will include “Lone Ranger” radio announcer Fred Foy; John Hart, who also played the Ranger on TV; William Witney, who directed the first film feature; Fran Striker Jr. and George Trendle Jr., the offspring of the two men who wrote and produced the original radio show; and Tom Gill and Paul S. Newman, who drew and wrote, respectively, the comic-book version.

The festival includes a retrospective of Lone Ranger films and shows, including a 1956 Warner Bros. feature starring Moore.

The Lone Ranger character is now owned by Broadway Video Entertainment, whose principal is Lorne Michaels of TV’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Ticket information:(619) 876-5931.