Someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger. This was one of my favorite shows growing up in the 1950s. John Hart was O.K. in the title role, but I always liked Clayton Moore better after he took over. Did you know that "kemosabe" means faithful companion/trusted scout?

Late actor Jay Thomas, for many years at Christmas on the David Letterman show, told the following amusing story about how he met Clayton Moore:

When he was a young disc jockey at WAYS 610 AM in Charlotte, North Carolina, Thomas had been making a promotional appearance at a local Dodge dealership which had also booked Clayton Moore, dressed in his Lone Ranger costume.

According to the story, after the broadcast ended Thomas and his colleague, both clad in the hip fashion of the day (including their hair which Thomas' friend wore long while Thomas himself sported what he called a "White Man's Afro"), go off and secretly smoke a marijuana joint behind a dumpster. When they return to pack up their equipment, they discover that Moore is still there, as the car that was supposed to pick him up never arrived, so Thomas offers Moore a ride in his own car, which Moore accepts.

While in traffic, with Moore sitting quietly in the back seat, an impatient middle-aged man backs his full-sized Buick into the front end of Thomas' compact Volvo, breaking one of his headlights, and then drives off. An angry Thomas chases the Buick through heavy traffic, forgetting all about Moore still sitting in his back seat. When he finally catches up to the man and confronts him about the damage, the indignant driver denies all. When Thomas threatens to call the police, the man claims no one will believe "two hippie freaks"; at that moment, Moore, still in costume, steps out of the car and says to the man, "They'll believe me, citizen!" The man, now in a panic, exclaims "I didn't know it was you!"