DALLAS (Reuters) - The western-style outfit actor Clayton Moore wore for appearances as the mysterious, masked Lone Ranger after portraying the character on the popular TV series sold for $195,000 at auction on Saturday, the auction house said.
Moore made many public appearances as the justice-seeking masked lawman after leaving the popular Lone Ranger television show that ran from 1949 to 1957 on the ABC network.
The Lone Ranger ensemble of matching light blue shirt and pants, a red kerchief, Stetson hat, cowboy boots and a belt holster that holds two custom-made Colt pistols, was sold to an undisclosed buyer by Waco, Texas-based auction house A & S Auction Co.
The outfit fetched $45,000 more than its top-end pre-sale estimate of $150,000.
The family of late Waco businessman Bob Davis, an avid collector of Old West and Texas memorabilia, offered the outfit for sale, A & S owner and auctioneer Scott Franks said.
Davis initially bought the Lone Ranger outfit for more than $100,000 at an auction in California after Moore’s death in 1999. It had remained in the Davis family since then, according to Davis’ son, Earl Davis.
"He was a big fan of the Lone Ranger and watched the show when it originally ran," Earl Davis told Reuters. "He really wanted it so he got into a bidding war to buy it."
The Lone Ranger character debuted in a radio show in 1933 before the introduction of television.
(Editing by Curtis Skinner and Dan Grebler)