In 1981, The Legend of the Lone Ranger was released to empty movie theaters. Its bombing was mostly due to it being a shit movie but a lawsuit filed by the producers played a hand as well.

The producers didn’t people to associate the original Lone Ranger Clayton Moore with this new one, which was a problem for them since Moore appeared as the character at fairs and at children’s hospitals. They thought it would devalue the character if he continued making these appearances (which, again, involved entertaining sick children), so they sued him.

(The new and unimproved Tonto and Lone Ranger. Fun fact, the actor playing the Lone Ranger was so awful, they had to bring in a different actor to dub him over.)

This may shock you but most people were disgusted by this. Clayton Moore was basically the Chris Evans of the ’50s: he played an honorable character on-screen and basically started living by that character’s ethos off-screen afterwards and fans adored him for it. Even if the movie wasn’t complete garbage, it probably would have underwhelmed on its own. Moore got around the lawsuit by altering the costume so he was different enough until the lawsuit was dismissed.

(Moore entertaining a child in the hospital)

Hope you all have fun posting here tonight and have a great night.