Actually Steve Larrabee, the Lone Star Rider, was a British TV western hero from the 50s. I learned this from, of all places, an article from the Glendale, California (suburb of Los Angeles)
News-Press. A brief bio and interview with Roy Green, who played Larrabee, begins:
"
Ever since he was a boy, Glendale resident Roy Green had an interest in cowboys of the American West. As a child, the 79-year-old [as of 2005] English native watched westerns and learned about the cowboy stars of the time. In his mid-20s, he decided to go into show business, after serving two years in the British Army and returning to work in the coal mines. Green starred as Steve Larrabee, ?The Lone Star Rider,? and had his own show on television. The ?Steve Larrabee Lone Star Show? aired on the BBC and featured Green riding in on a horse dressed as a cowboy. Green also expanded to the air waves and starred in the ?Steve Larrabee Ranch Show? on British radio. He also endorsed merchandise which included toys, books, manuscripts, comic books, hats and rifles when he portrayed Steve Larrabee. Then in 1956 he left England for the United States and landed jobs at rodeos performing in western shows for brief periods." It's worth reading the interview. Green talks about the rise and fall of American-style westerns in Britain and how, when the fad died out, he moved to the USA to seek work. He tried out for Knott's Berry Farm.
"They said they wouldn?t pay if I just got dressed up [as a cowboy]. I got out of the business and went into magic."
Here's the full article:
https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-xpm-2005-08-17-export129-story.htmlGCD states that there were 45 issues of
Lone Star Magazine published between 1952 and 1956 without a named publisher. Atlas, which had distributed many of those earlier books, took over the title and released 75 more issues, ending in 1963. The GCD info is spotty, but Steve Larrabee seems to have remained in the book at least until 1960. He isn't listed in the two 1963 issues they index.
Here's a photo I found of Roy Green as Steve Larrabee:
