Subject: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Desert Dancer Date: 18 Mar 10 - 04:43 PM From the New York Times: March 18, 2010, 4:08 pm Fess Parker, 'Davy Crockett' and 'Daniel Boone' Star, Has Died By RICHARD SEVERO Fess Parker, whose television portrayal of Davy Crockett, the American frontiersman, catapulted him to stardom in 1954-55 and inspired one of America's greatest merchandising fads, in which hundreds of thousands of children wore coonskin caps, died on Thursday. Mr. Parker, who went rustic once again in the 1960s and played Daniel Boone for a new generation of young television watchers, was 85. His death was reported by CNN, citing a statement from Mr. Parker's family that did not give a cause of death. Mr. Parker was a handsome, rugged but obscure Hollywood actor when he was discovered by Walt Disney, whose company was about to produce a Davy Crockett series for "Disneyland," his new American Broadcasting Company television show. "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" was introduced on the very first episode of "Disneyland" on Oct. 27, 1954, and was dashed together in about twenty minutes by Tom Blackburn, the script writer for the series, who had never written a song before, and George Bruns, the head staff composer for the Disney organization. Walt Disney himself suggested that the words of the song be used to move the plot along. "The lyrics will pick it up for the kids," he said. "It's what I call a comic-book approach." |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: fat B****rd Date: 18 Mar 10 - 04:47 PM For a little while I wanted desperately to have a Coonskin hat and live like Davy Crockett. My paremnt bought the record (by Dick James I believe) RIP Mr. Parker |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: open mike Date: 18 Mar 10 - 04:51 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031802823.html http://www.fessparker.com/html/fess_parker_fan_site.html |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Wesley S Date: 18 Mar 10 - 04:58 PM I was hooked on Davy Crockett when I was a kid. I wish I still had my official Coonskin cap. I wonder what it would fetch on Antiques Roadshow? |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: mkebenn Date: 18 Mar 10 - 05:08 PM Me too, in '54. I got a coonskin in '76. I never did grow out of it. Ofcourse, Mr Crockett rarley wore on unless campaigning. Mike. Mr Parker owned a winery in California, yes? Mike |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Murray MacLeod Date: 18 Mar 10 - 05:23 PM I too was fascinated by the legend of Davy Crockett, but I never did get a proper coonskin cap :-( I loved the Ballad of Davy Crockett as well, especially the line "killed him a b'ar when he was only three..." RIP Mr Parker. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Beer Date: 18 Mar 10 - 05:24 PM Another childhood hero gone. Sympathies to his family and friends. Adrien |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: pdq Date: 18 Mar 10 - 05:25 PM Fess Parker owned a winery in the fashionable Santa Barbara County. Other entertainers Pat Paulsen, Father Guido Sarducci and the Smothers Brothers all owned wineries at one time, but in the Napa County area of northern California. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: dwditty Date: 18 Mar 10 - 05:40 PM Guido Sarducci!!! Lazlo Toth!!!! Don Novello!!!! I had a coon(ish)skin hat as did all my friends...My favorite part of the series was the Alamo. dw |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Sorcha Date: 18 Mar 10 - 06:03 PM Damn. Another icon gone. I'm getting old. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: GUEST,DonMeixner Date: 18 Mar 10 - 06:19 PM "Quiet Georgie, I'm grinnin' down a bar." "Well grin faster Davy, I'm hongry." |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Acorn4 Date: 18 Mar 10 - 06:46 PM Those who couldn't get a coonskin cap often stuck saucepans on their heads, leading to several cases ending up in A and E to have them removed. I remember a beautiful replica flintlock pistol I had based on the film. Thanks for the memories. R.I.P |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: gnu Date: 18 Mar 10 - 06:51 PM King of the Wild frontier. RIP. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: catspaw49 Date: 18 Mar 10 - 06:55 PM I had my coonskin and my replica Ol' Betsy and the records and.........I really loved Davy Crockett and all of his adventures with his pal Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen). Fighting the Injuns or with Big Mike Fink, he was the hero of my early youth.Looking back on it now I can't begin to describe how important that Davy was to a 5 year old......or at least to this one. Years later I read something Jim Kunen wrote that struck me as both funny but also had some truth behind it. The things that Davy did and said played a large part in many of our lives even though I doubt we knew it. The show taught some value lessons and morals and especially Davy's advice that a "man has to do what he thinks is right." The 60's came along and as our generation came of age we began to question what the was going on in the world, in Civil Rights, and race relations, and Vietnam. Davy's advice was right there for us..........Poor old conservative Walt may have helped to raise up a whole generation of radicals! BTW, as an interesting note here, we had a 'Catter around here for a long time who still drops in occasionally who was cast as an "Injun" in the series and spent his time running around in the woods. He wore a necklace in the show that he kept and it became his hatband in later life. And for the definitive and long version of the song, listen to "Riders in the Sky" as they do The Ballad of Davy Crockett with the lyrics so you can sing along! Goodbye Fess and thanks......... Spaw |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Amos Date: 18 Mar 10 - 07:02 PM Spaw said it all. So long, pardner. Make sure you're right--then go ahead. A |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: GUEST,SINS Date: 18 Mar 10 - 07:02 PM Davy at the Alamo singing "Farewell To The Mountains" reduced me to tears. In Westward Ho! he sang Ringo rango jingie jong jango Whoop! Ha! I got spurs on my boots And I don't give a hoot For I got me a pretty woman's love. He played the Dad in Ole Yellar. So sad to see him go. RIP |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: GUEST,Janet Date: 18 Mar 10 - 07:42 PM A Providence channel, Retro TV, has been showing Daniel Boone episodes. It's been interesting seeing the series from an adult perspective. I was a big Cavy Crockett fan, too. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: katlaughing Date: 18 Mar 10 - 07:52 PM I was just a baby when he had the first show and we didn't have a tv until I was eight, but I do remember the song and snippets of the later show. By then, though, as Spaw said, it was the 60s and I lost interest with the advent of boys and other things.:-) Sins, thanks. I barely remember Westward Ho, but my family sang that song a lot, so I know it. Didn't realise it was him singing it. Sad to see another one gone on. kat |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: pdq Date: 18 Mar 10 - 08:04 PM Well, we still have Clint Walker and James Arness, for a while... |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Bugsy Date: 18 Mar 10 - 10:58 PM I had a "Davey Crocket" hat when I was a little tacker. It was made from one of the arms of my mum's old fur coat. I loved Davey Crocket. RIP Fess. Cheers Bugsy |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: cobber Date: 18 Mar 10 - 11:31 PM We had the hats when I was a kid in England but the really cool thing was the Davy Crockett hair cut. You had your hair swept up and back in a sort of Bouffant style that looked something like a coonskin hat. The really cool thing though was the little tail down the back. My fifth grade teacher, Mr Lusher, had one and we were soooo impressed. How could somebody so old (he must have been all of twenty three)be so switched on. His tail grew to be about four inches long before he finally cut it off, much to our disgust.around 1980 I wrote and recorded a song that was directly inspired by Fess Parker's portreayal of Davy Crockett. When I was ten years old things seemed so simple Everything was either wrong or right My Daddy fought the war to keep the Germans from our door Davy Crockett was my hero He showed us how to fight But where are you now Davy Crockett Singing through the hills of Tennessee If you came back today would you still do things your way Or would you be just as confused as me A giant of a man was Davy Crockett Striding through my childhood with a song Solving people's cares, shooting Indians and bears Walking off into the sunset to right another wrong But where are you now... Things are different today, Davy Crockett Nothing's right or wrong or white or black There's just different shades of grey to choose between today So you rode off with the Lone Ranger And you won't be coming back But where are you now... RIP Fess and thanks for the memories |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Desert Dancer Date: 19 Mar 10 - 12:05 AM The Disney Davy Crocket song is on the NY Times page. I was of the Daniel Boone generation, myself. Had a crush at age 6 or 6... ~ Becky in Long Beach |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: catspaw49 Date: 19 Mar 10 - 12:08 AM Becky, go back up to my post and listen to the definitive version from "Riders in the Sky." Spaw |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Janie Date: 19 Mar 10 - 12:16 AM Rest in Peace, Davie (Mr. Parker.) 'Spaw, for us 50 and 60 somethings, you said it all. I can close my eyes and vivid black-and-white images of both the Disney and the later show appear, full of detail. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: ex-pat Date: 19 Mar 10 - 12:54 AM Another boyhood hero gone. Rest in Peace Fess Parker. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Little Hawk Date: 19 Mar 10 - 01:40 AM Me and all my friends were mad about Davy Crockett back then. I got the coonskin cap, a replica of "Old Betsy", and a complete Davy Crockett phony "buckskin" suit with fringes. Oh, and a powder horn too. My and my best friend Johnny died countless times defending the Alamo on the top of my parents outdoor oil tank in the backyard. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Dave Sutherland Date: 19 Mar 10 - 04:07 AM I was part of our growing up; I got a Davy Crockett had made by my Grandma for my birthday that year, along with the official pistol and guitar. "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" was probably the first song that I learned. RIP |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Charley Noble Date: 19 Mar 10 - 08:43 AM And meanwhile the raccoons are mostly singing this old ditty: The raccoon grinned a banjo song, Hu-rye, tu-rye, fod-a-link-a-dye-do The raccoon grinned a banjo song; Fod! Well, the raccoon grinned a banjo song, 'Long came a skunk with his britches on, Tu-rolly-day! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: jacqui.c Date: 19 Mar 10 - 09:11 AM Fess Parker was one of my first crushes as a little kid. He just seemed to epitomise every thing that was good and right. RIP sir. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Sugwash Date: 19 Mar 10 - 09:50 AM In the Royal Navy, Fess was the nickname often given to those with the surname Parker (although sometimes it was Nosey). I hadn't twigged that it was derived from the Davey Crockett actor. May he rest in peace. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Lighter Date: 19 Mar 10 - 10:04 AM Nobody under fifty can possibly know how sad this is. Consider this: there had never been a kid's hero like Davy Crockett/ Daniel Boone. When Parker debuted as Davy in 1954, few onscreen action heroes had ever had such depth and humanity (along with a sense of humor and a great theme song!). Parker's anti-establishment Davy stood up for the little guy against a corrupt Congress. He even defied the President, who'd tried to hoodwink him. And he could jump up and catch a bullet with his teeth, arguably the greatest scene broadcast on American television before the fall of the Berlin Wall. What's more, Fess Parker and his pal Buddy Ebsen came directly into your living room. You didn't have to go to a crowded movie theater to see them. You could talk about the action during the commercials. And they returned periodically for a whole year, with plenty of warning so you could look forward to it. And did we ever! When you wore your coonskin cap, you felt you were part of history, democracy even! (Nowadays kids are supposed to feel like they're part of show biz.) I'm one of those people who think Billy Bob Thornton was the most authentic movie Crockett. But I know deep down that Fess Parker was the greatest. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Rog Peek Date: 19 Mar 10 - 12:37 PM Oh dear, another of my boyhood heroes gone! How sad. RIP Rog |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: sian, west wales Date: 19 Mar 10 - 01:06 PM I seem to recall that we had an old record of Fess Parker singing ... Green Grow the Lilacs? I loved that record ... (((sigh))) sian |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Desert Dancer Date: 19 Mar 10 - 01:29 PM Here's the full New York Times obituary: click. For music content: The scriptwriter for the series, Tom W. Blackburn, and the head staff composer for the Disney organization, George Bruns, came up with a title song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," and it was introduced on the first episode of "Disneyland" on Oct. 27, 1954, to publicize the coming Crockett episodes. The song, with multiple choruses, began: Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee Greenest state in the land of the free Raised in the woods so he knew every tree Kilt him a b'ar when he was only 3 Davy, Davy Crockett King of the wild frontier "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" would become stamped in the memories of a generation of young viewers. A number of artists, including Mr. Parker himself, recorded the song, and it sold in the millions. Bill Hayes's version reached No. 1 on the pop charts. Tennessee Ernie Ford, Eddy Arnold, Burl Ives, and Mitch Miller were among the others to come out with recordings. --- It's interesting to read there what a short lifetime the series had, given its impact, only 2 years: The first episode of the Davy Crockett trilogy, "Davy Crockett: Indian Fighter," with Buddy Ebsen as Mr. Parker's sidekick, George, was shown on Dec. 15, 1954. "Davy Crockett Goes to Congress" appeared on Jan. 26, 1955. By the time the last episode, "Davy Crockett at the Alamo," was broadcast, on Feb. 23, 1955, the country was in a Crockett frenzy. Children wore coonskin caps to school and wore them to bed. They wore them with their Davy Crockett plastic fringe frontier costumes while they played with their Crockett trading cards, their Crockett board games and puzzles, their Crockett color slide sets and their Crockett powder horns. They pestered their parents for Crockett toy muskets and Crockett bubble gum and Crockett rings and comic books. By the end of 1955, The New York Times reported, American children had their choice of more than 3,000 different Davy Crockett toys, lunch boxes, thermoses and coloring books. The Disney studio also turned episodes from the series into two feature films — "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" in 1955 and "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates" the following year. If the Disney scripts stretched the truth about Crockett, the final episode remained faithful to at least one historical fact. The real-life Crockett died at the Alamo in 1836 at the age of 49, and Mr. Parker's Crockett fell there, too. But Disney, responding to a public outcry, brought him back for episodes in the 1955-56 season, including "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race." "Take off those black armbands, kids," the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper wrote, "and put on your coonskin caps, for Davy Crockett will hit the trail again." But not for long. By early 1956 interest had begun to flag, and as suddenly as it had begun, the craze ended. --- "Daniel Boone" went for six years, but didn't have the same impact. I like this conclusion to the article: As a developer and entrepreneur, Mr. Parker had interests in luxury hotels and a mobile home park in addition to his winery, which had its first harvest in 1989. He also acquired a reputation for being sure of himself and determined to get his way. Playing Davy Crockett, he said, had made him that way. And if Crockett had a shrewd side, so did the businessman in Mr. Parker, who understood the character's continuing marketing power long after the '50s craze had become a memory. At his winery visitors almost invariably asked him about Crockett, and he was sure to direct them to the gift shop, where coonskin caps were for sale. And though he politely but consistently refused to wear one for their cameras, he was always happy to sign a Fess Parker wine label, bearing its familiar trademark: a tiny picture of a coonskin cap. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Desert Dancer Date: 19 Mar 10 - 01:31 PM Here's the Los Angeles Times obituary, with some nice pictures: click. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: mkebenn Date: 19 Mar 10 - 04:05 PM I read or saw that Buddy Ebson had been schedualed for the part of Davy untill Fess showed up. Sucks for Buddy, 'specially after that thing with the Tin Man in '39. I have both theatrical releases on DVD. I played them for my granddaughter when she was 4. For the following year it was all she would watch As I was headin' away from town, I aimed to grin a wildcat down. But just as I begun to stare There come a growlin' grizzly bear and bang went ol' Betsy my trusty gun is Betsy I can travel far and wide with Betsy by my side. Fare Thee well, Mr Parker. Mike |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: olddude Date: 19 Mar 10 - 06:13 PM Thank you for all the great memories. He was my hero along with the Lone Ranger ... What joy he brought to a young boy with his movies and TV show. I will never forget him |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Date: 19 Mar 10 - 06:27 PM When I was 14, the original "Davy Crocket, King of the Wild Frontier" show was broadcast on Disney's Sunday night program. It was the first of what would become known as "mini-series" in a later time. My young cousins marched around in coonskin caps, carrying plastic long rifles. In reality, Mr. Parker was a rather jovial, courtly gentleman who some of you who have been victimized by bad accountants or unscrupulous agents could admire because he "beat the system." When residuals were not forthcoming for his part in the 1960's "Daniel Boone" TV series, he sued and won over "creative accounting" practices rampant in the industry at the time. The proceeds enabled him to retire from movie-making, buy land in Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley and engage in the hotel and winery businesses. In my former life as a professional wino (actually a wine marketer), I had the chance to meet Fess Parker at his winery. Some time later, I was privileged to represent his wines in our area for a time. They are excellent award-winning wines. He was married to the same lady for half a century, something nearly unknown in Hollywood circles. In recent years, on Thursday nights, he and his wife would host sing-a-longs in the lounge of a hotel he owned in Santa Ynez area. He had always loved music and loved playing host and joining in. Playing a guitar and singing for Walt Disney helped him land the original Davy Crockett part. Happy trails to a really nice man! |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Haruo Date: 19 Mar 10 - 07:13 PM Born in '54, I was too young for Davy Crockett except in reruns, and as a bona fide descendant of Daniel Boone I was probably a bit more critical of the historicities of the TV Daniel than my contemporaries mostly were, plus his name was conflated in my thinking with Ken Curtis's Festus (in Gunsmoke)... but I liked both theme songs. Sorry to see him go. Haruo |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Genie Date: 19 Mar 10 - 11:40 PM Jacqui, Fess Parker - not so much Davy Crocket, but Parker himself - was just about the first celebrity crush I had. (Bobby Driscoll as Jim Hawkins in Disney's "Treasure Island" was the other, and he was about my age, but that was just a movie I saw once. I had Fess for many weeks as Davy and then for many more as Dan'l Boone.) I even followed Fess Parker in whatever other movie roles I knew about. I like what the L A Times said about him: [[And yet, if Parker had some John Wayne in him, he also had some Jimmy Stewart. Wayne had no modesty. Parker did. His Crockett was kind, temperate, sensitive, tolerant -- less an Indian fighter in the Wayne mold than an Indian mediator. He was also something of a renegade, opposing authority and challenging the system. That enabled him to bridge political and ideological divides or, rather, to blur them. Conservatives claimed him -- and Parker was a conservative himself who was a friend and neighbor of Ronald Reagan -- but so did liberals. He belonged to everyone. In fact, after he left Disney because he was tired of being typecast as a frontiersman, Parker starred for one season, from 1962 to 1963, in a television version of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which only showed the continuity between his Crockett and 20th century Frank Capra populism. ]] I also remember his becoming a small-scale vintner after he retired from movies. Wonder if his vineyards are still going. "Farewell," Fess. Thinking of you brings back sweet memories of my 'tween & early teen yrars. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Genie Date: 19 Mar 10 - 11:55 PM Somewhere I think I may still have a 45 rpm single of Fess Parker singing the song "Farewell," the lyrics of which were extracted from a poem of the same name, by the real Davy Crockett. Here are the lyrics as I remember Fess singing them: poem: Farewell to the mountains, whose maze is to me More beautiful far than Eden could be; The home I redeemed from the savage and wild; The home I have loved as a father his child; The wife of my bosom--Farewell to ye all! In the land of the stranger I rise or I fall. I know I have the sheet music in my files. I wish someone would post the recording on YouTube. Fess Parker did a great job singing that song. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Bugsy Date: 20 Mar 10 - 12:26 AM Though I loved Davey Crocket dearly, I was always confused as a lad that he was a grown man but was (as the song goes) "Killed in a bar when he was only 3" I'm still confused. CHeers bugsy |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: mkebenn Date: 20 Mar 10 - 04:50 AM bugsy ROFLMAO Mike |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Stringsinger Date: 20 Mar 10 - 02:53 PM When I lived in Santa Barbara, I taught his son guitar. He was busy as an actor. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Murray MacLeod Date: 20 Mar 10 - 06:37 PM Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Bugsy - PM Date: 20 Mar 10 - 12:26 AM Though I loved Davey Crocket dearly, I was always confused as a lad that he was a grown man but was (as the song goes) "Killed in a bar when he was only 3" That's funny, Bugsy, literally LOL ... |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Little Hawk Date: 21 Mar 10 - 04:25 PM They started drinkin' pretty young in them days... |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: mikesamwild Date: 21 Mar 10 - 04:27 PM I thought it was his bro who died recently. he was only 6ft 2" |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: GUEST, Charles Collier Date: 08 Sep 13 - 07:42 PM When I was 5, I was in a fire and got 3rd degree burns, all that I wanted in the hospital was a coon skin cap. That cap helped me through the pain and agony of the burns. God Bless Fess Parker and all that he stood for. He was a hero of the times and lived a life of honesty. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 08 Sep 13 - 09:37 PM What a lovely post, Charles. Thanks so much for writing. I trust all the old wounds are long healed. Like a lot of the others here, I adored Davy, who was a hero figure to me. I used to run action-adventure mind-movies inside my head at night after lights out, featuring me and Davy and Georgie getting up to various exciting exploits, usually involving horses and dogs. (I was too little to be interested in any romantic angle - still at the age when those were the boring bits.) To my utter mortification one night, my dad came into my room and told me to quiet down and go to sleep - I had been speaking my "lines" out loud! Davy was a truly wonderful childhood companion. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: clueless don Date: 09 Sep 13 - 09:02 AM I see that his death was back in 2010, so this isn't a current discussion. But I still thought I would mention another production that Mr. Parker was in - a Disney movie called something like "Westward Ho, the Wagons!" I think it might have been the first movie I ever saw. I still remember snippets of some of the songs. Don |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Eldergirl Date: 09 Sep 13 - 01:13 PM Think he was in North to Alaska too. "North to Alaska, we're goin' north, the rush is on." The gold rush of course. We didn't have a TV when the Davy Crockett series first broke, but something of the excitement rubbed off and I had a Disney-produced storybook for Christmas that year. Loved the song. Still mystified as to the name 'Fess'. But too plain idle to look it up!! |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 09 Sep 13 - 02:28 PM Fess Elisha Parker was well-known to California wine addicts, he managed the family winery in California after his acting career. The name is "family," not explained. With degrees in history and theatre, he was well-qualified for his roles. See www.fessparkerwinery.com/Winery. The family also operates a well-thought-of resort. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 09 Sep 13 - 03:22 PM Reminds me of the old joke. "How many ears has Davy Crocket got? Three! "His right ear, his left ear, and his wild front ear" |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: voyager Date: 09 Sep 13 - 10:33 PM Mudcat - If you're ever rambling the highways of East Tennessee and the winding road through the cornfields takes you here - Birthplace of Davy Crockett (Limestone, TN) you'll find the Plaque on the cabin door to say (paraphrase) - "Contrary to public opinion, Davy Crockett was not 'born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...'. Instead he was born in this river valley in what was Franklin (territory). Dreams die hard and as they say "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend". Translation - I'll stick with the song and Fess Parker (who portrayed both Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone). Fess Up - we loved this guy voyager |
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: GUEST,Keith Date: 15 Jan 14 - 02:46 AM Farewell to the mountain, I first heard this song 1956 and have been singing it ever sense (Beautiful song). I am looking for another song I havn't heard sense 1967 (Some of the words,) Mindy Mindy on the town Mindy Mindy playing around, Now your back and girl I know, Your putting on the same old show. Can anyone please help me find this song. Keith. |
Subject: RE: 2010 Obit:Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 15 Jan 14 - 04:08 AM Hi Keith - It would probably be a good idea to start a new thread so this question shows up in the main page of topics, where more people see it. I loved Farewell too, and could never understand why it didn't get more popular.I had a 45 of Tennessee Ernie Ford singing The Ballad of DC and that was on the flip side (there are links above to a couple of other threads about this song). Good luck on your Mindy hunt - sorry I can't help. |
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