The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128191 Message #2867619
Posted By: Lighter
19-Mar-10 - 10:04 AM
Thread Name: Obit:Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone 2010
Subject: RE: Obit: Fess Parker: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone
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.