A big man. Fess Parker has died. We used to see him when we went to the Fess Parker winery up north of Los Olivos. I wonder how many kids today know who Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett were?
[Evening update]
I am negligent, given the occasion and timing, in not linking to Davy Crockett’s famous speech on his obligation to the Constitution. Sadly, we live in a time when not many of either party give much of a damn about it, but certainly not the Democrats.
Parker’s Crockett played a pivotal role in my life. Here’s something about the real Crockett of interest to those of us who object to politicians (and their supporters) who like to be generous with other people’s money:
http://www.juntosociety.com/patriotism/inytg.html
As a kid I wildly desired to be like Parker’s Crockett, to the extent I even had the damn hat. I think I still do, moldering in the bottom of some box in the basement. Parker seemed to me to be a good guy. How was his wine, Rand?
I was just yesterday thinking about him and his two TV shows, though I first saw him as Daniel Boone and only learned he’d also played Davy Crockett later.
The wine was (and still is) good, though I think he sold the winery a few years ago (it retains his name as the brand). We were a member of a club that shipped us samples a few times a year.
The wine was consistently very good, although the coonskin cap on the label may have bumped the price somewhat. Fess’ son, Eli, runs a winery called Epiphany, which is in Los Olivos town and makes some pretty amazing shiraz. Eli had been the winemaker at Fess Parker for some years.
Bilwick1, I read a shorter version of that in the past. Very grateful that you included a link to that story.
Yep, had a hat, too. I didn’t know he was still alive; good for him to living to a ripe old age.
Loved Daniel Boone as a kid. As for Crockett, his speech on limited government was a great moment in Congressional history.
Ah, I have had the Epiphany Shiraz. And liked it a lot. Thanks for the back story.
I remember Fess Parker as Davy Crockett; I’d forgotten about Daniel Boone.
The Davy Crockett TV show inspired me to read a lot about Crockett the man, and I was impressed with what I read. He was the perfect example of a citizen legislator. I frosted me then and frosts me still that so many of them are (or become) greedy bastards.
Wish we had a Crockett to stand up in Congress today and give that speech. Of course, the MSM would make him out to be a far-right loon, like some others who believe government should serve the people, not the other way around. >:-(
I still remember the theme — “Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!” And I had a hat too. Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, all those guys
were part of my childhood — and no one said “but you’re a girl.” I wasn’t even a tomboy like my sister — I hated sports. But I did like dressing up in my cowboy outfit and shooting my cap guns in the back yard at my sister.
Anyway, what do kids have now. I don’t even know — Britney Spears? An animated sponge? I would hate being a kid today, even with all the supposedly cool things they have now.
So funny thing. I just moved to Knoxville for work. Being a red-blooded American, I knew Davy Crockett was a congressman from Tennessee and gave his life for Texas at the Alamo. I just read the biography by Constance Rourke. Classic. My children (4 and counting, and red-blooded Americans all) will know who Davy Crockett is.
Have a hat, but not coonskin, that I got in Canada. Love the thing because it’s my warmest hat, which I attribute to the natural fur (rabbit on top and a squirrel tail). It does beget some odd looks being seen on a grownup, but I laugh while they’re cold. If you’re ever up in Canada be sure to load up on the cold weather clothing.
As a Texan, I of course know about Davy Crockett. Texas history was either 7th or 8th grade. If he’s featured in elementary texts I was learning English and European and World history in those years; I didn’t get U.S. history until high school.
And Dan’l Boone? Din’t he kilt a bar som’ere ‘roun’ har?
Watching Daniel Boone on TV in the ’60s are some of my earliest memories. I believe I can still hum a portion of the tune.
Late last year I shared “Old Yeller” with my 7 and 10 year old kids and they couldn’t watch the final scene when Yeller suffered from rabies. I’m sure I felt the same way when I was a kid.
Quite frankly, I thought Fess Parker died years ago. I’m glad to see he lived a long a fruitful life.
I think I knew he was still alive, but am surprised he was only 85. He was born only about a month before my dad.
Mr. Parker went to war with the statists here in Santa Barbara over some waterfront property that was a) undeveloped and b) next to the tracks and c) home to the homeless. He fought for years to get the right to develop and finally won after spending too much money and giving away too many concessions. The hotel is one of our finest locations and employs many. Wish he had been able to move ahead without the BANANAs screwing with him. The town would have been better for it. Oh, and to HELL with Pearl Chase – inside joke if you know SB.
Isn’t ironic that he died today when Bart Gordon announced he would vote for Obamacare against the wishes of the Tennessee people, possibly in exchange for an appointment?
I recall the scene in Davy Crockett when Fess walks into Congress and takes the bill that would double-cross the Indians and rips it in half and storms out! THAT is what should happen to lawless bills like Obamacare.
I remember them both. Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen.
At the end, Ebsen’s character, mortally wounded yells to Crockett, “Give’em what fer, Davy!”
Always thought of that as right up there with “Molon labe”.
I’m going to have to look up Parker’s pre-Disney career. Funny if he was cast solely because he was the guy who most looked like Disney thought Crockett should look like.
“I wonder how many kids today know who Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett were?”
My kids do, because I bought them the Davy Crockett DVDs and there was a time period when they watched them over and over. I actually think the Alamo one was where my younger son first got the idea of death; he seemed fascinated by their acceptance of their fate and willingness to die together as men.
We showed it to the son of some friends in Austin– and the mom turned it off when she heard them use the word “Injuns.”
Parker also starred in the short-lived series “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. It was loosely based on the movie. wiki link
My boys (not “kids,” or “children”) but my BOYS, dammit, will know who Crockett and Boone were, as they will also know who were Lee, Wellington, Sitting Bull, Nimitz, Washington, Nelson, Spruance, Fisher, Preble, Perry, Geo. Thomas, Thos. Jackson, Mahan, Prince Eugene, Togo, Tecumseh, Kutuzov, Stauffenberg, Mackensen, Molkte, Haig, Churchill, and Marshall. All of them. Warts and all. Where they screwed up. Where they betrayed what they ought not have. Why they will still be remembered when our names are no longer spoken even by our lineals.
I sure remember him. As a boy, I used to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings (back when cartoons were still funny) lying on my stomach on the floor in front of the TV. But for some reason, when watching Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett I’d always sit up straight and be real quiet. I’m glad Fess Parker lived to a ripe old age. Rest in peace, Dan’l.
Funny thing is, the real Davy Crockett kind of hated the coonskin cap. He only wore it for public appearances because his fans expected it. He used it as a gimmick when he was running for Congress, too. But today you can’t think of Davy Crockett w/o also (a) Fess Parker and (b) the coonskin cap.
Rest in peace, Fess Parker and thankyou for many treasured moments in my youth when you were my idol
I think Disney re-released the “Davy Crockett” TV show as a feature film in the 1970s, where I caught the virus. Of course I had the hat — which one day fell out of my treehouse, on the property line, and into the neighbor’s backyard.
She panicked and called animal control, which came and picked up the “dead raccoon.” My dad had to get it out of hock at their office at city hall, where it had been hung as a trophy.
Mike G:
“I actually think the Alamo one was where my younger son first got the idea of death; he seemed fascinated by their acceptance of their fate and willingness to die together as men.”
Interesting. Me, too. And my boys — the oldest of which was very affected yesterday hearing about Parker’s passing.
That’s a harsh thing to say about John Stewart.
😀
Snap, forgot the link!
“I actually think the Alamo one was where my younger son first got the idea of death; he seemed fascinated by their acceptance of their fate and willingness to die together as men.”
This certainly applied to me as a four year old watching “Davy Crockett at the Alamo” on the DISNEYLAND tv show. I assume I had some vague idea about death–I had probably seen guys die in cowboy movies, and in the first Disney-Crockett episode about the Creek War–but when Davy died that really had an impact. Certainly the first traumatic experience (albeit a televised experience) with death in my lifer up to that point. I often wonder what impact that Alamo episode had on Baby Boomer consciousness when, after following this guy’s life and letting him become the most important person in our kid world over the past few months (the first episode aired, I believe, in December 1954, the second in January 1955 and the third and final one–the Alamo episode–in February 1955), suddenly he dies on us.