Posted on 03/06/2004 3:53:54 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Wearing a coat and tie on a frame once synonymous with a buckskin jacket and coonskin cap, actor Fess Parker still looks larger than life.
The Texas-born actor was at the Alamo on Friday to donate a 180-year-old long rifle in tribute to the late Walt Disney and others who made him famous as television's Davy Crockett.
It was given to him by the National Rifle Association in Philadelphia in 1955 in a gesture that commemorated an 1834 presentation of a rifle to Crockett by a group known as "The Young Men of Philadelphia." The group's members were with the Whig Party, which Crockett had belonged to in his last term as a congressman from Tennessee.
Parker said having played Crockett, the Alamo's most celebrated hero, "helped me stay focused" on things that are important in life.
"When you're out on the road, people invite you to become a part of their lifestyle, and you sure have to be careful," he said. "The thing that really drove home was that a lot of people who watched the shows around 1955 to '60 were little kids who later fought in Vietnam."
Alamo officials don't know what happened to the rifle Crockett received in 1834. They said he didn't take it to the Alamo, because he felt it was too fancy.
Parker's 64-inch flintlock rifle, with a browned barrel and tiger-striped maple stock, now is on public display at the Alamo's gift museum, in a new exhibit about Crockett.
Though not likely used at the Alamo, it was reflective of the kind of weapon used in the 1836 battle, Alamo curator Bruce Winders said. It likely fired .45-caliber balls, using packed gunpowder, he said.
"As an artifact, it's superb," Winders said. The rifle's significant link to the Alamo is not through history but by way of popular culture, since many Americans were introduced to Crockett through Parker's TV portrayals, he said.
Parker's daughter and business associate, Ashley Parker Snider, said portraying Crockett left Parker feeling a responsibility to carry himself with dignity. Though humble, Parker can be determined once he's committed himself to a cause or position, his daughter said.
"I don't really think Davy Crockett and Fess are that different," said Snider, who often calls her dad by his first name when representing him.
"You could call him stubborn," she said. "Anything having to do with Texas means a lot to Fess. These are definitely his kind of people."
Parker wasn't sure if he'd see the movie "The Alamo," which is set to open in theaters April 9. The film was produced by Touchstone Pictures, a division of Disney Studios.
"I'll want to read the reviews," said Parker, who said that at 78 he seldom goes to movies.
Now living in Santa Barbara County, Calif., and dealing in hotels, real estate and wine production, Parker said he flies a Texas flag at an inn he owns, and has a stone given to him years ago that designates it as an "official Texas Embassy."
"If you're ever out there, and you have a problem, come and see us," he told the crowd.
Snider said her father will give a moving, carefully prepared speech tonight inside the Alamo Shrine during an invitation-only service of the Alamo Defenders Descendants Association marking the 168th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo.
The descendants' association plans to unveil a historical marker at 2 p.m. today at the Oddfellows Cemetery at Pine and Paso Hondo streets identifying it as a "lost burial site of the Alamo defenders." The brief ceremony, which is open to the public, will include a 21-gun salute to the defenders.
The public will have a chance to mark the anniversary today at the San Antonio Living History Association's "Dawn at the Alamo," a program recognizing the sacrifices made by those on both sides in the battle.
"We still have to explain that Davy Crockett really did exist" and was not a figure created by Parker and Disney, said David Stewart, director of the Alamo.
----shuddleston@express-news.net
I wonder if it will have that effect on Billy Bob Thornton?
So9
I miss my coon skin cap. :-(
The show conveyed simple but important values. How do these values get communincated today. This contemporary absence of values is what true poverty is. The victims never know what they miss.
Stay Safe and keep fighting the socialist Miss Pie !
He is a class act. We don't have many like him in that industry these days.
'Davy Crockett' returns
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!
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