Posted on 03/19/2010 8:56:20 AM PDT by eus
Actor Fess Parker, who became every baby boomer's idol in the 1950s and launched a craze for coonskin caps as television's Davy Crockett, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 85.
(Excerpt) Read more at bighollywood.breitbart.com ...
Somebody needs to blaze a trail through the wilderness of that paragraph.
Davy Crockett - a wonderful and happy -part of my childhood - thank you for the family time and the family show with a good and decent message
He and Peter Graves who just died a few days ago — both gentlemen...no controversy...married to the same women for years...not in the tabloids every other day. They were a rarity in Hollywood and people like them are becoming more and more rare.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Parker
I think of him frequently. He is a hero of mine, or rather the characters he portrayed. Godspeed and prayers for his wife an family.
He was a great American.
And he protrayed ANOTHER Great American - very well.
We need more Davy Crocketts and men who think like him - especially today.
I met him a few times while just hanging out at the winery and a couple of times at social functions. A good man who will be sorely missed.
God speed Fess.
I first saw him in the movie DAVY CROCKETT back in 1955 at the Allen theater in Farmington,NM.
When I saw the movie on TV years later I noticed several scenes were cut from the movie, and are still missing, Crockett’s first meeting with Thimblerig, in which he bests Rig in a shell game, and a scene in the Alamo where Bowie is being moved into a separate room.
Still my favorite childhood film.
I didn’t care for his Daniel Boone show. Too sound stagy and predictable, but who can forget when, Jimmy Dean was on the show, there in the background is the contrails of a jet aircraft flying overhead!
Menjou donated several anti-Communist classics to the University of Southern California's library. These books were bound with leather and carried an inscription, "Gift of Adolphe Menjou" and included Victor Kravchenko's "I Chose Freedom," Walter Krivitsky's "In Stalin's Secret Service," and two works by Eugene Lyons, "Assignment in Utopia" and "The Red Decade."
Fess Parker was a man.....
was BIG...big man...
RLTW
Gosh, I wish I had a COONSKIN CAP to wear today !!
We did indeed lose two wonderful entertainment legends this week.
Lifting them both up in prayer.
I met him too about 15 years ago in Santa Barbara. He was a close friend of another friend of mine. Great guy!
“Davy Crockett - a wonderful and happy -part of my childhood - thank you for the family time and the family show with a good and decent message”
Indeed. It was a ritual at our house. My father was on hand to point out the hollywood errors and relay the facts.
Cong. David Crockett was a man who stood for what he believed to be right and it likely cost him his seat in congress.
Some historians contend Congressman David Crockett’s political career ended because of his support for the Cherokee against President Jackson’s removal plans. Crockett explains his position in 1834:
“.......His famous, or rather I should say infamous, Indian bill was brought forward, and I opposed it from the purest motives in the world. Several of my colleagues got around me, and told me how well they loved me, and that I was ruining myself. They said this was a favourite measure of the president, and I ought to go for it. I told them I believed it was a wicked, unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost to myself be what it might; that I was willing to go with General Jackson in everything that I believed was honest and right; but further than this I wouldn’t go for him, or any other man in the whole creation.
I voted against this Indian bill, and my conscience yet tells me that I gave a good honest vote, and that I believe will not make me ashamed in the day of judgment.”
Snip from Chapter 3 Law, Law Understood, Law Executed
of “Jesus Wept’ An American Story.
http://jesusweptanamericanstory.blogspot.com/
I was stationed in Texas when "The Alamo" film with John Wayne opened. Although a Jersey Kid I cried. I visited the Alamo and and still have that T-shirt.
Fess Parker had opened up this whole portion of our history to me. He was a fine businessm and and philanthropist to boot! I hope TCM movies will show these marvelous pictures as a salute to a Magnificent Man!
Daniel Boone too
Goodnight, Big Wrangler.
Interesting about him and Graves. They had a nexus. Parker had a bit part in “THEM!”, which starred James Arness [Peter Graves’ brother].
Know it well, in Farmington from 1956 thru 1969, thence on to UNM and a life.
Mr. "King of the Wild Frontier" was always a favorite.
I was just thinking about him yesterday. Many warm memories of that era.
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