Fess Parker Recalled d.2010

[springfield art]

Fess Parker died in 2010. Here is a remembrance of him that appeared in the NY Times, written by Verlyn Klinkenborg. "I don't remember a single episode of "Davy Crockett" nor did I own a coonskin cap. As for the famous theme song, it tends to wander away on it's own, erratically, once it gets rolling in my head. But I remember Fess Parker. Any account of masculinity, for a certain generation, is incomplete without Mr. Parker, who died last week at age 85. In my memory, he embodies an inexplicable authenticity. This was not just the naivete of a child viewer, unaware of how TV shows were made or coonskin caps sold. It was something inherent in Mr. Parker.
Partly, I think, it was the angularity of the man, who seemed as lean as his flintlock rifle. And it was the way his right eye seemed to be slipping downward as his wry smile slipped upward. He had a solid frontier squint that every kid I knew tried to imitate when we looked into the faraway. What tied it all together was Mr. Parker's voice, less Tennessee than Texas and carrying an astounding freight of respectability for such a soft backwoods twang. Whatever else he was to American lore, Davy Crockett was always Fess Parker. Reading his obituary, I realized that I have a Fess Parker theory of the universe. He is said to have been unhappy at not being allowed to act for John Ford or with Marilyn Monroe, because of his relationship with Disney. But we live in a universe in which a Parker-Monroe pairing is simply possible onscreen. It would have annulled the Fess-ness that made him Davy Crockett to so many children. I've been tempted to go back and watch "Davy Crockett" once again. But to do that, I would have to be terribly young again myself." (End quote)
Parker served in the Navy in WW2 and has a simple coonskin cap engraved upon his tombstone.

 

[Electrod47]

I thought I had had my 10 yr old heart ripped out when he died in the Alamo.........yes, few people carry so much weight with just their persona. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[[email protected]]

Remember he had a bit part in the horror movie, THEM!. He was in a hospital and watched the giant ants go into the LA river bed tunnels.

He was born the same year as my dad and died just two years before my dad passed away.

 

[Whitworth]

He's the reason I have my GG grandfather's powder horn. It hung in my Grandmother's dining room and she gave it to me because I idolized Davy Crockett. Davy, his buddy George and Big Mike Fink were larger than life figures who sure made big impressions on this little kid.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

We sure could use another Fess Parker.

 

[azmntman]

Dan' Boone every day one summer when I was 10, it's like he was a pusher, I got addicted and still suffer from the disease of blackpowderitis, RIP Fess. Wasn't he in a horse movie called Smokey too?

 

[Omahkapi'si]

The world was a better place with him in it. I am on Season 2 of the Daniel Boone series and thoroughly enjoying it.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

We sure could use another Fess Parker.

They just don't build them anymore.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

Azmntmn, Yes, Fess Parker was in a remake of the movie Smokey. It was in the early to mid 60’s. I can’t think of who was in the original movie…

 

[Ohio Rusty]

I had gotten a plastic log cabin from log cabin syrup company ( sent in my filled out receipt and $1.50) and it fit perfectly over a card table. I don't know how many times I relived Davy Crockett in that little log cabin.
Ohio Rusty ><>