Wednesday with Walt: Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Many of the contributions from Walt Disney’s life have had a huge impact on my life. You know that familiar question, if you could have dinner with anyone (dead or alive) who would it be? Walt’s hope was to help change people’s lives for the better. But there was one person whose life Walt would completely spin around without even knowing he was doing it.

Last week, August 16 (1924) would have marked the 87th birthday of an American icon, actor Fess Parker. Fess Parker and Walt Disney had a whirlwind relationship that neither of them ever expected. The  level of success Mr. Parker enjoyed after being cast in the role of Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett was something that no one, even Walt, ever anticipated.

Fess Parker was a Texan who attended the University of Texas and graduated with a degree in History in 1950. He then moved to California and completed academic work on his Masters degree in drama at the University of Southern California.  He began acting professionally in 1951 as a  stage performer and had decided that he would give himself 36 months to make a living as an actor and, if it didn’t happen, he would give up that dream and change careers. In 1954, during the 35th month of his 36-month deadline, Walt Disney began the filming of Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.

Walt had been thinking about the idea of making an animation on Davy Crockett since the mid-1940s. By the time Disneyland was in the planning stages, Walt was urging the Frontierland unit to come up with stories on American heroes and, desperate for time, they just pulled one out of the stack of ideas. Bill Walsh said that it was by dumb luck that they chose Davy Crockett.

Walt went to screen the horror film Them! to get a look at James Arness, who had been suggested as a good choice to play Davy Crockett. But Walt really liked another actor in the movie; a tall man with a southern drawl, Fess Parker. He asked Fess to audition for him in the studio. Fess didn’t really know how to play the part, so he picked up his guitar and started to play a song. Wouldn’t you know it, he played a railroad blues song with train sounds in it. He played train sounds on a guitar to a man who absolutely LOVED trains. Needless to say, Walt hired him right then and there.

The made-for-television movie, “Davy Crockett,” which aired on Disneyland on December 5, 1954 became an overnight sensation. Children were walking around singing the theme song,” The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” and within 6 months had bought 7,000,000 copies of the record. Crockett t-shirts, toy rifles, books, and loads of other merchandise was sold. Ten million Crockett coonskin caps were being worn by boys and girls around the country. The sales of merchandise rivaled only one other merchandising phenom, Mickey Mouse.

Davy Crockett pushed the Disneyland show audience to well over the 40-million mark. Fess Parker began to be asked to make numerous personal appearances and the reaction from the public was unbelievable. Fess wrote Walt a note of appreciation that said, “no young man has ever had a greater share of good fortune!”

Walt was very pleased with the country’s acceptance of this American hero because, to Walt, he represented well the traits of a plainspoken, fearless, idealistic, compassionate hero…traits which Walt valued highly. Davy Crockett came at a time when America really needed a hero. It was, surprisingly, the best thing that could have happened for Fess Parker, Walt Disney and the country as a whole.

Fess Parker became a contract actor for Disney and starred in many Disney movies after that. He was honored for his work with Disney on December 15, 2004 ( the 50th anniversary of the debut of the “Davy Crockett” episodes) when he received his own tribute window on a façade in the Frontierland section of Disneyland.

I found this youtube video posted by yensidnaf (Nov, 2008) of Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen reminiscing about the Davy Crockett days. It was taken from a 1978 NBC Special saluting the 25th Anniversary of The Wonderful World of Disney/Color Television Show. I hope you will enjoy it!

Related articles

• Today is Davy Crockett’s Birthday. [Dhananjay Parkhe] (ecademy.com)
• Alamo : Davy Crockett’s defiant stand at the Alamo ‘lasted just 20 minutes’, claim historians (gunnyg.wordpress.com)

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