They come in three’s, don’t they? Just four days after the passing of noted actor Peter Graves (Firegeezer HERE), we learned that iconic actor Fess Parker died yesterday at age 85. You could call it the second death of Davy Crockett because his portrayal of the King of the Wild Frontier not only placed him on the top of the tv popularity scale in the 1950′s and 60′s, but it made his mark for a successful life.
Fess Parker, 1955 (Getty Images)
Born Fess Elsha Parker, Jr. in Texas, he grew to be a rangey and athletic 6-ft, 5-inches tall and eventually made his way to Hollywood where he was told he could do well in Western movies. Following a series of small parts in several Westerns, he landed the role of Davy Crockett in a series of short stories that were broadcast on Walt Disney’s weekly television show. The character who fought all sorts of evil in the 19th-century frontier while all the time wearing a coonskin cap became an overnight sensation catching everyone by surprise, including Walt Disney himself.
Suddenly every kid in America was running to the local dime store to buy a coonskin cap and the theme song for the episodes was released on a record where it shot to the top of the charts. It is said that during that phase the going price for raccoon pelts went from 18 cents a pound to $8 lb. The five stories that he filmed for Disney were re-packaged into two feature-length movies and recycled through the theaters where millions more were spent watching his exploits.
He later starred in a regular tv series playing the role of Daniel Boone for more than 160 episodes. Sensing that his star would soon be fading, he took his fortune and built an award-winning winery and seaside resort in Santa Barbara, California, where he and his wife of 50 years have resided since. If you wish to read more on Fess Parker’s career, just plug his name into any search engine today and you will get plenty of links.
Now let’s mosey on over to the apparatus and get the equipment checked out. I’ll slip on back to the Bunn-o-Matic and fire up some coffee.
