Davy Crockett- King of the wild frontier

10:20am Thursday 29th September 2005

Mike Bondy recalls the children's western hero of the 1950s.

IF you were a youngster growing up in the middle of the 1950s, try to remember who might have been a hero figure to you at primary school long before Harry Potter, Star Wars and Lord of The Rings came on the scene.

It is quite conceivable that this character could have been American actor Fess Parker in his best remembered film role of Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.

Right across America and Britain from the end of 1954 and deep into 1956, parents and school teachers alike had to endure children wearing coonskin caps, singing "Davy, Davy Crockett..." and watching re-enactments of Indian fights and the siege of the Alamo in back gardens or school playgrounds.

The blame for this fad could certainly be laid on the shoulders of Walt Disney.

On December 15, 1954, Disney premiered the first of three 50-minute segments about the life of the 19th century American hero on his US ABC television show Disneyland.

By the time the last of them had been aired on February 23, 1955, Davy Crockett was the idol of a whole new generation of American children.

Not only that, Fess Parker found himself an instant celebrity, while the poor old furry racoon practically became an endangered. species.

Although the runaway success of this mini-series wasn't wholly expected, the odds had definitely been stacked in its favour.

It featured the winning combination of a tall, ruggedly handsome, softly spoken hero and had been beautifully photographed using colourful locations. There was plenty of action and, last but not least, it carried the Disney name.

Not everyone in America had TV sets in those days, so Walt Disney condensed the series into a 90-minute feature film and it was released in cinemas right across the States.

In spite of the fact that 50 per cent of the USA had already seen the series on TV, the film turned in a hugely healthy profit of $1 million.

When the movie hit the UK in the late autumn of 1955, Crockett mania started all over again.

If the film proved popular, so did the merchandise, as several thousand separate items hit the market in time for Christmas. Today's generation probably would not recognise readily either the need or desire to wear a hat made of racoon skin or man-made fur, but in 1955 there was just no stopping the kids.

In America, 100 million dollars' worth of coonskin caps sold in a year and it prompted Life magazine to comment on the craze, asking the question: "Which will be exhausted first, the supply of racoons, or the parents who have to buy the caps?"

It did''t stop there though, as the fans were buying wristwatches, cap guns, moccasins, pencil cases and all manner of things.

There was just a slight problem to overcome, because as any student of frontier history knows, Davy Crockett at the Alamo is where the tale comes to an end.

This kind of boxed Walt Disney into a bit of a corner for as he remarked: "If I'd known it was going to be this successful, I wouldn't have had him killed off after three episodes.""

This was the first time that a major hero had died in a TV series and many a youngster had gone into mourning as a result of it. There was only one thing that Disney could do and that was to make some episodes about his earlier exploits.

The result was Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race and Davy Crockett and the River Pirates.

Again expounding the virtues of honesty, integrity and bravery, these two episodes saw Davy Crockett facing off against Mike Fink, another early American legend.

It seemed a routine job to provide the signature tune for the TV series.

Tom Blackburn supplied the words and his collaborator George Bruns, who was a Dixieland trombone-playing member of Walt Disney's music staff, provided the music.

It was recorded by Bill Hayes on the Cadence label and sold close to two million copies. His version was in the American hit parade for 20 weeks and topped the Billboard charts for five weeks.

Fess Parker's own interpretation did well in its own right, selling almost a million copies in just over a month.

Collectively, Crockett discs on 20 different labels sold seven million copies in six months, with versions by Bill Hayes, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dick James and Max Bygraves all making the top twenty here in the UK at the same time.

Like the majority of these fads that come in with a vengeance, this one died with a whimper, although John Wayne revived the role in 1960 in the feature film The Alamo.

The real David Crockett. was born in upper Greene County, near Limestone, East Tennesse, on August 17, 1786, the fifth of nine children.

He became commander of a battalion during the Creek Indian wars of 1813-14, then a local magistrate and a state legislator for Tennessee before serving honourably in the US Congress from 1827 to 1835. His motto was: "Be always sure you are right, then go ahead."

When he was defeated for re-election in 1835, he left Tennessee in November and went to join the Texas revolution.

Anglo-American colonists wanted to separate the Mexican province of Texas from Mexican rule and establish an independent republic.

The Mexican Central Government had other ideas and a force of 6,000 soldiers led by General Santa Anna was despatched to put down the rebellion.

Some 145 American (Texan) rebels took refuge in the fortified grounds of an old broken-down mission known as the Alamo, and prepared to face the full might of the Mexican army.

Under the joint command of William Travis for the regular army and Jim Bowie for the volunteers, this brave band of men withstood the siege for 13 days.

Reinforcements were few and on the morning of March 6, 1836, the Mexicans finally stormed the Alamo fortress and killed every one of the 187 troops inside.

The cost to Santa Anna's army was high though, with 1,600 of their number lost in battle.

Six weeks later, a Texan army led by Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto and the independent Texas Republic was at last firmly established.

Davy Crockett's tombstone at the site of his birth place in Tennessee reads "Davy Crockett, Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congress-man, Martyred at The Alamo. 1786-1836." His famous gun, Old Betsy, a Kentucky long rifle, can be seen at a museum in Nashville.

Actor Fess Parker, who played Davy Crockett, is still around, a sprightly 81-year-old. He appeared in other Disney movies like The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) and Old Teller (1957), before starring as Daniel Boone on TV for six years (1964-70).

He retired from the film industry in the early 1970s and moved into real estate. Along with his wife Marcella and two children, he runs a family winery and vineyard together with several hotels.