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Post by Allen Wiener on Mar 18, 2010 20:05:29 GMT -5
OK - that does it. I'm well into my second glass of Frontier Red and I'm dragging out the DVDs; all of them!
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Post by Phil Riordan on Mar 18, 2010 20:32:04 GMT -5
Fess Parker did not disappoint. A real personable, sincere gentleman. His warm smile and sound of his voice will be sorely missed.
Interestingly, Fess Parker became the man who Davy Crockett wanted to be.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Mar 18, 2010 20:33:13 GMT -5
Good point, Phil! Never thought of that. "To make of your citizen a land holder."
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Post by Allen Wiener on Mar 18, 2010 20:59:13 GMT -5
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Post by Kevin Young on Mar 18, 2010 22:03:09 GMT -5
Thanks to Bill Chemerka bringing Fess down to SA for two seperate Alamo Society meetings, I was fortunate to have met Mr. Parker on both occassions. What impressed me was his good nature and his respect for his fans. It is an attitude that many in his profession lack. He certainly was an icon and beloved, and I am sure he had a piece of sunrise in his pocket.
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Post by tman56 on Mar 18, 2010 22:06:11 GMT -5
Of all the wonderful memories of I have of Fess, both from TV and the two times I met him all too briefly in person in San Antonio, the thing that is most meaningful to me is an interview I saw with him on Entertainment Tonight, or one of its clones. It was at the height of the Jeff Long/"Duel of Eagles" controversy, when the National Enquirer had run an article with the headline "Davy, Davy Crockett, Coward of the Wild Frontier". Someone on the show asked Fess his opinion of the "revisionist" approach to Crockett and the rest, and Fess politely but firmly expressed his disapproval. "It's speaking ill of the dead," he said.
That's an almost forgotten concept, but like so many other "old-time" values, it was still important to Fess.
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Post by fespar on Mar 18, 2010 23:49:09 GMT -5
Fess has passed away!My hero since 1956 and my personal friend since 1989,he is sorely missed. Rest in peace dear friend. Peder Fess Gustawson
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Post by Wade Dillon on Mar 19, 2010 0:30:43 GMT -5
A true pioneer for many of us, that's for sure.
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Post by Kevin Young on Mar 19, 2010 8:17:59 GMT -5
By the way, who ever changed up the logo for the forum so quickly did a fanastic job. What a great way to honor Mr. Parker's passing.
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Post by Paul Sylvain on Mar 19, 2010 8:50:32 GMT -5
By the way, who ever changed up the logo for the forum so quickly did a fanastic job. What a great way to honor Mr. Parker's passing. +1
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Post by alamonorth on Mar 19, 2010 10:03:21 GMT -5
Fess Parker was a true gentleman and an inspiration, not only to American children but to children around the world.
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Post by Paul Sylvain on Mar 19, 2010 10:19:58 GMT -5
You know, I was thinking about this the other (before learning about Fess' passing) and came to the conclusion that both Fess and John Wayne personified the American western hero. They lived it and breathed it and, for those of us growing up watching them in film and on TV, made us believe they were the characters they portrayed.
But that's where the similarities storp, at least for me.
Wayne was many things, and his Alamo film portrayal of David Crockett was as good as it gets. But, somehow, when I envision what the real David Crockett might have been like, it's Fess Parker in that role that comes to mind. Fess really was the real deal, and I think if he, dressed in his coonskin cap and deer skin clothes, were to meet face-to-face with the actual Crockett, it might be hard to tell the two apart!
Wayne was a great American in heart and spirit, and he did much to present American values to people around the world. He portrayed many great men in his time, but to me, he will always be "The Duke" and not Crockett.
I think sometimes Fess was overlooked when people thought about such actors, and their patriotism and portrayal of American icons. But Fess truly was Crockett (and perhaps Boone) personified.
Anyway, I suspect Fess and the Duke are sharing some tall tales and a laugh or two as we speak, and that's really not such a bad thing, is it?
Paul
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Post by jesswald on Mar 19, 2010 10:31:17 GMT -5
I think it was Allen who pointed out the poignancy of learning that at the end of the Disney movie, we are to understand that Davy Crockett actually died. Those of us who were young kids in the mid-fifties were used to seeing Roy, Gene, Cisco Kid, Wild Bill Hickock, Lone Ranger, Rough Riders, Bat Masterson, Annie Oakley, et al come back week after week, immortal. The fact that our hero could actually be defeated, and go down, and never get up again, was emotionally traumatic. Those feelings have returned with all their power this sad day. We are reminded of the last lyrics of the Ballad of Davy Crockett as the Disney biopic concludes: with the 1824 flag waving in the background, we learn that the history books are wrong when they say that Crockett and his comrades were all laid low; they will live on as long as we remember the Alamo. Seems to me that a lot of folks on this forum took that message to heart. Wouldn't have happened if Fess Parker had not made such an appealing Davy Crockett. Those of us who identify Parker with Crockett, I suspect, feel smugly superior to those who remember him primarily as Boone. You are so young and naive, we think. When I wear my coonskin cap I take exception to passers-by who, in addition to looking at me as if I have three heads, refer to it as a "Daniel Boone" hat. Philistines. However, the one time I met Mr. Parker, he told me that he actually felt prouder of the Boone series, which I believe he may have co-produced or something, than of the Davy Crockett movies. As Crockett, he said, he was a young actor with little experience, and just did what he was told. For Boone, he had some creative input. I felt bad. But not as bad as I feel today. Jesse Waldinger
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Post by Jim Boylston on Mar 19, 2010 11:14:01 GMT -5
Well said, Jesse. Jim
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Post by highplainsman1939 on Mar 19, 2010 11:31:21 GMT -5
I'm very sad! "He's ahead of us all in meetin the test and a follerin his legend right into the west". So long Fess!!
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