Walt Disney Art Classics Convention 2004 - Part 1
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As one of Peter Ellenshaw’s beautiful matte paintings was shown, Hodgkins asked about the size of the crew that worked on Davy Crockett. Parker mused, “It was a typical crew of the time—upwards of 50 people.�? He recalled that he had worked with the cameraman previously, on Untamed Frontier, with Joseph Cotten and Shelley Winters. Cotten wasn’t used to putting on boots every day, and managed to throw his back out while struggling one morning. During the down time, Parker was put into the film No Room for the Groom.

Hodgkins marveled that Walt Disney had shot Davy Crockett on film, in color, despite the fact that it was being shown on television in 1954. Parker spoke of “the courage of Walt Disney, to send us far away from the studio in those days.�? One day, he said, Walt and wife Lilly and a group came out to the location, and Walt screened the daily film. Parker noted that the total cost of the Alamo sequence was about 700 thousand dollars. He laughed as he said that today that would just about cover the cost of lunch.

Fess Parker in the final episode of the original series, Davy Crockett at the Alamo

When asked at what point they realized that Davy Crockett was a big phenomenon, Parker quickly said that it didn’t take long. The Alamo sequence was finished late in the year, and then things got quiet. After the first television program aired in December (12/15/54), however, there was a strong reaction. Parker was sent on his first publicity trip, a charity event in Texas. The second trip, he said, had a long term effect. In Washington D.C. the NRA presented him with a rifle. It was a huge, formal, black-tie event, with Parker attending in buck skins. Then a line formed across the front of the room, as people jostled for autographs while the speaker was up. After Parker promised he would sign after the event and sat down, guests at the head table started sending items over to be signed. Parker proudly added that on that trip he met then Speaker of the House Lyndon Johnson.

Fess Parker lands in La Guardia Airport in New York on one of many publicity tours.

Another high point was a trip to Philadelphia to appear at Independence Hall. Merritt A. Edson, 1942 winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, presented Parker with a reproduction of Crockett’s famous rifle “Ol’ Betsy.�? “On March fifth this year I presented that rifle to the Alamo Museum,�? said Parker.

Hodgkins then asked about The Ballad of Davy Crockett. “The recording I did with George Bruns was put out as a promotional record,�? explained Parker.

In an aside, he pointed out that a well known photo showing Walt Disney, director Norman Foster and himself was sent out by studio publicists to promote the show. A film clip showing him singing at that time was usually identified as his screen test. But Parker assured the crowd that by the time that footage was shot, he had already been cast. “Show business!�? he laughed.

Fess Parker, Walt Disney and Norman Foster in a photo NOT taken at Fess Parker’s screen test.