1956 TOPPS Card DAVY CROCKETT Fess Parker Buddy Ebsen Disney+ Disneyana #7

Description

1956 TOPPS Card  DAVY CROCKETT Fess Parker Walt Disney Disneyana  #7
Buddy Ebsen  Beverly Hillbillies
Davy Crockett
(miniseries)
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Davy Crockett
Crockett Goes to Congress
Genre
Adventure
/
Western
Written by
Norman Foster
Thomas W. Blackburn
Directed by
Norman Foster
Starring
Fess Parker
Buddy Ebsen
Jeff York
Theme music composer
George Bruns
Thomas W. Blackburn (lyrics)
Edward H. Plumb
(orchestration)
Country of origin
United States
Original language
English
No.
of episodes
5
Production
Producer
Bill Walsh
Cinematography
Charles P. Boyle
Bert Glennon
Distributor
Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network
ABC
Original release
December 15, 1954 –
December 14, 1955
Davy Crockett
was a five-part serial which aired on
ABC
from 1954–1955 in one-hour episodes, on the
Disneyland
series. The series starred
Fess Parker
as real-life frontiersman
Davy Crockett
and
Buddy Ebsen
as his friend, George Russel.
[1]
The first three episodes of the serial were edited together as the theatrical film
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
(1955) and rebroadcast in color in the 1960s, when the Disney program went to
NBC
.
[2]
This series and film are known for the catchy theme song, "
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
".
[3]
It was filmed in color at the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
at the Mountain Farm Museum adjacent to the
Oconaluftee Visitor Center
, near
Qualla Reservation
's entrance and
Janss Conejo Ranch
, California.
[3]
The final two episodes were edited together as the theatrical film
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
(1956). It was filmed in
Cave-In-Rock, Illinois
.
[3]
Walt Disney Home Video
released the two theatrical films on DVD as
Davy Crockett - Two Movie Set
, on September 7, 2004.
[4]
On November 15, 2015, the films were released on Blu-ray on a "60th Anniversary Edition" set through the Disney Movie Club.
Episodes
[
edit
]
The series began with "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter" (December 15, 1954): Crockett seeks a truce with
Indians
who assaulted a military outpost. He and Russel fight in skirmishes under the command of
Major General
Andrew Jackson
, portrayed by
Basil Ruysdael
.
[5]
Along the way, Crockett kills a
bear
armed only with his knife.
The second episode is "Davy Crockett Goes to Congress" (January 26, 1955): Crockett, with his companion Russel, travels to
Tennessee
, where he learns of the death of his wife, Polly Crockett, played by Helene Stanley. He wins a seat in the
Tennessee House of Representatives
and later the
United States House of Representatives
.
The third episode is "Davy Crockett at the Alamo" (February 23, 1955): Crockett and Russel join a gambler named Thimblerig (
Hans Conreid
) on their trek to
the Republic of Texas
, where they arrive to battle the
Centralist Republic of Mexico
's General
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
at the fortress, the
Alamo Mission
in
San Antonio
,
Texas
. They see a bison stampede and watch a
Comanche
tribesman fall off his horse. Davy and Georgie nickname him "Busted Luck". Although Crockett and all the defenders perished at the
Battle of the Alamo
, two other segments followed. (Crockett's death is not actually shown; all we see is Crockett, the last survivor in the battle, on the parapet swinging his rifle at the oncoming hordes of Mexican soldiers. The picture fades and the flag of Texas is shown flying in the breeze as the male chorus reprises the last lines of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett".)
In "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race" (November 16, 1955), Crockett and Russel are fur trapping in
Kentucky
when they meet
Mike Fink
, known as the best boatman around and portrayed by
Jeff York
. Fink challenges Crockett to a
keelboat
race to
New Orleans
.
In "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates" (December 14, 1955), the men pick up a traveling minstrel (
Walter Catlett
), who unknown to them is in league with local river bandits. On their way to get horses, from friendly Chickasaw tribesmen, Davy and Georgie are kidnapped by a group of Chickasaws, because white men have been murdering members of their tribe. Crockett and Fink discover that the river pirates led by
Samuel Mason
, portrayed by
Mort Mills
, are impersonating
Indians
.
Cast
[
edit
]
Kenneth Tobey
, later of the
syndicated
television adventure series
Whirlybirds
, starred as
Jim Bowie
in the "Alamo" segment and then as Jocko in the two later episodes. Future
Zorro
star
George J. Lewis
portrayed
Chickasaw
chief Black Eagle. Thirty-three-year-old
Don Megowan
was cast as 26-year-old
William Travis
.
Pat Hogan
portrayed Chief Red Stick.
William Bakewell
portrayed
Major
Tobias Norton and in the final episodes as a keelboat race Master of Ceremonies.
York, Parker, Tobey and Megowan met again as cast members for
The Great Locomotive Chase
.
Popularity
[
edit
]
The
Walt Disney
Company acknowledged that the broad public popularity of the first three segments came as a surprise, but Disney capitalized on its success by licensing the sale of various types of Crockett paraphernalia, including
coonskin caps
and
bubble gum
cards.
[6]
Fess Parker later noted that his contract called for a percentage of the merchandising sales from Disney's company but that this was voided by his contract being with Walt Disney personally rather than the company itself, costing him millions of dollars from the runaway bonanza of Crockett merchandising.
[7]
After the Crockett mini-series, Disney attempted to create other heroic characters, such as six episodes of
The Saga of Andy Burnett
(1957), starring
Jerome Courtland
as a pioneer who traveled from
Pittsburgh
,
Pennsylvania
to the
Rocky Mountains
.
The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca
followed in 1958, with
Robert Loggia
as
New Mexico
lawman
Elfego Baca
. Some thirteen segments of
Texas John Slaughter
aired in 1958–1959, based on real-life law enforcement officer
John Horton Slaughter
of
Texas
and starring
Tom Tryon
. Another Disney mini-series,
The Swamp Fox
, starred
Leslie Nielsen
as
American Revolutionary War
fighter
Francis Marion
, and aired between 1959 and 1961. Marion wore a foxtail on his three-cornered hat, but the headpiece failed to attract the same level of attention as the Crockett coonskin caps attained.
[6]
The historical Marion had opted to wear an iron cooking pot on his head into battle as an early version of a helmet.
Disney
[
edit
]
Disney produced weekly one-hour television programs for
ABC
as part of a deal that allowed him to build the
Disneyland
theme park.
[8]
Disney wished to highlight historical figures, and his company developed three episodes on Crockett –
Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter
,
Davy Crockett Goes to Congress
, and
Davy Crockett at the Alamo
– starring
Fess Parker
as Crockett. According to historians Randy Roberts and James Olson, "by the end of the three shows, Fess Parker would be very well known, the power of television would be fully recognized, and Davy Crockett would be the most famous frontiersman in American history."
[9]
The shows sparked heated debate, with many questioning whether Crockett was really deserving of the amount of attention that he was receiving. Letter writers also questioned the series' historical accuracy.
[10]
Nevertheless, the shows proved very popular. They were combined into a feature-length movie in the summer of 1955, and Parker and his co-star
Buddy Ebsen
toured the United States, Europe, and Japan. By the end of 1955, Americans had purchased over 0 million worth of Davy Crockett merchandise ( billion by 2001).
[11]
The shows were repeated on
NBC
in the 1960s after Disney had moved his program to that network. The 1960 repeats marked the first time that the programs had actually been shown in color on TV. Davy Crockett made a return with Disney in two further adventures:
Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race
and
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
. In these two episodes, Crockett faces off against
Mike Fink
, another early American legend. A three-episode 1988–89
revival
was made entitled
The New Adventures of Davy Crockett
, in which
Tim Dunigan
took over Fess Parker's famous role.
Johnny Cash
played an older Davy in a few scenes set before he went to Texas.
In 2002, Disney (under its
Touchstone Pictures
label) would revisit the subject of Davy Crockett and the Alamo, with the film
The Alamo
. The film, however, was a significant box-office failure.