August 16 - Fess Parker

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On this day, in 1924, Fess Elisha Parker Jr. was born in Fort Worth, Texas. The Parker family soon moved out to the rural part of Tom Green County, Texas and the open prairie seemed to suit young Fess just fine. He grew to be a strapping lad of 6 feet 6 inches. Which was a great height to be right up until he wanted to serve his country. After graduating from high school, during the latter part of World War II, Fess joined the United States Navy with dreams of becoming a fighter pilot. Turns out he was too tall for that position. Okay, how about being a radioman gunner, then? Sure, let’s give it a whirl. Nope. Turns out he was too big to fit in the rear cockpit as well. He was finally transferred to the Marine Corps and made into a radio operator. He was sent to the Pacific theater of war, arriving just in time for Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the end of the war.

After his honorable discharge in 1946, Fess used his G.I. Bill benefits to enroll at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. He was active in the drama club there and continued to act when he transferred to the University of Texas a year later. He graduated in 1950 with a degree in history and, since he still had a year of military benefits left, moved on to the University of Southern California to start a master’s degree in theater history.

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Fess’ professional acting career began in 1951 when he began earning $32 a week as an extra in a production of the play Mister Roberts. It didn’t take long for him to nab a small role in the Western Untamed Frontier with Joseph Cotton and Shelley Winters. Shortly after that, he was given a contract at Warner Brothers and began appearing a string of Westerns. That rolled into roles on Western television anthology shows like Death Valley Days in 1954.

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Also in 1954, Walt Disney was looking for someone to star as Davy Crockett in a five episode arc for his own anthology show. Walt was seriously considering James Arness, who later came to fame on Gunsmoke. While watching James do his thing in a sci-fi flick called Them!, Walt was actually more intrigued by someone in a smaller role in the same film. Fess played a pilot who gets committed to an insane asylum after claiming his plane was downed by giant insects. Walt saw that pilots commitment to the truth in the face of official pressure to say otherwise as the exact same qualities that Davy Crockett frequently displayed and brought Fess in for an audition. He brought his guitar, met briefly with Walt, sang a song and went on his way. He then heard nothing for weeks. Enough time passed that Fess figured that opportunity had passed him by. Then he got the phone call that changed his career (and arguably the history of television, at least the merchandising part).

Fess was cast as Davy Crockett over several better known actors, including James and the man who was cast as Crockett's sidekick, Buddy Ebsen. Even though Fess was only in five episodes of Disneyland he became one of the biggest television hits ever. Pretty much anything Crockett related started flying off store shelves but kids in the mid Fifties went absolutely gaga over coon skin caps. Widely considered to be the first television miniseries (even though the term wouldn't be coined until the early Seventies), the first three Davy Crockett episodes were even spliced together and released theatrically. The huge popularity of the series led to a contract for Fess with the company. And that eventually led to big problems for Fess.

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Once the last of the Davy Crockett scenes was filmed, Fess began appearing in full theatrical releases for Disney. He was in The Great Locomotive Chase, Westward Ho, the Wagons!, Old Yeller and The Light in the Forest. While the films were fairly successful, Fess began to chafe more with each one. He felt that every part he was doing was exactly like the one before it. And he wasn't wrong. Not only was Disney pigeonholing him into one specific role, Walt refused to let him do anything outside of that role. Fess had to pass on Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe and The Searchers with John Wayne. When he was cast in a small role in 1959's Tonka, Fess decided enough was enough. He refused to do it, was put on suspension from his contract and ultimately parted with Disney.

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Fess didn't have to wait long to get picked up. Paramount considered Disney's loss to be their gain and put him under contract. Over the next few years, he made a handful of appearances in small roles, but his movie career never really took off. Television was always were he shined and once he returned to it in 1962, he would only ever appear in one more film, 1966’s Smoky. But return to the small screen he did, filling the shoes of Jimmy Stewart in a television adaptation of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. After one season of playing the new senator from an unnamed state, Fess moved on to the stage for a year. He (naturally) played Curly in a touring production of Oklahoma! When the tour finished, he was cast in his next big role, one that is often confused with his iconic portrayal of Davy Crockett (and for good reason).

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Starting in 1964, Fess played the second role of his lifetime, Daniel Boone, another figure from the frontier days of American history. He was again a hit. Daniel Boone ran for six seasons on NBC and was a top rated show during its entire run. Not only did Fess star in the show, but he helped produce it and even directed several episodes. Interestingly, the producers of the show initially wanted it to be about Davy Crockett, but Disney refused to relinquish the rights to that character, so they had to settle for Daniel Boone. While the show was popular it never quite attained the same level of craziness that Fess’ earlier run did. Even though Boone wore a coonskin cap that the creators made sure was mentioned in the theme song (just one more reason that people can’t seem to differentiate between Fess’ two major roles).

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To confuse matters even more, Fess became interested in opening a Davy Crockett inspired theme park during the filming of Daniel Boone. He went so far as to option some land in Northern Kentucky for the venture, but he was a little too late to make it happen. The King’s Island amusement park started construction less than two hours away from his site and investors didn’t think the area could support more than one park. Since King’s Island was already on the way, they’d have to pass on Fess’ idea.

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Daniel Boone ended its run in 1970 and, even though he didn’t have to, Fess ended his run, too. He could have rolled right on into a new show, McCloud, but felt it was too similar to things he’d already done. Dennis Weaver was more than happy to take that opportunity of his hands. When a pilot for his own sitcom, The Fess Parker Show, failed to get picked up by a network in 1974, Fess retired from acting completely. He did not, however, spend the rest of his life sipping gin and tonics by the pool. He opted instead for a nice glass of chardonnay.

In the late Seventies, Fess, his wife Marcella and their two children settled down in Santa Ynez, California. He acquired 1,500 acres of prime land in nearby Los Olivos, planted a variety of grapes and opened the Fess Parker Family Winery, a venture he devoted the rest of his life to. Over the years, the winery has produced several award winning vintages and every bottle sports a label with a golden coonskin cap on it, hearkening back to Fess’ acting days. You can also buy actual coonskin caps in the tasting room’s gift shop, as well as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone inspired bottle toppers. The winery brought Fess back into the entertainment world (sort of) in 2004 when it became the setting for the fictitious winery in the Academy Award winning movie Sideways.

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Even though he didn’t do any acting during the last several decades of his life, Fess was still bestowed with a few honors for his talents. In 1991, in spite of the somewhat acrimonious end to his relationship with the company, he was declared an official Disney Legend. In 2003, the Texas Cultural Trust awarded him the Texas Medal of Arts for his faithful portrayal of Davy Crockett. And in 2004, giving further evidence that there wasn’t any hard feelings on Disney’s end, Fess was given a coveted window in Disneyland. It isn’t located on Main Street USA, however, but is more appropriately on display in Frontierland above the Pioneer Mercantile. It reads “Davy Crockett - Coonskin Cap Supply Co - Fess Parker Proprietor.”

Fess enjoyed the remainder of his life working on his winery. And it truly was (and is) a family affair. His son is currently president of operations and his daughter is vice president of marketing. Fess himself is no longer part of venture, though, having passed away quietly in his sleep on March 18, 2010. He was 85.