King Of The Wild Frontier!

I'm too young myself to remember the coonskin cap craze initiated by the release of Walt Disney's Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier, but from what I gather it must've been mighty indeed, an early indicator of the enormous power of the "Baby Boom" generation as they began their rule of the modern marketplace. The movie holds up quite well I think, or maybe I just enjoy its old-fashioned glamour too much.

Fess Parker I first met as Daniel Boone when he took his coonskin cap to my native Kentucky and rocked the NBC airwaves for several seasons. He and his amigo Mingo (Ed Ames as a Cherokee) held sway. My first taste of color television was watching an episode and I still remember the green trees swaying slightly in the breeze, no less green than those actual Kentucky trees right outside my window, but somehow more evocative.

The movie Davy Crockett "documents" his life so to speak, using the lyrics of song to transport the viewer from episode to episode as Davy and his friend Russell battle Indians in Florida as part of Andrew Jackson's cadre, and later as a family man. Turns out he wasn't much of a husband or father, since he mostly abandons them for what might be good reasons, but after his wife passes and he's not around, we never see any reference to his two sons again. It's not part of the legend but its a smear on his character for sure.

In addition to fighting Indians, Davy stands up for them in Congress, or at least that's the myth. And we follow him on his final excursion into Texas to land ultimately at the Alamo. I've always liked the way the movie never shows Crockett actually die, but gives us a final image of him swinging away against impossible odds.

This movie is light and entertaining and of course no one thinks it's really the life of a full-fledged man, but it's the yarn of a myth of a man who represents that yearning in most folks to push out beyond the limits of what the world gives them. It's a thrilling little ride, not at all unlike something you'd find at Disneyland, and it's a ride you want to ride more than once.

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