Who Put the Crock in Davy Crockett?

[gun sane]

Walt Disney, that's who!

I had to drive up near the pointer on Tennessee's map today and saw a sign luring tourists to visit the birthplace of Davy Crockett. I decided to stop in, just to see if he was "born on a mountaintop in Tennessee," like the song goes. NOT!!!! He was born in a valley on the banks of the Nolichucky River in Greene County. I mean, the nearest mountain is over a mile from that place. It's located in Davy Crockett State Park....evidently his parents named Davy after the park so they wouldn't have to pay rent.

 

 

This really cuts me to the quick.....I squandered two bucks back in the 50s for a stinkin' Davy coonskin cap that shed hair all over me after about a week. And the plastic replica of Ol' Betsy that fired Greenie Stick 'em caps started splittin' right up the middle after just a few swings and pops on my buddies' heads while playing Defend the Alamo. But I never figured that Walt Disney would lie to us. But you tell me......does Fess Parker look anything like this?

 

 

He looks more like my third grade teacher, Mrs. Grundy. It's a wonder the Mexicans didn't let him leave the Alamo with the rest of the women, for cryin' out loud.

 

I really don't know how long it's gonna take for me to get over this. I'm even beginning to suspect that Disney's stupid submarine didn't go down 20,000 leagues under the sea after all.

 

 

[hipower]

Actually...I think ol' Fess did kinda look like that pic. At least the nose part anyway.

[Oh Shoot]

...... I'm even beginning to suspect that Disney's stupid submarine didn't go down 20,000 leagues under the sea after all.

 

I remember looking into this when I was kid and just refreshed memory online -- In fairness to Jules Verne it's supposed to be the distance the Nautilus traveled under the sea, and not the depth. Which makes sense as a French metrical league when he wrote it was 4km, so that would be almost 50,000 miles!

 

And yep, I had a coonskin hat back then, too!

 

- OS

Edited April 11, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[Ted S.]

A lot of Reality is based on Fiction. Sent from somewhere in the cosmos using magic...and bacon.

[Jonnin]

Don't complain or they will re-make the movie.  And boy, the things you will find out when that happens...    $5 says they would pick Depp for it or something else totally off the wall.  He would probably win the battle of the alamo and come back to get elected to the senate as a war hero...

 

 

I have an almost complete set of the bubblegum cards from that movie lol.  The deck is so thick you could probably put them on an old-time card spindle type movie player and watch it as a silent movie.  

[JAB]

Ha!  Well, there is at least one portrait of Crockett in 'frontier' garb, holding a rifle but even in that one there is no coonskin cap.

 

Come to think of it, he doesn't look much like John Wayne, either (The Duke played Crockett in the 1960 film, "The Alamo."  His death scene is, to me, one of the most iconic ever in a movie - despite receiving a terrible wound from a Mexican spear,  Wayne's Crockett carries a torch into the room being used by the defenders for a powder magazine, blowing that part of the building up and preventing the Mexican army from seizing the powder reserves.)

 

Doesn't matter much, to me, as the real Crockett will always have my respect for two reasons:

 

1. Obviously, his actions in joining other heroes who refused to surrender at the battle of the Alamo

2. His refusal to vote for Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act (the Act which resulted in the Trail of Tears.)

 

In fact, based on a letter excerpted here:

 

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/jackson-lincoln/resources/davy-crockett-removal-cherokees-1834

 

his disapproval of the removal of the Cherokee was actually a large part of the impetus for his leaving the United States and going to Texas (which was its own country at the time.)  He apparently felt that a government which could carry out such actions was an indication that the Republic was pretty much over.  It seems he couldn't stand to live under such a government and so he left.

Edited April 11, 2014 by JAB

[gun sane]

Ha!  Well, there is at least one portrait of Crockett in 'frontier' garb, holding a rifle but even in that one there is no coonskin cap.

 

Doesn't matter much, to me, as the real Crockett will always have my respect for two reasons:

 

1. Obviously, his actions in joining other heroes who refused to surrender at the battle of the Alamo

2. His refusal to vote for Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act (the Act which resulted in the Trail of Tears.)

 

 

You would have liked his opposition to a government welfare system, too.

 

http://www.101bananas.com/library2/crockett.html

Edited April 11, 2014 by gun sane

[Will Carry]

Ha!  Well, there is at least one portrait of Crockett in 'frontier' garb, holding a rifle but even in that one there is no coonskin cap.
 
Come to think of it, he doesn't look much like John Wayne, either (The Duke played Crockett in the 1960 film, "The Alamo."  His death scene is, to me, one of the most iconic ever in a movie - despite receiving a terrible wound from a Mexican spear,  Wayne's Crockett carries a torch into the room being used by the defenders for a powder magazine, blowing that part of the building up and preventing the Mexican army from seizing the powder reserves.)
 
Doesn't matter much, to me, as the real Crockett will always have my respect for two reasons:
 
1. Obviously, his actions in joining other heroes who refused to surrender at the battle of the Alamo
2. His refusal to vote for Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act (the Act which resulted in the Trail of Tears.)
 
In fact, based on a letter excerpted here:
 
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/jackson-lincoln/resources/davy-crockett-removal-cherokees-1834
 
his disapproval of the removal of the Cherokee was actually a large part of the impetus for his leaving the United States and going to Texas (which was its own country at the time.)  He apparently felt that a government which could carry out such actions was an indication that the Republic was pretty much over.  It seems he couldn't stand to live under such a government and so he left.

Crockett was a restless sole. Is vote against moving the Indians west of the Mississippi ruined his political career. Maybe he thought he could do more in Texas. He did not like Andrew Jackson, that's for sure.

[Oh Shoot]

...Come to think of it, he doesn't look much like John Wayne, either (The Duke played Crockett in the 1960 film, "The Alamo." 

 

I thought Billy Bob played him well in the 2004 version, may not have actually resembled him, but looked plenty rough enough.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwTl_yMM8d4

 

- OS

Edited April 11, 2014 by Oh Shoot