Fess Parker stars as Daniel Boone Season 1 on DVD June Cleaver book

Peabody & Sherman cartoons on DVD Car Battery Charger Book About Greensboro Classic Commercials on DVD Mr Peabody on DVD Looney Tunes Golden Ed
Bionic Woman on DVD

Fess Parker / Davey Crockett

by L. Wayne Hicks

Fess Parker's estimate is on the low side.

The legendary television star is far off on his estimate of how much the craze for coonskin caps and similar merchandise would amount to if America was gripped with "Davy Crockett" fever today the way it was 50 years ago.

/ / / Classic TV Blog / / / TV Shows on DVD / / / TV Show Reviews / // / TV on BLU-RAY

"I would suspect if you brought those numbers up to date that it might exceed more than $1 billion of merchandise," Parker estimates during a lengthy telephone interview from his California winery.

Before the country went crazy for hula hoops and Elvis Presley, "Davy Crockett" was responsible for many a busted piggy bank. The story of the frontier hero comprised three hour-long episodes of the ABC series "Disneyland," the first of which aired in December 1954 and was watched by 40 million viewers. The second episode aired in January 1955 and the third a month later. Demand for merchandise was so great whatever could be stamped with Fess Parker's face or Davy Crockett's name on it was.

Fess Parker as Davy Crockett bookPencil sharpeners. Curtains. Coonskin caps. Underwear. Pajamas. Dolls. Wagons. Comics. Guitars. Games. Books.

"You name it," says Parker, who immediately became television's first overnight sensation. The demand drove the price of a raccoon tail from 2 cents each to 8 cents, and a used coonskin coat that once fetched $2 went for $10. One department store spokesman called the whole thing "the boom that mushroomed."

All told, "Davy Crockett" merchandise accounted for $300 million in sales during the eight months of 1955 that the craze gripped the United States. In today's dollars, that amounts to slightly more than $2 billion.

"Even the cottage cheese people are after us to see if we can't give their product a Crockett tie-in," a Disney executive said in 1955. Mark Rich ranked Davy Crockett's coonskin cap No. 14 in his book "100 Greatest Baby Boomer Toys." Paul F. Anderson devoted an entire book to the topic, "The Davy Crockett Craze."

"It was the supernova of fads," Anderson said in an interview included on the DVD release of the "Davy Crockett" films.

Fads like the Davy Crockett craze linger in people's memories. So Parker has asked his old fans, through his Web site at fessparker.com, to send him their childhood memories of "Davy Crockett" to mark the 50th anniversary of the program. He's posting letters and vintage photos of children dressed as their hero.


Fess Parker as Daniel BooneFess Parker Part Two:
Fess Parker talks about
Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and more!

 

SEE ALSO: The Fess Parker Show

TVparty is Classic TV on the Internet!
Classic TV on the Internet!
 

FESS PARKER INTERVIEW


Fess Parker - PART 2
Fess Parker currently owns and operates the Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard, near Santa Barbara, California - along with 2 hotels, the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort in Santa Barbara and the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn and Spa in Los Olivos, California.

Fess Parker retired from show business in the 1970s.

Besides television, Fess Parker had roles in many films, including: Them!, The Great Locomotive Chase, Old Yeller and Hell is for Heroes.

Davy Crockett on DVD:
Fess Parker stars as Daniel Boone Season 1 on DVDFess Parker on DVD

A catalog of all the classic TV
shows on DVD!

Please consider a donation
so we can continue this work!

 

 

 

Video on Demand Rent or Buy

Entertainment Collectables

 

 


Video Vault / Holiday Specials / Fabulous Fifties / Unseen Scenes / Game Shows / Lost Kid Shows / Movie Stars on TV / Saturday Morning Shows / Requested Forgotten TV Shows / The Super Sixties / More Modern TV Shows / The New * * Shows / 1980's Wrestling / TV Blog

TVparty is Classic TV on the internet!
Classic TV!

Television's Embarrassing Moments / Action Shows of the Sixties / TVparty Mysteries and Scandals / Variety Shows of the Seventies / The Eighties / TVafterparty / The Laugh Track / 1970's Hit Shows / Response to TVparty / Search the Site / Add Your Comments
1950's TV Shows / Fess Parker & Davy Crockett / First Sitcom Couple To Share A Bed / Jack Benny Program / Highway Patrol / Betty Hutton Show / 1952 Olympics Telethon / Amos 'n' Andy / Little Rascals & Our Gang / Howdy Doody / The First Batman Movie From 1943 / Who Was the REAL Aunt Jemima? / Freedomland USA / John Wayne Won Lassie in a Poker Game! / Lucy's Sitcom Before I Love Lucy / The Lone Ranger / It's Always Jan / 1950s Shows I NEED To See / Jack Lemmon & Billy Wilder on Marilyn Monroe / So This Is Hollywood / Audrey Meadows Refused To Do This For Jackie Gleason / When Jerry Lewis Ceased To Be Funny / The Plainclothesman / Buck Rogers in the 25th Century / Remembering Tony Dow / First Solo Female Series / Kuda Bux / Capt. Allen Swift - NYC Local Popeye Shows / Was the 1959 Santa Claus Movie Too Christian?!? / When Judy Garland's Daughters First Saw The Wizard of Oz / TV During WWII / Top Ten TV Shows 1950s / Jack Larson's Suprising Life As Superman's Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s / Judy Garland's 2nd TV Special and Las Vegas Debut / Early Network News Broadcasts / Lost Desilu Sitcom: Those Whiting Girls / Lost Superboy Pilot / The Shadow 1954 Pilot / KTLA News / / Kid Show Pioneer Herb Sheldon / Aline Saarinen / Tribute to Sandy Becker / The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu / O.Henry Playhouse / Capt. Allen Swift / NYC's First Bozo Bill Britten / The Magical Land of Alakazam! / 1950s and 60s Bloopers / TV's First Working Woman / Cannonball - 1950s Trucking Drama / Sonny Fox Kid Shows / Lauren Bacall on Bette Davis / Sunset Boulevard Explained / Abbott & Costello TV Show / The Three Stooges: The Where They Were / The First 'Black' Show - Beulah / Women on TV in the 1950s / The Today Show / Hey Jeannie / The Jeannie Carson Show / TV's First Educator Paul Tripp / Ernie Kovacs / Soap Opera Miss Susan / Adventures of Superman Lost Episode / Bette Davis vs Ronald Reagan / Captain Z-Ro / Obscure Actress Mary Castle / Serious 1950s TV shows / Remembering David Susskind / TV's First Rerun Series / The Ken Murray Budweiser Show / Saturday Morning Serials / Two Variety Shows of the Fifties / Game Shows of the Fifties /1950's TV Wrestling / Greensboro's Soda Pop History / Mr. Adams and Eve / TV's First Star / Oh Susanna! the Gale Storm Show / Bob Hastings / TV's First Star / History of the Laugh Track / The First Interactive Video Game / Designing Winky-Dink / Buffalo Bob Smith / The McKimson Brothers & Animation / Interview with a Show Business Legend / The Soundies / Snaders Telescriptions / Steve Allen Interviewed / Racket Squad / December Bride / The Big Show / Beverly Garland & Decoy / Richard Crenna & The Real McCoys / Roger Muir / Noel Coward's 1955 TV Special / Jon Provost Interview / 1950's TV Shows on DVD / Oh Susanna! The Gale Storm Show / 1950's Old Time TV Thanksgiving / Outrageous 1950's Commercial! / The Real Superman? / Mickey Mouse Club's Cheryl / Gale Storm / Captain Allen Swift / NYC's St. Patrick's Day Parade Telecasts / Julie London / The Goldbergs / 1950's Female Singers / The Dead End Kids / Bowery Boys / Fred Allen / Ed Wynn / Mr. Belvedere Movies / Art Linkletter / The Bickersons / Marty & Live TV / George Gobel & Red Buttons / Barbara Billingsley / Billy Gray Interview / Abbott & Costello Show / The Honeymooners / Three Stooges' Joe Besser / Whirlybirds / Burns & Allen Show
Classic TV Commercials / 1950's TV / 1960's TV / 1970's TV / Groucho vs William F Buckley / / TV Games / Honey Boo Boo / Lucy Shows / John Wayne / Gene Roddenberry / Big Blue Marble / Monty Hall / Carrascolendas / Mr. Dressup / Major Mudd / Chief Halftown / What's In Oprah's Purse? / Baby Daphne / Sheriff John / Winchell & Mahoney / Fireball X-L5 / Mr. Wizard / Captain Noah / Thanksgiving Day Specials / Disney's First Christmas Special / Saturday Morning Cartoons / The Magic Garden / Amahl & the Night Visitors / Holiday Toy Commercials / Lucy & Desi's Last Christmas Show / Joey Heatherton / Fat Albert / The Virginian / Bewitched / Death of John Wayne / 1974 Saturday Mornings / Chuck McCann / Rudolph Collectables / Shrimpenstein / Local Popeye Shows / New Treasure Hunt / Star Wars / KISS / Lancelot Link / Saturday Morning Cartoons / Wonder Woman / Classic Comic Books / Andy Griffith / Cher / TV Shows on DVD / Outtakes & Bloopers / 1967 TV Shows / Romper Room / Captain Kangaroo / Chicago Local Kiddie Shows / Boston Local TV / Philly Local TV / NYC Local Kid Shows / Electric Company / Bette Davis / Judy Garland / Christmas Specials / Redd Foxx / Good Times / Sitcom Houses / What's Happening! / Winky Dink & You / Sonny & Cher / Smothers Brothers / Soupy Sales / The Carpenters / Route 66 / Bozo / The Carpenters Christmas Specials / Local Kid Shows / Death of TV's Superman / Wonderama / Sesame Street / Bob Hope Specials / Little Rascals / Gay Icon T-Shirts / Alex Toth Book / TV Terrorists / Irwin Allen / The Untouchables / Carol Burnett Show / Batman TV Show / Green Hornet / Today Show History / Our Gang / Doris Day Show / 1970's Commercials For Women / Bill Cosby in the 1970s / The Golddiggers / Lola Falana / 1970s TV Shows / David Bowie on TV / Hudson Brothers / Jackie Gleason / Hollywood Squares / Match Game / Bob Keeshan / Gumby / The Flip Wilson Show / Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour / The Bobby Darin Show / The Richard Pryor Show / George Burns / Lucy's Lost Christmas Special / Classic Christmas Toy Commercials / Cricket On The Hearth / 1950's Holiday Shows / Amahl and the Night Visitors / A Christmas Carol on TV / The Yule Log / Celebrity Commercials / Rudolph / Movie Posters & More!


Fess Parker stars as Daniel Boone Season 1 on DVD Soupy Sales Show on DVD  Bobby Darin Show on DVD!   GLOW on DVd Superman on DVD

Little Rascals on DVD

Looking for classic TV on DVD?/See below:


Save money!