Boomers . . . and How They Got That Way
Epistle 12 – The Coonskin Cap
One of the most overlooked heroes of the 20th century was Fess Parker. “Who the hell was Fess Parker?” you children may ask. Well, I’ll tell you. He was Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Both.
Ol’ Fess was Davy Crockett first, and Ol’ Davy was not really a frontier congressman from Tennessee who valiantly lost his life defending the Alamo with John Wayne. No, sir, he was bigger than that. He was invented by Walt Disney and had a song written about him that annoys Boomers to this day. I still get nuts when it pops into my head and won’t leave no matter how much gin I drink. “Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier . . .” See what I mean?
And Davy had a coonskin cap, which he apparently needed to kill “bars” (Tennesseeese for “bears”) or hangout in neighborhood bars, whatever. Anyway, every red-blooded American youth had to have a coonskin cap. That was back before every red-blooded American youth had to have a cell phone and a gun. My coonskin cap had a snap-on tail so I could remove it if I wanted to look like I had a fur pot on my head.
After ol’ Davy bit the dust, as they say back in Hollywood, ol’ Fess became Dan’l Boone, which was interesting because Boone preceded Crockett in history. In fact, there probably wouldn’t even be a Tennessee for Crockett to kill “bars” in if it wasn’t for Daniel Boone. But maybe it made sense because by then ol’ Fess was looking pretty weathered anyway.
One of ol’ Dan’l’s sidekicks was a Jewish singer named Ed Ames who deserted his singing brothers so he could achieve stardom as a fake Indian named Mingo. Actually, Ed got the job because he could say Dan’l. At least Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto (Spanish for “fool”) was a real, live Indian, for God’s sake.
Anyway, Fess Parker made an entire career out of playing a tall, lanky frontiersman with a really long gun and a really long drawl. He always wore the same buckskins, which made Disney’s wardrobe expense really cheap to boot. And a coonskin cap. Mine had a snap-on tail.
We Will Win
Filed under: Boomers . . . and How They Got That Way
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