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Davy Crockett Trivia and Facts
Walt Disney's  Davy Crockett mini series of the 1950's originally came in 3 episodes, "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter",  "Davy Crockett Goes to Congress", "Davy Crockett at the Alamo" . After that the following year two more episodes were created called "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race" and "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates" both of which were released later as on movie, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates.

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Davy Crockett  King of the Wild Frontier
* This originally premiered in three parts, broadcast over several weeks, on Disney's television program "Disneyland". The three segments were each given different titles: "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter", "Davy Crockett Goes To Congress", and "Davy Crockett at the Alamo".

* Buddy Ebsen was going to play Davy Crockett until Walt Disney saw Fess Parker in Them! (1954). When he saw Parker, he said, "That's my Davy Crockett!"

* Walt Disney said that if he had known the success that Davy Crockett was going to have he wouldn't have killed him off in the third TV episode.

* This film made $1 million despite the fact that over 50% of the U.S. had already seen it on TV.

* Davy Crocket fever swept the nation as coonskin caps and other Davy Crockett merchandise made into the hands of young boys everywhere across America.

Quotes

Col. Jim Bowie: How many men did you bring?
Davy Crockett: Four, including myself.
Col. Jim Bowie: Four? Two acres of walls to defend. It'll take a thousand troops to man the garrison adequately. And I got less than two hundred volunteers.
Davy Crockett: Two hundred stubborn men can do a terrible lot of fighting.

Chief Red Stick: Why you no kill me?
Davy Crockett: Maybe because of another law. We have trouble living up to it, but it ain't bad for red man or white man: thou shall not kill.

Davy Crockett: I'm half-horse, half-alligator and a little attached with snapping turtle. I've got the fastest horse, the prettiest sister, the surest rifle and the ugliest dog in Texas. My father can lick any man in Kentucky... and I can lick my father. I can hug a bear too close for comfort and eat any man alive opposed to Andy Jackson.

Davy Crockett TV History

Davy Crockett is the first miniseries in the history of television though the term had not yet been coined. Airing on ABC in five episodes on the Disneyland series, the series stars Fess Parker in the title role and Buddy Ebsen as Georgie Russel, aired in five episodes on the Disneyland series.

The miniseries was also the basis of a 1955 theatrical film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. The series and film are known for the catchy theme song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett".The series was filmed in color at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, entrance.

The series began with "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter" (December 15, 1954): Crockett seeks a truce with Indians who assaulted a military outpost. He and Russell fight in skirmishes under the command of General Andrew Jackson, portrayed by Basil Ruysdael. Along the way, Crockett kills a bear armed only with his knife.

The second episode is "Davy Crockett Goes to Congress" (January 26, 1955): Crockett, with his companion Russell, travels to Tennessee, where he learns of the death of his wife, Polly Crockett, played by Helene Stanley. He wins a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives and later the United States House of Representatives.

The third episode is "Davy Crockett at the Alamo" (February 23, 1955): Crockett and Russell join a gambler named Thimblerig, played by Hans Conreid, urges them to go to Texas, where they arrive to battle Mexico's General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the fortress, the Alamo. Although Crockett and all the defenders perished at the Battle of the Alamo, two other segments followed.

In "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race" (November 16, 1955), Crockett and Russell are fur trapping in Kentucky when they meet Mike Fink, known as the best boatman around and portrayed in the miniseries by Jeff York. Fink challenged Crockett to a keelboat race to New Orleans.

In "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates" (December 14, 1955), Crockett and Fink team up with Russell to catch pirates posing as Indians.

Kenneth Tobey, later of the syndicated television adventure series Whirlybirds starred as Jim Bowie in the "Tennessee" and "Alamo" segments and then as Jocko in the two later episodes. Mort Mills guest starred in the two final segments as Sam Mason. Thirty-three-year-old Don Megowan was cast as 23-year-old William Barret Travis. Pat Hogan played Chief Red Stick. William Bakewell played Major Tobias Norton.

Popularity

The Walt Disney Company acknowledged that the broad public popularity of the first three segments came as a surprise, but Disney capitalized on its success by licensing the sale of various types of Crockett paraphernalia, including coonskin caps and bubble gum cards.

After the Crockett miniseries, Disney attempted to create other heroic characters, such as six episodes of "The Saga of Andy Burnett" (1957), starring Jerome Courtland as a pioneer who traveled from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the Rocky Mountains. "The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca" followed in 1958, with Robert Loggia as New Mexico lawman Elfego Baca. Some thirteen segments of Texas John Slaughter aired in 1958-1959, based on a real law-enforcement officer John Horton Slaughter of Texas and starring Tom Tryon. Another Disney miniseries, The Swamp Fox, starring Leslie Nielson as Revolutionary War fighter Francis Marion, aired between 1959 and 1961. Marion wore a foxtail on his three-cornered hat, but the headpiece failed to attract the attention of the Crockett coonskin caps.

After Davy Crockett and the River Pirates the following year, Parker starred as the compassionate father in Old Yeller, as a grass-roots U.S. senator in the ABC sitcom Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1962-1963) and achieved greater success in the NBC western Daniel Boone (1964-1970), with co-stars Ed Ames, Patricia Blair, Darby Hinton, and Veronica Cartwright.

Ebsen went on to star as Sergeant Hunk Marriner in NBC's Northwest Passage (1958-1959), as Virgil Blessing in ABC's Bus Stop (1961-1962), as Jed Clampett on CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971), and as the title detective in CBS's Barnaby Jones (1973-1980).

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

Quotes
Mike Fink: I can out-run, out-jump, out-sing, out-swim, out-dance, out-shoot, out-eat, out-drink...
Davy Crockett: Out-talk?
Mike Fink: Out-talk, out-cuss, out-fight anybody in the whole Mississippi and Ohio Rivers put together!

Summary
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates is a 1956 live-action Walt Disney adventure film starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. This film is an edited compilation of the fourth and fifth stories featuring the Davy Crockett from the Disney television series:

* Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race (first broadcast November 16, 1955)
* Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (first broadcast December 14, 1955)

Keelboat Race

Davy Crockett and Geore "Georgie" Russel are loaded with pelts as they make their way to the Mississippi River after a successful season of trapper. There they encounter Mike Fink, a blowhard keelboat captain who refuses to take them downriver. That evening, Fink gets Georgie drunk and convinces him to a keelboat race down the Mississippi with the season's pelts as wager.

Crockett uses his notoriety to put together a crew and the race begins. Overcoming numerous obstacals along with Fink's dirty tricks, Crockett wins the race but amiably waives his claim on Finks share of the wager. In gratitude, Fink agrees to take Crockett and Russel all the way down the river.

River Pirates

Along the way, the men pick up a traveling minstrel who unbeknowst to them is in league with local river bandits. Crockett and Fink discover that the river pirates are masquerading as Indians as they loot passing freighters from a riverside cave.

The men find their way into the lair, and in the ensuing battle several kegs of gunpowder are exploded, sealing the cave. The victorious heroes escape unscaved with the subdued villains in toe.

Davy Crockett Comic Book Cover