Do you know this man?
Let me elaborate, some may think this is an add post for my blog but on the contrary it really is not. The picture you see here is of Fess Parker who died yesterday at the ripe old age of 85 in California. He would be the man responsible for turning the coonskin cap into the must have accesory while playing Alamo icon Davy Crockett in a series of Disneyland TV productions in the mid 1950’s. He planted his position as tv’s top frontiersman playing also another historical figure, Daniel Boone, in an NBC series of the same name from 1964 to 1970. This would be one of his final tv roles before going into real estate & then on into building a successful vineyard in California’s Santa Ynez Valley. The tall Texan at 6-foot-6 also starred in the 1957 classic Old Yeller.
The ever famous “king of the wild frontier” theme song became a phenomenon for Parker from these ventures. Also note that at one point 5,000 coonskin caps were sold a day EVEN skewing a whole market {which he created} raising the price of the fur from 25 cents per pound to $8 a pound. If that is not market influence then I simply do not know what is. He was responsible for it. In 1989, Parker & his family moved to a Santa Ynez Valley property next to Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch where he operated the inn & became a vintner with his winery {featured in the 2004 blockbuster movie, Sideways as the Frass Canyon Winery} drawing acclaim for its varieties. Cheers to a true American Icon!!!
Source: USA Today
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