Walt Disney and American History

Walt Disney's Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier was my introduction to History, a subject I still read a lot. It was on my sixth birthday that I caught the first installment, Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter. Here was a story about people from East Tennessee, barely one hundred miles from my home. Let's face it. Tennessee just was not the setting for much of anything on TV at the time. What's more some of the episode was filmed in my home state, something else that was almost unheard of.

Walt Disney turned to American History for subjects to film, either for the theaters or for the Disneyland television series. Fess Parker appeared in a total of five episodes about Crockett. Fess Parker played another historical character, Union spy James Andrews in The Great Locomotive Chase. This was based on a incident from 1862 when Yankee spies stole a train and attempted to sabotage the rail line between Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Walt also filmed incidents from the life of American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, known as the Swamp Fox. Johnny Tremain, based on the book by Esther Forbes depicted the beginning of the American Revolution. Ten Who Dared told of the first exploration party down the Colorado River. Tonka (1958) was about Custer's Last Stand with a lot of the story told from the viewpoint of the Indians.

A few years before Fess Parker again donned the coonskin hat and traipsed into Kentucky, Daniel Boone was the subject of a four-part miniseries, starring Dewey Martin. The Saga of Andy Burnette told of the mountain men and the early western exploration. Episodes of Disneyland touched on heroic Union drummer boy Johnny Shiloh, portrayed Confederate Gray Ghost John S. Mosby while Westward Ho the Wagons had Fess Parker leading a wagon train (and several Mouseketeers) along the Oregon Trail. Texas John Slaughter and Mexican-American hero Elfego Bacca were introduced to a wide audience by Walt Disney.

The story of Davy Crockett proved to be a good choice and resulted in one of the first crazes related to television. Everywhere you saw kids (myself included) wearing "coonskin" caps; it was hard to not hear "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", recorded by Fess Parker, Tennessee Ernie Ford and others. The series itself followed Constance Roarke's biography of Crockett which, unfortunately, used many incidents and characters from the fake Crockett "diary" covering his trip to Texas and Destiny. Still, history received decent treatment with the basics. David Crockett did take part in the Creek war and the attack on the Indian town is right out of Crockett's autobiography. He didn't fight single-handed, but did play a part. Crockett was also opposed to Jackson's Indian removal bill and lost his seat in Congress as a result. But the image that stands out the most comes from Davy Crockett at the Alamo with Davy swinging his rifle as the Mexican army surrounds him. Now that image has stayed with this onetime six year old for almost fifty-five years now.

Walt Disney's take on history certainly was not perfect but was often better than what the rest of Hollywood was doing then and definitely better than the few excursions they make there today. Disney was proud to be an American and shared that pride and love with his audience. Also, Walt Disney respected the subject and his audience, presenting the bad along with the good, but emphasizing the good. And as a result a lot of kids got their first exposure to the subject courtesy Walt Disney.