The Red Monkey

LOS ANGELES — Fess Parker, a baby-boomer idol in the 1950s who launched a craze for coonskin caps as television’s Davy Crockett, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 85.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV’s Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death comes on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.

“She’s a wreck,” Anash said, adding Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

The first installment of “Davy Crockett,” with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett’s sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the “Disneyland” TV show.

The 6-foot, 6-inch Parker was quickly embraced by youngsters as the man in a coonskin cap who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. Boomers gripped by the Crockett craze scooped up Davy lunch boxes, toy Old Betsy rifles, buckskin shirts and trademark fur caps. “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” (“Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...”) was a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes while Parker’s own version reached No. 5.

The first three television episodes were turned into a theatrical film, “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier,” in 1955.

True to history, Disney killed off its hero in the third episode, “Davy Crockett at the Alamo,” where the real-life Crockett died in 1836 at age 49. But spurred by popular demand, Disney brought back the Crockett character for some episodes in the 1955-56 season, including “Davy Crockett’s Keelboat Race.” In reporting this development, Hedda Hopper wrote: “Take off those black armbands, kids, and put on your coonskin caps, for Davy Crockett will hit the trail again.”

But just as suddenly it had taken the country by storm, the craze died down.

Parker’s career then leveled off before he made a TV comeback from 1964-1970 in the title role of the TV adventure series “Daniel Boone” – also based on a real-life American frontiersman. Actor-singer Ed Ames, formerly of the Ames Brothers, played Boone’s Indian friend, Mingo.

After “Daniel Boone,” Parker largely retired from show business, except for guest appearances, and went into real estate.

“I left the business after 22 years,” Parker told The Associated Press in 2001. “It was time to leave Hollywood. I came along at a time when I’m starting out with Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Sterling Hayden and Gregory Peck.“

“Who needed a guy running around in a coonskin cap?” he said.

Parker had made his motion picture debut in “Springfield Rifle” in 1952. His other movies included “No Room for the Groom” (1952), “The Kid From Left Field” (1953), “Them!” (1954), “The Great Locomotive Chase” (1956), “Westward Ho, the Wagons!” (1956), “Old Yeller” (1957) and “The Light in the Forest” (1958).

Several of Parker’s films, including “The Great Locomotive Chase” and “Old Yeller,” came from the Disney studio.

It was Parker’s scene as a terrified witness in the horror classic “Them!” that caught the attention of Walt Disney when he was looking for a “Davy Crockett” star. He chose Parker over another “Them!” actor, James Arness – who became a TV superstar in the long-running “Gunsmoke.”

After departing Hollywood, Parker got into real estate with his wife, Marcella, whom he had married in 1960.

He bought and sold property, built hotels (including the elegant Fess Parker’s Wine Country Inn & Spa in Los Olivos and Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort Santa Barbara) and grew wine grapes on a 2,200-acre vineyard on California’s Central Coast, where he was dubbed King of the Wine Frontier and coonskin caps enjoyed brisk sales.

After its inaugural harvest in 1989, Parker’s vineyard won dozens of medals and awards. The Parkers’ son, Eli, became director of winemaking and their daughter, Ashley, also worked at the winery.

Parker was a longtime friend of Ronald Reagan, whose Western White House was not far from the Parker vineyards. Reagan sent Parker to Australia in 1985 to represent him during an event, and when Parker returned he was asked by White House aide Michael Deaver if he was interested in being ambassador to that country.

“In the end, I decided I’d better take myself out of it. But I was flattered,” Parker said.

Parker also once considered a U.S. Senate bid, challenging Alan Cranston. But Nevada Sen. Paul Laxalt said it would be a rough campaign, and a key dissenter lived under the same roof.

“My wife was not in favor,” Parker said. “I’m so happy with what evolved.”

Fess Elisha Parker Jr. was born Aug. 16, 1924, in Fort Worth, Texas – Parker loved to point out Crockett’s birthday was Aug. 17. He played football at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene but was injured in a nearly fatal road-rage knifing in 1946.

“There went my football career,” Parker had said.

He later earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas.

Parker was discovered by actor Adolphe Menjou, who was Oscar-nominated for “The Front Page” in 1931 and who was a guest artist at the University of Texas. Menjou urged him to go to Hollywood and introduced Parker to his agent.

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I am a child of the 80′s and saw a lot of Davey Crockett (Fess Parker) on the Disney channel growing up. It was a great show. He was in a few movies that Disney would replay including Old Yeller.

Spy Shots: 2011 Ford Fiesta EcoBoost

by Damon Lavrinc (RSS feed) on Mar 18th 2010 at 2:57PM

2011 Ford Fiesta Ecoboost – Click above for high-res image gallery

The EcoBoost 3.5-liter V6 found in the Ford Flex and Taurus SHO has quickly become one of our favorite mills on the market. But what we’ve really been hankering for from FoMoCo is its smaller displacement offerings, specifically the 1.6- and 2.0-liter turbocharged engines slated to arrive next year.

Along with the Fusion, the all-new Fiesta is set to get a boosted mill sometime in 2011, and these newest spy shots reveal that a high-performance version of Ford’s diminutive hatch is in the works.

Tucked behind a modified version of the Euro-market Fiesta’s Titanium Trim front fascia is a slim intercooler matched with blacked-out trim, a subtle body kit and a prototype rear diffuser modified to fit the European-spec rear bumper and dual exhausts. A set of 17-inch anthracite Speedline wheels complete the package, which poses two questions.

One, is this a prototype of a production vehicle or something that’s planned for this November’s SEMA Show? Either way, Ford’s got big plans for its new three-door and showing off its aftermarket potential is sure to be high on the priority list.

Two, which EcoBoosted engine is powering the mule? The smart money’s on Ford’s new 1.6-liter inline four, which should be good for around 170 horsepower and a similar amount of torque in turbo’d form. The less-than-plausible, yet far more compelling, option is the Fusion’s forthcoming turbocharged 2.0-liter four-pot, which is good for between 230 and 250 hp and 240 pound-feet of twist. Obviously, we’re hoping for the latter, but we’d be just as content with the 1.6-liter option and the possibility of future models turning up the wick even further.

Gallery: Spy Shots: 2011 Ford Fiesta Ecoboost

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Filed under: SEMA Show, Spy Photos, Hatchback, Ford

Tags: 2011, 2011 ford fiesta ecoboost, 2011FordFiestaEcoboost, ecoboost, fiesta, fiesta ecoboost, FiestaEcoboost, ford, ford fiesta, ford fiesta ecoboost, FordFiesta, FordFiestaEcoboost, spy photos, spy pics, spy shots, SpyPhotos, SpyPics, SpyShots

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The hot hatch if finally landing in America. Its a great looking little car with some respectable power. Finally we will be done with the crap plastic boxes.

This May Be The World’s Only Jesus-Pimpin’ Ghettocruiser Rap Video

So, uh, this is a little… yeah, we can’t make any jokes. Some of them are too easy, some are too stupid, and some are just too mean. But we have five words for you: You must watch this. Now.

A brief sampling of items found in the above video:

• Enthusiasm
• Vibrating senior citizens
• Magic clothes
• A metallic-green Mitsubishi Eclipse with a yellow interior
• The phrase “Jesus-beats bangin’ in my trunk”
• The phrase “put those Jesus-beats in and ride”
• “Deuces” that are “thrown high” by a guy on a riding lawnmower
• An old man who climbs into a car and gets to head-bobbin’.

• 
  A brief sampling of items found on the B-Shoc website:
  

• A tour schedule
• The song “God’ll Make You Clap,” along with a sound file of said song where the last word in the title is slurred enough so that it sounds like something that is definitely not clapping
• Ringtones
• A link to buy the B-Shoc album Against the Flow and a DVD of the music video.

• We’ll let you discover the rest for yourself.

  
  Note: We respect all religions and all walks of life. We have no problem with anyone who believes anything. We just have a thing for magic clothes and the lawnmower deuce.

  [B-Shoc.com via VWVortex]

Send an email to Sam Smith, the author of this post, at sam@jalopnik.com.

Thank Jalopnik for this little gem. WTF?

Try to Out-Ridiculous the Official NASA Mission Posters

Have you seen these ludicrous posters that NASA makes for every mission? They are insane. But I think you guys can top them.

Go ahead and whip up your own posters and send your best entries to me at contests@gizmodo.com with NASA Posters in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs under 800k in size, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with. Send your work to me by next Tuesday morning, and I’ll pick three top winners and show off the rest of the best in our Gallery of Champions. Get to it!

Send an email to Adam Frucci, the author of this post, at adam@gizmodo.com.

I think these posters are awesome. They are just rip offs of movie posters really.

Cool Stuff: Joe Corroney’s Star Wars Propaganda Posters

Posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 by Peter Sciretta

Joe Corroney has been providing Lucasfilm with official Star Wars artwork for books, games, trading cards

, comic books, posters and magazines since 1997. He recently created a set of propaganda posters which he’s selling the original art for $250 a piece. Check out the images after the jump, and see more of Corroney’s art on JoeCorroney.com.

via: Super Punch

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The Census Asks Too Much

Posted by David Boaz

Everyone in America, I presume, has just received a letter from the U.S. Census Bureau urging us to fill out our Census forms. Seems like a very expensive way to tell us to watch for the form to arrive in the mail. But I’m particularly interested in why they say we should promptly fill out the form:

Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of [federal] government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.

Obviously this is a zero-sum game. If my neighbors and I all fill out the form, then you and your neighbors will get less from the common federal trough. But at least we’ll be getting our “fair share,” as the letter tells us twice in three sentences.

But where does the government get the authority to ask me my race, my age, and whether I have a mortgage? In fact, the Constitution authorizes the federal government to make an “actual enumeration” of the people in order to apportion seats in the House of Representatives. That’s all. Not to define and count us by race. Not to ask whether we’re homeowners or renters. Just to ask how many people live here, so they can apportion congressional seats.

I’m not interested in getting taxpayers around the country to pay for roads and schools and “many other programs” in my community. All the government needs to know from me is how many people live in my house. And I will tell them.

More on the census and the Constitution here.

David Boaz • March 17, 2010 @ 10:33 am
Filed under: Government and Politics
Tags: census, census bureau, Congress, Constitution, federal government, government, highways, homeowners, House of Representatives, liberty, mortgage, race, school, taxpayer, taxpayers

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Spring Festival of LXs: The Men Behind the Machines

Posted on: March 17, 2010 – 12:07 pm

As many of you readers and loyal Dodge hooners may already be aware, the 5th annual Spring Festival of LX is fast approaching. This year, RLD will be doing a little legwork to ensure that every Dodge enthusiast can enjoy SF5 as much as those that will be in attendance. In addition to our very own man on the ground, we’ll also be following the whereabouts of four enthusiasts- LX forum members Anthony Carter, Pedro Murillo, Travis Copenhaver and the head honcho himself, Spring Festival founder John Fortuno, as they make their way to Irvine, California.

RLD will be kicking off our coverage on Friday March 19th. The guys at LXforums will be Tweeting, snapping pics, and even posting videos along the way. For one of the them, the road trip will commence at 2:00am Wednesday morning (that right there is some serious dedication). To get to know the guys, hit the jump to check out their bios.

John Fortuno

There is no doubt that the Spring Fest Founder and Huntington Beach local, John Fortuno, is a man of both passion and vision – just check out his outrageous 300C at this year’s Spring Fest, and you’ll know what we mean! Eight years ago, Spring Fest was just a twinkle in his eye. At its inception, John remembers there were only a handful of cars that showed up to the event! In fact, his very own cherry 2005 Chrysler 300C wasn’t even one of them, because he was still waiting to take delivery. “We had 18 Chrysler 300’s at our first big meet(I am confused since you already referenced only 4 vehicles at the first event!-Which is it?),” John recalls. “Then we invited the Dodge Magnums to join and it grew to 44 cars, from there the rest is history. Spring Festival is where you get to see it all and put a face to the name. That’s what drives the event to the level it is at today…you will literally see everything from to stock to wild, it will be there. I had always imagined the Spring Festival being a large event, but to see the passion and the enthusiasm of the owners is great. We all have different taste and looks but what makes this great is the vehicle platform allows you to be unique.” Since that time, both John’s list of mods and the number of Spring Fest participants have swelled exponentially. This year, the event is expected to attract over 630 cars, hailing from as far as Canada!

To share John’s experience, follow him on Twitter @1fatchance.

Anthony Carter

Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, Anthony Carter is the proud owner of a TorRed 2006 Dodge Charger Daytona RT #0145, modded to resemble the Charger SRT from the PS3 game Need For Speed: Carbon. SF5 will mark the first time Anthony will be attending the Spring Festival of LX and he’s very excited about the experience. “Ever since the first day I logged onto my first forum I have been hearing about the Spring Festival of LX’s,” Anthony said. “After seeing all the pictures and the video each year, and hearing all of the stories and good times everybody shared I had to make the trip out to California to experience it for myself. I tried to make it out there last year and had to cancel unexpectedly. This year I absolutely could not miss it even though I’m going without my car due to time constraints.” While we definitely regret that we won’t be able to check out Anthony’s pride and joy in person, we’re still stoked that we’ll get to be a part of his first LX experience.Starting March 19th, Anthony will be tweeting live updates from the festival, so be sure to follow him on Twitter @LXandBeyondNats.

Pedro Murillo

Dallas Fort Worth LX Club President and 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 owner Pedro Murillo is such a loyal Mopar fan, he’s even got his girlfriend, Crystal Turk, and her 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 in on the LX action this year. “[She] has always supported me with my car hobbies… She loves the car scene and is as excited to make it out to Spring Fest #5.” After spending countless hours connecting with other forum members, Pedro is ecstatic about the chance to show off his hard work in person. “[Spring Fest] gives me a chance to show off the car i have built to other MOPAR lovers that can appreciate the hard work put into the beast.” Added Pedro, “It also another reason for me to purchase more modifications without feeling guilty about it.”

Pedro and Crystal are leading the second caravan of DFW-area LX owners on a cross-country trek to the holy Mopar land in California. Due to the distance and the size of his group, Pedro’s team left town at midnight on Tuesday, the same time most of us were still counting sheep. To catch up on all the distance he’s covered so far, you can track Pedro’s journey by following him on Twitter @ezcorpion – and the rest of you can catch up with him whenever you get around to rolling out of bed.

Travis Copenhaver

Rocking one of the sickest 2005 Dodge Magnum R/T’s we’ve seen to date, recent Vegas transplant Travis Copenhagen has waited years to attend what is commonly regarded as the event of the year for serious LXers. “I have always read about this event and have always dreamed of going. I never lived close enough or was out of the country when it happened. When the USAF moved my family to Las Vegas I knew I had to go to Spring Fest.” Like many other true fans, SF5 is about more than just bragging rights to Travis. “[It's] A perfect excuse to get the family together for a road trip. A perfect getaway to meet others with the same passion. Meeting other people with like interest and building lasting friendships.” The first leg of Travis’ trip will begin at 9 o’clock on Friday morning when he, his wife, sons, and a fellow LXer begin the 285-mile trip to SoCal. He’ll be feeding us live updates and pics from his Twitter handle @1sikmag, so be sure to follow him to stay in the loop.

To ensure that you don’t miss a second of the SF5 action, check back in at RLD regularly for new posts and don’t forget to add @dodgeautos and @chryslerautos to your Twitter followers for all the official updates from the RLD crew.

Filed in Changing the Future

Toyota Announces HUGE 2010 Tundra Recall

Toyota’s voluntarily recalling two 2010 Tundra four-wheel-drive pickups to fix a potential problem with the front propeller shaft. That’s right, two. Somebody signal the networks! Recall! Recall! RECALL! [PickupTrucks.com]

Send an email to Ray Wert, the author of this post, at ray@jalopnik.com.

A surfer trained an alpaca to ride the waves in Peru. Follow the link to read more but I think the picture speaks volumes.