This pleased 3-year-old, who sees himself as the King of the Wild Frontier, belongs to an army of Americans which has had a sudden and shattering impact on the nation's home life. He is a Davy Crockett fan and is a brother-in-arms of almost every American of both sexes from the age of 2 to 12. Through a recent Walt Disney TV program he made the acquaintance of the frontier scout, Davy Crockett. Since then he has been raising indoor bedlam in his scramble to reach the television set and outdoor bedlam as he whoops and hollers in the backyard. Being a stickler for details, he insists on toting at least one Crockett gun and wearing a coonskin hat, sometimes to bed. The Crockett craze, unexpected even by the watchful Walt Disney, has produced a corresponding frenzy in commercial circles. Dozens of manufacturers are hustling to turn out more than 200 items, from baby shoes to wallets, which might conceivably be connected with Crockett's life. By June they will sell to the retail tune of $100 million — just about the largest merchandising feat of its kind. Mean-while, Walt Disney has made a full-length movie out of his TV film and booked it into 950 theaters for its opening month of June. Sixteen versions of the Crockett ballad, which was introduced on the TV show, have been recorded, not counting the Davy Crockett Mambo. But the true Crockett fan is busy with his own forms of hero worship. He kills imaginary Mexicans, shoots imaginary bears and adds his own verses to the Crockett ballad, […]
