And another old favorite moves on. Fess Parker, known to TV-watching Baby Boomers first and foremost as Davy Crockett, has died. Hope he took Ol' Betsy with him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02823.html
Gone With or Without fanfare
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
Fess Parker was one of those guys I always just liked seeing on the screen. I watched the "Daniel Boone" show when I was a kid, and one of the things I like about "Them!" is Parker brief bit as a cropduster pilot locked up in an asylum because he insists he saw giant ants.
Apparently, that scene convinced Walt Disney to cast Parker as Davy Crockett. (I guess it convinced him that Parker could tell Crockett's tall tales.)
Apparently, that scene convinced Walt Disney to cast Parker as Davy Crockett. (I guess it convinced him that Parker could tell Crockett's tall tales.)
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klondike
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
Thanks for the link, Judith.
Obviously, just too quiet & mellow a gentleman to make it "big" in Hollywood.
Obviously, just too quiet & mellow a gentleman to make it "big" in Hollywood.
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silentscreen
- Posts: 701
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
The Controller at our company commented on this today saying that another one of the icons of his youth had passed away. He still has a cup and bowl with Fess on them that an aunt gave him to this day. That's how much Fess Parker effected him. He was a hero to little boys of the time.
Brenda
Brenda
"Humor is nothing less than a sense of the fitness of things." Carole Lombard
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
.
This information makes me sad even though I haven't seen anything of Mr. Parker in years. About 10 years ago I did catch old reruns of Daniel Boone which I enjoyed, but always got mixed up with Davy Crockett. His part in Them was actually lucky for him because people could have gone the other way and said, 'the crazy guy in Them'. He was listed as one of the stars of Old Yeller but was only onscreen for about 20 minutes if that much. I know I saw him in several other TV shows and movies, but I would be hard put to remember their names. It is curious that he never made a bigger name for himself as a movie cowboy, he was certainly suited to the characteristics, but I guess being a big guy in a little (Disney) pond was better than a little guy in a big pond.
Whatever the case, I enjoyed his performances when I did see them and now wish him to Rest in Peace.
This information makes me sad even though I haven't seen anything of Mr. Parker in years. About 10 years ago I did catch old reruns of Daniel Boone which I enjoyed, but always got mixed up with Davy Crockett. His part in Them was actually lucky for him because people could have gone the other way and said, 'the crazy guy in Them'. He was listed as one of the stars of Old Yeller but was only onscreen for about 20 minutes if that much. I know I saw him in several other TV shows and movies, but I would be hard put to remember their names. It is curious that he never made a bigger name for himself as a movie cowboy, he was certainly suited to the characteristics, but I guess being a big guy in a little (Disney) pond was better than a little guy in a big pond.
Whatever the case, I enjoyed his performances when I did see them and now wish him to Rest in Peace.
Anne
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jdb1
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
To little girls, too. When I was a little girl, most of the men around me were volatile and argumentative, and it was a revelation to me to see that strong, modest and soft-spoken man, as Parker embodied Davy Crockett (who, in real life, probably wasn't any of those things). I had my Davy Crockett lunchbox, and I've often wondered what became of it.silentscreen wrote:The Controller at our company commented on this today saying that another one of the icons of his youth had passed away. He still has a cup and bowl with Fess on them that an aunt gave him to this day. That's how much Fess Parker effected him. He was a hero to little boys of the time.
Brenda
Fess Parker was a very big deal to kids in those days, and he never did anything to betray our trust, something that can't be said too often about icons these days whether they are intended to appeal to kids or adults. He will be missed.
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klondike
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
I loved reading the new honorific they dubbed him with, as his vineyards starting winning medals & awards:
"King of the Wine Frontier"
"King of the Wine Frontier"
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jdb1
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
And kilt him a Barolo, when he was only three!klondike wrote:I loved reading the new honorific they dubbed him with, as his vineyards starting winning medals & awards:
"King of the Wine Frontier"
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Lzcutter
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
"Baby" June Havoc has passed away:
June Havoc, a show-business legend whose hard-knocks childhood as a stage performer was depicted in the classic musical Gyspy, died March 28, according to the Village Voice. She was 96.
Driven by an ruthless stage mother, young Ellen Evangeline Hovick and her sister Louise—who would become legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee—were forced into Vaudeville at an early age. Ms. Havoc was billed as "Baby June," and later "Dainty June," and played the West Coast Pantages circuit, but she abandoned her mother's world when she eloped at 13 with fellow performer Bobby Reed. The two teenagers scraped by entering, and winning, dance marathons.
All this, and more, was told in Ms. Havoc's two autobiographies, "Early Havoc" (1959) and "More Havoc" (1980). But it was her sister's 1957 book, "Gypsy," that became part of America's permanent show-business tapestry when it was adapted by composer Jule Styne, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, librettist Arthur Laurents and director Jerome Robbins into the stage musical Gypsy. The show, considered one of the most hard-boiled backstage stories in theatre history—and one of the best constructed and most entertaining—debuted on Broadway in 1959. Though based on Gypsy Rose Lee's book, the central figure is not the stripper but her monstrous mother, Rose, based on June and Louise's mother, Rose Thompson Hovick.
Despite her embittered upbringing, Ms. Havoc persevered in the trade into which she was born. She found her first Broadway part in Sigmund Romberg's Forbidden Melody in 1936, and would later star in Rodgers and Hart's classic Pal Joey, playing Gladys Bumps. Other roles of the 1940s included Mexican Hayride, Sadie Thompson, The Ryan Girl and Dunnigan's Daughter. The next decade brought Affairs of State, The Infernal Machine, The Beaux Stratagem and The Warm Peninsula.
Her film career began in 1942 and was littered with mainly "B" material. A few credits stood out, however, including the comedy "My Sister Eileen" and "Gentleman's Agreement," in which she played a racist secretary.
In 1963, Ms. Havoc turned her book "Early Havoc" into the play Marathon '33, which she both wrote and directed. Set in 1933, it starred Julie Harris as June. Ms. Havoc was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award as Best Director, and Harris as Best Actress in a Play. The show ran only 48 performances, but it did provide the basis for the hit movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," set at a Depression-era dance marathon.
In 1982, she made her final Broadway appearance, as one of the last Miss Hannigans in the long-running hit Annie. She also toured the country as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd.
June Havoc was born Nov. 8, 1913, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her father, a reporter for a Seattle newspaper, and her mother divorced when she was very young. She was coached for the stage from the time she could walk, dancing with Anna Pavlova and appearing in silent films with Harold Lloyd. Blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, she danced and sang and high-kicked her way through four shows a day on the Keith Orpheum Circuit and earned $1,500 a week (a fortune during the Depression—and still not bad today) for her family at the peak of her popularity.
Though Gypsy went a long way toward making Ms. Havoc a famous, even mythical figure in her latter career, she was not happy with the way she was portrayed in her sister's autobiography, and the two were long estranged. They reconciled shortly before Gypsy Rose Lee's death in 1970.
"All I wanted was the truth to be told," she told the New York Times in 2003. "That the little kid went out and killed the people. That she was a gold mine and Louise wasn't there at all. I disappear. Nothing is ever mentioned about the fact that I went out and became somebody. No one understands the loss of professional dignity with which I grew up, the dignity which I have cherished and protected all these years."
All of Ms. Havoc's three marriages ended in divorce. After Bobby Reed, she married Donald Gibbs. They divorced in 1942. She was married to William Spier from 1948 to 1959. Reed fathered her only child, April Kent. Kent died in 1998.
June Havoc, a show-business legend whose hard-knocks childhood as a stage performer was depicted in the classic musical Gyspy, died March 28, according to the Village Voice. She was 96.
Driven by an ruthless stage mother, young Ellen Evangeline Hovick and her sister Louise—who would become legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee—were forced into Vaudeville at an early age. Ms. Havoc was billed as "Baby June," and later "Dainty June," and played the West Coast Pantages circuit, but she abandoned her mother's world when she eloped at 13 with fellow performer Bobby Reed. The two teenagers scraped by entering, and winning, dance marathons.
All this, and more, was told in Ms. Havoc's two autobiographies, "Early Havoc" (1959) and "More Havoc" (1980). But it was her sister's 1957 book, "Gypsy," that became part of America's permanent show-business tapestry when it was adapted by composer Jule Styne, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, librettist Arthur Laurents and director Jerome Robbins into the stage musical Gypsy. The show, considered one of the most hard-boiled backstage stories in theatre history—and one of the best constructed and most entertaining—debuted on Broadway in 1959. Though based on Gypsy Rose Lee's book, the central figure is not the stripper but her monstrous mother, Rose, based on June and Louise's mother, Rose Thompson Hovick.
Despite her embittered upbringing, Ms. Havoc persevered in the trade into which she was born. She found her first Broadway part in Sigmund Romberg's Forbidden Melody in 1936, and would later star in Rodgers and Hart's classic Pal Joey, playing Gladys Bumps. Other roles of the 1940s included Mexican Hayride, Sadie Thompson, The Ryan Girl and Dunnigan's Daughter. The next decade brought Affairs of State, The Infernal Machine, The Beaux Stratagem and The Warm Peninsula.
Her film career began in 1942 and was littered with mainly "B" material. A few credits stood out, however, including the comedy "My Sister Eileen" and "Gentleman's Agreement," in which she played a racist secretary.
In 1963, Ms. Havoc turned her book "Early Havoc" into the play Marathon '33, which she both wrote and directed. Set in 1933, it starred Julie Harris as June. Ms. Havoc was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award as Best Director, and Harris as Best Actress in a Play. The show ran only 48 performances, but it did provide the basis for the hit movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," set at a Depression-era dance marathon.
In 1982, she made her final Broadway appearance, as one of the last Miss Hannigans in the long-running hit Annie. She also toured the country as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd.
June Havoc was born Nov. 8, 1913, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her father, a reporter for a Seattle newspaper, and her mother divorced when she was very young. She was coached for the stage from the time she could walk, dancing with Anna Pavlova and appearing in silent films with Harold Lloyd. Blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, she danced and sang and high-kicked her way through four shows a day on the Keith Orpheum Circuit and earned $1,500 a week (a fortune during the Depression—and still not bad today) for her family at the peak of her popularity.
Though Gypsy went a long way toward making Ms. Havoc a famous, even mythical figure in her latter career, she was not happy with the way she was portrayed in her sister's autobiography, and the two were long estranged. They reconciled shortly before Gypsy Rose Lee's death in 1970.
"All I wanted was the truth to be told," she told the New York Times in 2003. "That the little kid went out and killed the people. That she was a gold mine and Louise wasn't there at all. I disappear. Nothing is ever mentioned about the fact that I went out and became somebody. No one understands the loss of professional dignity with which I grew up, the dignity which I have cherished and protected all these years."
All of Ms. Havoc's three marriages ended in divorce. After Bobby Reed, she married Donald Gibbs. They divorced in 1942. She was married to William Spier from 1948 to 1959. Reed fathered her only child, April Kent. Kent died in 1998.
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"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."
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sandykaypax
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
Thanks so much for posting the lovely article on June Havoc. I played Dainty June in a production of Gypsy years ago and she holds a special place in my heart.
Sandy K
Sandy K
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
Former manager of, among other, The Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren died yesterday at 64 after a long battle with cancer.
Was he the "Godfather of Punk"? To help you decide, check out a great double bill:
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980) and The Filth and the Fury (2000) both directed by Julien Temple.
Was he the "Godfather of Punk"? To help you decide, check out a great double bill:
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980) and The Filth and the Fury (2000) both directed by Julien Temple.
"Let's be independent together." Dr. Hermey DDS
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SSO Admins
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Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz, is not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead at age 94.
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klondike
Re: Gone With or Without fanfare
News like that's enough to make your toes curl!jondaris wrote:Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz, is not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead at age 94.