Glasgow's warm welcome for wild west hero

Famous the world over for playing rugged frontiersman Davy Crockett, the Hollywood star (pictured with Wilson and Stewart Bissell, aged eight and four respectively, from Auchinairn) was only too happy to play-act with local children.

He also visited the Sick Kids’ Hospital, then at Yorkhill, where he made a young patient’s day. The lucky lad was able to get his hands on the rifle and was presented with his own Davy Crockett hat.

The Evening Times went full on cowboy mode to report the visit in April, 1956.

“Why, if it ain’t that rootin’, tootin’, quick-shootin’ son-of-a-gun from way out West…” said the reporter, clearly warming to his subject.

“Hiya Dave! Did ya enjoy that trip from London to Renfrew? Sure gotta hand it to ya. The way ya handled them 200 kids at the airport – reel gen’leman-like, it was….”

Fess Parker in Glasgow. Pic: Herald and Times

The newspaper pointed out that Metropole manager Hyman Frutin had also been at the airport when Fess arrived - not to book him for a summer run, pointed out our reporter, simply to wave his daughter off on holiday.

Fess also visited Lewis’s Royal Polytechnic in Argyle Street, where he delighted 3000 other youngsters that day, many of them dressed for the occasion and carrying their own toy guns.

Things took an unwelcome turn, however, when some children fainted in the crowds.

“Thousands surged around the third floor Davy Crockett trading post when the film actor arrived and children had to be carried to the front for safety,” said the Evening Times.

Fess’s starring role as Crockett on TV and in the cinema made him a hero to millions of young viewers and caused a run on the sale of racoon skin caps.

There was hardly a young boy or girl in the land in the late 50s and early 60s who could not sing along to the famous theme tune.

Fess Parker

“It was an explosion beyond anyone’s comprehension,” Fess recalled in an interview in 1994. “The power of television, which was still new, was demonstrated for the first time.”

Westerns were very much in favour in those days, with shows such as Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger, Wagon Train and Rawhide thrilling those people fortunate enough to have a television.

During his long career, Fess also played Daniel Boone on TV and appeared in such films as Old Yeller.

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Interestingly, the Evening Times of April 4, 1956 also reported two other famous faces in the city that day.

Explorers Sir Edmund Hillary and Dr Vivian Fuchs were visiting the City Chambers and when they arrived early and Fess arrived late, the Lord Provost suggested they might do a joint press conference for the waiting journalists.

“The explorers didn’t want that,” reported the Evening Times. “But they met Davy in a private room before they were received by the Lord Provost.”

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