The New York Times estimated that American kids, by the end of 1955, had their choice of over 3,000 different Davy Crockett toys and items. Ten percent of all children's wear sold could be linked to the craze. One major fad-fueling factor was a Baltimore court's decision that the name 'Davy Crockett' was in public domain. This opened the flood gates for manufacturers to market look-alike Crockett toys in order to cash in on the craze. 'Outlaw Merchandise' popped up everywhere! Overnight, Davy Crockett labels were slapped on already existing cowboy and western toys. The (Plasticraft) Cowboy plastic western train set that was just sitting on the shelf the day before was now flying out of the store with its new Crockett label just pasted over the old Cowboy title. The only saleable difference? It was now a 'Crockett' toy!
The best way to tell the 'real' from the knockoff was to look for the "Walt Disney's Davy Crockett" logo that blazed across each and every Disney Crockett toy and product. But, for almost every Disney Crockett licensed item, you could find its 'knockoff' counterpart. The Walt Disney sponsored board game "Davy Crockett Adventures" by Gardner had its non-Disney-sponsored 'knockoff' "The Adventures of Davy Crockett" by Harett-Gilmar. Both were the same game, right down to their full-figure Davy Crockett cardboard spinners. Both had colorful graphics and cut-outs that had the players going around the board following Davy's adventures from when he 'kilt his first b'ar' up to when he 'gave 'em what fer' at the Alamo.
When it came to metal lunch boxes, Crockett fans had their choice of four: three Disney, and one cash-in craze public-domain box. Disney's metal boxes were "Indian Fighter/At the Alamo", "King of the Wild Frontier" (Adco Liberty) and "Fess Parker Photo Davy" (Canadian Kruger). The generic (and most common today) Crockett box was, "B'ar Huntin'" by Holtemp.
As for books, Dell/Western, Whitman, and Simon and Schuster (Little Golden Books, beautifully illustrated by Mel Crawford) held the licensing rights to all Disney's characters. But that didn't prevent others like Rand McNally (Elf Books), Wonder Books, or Treasure Books from doing their own 'real life' Crockett children's, coloring and activity books. The John C. Winston Co. even had it's own 'Little Golden Book' type, with a gimmick: Magic Talking Books! Their "Davy Crockett and the Indians" had a real 78 rpm record right on the cover! |
