Davy Crockett and the Alamo?
Are these points of history going to be in the miniseries?
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MovieChat Forums > Texas Rising (2015) Discussion > Davy Crockett and the Alamo?
New trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VCCwv8UYkE
It is David.... He didnt become " Davey" until that stupid song and Hollywood
shareHe's been "Davy" in movies since at least 1909, and I have a feeling that wasn't the first time he was addressed that way in popular culture.
Davy Crockett: In Hearts United http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277659/
David Crockett was just one more defender at the Alamo. He had his back story just like all the others, and he died a terrible death just like the others. As always, death is the ultimate leveler.
Texas Rising isn't about Crockett. It's about the war for Texas independence and those who fought and died in it. I'm disappointed that the producers didn't spend more time with the Alamo story, but in another way I'm glad they didn't because they would have butchered it beyond recognition.
In his autobiography, Crockett allowed as to how he did not like to be called "Davy".
Life ain't easy for a boy named Sue.
Fun facts to know and tell around the dinner table. According to a letter supposedly written by Susanna Dickinson (Captain Dickinson's wife and, with her infant daughter one of the survivors of the Alamo) Crockett survived the battle and was butchered after the fight.
shareSusanna Dickinson was illiterate. But there were early tales of some Alamo defenders trying to surrender--like sane people. Then being killed on Santa Anna's orders. Crockett was one of them.
The story was corroborated in the De La Pena diary but remains controversial. That version still shows him facing death bravely--but some Alamo "scholars" remember him going down swinging Ol' Betsy, just like the Disney/John Wayne versions.
Rather glad we didn't get to see this silly show's version....
Really? Illiterate?
I obviously have some details wrong. I have been looking for it.
Bridget - I've never been able to understand why so many historians reject or doubt the De La Peña diary version of Crockett's death. It's a lot more credible than the "goin' down fightin'" version made famous by Walt Disney.
For those unfamiliar with this controversy, Jose Enrique de la Peña was a colonel in Santa Anna's Mexican Army at the Battle of the Alamo. In 1955, a book of his memoirs of the battle was published. It lay unnoticed in a Mexican library until it was translated into English in 1975 and released in America, and that's when the guano hit the fan.
The memoirs are controversial because they say Crockett did not die fighting (as is the popular belief), but instead surrendered during the battle and was later executed. Historians disagree on whether the memoirs are accurate.
I believe de la Peña's version. Crockett was an ambitious politician who was elected to Congress from Tennessee. After losing re-election he came to Texas and joined the revolution because he saw new and great political opportunities for himself if Texas became a state.
I have no trouble seeing Crockett surrendering in the hope of cutting some kind of deal with Santa Anna. I just don't think he would have resigned himself to dying and go down swingin' Ole Betsy. He wanted to survive and be important in whatever scheme of things would emerge.
Life ain't easy for a boy named Sue.
Are those the memoirs that refer to his "peculiar cap?"
In any case, I think these are what I was looking for. I was thinking it was Susanna Dickinson who wrote it but someone else told me she was illiterate, so probably not.
Susan Dickerson did not write her memoirs but she was interviewed after the battle. And probably off & on throughout her longish life.
Travis's slave Joe was also a source for what went down when the Alamo fell, but he was deleted from the show.
re: "Are those the memoirs that refer to his 'peculiar cap?'"
You need to take into consideration the meaning of the phrase, back then.
The word "peculiar" was used differently, back then. In this case, it probably only meant "identifiable" - in that she recognized Crockett because she knew that it was his hat, that she saw. It does not imply "coonskin cap" - but ANY hat or cap. Also, many historians doubt she actually made such a claim, in those words - it instead being a later embellishment by others. She probably told someone that she recognized his body via his hat, and others used that to work the coonskin cap into the legend. Numerous accounts note that Crockett was almost always dressed "like a gentleman" while in Texas (as portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton in the excellent 2004 film). It is highly likely that Crockett never even wore "buckskins" until he ran for Congress in TN - doing so for political reasons, to present himself as a down-home "outsider" when compared to the Washington elite. He may have donned a coonskin cap for the occasional stump speech, but it was far from being a part of his regular attire.