To the kids of the 1950s, Fess Parker was Walt Disney's Davy Crockett. In the '60s, though, when I was around, Fess Parker was Daniel Boone. Similarly attired, yet very real-life different historical persons.
In 1968, Fess lent his name and millions of dollars to a proposed theme park in BOONE County, Kentucky, the very next county over from where we lived. It got a LOT of publicity. It seemed like it was on the local TV news and in the papers almost daily for long months. As a kid, I couldn't wait until the proposed amusement park was opened, supposedly in 1970!
The basic story is in the articles seen here, although like so many business deals, it was pretty complicated and went pretty sour in the long run.
Another tie to me was that the realtor involved with all this was one C.B. Deters. Deters was a former newspaper reporter and editor and also at that time, I believe, the Chairman of the Board of the Cincinnati Airport.
C.B. Deters was also my landlord.
When I was 7 years old, my dad talked Deters into renting to us even though he had a "no children" rule for the apartment building he owned in Covington, KY. With no grandfathers of my own, I came to think of him as a grandfather figure. I ended up living there until I was 33 years old, outlasting both parents and C.B. Deters himself.
I was disappointed that Fess Parker's Boone County project was never realized. Wonder if ol' C.B. could've gotten me in free?
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