Month: September 2012

  • Fess Parker’s Lifestyle Advice

    FESS GOOD 

     
    If you’re a Disney fan, then you know Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. Parker said; “I was warned that many actors, spent their money recklessly. It was pointed out to me by my agent that Buster Keaton had his own studio and the mansion of mansions, but ended up living on a chicken ranch in the San Fernando Valley. He was happy, but in a different status. This was a cautionary tale for me. It’s one thing to create a lifestyle, but you have to be sure that you can continue that lifestyle.”

    Parker began his career as an extra in the play ‘Mister Roberts’ starring Henry Fonda and then to a one day part in the sciene fiction movie, ‘Them’. According to Parker, “Walt Disney went to see ‘Them’ to decide if the star, James Arness, was right for the role of Davy Crockett. But he saw my one scene and decided to cast me. Disney told me, ‘I was impressed with that scene because you portrayed a man that was unswerving in his belief in what he saw (flying ants) despite the forces of authority against him.’”

    Parker went on to star in more Disney movies, then TV’s Daniel Boone for six years. Next came a failed movie in 1973 and a failed ‘Fess Parker Show’ pilot for TV. Parker said, “When they have to sell a show with your name, that’s the end.”

    Turning down the title role of ‘McCloud’, Parker retired from the film industry. About making a comeback, Parker said, “When you take yourself out of competition, you’re out. You’re out of mind.” That makes a good case for staying in the competition by constantly being productive in your chosen field.

    Parker went on from small real estate deals to larger ones. With some Disney contacts he tried to open a Davy Crockett theme park in Kentucky. Parker said, “I made a mistake and told the competition about it and they began building Kings Island Amusement Park just two hours away, so my financing dried up. I was out of my league without a business background. I also failed when I sold my land in what is now the heart of Silicon Valley. But then I went to Santa Barbara, bought 32 acres next to the ocean and took 10 years to build my first hotel and winery.”

    When asked to give advice for upcoming actors, his answer sounded like good advice for anyone with a dream. Parker said, “You have to have abandonment of reason and be in a zone where reality doesn’t exist. You have to be willing to endure disappointments and have a real commitment. Many times forgoing a social life because you can’t afford to do anything but eat.”

    I’m a big fan of Fess Parker and I stayed a few times at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Hotel and always hope to see him there. Finally on my fifth visit there, eating lunch with my parents I told them, “I’ve given up look for Fess.”

    That same day I was lounging in my room, something possessed me to go to the lobby and check my email at the computer there, which I had just done an hour ago. In the huge lobby I always took the same course, but this time decided to go a different way. As I did, two men walked in my path catching up with me. One of them was Davy Crockett. I didn’t want to disturb him. I just enjoyed walking with him until I went to the computer area and he went to the restaurant. I could see him sitting there and wondered what made me leave my room and cross the lobby in a new path? Miracles happen, if you listen to ‘the calling’.

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  • How Edd Byrnes Branded Himself

                                      Edd BYRNES 3 

    How Kookie and Vince Fontaine became famous.

    You know Edd Byrnes as Vince Fontaine from the John Travolta movie Grease. According to Edd’s memoir Kookie, No More, he branded himself this way:

    1 – After an appearance on the Cheyenne TV show, Edd got a dozen friends to his apartment to write hundreds of fan letters, using various paper and pens, to Warner Brothers Studios saying, “Who was that cute guy in Cheyenne?” That got him a seven year contact.
     

    2 – Edd immediately added the extra ‘d’ to his name to be different.
     

    3 – Edd saw Robert Wagner at a movie premier with his jacket collar up, so when Edd started the 77 Sunset Strip TV show, he had the seamstress sew a black strip on to the back of his turned up jacket collar, to stand out more.
     

    4- Then Edd tried to think up a physical gag to be identified with, like George Raft did tossing the coin.

    Edd came up with combing his hair and handling his comb when speaking.
     

    5- Edd was a trained gymnast so he worked in flips and swings on poles into his scenes to show off his physicality.
     

    6 – And even though it was the writers that came up with the cool hep-talk, later called ‘Kookie-talk’,

    it was part of Edd’s branding as well as his gold record ‘Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb“.
     

    Soon Edd was on the cover of 22 fan magazines in one month? It’s a record that will never be broken.
     

    Even though we might have a company backing us up, it’s important for us to be responsible for our own branding.
     

    Free download (NO sign in needed) of Edd’s 77 min. audio-book My Casino Caper. His true memior of being stalked for his Las Vegas win. Full cast with; Alan Young, Henry Silva, David Hedison, & Michael Callan. Just click the link below, at the ‘you send it’ page just click ‘download’. http://yousend.it/mTy9GX

    More success strategies in: How to Live the James Bond Lifestyle – KINDLE – Read 30 pages free. See the Table of Contents. Every subject you need to live the James Bond Lifestyle. http://amzn.to/wZ661f

    Also on iTUNES: http://itun.es/isB5XC