 Proudly we hail! From New York City where the American stage begins, here is another program with a cast of outstanding players. Public service time has been made available by this station for your Army and your Air Force to bring you this story as Proudly we hail Davy Crockett is entitled Davy Crockett. It's not the whole story of Davy Crockett I don't think anyone could do that because Davy Crockett is a legend. A legend as powerful and colorful and exciting as the legend of America itself. Our first act curtain will rise in just a moment, but first America looks up to her men in the sky. Yes, our country looks up to the young men thundering their way to new glory in the skies. There's is a task held in high esteem by the entire nation. You are needed to swell their ranks and can do so by enrolling now in the aviation cadet training program of the United States Air Force. If you're between the ages of 19 and 26 and a half, have had two or more years of college and are otherwise qualified, visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station and ask about the aviation cadet training program. Do it today. And now your Army and your Air Force present the Proudly we hail production Davy Crockett American. Davy Crockett was one of the most colorful and romantic characters that enlivened our American past. It's natural to link his name with the Alamo, for it was there he fought and died with that gallon little band of Texans. But up until that fateful day, Davy Crockett led an exciting and eventful life. Soldier, hunter, writer, statesman, humorist, and orator. There was little he didn't try his hand at. Let's travel back to the time of Davy Crockett. The time he went down the Red River on a steamboat to Nagadoches. Step right up gentlemen. Step right up. Let's see if the hand is quicker than the eye. Now watch the thimbles. Watch them carefully. All right. Under which thimble lies the beat. Are you there, stranger? Can you tell me why, why is sure, that one right there? Why, stranger, you got the eyes of a cougar. Focus your gleaming orbs. Watch carefully. Now which one? That one there. Never seen the likes of you. Now, what do you say we make it sport? Say, uh, shillin'? Well, uh, I don't mind if we do. All right, now here we go. Watch close now. Want to take a chance? I never gamble, sir. Principled against me. Oh, I see. Well, I have my sentiments to a notch, but this is not gambling by no means. A little innocent pastime. Nothing more. Near clean me out. Ah, now, stranger, just because you lost the light in them cougar eyes of yours, don't blame cartons, thimble rig for your misfortune. What do you say? Take a trifle? I don't care how small, just for the fun of the thing. Well, I'm principle against betting money, but I don't mind going in for dinner for the present company. I'm hungry as a wolf in a blizzard. Well, sir, I admire your principles and to show that I play with these here thimbles just for the fun of it, I'll take that bet. Either one or the other of us is going in to stand to feed for this here group. Now, now, the bean is under the middle thimble. Hold there. I'll lift the thimble. One the bet. But I don't care if I give you another chance, even though I'm a whole hog temperate man, we'll make it drinks for all presents. I'm sure you'll win. And you're a darn fool to bet. Since that's the case, it'll be a little better than picking your pocket, so I'll let it alone. Well, now, I don't mind running the risk. But I do. Since I always let well enough alone, I've had enough glory for one day. Let's all go to the table. Eat at your expense. Well, sir, might I ask your name? You might. I'm Colonel David Crockett, Tennessee. Well, it'll be struck by lightning and rolled in a keg of bar grease. Well, you could eat the way we all have, not have to pay for it. That's a mighty fine meal. Now, we owe it all to you. Well, Colonel, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Kind of rests uneasy in my stomach, though. Maybe get your pocketbook mixed up with your stump. Well, poorly. That's how I feel. Poorly. Gentlemen! Gentlemen! In just a few minutes, I can use the help of any man who veins and welcomes a little toss. I've sent one of my men ashore to buy provisions. Well, the goods thought we might quite naturally accrue one. That's too enough, Colonel. The whole thing took place at the Silver Bear. It stands right plumb on the river's edge. We're skin of the devil this side of the Mississippi. How about we hold our little party right there? Then innocent folks won't be getting trampled underfoot. That's agreeable to me. Like a pack of weasels. We'll get them out and we have to burn them out. Them fellas will be hard to take. Some of your passengers might get hurt. Colonel, we're going to tear that place apart, stick for stick. Now, don't get wolfish around the head, Captain. You see them two pillars in the front of the place? I do, and I'm going to break them with my bare hands. You suppose, instead of doing that, you was to put that heavy chain. You got there around both of them. And then suppose you was to back your steamboat out of here for all she was worth. What do you suppose might happen? Well, ain't the furtiest thought accurate. Well, I just figured the Silver Bear needs to clean it out. What better way of cleaning it out than to drag it into the river? I should go with him and see everything turns out correctly. Go ahead. The inmates of this doomed establishment remain within. You've decided to give up gambling. I'd take it a pleasure to go anywhere with you. We'll be off for Nacodotius in the morning. I never hunted buffalo before. ought to be some sport. Speaking of sport, looks like the fight on down the street. Well, let's go. Never like to miss one. Hey, I know that, Hooper. I met him in New Orleans. That's the bee hunter. He simply called me a calf. If you insist upon it, you may... You hear, gentlemen? You hear the hymn? I'll give you within the nature of your life. Move it by flogging you out of your skin. Be so much the better for your pocket. Calf skins and good demand. Not here in the street, I beg you. That'd be disgusting. I can no longer avoid flogging him out. I suggest you put him under the pump where he can cool off. Yeah! Yeah! I'll be hunter. You ain't changed none. I see no reason for it, Thimble Rig. How you been? All like a wild horse. Wishing to meet a friend of mine. Well, Colonel Crockett, it's a pleasure to know you, sir. How'd you know it was the Colonel? I heard you was in town. Heard you were going to Nacodotius. I thought you might let me ride along with you. I know the way, middle and well. Why, we'd be glad to have you come along with us. The trails are my dangerous these days. How so? The band of murder and renegade has been raised in the hair from here to Texas. Well, since nobody else is tamed to crit us, maybe we'll get the chance. Now, Colonel, that's a possibility that sturs my liver. Well, now, that reminds me of a man. You are listening to the proudly-behaved production, Davy Crockett American. Our story will continue in just a moment after this important message. Young men of America, your country is building a mighty air force to maintain the security of our nation. This means that there is a job for you. The chance to do an important job with one of the finest organizations of its kind in the world today, the United States Air Force. If you're between the ages of 19 and 26 and a half, have had two or more years of college and are otherwise qualified, the Air Force needs you as part of the aviation cadet training program. For complete details, visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station today. You are listening to Proudly We Hail. And now we present the second act of Davy Crockett American. Be under. What's he looking at, Colonel? Buzzard. You can just make him out. Circular. Probably a dead buffalo. I think we better have a look. Come on. I've seen some bad sites. We'd only come a little sooner. We might have helped. Won't do any good to figure that way. Best thing to do now is we bury these poor folks, try and follow the trail of the murder and devils that did this. Yeah. We're only a day away from Nacodotius. We ride hard, we can get there sooner. We could rouse out some friends that got there and track these critters into the ground. Time for doing it ourselves. I know we're all of the rhinoceros breed, but the bee hunters ride them, will they? It'll be too many for us. Let's go see some of your friends in Nacodotius. Why don't you and Flimble Rig get better down here for the night? I'll go on and see the sheriff. Sounds reasonable. Had we all better see him? Oh, no, that won't be necessary. He's got a daughter named Kate and I'm kind of burning to see her. Colonel, I think we ought to go along to make sure he doesn't set fire to the house. We'll trust him. See you tomorrow, boy. Come on. Stranger, what you got in the way of the lodging for you? What you got in the way of the lodging for a couple of tired alligator? Good evening, sir. I don't exactly recollect your name. There's no consequence. We just like... I'm pretty sure I've seen you somewhere, both of you. Traveling to the western country, I presume. Presume anything you please, but don't trouble us with your presumptions. Oh, no offence, no offence, sir. I wouldn't be thought on civil by any means. I always calculate to treat everyone with civility. Well, treat us all by answering our first question. Well, I can't give you lodging without knowing who you are. Oh, you can't, can't you? Well, I'll tell you who I am right enough. I'm shaggy as a bear. Wolfish about the head, active as a cougar, and can grin like a hyena till the bark will curl off a gum log. There's a sprinkling of all sorts in me, from the lion down to the skunk. And if you don't hurry up and give me in the colonel a place to bed down, I'll guarantee you'll pronounce me in the tires of a logical institute before I'm through with you. Do you understand? Oh, dear, dear, yes. The colonel, you said. The colonel who? This is the place where I could live without a care. And is there nothing else you'd like to have to make you happy? Yes, there is, my gentle case. I'll tell you what it is. I'd like to have a little wife. I have a feeling I'm in a rub. No, not at all. I want you to meet McCate. I'm not your Kate. How do you do, colonel? Edward's been telling me about you. She's McCate, colonel, no matter what she says. Well, she is your lucky man. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am. I guess we got here just too late. The sheriff and about all the men in town are out hunting those devils. They wiped out some settlers south of here, and arrived everybody up. Well, I'm glad they're being chased after. Sorry, we didn't get a chance to join in. Thimble Rig and I are off for Texas in the morning. You planning to join us? Well, I know the trail middling well. You ought to have somebody along who knows it. Middling well? Why, he knows every foot of it like the palm of his hand. He and his Indian friends go bee hunting all over this territory. I hate you. You mustn't brag about me. Well, leave the tavern about the sun up. You'll be there? I'll be there, colonel, and we'll see you later. Thimble Rig just bought himself one of these new Vicksburg hats. Yeah? I have to see he don't get in any trouble with it. Does make him look a mite peculiar. I bet. Ma'am, it was a pleasure to meet you. Thank you, colonel. I hope you'll see that Edward stays out of trouble, too. My cape, my cape, my wonderful cape. Oh, cape was mine and I was here. Fiddly eye, oh, fiddly eye, dear. Be sure to stop him on your way back, colonel. Mr. Mudge, I'll do my best to avoid it. Fine, fine, I aim to appease. Hey, bee hunter, come on. Thimble Rig, don't rush a man in love. By this time, we're on our way, colonel. Few minutes one way or other won't matter to us. Here he comes. Wow, ain't she pretty? You forgive him? Forgive him. I think he's plum out of his head to go anywhere without him. Goodbye, friend. Goodbye. Saddle and bridle and booted rode he. A plume in his helmet, a sword at his knee. But home came the saddle all bloody to see. And home came the steed, but home never came he. How much further to the Sabine River? Another hour, maybe a little less. Should pick up some buffalo signs soon. Of course, with that head he's wearing a buffalo, probably all run right into Pacific Ocean. What's the matter with this hat? I don't rightly know. It might not be the hat. It might be your head. Bee hunter, that ain't no way to talk. I'm a truthful man, you asked me. Ain't that so, colonel? That's so. What do you think of my hat, colonel? I don't know if I could give an opinion, Thimble Rig. Why not? Well, it puts me in mind of that terrible cold winter. We had a few winters back. What have I got to do with my hat? Well, speak directly, Thimble Rig, about that cold. Oh, colonel, you've hurt me bad. You've hurt me awful bad. Uh-oh, boys, I think we'd better ride. Heard my old shoes if you ain't right. That's him all right. Must be nearly 50 of them scum. I'd rather count them from a greater distance. Pulse, pick up your feet. Stay feet over the next grid. We can hold them off, but just let me get where I can pin my hands and my sights. The thing they don't know how to shoot very straight. Well, we'll give them a lesson or two directly. Pick your man. Those three eager gorillas ought to be good for a starter. Three for three. You think we clipped their horns? We may have bent them a little. Probably made a matter and a hat full of rattlesnakes. I don't think it'll be long before they try their luck on us. Yeah, that was my feeling. How do you figure to get off here? We'll borrow a little trick from the engine. Get the horses into the river. Let them swim downstream. We'll hold on. In the dark, if it's quiet, they won't see us. Good enough. Let's go before they change our mind. Too late! Here they come! Drive them into the river! More coming for the other side! Come on, you starters! Let's get the coaches! Hey, that's the sheriff! I wondered for a while last night whether we were ever going to see it. All right, Semmel Rig, that's an insult to the Colonel and me. Didn't you know as long as we were there, you were safe as a babe in his mother's arms? Of course. The sheriff and his boys showing up, that didn't help, and he did it. Well, I think it added to the glory of the moment. Made it somewhat more noisy. Yeah, and left somebody to clean up the mess we'd made. The Colonel and I, if that is. They're a couple of real low-down wild men, ain't ya? Yeah! Recognize us for what we are, Semmel Rig. Of course, you know my own theories. You hadn't been wearing that pastiferous hat. Them poor souls might have let us go our way without any excitement. So I think the bee hunter here and I owe you an apology. It's a fine hat. Raven beauty of a hat. Yes, a roost of a hat. A monumental monument to the glory of all heads. Well, gentlemen, our misjudge is surely. And for that, I take off this flaming headpiece of joy to which you refer and bow. Well, since it's all Semmel Rig, why not leave it off until we find those buffaloes? Ha ha! David Crockett and his two friends, Semmel Rig and the bee hunter, much befell them on the trail before the gates of the Alamo closed behind them. On the day before that little fort fell, Colonel David Crockett wrote these final words in his journal. Go ahead! Words can mean everything or nothing, all depending on what you believe. To Colonel David Crockett, they meant everything, because he believed them and lived by them and finally died for them. David Crockett and men like him made up the past out of which we have grown. America is depending on her leaders in the air. If you're a young man between the ages of 19 and 26 and a half, have had two or more years of college and are otherwise qualified, you are eligible to join the ranks of America's leaders in the air. You can become an aviation cadet. The defense of our nation hangs heavily on our air strength, the finest in the world. But we cannot relax our efforts. The Air Force still needs pilots and aircraft observers. If you have the primary qualifications, visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station today. Ask about the Aviation Cadet Training Program. Do it now! This has been another program on Proudly We Have, presented transcribed in cooperation with this station by the United States Army and the United States Air Force Recruiting Service. This is Kenneth Fanghart speaking and inviting you to tune in this same station next week for another interesting story on Proudly We Have.