Daniel Boone was born on this day, using the old calender in 1734 (November 2^nd for those of us on the new one). But since he used the October 22^nd date, we’ll use it for this list. He had quite the life, we could easily make a list of legendary feats or various professions (trapper, politician, soldier, store owner, land speculator, explorer, judge). There are rumors that there were more biographies written about Daniel Boone than were written for George Washington. Sorry, I didn’t stop to count them, but if there were, it was during the 1800′s and most of them have long since gone out of print. Nope, today we are going to look at the movies and songs featuring one of America’s first folk heroes.

1. Daniel Boone – TV Series Song – one of the most famous TV theme songs of all time
2. Daniel Boone – TV Series – Fess Parker promoted it on Johnny Carson with comical results. The show ran from 1964-1970.
3. Freedom: A History of Us – Daniel Boone was “played” by Tom Hanks in this documentary with an all star cast. Played might be a stretch as most of the stars merely read quotes as the narrator discussed the various pictures of the story.
4. The Last of the Mohican’s – while not technically a Daniel Boone story, it does contain his rescue of his daughter.
5. Daniel Boone – 1936 film with George O’Brien
6. Daniel Boone – 1907 film with William Craven
7. In the Days of Daniel Boone – 1923 film with Charles Brinley (who appeared in 147 movies between 1913 and 1939.
8. Daniel Boone – TV show with Richard Crenna as the voice of Daniel Boone
9. Comic Books – Between 1956 and 1959 there was a 20 issue set of Daniel Boone comics. In addition, there were hundreds of small issue True Comics, Legends, and other comics that featured him.
10. Daniel Boone in 4 Acts – First National Radio Productions – performed in the early 1940′s. One of many radio shows about Mr. Boone.

Of course, culturally, there is still a demand for the coonskin hat (even though that was much more of a Davey Crockett fad that the TV show thought would be a good touch), there are still Daniel Boone costumes being sold for Halloween, and even 28 years after Fess Parker tossed his last tomahawk, many of us still know the song, “Daniel Boone was a man…..”

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