Davy Crockett and Jesse James on YouTube

Here are some links to the YouTube videos I was trying to use in class last Thursday, featuring modern renditions of the Crockett and James mythologies, with a Crockett-fied Daniel Boone as well. I still may show some of these, but you might want to check them out yourselves. This web site on 1950s Crockett mania is also well worth reading. Be sure to read both pages.

• Fess Parker sings "The Ballad of David Crockett" on a Disney television show -- video was a little hitchy on my computer.
• Fess Parker sings "The Ballad of David Crockett" on a 78rpm record, with a montage of Fess as Crockett and Boone, though you will not be able to tell the difference; also features some images of Crockett merchandise from the craze of 1954, when young baby boomers' enthusiasm sold $300 million of Crockett-themed paraphernalia
• Opening credits sequence from the 1960s Daniel Boone TV series, which was in effect a revival of Fess Parker's Crockett character -- this appears to be the Spanish-language version, but the visuals and theme song are the same
• "The Ballad of Jesse James" sung by an English skiffle band
• "The Ballad of Jesse James" performed by Ry Cooder, from the film The Long Riders, with footage of the Jesse James house in St. Joseph
• FYI, the lyrics of "The Ballad of Jesse James," or one common version of them
  

Evolution of the Western Hero in the Age of Early Mass Publishing

For my History 4004 students, here are some links to materials we will be looking at in class as we discuss the Jesse James mythology and its origins . They are well worth a look yourself if you are interested. The Jesse James books are so-called "dime novels" from the late 19th-century, precursors to the pulps that featured the superheroes.

• The Hunters of Kentucky: lyrics

• The Crockett Almanacks & the Myth of the West

• CROCKETT'S ALMANAC. Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Baltimore: Fisher & Brothers, 1841; 1847, and 1852.

• Jesse James Stories

• Jesse James' Midnight Raid, or, The Fight at Battle Mountain

Film Information Sources

I think most everyone in History 4004 has been able to find information on the top-grossing films for the year of their "Zeitgeist paper" even if the Variety-on-microfilm did not work out quite as we planned. (Isaac and I still plan to complete the 1960s). But here are some other resources:

• Marilyn from our class found a site called Stats-A-Mania that has yearly top box-office lists back to 1960. It's not clear how complete these are or what they are based on.
  
• Check the year index on Internet Movie Database. You can then get a list of films released in a certain year that you can order in various ways, though not by box office receipts, and click the "Box Office/Business" link to confirm how much money the film it brought in. Most of the time.
• Check the World Almanac and Book of Facts. The MU library has it back to 1923, and if you the check 1-2 years after your target year, you may be able to pick up some information. I plan on trying this myself soon, but it is always nice not to have do everything.

The Variety lists remain the best source because they tell you how much money movies made in that year, no matter when they were actually released.

Captivity narratives background

For my History 4004 students, here are the links to Mary Rowlandson again, plus some other pages that will give you some background on the incidents described in the Brackenridge narratives:

• Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (Puritan Indian captivity narrative) -- plain text version; or hypertext version w/ annotations & illustrations
• The Crawford Expedition of 1782
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: Simon Girty
  

TCM's 31 Days of Oscar

Students starting work on the "Zeitgeist" paper for History and Popular Culture class should check the schedule of Turner Classic Movies this month. There are having a "31 Days of Oscar" program with a different decade's movies showing each night of the week all month. I will be looking for some films that are not available on DVD, which TCM often shows.

History 4004 students, Winter 2008

I am not going to create a full scale course blog for my new "American History and American Popular Culture" couse, but I will be using this space to occasionally post useful items for the class, such as a pdf of the syllabus, with some clickable links for the web readings. You may notice some additions to the "Movies of the Week" column and the addition of dates for some of the films that got remade. The additions are not intended as more work, but instead as a wider range of choices.

Springsteen's politics: Some useful links

I am teaching a Popular Culture and History course this semester, and sometimes I will use this space to post materials that will be using for class.

• Bruce Springsteen magazine covers
• Animated graphic on U.S. inflation since 1960
  
• Animated graphic on U.S. unemployment
• Best Springsteen lyrics sight I have found -- from Lebanon?
• "Factory"
• "The River"
• "Thunder Road"
• "Born in the U.S.A."