>Looking at your picture here, I'll say the King of the River was Charles. *G*
>

No, as Alan recognized, that's Yancy Derringer who defined cool in the cowboy days. This was when the biggest thing on TV was Gunsmoke and the sheriff was the hero. Yancy was a riverboat gambler in New Orleans. His sidekick, Pahoo, looked like a cigar store Indian, never talked except to Yancy in sign language, carried a sawed off shotgun under his blanket and a huge knife in a rig behind his neck. Madame Francine ran a "dancehall" - the Sazarak , Jody Baker the pickpocket was a confidant and Yancy lived on a riverboat - the Sultana. He carried a number of 4 barreled Sharps derringers concealed (including in his sleeve and in his hat) and a friggin' sword-cane ! ( to this day I have a collection of real sword-canes )

The only character even close to as cool was Paladin.

(Yancy was played by Jock Mahoney, an acrobat and stunt man who previously had a hit series "The Range Rider" with an opening sequence of him dancing the horses on a runaway stage that has to be seen to be believed )

>
>>Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee ...
>>
>>Peacefully of old age at 85 - Fess Parker AKA Davy Crockett
>>Before anyone knew such a thing was possible, Disneyland (the TV show) launched a marketing juggernaut in 1954.
>>
>>10 million coonskin hats were sold (not to mention everything else from flintlocks to lunchboxes and trading cards) and "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" was the number one song in the USA for 13 straight weeks !!
>>
>>I'll bet you 20 million Americans can still sing the song.
>>
>>Parker was a very smart man and knew his Crockett role was a one role wonder (though he later had a series as Daniel Boone) He put his earnings into California real-estate in the mid 50s.
>>
>>Bonus points : the names of the gambler and the Indian at the Alamo, and the King of the River.