To the left is yet another popular image of Gen. Francis Marion
having a meal in the wilderness during the Revolutionary War.
Except this time he’s being portrayed by Leslie Nielsen (on the
left, before his hair turned white) in Walt Disney’s Swamp Fox
adventures, first broadcast 1959-1961. This image comes
UltimateDisney.com, where nostalgic folks can order a D.V.D. of
those episodes. Marion’s enslaved servant Oscar was a regular
character in that series and sang its theme song, recounting
Marion’s exploits. The actor who played that part was credited
as “Smoki Whitfield,” though he appeared in other movies and TV
shows as Robert or Jordan Whitfield. He had a long Hollywood
career, but most of his roles were as porters or African
sidekicks, such as Eli in the Bomba the Jungle Boy series.
Whitfield’s screen name “Smoki” fits into a pattern for African-
American actors of the time. Many white Hollywood actors adopted
professional names that hid or changed their ethnic background,
as when Emmanuel Goldenberg bec