Tuesdays with Oscar: James Baskett in ‘Song of the South’ (1946)

by Jerry Dean Roberts

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There is a common misconception that Sidney Portier was the first man of color to win the Academy Award – that being for his performance in Lilies of the Field in 1964.  Not true.  The first black man to recieved the Academy Award was James Baskett for his portrayal of Uncle Remus in Song of the South, a movie that a great many (including those at the Disney company) would like to forget.

The misconception may come from the controversial weight that the film has had to bear. – no one wants to admit that the first Oscar given to a black man was in praise of a stereotype. A more grounded reason though is tipped at the fact that Baskett did not receive a competitive Oscar – he was not nominated for either Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor.  Instead, the Academy bestowed upon him an Honorary Award – in their words: “For his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world, in Walt Disney’s ‘Song of the South’.”

The debate will continue as long as man can still reason over whether or not an award should have been given to a black man for playing a stereotype. There’s a back and forth there, especially in the reasoning that a black actor in 1946 wasn’t likely to have been given a role that wasn’t a stereotype. Honoring James Baskett for playing a role that would later be pinned as “The Magical Negro” is both significant and troubling.

One could argue, not unreasonably, that it was extremely unusual that a black actor would receive any kind of accolade from the Academy’s board of governors – but there it is in 1947, deep into the age of segregation, a black man walks away from the Academy Awards with an Oscar in his hand! The accolade is remarkable, but its the role that bothers us.

The fatherhood of Baskett’s honor was claimed by gossip columnist Hedda Hopper who took full credit in her autobiography, claiming that she and Jean Hersholt encouraged the Academy to recognize Baskett as a humanitarian gesture. She further claimed that several members of the Board of Governors balked at the suggestion because the actor was playing yet another stereotypical slave, but Hopper said that Hersholt threatened to stand up at the presentation and announce why Baskett was ignored.

A more plausible explanation came from Walt Disney himself. Disney hand-picked Baskett for the role and was so impressed with his work that he used his considerable influence to help spur the Academy to consider him for the award. Was this a move of self-interest? Perhaps a little promotion to drive up box office? Possibly, but it is also important to note that after Song of the South, Disney maintained a close relationship with Baskett until his death two years later.

However he got the honor, it worked. James Baskett received the award and, legend has it, never let it out of his sight. He reportedly carried it in a black velvet bag made by his wife and slept with it on his nightstand every night. In that, he was never jaded by the award or the role that got him there.

And still, even if he was okay with it, the debate rages with the subsequent generations over whether he deserved the award – or whether he legitimately won an Oscar at all. If it seems like a deliberate system of elimination to give Baskett a consolation prize instead of grouping him in  with competitors like Ronald Coleman, Gregory Peck, John Garfield, Michael Redgrave and William Powell, consider that he would have been the stand-out anyway.  As racially insensitive as his role was in Song of the South, he acted circles around any of the five nominees for Best Actor. It can be supposed that the Academy’s Board of Governors didn’t want to embarrass the competing actors by having them lose to a black man.

Regardless, Baskett very likely would have won the Oscar had he competed for Best Actor. No one who sees the movie can deny the brilliance of his performance whether they see it as a stereotype or not – he is the movie. He has such a wonderful screen presence, such a big personality, such a lively spirit. There’s magic in his soul and wisdom in his heart. That’s where the energy of the movie takes you. The problem is that it all comes back down to Earth when you realize that Uncle Remus is a ‘type’ not a character. He’s a man of earthly wisdom, but he’s a work of words, an idea not flesh and bone. There’s something of a fantasy nature to this character that never quite feels right – a stereotype of the old black man who has seen it all and reasons with common horse-sense. In that, there’s no humanity to the character. There don’t appear to be flaws or cracks in his facade. He sings a happy tune and all’s right with the world. You might say he’s . . . magical that way.

This was Walt Disney’s way. During his lifetime, Walt’s work was largely committed to giving to children that kinds of stories and fairy tales that he grew up with as a child – which is where we got Snow White and Cinderella and Mary Poppins and so on. In that, he wanted to create an entertainment medium dedicated to a kind of fantasy land, a world of magic and fun and a re-writing of history as we might wish it had been. It was a wish-fulfillment in a very cold world.

Song of the South came from this idea. The movie presents a revisionist portrait of the post-Civil War south as an idyllic world in which former slaves and their former masters basically got along. Their children played together, there was no sense of racial tension and everything was zip-a-dee-doo da.

This may work for Davy Crockett but for the Reconstruction, it feels awkward and dishonest. Here in the 21st century we are still feeling the effects of racial discord brought on by the bitter legacy of slavery. We still live in a society that, whether we admit it or not, still treats people of color like second-class citizens. Particularly now, living in the era of #oscarsowhite and Black Lives Matter, the portrait of an idyllic and racially sound Post-Civil War South presented by Song of the South feels dishonest and even a little insulting. Disney’s intention was probably very good, but the result has not been met by the inheritors of his work – those of us born in the last 50 years who have had to decide what to make of it.

In the past five decades, the film has slipped into the same questionable trench that has thus far swallowed up The Birth of a Nation, The Jazz Singer and Gone With the Wind, films that either portray black characters as happy, dancing fools or as loyal support to white characters without a humanity of of their own. The debate goes on, but certainly the Disney Company has made up its mind. The film has, more or less, dropped out of the company’s advertising and seems largely to have been an embarrassment that they would rather not acknowledge

The film has been released several times since 1946. It was released in 1956 on its 10th anniversary. Then again in 1972 and then the following year as the bottom half of a double-feature with The Aristocats. Then it was released again in 1980 and then for the last time in 1986. It aired on The Disney Channel throughout the 80s with the “tar baby” sequence removed, but after that it disappeared, crumbled to dust with the changing times. It has never had an American release on VHS or DVD despite having been released in other countries. And it was not included on Disney+

The debate about whether the film should be released on Disney+ came up recently, but Disney President Bob Iger responded that the times just aren’t right for Song of the South, that the heat of our racial atmosphere is not fitting for a movie as divisive as this. Is he right? That’s up to those who take the time to seek out the film. It is as racially tense as its reputation leads on? Personally, I am inclined to say ‘yes’. It is a generally good-hearted film with a troubling legacy dragging it down.

So, back to the issue at hand. Is James Baskett worth noting? His his Oscar worth noting even though his role was a stereotype? Is it progress or a lumbering step backward? The debate rages on. What do you think?