Romancing My Way into History
Folks of a certain generation know these characters
The Swamp Fox, Elfego Baca, and Celia Garth started it all. Ah, Leslie Nielsen. I knew you before “Airplane” and your comedy chops. I saw you first as a brave Revolutionary War Hero, the Swamp Fox Francis Marion, a Disney series that sent my eleven-year-old heart into spasms of Joy. Walt Disney owned my soul.
Then came Elfego Baca, (you go, Walt…) with Robert Loggia. To this day, every time I see Robert Loggia on screen, regardless of the role, my heart goes back to El Gato, The Cat. Elfego Baca — gorgeous in real life…
Elfego Baca (February 10, 1865 — August 27, 1945) was a gunfighter, law enforcement officer, lawyer, and politician in New Mexico, who became an American folk hero of the later years of the New Mexico Territory frontier. I much preferred Disney’s live characters to animation. I could imagine — and I certainly did — being the western maiden saved from her dreary life. Speaking of maidens, I met Celia Garth in print. Pure fiction, but there was the Swamp Fox, The American Revolution, and a hot romance.
