![]() ![]() ![]() Freeman Gosden died on December 10, 1982.Īmos ‘n’ Andy was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988. Because of this reason, a nationwide search was conducted for actors to star in their television version. Gosden and Correll starred in the radio version of their show but because they were both white, it would be impossible for them to portray 2 black men. The duo hosted The Amos ‘n’ Andy Music Hall from 1954 until their final broadcast on November 25, 1960.Ĭharles Correll died on September 26, 1972. In 1951, Amos ‘n’ Andy aired for the first time on CBS. Although Amos ‘n’ Andy’s dialect humor caused much controversy among African-Americans, the show’s appeal during its prime was not restricted to any single race.įrom 1943 to 1955, Amos ‘n’ Andy was a weekly situation comedy. Movie theaters were forced to stop their features each night to pipe in the 15-minute show for their audience. By 1931, Amos ‘n’ Andy had become a national phenomenon, a comedic serial with nearly 40 million listeners. Either way, it was a show based on stereotypical depictions that werent flattering, were racially essentialist, and were shaped by creators of one race for an audience of the same race - that wasnt the one being depicted. In 1928, the duo went to rival station WMAQ as Amos ‘n’ Andy. Millions of white Americans see this Amos n Andy picture and think the entire race is the same. The characters first aired as Sam ‘n Henry on Chicago’s WGN in 1926. The sitcom was titled Amos ‘n’ Andy and starred over fifteen black actors. The show was canceled after one season.George Bernard Shaw once said, “There are three things I’ll never forget about America – Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains and Amos 'n' Andy.”Īmos ‘n’ Andy was the story of two black characters-the modest, pragmatic Amos and the blustery, self-confident Andy-created by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. In 1951, a new show made history as the first Black sitcom to be broadcasted on national television. The following year, Gosden and Carrell created a short-lived TV sequel called “Calvin and the Colonel.” This time, they avoided controversy by replacing the human characters with an animated fox and bear. The final radio broadcast of “Amos ‘n’ Andy” aired on November 25, 1960. These protests led to the TV show’s cancellation in 1953. This did not stop African American advocacy groups and eventually the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) from criticizing both the radio and TV versions of “Amos ‘n’ Andy” for promoting racial stereotypes. With Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams taking over for Gosden and Carrell, the show was the first TV series to feature an all-Black cast and the only one of its kind for the next 20 years. 0:00 / 25:23 Amos N Andy: The Broken Clock (1952) Reelblack One 1.31M subscribers Subscribe 1. Over the next 22 years, the show would become the highest-rated comedy in radio history, attracting more than 40 million listeners.īy 1951, when “Amos ‘n’ Andy” came to television, changing attitudes about race and concerns about racism had virtually wiped out the practice of blackface. As their new contract gave Gosden and Carrell the right to syndicate the program, the popularity of “Amos ‘n’ Andy” soon exploded. ![]() When they discovered WGN owned the rights to their characters’ names, they simply changed them. In 1928, Gosden and Carrell took their act to a rival station, the Chicago Daily News’ WMAQ. When “Sam ‘n’ Henry” debuted in January 1926, it became an immediate hit. Gosden and Carrell, both vaudeville performers, were doing a Chicago comedy act in blackface when an employee at the Chicago Tribune suggested they create a radio show. By that time, white actors performing in dark stage makeup-or “ blackface”-had been a significant tradition in American theater for over 100 years. Though the creators and the stars of the new radio program, Freeman Gosden and Charles Carrell, were both white, the characters they played were two Black men from the Deep South who moved to Chicago to seek their fortunes. Two years later, after changing its name to “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the show became one of the most popular radio programs in American history. On January 12, 1926, the two-man comedy series “Sam ‘n’ Henry” debuts on Chicago’s WGN radio station. On radio, Amos Jones and Andrew (Andy) Hogg Brown had been played by two white men-Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll-who retained control of the casting process when the show shifted to.
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