#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY SERIAL#
#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY SERIES#
#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY TV#
#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY FREE#

This lucrative offer enabled them to become full-time broadcasters.

The pair hoped that the radio exposure would lead to stage work they were able to sell some of their scripts to local bandleader Paul Ash, which led to jobs at the Chicago Tribune's station WGN in 1925.

#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY FREE#

Their appearances soon led to a regular schedule on another Chicago radio station, WEBH, where their only compensation was a free meal. Both men had some scattered experience in radio, but it was not until 1925 that the two appeared on Chicago's WQJ. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920. Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. Origins Freeman Gosden ('Amos') and Charles Correll ('Andy') in 1929. It was not shown to a nationwide audience again until 2012. A television adaptation ran on CBS (1951–53) and continued in syndicated reruns (1954–66).

#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY SERIAL#

: 168–71 The show ran as a nightly radio serial (1928–43), as a weekly situation comedy (1943–55) and as a nightly disc-jockey program (1954–60). Early episodes were broadcast from the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs, California. After the first broadcast in 1928, the show became a hugely popular series, first on NBC Radio and later on CBS Radio and Television.

#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY SERIES#

On television, 1951–1953, black actors took over the majority of the roles white characters were infrequent.Īmos 'n' Andy began as one of the first radio comedy series and originated from station WMAQ in Chicago. While the show had a brief life on 1950s television with black actors, the 1928 to 1960 radio show was created, written and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who played Amos Jones (Gosden) and Andrew Hogg Brown (Correll), as well as incidental characters.

#AMOS AND ANDY ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY TV#

Recordings of the radio show can be found for sale by various dealers on the internet, as well as dvds of the tv shows.įree downloads of some selected radio shows from various years can be found starting on this page.Īnd here's a condensed edition of a tv episode.Amos 'n' Andy is an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago and later in the Harlem section of New York City. A recommended book is Holy Mackerel: The Amos 'n' Andy Story by Bart Andrews (Dutton, 1986). One photo is a standard portrait pose and the other is in character as 'Sapphire'.įor more information about the 'Amos 'n' Andy' saga, and the controversy surrounding it, I recommend a 1986 tv documentary, 'Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy'. Her very polite and appreciative letter can be read here and here. She apologized for her late response, and explained that she no longer had any 8x10 photos. Wade replied with a two-page handwritten letter, and two 4x5 signed photos. Along with my letter, I enclosed a large stamped self-addressed envelope to accommodate an 8x10 photo, which I'd hoped to receive. So I wrote her a letter, in care of her agent, since I couldn't find a home address for her. I searched the photo shops, but couldn't find anything appropriate. It was much later, in the early 1970s, when I'd seen some 16mm prints of the tv shows, that I came to enjoy the shows, not just for the humor, but for the fine actors and actresses who played the various characters.Īs a fan of some 'feisty female' characters on some tv shows, I wanted to obtain a signed photo of Ernestine Wade.

I remember watching the tv show when it was in reruns in the late 1950s, and I was just a kid, and couldn't appreciate the humor fully. Ted Healy - He 'Started' The Three StoogesĮrnestine Wade was a veteran radio actress who had been on several radio shows, but she became well-known as the character 'Sapphire Stevens', wife of the 'Kingfish' character, on the 'Amos 'n' Andy' show, first on radio in the 1940s, and then on tv in the early 1950s.Robert Mitchum and Ann Sothern - My Favorites.Mary Philbin - She Unmasked 'The Phantom'.Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney - 'Sugar Babies'.

Ernestine Wade - 'Sapphire' on 'Amos 'n' Andy'.A Couple of Centenarian Ladies - Estelle Winwood a.

Amos and andy anatomy of a controversy