The Amos 'n' Andy Show

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The Amos 'n' Andy Show

During the Great Depression The Amos 'n' Andy Show provided comic relief to a nation reeling from rapid deflation and skyrocketing unemployment. The day after the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, the following exchange took place on the Amos 'n' Andy radio show—Andy: "Is you been keepin' yo' eye on de stock market?" Lightnin': "Nosah, I ain't never seed it." Andy: "Well, de stock market crashed!" Lightnin': "Anybody git hurt?" Andy: "Well, 'course, Lightnin', when de stock market crashes, it hurts bizness men. Dat's whut puts de repression on things." Clearly, the show gave down-on-their-luck Americans a cast of characters at whom they could laugh and with whom they could identify. But there was more at stake on the show than economic satire. In its television incarnation in the 1950s and 1960s, the show became a window on changing race relations in America. From 1925 until 1966 The Amos 'n' Andy Show dominated several forms of media in America. It was the nation's most popular radio show, the subject of two films, a popular comic strip, and finally a television sitcom with an all-black cast. The show perpetuated the stereotypes of blackface minstrelsy, portraying clownish "Coons," docile and devout "Uncle Toms," shrewish "Mammies," and other stock black characters. As a television show it divided the black community. Some blacks thought it was a funny show which provided an excellent opportunity for blacks to work in the entertainment industry, while others—especially the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)—viewed it as an abominable racist burlesque which led all Americans to believe that blacks were unemployable, oafish fools.

The Amos 'n' Andy Show was the brainchild of Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, two white performers with Southern roots. Gosden's father fought for the confederacy in the Civil War, and Correll was a distant relative of Jefferson Davis. Gosden and Correll met in North Carolina in 1919, and when their radio show, Sam 'n' Henry, debuted in Chicago in 1925 they were paid in food instead of cash. The title characters of the show were bumptious Southern blacks who had moved from Alabama to Chicago hoping for a better life. The humor on the show was part malapropistic (black characters creating unintended puns by mispronouncing words) and part derivative from the dim-witted characters' naivete. The show was historically significant because it was the first serialized radio program ever—in other words, it was the first show to have a continuous storyline woven through nightly episodes. As such, it was the pioneer of the soap opera and the television situation comedy.

In 1926 the Chicago Tribune, owner of Chicago radio station WGN, signed Gosden and Correll to a two year radio contract. When that contract ended the duo moved to another station but had to change the names of the title characters because WGN owned the rights to Sam 'n' Henry. Gosden and Correll initially considered Jim 'n' Charlie for their new characters' names, but decided on Amos 'n' Andy instead because they thought that "Amos" was a "trusting, simple, and naive" Biblical name while Andy sounded "lazy" and "domineering." In show number 23 Gosden and Correll came up with the show's trademark, the "Fresh Air Taxicab of America Incorpulated." In 1929 NBC picked up the show and broadcast it to a national radio audience. The show was an instant sensation. It was so popular that it had to be recorded live twice each night so that it could be heard on the West Coast and the East Coast in prime time. It represented a unique approach to comedy because it was not based on one-liners like other comedy shows of the period. Gosden and Correll thought that if they created likeable, interesting characters, their listeners would tune in. The other stars of The Amos 'n' Andy Show were Kingfish, a boisterous schemer, Lightnin' a dimwitted foot-shuffling janitor, Calhoun, a bombastic lawyer, Kingfish's shrewish wife Sapphire, and Sapphire's ogreish mother.

The 1930s belonged to The Amos 'n Andy Show. In 1930 they made their first of two feature films, Check and Double Check, in which they appeared in blackface. Another film would follow in 1936. In 1931 40 million listeners tuned in each night to their radio show, representing 74 percent of the potential listening audience. The show was so popular that President Calvin Coolidge regularly excused himself from state dinners to listen to the 15 minute nightly broadcast, department stores broadcast the show over their public address systems so that their shoppers could listen to the show as they browsed, and movie theaters actually interrupted feature films in progress so that they could broadcast the radio program live to their audiences. Telephone activity also declined nationally during the 15 minutes during which the show was broadcast, and the sewers in many cities ran dry between 7:00 and 7:15 because listeners did not want to miss a moment of the show. Although the show was very popular among blacks and whites, the 1930s brought the first public protests against it by the NAACP.

In 1943 the NBC radio program was increased from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, but a ratings drop caused Gosden and Correll to revamp the show. When it returned after an eight month hiatus, it was a once-weekly show instead of a nightly show. It had a live audience, an orchestra instead of an organist, and a team of writers to co-write the show with Gosden and Correll. In 1948 CBS lured Gosden and Correll away from NBC by offering them the astounding sum of $2.5 million.

When the television version of The Amos 'n' Andy Show premiered with an all-black cast on June 28, 1951, it was immediately at the center of a firestorm of controversy. The NAACP strongly objected to the show, claiming that it "depicted Negroes in a stereotyped and derogatory manner." They soon filed a formal law suit against CBS which asserted that the show "strengthened the conclusion among uninformed and prejudiced people that Negroes are inferior, lazy, dumb, and dishonest." The suit claimed that the show presented every black character as "a clown or a crook," and argued that it led viewers to believe that all blacks were like the characters on the show. This was a minority position within the black community at large and within the black entertainment community in particular. The few blacks who had made it into show business saw the show as a positive step because it employed dozens of African Americans in an industry which had been all but off limits to black performers. Several of the show's cast members defended it against the barrage of criticism from the NAACP and the National Urban League.

The star of the short-lived television show was neither Amos nor Andy but George "Kingfish" Stevens, played by Tim Moore. Some have suggested that instead of The Amos 'n' Andy Show, the show should have been called "The Adventures of Kingfish." Moore created in Kingfish a complex character—a sympathetic, mischievous protagonist. Amos, played by Alvin Childress, made cameo appearances in most episodes, but had a very minor role. Andy, played by Spencer Williams, Jr., had a more prominent role, but still served primarily as Kingfish's foil. Horace Stewart played the ironically named Lightnin', Ernestine Wade played Sapphire, and Jonny Lee played the preachy lawyer Calhoun. Blatz Brewing Co., the sponsor of the television show, pulled out in 1953 under pressure from the NAACP, and later that year the network canceled the show despite its high ratings. It was the first television show ever shown as a rerun (during the summer of 1952), and it ran in syndication until 1966.

Black entertainers and civil rights leaders of the 1960s through the 1990s have disagreed over how the show should be remembered. Comedians Flip Wilson and Redd Foxx watched the show, enjoyed it, and thought it was a harmless comedy. Other black entertainers disagreed. Richard Pryor called the show an "outrage" and Bill Cosby claimed it was "not at all funny." Civil Rights leader and presidential candidate Jesse Jackson has offered one of the most insightful commentaries on the show. He said, "I think the record must show that [The Amos 'n' Andy Show] paid the dues that made it possible for those who now play roles with much more dignity." He added that the show "proved that blacks could act" and "proved that blacks could entertain." As demeaning as the television show was in terms of its stereotypical presentations of African Americans, it did give them unprecedented access to the highly segregated world of show business.

—Adam Max Cohen