#Amos and andy anatomy of a controversy serial
#Amos and andy anatomy of a controversy series
#Amos and andy anatomy of a controversy free

The creators later said that they named the characters Amos and Andy after hearing two elderly African-Americans greet each other by those names in a Chicago elevator. It offered higher salaries than WGN as well as the right to pursue the syndication idea.

#Amos and andy anatomy of a controversy series

WMAQ, the Chicago Daily News station, hired Gosden and Correll and their former WGN announcer Bill Hay to create a series similar to Sam 'n' Henry. Correll's and Gosden's characters contractually belonged to WGN, so the pair was unable to use the characters' names when performing in personal appearances after leaving the station. Episodes of Sam 'n' Henry continued to air until July 14, 1928. When WGN rejected the proposal, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station their last musical program for WGN was announced in the Chicago Daily Tribune on January 29, 1928. It became so popular that in 1927 Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a 'chainless chain' concept that would have been the first radio syndication. Their new show, Sam 'n' Henry, began on Januand fascinated radio listeners throughout the Midwestern United States. Instead, they proposed a series about 'a couple of colored characters' that borrowed certain elements from The Gumps.

By playing the roles of characters using minstrel dialect, they would be able to conceal their identities enough to be able to return to their old pattern of entertaining if the radio show proved to be a failure. They were also conscious of having made names for themselves with their previous act. The idea seemed to involve more risk than either Gosden or Correll was willing to take neither was adept at imitating female voices, which would have been necessary for The Gumps. He suggested that Gosden and Correll adapt The Gumps for radio. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps, which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought a serialized version would work on radio. The Victor Talking Machine Company also offered them a recording contract. 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. 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 'n' Andy is an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago and later in the Harlem section of New York City.