The very stereotypes that had so long been unfairly applied to an entire race were used throughout.
Nevertheless the humor certainly derived from the fact that these were shiftless, conniving, not-too-bright blacks.
#Amos and andy radio shows series
Actually the series had many episodes that showed the Negro with professions and businesses like attorneys, store owners, and so on, which they never had in TV or movies before." Others pointed out that the situations were no different than those found in many comedy programs with white characters. In its prime, entire towns listened to the show Stores would close. The creators certainly didn't think so, and actor Alvin Childress (Amos) was quoted as saying, "I didn't feel it harmed the Negro at all. Experience the casual intimacy of radio drama and character comedy at their best. One of most popular shows in 20th century, Amos and Andy were played by white actors. CBS found its market for the films suddenly disappearing, and in 1966, the program was withdrawn from sale, as quietly as possible.Īs to whether the program was in fact racist, there was no agreement on that. This focused attention a new on the old controversy and in the summer of 1964, when a Chicago station announced that it was resuming reruns, there were widespread and bitter protests. Soon afterward, an official of the Kenya government announced that the program would be banned in his country. The turning point came in 1963 when CBS Films, which was still calling Amos 'n' Andy one of its most widely circulated shows, announced that the program had been sold to two African countries, Kenya and Western Nigeria. Amos 'n' Andy drew sizable audiences during its two-year CBS run, and was widely rerun on local stations for the next decade. Madame Queen was Andy's friend and Lightnin' was the slow-moving janitor at the lodge.Ĭivil rights groups such as the NAACP had long protested the series as fostering racial stereotypes, to little avail. remember, we is brothers in that great fraternity, the Mystic Knights of the Sea."Īmos was actually a rather minor character, the philosophical cabdriver who narrated most of the episodes. More often than not, Kingfish would get them both into trouble, but win Andy's cooperation with an appeal to fraternal spirit-"Holy mackerel, Andy! We's all got to stick together in dis heah thing. The Kingfish was constantly trying to swindle him in one way or another, but the "big dummy" (as Kingfish called him) kept coming back for more. Andy Brown was the most gullible of the lodge members, a husky, well-meaning, but rather simple soul. Mama, in particular, didn't trust him at all. That put him at odds not only with them, but with his wife, Sapphire, and her mother. As head of the Mystic Knights of the Sea Lodge, where he held the position of "Kingfish," he got most of the lodge brothers involved in his schemes. Set in Harlem, Amos 'n' Andy centered around the activities of George Stevens, a conniving character who was always looking for a way to make a fast buck.
Only Ernestine Wade and Amanda Randolph were brought over from the radio cast. Since they were white, and the entire cast of the show on television had to be black, a much ballyhooed search was held, over a period of four years, to find the right actors to play the parts. The series was produced by Freemad Gosden and Charles Correll, the two actors who had created and starred in the radio version. Additionally, while I tried to put together a collection that contains the best version of each episode that I could, there may be better copies of some recordings available from collectors and dealers, and I encourage you to reach out to them if you are so inclined. We OTR enthusiasts owe a huge debt to those who have worked tirelessly to discover, acquire and preserve these recordings. My role here has been to organize the files I have, verify the dates, episode numbers and titles as best I could from available sources, and correct and rename the files accordingly. My goal is to ensure these excellent artistic expressions of our past are preserved for this and all future generations, and I hope that by uploading all of my files here in a uniform and organized system, they will be easily accessible for all.Amos 'n' Andy - 131 Mp3 Downloads Available "Amos 'n' Andy", is one of the most popular and long-running radio programs of all time, was brought to television in the summer of 1951. I will add to these collections if I discover new episodes or if any new episodes become available. Disclaimer: By uploading these files, I make no claim to ownership or copyright. These recordings have been acquired from publicly available sources on the Internet, and my goal has been to put together a collection of every available episode where possible.
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