Amos ‘n’ Andy

Amos ‘n’ Andy was probably the most popular radio program in American broadcasting history. The comedy was set in the Harlem district of New York City and featured the adventures of African American characters who spoke in a comic black dialect.

Amos Jones was a cabdriver, and Andy (Andrew Hogg Brown) was his dimwitted friend. The central character in the series was George Stevens, the “Kingfish” of the Mystic Knights of the Sea fraternal lodge in Harlem. Most of the adventures followed the Kingfish as he hatched one dishonest scheme after another, usually at Andy’s expense. Other characters included Calhoun, a crafty lawyer; Shorty, a stuttering barber; Lightnin’, the shiftless janitor at the lodge hall; Kingfish’s wife, Sapphire; and Kingfish’s mother-in-law.

The program was created by two white men, Freeman F. Gosden, who played Amos, and Charles J. Correll, who played Andy. In 1926, the two started performing “Sam ‘n’ Henry,” a comedy program in black dialect on a Chicago radio station. In 1928, Gosden and Correll moved to another Chicago radio station. The first station retained the rights to “Sam ‘n’ Henry,” so Gosden and Correll developed “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” which had its local premiere in March 1928. The show began broadcasting nationally in August 1929 and became the longest-running series in radio history.

The program ran as a nightly 15-minute serial until 1943, when it was expanded to a weekly 30-minute program. The intelligent and calm Amos character was gradually reduced in importance in favor of the conniving Kingfish. By the early 1940’s, Amos played an insignificant part in the stories.

The entire United States seemed to follow the adventures of the characters. Motion-picture theaters advertised they would stop the movie when “Amos ‘n’ Andy” came on the radio and pipe the broadcast to the audience. The British playwright George Bernard Shaw commented that there are three things he would never forget about America: the Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls, and “Amos ‘n’ Andy.”

A television version of “Amos ‘n’ Andy” premiered in 1951. Because Gosden and Correll were white, they were replaced by black actors in the series. Alvin Childress played Amos, Spencer Williams played Andy, and Tim Moore played the Kingfish. The television series ended in 1953. The radio program lasted until 1960, but the format changed in 1954 when the radio series became a variety show called “The Amos ‘n’ Andy Music Hall.”

Civil rights groups—as well as many individuals—heavily criticized both the radio and TV programs, calling the characters stereotypes that were insulting to African Americans. In spite of controversy and opposition that began in the early 1950’s, the TV series was rerun in syndication until 1966.