The "Amos 'N' Andy" Radio Show Reconsidered

When I was a child, my parents told me that my grandfather, who died in his nineties before I was born in the 1950s, was a loyal listener of the “Amos’ n’ Andy” radio show in the 1930s. I always wondered about this.

My grandfather did not seem to fit the profile of an “Amos ‘n’ Andy” fan. He was a Lutheran minister who pastored several churches in rural Minnesota. He had little contact with American urban conditions or blacks and was most comfortable in both his conversations and sermons in his native Norwegian. From all accounts, people who knew him always spoke highly about his fairness, kindness, and sense of humor.

I wondered even more after I read accounts by historians about the radio show. With some exceptions, these have not been very favorable. According to the most recent survey text by Alan Brinkley, for example, the “Amos ‘n’ Andy” radio show was characterized by a “humorous if demeaning picture of urban blacks.” Other historians have been even more critical. While the 1990s brought some new appreciation of the television program in the 1950s, the radio version has not fared well. The general view is that it was a glorified minstrel act and that the characters were all one-dimensional stereotypes.

After reading the extensive research of Elizabeth McLeod, which has been published online (see here and here), however, I think I better understand why my grandfather, and millions of other Americans, had good reason to enjoy the highest rated radio show of its time. McLeod drew from a goldmine of research material at the Library of Congress including more than four thousand complete scripts of the entire run of the series. McLeod has a book coming out in the next few months which hopefully will serve as a corrective to the dominant view.

The creators and main voices for “Amos ‘n’ Andy” were Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. Because they were white guys, acting the part of black guys in an era of intense discrimination, it is understandable that many people have not considered the show to be worth a second look. Many blacks at the time thought otherwise, however. At its height in the 1930s, it had many black listeners including none other than Roy Wilkins (later head of the NAACP). Wilkins said that it “has all the pathos, humor, vanity, glory, problems and solutions that beset ordinary mortals -- and therein lies its universal appeal."

The shows (at least in the early years) are not just humorous skits. Gosden and Correll skillfully interspersed comedy with serious scenes. One of these included a beating of Amos by criminals and is considered one of the most terrifying moments in radio. They deal with such subjects fraternal lodges, police abuse, charity, greed, romance, and politics. Long before Chaplin's "Great Dictator," it had a cautionary tale which aired in 1934 about the aspirations of the Kingfish (so-called because he headed the local fraternal lodge, the"Mystic Order of the Sea") to become"dictator" of a small town. The story line ends when Amos leads a revolt and calls the Kingfish to account in a passionate speech about the dangers of giving one man too much power.

There is no substitute for listening to the shows themselves. Only a couple of dozen or so survive of the more than four thousand twelve minute shows from 1928 to 1943 but they are well worth the time and effort. All of them can be purchased for only a few dollars.

McLeod observes:

“I think it is safe to say that Gosden and Correll never intended to promote any sort of racist philosophy in their program. The entire theme of A&A during its serial era was not"mockery of black upward mobility" as some writers have claimed -- but rather, a celebration of the traditional values of family, hard work, and personal accomplishment. The"blackness" of the characters was never essential to the stories -- they weren't defined by being black (which is the essence of stereotyping), rather they were human beings who happened to be black. It's a fine distinction, but, I think, an important one.

During the serial years, the show painted a picture of a vibrant, self-reliant black community populated not just by Amos, Andy, and the Kingfish, but by successful black businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, journalists, merchants, and any other category you can think of. If you compare the picture portrayed in 1930s"Amos 'n' Andy" to the images portrayed in the other popular media of the time (as in, for example, the short stories of Octavus Roy Cohen) you'll find that Gosden and Correll were, in their own time, remarkably progressive in the way they depicted their characters…..

By and large,"Amos 'n' Andy" was the most important source of employment for black actors in mainstream radio during the forties and fifties -- by the mid-forties, the cast was fully integrated. Among the black actors doing supporting roles on the show during its sitcom years were Ernestine Wade, James Baskett, Ruby and Dorothy Dandridge, William Walker, Roy Glenn,"Wonderful" Smith, Jester Hairston, Eddie Green, Amanda and Lillian Randolph, and Johnny Lee. Many of the roles done by these actors -- especially Walker, Glenn, Hairston, and the Dandridges -- were in no way stereotypical. The show doesn't often get the credit it deserves for being in the forefront of show-biz integration: not just using a black actor or two in"token" roles, but in offering black performers a full range of roles. And it's also important to note that the show was integrated -- as far back as 1939 -- because that's how Gosden and Correll wanted it.”