Illustrator J.J. Gould's 1930 drawing of Amos and Andy for New Movie Magazine

Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. The show began as one of the first radio comedy serials, written and voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll and originating from station WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois. After the series was first broadcast in 1928, it grew in popularity and became a huge influence on the radio serials that followed. Image File history File links Amosnandy. ... Image File history File links Amosnandy. ... Freeman Fisher Gozzie Gosden (May 5, 1899 - December 10, 1982) was a USA radio comedian, and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. ... Charles James Correll (February 2, 1890 _ September 26, 1972) was a USA radio comedian, best known for his work on the Amos & Andy show with Freeman Gosden (see). ... WMAQ is a callsign shared by three broadcast stations traditionally associated with NBC in Chicago: WMAQ (AM), 670 kHz: a pioneer broadcaster from 1922 to 2000 and a major part of Chicago and NBC radio history. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ...

Amos 'n' Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920, and by the fall of 1925, they were performing nightly song-and-patter routines on the Chicago Tribune's station WGN. 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 the notion of a serialized drama could also work on radio. He suggested to Gosden and Correll that they adapt The Gumps to radio. They instead proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters" and borrowed certain elements of The Gumps. Their new series, Sam 'n' Henry, began January 12, 1926, fascinating radio listeners throughout the Midwest. That series became popular enough that in late 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 use of radio syndication as we know it today. When WGN rejected the idea, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station that December. Contractually, their characters belonged to WGN, so when Gosden and Correll left WGN, they performed in personal appearances but could not use the character names from the radio show. For the 18th century American form of music and performance known as minstrelsy, see minstrel show. ... Nickname: Location in North Carolina Coordinates: , Country State Counties Durham, Orange, Wake Government  - Mayor Bill Bell Area  - City  94. ... // The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois and owned by the Tribune Company. ... WGN is the callsign of two broadcast stations in Chicago, Illinois, both owned by the Tribune company. ... Sidney Smith 1926 Sunday page The Gumps, a popular comic strip about a middle-class family, was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917 until October 17, 1959. ... Sam & Henry (also rendered as Sam n Henry) was a radio show which aired in 1926 and 1927 by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. ... is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... In the entertainment and news industries, syndication is a method of making content available to a range of outlets simultaneously. ...

When WMAQ, the Chicago Daily News station, hired the team and their WGN announcer, Bill Hay, to create a series similar to Sam 'n' Henry, they offered higher salaries than WGN and the rights to pursue the "chainless chain" syndication concept. Amos 'n' Andy began March 19, 1928, on WMAQ, and prior to airing each program they recorded their show on 78 rpm disks at Marsh Laboratories, operated by electrical recording pioneer Orlando R. Marsh. The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and published between 1876 and 1978. ... is the 78th day of the year (79th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

For the program's entire run as a nightly serial, Gosden and Correll portrayed all the male roles, performing over 170 distinct voice characterizations in the show's first decade. With the episodic drama and suspense heightened by cliffhanger endings, Amos 'n' Andy reached an ever-expanding radio audience. It was the first radio program to be distributed by syndication in the United States, and by the end of the syndicated run in August 1929, at least 70 stations besides WMAQ carried the program by means of recordings.

Early storylines and characters

Amos Jones and Andy Brown worked on a farm near Atlanta, Georgia, and during the episodes of the first week, they made plans to find a better life in Chicago, despite warnings from a friend. With four ham and cheese sandwiches and $24, they bought train tickets and headed for Chicago where they lived in a State Street rooming house and experienced some rough times before launching their own business, the Fresh Air Taxi Company. With the listening audience increasing in the spring and summer of 1928, the show's success prompted the Pepsodent Company to bring it to the NBC Blue Network on August 19, 1929. At this time the Blue Network was not heard on stations in the West. Western listeners complained to NBC that they wanted to hear the show. Under special arrangements Amos 'n' Andy debuted coast-to-coast November 28, 1929 on NBC's Pacific Orange Network and continued on the Blue. At the same time, the serial's central characters -- Amos, Andy and George "The Kingfish" Stevens -- relocated from Chicago to Harlem. Atlanta redirects here. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pepsodent is a brand of toothpaste formerly owned by Unilever. ... This article is about the television network. ... is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 332nd day of the year (333rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Amos was naïve but honest, hard-working and (after his 1935 marriage to Ruby Taylor) a dedicated family man. Andy was more blustering, with overinflated self-confidence. Andy, being a dreamer, tended to let Amos do most of the work. Their lodge leader, the Kingfish, was always trying to lure the two into get-rich-quick schemes. Other characters included John Augustus "Brother" Crawford, an industrious but long-suffering family man; Henry Van Porter, a social-climbing real estate and insurance salesman; Frederick Montgomery Gwindell, a hard-charging newspaperman; William Lewis Taylor, the well-spoken, college-educated father of Amos's fiancee; and "Lightning", a slow-moving Stepin Fetchit-type character. The Kingfish's catch phrase "Holy mackerel!" soon entered the American lexicon. A fraternal organization, sometimes also known as a fraternity, is an organization that represents the relationship between its members as akin to brotherhood. ... Stepin Fetchit Stepin Fetchit was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902–November 19, 1985). ... A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ...

The story arc of Andy's romance (and subsequent problems) with the Harlem beautician Madame Queen entranced some 40,000,000 listeners during 1930 and 1931 becoming a national phenomenon. Many of the program's plotlines in this period leaned far more to straight drama than comedy, including the near-death of Amos's fiancee Ruby from pneumonia in the spring of 1931, and Amos's brutal interrogation by police following the murder of the cheap hoodlum Jack Dixon that December. Following official protests by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, Correll and Gosden were forced to abandon that storyline -- turning the entire sequence into a bad dream, from which Amos gratefully awoke on Christmas Eve. Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The innovations introduced by Gosden and Correll made their creation a turning point for radio drama, as noted by broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod:^[1] Elizabeth McLeod (b. ...

As a result of its extraordinary popularity, Amos 'n' Andy profoundly influenced the development of dramatic radio. Working alone in a small studio, Correll and Gosden created an intimate, understated acting style that differed sharply from the broad manner of stage actors -- a technique requiring careful modulation of the voice, especially in the portrayal of multiple characters. The performers pioneered the technique of varying both the distance and the angle of their approach to the microphone to create the illusion of a group of characters. Listeners could easily imagine that that they were actually in the taxicab office, listening in on the conversation of close friends. The result was a uniquely absorbing experience for listeners who in radio's short history had never heard anything quite like Amos 'n' Andy.

While minstrel-style wordplay humor was common in the formative years of the program, it was used less often as the series developed, giving way to a more sophisticated approach to characterization. Correll and Gosden were fascinated by human nature, and their approach to both comedy and drama drew from their observations of the traits and motivations that drive the actions of all people: while often overlapping popular stereotypes of African-Americans, there was at the same time a universality to their characters which transcended race... Beneath the dialect and racial imagery, the series celebrated the virtues of friendship, persistence, hard work, and common sense, and as the years passed and the characterizations were refined, Amos 'n' Andy achieved an emotional depth rivaled by few other radio programs of the 1930s.

Above all, Correll and Gosden were gifted dramatists. Their plots flowed gradually from one into the next, with minor subplots building in importance until they took over the narrative, before receding to give way to the next major sequence, and seeds for future storylines were often planted months in advance. It was this complex method of story construction that kept the program fresh, and enabled Correll and Gosden to keep their audience in a constant state of suspense. The technique they developed for radio from that of the narrative comic strip endures to the present day as the standard method of storytelling in serial drama.

Amos 'n' Andy was officially transferred by NBC from the Blue Network to the Red Network in 1935, although the vast majority of stations carrying the show remained the same. Several months later, Gosden and Correll moved production of the show from NBC's Merchandise Mart studios in Chicago to Hollywood. After a long and successful run with Pepsodent, the program changed sponsors in 1938 to Campbell's Soup; because of Campbell's closer relationship with CBS, the series switched to that network on April 3, 1939. The National Broadcasting Company or NBC is an American radio and television broadcasting company based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... The Chicago Merchandise Mart North side of the Merchandise Mart Behind the Merchandise Mart A display inside the Merchandise Mart The Merchandise Mart is one of the largest commercial buildings in the world, located in Chicago, Illinois. ... ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Campbell Soup Company ( NYSE: CPB) (also known as Campbells) is undeniably the most well-known producer of canned soups and related products in the United States (and possibly the world). ... This article is about the broadcast network. ... is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1943, after 4,091 episodes, the radio program went from a 15-minute CBS weekday dramatic serial to an NBC half-hour weekly comedy. While the five-a-week show often had a quiet, easygoing feeling, the new version was a full-fledged sitcom in the Hollywood sense, with a regular studio audience (for the first time in the show's history) and an orchestra. More outside actors, including many African American comedy professionals, were brought in to fill out the cast. Many of the half-hour programs were written by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, later the writing team behind Leave It To Beaver and The Munsters. In the new version, Amos became a peripheral character to the more dominant Andy and Kingfish duo, although Amos was still featured in the traditional Christmas show where he explains the Lord's Prayer to his daughter. Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... ... Bob Mosher (d. ... For other uses, see Leave It to Beaver (disambiguation). ... The Munsters is an American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. ... For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation). ... The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch. ...

Sponsors

Advertising pioneer Albert Lasker often took credit for having created the show as a promotional vehicle. After the associations with Pepsodent toothpaste and Campbell's Soup, primary sponsors included Rinso detergent, the Rexall drugstore chain and CBS' own Columbia brand of television sets. President Calvin Coolidge was said to be among the devoted listeners. Huey P. Long took his nickname of "Kingfish" from the show. At the peak of the popularity, many movie theaters began the practice of stopping the films for the 15 minutes of the Amos 'n' Andy show and then playing the program through the theater's sound system or simply by placing a radio on the stage. Albert Lasker (1870?-1950) is often considered to be the founder of modern advertising. ... An early Rinso advertisement from Good Housekeeping, 1933. ... Rexall was the name of a chain of North American drug stores, as well as the name of their store-branded products. ... John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. ... Huey Pierce Long (August 30, 1893–September 10, 1935), known as The Kingfish, was an American politician; he was governor of Louisiana (1928–1932), Senator (1932–1935) and a presidential hopeful before his assassination. ...

Controversy and the Pittsburgh Courier protest

The first sustained protest against the program found its inspiration in the December 1930 issue of Abbott's Monthly, when Bishop W.J. Walls of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church wrote an article sharply denouncing Amos 'n' Andy, singling out the lower-class characterizations and the "crude, repetitional, and moronic" dialogue. The Pittsburgh Courier was the nation's second largest African American newspaper at the time, and publisher Robert Vann expanded Walls' criticism into a full-fledged crusade during a six-month period in 1931. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or AME Zion Church, was officially formed in 1821, but operated for a number years before then. ... The Pittsburgh Courier was a newspaper for African-Americans. ...

The paper, among other publicly stated efforts, published a petition to get the program pulled from the air, with a stated goal of one million signatures. While many prominent African American newspapers refused to back the drive, the Courier found support from Bishop Walls, the National Association of Colored Waiters and Hotel Employees and several African American fraternal orders. The NAACP national office declined to endorse the protest, although some of their local chapters stood behind the effort. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is one of the oldest and most influential hate organizations in the United States. ...

Before the campaign was dropped, the paper claimed to have 675,000 names on their petition, although the figure was never independently verified. Gosden and Correll never commented on the Courier's efforts.

While the depiction of African Americans in the sitcom version of the show is regarded by some as racially offensive by today's standards, the characterizations on the daily serial version were actually much more sympathetic and rounded than that of other shows of the 1930s, which perpetuated 19th-century minstrel show stereotypes and did not equal the immense success of Amos 'n' Andy. Prominent were the blackface act by the Two Black Crows, who did two-man comedy routines in vaudeville, short subjects and comedy records, and minstrel headliner Emmett Miller, who recorded a series of popular songs for Okeh Records in the late 1920s. Manifestations Slavery Racial profiling Lynching Hate speech Hate crime Genocide (examples) Ethnocide Ethnic cleansing Pogrom Race war Religious persecution Gay bashing Blood libel Paternalism Police brutality Movements Policies Discriminatory Race / Religion / Sex segregation Apartheid Redlining Internment Anti-discriminatory Emancipation Civil rights Desegregation Integration Equal opportunity Counter-discriminatory Affirmative action Racial... This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co. ... The Two Black Crows was a blackface comedy act popular in the 1920s and 30s. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Early American actor William Garwood starred in numerous short films, many of which were only 20 minutes in length Short subject is a format description originally coined in the North American film industry in the early period of cinema. ... Emmett Miller was a minstrel show singer born in Macon, Georgia in 1900. ... Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918; from the late 1920s on was a subsidiary of Columbia Records. ...

Film

In 1930, RKO brought Gosden and Correll to Hollywood to do an Amos and Andy feature film, Check and Double Check (a catch phrase from the radio show). The cast included a mix of white and black performers (the latter including Duke Ellington and his orchestra) with Gosden and Correll disconcertingly^{[citation needed]} playing Amos and Andy in blackface. The film pleased neither critics nor Gosden or Correll themselves, but became RKO's biggest box office hit prior to King Kong. RKO offered Gosden and Correll a contract to do a sequel, which they declined (although they did lend their voices to a pair of Amos 'n' Andy cartoon shorts in 1934: The Rasslin' Match and The Lion Tamer). Years later, Gosden was quoted as calling Check and Double Check "just about the worst movie ever." Gosden and Correll also posed for publicity pictures in blackface. RKO could stand for: RKO Pictures The R.K.O. - finishing manoever (and initials) of WWE professional wrestler Randy Orton. ... ... Check and Double Check was a 1930 motion picture made and released by RKO based on the then-popular Amos & Andy radio show. ... A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ... This article is about the American Jazz composer and performer. ... King Kong in the 1933 film. ... The Rasslin Match is a 1934 animated short film directed by Vernon Stallings and starring Charles J. Correll and Freeman F. Gosden as the voices of their popular radio characters, Amos n Andy. ... The Lion Tamer is a 1934 animated short film directed by Vernon Stallings and starring Charles J. Correll and Freeman F. Gosden as the voices of their popular radio characters, Amos n Andy. ...

Television

Adapted to television, The Amos 'n Andy Show was produced from 1951 to 1953 with 78 filmed episodes. The TV series used African American actors in the main roles, although the actors were instructed to keep their voices and speech patterns as close to Gosden and Correll's as possible. Produced at the Hal Roach Studios for CBS, it was one of the first television series to be filmed with a multicamera setup, four months before the more famous I Love Lucy used the technique. The classic theme song is "Angels' Serenade". Harold Eugene Roach ( January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer from 1910s to 1980s, born in Elmira, New York. ... This article is about the broadcast network. ... Pioneered by Desi Arnaz with three cameras, commonly now four, the multicamera setup is used to shoot most studio-produced television programs such as situation comedies, soap operas, news programs, game shows, and talk shows. ... I Love Lucy is a television situation comedy, starring Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, also featuring Vivian Vance and William Frawley. ...

The main roles in the television series were played by the following African-American actors:

• Amos Jones - Alvin Childress
• Andrew Hogg Brown (Andy) - Spencer Williams
• George "Kingfish" Stevens - Tim Moore
• Sapphire Stevens - Ernestine Wade
• Ramona Smith (Sapphire's Mama) - Amanda Randolph
• Madame Queen - Lillian Randolph
• Algonquin J. Calhoun - Johnny Lee
• Lightnin' - Horace Stewart (aka, Nick O'Demus)

This time, the NAACP mounted a formal protest almost as soon as the television version began, and that pressure was considered a primary factor in the video version's cancellation. The show was repeated in syndicated reruns until 1966 when CBS acquiesced to pressure from the NAACP and the growing civil rights movement and withdrew the program. Until recently, the television show had been released only on bootleg videotape versions, but by 2005, 72 of the 78 known TV episodes were available in DVD sets. Spencer Williams Jr. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Amanda Randolph (September 2, 1896 - August 24, 1967) was an African American actress and singer. ... Lillian Randolph (December 14, 1898 - September 12, 1980) was an African American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... For other uses, see Bootleg. ...

In 1978, a one-hour documentary film, Amos 'n Andy: Anatomy Of A Controversy, aired in television syndication (and in later years, on PBS). It told a brief history of the franchise from its radio days to the CBS series, and featured interviews with then-surviving cast members. The film also contained a select complete episode of the classic TV series that had not been seen since it was pulled from the air in 1966. In the television industry (as in radio), syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast programs to multiple stations, without going through a broadcast network. ... Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ...

In 2004, the now-defunct Trio network brought "Amos 'n Andy" back to television for one night in an effort to re-introduce the series to 21st century audiences. Its festival featured the Anatomy Of A Controversy documentary, followed by the 1930 Check and Double Check film. Trio (or TRIO) was an American cable and satellite television channel owned by NBC Universal. ...

Although the series is suggested to be in the public domain, the trademarks and copyrights to "Amos 'n' Andy" are controlled by CBS. Any official video/DVD release, if it ever does happen, will be handled via Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS DVD. Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Video) is a home video company founded in 1981. ... CBS Video Enterprises was the home video entertainment arm of CBS, Inc. ...

Later years

In 1955 the format of the radio show was changed to include playing recorded music between sketches, and the show was renamed The Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall. The final Amos 'n' Andy radio show was broadcast November 25, 1960. Although by the 1950s the popularity of the show was well below its peak of the 1930s, Gosden and Correll had managed to outlast most of the radio shows that came in their wake. is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1961, Gosden and Correll attempted one last televised effort, albeit in a "disguised" version. They were the voices in a prime time animated cartoon, Calvin and the Colonel, featuring anthropomorphic animals whose voices and situations were almost exactly those of Andy and the Kingfish. This effort at reviving the series in a way that was intended to be less racially offensive ended after one season on ABC, although it remained quite popular in syndicated reruns in Australia for several years afterwards. Prime time is the block of programming on television during the middle of the evening. ... The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these 6 frames. ... For the band, see Cartoons (band). ... Calvin and the Colonel was an animated cartoon television series in 1961 about a shrewd fox and a dumb bear. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ...

In 1988, the Amos 'n' Andy program was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. A pair of parallel, one-block streets in south Dallas, Texas are named Amos Street and Andy Street in honor of these performers. // The National Radio Hall of Fame and Museum, located in the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, Illinois, is a museum dedicated to recognizing those who have contributed to the development of the radio medium throughout its history in the United States. ...

Radio historian Elizabeth McLeod examined thousands of radio script pages in order to write her authoritative 223-page study, The Original Amos ’n’ Andy: Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll and the 1928–1943 Radio Serial, published by McFarland in 2005. Currently, the scripts of Amos 'n' Andy are performed on a shortwave station broadcasting from Maine, WBCQ on 7415 kHz, at midnight Eastern Time, six nights per week, by Ed Bolton, who performs all roles. WBCQ is a shortwave radio station operating at Monticello, Maine, USA. The station is co-owned with AM broadcast station WCXH at 780 kHz 5000 watts non directional day and 60 watts non directional at night, (formerly known as WREM 710 kHz). ...

Cast work after the show

Ernestine Wade (Sapphire) and Lillian Randolph (Madame Queen) appeared together on an episode of That's My Mama called "Clifton's Sugar Mama" on October 2, 1974. They were friends of "Mama" played by Theresa Merritt who wanted to see Clifton played by Clifton Davis (later of TV show Amen) at the beginning of the episode. Ernestine played Augusta and Lillian played Mrs. Birdie. Jester Hairston (who played Henry Van Porter and Leroy Smith on "Amos 'n' Andy") was a regular on both That's My Mama as "Wildcat" and on Amen as "Rolly Forbes." Lillian Randolph (December 14, 1898 - September 12, 1980) was an African American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. ... Thats My Mama Thats My Mama is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the ABC network from September 1974 until December 1975. ... Theresa Merritt Hines, (usually credited as Theresa Merritt, sometimes credited as Theresa Merritte), b. ... Clifton Davis (born October 4, 1945) is an American actor who has appeared on television shows such as Thats My Mama (on which he had the lead role) in the 1970s and on Amen in the 1980s. ... Amen is an American television sitcom produced by Carson Productions that ran from September 27, 1986 to May 11, 1991 on NBC. The African American sitcom starred Sherman Hemsley (of The Jeffersons and All in the Family fame) as Deacon Ernest Frye, the head of the First Community Church of... Jester Hairston (July 9, 1901 - January 18, 2000) was an American composer, songwriter, arranger, choral conductor, and actor. ... Thats My Mama Thats My Mama is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the ABC network from September 1974 until December 1975. ... Amen is an American television sitcom produced by Carson Productions that ran from September 27, 1986 to May 11, 1991 on NBC. The African American sitcom starred Sherman Hemsley (of The Jeffersons and All in the Family fame) as Deacon Ernest Frye, the head of the First Community Church of...

Johnny Lee recorded a record that was released in July 1949 called "You Can't Lose A Broken Heart" (Columbia Records #30172). It was released as "Johnnie Lee" and backup vocals were by The Ebonaires. Johnny also starred in an all black musical comedy called "Sugar Hill" in 1949 at Las Palmas Theatre in California.^[2] Columbia Records is the oldest brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. ...

Johnny Lee (Calhoun) and Horace Stewart (Lightnin') both provided voices in the Walt Disney film Song of the South in 1946. Johnny provided the voice of Br'er Rabbit and Horace provided the voice of Br'er Bear. For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ... Song of the South is a feature film produced by Walt Disney, released on November 12, 1946 by RKO Radio Pictures and based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. ...

References

Listen to

• OTR Fans: Amos and Andy (23 episodes)
• OTR Network Library: Amos 'n' Andy (219 episodes)

External links

• Elizabeth McLeod: Amos 'n' Andy -- In Person
• Amos 'n' Andy: Past as Prologue?
• Meet Amos 'n' Andy
• Original Amos 'n' Andy web page
• Rechecking Check and Double Check
• Rich Samuels' Broadcasting in Chicago: 1921-1989