One in a long list of my favorite old TV programs when growing up. ..i.e. Andy Griffin, Green Acres, Sanford & Son, Redd Skelton Jackie Gleason, Lucy, 3 Stooges, Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, Munsters, etc., I think I could keep going. Simpler times when humor of all kind wasn't considered politically incorrect. Miss it all!
The episode is properly titled “The Income Tax Show,” Season 3, Episode 2, aired 13 Oct. 1953. Alvin Childress as Amos, Spencer Williams (Jr.) as Andy, Tim Moore as Kingfish, Johnny Lee as Calhoun, Nick Stewart as Lightnin' (as Nick O'Demus), Forrest Lewis as Mr. Wilson, Byron Foulger as Mr. Hanson, Millie Bruce as Darleen, Amos Reese as Bradshaw.
I discovered A and A at age 11 when KTVU Oakland signed on in 1958. In my neighborhood we (white and black} knew they were clowns, nothing to do with reality. We all laughed at them freely.
Anyone who can't laugh At these comedic geniuses should loosen their shorts. Our White family loved this show . Didn't care about.the color of your skin. I hope these people are always rememberd
Way,way back in the 60’s there weren’t too many options on TV in the Twin Cities Market anyway. These guys were the Black version of Laurel and Hardy, along with “Mac and Myer for Hire”.
Thanks OB. Didn't know about the feature film. This is good stuff though. Makes you wonder about all the other great films and shows etc. we may never know about because they were before our time.
He he. Thanks mate. Get this. Here in Britain in the fifties we had a radio show called Educating Archie. The character Archie was played by a ventriloquists dummy. It was a vent act on the radio.
Apparently, Freeman & Charlie decided the days of their "blackface" performances were over- and spent the next two years auditioning black actors for the TV version of the series, while continuing on radio....
It's true! Amos 'n' Andy began on the radio in 1928. Two white actors wrote and performed their roles as black farmers who move to Chicago. The radio success led to a feature film, with the white radio stars donning black face.
The two actors who originated the roles on radio- Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll- decided to make a test "kinescope" (from a closed-circuit broadcast) in late 1948, to see if they could be as successful on TV [in blackface] as they were in 1930's "Check and Double Check". The test was directed by Fred DeCordova. After the film was reviewed by them and CBS executives, DeCordova received the only copy of it, with a $5,000 check for his services...and orders to destroy the film, which he did.
"DeCordova received the only copy of it, with a $5,000 check for his services...and orders to destroy the film, which he did." Which would mean there is no evidence that the story is true. And since "black face" is a hot revisionist historical/ commie/progressive argument, I would bet a bit that the story is not true.
Fred told it in his autobiography, "Johnny Came Lately". He also recalled that he received a plaque a short time later, with this inscription- "To FRED DeCORDOVA, our favorite director, from FREEMAN & CHARLIE".
let me set you more straight. Black face was alway seem as "funny"in america of course. And while I forgot the name the two white guys they were honored at a national parade. Maybe some body knows the characters.It was one guy that alway sound confuse and clueless but it was funny of course,laugh it up black america. I really believe this "help"push the stereotype about mouthy,sassy loud my black women.
