A Real Rarity…’Amos ‘n’ Andy’ Television Screen Test, 1950
A Real Rarity…’Amos ‘n’ Andy’ Television Screen Test, 1950
Before ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ came to CBS Television in 1951, it had been a huge hit on radio and aired from March 19, 1928 to November 25, 1960. Charles Correll (Andy), and Freeman Gosden (Amos and Kingfish) were the creators and voices of all the characters…170 of them.
The rare video here is a 1950 kinescope recording of a screen test
of Correll and Gosden in blackface. In the last few minutes of the reel, you can see them giving different profiles to the camera to see if they are convincing, which they are not. This was probably done at CBS Columbia Square studios in Hollywood.
Gosden and Correll were very protective of their creation and wanted to play the roles on TV, but that was not in the cards. They even considered voicing the main characters and letting the stage actors lip sync their parts.
In their hearts, they knew that a couple of white guys could not pull this off on television, but they gave it a try. Fortunately they had been smart enough to keep an eye out for the right characters to play the TV roles and had been taking notes on actors for four years.
Alvin Childress was cast as Amos, who was the original main character in 1928, but by the late ’30s, the Kingfish character had become the main character, along with Andy. Tim Moore, who played Kingfish and Spencer Williams who played Andy were coaxed out of retirement to play the lead rolls.
There were a few “firsts” associated with this show’s radio and television history. ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ is thought to be the first ever syndicated radio show: although it was broadcast on NBC for many years, it was also sold to independent stations and delivered on 78 rpm discs. The television show went into production at Hal Roach Studios and began filming with three cameras several months before ‘I Love Lucy’ began filming and is considered one of the first sit coms to be filmed with three cameras. ‘Burns & Allen’ also did this, but live television had been doing three camera shows for years.
I remember this So I Guess Iam OLD,funny I dont feel old,WTF
It made more sense,I think,to use black actors for the TV show rather than whites in blackface.
I was pals with Charlie Correll’s son who would say his dad had the number one show on the air for twenty years, was one of the most famous men in America, made more money than the president, and yet they could walk down the street and not one person would recognize him. The power and privacy of radio.
It’s amazing they would even think of doing this blackface version. How times have changed!
“Do da name Ruby Begonia mean anything to you?” Will never forget that line and how it was delivered.
Fascinating, though long past Correll and Gosden’s prime. I cannot recommend highly enough Elizabeth McLeod’s book THE ORIGINAL AMOS ‘N ANDY, or any of Elizabeth’s research about the duo and the original, innovative radio show at its peak. She has done extensive research into the original scripts and the (paltry) audio remains of the show in its radio net peak – the very late ’20s through the ’30s – when the show came live out of Chicago (after 1931, from Studio F at NBC’s then-new Merchandise Mart studios). As controversial as the concept of the show seems in today’s society, the show was not only a MASSIVE broadcasting hit and American phenomena – it was genuinely innovative in several ways, and much more carefully-put together and respectful towards the original characters than one might assume.
Celebrating the radio show’s 10th Anniversary, here is (on the left) ‘Andy’ Charles Correll and (on the right) ‘Amos’ and ‘Kingfish’, Freeman Gosden.