Hi! I’m Gail Nobles. I hope you’re enjoying the Amos n Andy episodes. Today’s topic: Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll.

Amos n Andy is an American radio sitcom about black characters. It was written and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. Freeman played as Amos and Charles played as Andy.

Amos n Andy began as one of the first radio comedy series and originated from station WMAQ in Chicago. After the first broadcast in 1928, the show became a hugely popular series, first on NBC Radio and later on CBS Radio and Television.

Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina, in 1920. Both men had some scattered experience in radio, but it was not until 1925 that the two appeared on Chicago's WQJ. The pair hoped that the radio exposure would lead to stage work.

In 1930, RKO Radio Pictures brought Gosden and Correll to Hollywood to appear in an Amos 'n' Andy feature film, Check and Double Check . The cast included a mix of white and black performers (the latter including Duke Ellington and his orchestra) with Gosden and Correll playing Amos 'n' Andy in blackface. The film pleased neither critics nor Gosden and Correll, but briefly became RKO's biggest box-office hit before King Kong (1933).
Audiences were curious to see what their radio favorites looked like and were expecting to see African Americans instead of white men in blackface.

Later the main roles in the television series were played by blacked actors, Spencer Williams played Andy, Tim Moore played as Kingfish, and Alvin Childress played Amos. Adopted to television, The Amos n Andy show was produced from June 1951 to April 1953 with 52 filmed Episodes.