Nostalgia USA March 2016 Nostalgia USA MARCH ISSUE | Page 5

Radio Ser ies Pr emier e
Amos ?n?Andy Debut s On The NBC Bl ue Net work
March 19, 1925

Listen To a Episode of Amos n' Andy

Amos ?n? Andy is an American radio and television sitcom set in Harlem, Manhattan?s historic black
community. The original radio show, which was popular from the 1920s through the 1950s, was created,
written, and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who played a number of
different characters, including the titular Amos Jones (Gosden) and Andrew Hogg Brown (Correll).
It became so popular that, in 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 radio syndication.
When WGN rejected the proposal, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station; their last musical
program for WGN was announced in the Chicago Daily Tribune on January 29, 1928).[Episodes of Sam ?n?
Henry continued to be aired until July 14, 1928. Correll?s and Gosden?s characters contractually
belonged to WGN, so, when they left WGN, the pair performed in personal appearances but could not use
the character names from the radio show.
WMAQ, the Chicago Daily News station, hired Gosden and Correll and their former WGN announcer, Bill
Hay, to create a series similar to Sam ?n?Henry. The creators later said that they named the characters,
Amos and Andy, after hearing two elderly African-Americans greet each other by those names in a
Chicago elevator.Amos ?n? Andy began on March 19, 1928 on WMAQ, and prior to airing each program
they recorded their show on 78 rpm discs at Marsh Laboratories, operated by electrical recording
pioneer Orlando R. Marsh. Early 1930s broadcasts of the show were done from the El Mirador Hotel in
Palm Springs, California.