Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 288, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 April 1930 — Page 5

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Amos ’n* Andy—what are they like In person; how do they live; what do they do; how do they prepare for their broadcast? The New York Telegram, a Scripps-Howard newspaper, assigned Douglas Gilbert to Interview the famous radio team and find out. The result was * a series of absorbing articles, the second of which follows: BY DOUGLAS GILBERT w York Telegram Stats Writer jOooyrlght. 1930. by The New York Telegram Corporation. Reproduction In whole or In part forbidden.) JT was an amusing incident—on the surface. A national “network” of newspapers carried on their front pages. How a group of Chicago’s business bourgeoisie failed to recnize—wait a F. Gosden and Charles J. Correll. It wf one of those Chamber of Commerce affairs and as recent as last October. M. H. Aylesworth, president of the National Broadcasting Company, brought the boys along, introduced them. Gosden, tall, blond, smiling; Correll, rounder, not so tall, genial—bowed at his introduction. But this substantial coterie of stand-no-nonsense industrialists were not interested in good-looking, snappily dressed boys, ties to match at the proper pendulum, natty trousers pegged to the third shoelace.

The attentiveness of the audience sagged; the glow of several hundred cigars, impatiently lit, revealed as many testy “don’t-mean-a-thing- tome’ expressions. That awful instant of the actor’s—when his Mine” fails to click with an audience—was in the air. Gosden thrust his hand in his pocket, shifted his 142 pounds nervously. Correll, more phlegmatic, still beamed, though a little blanky. He shot a glance at his radio twin. Gosden returned it—understanding^. Byplay Goes Over The byplay, of poignant significance. passed in a second's fraction, its drama lost to the gathering. And then Gosden turned again to Correll. “Ain’t dat sumpin?’’ he asked. Correll clicked to it like gas to the spark. “I'se regusted " he said. What happened you read in the newspapers. How linen, torn from the tables, made a shambles of the china: how the silver clinked an obligato to the crashing plates as the diners stampeded Amos ’n' Andy. What didn't get into the papers was that second hiatus of unrecognition; that, fraction of a watch's tick that sent the boys tumbling back a decade to obscurity; to their crystal set period; their tank town hoofing song-and-patter days when they WERE Freeman F. Gosden and Charles J. Correll —and who cared?

Not Hard Struggle Tt. was not a long, hard struggle. Neither of the boys had any hankering for recognition or any false premises about their histrionic ability. - Plugging along with the “tab" shows was a lark; some 1 .oney was coming in and both would rather l dance and sing than eat. It was a lot of fun. They piece back without the slightest effort their early days. What happened between 19420 to their era of sensationalism—check and double check over station FAME—is a dull recitative to the boys. They chuckle over jt, the laughable incidents, the reach for a dime for a sandwish and no dime there, the "pin" shows they gave in early boyhood; the “clowning" at the ol’ swimmln’ hole is just the average saga of a couple of country lads who were stagestruck—to them. Bewildered, they can't conceive that any one would be interested in it stelling. So they reminisce about “the old days” much in the manner of the cracker box philosophers smacking over anecdotes in the village stores of their own home towns—Peoria. 111., and Richmond, Va. Gosden Bom in 1899 There, in the latter town, pleasantly sleepy old bailiwick of the Confederacy lazing away under its elms in dreams of gaunt gray boys marshaling to the aid of Lee, Gosden was bom in 1899. And there he absorbed from his crib-fed days in the household of Walter W. Gosden, his father, what later was to be the inherently faithful reproduction of the tremulous voiced, wistful yet canny Amos of the air. A Negro boy. Snowball, characteristic southern nickname, was a chum and playmate. He is, some have said, the kindly Sylvester who came to the aid of Amos 'n’ Andy tn the episode relating the garage mystery. "But we didn't transfer Snowball to the life in the episode," Gosden “Our characters, except in one instance, are composite types picked up by Charlie and me while roaming the south staging amateur shows." Tells of School Days He traced tfie gamut of the little red school house days, accepting and giving th'j juvenile challenfle over c>nched fists, “I'll see you after school, and his success at the swimmin’ hole has made him what his wife believes today one of the best amateur swimmers and divers on any beach or pool. Swimming is now his principal diversion from his studio activities. Swell times were those when a troupe blew into town and set up at the “opry house.” “Curly,” as his mates dubbed him, was a regular attendant, and his mother, seeing the boy's obsession

for the stage, encouraged it by subscribing to the weekly bills. “I used to go once a week with my mother. We had a season ticket,” Gosden related. “The boys I played wtih used to hang around the stage door hungry for glimpses of the actors. And, o, boy, what

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thrills we used to get! We’d marvel at the biggest ham. Tried to Imitate Dances “Once in a while a guy would come out for a moment between scenes and do a step. ‘Hot dog!’ we’d yell, and try to imitate him. I had always wanted to go on the stage—even after I got on. But go easy with that line," he cautioned; don’t develop it all over the page.” His next great thrill came on April 6, 1917, and on May 2 (he has the record! he enlisted in the navy, coming back at the close of the war to an empty and saddened home. While in service his mother and his sister were killed in an automobile accident. The solace of his brother Walter sustained him. Walter made himself his pal, virtually, reared him from that time, only to die himself untimely of an illness in 1928. These were the major burdens Gosden suffered prior to the Chicago debut with Correll on the “mike" that was later to blanket the nation like the air they now monopolize from 6 to 6:15 and 10:30 to 10:45 (Indianapolis time, each night). On Wrong Trail “A few brief months with the American Tobacco Company on the road as a traveling salesman convinced me I was on the wrong track.” Gosden reminisced, picking up the thread of the talk. He went back to Richmond. Then something happened. A Chicago producing agency put on a show in the town, and Curly did some clowning and clogging in it. He was promptly signed up with the

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[organization to stage similar ventures for the local talent throughout the south. Meanwhile, out in Peoria, a chubby lad, with the yen of a Barrymore, was peddling papers to the town’s constituents, giving his evenings to thumping a piano in a local movie house, or otherwise entertaining friends with the latest steps of the hoofers from Chicago. His interest in the business of his father, Joseph B. Correll, a contractor, was merely academic. He Burnt ’Em Up These skits he observed dolled up in an admiral costume of red and gold braid while ushering for the local playhouse, a job he had fought for, pleaded for and would have died for—then. Didn’t the local boys burn when they saw Charlie Correll moving down the aisle with the village belle, ticket stub in hand, courtly waving some plump, little, corn-fed blonde to her seat? They did. He admits it. Yet Correll’s eyes were not for girls. When the curtain rose they could seat themselves, for all he cared. “I was always hanging around that theater,” he said. “And wasn’t it a thrill when I finally got the usher's job? They had marvelous uniforms, gorgeous red things. I looked like a South American general.

“At the end of a week's run we ushers'd know every act. We used to go over them ourselves and have a swell time mimicking the actors. Especially the acrobatic acts. I could allez oop with the best of them. “A theater Is a fascinating thing. Many a show I’ve put on and been in in the old days that I hated to take the money for—l had so much fun. And don’t develop that crack too much, either,” he cautioned, with a sly smile at Gosden. The tale of their fortunes from this point on, it developed in the interview, corresponded to the minutest detail. Like Curley, Correll did a song and dance act for an amateur show in Peoria staged by the same Chicago house and was at once signed up as a professional coach. They sent him to Durham, N. C., to help out one of their younger recruits then putting on a “Follies” venture comprised of local talent. It was Gosden he went down to help. And what a mutual association, a national merger of entertainment this turned out to be all who have ears are aware. The Rest Is History And the rest,of their life Is history. familiar to a nation nowlearned in the episodes on the air For the ups and downs, the plights

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and troubles of the Fresh Air Taxicab Cos., Incorporated; the- indolence of Andy, the docile, acceptance—at times —of Amos; Ruby Taylor, the gold-digging Madame Queen, the promoting Kingfish. the Mystic Knights of the Sea—all are adaptations of the life in the south as the boy:* found it, beating their way from Atlanta to the sea, from Biloxi to Birmingham. “The experience we gained on these tours' i'rc the Chicago company proved ox invaluable assistance to us,” Gosden said. “Coaching gave us the ‘feel’ of an audience. “In directing a show your personal reactions are, or should be, those of an auditor, and, believe me, this helps a lot in radio. “Moreover, the types we found there, the situations as we observed them, virtually are the basis for our episodes as they are given on the air.” Started In New Orleans “On the air” tripped from his tongue with an easy assurance. But it was not so easy, that night in New Orleans in 1920, which was the microphone debut of what ’later was to be that quarter hour when the nation pauses. “We were putting on a show for the Shrine at the time,” Correll recalled, “when the manager of the

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Welcome to our city, and here arc the carrots to prove it! It's Andy, to whom Mayor Rolfc of San Francisco is tendering an official welcome in this picture; Amos is seated at the left of what you’ve already identified as the Fresh Air Taxi. local air station asked us If we’d come over and put on a skit. What a setup! “It was one of those old-time ‘mikes’ like a loud speaker,” interrupted Gosden. “If w T e went out three blocks over that station we sure w r ere lucky,” went on Correll. “If somebody phoned in beyond that area to say that they heard us,” put in Gosden again, “we’d like to keel over.” Gosden a Director So successful were their coaching tours that the Chicago management decided to add a circus department as a feature. Gosden became the director of this new activity, while Con-ell continued in his old role alone. Headquarters for both departments w’ere established in Chicago, and thither the boys went, mildly elated at their success, convinced

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that the Fates were kind—luck had been with them. They had pulled down something like from SSO to $75 a week, and they set up an apartment together, happy in their affluence. Chicago . . . The world was before them. And in Chicago—what? Douglas Gilbert continues his interviews with Amos ’n’ Andy Monday.

UPTON YACHT PEAOY TO SEEK SPEEDTOHY Shamrock V, to Be Launched Monday, Climaxes His Hopes. Bu United Press GOSPORT, England, April 12. — Sir Thomas Lipton's challenge yacht, Shamrock V, will be launched Monday. The Shamrock V has been built to win the America yacht cup, to regain for Great Britain the honor she esteems the highest in the racing world—speed leadership on the open sea. The cup races will be run in September off Sandy Hook. As the graceful 120-foot craft slips down the runw’ay Sir Thomas Lipton, now in his eightieth year, will recall how for more than thirty years he has sought victory in the America cup races. He has spent more than $2,500,000 attempting to bring to Great Britain the coveted yachting trophy. Six months ago the for the Shamrock V were drawn and approved by Sir Thomas. Four months ago the keel was laid. Sunday the public will see the yacht for the first time. Sir Thomas and the captain of the new yacht, E. C. Heard, are elated over the craft, which is expected to be a revelation in sailing speed. PYTHIANS HOLD SHOW Minstrel Raises Funds for Benefit of Home at Lafayette. Money for benefit of the Indiana Pythian home at Lafayette was raised by presentation of an oldtime minstrel show by Indianapolis lodge 56, K. of ?., in the K. of P. building Friday night. Members and guests retired to the Pythian lodge hall at 119 East Ohio street, following the show’, where they were entertained with dancing.

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