Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 289, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1930 — Page 7

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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 their broadcasts? The New York Telegram, a Scripps-Howard newspaper, assigned Douglas Gilbert to interview the famous radio team and find out. The result was a aeries of absorbing articles, the third of which follows. BY DOUGLAS GILBERT New York Telegram Staff Writer. fCoovrinaL *WO. b? The New York Telegram Corporation. Reproduction tn whole or In part forbidden.) * J UST a couple of boys trying to get along.” This is the attitude of the boys today, a perfect characacterization, the theme of Amos ’n’ Andy. A keystone locution, for, curiously, it phrases their petition when, plaintive and supplicant, they besought the manager of WEBH in 1925, then the Edgewater Beach hotel station in Chicago, to give them a few minutes before the “mike.” They couldn’t pay—a debut penalty—but they’d try to make their ten minutes entertaining, and would Mr. Boniel accept their services—gratis? Shifting nervously they waited in the outer office. Inside the manager shot an impatient glance at their card. He had never heard—nor had few then —of Freeman F. Gosden and Charles J. Correll, or, as they called their harmony team, Correll and Gosden.

Radio had gotten into its stride. Its first .bloom as a medium for “getting over” was realized by the boys then with the sagacity that temporizes their public relations now. WEBH Takes a Chance WT.BH took a chance. Beating back their ••mike” fright, straightening their sagging knees, Correll and Gosden went on the air, proving, though hardly a flop, just another program. \nd they went back to the footligh glamour of the theater whose soft glow at McVicker’s was to color the first romance of the pair. Undismayed by the lukewarm “break.” they polished up the script and score of “Red Hot,” designed to titillate Chicago’s risibilities through a production by Paul Ash. then at the zenith of his popularity in the Windy City. Red Hot” scored heavily. All the town —and a pretty blond visitor from Davenport, la.—flocked to the show. Correll’s nimble heel-and-toe clicked with a certain sitter as well as it did on the stage. Timorously, aflutter. Miss Marie Janes sent back her card. Did Mr. Correll remember that night, five years ago, in a Davenport store when Miss had introduced them? And would he kindly call the number on the raid? Forget* Girl’s Card Beset with his lines and the plot for another Paul Ash revue lie and Gosden were doing, he shoved the card in the pocket of his stage suit —and forgot it. A week later, Crumpled and torn, he fished it out and phoned. ‘ And as a result ” Correll related, "she’s got me buying furniture this week.” They were marmied in January', 1927, in Chicago, Gosden acting as his best man. “She nabbed him before he had a chance,” snapped Gosden, smilin'?. "Well, you didn't wait very long after yourself," Correll came back at Gosden. He didn't, and his subsequent meeting with who was then the former Leta Schreiber, secretary to Emory Thomason, at station WGN, was the advent not only of Gosden's romance but of Amos ’n’ Andy, those twin radio beacons of a nation's dials. As staff men of WGN they were asked to put on a skit. Something “new” it was to be—something like a comic strip over the air. Before Wedding Brils * How about the ‘Gumps'?” somebody suggested. The boys turned it down. This was in 1926, before they were married and mister and missus troubles still were alien to them. “Still are.” interrupted Gosden. with a bow to h s skeptical wife, familiar with his banter. Anyway, Go? den and Correll toyed with the idea a few days, and then turned over the nucleus, Jan. 12. 1926, of what now is puzzling psychologists and philosophers, amazing intelligent observers of the lay national expression, and vastly entertaining those who don't give a whoop for analyses and "ologies, but w ho will muster arms at the slightest infringement of their precious quarter hour from 6 to 6:15 and 10:30 to 10:45 nightly. With episode one written out. they put on “Sam ’n’ Henry.” two boys out of Atlanta who set up a transfer express business in Chicago, It was an overnight wow. Audible Comic Strip Blindly, the boys hit upon what now is considered by some a newart —an audible “comic strip,” seemingly miscalled because of its depth of emotional suggestion and because of its mental stimulus that requires the listener to picture his own situations. “It may be anew form of art for all I know,” Gosden explained. “You can do more, within certain limitations, in broadcasting than you can through graphic illustration.” He put over his point nicely. It was as though the “mike” confronted him there in his apartment. Recall Amos' voice, tender, tearful, slightly trembling—“Goodby, sweetheart!” Ruby Taylor is Chicago bound. “I guess you couldn’t put that in a comic strip.” he said. Correll explained on the Idea: “You see. when we put on an episode the listener gets a picture in

his mind, or at least we always try to convey a picture to him. “Tliis mental impression we believe to be much more acute than one conveyed in printers’ ink. And because of its acuteness it stimulates listeners to exercise their imaginations. “Our women, of course, help make the action and the situations vigorous and true. We try to make everything as human as possible through emof nal, rather than graphic, pictu zation.” Sam 'n’ Henry, radio parents of

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Just one of the innumerable Amos ’n’ Andy gags that have developed along with the growth of the comedians’ popularity. It’s self-explanatory. Above. Amos (left) and Andy in their best “Is I blue?” and “I’se “regusted” manner.

Amos ’n' Andy, flourished locally from the start and moved on after two years of central appeal to the national obsession to offsprings have become. How the twin act was named is the explanation of the interest in the fortunes of the soil-sprung pair. It traces back, as has been told, to the boys’ early migrations in the south, where Amos n' Andys, Sams ’n’ Henrys are as thick as molasses and as common as corn pone. “We try to pick a name thoroughly characteristic,” Gosden explained. “Sam ’n’ Amos, Andy ’n’ Henry, as are the Kingfish. Ruby Taylor, Madame Queen,* Lightnin’. are good southern nomenclatures.” They had this in mind, as they always have faithful portraiture, correct delineation, before them, when they quit WGN for their present station. WMAQ, over which they broadcast for the first time, March 18. 1928. Amos ’n’ Andy. The change in title from Sam *n’

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Henry? was necessitated by the fact that copyright was held by WGN. The “new” team again triumphed. A clamorous public took it and liked it, insatiable for more. To meet this demand the boys hit on another new scheme—the so-called chainless chain. This consisted of phonograph disc recordings of Amos ’n’ Andy episodes, advanced to as long a period as six weeks, and then dispatched to the smaller stations for broadcasting. “We were the first to make records exclusively for radio broadcasting." Gosden said. ‘We had thirtyeight stations subscribing to our

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sendee. It’s not unlike a news syndicate in its handling. “This ’chainless chain’ built up an awful lot of good will for us. But authentic chain broadcasting is so much more satisfactory. “When you put your voice on a record for broadcasting you are at the mercy of the pi'esenter. He can play it fast or slow, wdth or without a perfect needle. Also you’re always hoping he’ll play the right date.” The WGN resignation amounted to a triple defection and harks back to the banter and soft, dark-eyed glances a few paragraphs above. Miss Schreiber, tall, graceful, her drawing room aplomb a distinguished contrast to the bustle of

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WGN. smiled gently at the “good morning” drawl of the blond youth whose voice purred so entrancingly into the “mike” each evening. Even the bromides about the weather took on an added glamour. One night they went to a party—she alone, her "boy friend” absent: he alone, his “girl friend” suddenly occupied elsewhere. They met, “socially” for the first time, scored their “dated” absent companions. The situation struck a commonalty between them. Both had a good laugh. Gosden went home with her. Their courtship continued and she went home as Mrs. Gosden in June. 1927. Reaches New York Ears Meanwhile. Amos ’n’ Andy were bursting through the ether of the west and middle west. The atmospheric prssure of their act reached M. H. Aylesworth in the presidential offices of the National Broadcasting Company, in New York. Aylesworth. whose sensitive finger feels the radio pulse of the nation, decided to make a first-hand investigation. Quietly, unknown to the boys, he had them appraised for six months. The Fresh Air Taxicab Company, Incorpolated, the substituted venture for Amos ’n’ Andy of the old Sam ’n’ Henry transfer business, was doing an enormous turnover. Receptions for the boys on theatrical tours taxed civic authorities, broke house records. Aylesworth waited no longer. The Pepsodent Company was looking for a sure fire radio medium and was willing to pay. A SIOO,OOO annual contract expressed their eagerness. The NBC executive brought the team and the company together. Swim and Play Golf Negotiations followed, hung fire for a few days. The sultry summer weather of 1929 sheathed a rainbow for the boys. A national hookup in sight over NBC. Were they to be “in the big money” at last? Gosden I went for a swim: Correll shot a j round of golf. It meant a lot —a farewell to “chainless chains;” freedom from the petty annoyances of scrambling for “breaks;” the irksome details of | professional coaching and devising j original patter for limited movie | house audiences removed. A sensation in the west, local I boys who had “made good,” they | had yet to face one more trial —the biggest in their career—a metropolitan broadcast. Apprehensive, hesitant, wondering how New York would “fall for a couple of boys just trying to get along,” whose only asset they believed was that as blackface dialecticians they were giving the best ; they had in authentic characteriza-

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tions, they set forth for the big town, hoping. . . . And in the big town, what? Gilbert continues his interview with Amos ’n’ Andy tomorrow. YOUTH FAINTS IN COURT Sentence Overcomes Defendant in Twelve Robbery Cases. p.v Time* Special MUNCIE. Ind., April 14.—“ I’d rather die than leave my mother,” was the pathetic plea given Judge L. A. Guthrie in Delaware circuit court by John Taylor. 17, who admitted robbing twelve Muncie homes. “Well,” replied the court, “you’re not going to die but you are going to leave your mother.” The court sentenced the youth to the Indiana reformatory for 10 years. Taylor fainted. It was disclosed that Taylor had been sentenced on a similar charge on two previous occasions. CHILD’S PETS STOLEN Two Chickens Liked by Little Girl Missing at Noblesville. pm Times Special NOBLESVILLE, Ind., April 14. Authorities believe they have discovered the meanest thief. Two pet chickens were stolen from the 3-year-old niece of Mr. and Mrs. Frank McNew. The chickens had become so tame that the little girl could pick them up. Dog Pound May be Probed pm Times Special TERRE HAUTE. Ind., April 14. Reports are current here that the Humane society will ask an investigation of the city dog pound, which is operated by two men on the municipal pay roll, despite pleas of the society that it be allowed to take over the pound. It is charged that city employes vaccinate dogs, despite a state law requiring that such service be given, by a veterinarian. Suicide Attempt Fails Finger nail polish w T as taken by Mrs. Minnie Jones, 45, of 332 Prospect street, in an attempt to end her life Saturday night. She is recovering today. She told police she feared her husband, Frank Jones, did not love her. Spanish Republic Urged VALENCIA, Spain, April 14.—More than 4,000 persons packed the Apollo theater here Sunday night and cheered wildly while Alcala Zamora, former cabinet minister, advocated 1 transforming Spain into a republic.

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