Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-19
McNarnee

having no female characters in their
skits because they were both unmarried
when they met the microphone, and
didn't feel they knew enough about
women. Now they aren't sure. Maybe
some day they'll let Mime. Queen talk.
Whenever they discover they have
written a funny line in one Of their
shows they strike it out. They'd much
rather be natural than take chance
on wisecrack. And practically every
thing that happens to them in their
daily lives finally gets on the air.
Several interesting odds and ends OF
information have turned up lately, too.
For instance, John Douglas Gordon, a
New York newspaper man, tells me that
his colored maid, who knows Amos m
Andy" are really white men, is always
having rows with her friends in Har-
lem who insist they must be colored, on
the ground that no white man could
make Negro dialect sound real. One
of the men on our studio staff spent
several days in Washington just after
the first of the year, and he tells me
that during the Is minutes Amos n
Andy" are on the air every night it
takes a swell tip to get the colored
elevator boys to function. They don't
want to get out of hearing OF the loud
speaker in the lobby.
While Correll and Gosden were COM
ing into New York on the train two
Pullman porters looked into the COM
partment where they were hard at work
writing another show. One of the por-
tiers took good look and then turned
to the other. Nav, you CANT fool me
Dat amt Amos N Andy. Deys just
white folks!" They read a lot Of
stories and books about Negroes, but
Roark Bradford is their fayorite writer
Of them. They can quote his Bible
stories by the page.
Settling Another Question.
The other day a friend of mine who
isn't in radio buttonholed me on the
street to ask me If Matt Thompkins of
Real Folks" Luke Higgins of Main
Street Sketches" and Seth Parker of
Sunday Night at Seth Parker's" aren't
all played by the same man. He was
sure, he said, that some one was dou-
bling in brass. and he wanted to know
II couldn't do something to put stop
to it.
Well, If it were true, I couldn't: but
1t happens that my friend was wrong
George Frame Brown was the original
Luke Higgins, but for more than a year
and half he has been portraying Matt
Thompkins and writing the sketches.
Several actors have done Luke, but Don
Carney has had the part for good
many months now and seems likely To
remain in it. Seth Parker is played by
Phillips H. Lord, and you may take my
word for it that Brown, Carney and
Lord are three separate persons, having
nothing in common except love for
and deep understanding of people in
the country.
There is an admitted likeness in the
characters they play, but none of them
sees what they can do about it. Lord
blameS the confusion on the New Eng
land dialect they use, but he adds that
that is the one dialect which through
out the country Immediately stamps 6
character in the minds of listeners as
rural. By using any other dialect it
would probably be necessary, for the
benefit of large sections of the audience,
to spend more time setting the stage"
My mail lately has been indicating
another case Of double identities. This
time 1t is Rudy Vallee and viii Osborne
Osborne uses the same general style of
announcing his numbers and singing.
but II you will listen carefully you will
note very real difference in the voices.
There has been some little discussion
lately as to who was first in the field,
but 1t seems to simmer down to the fac;
that while Osborne was on the air be-
fore Vallee, 1t was Vallee who made
that particular kind of thing popular.