The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-04-12


dustrialists were not intere:
dressed boys, ties to match
trousers pegged to the third S
The attentiveness of the
audience sagged; the glow of
several hundred cigars, impa-
tiently lit, revealed as many
testy "don't-mean-a-thing to-
me- expressions. That awful
instant of the actor's-when
his line" fails to click with an
audience-was in the air.
Gosden thrust his hand in his
pocket, shifted his 142 pounds
uervously. Correll, more phlegmatic,
still beamed, though a little blanky.
He shot a glance at his radio twin.
Gosden returned understand
ingly.
Byplay Goes Over
The byplay, of poignant signifi-
canoe, passed in a seconds fraction.
its drama lost to the gathering.
And then Gosden turned again to
Correll.
Amt dat sumpin?" he asked.
Correll clicked to it like gas to the
spark.
Use requested" 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 unrecog-
milton: 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
hoofng song-and-patter days when
they WERE Freeman F. Gosden and
Charles J. Correll-and who cared?
Not Hard Struggle
IT, was not a long, hard struggle.
Neither OF the boys had any hank
ering for recognition or any false
premises about their histrionic abil-
ity.
Plugging along with the tab"
shows was a lark; some I-oney was
coming in and both would rather
dance and sing than eat. 1t was q
lot Of fun.
They piece back without the
slightest effort their early days. What
happened between 1920 to their era
of Observation-Disclosures and double
check over station FAME-is a dull
recitative to the boys.
They chuckle over it, the laugh
able incidents, the reach for a dime
for a SandwiSh and no dime there
the pin shows they gave in early
boyhood; the Glowing" at the oil
swimmin' 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 ir
it Stelling. So they reminiSce about
the old days" much in the man
ner OF the cracker box philosopher:
smacking over anecdotes in the vii.
lage stores of their own home
towns-Peoria, Ill, and Richmond
Va.
GOsden Born in 1899
There, in the latter town, pleas
antly sleepy old bailiwick Of the
C%onfederacy lazing away under its
elms in dreams Of gaunt gray boys
marShaling to the aid of Lee, Cos
den was born 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 faith
full reproduction of the tremulous
voiced, wistful yet canny Amos OF
the air.
A Negro boy. SNOWFALL, charac-
teristic southern nickname, was q
chum and playmate. He is, some
have said. the kindly Sylvester who
came TO the aid of Amos n Andy
in the episode relating the garage
mystery.
But we didn't transfer SNOWFALL
TO the life in the episode" Cos.
den confessed. Our characters, ex-
cept 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 the gamut of the little
red schoolh.ouSe days. accepting and
giving the juvenile challenhe ovel
c.enched fists, IN 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 i:
now his principal diversion from hi:
studio activities.
Swell times were those when
troupe blew into town and set VI
at the "opry house"
~Curly." as his mates dubbed him
Was a regular attendant, and hi:
mother seeing the hovsS ohSaSeior