Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-12
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

/ their meal until after tbs o'clock. so
| that lunch-room prop, ietors find them
selves facing the problem of late meals.
| Some even have gone to the expense of
installing radios, in order to lure, the
Amos m Andy fans.
Sophisticated radio fans, "fed up"
with all the pretty hours" terribly
tired of speeches, and so on. and SO on.
| find their jaded appetites rejuvenated
by couple of boys in blackface.
All the reasons We have given, yes.
and another-the fact that they nut
their characters over perfectly-but the
main reason has not yet been given.
What is it?
AS far as we know, it has never been
given before. We have read columns
about Amos n Andy, but, so far. no one
has put his finger on the reason for
the overwhelming popularity of the
boys.
1t is, we believe, simply this:
That Amos n Andy is built around
the theme of money.
And money, as almost every one is
ready to admit, is the one thing dearest
to the American heart and mind.
The plot of Amos m Andy, if the
nightly 10 minutes can be said to have
such thing, is the perennial fight of
some one to keep his money from get
ting into the hands of sope one else
who is trying to get it away from him.
This is the drama in which we all are
engaged In this universal plot there
are no villains, in the ordinary sense,
nor heroes or heroines, either.
Their places are taken by the sturdy
men and women of the everyday life
we all know, who are intrigued, as we
all are, by the desire to own some
thing which they do not possess.
We cannot go down the street with
out seeing something we would like to
buy. We cannot pick up a newspaper
or magazine without desiring something
or other. And every wish means money
We cannot answer the front door bell
without finding a Suave young gentle
man standing there with but one desire
in life, to argue us into purchasing
something which we either need or do
not need.
All of us are after every one else's
always exciting and often glorious adj
venture of modern American business
life.
The young men who are Amos m
Andy-and their real names make little
difference, because they have become
these other young men-are busy every
night getting money and keeping money
Each evening money is in the back
ground. The Kingf1sh is trying to get
Amos hundred dollars. in order to give
some of it to the Battleax, and Amos
with his honest simplicity, yet inher-
emily shrewd mind, is just as deter
mined that the Battleax shall have none
of it.
America is interested in that con-
f1ict
Primeval forces wage war to the
! tune of us requested" and Check and
double check" to say nothing of "Oh,
OH"
The sympathies Of this gigantic au-
dience are enlisted, because each and
every member of the wide-f1ung whole
Identifies himself with Amos, and lives
with him and the other characters.
Money, then, not only is the root of
all evil, but is the felicitous root of
that wholly delightful bit of Americana,
Amos n Andy.
The boys are philosophers in the
making. showing us to ourselves, and
making us laugh and cry over them
and us.
We love them, not only because they
are good, but because they touch that
dear old nerve-the pocketbook. Oh,
oh!