Evening star., 1951-07-01
ON the Air
Amos m Andy Bow a Success;
Two Local TV Shows Noted
By Harry Macarthur

! By Horry
The TV version Of Amos n
Andy" which made its bow Thurs
day night at $3.50 on CHS (WTOP-
|TV), must be set down as the first
major entry of the 1872 tele-
vision season. It is a top-ranking
radio favorite of Is years in new
guise and it is one Of the most
widely heralded programs to hit
Itelevision yet.
The publicity bulletins have
been pouring in for what seems
like years, increasing nightly in
volume and frequency once the
filming was started and the pre-
miere date set. Amos n Andy"
did not come to television as the
result of any spur-of -the-moment
decision; this has been a project
of such magnitude as to win the
1aomiration of even Cecil B. De
Mile.
1t was begun back in 1916, when
Freeman Gosden (Amos, the King
fish and others and Charles
Correll (Andy) began to watch
Itelevision programs. 1t was in
evitable, they knew then, that
Amos n Andy" must come to
telivision sooner or later. It
turned out to he later by almost
five years, rather than sooner.
The first problem was a cast.
Gosden and Corren knew from a
single movie experience that dom
ming makeup to play the roles
themselves would not guarantee
the success of "Amos n Andy"
on television. 1t didn't guarantee
much success Tor that movie.
Their idea, instead, was to To-
cate Negro actors who could ap-I
Iproximate' the voices to which
radio listeners long had been ac-
Icustomed. This was a vastly more
difficult casting chore than find
ing. say, proper Scarlet O'Hara
for Gone With the Wind" The
Ireaders Of that book had q firm
Idea of Scarlett from an authors
descriptions, but in the case of
Amos n Andy there were hordes
of prospective viewers who had
spent from 10 to 20 years creating
images of characters out of their
own imaginations.
Even President Trumon
Got Into the Costing Act
To try to match these eventually
involved $4,000 miles of travel by
scouts, the testing of 800 actors
and suggestions by President Tru-
man Ito try Texas State Univer-
Isity for Negroes, to no avaiD and
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower Ito look
up an actor in Chicago, who proved
Iunsuitable).
AS any follower of amos m
Andy on the radio might have
expected, the Kingfish proved the
most troublesome member of the
troupe. An Amos calvin Childress)
and an Andy (Spencer Williams)
were found fairly early and even
tually retained the roles, but a
large part of the labor Of the
four years between 1946 and mid
summer of 1850 was devoted to
seeking a Kingfish.
Tom Moore, the actor who final
ly won the part, first sounded
good to the talent scouts in 1949,
but he proved hard to find, hav-
ing retired in 1916. When he was
found, his voice wasn't right and
he was shelved while the search
went on. Finally, James Fonda,
who was supervising the casting
operation. decided to give Moore
a more extensive test and Amos
n Andy" at last got a Kingfish
for television.
All of this advance care seems
to have had its rewards. The
look of success is on the new
series of half-hour situation
comedies on film launched last
week. In television the show
seems to display the same happy
faculty the radio show always
has had (and which also marks
''The Goldbergs'O-a knack for
finding comedy in racial charac-
teristics without poking fun at
a race.
1t was, without being wildly
genuinely funny COM
edy sketch selected to start the
series in its new medium. Joseph
Connolly, Robert Mosher and
Robert Rose found a lot of laughs
in a bit of mistaken identity on
the part of draft board, which
first had the Kingfish quaking in
his boots and later, after being
rejected by everybody but the
Cub Scouts, trying to impersonate
a hero. Charles Barton's direc-
ton kept the pace swift and the
humor sustained and amos n
Andy" will be welcomed back
this week.
Locol ToIent Gets
Chance on 'Stose Seven
Thursday night also brought
two purely local efforts to Wash
ington TV screens, one Of them
the start of a regular series and
the other an experiment that
could lead to 4. SERVES.