[78-L] Amos 'n' Andy on TV

Sat Jan 24 15:36:07 PST 2009

<< I didn't think that I'd have the energy to step into this stuff again (just like stepping in you-know-what) but I would like to ask Tom (and others) if you have ever actually seen any episodes of the Amos 'n' Andy TV show? >>

I was a kid when Amos 'n Andy was on TV -- I'm 60 now, by the way. However, we moved around a fair bit during that period -- my dad was a career Army officer while I was growing up -- so it wasn't like we always had access to the same TV programming.

I do, however, remember seeing a few episodes of Amos 'n Andy on TV during the very early part of the 60's when I'd have been 12 - 14 or so years old. I didn't pay much in the way of attention to the program -- at that age, it really wasn't exactly my cup of tea -- and the program didn't make much of an impression on me one way or the other.

Neither of my parents commented on the program and my dad, who was the more politically progressive of the two (and since the word "Nazi" has come up recently I'll just add parenthetically, he was one of the guys who liberated the Wobbelin concentration camp at the end of WW II) never said anything negative about the program, and he was politically on the same page as, say, JFK and other progressives of that era. To the best of my recollection, neither of my parents watched the program.

However, with respect to the Amos 'n Andy program, I ran across this writeup on the program, and I tend to agree with most of its observations.

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/oct05/

The program may have been popular with African Americans of that era, but that's only because they were the only African Americans on TV in major roles, and the stereotypes portrayed were pervasively negative and demeaning.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., by the way, the noted African American sociologist at Harvard, watches the program all the time and invites his visitors to do so as well, so it isn't as if the program has become some sort of pariah universally despised by all African Americans.

--- On Sat, 1/24/09, Jack Palmer <vdalhart at earthlink.net> wrote:

From: Jack Palmer <vdalhart at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Amos 'n' Andy on TV
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Saturday, January 24, 2009, 7:05 AM

    I hate to get involved in this mess but I have to tell you about AMOS & 
ANDY.  I was around when their radio show was so popular that they stopped 
movies so they could broadcast the show.  I saw the TV show off and on for 
years.  I did not watch it regularly as I was often out on my insurance 
route at that hour.  However I can state that many of the black families 
that I visited during that time were watching A&A.  Perhaps one of the 
reasons was it was the only show on the air with black actors.  They seemed 
to enjoy it. but I have no way to know what they really thought of it. 
Jack

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 8:55 PM
Subject: [78-L] Amos 'n' Andy on TV

Thanks to Elizabeth and others for already posting on this subject,  but
I'll toss in my two cents even though this has already been addressed:

I didn't think that I'd have the energy to step into this stuff again
(just
like stepping in you-know-what) but I would like to ask Tom (and others) if
you have ever actually seen any episodes of the Amos 'n' Andy TV show? 
Even
at the time of the NAACP condemnation of the show (before it was even in
production,  as noted),  there was strong support for it among many parts of
the black community in the US.  And the show did NOT show "all black
people"
as lazy or stupid.  Andy and Kingfish were the central comic figures and
they were surrounded by dignified black lawyers,  doctors and other
professionals.  The wonderful actor Roy Glenn often played these
"professional" parts.  In one episode he is a newspaper publisher. 
In
another he is the managing partner of a big real estate firm,  in an office
filled with other professional black men and women,  none of whom roll their
eyes or "dodge work."

There are enough things in this world to criticize without condemning
something via second-hand and inaccurate information.  Anyone who has seen
episodes of the TV show would know better.  It is not of the same tone as
the radio show whatsoever.  It follows the classic sit-com design of a few
crazy characters at the center,  surround by more sane folks on all sides.
And in this case,  they were all black.

Taylor

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom" <nice_guy_with_an_mba at yahoo.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Race observations

The vast, overwhelming majority of African Americans of the Jolson and,
previously, the Stephen Foster, era didn't go to minstrel shows or sing the
Foster/Jolson kinds of songs. They sang spirituals and gospel music and,
later on, jazz and blues.

That, by itself, ought to tell you a lot about the intent of the musical
message being conveyed.

Yes, there were isolated examples of African Americans who performed in
minstrel shows; however, most of them found the stereotypes of African
Americans so degrading that they left. It's also certainly true that some
people who performed in minstrel shows, like Jolson, were doing so as a
means of hiding their Jewishness. Antisemitism was rampant in the U.S. at
the time, as was anti-immigrant sentiment. (The U.S. passed major
immigration reform measures in, if I remember correctly, 1924 specifically
aimed at keeping eastern Europeans out of the country).

I ran across this statement by the NAACP about the Amos 'n Andy television
program, which was written in 1951:

1. It tends to strengthen the conclusion among uniformed and prejudiced
people that Negroes are inferior, lazy, dumb and dishonest.

2. Every character in this one only show with an all negro cast is either a
clown or a crook.

3. Negro Doctors are shown as quacks and thieves.

4. Negro lawyers are shown a slippery cowards, ignorant of their profession
and without ethics.

5. Negro women are shown as cackling screaming shrews, in big-mouthed
close-ups using street slang just short of vulgarity.

6. All Negroes are shown as dodging work of any kind.

7. Millions of white Americans see this Amos 'n' Andy picture and think
the
entire race is the same.

Notice any similarities to the artistic legacy of Al Jolson and Stephen
Foster?

--- On Fri, 1/23/09, Chris Zwarg <doctordisc at truesoundtransfers.de>
wrote:

From: Chris Zwarg <doctordisc at truesoundtransfers.de>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Race observations
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:33 PM

>You guys are big fans of Al Jolson (and now, it seems, his source of
inspriation, if you want to call it that, Stephen Foster) who made a career
of
sorts, by depicting African-Americans as wide-eyed, lustful, disorganized,
ignorant and inferior to whites.

Please give examples, *especially of the last "quality"* - it's
easy to make a claim, but how about proof? Show don't tell, as people say!
If what you say is true, it shouldn't be too hard to type out and post some
lyrics, or put some MP3 excerpts somewhere.

"Wide-eyed", "lustful", "disorganized", also
"lazy" and "cunning" - yes, agreed: In short, everything
"good people" would occasionally like to be but rarely dare to admit
it. My - of course totally subjective - ears hear a lot of escapism in these
songs, a (maybe unintentional and subconscious) longing to be able to take
your
own life as easy as these "simple folks" and get away with it; no
hateful or degrading intention but rather a projection of unacknowledged
desires
onto a group outside bourgeois society - very like the equally popular
"tramp/hobo", "gypsy", "soldier" and
"sailor" songs, usually depicting what was in reality a dreary life
as
packed with rollicking fun. Dunno if any of the latter groups ever protested
against that kind of being portrayed in the way Afro-Americans apparently do
today.

What is obvious *musically* is that the composers of "coon songs" are
usually trying to imitate Afro-American musical styles - mainly spirituals
and
ragtime - so these must have had *positive* connotations with their
audience, if
only as "exotic" spices to liven up the usual diet of romantic
ballads
and marching tunes. As the old saying goes "Imitation is the sincerest
form
of flattery", and the flood of "faux Afro-American" blackface
entertainers to me looks very much like it filled a void in White popular
culture *caused* by the social unacceptability to enjoy the genuine article
rather than *causing* it. White Americans - as well as Europeans I might
add -
discovered and enjoyed Afro-American rhythms and styles first in this
"sanitized" form of imitation (or if you prefer parody), and many
would agree that this paved the way for the interest in real Blues and Jazz
rather than obstructing it.

>And by the way, no one performs Stephen Foster or Al Jolson songs any more
and for good reason.

Have you ever listened to Emma Calvé or Nellie Melba singing "Old folks
at home", Galli-Curci's "My old Kentucky home", John
McCormack's "Come where my love lies dreaming" or Jussi
Björling's "Jeanie with the light brown hair"? You need a
perfect
vocal technique to do full justice to these songs, and if you have it,
they're perfect vehicles to show it off. OTOH, even "pedestrian"
routine singers usually make something beautiful of these eminently singable
melodies (try any example by people like Harry Macdonough, Will Oakland, or
the
Hayden Quartet), and I'd guess one of the reasons are the sentimental
lyrics
speaking right to their hearts. I would not willingly be without the
recordings
I have listed as they are (to my ears) among the most beautiful vocal sounds
ever caught on record. "Banning" this kind of song denies today's
performers some wonderful opportunities to display their art, not easily
substituted from art song or operatic repertoire.

Chris Zwarg

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