HOME | BOOKS | JEAN SHEPHERD | MOVIES | OLD TIME RADIO AUDIO CD | OLD TIME RADIO mp3 CD ROM | OLD TIME RADIO mp3 DVD ROM AMOS 'n' ANDY (1926-1955) Old Time Radio - 3 CD - 330 mp3 Amos 'n' Andy is a situation comedy based on stock sketch comedy characters but set in the African-American community, and popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. The show began as one of the first radio comedy serials, written and voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll and originating from station WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois. After the series was first broadcast in 1928, it grew in popularity and became a huge influence on the radio serials that followed. The program ran on radio as a nightly serial from 1928 until 1943, as a weekly situation comedy from 1943 until 1955, and as a nightly disc-jockey program from 1954 until 1960. A television adaptation ran on CBS-TV from 1951 until 1953, and continued in syndicated reruns from 1954 until 1966. Amos 'n' Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina, in 1920, and by the fall of 1925, they were performing nightly song-and-patter routines on the Chicago Tribune's station WGN. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps, which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought the notion of a serialized drama could also work on radio. He suggested to Gosden and Correll that they adapt The Gumps to radio. They instead proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters" and borrowed certain elements of The Gumps. Their new series, Sam 'n' Henry, began January 12, 1926, fascinating radio listeners throughout the Midwest. That series became popular enough that in late 1927 Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a "chainless chain" concept that would have been the first use of radio syndication as we know it today. When WGN rejected the idea, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station that December. Contractually, their characters belonged to WGN, so when Gosden and Correll left WGN, they performed in personal appearances but could not use the character names from the radio show.[1] When WMAQ, the Chicago Daily News station, hired the team and their WGN announcer, Bill Hay, to create a series similar to Sam 'n' Henry, they offered higher salaries than WGN and the rights to pursue the "chainless chain" syndication concept. The creators later told an anecdote that they named the new characters Amos and Andy after hearing two elderly African-Americans greet each other by those names in a Chicago elevator. Amos 'n' Andy began March 19, 1928, on WMAQ, and prior to airing each program they recorded their show on 78 rpm disks at Marsh Laboratories, operated by electrical recording pioneer Orlando R. Marsh. For the program's entire run as a nightly serial, Gosden and Correll portrayed all the male roles, performing over 170 distinct voice characterizations in the show's first decade. With the episodic drama and suspense heightened by cliffhanger endings, Amos 'n' Andy reached an ever-expanding radio audience. It was the first radio program to be distributed by syndication in the United States, and by the end of the syndicated run in August 1929, at least 70 stations besides WMAQ carried the program by means of recordings. Amos Jones and Andy Brown worked on a farm near Atlanta, Georgia, and during the episodes of the first week, they made plans to find a better life in Chicago, despite warnings from a friend. With four ham-and-cheese sandwiches and $24, they bought train tickets and headed for Chicago, where they lived in a State Street rooming house and experienced some rough times before launching their own business, the Fresh Air Taxi Company. (The first car they acquired had no roof; the pair turned it into a selling point.) Amos was naïve but honest, hard-working and (after his 1935 marriage to Ruby Taylor) a dedicated family man. Andy was more blustering, with overinflated self-confidence. Andy, being a dreamer, tended to let Amos do most of the work. Their Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge leader, George "the Kingfish" Stevens, was always trying to lure the two into get-rich-quick schemes, especially the gullible Andy. Other characters included John Augustus "Brother" Crawford, an industrious but long-suffering family man; Henry Van Porter, a social-climbing real estate and insurance salesman; Frederick Montgomery Gwindell, a hard-charging newspaperman; William Lewis Taylor, the well-spoken, college-educated father of Amos's fiancee; and "Lightning", a slow-moving Stepin Fetchit-type character. The Kingfish's catch phrase "Holy mackerel!" soon entered the American lexicon. Of the three central characters, Correll voiced Andy Brown while Gosden voiced both Amos and the Kingfish. The majority of the scenes were dialogues between either Andy and Amos or Andy and Kingfish. Amos and Kingfish, both voiced by Gosden, only rarely appeared together. Since Correll and Gosden voiced virtually all of the parts, the female characters, such as Ruby Taylor, Kingfish's wife Sapphire, and Andy's various girlfriends, did not appear as voiced characters in the original serial, but entered the plots only as discussed by the male characters. When the series switched to a weekly situation comedy in 1943, actresses began voicing the female characters and other actors were recruited for some of the male supporting parts. However, Correll and Gosden continued to voice the three central characters on radio until the series ended in 1960.[2] With the listening audience increasing in the spring and summer of 1928, the show's success prompted the Pepsodent Company to bring it to the NBC Blue Network on August 19, 1929. At this time the Blue Network was not heard on stations in the West. Western listeners complained to NBC that they wanted to hear the show. Under special arrangements Amos 'n' Andy debuted coast-to-coast November 28, 1929, on NBC's Pacific Orange Network and continued on the Blue. At the same time, the serial's central characters -- Amos, Andy and George "The Kingfish" Stevens -- relocated from Chicago to New York City's Harlem. The story arc of Andy's romance (and subsequent problems) with the Harlem beautician Madame Queen entranced some 40 million listeners during 1930 and 1931, becoming a national phenomenon. Many of the program's plotlines in this period leaned far more to straight drama than comedy, including the near-death of Amos's fiancee Ruby from pneumonia in the spring of 1931, and Amos's brutal interrogation by police following the murder of the cheap hoodlum Jack Dixon that December. Following official protests by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, Correll and Gosden were forced to abandon that storyline – turning the entire sequence into a bad dream, from which Amos gratefully awoke on Christmas Eve. The innovations introduced by Gosden and Correll made their creation a turning point for radio drama, as noted by broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod:[1] As a result of its extraordinary popularity, Amos 'n' Andy profoundly influenced the development of dramatic radio. Working alone in a small studio, Correll and Gosden created an intimate, understated acting style that differed sharply from the broad manner of stage actors – a technique requiring careful modulation of the voice, especially in the portrayal of multiple characters. The performers pioneered the technique of varying both the distance and the angle of their approach to the microphone to create the illusion of a group of characters. Listeners could easily imagine that that they were actually in the taxicab office, listening in on the conversation of close friends. The result was a uniquely absorbing experience for listeners who in radio's short history had never heard anything quite like Amos 'n' Andy. While minstrel-style wordplay humor was common in the formative years of the program, it was used less often as the series developed, giving way to a more sophisticated approach to characterization. Correll and Gosden were fascinated by human nature, and their approach to both comedy and drama drew from their observations of the traits and motivations that drive the actions of all people: While often overlapping popular stereotypes of African-Americans, there was at the same time a universality to their characters which transcended race.... Beneath the dialect and racial imagery, the series celebrated the virtues of friendship, persistence, hard work, and common sense, and as the years passed and the characterizations were refined, Amos 'n' Andy achieved an emotional depth rivaled by few other radio programs of the 1930s. Above all, Correll and Gosden were gifted dramatists. Their plots flowed gradually from one into the next, with minor subplots building in importance until they took over the narrative, before receding to give way to the next major sequence, and seeds for future storylines were often planted months in advance. It was this complex method of story construction that kept the program fresh, and enabled Correll and Gosden to keep their audience in a constant state of suspense. The technique they developed for radio from that of the narrative comic strip endures to the present day as the standard method of storytelling in serial drama. Only a few dozen episodes of the original serial have survived in recorded form. However, a number of scripts from the original episodes have been discovered, and were utilized by Elizabeth McLeod in preparing her 2005 book cited above. Amos 'n' Andy was officially transferred by NBC from the Blue Network to the Red Network in 1935, although the vast majority of stations carrying the show remained the same. Several months later, Gosden and Correll moved production of the show from NBC's Merchandise Mart studios in Chicago to Hollywood. After a long and successful run with Pepsodent, the program changed sponsors in 1938 to Campbell's Soup; because of Campbell's closer relationship with CBS, the series switched to that network on April 3, 1939. In 1943, after 4,091 episodes, the radio program went from a 15-minute CBS weekday dramatic serial to an NBC half-hour weekly comedy. While the five-a-week show often had a quiet, easygoing feeling, the new version was a full-fledged sitcom in the Hollywood sense, with a regular studio audience (for the first time in the show's history) and an orchestra. More outside actors, including many African-American comedy professionals, were brought in to fill out the cast. Many of the half-hour programs were written by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, later the writing team behind Leave It to Beaver and The Munsters. In the new version, Amos became a peripheral character to the more dominant Andy and Kingfish duo, although Amos was still featured in the traditional Christmas show, where he explains the Lord's Prayer to his daughter, Arbadella. The later radio program and the TV version were advanced for the time, depicting Blacks in a variety of roles including as successful business owners and managers, professionals and public officials, in addition to the comic characters at show's core. It anticipated many later comedies featuring working class characters (both Black and White) including All in the Family, The Honeymooners and Sanford and Son. PLEASE READ HOW TO LISTEN AT THESE CD THESE ARE MP3 CD RECORDING THEY WILL NOT PLAY IN REGULAR CD PLAYERS You will need CD players that read mp3 files. Here some of the more popular mp3 players: Coby, Memorex, Panasonic, Philips, Sony and many more. Be sure you buy a model that support mp3 files. You can upload the files in ipods like Apple Ipod, Sansa and 100's more. Many new car CD players reads mp3, again check your player first. Many new home DVD players and virtually every Blu Ray reads mp3 files, please check your manual. Finally you can use your compurer. If you're reading this web page, you already have everything you need to listen this mp3 CD Most of these shows are 32kbps, if space is available we will use higher bit rate. THESE CD WILL BE DELIVERED IN WHITE PAPER SLEEVES I guarantee delivery of your item. If your item doesn't get there or is damaged, please notify us and we'll reship for you. FULL REFUND IF NOT SATISFIED EPISODES LIST 2003-10-28 BBC The Rea Amos And Andy 1 Of 2 2003-10-28 BBC The Real Amos and Andy 2 Of 2 260420 260429 280717 The Presidential Election Part 1 280717 The Presidential Election Part 2 290114 TheEfficiencyExpert 290115 CheckingThingsOut 290117 SteppingOnAndysToes 290421 EveryoneIsSigningAndysName 290422 RubysFatherSeesAmosTalkingToAnotherGirl 290423 RaisingMoneyForLodgeRenovations 290425 AmosGetsADearJohnTelegram 290426 GettingContractBidsForLodgeHallRenovations 290427 ReviewingContractsForLodgeHallRenovations 290519 AmosAndAndySuspectKingfishIsEmbezzling 290520 TheTaxiCompanyGetsCompetitionFromEarlDixon 290521 EarlDixonAppliesForLodgeMembership 290523 KingfishHelpsEarlCompeteWithForTaxiBusiness 290608 MayLoseFreshAirTaxiCompany 290609 MissRubyTaylorArrives 290616 EarlDixonTriesToBreakUpAmosAndRuby 290617 AmosIsWorriedThatHeHasLostRuby 290618 AmosGetsCutOffWhileCallingRuby 290620 AndyReceivesALetterFromDetroit 290621 AndyPreparesABudgetForTheCabCompany 290622 AmosIsFramedInAFurRobbery 290623 AndyAndKingfishVisitAmosInJail 290624 AndyAndKingfishGetALawyerForAmos 290625 AndyKingfishandEarlDixonTalkAboutAmos 290627 MrTaylorBailsAmosOutOfJail 290628 AmosTellsHisStoryToHisLawyer 290629 AmosandAndyGoToTheLawyersOffice 290703 AndyReadsALawBookToHelpAmos 290705 TheRealCriminalsTalkAboutFramingAmos 291122 AmosTalksAboutWorkingAtADairy 291122 AmosTellsAndyAboutBullfighting 29XXXX Amos Andy 29XXXX AndyHelpsRubyMakeAmosJealous 300404AndyHasARoughTimeTryingOnShoes 300404WrestlingHolds 330109AndyLearnsToWorkTheHotelDesk 330222MadamQueenGetsEngaged 360819 2395thDayOfBroadcastingForNBC 361204 AnnualMinstrelShowAtLodge 390403 The Marriage Of Andrew H Brown 390404 Andy Is Shot In The Arm 390921 Singing Recital Postponed 411224 Amos and Andy Annual Christmas Show 431008 Andys New Wife 431015 The Maestro 431022 Courtroom Catastrophe 431029 The Chair 2nd Half 431105 The Locked Trunks Secret 431112 Matrimonial Mishap 431119 Turkey Trouble 431126 Mans Best Friend 431203 Candy For Caroline 431210 Bookends and Babies 431217 The Marriage Counselor 431231 New Years Eve With Edward G Robinson 43xxxxAuditionsFor30MinuteSeries 440107 Making Saphire Proud 440114 Orchids And Violets 440121 Charles Boyers Valet 440128 Wind Fall 440204 Missing Persons Bureau 440211 Three Times And Youre Out 440218 Rubys Diamond 440225 Sunday Monday Or Always 440303 Looking For Madam Queen 440310 Sign On The Dotted Line 440317 Insurance Fraud 440324 Hovering Between Life And Death 440331 Long Lost Harold 440407 Dating Club Disaster 440414 The Butler Did It 440421 Of Sound Mind And Body 440428 The BrotherInLaw 440505 The Electric Clock Caper 440512 Impersonating An Officer 440519 And The Winner Is 440525 Jealous Boyfriend 440526 Andy The Fugitive 440602 Nazi Spy 440609 Shirt Trail 440616 One Step Ahead Of The Law 441006 Andrew H. Brown Actor Actor 441110 Employment Agency 441117 Marriage Proposal Mixup 441124 Cleaning Fluid Formula 441201 Ink Flow Fountain Pen Agency 441208 Kingfish Invests 400 441215 Andys Fakes Suicide 441222 Amos and Andy Christmas Show 441229 Jacksons New Years Eve 450105 The Court Trial 450112 One Phony Antique 450119 Adoption Woes 450126 Advice To The Lovelorn 450202 Breach Of Promise Lawsuit 450209 Andy Plays Soldier 450216 Insulting Valentine 450223 Saphires Old Boyfriend Comes To Visit 450227 Sapphire Kicks Kingfish Out 450302 Income Tax Problems 450309 Andy Pays His Taxes Pt2 450316 Lecture Bureau 450320 Kingfish Buys a Car 450323 Prentiss Clothing Company 450330 Easter Hat Designed By Kingfish 450406 A Place to Call Home 450420 The Second Hand Car 450427 Marriage Vows 450504 Beautiful Baby Contest 450511 Double Indemnity 450518 A Case of Bullion 450525 Andy The Sailor 450601 Engaged to Hatie McDaniel 460312 Birthday Gift for Sapphire 460607 The Invention 461015 Sapphires a Wanted Criminal 461210 The Stolen Car 461217 The Cigar Store 470107 Homesteading In Alaska 470121 Marrying Off Sapphires Sister 470128 Kingfish Wants Andy To Marry Sapphires Sister 470204 Amos Is Missing 470218 Proposal To Nancy Simpson 470304 Birthday Gift For Sapphire compare with 460312 470311 Adopting Andy 470318 Kingfish Sells Insurance 470323 Kingfish's Marital P 470325 Kingfish Sells Andy a Trailer 470408 Finding a Roomer 470422 Business In Brazil 470429 Sapphire Wants a Vacation 470506 Kicking Andy Out 470513 Leroys Lock Invention 470527 Kingfish Runs A Rest Home 470701 Pearls 470722 Renting Out The Spare Room 470729 Andy The Gentleman Farmer 470902 Insurance Plan 470909 Raiding The Piggy Bank 470916 Adopting Andy 470923 Kingfish's Marital W 471028 Hosptilalization Pla 480106 The French Car 480113 Andy Proposes Marriage 480413 Sapphire Threatens To Leave 480420 Sapphires Uncle 480504 Andy Saves The Millionaire 480518 Selling Andy A Cabin For 250 480525 1948 Plymouth Raffle 480706 Sapphires Sister Gets Married 481010 Kingfish the Marriage Broker 481017 Real Estate Broker 481024 Kingfish And Sapphires 20 Wedding Anniversary 481031 Name The Song Contest 481107 Correspondence School 481114 New York Sightseeing Agency 481226 Mysterious New Years Card 490109 Kingfishs Conscience 490116 1877 Nickel 490123 Kingfishs Luggage Stand 490130 The Antique Piano 490206 Lapsed Insurance Policy 490213 Widow Parkers Inheritance 490220 Godfather to Amos Baby 490306 Photo of Jewelry Store Robbery 490313 Andy Romances Dorothy Richards 490327 Pawn Shop Robbery 490403 Deputy Dirt Commissioner 490410 Kingfish Is Evicted 490417 The Kingfishs BabyEaster Prog 490424 Andy Inherits 2000 490501 Kingfishs New Boarder 490508 Kingfish Has No Friends 491009 Kingfish Hires Secretary 491016 Charmaingn Larue Her Mother 491023 Kingfishs Car Used In Robbery 491030 Andy Has Two Dates at Once 491106 Friendly Loan Company 491120 Amos and Andy Turkey Falls off Truck 491127 TV Set Raffle 500115 Andy Vs Abigail Simpson Brown 500129 The Bungling Burglars 500205 Sapphire Might Be Pregnant 500212 Kingfishs Flower Shop 500319 Andy and Eloise Walker 500326 Imitating The Happy Harringtons 500402 Andy Goes To Charm School 500409 Sapphires Easter Outfit 500416 The Census Taker 500423 Lodge Convention In Chicago 500430 Andys Inheritance Part1 500507 Andys Inheritance Part2 500514 Andys Inheritance Part3 500521 Job At Pine Crest Lodge 500814 Mary Demming Error 501001 Kingfish Is Drafted 501008 Kingfishs Enlistment Problem 501119 Thanksgiving 501203 Visit From Sapphires Cousin 501210 Sapphires Fur Coat 501217 Kingfish Suspects Foul Play 501224 Amos and Andy Christmas Show 501231 Sapphires New Love Interest 510107 Sapphires Expecting 510114 Good Samaritans 510121 Mama and Mr.SmithersPt1 510204 The Parking Lot 510211 New Neighbors 510218 The Lonely Hearts Club 510304 Kingfish Sees Sapphire On TV 510318 Uncle Sylvesters Wedding 510408 Faith In Those You Love 510415 ImportExport Garage 510422 MotherInLaw Dear 510429 Cousin Sidney Comes To Visit 510506 The Lodge Picnic 510513 Ramona Thompson Looking For Andy 510520 Kingfish the Nightclub Spotter 510610 Old Flame Florence Baxter 510930 3000 Diamond Ring 511007 Aptitude Test 511014 Trip to Brazil 511021 De Piesters Party 511028 Engaged To Susan Bennet 511104 New Boarder Chester Benson 511111 Sapphire Seeks Romance 511125 The Sisters Inheritance 511202 New Neighbors 511209 Wedding Invitation Mixup 511216 Andy and Madame Queen 511230 Porch Wreckers 521012 Long Lost Husband 521019 Jobs as Office Cleaners 521026 Leroys Oil Stock 521102 Visit From Aunt Harriet 521116 10,000th Show 521228 New Mink Stole 530202 The Love Letter 530214 Life Story Of Amos Andy 530222 Andys Photo in Detective Magazine 530308 Convention In LA 530315 Chauffeur For Madame Queen 530329 Andy The Coward 530412 Constance La Marr 530414 25th Anniversary 530419 Kingfish The Detective 530426 The Annual Boat Outing 530503 Stock Market Tip 530510 Cabin In Connecticut 530517 The Proxy Marriage 530524 The Kingfishs Old Love Letters 530927 Bad Check to Hospital 531004 Hat Check Concession 531008 Andys New Wife 531011 Pancake Mix Contest 531025 Aunt Matildas Dowry 531101 Cat Burglar 531108 Sapphires Old Boyfriend 531115 Ship Leroys Car To L A 531122 Kingfishs Tourist Service 531129 In the Loan Business 531206 Sam The Typewriter Man 531213 The Baby Doctor 531227 Lucky Bucks Contest 540103 Tuxedo Rental Business 540404 Radio and TV Delivery Job 540411 Vacation at Lake Chipawawa 540926 A Trip to Florida 541003 Andy To Marry D Richards 541031 Kingfishs Car Stolen 541219 Amos and Andy - Andy as Santa The Amos and Andy Show The Amos and Andy Show XXXXXX A Bad Valentine XXXXXX A House for $500 XXXXXX Adoption Woes XXXXXX Alligator Bag Incide XXXXXX Amos Is Missing XXXXXX Andy Gets Engaged XXXXXX Andy Plays Sailor XXXXXX Best Show of 1948 XXXXXX Bookends and Babies XXXXXX Car Theft and the Ki XXXXXX Christmas Show XXXXXX Divorce Inc XXXXXX EARL DIXON JOINS THE XXXXXX Fake Suicide XXXXXX First Half Hour Show XXXXXX First Show For CBS XXXXXX First Show of the 19 XXXXXX Flooded House, The XXXXXX French Car, The XXXXXX Godfather to Amos' B XXXXXX Guest Is Frank Morga XXXXXX Guest Is Victor Moor XXXXXX Guests Are The Paul XXXXXX Ink Flow Fountian Pe XXXXXX Kingfish and Sapphir XXXXXX Kingfish Leaves His XXXXXX Kingfish Resigns fro XXXXXX Lawsuit Against Andy XXXXXX Leroy's Two Week Vis XXXXXX Letter, The (Rehearsal) XXXXXX Life Story XXXXXX Lovelorn Column XXXXXX Man's Best Friend XXXXXX Marriage Counselor XXXXXX Marriage Vows XXXXXX Marriage-Go-Round XXXXXX Minstrel Show, The XXXXXX Missing Persons Bure XXXXXX Music Hall XXXXXX New Years Show XXXXXX Presidential Electio XXXXXX Rattletrap Automobile XXXXXX Renting Out the Spar XXXXXX Sapphire Threatens T XXXXXX Sapphire's Gown XXXXXX Show 375 (from 78s) XXXXXX Show 376 (from 78s) XXXXXX Show 377 (from 78s) XXXXXX Show 378 (from 78s) XXXXXX Steven's 20th Anniversary XXXXXX Turkey Trouble FEEDBACK Our feedback record is excellent but if any problems arise, contact us before leaving any kind of neutral or negative feedback or if you plan on rating us anything less of five stars in all DSR areas. We, always, will take care of any kind of problems. PUBLIC DOMAIN NOTE This item is the public domain and was created between January 1, 1923 and December 31, 1971. This item is in the public domain due to failure to comply with required registration formalities. After a careful search of the Library of Congress and the United States Trademark and Patent Office, it has been determined that the programs listed for sale here are in the Public Domain. They are being offered with the understanding that no valid or active copyright, trademark, and/or patent exist for them. These recordings are sold for private home listening and use only. No broadcast rights are stated, implied, or given. I assume no responsibility for unauthorized use of these programs. They are listed in accordance with current policies concerning selling Public Domain materials. Powered by Turbo Lister The free listing tool. List your items fast and easy and manage your active items.