Amos 'n' Andy (Original photograph for the radio serial, circa 1930) by Gosden, Freeman, Charles Correll (creators, writters, starring) - 1960

Hollywood: CBS Radio, 1960. Vintage publicity photograph of Freeman Gosden and Charles Correl for the Amos 'n' Andy radio serial, shot circa 1930, struck by CBS circa 1960s, with CBS Radio mimeo snipe on verso.

Gosden and Correll began working in radio in 1925 at WGN in Chicago, when executive Ben McCanna proposed adapting the popular Sidney Smith comic strip "The Gumps" for radio. They instead proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters," choosing to borrow elements from The Gumps, and began Sam 'n' Henry on January 12, 1926, which quickly became popular. When WGN rejected a syndication proposal, they left to work for WMAQ, and created "Amos 'n' Andy" which first aired on March 19, 1928.

Gosden and Correll played the naive but honest Amos and the gullible blowhard Andrew, respectively. The show quickly grew in popularity, airing coast-to-coast and becoming a nationwide hit. Despite themes of the virtues of friendship and hard work, the shows utilization of minstrel-styled wordplay, stereotyped dialect and racial imagery, quickly sparked protest. In 1930 it was sharply denounced in Abbott's Monthly and the African American newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier.

In 1930 Gosden and Correll, appearing in black face, did an Amos 'n' Andy feature film, Melville W. Brown's Check and Double Check for RKO.

The show was adapted for television by CBS in 1951 as The Amos 'n' Andy Show featuring a largely African American cast, galvanizing protests almost immediately from the NAACP. The television series aired until 1953.

The radio show continued in varying forms through the 1950s, the final broadcast being on November 25, 1960.

In 1988 the program was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

8 x 10 inches. Very Good plus with diagonal crease on lower right. Some chipping to the mimeo snipe on the verso.