U.S.S. Arizona Amos and Andy Script

1941. Ephemera. A single sheet of ribbon-copy typescript on U.S.S. Arizona letterhead. It is not known to this cataloguer if this is simply a transcript of an Amos 'n' Andy sketch heard on the radio or if it was written by a member of the Arizona crew. That the sketch is quite funny (without the racial humor) argues for this to be a transcript; that it contains an abortion joke suggests otherwise. In this short sketch Andy reveals to Amos that he and Madam Queen have been having 'recourse' and that Queen has not 'demonstrated' for three months. A doctor told Andy that she is 'fragrant' and needs to go to a 'fraternity house,' but Andy doesn't know what that is. Amos explains: 'A fraternity house is where dey takes people dat is fragrant and fix dem up so's dey can demonstrate again and put 'em in shape for recourse again.' Private maternity houses, in the late 1920s or early 1930s, when this was written, were places where a woman could give birth if she wasn't married. However, such places were often illicit abortion clinics, and Amos's line, 'fix dem up' suggests something other than childbirth. As evidence for this interpretation, your cataloguer offers the following: A 1921report on maternity houses in Missouri concluded 'that abortions are frequently performed, is certain' (see Mangold, Children Born Out of Wedlock, 1921, p. 34).