HOLY MACKEREL! The Amos 'n' Andy Story

by Bart & Ahrgus Juilliard Andrews ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 24, 1986

Was Amos 'n' Andy, the long-running radio/TV comedy series, ""a scurrilous. . .treatment of blacks,"" as the NAACP contended for decades? Or was it merely an innocent divertissement, ""kidding people--human nature,"" not necessarily blacks, as the show's creators always claimed? How did the series affect, for good or ill, the advancement of blacks within the entertainment industry and outside it? By addressing these and similar questions, Holy Mackerel! rises above the level of what we have come to expect from so many recent exercises in show-biz nostalgia. It's an important and welcome investigation of a controversial and complicated subject. The radio version of Amos 'n' Andy, created and performed by two white southerners, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, took to the airwaves on March 19, 1928. The show proved an instantaneous success and was soon being broadcast nationally. In time, it counted Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Bernard Shaw among its 40 million listeners. From the start, however, there were those who found the delineations of ""shiftless,"" ""rascally"" and ""shrewish"" blacks offensive. A major part of the problem lay in the fact that the ""Negro"" characters were written and acted by whites drawing on stereotypes familiar since the days of the minstrel shows. Too, the programs were aimed at primarily white audiences who found their preconceptions of what historian Fred MacDonald has described as ""The Coon"" (Kingfish), ""The Tom"" (Amos) and ""The Mammie"" (Sapphire), reinforced by the skits. When the series transferred to TV in June 1951, the ironies (and the problems) inherent in the situation multiplied. Several of the black actors had to be trained by white vocal coaches before they could master the pseudo-Negro dialect--""I'se regusted,"" ""Ain't dst sumpin'?"" (Speaking of dialect, the TV re-runs of the show were enormously popular in Kenya and Nigeria, but only after they had been subtitled--in English.) Andrews and Juilliard come to no final judgement about the case. While admitting the material was ""devoid of authenticity,"" they also point out the TV series did provide many black performers with work when possibly less-demeaning roles were almost nonexistent. As Oscar-winning black actress Hattie McDaniel once said, ""Either I can play a maid in a movie for $700 a week, or I can be a maid for $7 a week."" Ain't dst sumpin'? Plot synopses of all 78 episodes of the TV series are provided and the book contains 50 halftone photographs (not seen). A balanced, smoothly written if somewhat chronologically confusing study of a difficult period in black/white relations, seen from an unexpected but revelatory angle.

Pub Date: June 24, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION