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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey y'all, it's Eves and Welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast for people who can

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Speaker 1: never know enough about history. Today's ju the day was je.

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Speaker 1: The television show Amos and Andy premiered on CBS TV,

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Speaker 1: adapted from one of the most popular syndicated radio programs

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Speaker 1: at the time. The television version had a successful run,

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Speaker 1: but the show was also admired in controversy and ultimately

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Speaker 1: canceled because of protests surrounding the way it portrayed black people.

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Speaker 1: Amos and Andy was created by Freeman Gaston and Charles Correll,

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Speaker 1: initially as a radio show in Chicago, Illinois, in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenties. At first, an executive for their radio station

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Speaker 1: w G in approach to Goston and Carrell about adapting

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Speaker 1: a popular comics rip from the Chicago Tribune. Instead, they

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Speaker 1: pitched an idea for a show about quote a couple

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Speaker 1: of colored characters, specifically because they wanted to voice characters

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Speaker 1: in a stereotypical black dialect. Minstrel shows typically featured white

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Speaker 1: actors and black face performing as caricatures of black people.

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Speaker 1: Though waning in popularity, they were still a form of

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Speaker 1: entertainment at the time. W g and greenlight their show.

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Speaker 1: Its initial iteration was entitled Sam and Henry and aired

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Speaker 1: on Chicago Radio beginning in January of nine. The show

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Speaker 1: was so successful that Gassin and Correll wanted to expand it.

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Speaker 1: They proposed that the show would be recorded on phonographs

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Speaker 1: and distributed to different radio stations around the country, which

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Speaker 1: would have been the first ever form of radio syndication,

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Speaker 1: but their proposal was shot down. The two creators quit

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Speaker 1: the network, but w g N retained the contractual rights

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Speaker 1: to Sam and Henry. They were picked up by the

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Speaker 1: Chicago station w m a Q, who wanted them to

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Speaker 1: create something similar, so they came up with Amos and Andy.

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Speaker 1: They later said that they decided on the names after

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Speaker 1: hearing two black men great each other in an elevator.

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Speaker 1: Amos and Andy premiered on Chicago Radio in March of

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Speaker 1: The show followed the titular characters, too, black men from

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Speaker 1: Atlanta who moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. Gostin

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Speaker 1: and Correll voiced the characters, as well as more than

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Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy other male characters, over the course

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Speaker 1: of the show. The schell was super popular, and it

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Speaker 1: did become the first radio program to be syndicated across

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Speaker 1: the US. It was drawing in forty million listeners by

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Speaker 1: one but protests about the show's portrayal of black Americans

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Speaker 1: had already begun. The first prominent protests was mounted by

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Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper, and one it started

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Speaker 1: a petition to have the show taken off the air.

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Speaker 1: One April ninety one article in the paper said the following.

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Speaker 1: The men portraying the characters are white. The company employing

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Speaker 1: Amos and Andy is white. The people reaping the financial

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Speaker 1: game from the characterizations are all white. But the people

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Speaker 1: who are getting the black eye out of it all

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Speaker 1: are the negroes of this country and of every other

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Speaker 1: country where Negroes are found. The Amos and Andy Show,

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Speaker 1: starring Alvin Children's, Spencer Williams and Tim Moore, premiered on

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Speaker 1: CBS TV on June ninety one. The television adaptation took

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Speaker 1: place in Harlem. It was the first American television show

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Speaker 1: with black actors featured in leading roles. The show was

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Speaker 1: sponsored by Blatt's Brewing Company and it ran for fifty

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Speaker 1: two episodes between nineteen fifty one and nineteen fifty three.

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Speaker 1: Soon after the show premiered, the N double A CP

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Speaker 1: formally protested it as a quote, gross libel of the

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Speaker 1: Negro and distortion of the truth. Campaigns to ban the

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Speaker 1: Amos and Andy show targeted both CBS and BLATS, and

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Speaker 1: BLATS stopped sponsoring it. In nineteen fifty three, the show

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Speaker 1: was canceled, but twenty six more episodes were grouped in

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Speaker 1: with syndicated re runs. CBS continue to air reruns of

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Speaker 1: the show until nineteen sixty six, but ultimately stopped after

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Speaker 1: conceding to pressures from the N double A c P

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Speaker 1: and other protests in light of the civil rights movement.

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Speaker 1: Rejoice TV broadcast the show for nationwide audiences again for

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Speaker 1: several years, starting in but the show is not currently

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Speaker 1: being aired across the US. On one hand, many people

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Speaker 1: found the stereotypes in the show harmful, regardless of the

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Speaker 1: representation of black people in different roles. Despite the controversy,

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Speaker 1: some people credit the show as paving the way for

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Speaker 1: Black Americans on television and making white audiences more sympathetic

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Speaker 1: towards black people. I'm Eve, Jeff Coo, and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: And if you have any commerce our suggestions, you can

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Speaker 1: T D I h C podcast. Thanks so much for

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