Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

. / nation u nited in suspense when Ruby Taylor lay dying. It tingled with excitement at the machinations of a crook trying to put a phone booth in the Fresh Air Taxi Company. Amos 'n Andy liave kept us guessing for five years, but this story explains everything. | NATURALNESS and simplicity! Undoubtedly the secret of the two headliners of the air, Amos n' Andy, in keeping the undivided support of their thousands of listeners. Five years of dialogue! Millions and millions of words spilled into the ether. Thousands and thousands of miles traversed by those same words. And still going strong. Naturalness and simplicity! People do not find it hard to listen. Unconsciously they follow the trend of thought and mispronunciations with little effort. They are thoroughly entertained. And for five years Amos V Andv have had the world guessing. No one was allowed in the studio where they broadcast nightly, and no one except a chosen few could say exactly how they conducted their act. Hundreds of listeners have sat before their radios, intently straining their ears for some clue as to the identity of Kingfish. While nearly certain that it was Amos, no one was absolutely sure. Lightin' is another mysterious being, and so is Brother Crawford and other characters brought into the serial. While the act was certainly not intended for a mystery thriller, still it aroused more conjecture, more curiosity, than many an orthodox mystery thriller. Hundreds literally whooped the night Amos had a cold and Brother Crawford betrayed the same vocal symptoms. At least, they knew one thing, that Crawford could be no other than Amos himself. But that couldn't be helped. America accepted these two lovable comedians with open arms. Their droll remarks and twisted sayings became an integral part of the vernacular. "Ain't dat somen" took its place in nearly everyone's vocabulary, and Andy's worried "Um-umh" was almost as common as "Ouch!" Correl and Cosden so skillfully wove their continuity that even yet, after all the publicity they have acquired, no one imagines anything but two colored gentlemen before a microphone. The characters they have manufactured out of thin air are real, and as alive as they can be without actually being able to produce birth certificates! Amos 'n' Andy are master showmen. Psychology of the air. if it may be called such, is instinctive with them. Planning programs for their listeners is the "entre" of their lives: two fifteenniiruitc periods a day before the microphone, the "dessert." \ot only do they write every word of the dialogues themselves, but they portray all of the characters in their sketches. The two boys are called upon to take the part of eight or ten persons in some episodes. At Last! The 1 by Blair Ferm in It is an exacting task at times, when each actor must handle four or five roles himself, for in a radio dramatization, if in no other type of production, characters must be distinguished bv their voices. Correll, in addition to being Andy, plays several officers of the Mystic Knights of the Sea, and other characters to which his deep bass voice is adapted. Amos, on the other hand, handles the parts of the Kingfish, Brother Crawford, Lightning, and other incidental characterizations for which a higher voice may be used. In some episodes in which a great many people are used, the boys are kept busy jumping in and out of roles of four or five different characters, each in the course of a fifteen minute broadcast. When a new character is created, Correll and Gosden first decide upon the character and the type of voice he should have. They then each try several until the proper one is found. They try, however, to divide the characters as much as possible to allow a breathing spell in case several are used. The difference in the voices of characters is achieved partly by changing the voice, and partly by changing the position in front of the microphone. For example, Correll will take the part of Andy by working with his lips close to the microphone, but if he should take the part of some other character, it may be necessary for him to get back approximately eighteen inches from the instrument. Amos also moves back and forth in speaking the lines of the two or three RADIO DOINGS