Amos and andy alvin childress2/13/2024 ![]() Her other plays produced during the 1960s included "String," "Wine in the Wilderness," and "Young Martin Luther King." Her award-winning children's book, "A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich," was published in 1973, and was made into a film in 1975. She subsequently republished the vignettes in the "Baltimore Afro-American." During this time she divorced Alvin Childress and married musician Nathan (Nat) Woodard in 1957.Ĭhildress's play, "Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White," was produced in 1966 and in 1972, at the New York Shakespeare Festival Theatre. Childress's first book, "Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life," vignettes that were first published in a column "Conversation from Life," in Paul Robeson's "Freedom" newspaper, was published a year later. Her first play, "Florence," appeared in 1949, and a year later, she adapted Langston Hughes' novel, "Simple Speaks His Mind" into the play, "Just a Little Simple." Her plays include "Gold Through the Trees," the first play by a black woman produced in the United States, and "Trouble in Mind," in 1955, which received an OBIE for Best Off-Broadway Play the first black woman to receive that honor. When the play went to Broadway, and Childress received a TONY nomination for "Best Supporting Actress.".Īlthough she continued to act, Childress began writing plays in the late 1940s. "She was a founding member of the American Negro Theatre, and in 1944 she and her husband Alvin appeared in "Anna Lucasta," alongside lead actress Hilda Simms. Returning later to acting, he played a projectionist in the 1975 film "The Day of the Locust" and appeared in "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings" in 1976 and "The Main Event" in 1979.Pioneering African-American writer, actress and director Alice Childress (1916-1994) was popularly known for her best-selling novel, "A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich," and her plays, most notably "Wedding Band: A Love Story in Black and White." In the 1930s she met and married Alvin Childress, best known for his role as Amos in the television series, "Amos and Andy. He went to New York in 1931 and first appeared on Broadway in "Savage Rhythm." He later joined the Federal Theater when it was formed and worked as an instructor with the American Negro Theater.Īfter the cancellation of his series, he was a social worker for Los Angeles County. Childress graduated from high school in Meridian, Miss., and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology at Rust College. Other characters included attorney Algonquin Calhoun, played by Johnny Lee Andy's girlfriend, Madame Queen, played by Lillian Randolph, and the slow-moving janitor, Lightnin', played by Horace Stewart. Two members of the TV cast ensemble also played their parts on radio - Ernestine Wade, who portrayed Kingfish's shrewish wife, Sapphire Stevens, and Amanda (Mama) Randolph, who played her mother. Andy was the most gullible character in the series, and his actions often drew from Kingfish the flabbergasted response, "Holy mackerel, Andy!" That role was rarely at the center of action, but Amos usually served as narrator. He was played by Tim Moore.Īmos was the philosophical, sweet-natured owner and sole operator of the Fresh Air Taxi Co. The program's plot involved the antics of a group of three friends in Harlem - Amos Jones, Andy Brown and George (The Kingfish) Stevens.Īction often centered on the activities of The Kingfish, a conniving character who headed a lodge called the Mystic Knights of the Sea and who usually was looking for a dubious scheme to pursue with the aid of his lodge brothers. Childress and Spencer Williams were the actors chosen after an extensive search to play the title roles on television. Actually, the series had many episodes that showed the Negro with professions and businesses like attorneys, store owners and so on, which they never had in TV or movies before." "I didn't feel it harmed the Negro at all. Childress did not agree with the protesting groups. The racially stereotypical situations depicted in the series drew protests from various groups and contributed to the television series' demise, despite good ratings, in 1953. They were replaced by black actors when the program moved to television. White actors had played all the leading roles on the radio. "Amos 'N' Andy" had been a popular radio program for years before CBS brought it to television in 1951. Erne Sanitarium in suburban Inglewood, Calif. ![]() Alvin Childress, 78, the actor who played sweet-natured Amos on the landmark "Amos 'N' Andy" television comedy series in the early 1950s, died April 19 at St.
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