#Amos and andy tim moore driver

They believed that the show could be used, through its racially stereotypical character personalities, for whites to justify slavery and maintain segregation. In 1931 the African American press petitioned the Federal Radio Commission to cancel the show because it was an unfair representation of African Americans.

The show was a comedy routine composed of malapropisms, mispronounciations and misunderstandings based on African American stereotypes.ĭescription of Incident: Amos 'n' Andy was attacked by African American Civil Rights groups for many years before it was banned from television.

#Amos and andy tim moore driver

The show featured several main characters: George Stevens, also known as 'the Kingfish,' was a con-man trying to make an easy dollar Andy, a gullible cab driver as well as Kingfish's wife, girlfriend and mother. Specific Location: The United States and Kenyaĭescription of Artwork: Amos 'n' Andy was a popular minstrel show that began as a live performance by two white actors in blackface, continued to become a nationally syndicated radio program and became a television program in the 1950s. Tim Moore, Spencer Williams and Ernestine Wade were the lead actors on the television version.Ĭonfronting Bodies: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the government of Kenya. Name: Amos 'n' Andy, NAACP pressures CBS to cancel programĪrtist: Freeman Goshen and Charles Correll were the original actors in the Amos 'n' Andy live and radio minstrel shows. Tim Moore succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis in 1958 at the age of 70 in Los - Amos 'n' Andy, NAACP pressures CBS to cancel program '> According to film historian Donald Bogle, Moore later used the incident in a nightclub routine.

In 1958, Moore made headlines when he was charged with a misdemeanor as a result of firing a pistol at his wife during a domestic dispute. He wrote comedy skits, opened for a number of notable performers of that era, and made frequent stage and television appearances. Moore, however, remained in Los Angeles, California working irregularly. With that role Moore became one of the most memorable comedians of his time.Īmos ‘n’ Andy was canceled in 1953 due to widespread protests by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other civil rights organizations. In 1951, 63-year-old Moore was hired for the role of the incorrigible Kingfish. Years earlier, Charles Correll, a white entertainer who developed and played Andy on the popular radio series, Amos ‘n’ Andy, contacted Moore to portray the character Kingfish in the upcoming all-black television adaptation of the show. By the mid-1940s, Moore now nearly 60, retired and returned to his hometown to, as he stated, “spend more time with my people.” Later in the decade he returned to acting, performing in Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds in 1928 and Harlem Scandals four years later. In 1921 Moore created his most successful production, Tim Moore’s Chicago Follies Tour, which ran for the next four years. With his earnings he launched a new career as a theater producer. He also worked as a fly-shooer in a stable, a boxer, fight manager, and a horseracing jockey.īy 1913, Moore had earned $110,000 as a prizefighter and manager. He then joined a medicine show that played vacant lots across the Midwest. Their traveling act became known as the “Gold Dust Twins.” Moore eventually went solo and toured British music halls for nearly two years. He later entered the vaudeville circuit when he teamed with Romeo Washburn, another black performer from Rock Island.

Born in Rock Island, Illinois in December 1888, Moore began his career dancing on the sidewalks of his home town for money. Broadway stage comedian Tim Moore, whose career as an entertainer spanned more than 50 years, is best remembered as George “Kingfish” Stevens on the classic Amos ‘n’ Andy series.