Radio review – “Amos and Andy – Cat Burglar” (1953) **

I heard of Amos and Andy, but never listened to an episode before. The series was enormously popular and hugely controversial, even at the time. It's not hard to see why - a radio series about two dim-witted African-Americans played by white actors (actually, three - the series was really about Amos, And and their dodgy mate Kingfisher). They were probably the highest profile black fictional characters in their day (except for Hattie McDaniel and Eddie Rochester in The Jack Benny Show). The thing is, this sort of humour - misunderstands, silly schemes that go haywire, in this one they think Kingfisher is the local cat burglar - is incredibly common in black films today; you could see a version with Chris Tucker, etc doing it. The difference is of course they're actually black and there are other black roles going around.