It’s not a coincidence. In 1941, real estate agent Charles Blauvelt Hopper (1880-1964) unveiled a new section of his Mayfair tract and called it the “Columbia unit”, with streets named after CBS radio personalities. (Presumably the network saw some promotional benefit in this.) The intersection of Amos Avenue and Andy Street was a tribute to the Amos ‘n’ Andy radio program. The sitcom, broadcasted from 1928 until 1960, was about a pair of stereotypical black men (a trio, actually, including supporting character Kingfish) voiced by its white creators Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who apparently attended the two streets’ dedication on August 2nd, 1941. Today’s listeners would find the show offensive, of course, but Amos ‘n’ Andy was enormously popular in its day. While Gosden and Correll donned blackface for the 1930 movie spinoff Check and Double Check, a 1951 television adaptation starred black actors Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams. It was cancelled after two seasons due in part to NAACP protests.
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