Setting Record Straight on ‘Rosewood,’ ‘Amos’

As the screenwriter of “Rosewood,” I must respond to Earl Ofari Hutchinson (“Rosewood’s Victory Is Lost on Film,” Counterpunch, March 10). First of all, Hutchinson states that our film is based on the book “Like Judgment Day.” In fact, that book was not published until we were well into production. “Rosewood” is an entirely original screenplay based on the historical record and interviews with the survivors.

More important, Hutchinson feels that we missed the boat by focusing on the events that took place in Rosewood, Fla., in 1923. He feels that the better film would have focused on the reparations process of 1993. Hutchinson entirely misses the point of making a film like “Rosewood” in the first place.

One of the heartbreaking facts of the incident at Rosewood and similar massacres at dozens of other towns like it is that it receded into history and went unspoken of for so long. When I started to research this project, I was amazed at how many incidents like the massacre at Rosewood there were--how many hundreds of lynchings took place every year in America at that time and, most important, how little of this history was being taught in our schools. It became very important to me personally to be involved, with ‘Rosewood” director John Singleton, in getting this story out.

It is a testament to the courage of Singleton, and of Lorenzo DiBonaventura and Courtney Valenti at Warner Bros., that this film was made at all (especially in light of its financial performance so far). But it is sad to me that Hutchinson would rather have this story remain in the dark. How, may I ask, would a film about the reparations process have any impact if no one knew what the actual event was, what the monies were being sought in reparation for?

When you make a film, especially a historical one like ours, you make a series of choices. Hutchinson disagrees with our choices. Fair enough. But I would like him to know that he is, to my mind, a continuation of the problem; he would have the true events of the Rosewood massacre remain a dirty little secret for another 70 years.

It is time we face our national identity in this country, all of it, noble and ugly. I believe that “Rosewood” does that, and I am very proud of my work on the film and my collaboration with Singleton. I don’t think we could have achieved our goal by making another “Mississippi Burning” movie about how awful racial strife in this country has been for white people.

GREGORY POIRER

Los Angeles

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We--the widow and son of Freeman F. Gosden (Amos of the “Amos ‘n’ Andy” show) and the sons of Charles J. Correll (Andy)--have watched with interest and concern the articles and comments on who did what relating to the creativity of “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” a show that successfully lasted more than 30 years on radio and several years on television.

Howard Rosenberg was perhaps uninformed when he said that “Amos ‘n’ Andy” represented bigotry in its portrayal of its characters (“How Far Has TV Come Since ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy?,’ ” Feb. 19). That was certainly not true in the peak years the program was on the air, the late ‘20s, ‘30s and early ‘40s. Its mass popularity among the American public, including blacks, attests to this fact.

The show was so popular with all Americans that, for example, most movie houses across the country had to stop their movies and pipe in “Amos ‘n’ Andy” for 15 minutes or else their attendance would severely drop. No continuing program has ever equaled the ratings “Amos ‘n’ Andy” achieved. It took listeners of all ethnic backgrounds to achieve these ratings. What is interesting is that the Crossley rating service, similar to today’s Nielsen service, actually tracked white listeners vs. black listeners and found that the popularity of “Amos ‘n’ Andy” among blacks was even higher than whites.

The legendary Roy Wilkins, for years head of the NAACP, came to Correll and Gosden’s office in the ‘30s concerned about the portrayal. When shown the Crossley results, he realized the popularity among his own race and withdrew his concern.

During these peak radio years, hundreds of blacks, upon recognizing our family’s association with the show would, in essence, voluntarily comment to us that “Amos ‘n’ Andy” was one of the best things that happened in their daily life. They were fans. Gosden and Correll received far more praise and thanks from the general public than they ever received criticism because “Amos ‘n’ Andy” had become a way of American life. The characters had been welcomed into people’s homes, not as symbols of racism, but simply because they entertained. The show was clean, clever and, most important, it was funny.

Lew Irwin captured the essence of what the program was all about--people seeing themselves (“Lighten Up, It’s Comedy After All,” Counterpunch, March 3).

Right from the beginning, Gosden and Correll created, portrayed and wrote “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” Gosden, specifically, was more influential in coming up with the show’s format, characters and catch phrases (“Holy Mackerel,” etc.). But somehow, over the years, a myth has developed that Flournoy E. Miller, a black writer who contributed much to the black entertainment industry, was the key writer on “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” This simply is not true. For the first 15 years, when the show was 15 minutes, five days a week, Correll and Gosden wrote every word of it. Later, for the half-hour shows, additional writers were hired. Correll and Gosden conducted a free two-day writers school for more than 200 aspiring writers at the Hollywood Palladium. Unfortunately, none of the attendees succeeded.

We acknowledge Miller’s contribution to early black comedy, but his association with “Amos ‘n’ Andy” simply did not exist. Bob Ross became a major writer along with Gosden and Correll. Later, the team of Joe Connolly and Bob Mosher (subsequently famous for “Leave It to Beaver”) joined to write the shows.

If a point is to be made about a specific black writer or the black community’s contribution to the show, then let’s give credit to the fine group of black actors on the radio and TV shows, the singers of the half-hour show . . . and more important, the millions of blacks in American who listened every night, making those 10,000 “Amos ‘n’ Andy” broadcasts a prime-time record that may never be broken.

JANE (MRS. FREEMAN) GOSDEN

FREEMAN GOSDEN JR.

RICHARD CORRELL

CHARLES CORRELL JR.