They offered higher salaries than WGN and the right to pursue the "chainless chain" syndication idea. WMAQ, the Chicago Daily News station, hired Gosden and Correll and their former WGN announcer, Bill Hay, to create a series similar to Sam 'n' Henry. Correll's and Gosden's characters contractually belonged to WGN, so, when they left WGN, the pair performed in personal appearances but could not use the character names from the radio show. Episodes of Sam 'n' Henry continued to be aired until July 14, 1928. When WGN rejected the proposal, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station their last musical program for WGN was announced in the Chicago Daily Tribune on January 29, 1928). It became so popular that, in 1927, Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a "chainless chain" concept that would have been the first radio syndication. Their new show, Sam 'n' Henry, began on January 12, 1926, and fascinated radio listeners throughout the Midwest. Instead, they proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters", which, nevertheless, borrowed certain elements from The Gumps. By playing the roles of characters doing dialect, they would be able to conceal their identities enough to be able to return to their old pattern of entertaining if the radio show was a failure. They were also conscious of having made names for themselves with their previous act. The idea seemed to involve more risk than either Gosden or Correll was willing to take neither was adept at imitating female voices, which would have been necessary for The Gumps. He suggested that Gosden and Correll adapt The Gumps for radio. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps, which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought a serialized version would work on radio. The Victor Talking Machine Company also offered them a recording contract. The lucrative offer allowed them to become full-time broadcasters. The pair hoped that the radio exposure would lead to stage work they were able to sell some of their works to local bandleader Paul Ash, which brought them enough name recognition to be offered jobs at the Chicago Tribune's station WGN in 1925. Their appearances soon led to a regular schedule on another Chicago radio station, WEBH, where their only compensation was a free meal. Both men had some scattered experience in radio, but it was not until 1925 that the two appeared on Chicago's WQJ. They met in Durham, North Carolina, in 1920. Eventually I became a TV writer, working first on ‘Baby Talk’ and then on ‘Blossom’.Amos 'n' Andy creators, Gosden and Correll, were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. I became inspired to write for television while working on the ‘Tracey Ullman Show’, for which I won an Emmy Award for Set Decorating. I quickly worked my way up to set decorator, joined the union and continued to work steadily, decorating television series and pilots including ‘The Tracey Ullman Show’, ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘Carole and Company’ (Carole Burnett). As a set decorator I also worked on mini-series, commercials as well as music videos for Michael Jackson, Madonna, Billy Idol and others. Some of my first jobs included working in the art department on the movies ‘Valley Girls’, To Live and Die in LA’ and ‘Invaders From Mars’. I soon found myself, along with my recently graduated friends, riding the giant wave of the independent film movement and readily finding work in the art department, on films, television series, music videos and commercials. I came to Hollywood in the early 1980s after graduating from the University of Illinois in Fine and Applied Arts, having studied filmmaking and hoping to find work in the “movies” – unsure of what that even meant. Download Set Decorator Resume here: portia-iversen-set-decorator
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