SANDY KOZEL

Philip Edward Hartman (Hartmann)
(September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998)

Martha Raye (born Margy Reed)
(August 27, 1916 – October 19, 1994)

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr.
(16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977)

On April 16, 1889, future Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin 
was born Charles Spencer Chaplin in London, England.

Chaplin, one of the most financially successful stars of early
Hollywood, was introduced to the stage when he was five.

Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022)

The actor and stand-up comedian died from a rare genetic muscle
disease that can trigger a dangerously abnormal heartbeat.

From left: Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll going over
the script for the popular Amos and Andy radio program.

On January 12, 1926, the two-man comedy series “Sam ‘n’ Henry”
debuts on Chicago’s WGN radio station. Two years later, after
changing its name to “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the show became one of
the most popular radio programs in American history.

Though the creators and the stars of the new radio program,
Freeman Gosden and Charles Carrell, were both white, the
characters they played were two Black men from the Deep
South who moved to Chicago to seek their fortunes. By that
time, white actors performing in dark stage makeup—or
“blackface”—had been a significant tradition in American
theater for over 100 years. Gosden and Carrell, both vaudeville
performers, were doing a Chicago comedy act in blackface
when an employee at the Chicago Tribune suggested they
create a radio show.