Spencer Williams Jr. facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams as "Andy".
Born	(1893-07-14)July 14, 1893 Vidalia, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	December 13, 1969(1969-12-13) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Los Angeles National Cemetery Section 209, row Z, space 3
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker
Years active	1928–1962

Spencer Williams (born July 14, 1893 – died December 13, 1969) was an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for playing Andy on the TV show The Amos 'n' Andy Show. He also directed movies, including the important 1941 film The Blood of Jesus. Spencer Williams was a groundbreaking African-American film producer and director.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Williams was born in Vidalia, Louisiana. As a young boy, he went to Wards Academy in Natchez, Mississippi. When he was a teenager, he moved to New York City. There, he worked as a "call boy" for theater owner Oscar Hammerstein I. During this time, he learned a lot about comedy from the famous African-American vaudeville star Bert Williams.

Spencer Williams studied at the University of Minnesota. He served in the U.S. Army during and after World War I. He became a sergeant major. While in the military, Williams traveled the world. He was even General Pershing's bugler in Mexico. In 1917, Williams went to France for intelligence work. After the war, he continued his military career. He helped create war plans for the Southwestern United States.

In 1923, Williams came to Hollywood. He started helping with films by Octavus Roy Cohen. Williams got small parts in movies, like the 1928 Buster Keaton film Steamboat Bill, Jr.. He found steady work in California. For a short time in 1926, he worked as an immigration officer. In 1927, Williams worked for First National Studio. He traveled to Topaz, Arizona, to film scenes for a movie called The River.

In 1929, producer Al Christie hired Williams. He wanted Williams to write dialogue for short comedy films with all-black casts. Williams earned Christie's trust. He was given the job to create The Melancholy Dame. This film is thought to be the first "talkie" (movie with sound) featuring an all-black cast. These films sometimes used stereotypes. Williams did many jobs at Christie's studio. He was a sound technician, wrote scripts, and was an assistant director. He also helped cast African-American actors for Gloria Swanson's Queen Kelly (1928). He produced, wrote, and directed the short talkie film Hot Biskits in the same year. Williams also worked for Columbia Pictures as a supervisor for their Africa Speaks recordings. He was also active in theater. In 1929, he acted in an all African-American version of Lulu Belle.

During the Great Depression, there was less demand for black short films. Williams and Christie stopped working together. Williams struggled to find work during these years. He only got small roles sometimes. One movie was a brief, uncredited appearance in Warner Bros.’ gangster film The Public Enemy (1931).

By 1931, Williams and a partner started their own movie company. It was called the Lincoln Talking Pictures Company. Williams used his experience in sound technology. He built the equipment, including a sound truck, for his new company.

Directing Films

In the 1930s, Williams got small roles in "race films." These were low-budget movies made with all-black casts. They were shown only in theaters that were separated by race. Williams also wrote two screenplays for race films. These were the Western Harlem Rides the Range and the horror-comedy Son of Ingagi. Both were released in 1939.

After a three-year break from movies, Williams started finding work again. He acted in Jed Buell’s Black Westerns between 1938 and 1940. He played characters in films like Harlem on the Prairie (1937), Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938), The Bronze Buckaroo (1939), and Harlem Rides the Range (1939). Buell hired Williams because he could entertain audiences. Working on these films helped Williams learn a lot about the black film genre. Even though these films were made simply, Williams got chances to direct, though he didn't have much control.

Alfred N. Sack was a producer and distributor of race films. His company, Sack Amusement Enterprises, was impressed with Williams’ screenplay for Son of Ingagi. Sack offered him the chance to write and direct a full-length movie. At that time, Oscar Micheaux was one of the only other African-American filmmakers. Sack also owned movie theaters. His companies were also known as Sack Attractions and Harlemwood Studios.

Williams began traveling in the southern U.S. with his own film projector. He showed his films to audiences there. During this time, he met William H. Kier, who was also showing films. They became partners. They produced movies, training films for the Army Air Forces, and a film for a Catholic church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Blood of Jesus Film Success

The movie poster for The Blood of Jesus (1941). This was Williams's first film as a director.

Williams's first film as a director was The Blood of Jesus (1941). His own company, Amegro, produced it with a small budget of $5,000. He used actors who were not professionals. Williams also wrote the story for the film. It was a religious fantasy about a dying Christian woman's soul. The film was a huge success. Sack said The Blood of Jesus was "possibly the most successful" race film ever made. Williams was then asked to direct more films for Sack Amusement Enterprises.

The filmmakers faced some technical problems with the movie. But Williams used his skills to help with the camera, special effects, and the film's meaning. The religious themes he used, like Protestantism, helped the film get good reviews.

Even though The Blood of Jesus was a success, Williams's next film was not. The wartime drama Marching On! (1943) was not well made. It was overshadowed by the Army-financed film The Negro Soldier (1944). Much of Marching On! was based on Williams’ own time in the army during World War I. The movie's story was not interesting, and it did not get the attention Williams hoped for.

Williams's next film, Go Down Death (1944), is considered as good as The Blood of Jesus. Like that movie, Williams directed, wrote, and acted in it. He got the idea for the story from a fable by the poet James Weldon Johnson.

After his most successful films, Williams had another tough time finding work. He tried to make films like mainstream Hollywood movies. But trying to fit in actually made his stories less original.

Over the next six years, Williams directed many films. These included Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus (1942), Marching On! (1943), Go Down Death (1944), Of One Blood (1944), Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946), The Girl in Room 20 (1946), Beale Street Mama (1947), and Juke Joint (1947). After working ten years in Dallas, Williams returned to Hollywood in 1950.

After making Juke Joint, Williams moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, he and Amos T. Hall started the American Business and Industrial College.

Amos 'n' Andy Television Show

Before Amos 'n' Andy, Williams was very popular with African-American audiences. But he was not well known among white audiences. The U.S. radio comedians Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll cast Williams as Andy. They claimed they discovered him and gave him a chance to be famous.

In 1948, Gosden and Correll planned to bring their radio show Amos 'n Andy to television. The show was about the adventures of a group of African Americans in Harlem, New York City. Gosden and Correll were white. They played the black lead characters using voices that were based on racial stereotypes. For the 1930 film Check and Double Check, they had worn blackface makeup. But the TV version used an African-American cast.

Gosden and Correll searched all over the country for actors for the TV show. News of the search reached Tulsa. A local radio station knew about Williams's past work in race films. A Catholic priest, who was a friend and radio listener, helped find Williams. He was working in Tulsa as the head of a school for veterans. Williams auditioned successfully for Gosden and Correll. He was cast as Andrew H. Brown. Other actors joined the cast. Alvin Childress played Amos, and vaudeville comedian Tim Moore played their friend George "Kingfish" Stevens. When Williams took the role of Andy, he returned to a familiar place. The CBS studios were built where the Christie Studios used to be. Before Amos 'n' Andy, Williams had never worked in television.

Amos 'n Andy was the first U.S. television show with an all-black cast. It ran for 78 episodes on CBS from 1951 to 1953. However, the show caused a lot of debate. The NAACP tried to stop its first episode from airing. In August 1953, after the show had ended, there were plans to turn it into a live show. Williams, Moore, and Childress would play their TV roles. It is not known if any performances happened. After the show finished its network run, CBS sold Amos 'n Andy to local TV stations in the U.S. and to networks in other countries. The show was eventually stopped in 1966. Civil rights groups said it showed a negative and unfair view of African-American life. The show was not seen on nationwide television again until 2012.

While the show was being made, Williams and Freeman Gosden disagreed about how Andy should be played. Gosden told Williams that he knew how Amos 'n' Andy were supposed to talk. Gosden never visited the set again.

In 1956, Williams and other cast members, Tim Moore, Alvin Childress, and Lillian Randolph and her choir, started a U.S. tour. They called themselves "The TV Stars of Amos 'n' Andy." CBS thought this broke their contract for the show and its characters. The tour ended early. Williams, Moore, Childress, and Johnny Lee performed a one-night show in Windsor, Ontario in 1957. No legal action seemed to be taken then.

Williams returned to acting in stage plays. In 1958, he was in the Los Angeles play Simply Heavenly. His last movie role was in 1962. He played a hospital orderly in an Italian horror film called L'Orribile Segreto del Dottor Hitchcock.

After he couldn't find success in the film industry again, Williams decided to retire. He lived off his pension from his time in the U.S. Military.

Death and Lasting Impact

Williams died on December 13, 1969, from a kidney problem. He passed away at the Sawtelle Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles, California. His wife, Eula, survived him. When he died, news reports only focused on his TV acting. Few white moviegoers knew about his race films. The New York Times obituary for Williams mentioned Amos 'n Andy but did not talk about his work as a film director. As a World War I veteran, he is buried at Los Angeles National Cemetery.

In 2001, friends and family from Vidalia, Louisiana, were interviewed. They remembered him as a happy person who was always singing or whistling and telling jokes. His younger cousins also remembered how generous he was with "candy money." Just like his character Andy on TV, he always had his cigar. On March 31, 2010, the state of Louisiana decided to honor Williams and musician Will Haney. Both were from Vidalia. A celebration was held on May 22 of that year.

Re-evaluating His Career

Even though he was a pioneer in black American film in the 1930s and 1940s, Williams was almost completely forgotten after his death. While his work is not as recognized as other black film pioneers like Oscar Micheaux, Williams was seen as one of the few successful black Americans in the film industry during his time.

People started to recognize Williams’ work as a film director years after he died. This happened when film historians began to rediscover race films. Some of Williams’ films were thought to be lost. But they were found in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas, in 1983. One film directed by Williams, his 1942 movie Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus, is still considered lost. There were seven films in total. They were first shown at small gatherings across the South.

Most film historians believe The Blood of Jesus is Williams’ greatest achievement as a filmmaker. Dave Kehr of The New York Times called the film "magnificent." Time magazine listed it among its "25 Most Important Films on Race." In 1991, The Blood of Jesus became the first race film to be added to the U.S. National Film Registry.

Film critic Armond White said that both The Blood of Jesus and Go Down Death were "among the most spiritually adventurous movies ever made." He noted they showed the challenges of city versus country life and different music styles.

However, Williams’ films have also received criticism. Richard Corliss, writing in Time magazine, said that much of Williams's work was not very good. He mentioned that Juke Joint was slow, and there were technical mistakes. For example, in a scene in Dirty Gertie, when an actress turns on a lamp, the screen gets darker for a moment before the lights come on. But Corliss also said that The Blood of Jesus (1941) had a "naive grandeur." It's important to remember that Williams often worked with very little money. The Blood of Jesus was filmed for only $5,000. Most black films of that time had budgets two or three times larger.

Williams started writing a book about his 55 years in show business in 1959.

Filmography

Williams worked as both an actor and a director.

Actor Roles

Director Roles

Images for kids

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  Spencer Williams as "Andy".

See also

In Spanish: Spencer Williams (actor) para niños