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Pioneering Black filmmaker Spencer Williams Jr., whose career was eclipsed by his role in the controversial CBS television series, 'Amos 'n' Andy,' was a native of Vidalia. 

What started out as a simple internet search ended with a lost piece of Louisiana entertainment history for Michael Wynne.

Now Wynne, the Alexandria historian, is curious as to why there isn't a state historical marker dedicated to Spencer Williams Jr. in Vidalia, where he was born on July 14, 1893.

Who is Spencer Williams Jr.? He's probably best known for his final acting role as Andrew "Hogg" Brown, or simply Andy, in CBS's 1950s era television version of "The Amos 'n' Andy Show." The show began as a nightly radio program in the 1920s featuring White actors. Racial stereotypes stirred intense controversy, and the television series was canceled.

While perusing the internet for a favorite childhood episode of the TV comedy, Wynne discovered that Williams not only made filmmaking history, but he maintained his Louisiana roots.

"He kept ownership of two lots of land in the Bingham addition in Vidalia until his death," Wynne said. "He also married a Louisiana woman, Olivia Jones, in 1929, and had one daughter."

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A sign at the end of the Mississippi bridge connecting Concordia Parish to Adams County, Mississippi, at Natchez, welcomes travelers to the Town of Vidalia. Vidalia was pioneering Black filmmaker Spencer Williams Jr.'s native home.  

Williams was considered one of the top pioneers in Black cinema.

"He paved the way for Black actors and Black directors in the movie industry," Wynne said. "They wouldn't have had those opportunities in the early movie industry if it wasn't for Williams."

Why no remembrance?

But the "Amos 'n' Andy" controversy eclipsed Williams' career.

"Forget about 'Amos 'n' Andy,'" Wynne said. "Spencer Williams should be honored for his pioneering work. So, why isn't there a historical marker honoring him?"

Then again, Wynne already knows the answer.

Williams fell out of favor with Hollywood after CBS canceled its Thursday night series on June 11, 1953, and faded into obscurity. Wynne knows that if he didn't know Williams' story, neither did others. So, no marker.

But that wasn't the case when Williams was on television. Archived editions of The Advocate and The Times-Picayune include photos of the actor, along with mentions that he was a Louisianan from Vidalia during the series' run.

And historians have since written of Williams.

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A 1995 article looking back at the demise of CBS's 'Amos 'n' Andy' series from The Times-Picayune's "Forum" entertainment section points out that Spencer Williams Jr., who played Andy, was from Vidalia. 

Historian G. William Jones' short biography of Williams for the Texas State Historical Association's "Handbook of Texas," notes that Williams moved from Vidalia to New York in his teens.

Texas was both his home and filmmaking base in the 1940s, but as a teenager in New York, Williams worked as a "call boy," or stagehand, for theater impresario Oscar Hammerstein — grandfather to playwright-lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, who would co-write and stage some of Broadway's most legendary musicals.

Williams eventually left New York and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, but his time there was cut short by the U.S. Army.

"In 1914, he began his four-year Army service at Fort Slocum, New York," Wynne said. "He became Gen. John J. 'Black Jack' Pershing's personal bugler in Mexico, while the general was on the trail of Pancho Villa. After World War I started, Spencer served extensively in military intelligence in France after his promotion to sergeant major."

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A movie poster for Spencer Williams Jr.'s 1941, self-produced film, 'The Blood of Jesus.' The film was selected by the United States Congress for entry into the National Registry of Films in 1991.

After that, it was back to New York, where Williams recorded the duet "It Feels So Good" with native New Orleans jazz guitarist Lonnie Johnson on the Okeh Race Records label, which targeted African American audiences. New Orleans' King Oliver and Louis Armstrong also produced early recordings on the label with Armstrong eventually making music history.

Taking a different path

But Williams' recording would point him down a different path.

"Williams' work in the New York recording industry led to an invitation to move to Hollywood as a sound technician for Christy Studios," Jones writes. "Like other studios, Christy was gearing up to meet the new challenge of sound motion pictures. Al Christy, the studio head, began making a series of Black cast short films adapted from the magazine stories of Jewish writer Octavus Roy Cohen."

Christy asked Williams to write the scripts to give the dialogue a more authentic sound. By the 1930s, Williams also was acting in these films produced for Black audiences.

"Williams also wrote and appeared in the first horror film with an all-black cast, 'Son of Ingagi' (1940)," Jones writes. "In the early 1940s, Williams met Al Sack, a Dallas-based film distributor whose company, Sack Amusement Enterprises, provided 'ethnic films' for many theaters in the Southwest."

And it was in Dallas where Sack financially backed Williams in a series of feature films for Black audiences, resulting in 10 films for which Williams wrote, directed and acted.

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Spencer Williams Jr., left, is seen here with cast members Time Moore, center, and Alvin Childress, right, of the CBS teleivions series, 'The Amos 'n' Andy Show,' which ran from 1951 to 1953. Williams, a native of Vidalia, played Andy, a role that eclipsed his career as a pioneering Black filmmaker.

"Sack evidently gave Williams the freedom to shape the films as he saw fit," Jones writes. "Unlike most of the genre, Williams' films are generally faithful to reality and unmarred by stereotypes."

Probably Williams' most noted movie was the 1941 feature, "The Blood of Jesus," filmed for $5,000 by the Amegro Film Co., founded by Williams that same year. 

In the National Registry of Films

According to the nonprofit Black history website , "The Blood of Jesus" is "considered one of the most effective depictions of Black church life in the South and was selected by the United States Congress for entry into the National Registry of Films in 1991." The website also points out that Williams also composed music.

Then came 1951, when Williams landed the role of Andy.

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Spencher Williams Jr.'s headstone in the Los Angeles National Cemetery. The Vidalia native died on Sept. 13, 1969, of kidney failure at his Los Angeles home.

"Although he is best remembered for his role as slow-witted, often duped and frequently unemployed Andy, Williams later protested the demeaning public images in which Hollywood subjected Blacks to portray," states. "He pressed for more serious depictions of Blacks in motion pictures and attempted to rectify the stereotypical climate by making movies after the 'Amos 'n' Andy' series that were more in line with African American life."

But Williams' attempts failed. He died of kidney failure in his Los Angeles home on Dec. 13, 1969.

"His tombstone in the Los Angeles National Military Cemetery notes his home state as Louisiana," Wynne said. "His life is worthy of a historical marker and a book."

Email Robin Miller at romiller@theadvocate.com.