Hi everyone, Will here with a solo documentary episode about a significant figure in the history of American popular culture.

At first, an amusing side character, Rochester would quickly become a core member of the show's repertory company.

By the 1940s, Rochester was a genuine multimedia star, celebrated in both the black and white presses as a goodwill

ambassador for race relations. Bridging divides at the height of Jim Crow. By the 1950s and 60s,

many regarded him as a different kind of symbol, a stereotype of black subservience in the Uncle Tom

tradition. By the time the show ended, Rochester was an American institution,

but with the civil rights movement in full swing, he was also an outmoded one. In this episode,

we're going to look back at Eddie Anderson, the most famous African American comedian of the first

half of the 20th century. What makes you think I've been crying? There's a rainbow in your little blue eye.

Anderson parlayed his stardom into well-paying live engagements at top black theaters.

And the week that Buck Benny Rides Again premiered in New York in 1940,

he was guest of honor at a parade in Harlem and also joined his castmates for another parade outside the gala premiere at the Lowe's Victoria Theater.

Anderson's Los Angeles Mansion was featured on a postcard that was popular with Black tourists.

In 1943, he had his greatest movie role as the star of Vincent Manelli's classic all-black musical Cabin in the Sky,

a movie where he was funny, sad, and even got to sing.

Life's full of consequence, that old devil consequence, he takes all the frivol out of fun.

Anderson was written about, if condescendingly, in establishment media like the New York Times,

and enjoyed a long honeymoon period with the black press.

Still, there were limits to what he could do on a radio show with a white writing staff. In the character's early years, Rochester was sometimes

prone to stealing, lying, and laziness, all tropes that would begin to rub liberal listeners the wrong

way. In the 30s and 40s, Rochester was mostly segregated from the main action of the show.

He would call Jack at the studio, or perform in scenes set at Jack's house, but there was little cause for him to interact with the rest of the show. He would call Jack at the studio or perform in scenes set at Jack's house, but there was

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