With its nightly listening audience estimated at more than 40,000,000
people during the early months of 1930, the popularity of "Amos 'n'
Andy" caused serious problems for theatre owners on the East Coast, with
the 7 pm air time coinciding with the usual start time for the first evening
movie shows. A Washington DC theatre owner is believed to have been the
first to hit upon the idea of delaying the start of his show fifteen minutes,
and presenting "Amos 'n' Andy" for his audience by means of a radio placed
on the theatre stage. This idea quickly caught on, and by February of 1930
it was common to find theatres promoting "Amos 'n' Andy" above even their
feature pictures -- as in this front-page advertisement from the 2/22/30
issue of the Dover (Maryland) Journal. The widespread advertising of the
broadcasts as a theatre attraction caught the attention of NBC's Legal
Department, which threatened theatre managers with legal action, arguing
that to charge admission to hear a free broadcast amounted to copyright
infringement. Overt advertising of the broadcasts by theatres was less
common after these threats, but there is anecdotal evidence to suggest
that the practice itself continued into 1931 in some locations.