Amanda E. Randolph (September 2, 1896 – August 24, 1967) was an American actress and singer. She was the first African-American performer to star in a regularly scheduled network television show, appearing inDuMont'sThe Laytons.
The Randolph family moved frequently. At the age of 14, Randolph began earning extra money playing the piano and organ inCleveland, Ohio.[5]Around 1919, she moved toCincinnati, Ohio, where she recorded severalpiano rolls of hot jazz and blues music for theVocalstyle company of Cincinnati while working as a musician in Ohio's Lyric Theatre.[6] These are the only known rolls recorded by a black female pianist. Randolph did her work for the company under the name Mandy Randolph. She is shown as the performer of "The Yellow Dog Blues", byW. C. Handy in 1919, Vocalstyle roll # 11562.[7][8][9] Randolph also wrote music she recorded for the Vocalstyle company; she is shown as both the performer and composer of "I'm Gonna Jazz My Way Right Straight Thru Paradise", and as the co-author of "Cryin' Blues" with H. C. Washington.[10]
Randolph also cut audio recordings, accompanied by Sammie Lewis. A record album was produced in 1996 byDocument Records called,Blues & Jazz Obscurities (1923–1931), containing the six duets the pair produced.[11] Still working under the name Mandy Randolph, she recorded "Cootie Crawl" (G11425) on April 30, 1923,[12] and "I Got Another Lovin' Daddy" forGennett Records.[13]
She was invited to join theSissle andBlake musical,Shuffle Along, in New York in 1924 and went on to doLucky Sambo as one of the Three Dixie Songbirds (sharing the bill with its star,Tim Moore, whom she later appeared with onThe Amos 'n' Andy Show from 1951 to 1953).[14][15] in 1925, she was part of Sissle and Blake'sThe Chocolate Dandies.[16] Randolph then worked in musicals at New York'sAlhambra Theater until 1930,[17] following that with work in Europe and England for a year.[6][18][19][20]
Randolph worked on thevaudeville andburlesque circuits as a comedian[21] and as a singer, noting that Abbott and Costello also got their start the same way.[6][22][23] Randolph took a four-year hiatus from show business in 1932; she married and helped her husband run their restaurant in New York called The Clam House, which was a favorite of those in the entertainment industry.[18][24] She then returned to performing, playing piano at aGreenwich Village club called The Black Cat.[25][26] She continued recording forBluebird Records, a label created in 1932 and owned byRCA Victor Records. She did the vocals with her own band, billed as Amanda Randolph and her Orchestra.[27][28] The records were made in New York City on October 8, 1936. On that date, Amanda cut: "Please Don't Talk About My Man" (Bluebird 6615), "Doin' The Suzie-Q" (Bluebird 6615), "Honey, Please Don't Turn Your Back On Me" (Bluebird 6616), "For Sentimental Reasons" (Bluebird 6617), "He May Be Your Man But" (Bluebird 6617), and "I've Got Something In My Eye", (Bluebird 6619-B).[27][28][29] She also recorded "After Hours"; some of these songs can be heard on radio stationKBRD which also broadcasts on the internet.[30]
Amanda Randolph as "Beulah" withErnest Whitman, who played her boyfriend "Bill" on theradio show
Randolph's film career began in 1936 withBlack Network.[31][32] She went on to do severalOscar Micheaux films, among them:Swing,Lying Lips andThe Notorious Elinor Lee.[33][34]Broadway roles inThe Male Animal andHarlem Cavalcade soon followed.[35][36] Around the same time, Randolph broke into radio, helped by people she met at The Clam House, who got her aCBS audition. She began working on various radio shows:Young Dr. Malone,Romance of Helen Trent and Big Sister.[37]
She continued working in films until the 1960s, and was one of the first African-American women to become a comedy favorite on television. Randolph and the trio The Three Barons appeared over CBS-TV in 1944, and she was the first African-American performer to star in a regularly scheduled network television show, appearing inDuMont'sThe Laytons.[41][42] This short-lived program was on the air two months in 1948.[43][44][45][46]
Although sometimes uncredited, Randolph was the voice of Petunia inFamous Studios' popularLittle Audrey. The following is a list of cartoons in which Randolph voiced Petunia:
Butterscotch and Soda (1948)
The Lost Dream (1949)
Song of the Birds (1949)
Hold the Lion, Please (1951)
Audrey the Rainmaker (1951)
During the 1948-49 television season, Randolph starred for about a year in her own daytimemusical TV program for DuMont,Amanda, which aired Mon-Fridays from 12noon to 12:15pm ET, making her the first African-American woman with her own show on daytime television.[47][48] Randolph did not settle in California until 1949, when she earned a role inSidney Poitier'sNo Way Out. Even though she was working in New York and her younger sister,Lillian, had been working in Hollywood for some time, newspapers often got the two sisters mixed up, doing a story on Amanda but with a photo of Lillian and vice versa.[6][18][34] She then became a regular on the early TV series,The Amos 'n' Andy Show, as Sapphire's mother, Ramona Smith, from 1951 to 1953; she also played the same role for the show's radio version from 1951 to 1954.[49]
Randolph then began working with her sister, Lillian, who played Madame Queen on the radio and television shows. She was the star and titular character inThe Beulah Show from 1953 to 1954, assuming the role from Lillian.[42][50] Randolph also did some work forCBS Radio Workshop in 1956, playing the role of the folk heroine Annie Christmas inThe Legend of Annie Christmas.[51]
Randolph had a recurring role as Louise the Maid onCBS'sThe Danny Thomas Show and appeared in the show's 1967 reunion program, which aired shortly after her death.[43][52] She guest-starred on theNBCanthology series,The Barbara Stanwyck Show. In 1955, Amanda opened a restaurant in Los Angeles called "Mama's Place", where she did the cooking.[53]
Despite all her film and television work, Randolph found herself slightly short of the requirements for a much-neededScreen Actors Guild pension at the age of 70 (both sisters had struggled for roles in the late 1930s). A role was written for her to gain eligibility.[54][55][56]
She married Harry Hansberry sometime after 1940. Hansberry was the owner of the "Hansberry's Clam House" (aka "Edith's Clam House") at 146 West 133rd Street,New York City's most famous gayspeakeasy in Harlem,[57] The couple had two children before separating, and they remained estranged until Hansberry died of a heart attack in 1961.[58]
