Amanda Randolph
Encyclopedia
Amanda Randolph was an American
actress and singer. She was a native of Louisville, Kentucky
, and was the older sister of actress Lillian Randolph
. She was the first African-American performer to star in a regularly scheduled network television show, appearing in DuMont's
The Laytons
. This short-lived program was on the air two months in 1948.
, where at age 14, she was earning extra money playing piano and organ. Steve Gibson, brother of Amanda and Lillian and known for his Rhythm and Blues group, the Five Red Caps, is another talented family member.
The Randolph family did a lot of moving; Amanda began her career in Cincinnati, Ohio
. About 1919-1920 she recorded several piano rolls of hot jazz and blues music for the Vocalstyle company of Cincinnati while working as a musician in Ohio's Lyric Theatre. These are the only known rolls recorded by a black female pianist, and reveal an impressive mastery of the piano. Amanda did her work for the company under the name Mandy Randolph. She is shown as the performer of "The Yellow Dog Blues", by W. C. Handy
in 1919, Vocalstyle roll # 11562. 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. Randolph also cut audio recordings, accompanied by Sammie Lewis. A record album was produced in 1996 by Document Records called, Blues & Jazz Obscurities (1923-1931), containing the six duets the pair produced. Still working under the name Mandy Randolph, she recorded "Cootie Crawl" (G11425) on April 30, 1923 and "I Got Another Lovin' Daddy" for Gennett Records
.
She was invited to join the Sissle
and Blake
musical, Shuffle Along
, in New York in 1924 and went on to do Lucky Sambo as one of the Three Dixie Songbirds (sharing the bill with Tim Moore
). in 1925, she was part of Sissle and Blake's The Chocolate Dandies. Randolph then worked in musicals at New York's Alhambra Theater until 1930, following that with work in Europe and England for a year. Amanda worked on the vaudeville
and burlesque
circuits as a comedienne and as a singer, noting that Abbott and Costello also got their start the same way. 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. She then returned to performing, playing piano at a Greenwich Village
club called The Black Cat. Amanda made more records, this time recording for Bluebird Records
. The label began in 1932 and was owned by RCA Victor Records. She did the vocals with her own band, billed as Amanda Randolph and her Orchestra. 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). She also recorded "After Hours"; some of these songs can be heard on radio station KBRD which also broadcasts on the internet.
films, among them: Swing, Lying Lips
and The Notorious Elinor Lee
. Broadway
roles in The Male Animal and Harlem Cavalcade soon followed. Around the same time, Randolph broke into radio, helped by people she met at The Clam House, who got her a CBS
audition. She began working on various radio shows: Young Dr. Malone, Romance of Helen Trent and Big Sister. Amanda went on to become a regular cast member on Abie's Irish Rose
, Kitty Foyle, and Miss Hattie with Ethel Barrymore
, where she had the role of Venus. Amanda also appeared on Rudy Vallée
's radio show and on Grand Central Station
.
She continued working in film
s to the 1960s, and was one of the first black women to become a comedy favorite on television
. She briefly starred in her own daytime music
al TV program for DuMont, Amanda, during the 1948 - 1949 season, making her the first African-American woman with her own show on daytime television. Randolph did not settle in California until 1949, when she earned a role in Sidney Poitier
's No 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. She then became a regular on the top early black TV show of the decade, Amos 'n' Andy
, 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. Amanda was now working with her sister, Lillian, who played Madame Queen on the radio and television shows. She was the star and titular character in Beulah from 1953 to 1954, assuming the role from Lillian. Randolph also did some work for CBS Radio Workshop in 1956, playing the role of the folk heroine Annie Christmas in The Legend of Annie Christmas. She also had a recurring role as Louise the maid on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show
and appeared in the show's 1967 reunion. (The show was aired shortly after her death.) She guest starred on the NBC
anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
. In 1955, Amanda opened a restaurant in Los Angeles called "Mama's Place", where she did the cooking.
Despite all her film and television work, Amanda found herself slightly short of the requirements for a much-needed Screen Actors Guild
pension at age 70; both sisters struggled for roles in the late 1930s. A role was written for her to gain eligibility.
in Duarte, California
on August 24, 1967, aged 70. She is survived by a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Evelyn, and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
beside her sister, Lillian. However, her grave says she was born in September 21, 1896, and she died in August 23, 1967.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress and singer. She was a native of Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, and was the older sister of actress Lillian Randolph
Lillian Randolph
Lillian Randolph was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. An African American, she worked in entertainment from the 1930s well into the 1970s, appearing in hundreds of radio shows, motion pictures, short subjects, and television shows.-Early years:Born...
. She was the first African-American performer to star in a regularly scheduled network television show, appearing in DuMont's
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
The Laytons
The Laytons
The Laytons was an early American television program broadcast on the now defunct DuMont Television Network.-Broadcast history:The series ran from August to October 1948, and was one of the first network television series to feature an African-American performer in a regular role.The Laytons was a...
. This short-lived program was on the air two months in 1948.
Music, comedy and acting
The daughter of a Methodist minister and a teacher, she spent some early years in Cleveland, OhioCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, where at age 14, she was earning extra money playing piano and organ. Steve Gibson, brother of Amanda and Lillian and known for his Rhythm and Blues group, the Five Red Caps, is another talented family member.
The Randolph family did a lot of moving; Amanda began her career in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. About 1919-1920 she recorded several piano rolls of hot jazz and blues music for the Vocalstyle company of Cincinnati while working as a musician in Ohio's Lyric Theatre. These are the only known rolls recorded by a black female pianist, and reveal an impressive mastery of the piano. Amanda did her work for the company under the name Mandy Randolph. She is shown as the performer of "The Yellow Dog Blues", by W. C. Handy
W. C. Handy
William Christopher Handy was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues"....
in 1919, Vocalstyle roll # 11562. 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. Randolph also cut audio recordings, accompanied by Sammie Lewis. A record album was produced in 1996 by Document Records called, Blues & Jazz Obscurities (1923-1931), containing the six duets the pair produced. Still working under the name Mandy Randolph, she recorded "Cootie Crawl" (G11425) on April 30, 1923 and "I Got Another Lovin' Daddy" for Gennett Records
Gennett Records
Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s.-Label history:Gennett records was founded in Richmond, Indiana by the Starr Piano Company, and released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers: Harry, Fred and Clarence Gennett....
.
She was invited to join the Sissle
Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...
and Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
musical, Shuffle Along
Shuffle Along
Shuffle Along is the first major successful African American musical. Written by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, the musical premiered on Broadway in 1921.-Plot:...
, in New York in 1924 and went on to do Lucky Sambo as one of the Three Dixie Songbirds (sharing the bill with Tim Moore
Tim Moore (comedian)
Tim Moore was a celebrated American vaudevillian and comic actor of the first half of the 20th century. He gained his greatest recognition in the starring role of George "Kingfish" Stevens in the CBS television series, Amos 'n' Andy...
). in 1925, she was part of Sissle and Blake's The Chocolate Dandies. Randolph then worked in musicals at New York's Alhambra Theater until 1930, following that with work in Europe and England for a year. Amanda worked on the vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
and burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
circuits as a comedienne and as a singer, noting that Abbott and Costello also got their start the same way. 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. She then returned to performing, playing piano at a Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
club called The Black Cat. Amanda made more records, this time recording for Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter the American Record Company in the "3 records for a dollar" market. Along with ARC's Perfect Records, Melotone Records and Romeo Records, and the independent US Decca label, Bluebird became one of the best...
. The label began in 1932 and was owned by RCA Victor Records. She did the vocals with her own band, billed as Amanda Randolph and her Orchestra. 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). She also recorded "After Hours"; some of these songs can be heard on radio station KBRD which also broadcasts on the internet.
Films, radio and television
Her film career began in 1936 with Black Network. She went on to do several Oscar MicheauxOscar Micheaux
Oscar Devereaux Micheaux was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films...
films, among them: Swing, Lying Lips
Lying Lips
Lying Lips is a 1939, melodrama, race movie by Oscar Micheaux, starring Edna Mae Harris, and Robert Earl Jones .Lying Lips was the thirty-seventh film of Micheaux.-Plot:...
and The Notorious Elinor Lee
The Notorious Elinor Lee
The Notorious Elinor Lee is a race film directed, written, and co-produced by the African American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.-Plot:Elinor Lee, a gangster’s moll living in the Harlem section of New York City, has signed up-and-coming boxer Benny Blue to a 10-year contract...
. Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
roles in The Male Animal and Harlem Cavalcade soon followed. Around the same time, Randolph broke into radio, helped by people she met at The Clam House, who got her a CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
audition. She began working on various radio shows: Young Dr. Malone, Romance of Helen Trent and Big Sister. Amanda went on to become a regular cast member on Abie's Irish Rose
Abie's Irish Rose
Abie's Irish Rose is a popular comedy by Anne Nichols familiar from stage productions, films and radio programs. The basic premise involves an Irish Catholic girl and a young Jewish man who marry despite the objections of their families.-Theater and films:...
, Kitty Foyle, and Miss Hattie with Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
, where she had the role of Venus. Amanda also appeared on Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
's radio show and on Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station (radio)
Grand Central Station was an American anthology radio series which had a long run on the major networks from 1937 to 1954. Produced by Himan Brown, Martin Horrell and others, the story content ranged from romantic comedies to lightweight dramas....
.
She continued working in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s to the 1960s, and was one of the first black women to become a comedy favorite on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. She briefly starred in her own daytime music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
al TV program for DuMont, Amanda, during the 1948 - 1949 season, making her the first African-American woman with her own show on daytime television. Randolph did not settle in California until 1949, when she earned a role in Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...
's No Way Out
No Way Out
-Film and television:*No Way Out , starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier*No Way Out , starring Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman*WWE No Way Out, an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event...
. 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. She then became a regular on the top early black TV show of the decade, Amos 'n' Andy
Amos 'n' Andy
Amos 'n' Andy is a situation comedy set in the African-American community. It was very popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s on both radio and television....
, 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. Amanda was now working with her sister, Lillian, who played Madame Queen on the radio and television shows. She was the star and titular character in Beulah from 1953 to 1954, assuming the role from Lillian. Randolph also did some work for CBS Radio Workshop in 1956, playing the role of the folk heroine Annie Christmas in The Legend of Annie Christmas. She also had a recurring role as Louise the maid on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show is an American sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS...
and appeared in the show's 1967 reunion. (The show was aired shortly after her death.) She guest starred on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential...
. In 1955, Amanda opened a restaurant in Los Angeles called "Mama's Place", where she did the cooking.
Despite all her film and television work, Amanda found herself slightly short of the requirements for a much-needed Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
pension at age 70; both sisters struggled for roles in the late 1930s. A role was written for her to gain eligibility.
Death
Randolph died of a strokeStroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in Duarte, California
Duarte, California
Duarte is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 21,321, down from 21,486 at the 2000 census....
on August 24, 1967, aged 70. She is survived by a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Evelyn, and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...
beside her sister, Lillian. However, her grave says she was born in September 21, 1896, and she died in August 23, 1967.
External links
- Amanda Randolph Movies & TV New York Times
- Index of radio shows Amanda Randolph performed in David Goldin
Watch
- Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy at Internet Movie Database-Video by Hulu
- 'Lying Lips' at Archive.org
Listen
- The Beulah Show at Internet Archive-1954.