Beulah

Some TV watchers get extremely annoyed by the phenomenon which they call 'same character, different actor'. I've never understood why they go into high moral outrages about this. I quite agree that Dick York was a better Darren Stephens (on 'Bewitched') than Dick Sargent, but I also feel that an episode of 'Bewitched' with 'the wrong Darren' is still better than no 'Bewitched' at all. Maybe some TV-watchers object to 'same character, different actor' because it forces them to confront the fact that TV isn't actually real life.

The vintage TV sitcom 'Beulah' must infuriate such people: during the run of this TV series, the lead role was played by four different actresses ... and every other recurring role in 'Beulah' was recast at least once during the sitcom's four-year run. Even more bizarrely, the title character - an African-American woman - had originally been played (on radio) by a white male!

'Beulah' was a spinoff from the popular radio sitcom 'Fibber McGee and Molly'. The homespun McGees, of Wistful Vista, employed a sassy black maidservant named Beulah. This being radio, Beulah was voiced by a white male actor named Marlin Hurt, who dressed normally (no blackface, no drag) and began each live-studio radio transmission standing with his back to the microphone. Eventually, actor Jim Jordan (Fibber McGee) would summon the maid by calling: 'Oh, Beulah!' This was Hurt's cue to spin round and shout directly into the mike his high-pitched catchphrase: 'Who dat bawlin' fo' Beulah?' The studio audience, astonished to hear this ostensibly Negress voice emerging from a white man, would always react in surprised laughter. At the end of each episode of 'Fibber McGee', the radio announcer would always read off the cast credits - including Marlin Hurt as Beulah - yet audiences were continually surprised that this recurring character was played by a white male.

Eventually, actor Hurt received his own spinoff radio sitcom, 'Beulah', in which the McGees' black servant went to work for the wholesome Henderson family. Like many other popular radio programmes of the late 1940s, this sitcom was eventually adapted for television. But 'Beulah' - like "Amos 'n' Andy", for the same reason - required racially authentic casting for its transition to video.

The tv series 'Beulah' originally starred Ethel Waters, in Hurt's original part as the Hendersons' maid/cook: this demeaning role was the only steady employment the talented Waters could get at this time. Waters eventually left in disgust, to be replaced by Hattie McDaniels: one of the first Oscar winners to star in series tv, McDaniels was ill and needed the money. After starring in only six episodes of 'Beulah', McDaniels died and was replaced by Louise Beavers, a much less talented performer than Waters or McDaniels. Eventually, Beavers also got tired of the 'yassuh!' dialogue, and she was replaced by Amanda Randolph (who?).

What's really offensive about 'Beulah' isn't the minstrel-show repartee or Beulah's subservience to her white employers the Hendersons, but the fact that the scripts continually had the well-meaning but stupid Beulah causing problems which were invariably solved by her wise caucasian employers. (Beulah's white massah was a respectable suburban lawyer named Harry Henderson, no relation to the title character in 'Harry and the Hendersons'.) In a typical episode, son Donnie Henderson thinks he'll be more popular with girls if he learns how to dance ... so Beulah and her boyfriend (handyman Bill Jackson) taught Donnie to dance. Unfortunately, being stereotyped Negroes in a 1950s sitcom, Bill and Beulah give Donnie lessons in boogie-woogie and jive. Donnie's parents, being respectable white folks in a 1950s sitcom, are scandalised. Beulah moans: 'I put my big foot into it again.' (All of the actresses who played Beulah were hefty, and much of the sitcom's alleged humour was derived from this.)

The role of Bill, slightly less yassuhfied than Beulah, was originally played by Ernest Whitman but was recast with Dooley Wilson, the immortal piano-playing Sam of 'Casablanca'. Wilson did his own singing, but he was in fact unable to play piano: in 'Beulah' and in 'Casablanca', his piano-playing was dubbed.

The family next-door over to the Hendersons also employ a black maid, named Oriole. (Is that meant to be funny?) Oriole was originally played by Butterfly McQueen, the most annoying black performer I've ever seen. Why is she named Butterfly, when she has the voice and cheeks of a chipmunk? The role of Oriole was later recast with Ruby Dandridge, somewhat less annoying. The resident director for this series was Jean Yarbrough, a prolific but untalented hack who worked with some of Hollywood's major comedians yet who ruined everything he touched. Many of the performers in 'Beulah', black and white, did splendid work elsewhere ... but none of them are worth watching here. I'm tempted to rate 'Beulah' zero points out of 10, but I have a deep passion for the artefacts of early television, so I'll rate this racist rubbish one point in 10.

I am charmed and impressed by the arguments of F. Gwynplaine McIntyre, above. (Also charmed by the clever pseudonym--a fan of both Victor Hugo *and* The Munsters, eh?) But honestly...isn't "racist" a little rough and anachronistic when describing an early 50s sitcom? "Racisme" was a obscurantist cant word invented by Stalinists in Paris circa 1946, and it didn't hit the English-speaking world till about 1970.

And even if we translate the word the way Gwynplaine presumably intends--as a stand-in for "prejudiced" or "biased"--the argument is preposterous. Beulah and her ilk were not cringing, shuffling darkies at all. They were proud and capable Negro folk, and in fact much of the routine humor of the series came out of the juxtaposition between their honestly and adeptness, and that of the white folks who lived in parallel. Every time the man of the house got sick, the doctor came over and prescribed a diet of milktoast. You never saw the colored people having to eat milktoast. When the boy in the series wanted help or advice he didn't go to Mr. Milktoast, no, he went to that Negro boxing coach over the fence, the one who dispensed wisdom out the side of his sassy satchel-mouth; or he went to one of Beulah's friends.

Really, it was precisely the same setup as the TV show 'Hazel' a few years later; though of course Hazel was a white American maid and the cast of characters wasn't nearly as colorful (pun not intended--though it brings up a good point: where were all the black people circa 1958-1965?)

Beulah had an incarnation as a radio program before television picked it up. The people who complained about its portrayal of African Americans in a negative manner perhaps did not listen or watch. The white family for whom Beulah worked invariably got into dilemmas they were too dumb to resolve on their own. A basic recurring theme is that they were rescued by Beulah's ingenuity and common sense. McDaniel was a delightful comedienne as she pulled her "family" away from troubles and mischief. Beulah clearly maintained an affection for the benighted family and they appreciated her. McDaniel's reputation was enhanced by this role.

I'm not sure you can review this show or Amos and Andy by 2018 "racial sensibilities." Beulah was a maid, an anomaly in the households of 99 percent of the country, who pretty much raised the Hendersons' son Donnie with the help of her friends. The humor was gentle and the show ran on ABC in the 7:30 slot. The "Seven to Eight" hour was one pretty much ignored by adults but was prized by kids. On the DuMont Television Network ran one of the best shows ever for kids: Captain Video and his Video Rangers. Beulah followed on ABC and retained a lot of the kids. That kids' audience is now in their 70's and I doubt many recall Beulah clearly. I can't recall Captain Video all that clearly either.

Thanks to the Internet and the plethora of cable networks, some of these old shows rise to the surface once again. For me many bring back some good attached memories; some make me wince seeing the cheap sets and terrible acting. I am left to wonder what synapsis in my brain were connected/created to shape the person I am today. Did the vestigial images of Beulah from decades past shape my view of Blacks today? I don't know but I still get a smile when I see Beulah or Amos and Andy. If that's the take-a-way, then I don't see any problems. I know I don't appreciate it when someone suggests I enjoy those shows because I harbor racist views. Beulah was nice, she was loyal to her friends, always tried to follow her heart and do the right thing. What was wrong with that picture?

I've picked up a few of these episodes from the internet archive of public domain shows. These episodes star Louise Beavers, and I believe they are from 1952. I can't find a good episode list but according to IMDb there were 3 more Beulahs besides Louise Beavers, including Hattie McDaniel from "Gone with the Wind", Ethel Waters, and Amanda Rudolph all in a 3 year period. Why so many changes? I know Hattie McDaniel died in 52, but I still can't believe a show with so many main character changes, let alone the fact she was black in the 50's would stay on TV. Stranger still I have a spattering of early TV listings from 1952 and 1953, this show is not in any evening lineup. Was this some kind of show syndicated to different markets? Any experts out there can educate me?