Beulah (1950–1953) User Reviews

Wonderful show for its time

[papabear-10 · 7/10 · 25 January 2007]

With people today being so sensitive to practically everything, the tendency is to assume that "Beulah" was racist. This is simply not true.

Although a domestic, Beulah was never subservient. It was to Beulah that the family turned whenever there was a problem, and it was Beulah that always kept her cool no matter what was happening.

Its true that her boyfriend, Bill Jackson, was somewhat lazy, but even he owned a fix-it shop. It just that was never in a hurry to fix anything. He was more interested in Beulah's cooking.

Butterfly McQueen played Beulah's best friend Oriole. Oriole was scatterbrained, but sort of in the same way that Gracie Allen was scatterbrained.

None of the characters was ever demeaned, talked down to, or "dissed" (I hate that word.) Today the racism industry calls it racist simply because it depicted a black woman as a domestic. Actually, it was simply a light-hearted family comedy which reflected life in the early 50s.

Wonderful show

[ulht1 · 9/10 · 3 November 2007]

I'm white - no real life experience with non-whites until the late 50's and I was born in '46. Though no real life, I watched Amos and Andy and Beulah. What I learned from them, as they were my only contact with the subject, was: there are people with skin darker than mine, they talk slightly differently than my parents and relatives in(state I was born) but a lot like my relatives in (state we moved to just before I turned 6), some are smarter than others, they are more likely to be helpful, most of them are trustworthy (I refer to those not Kingfish/partners in small cons),they have lives like my family and me.

In other words, with only those shows as data, during the time most likely for it to happen, I had no racist beliefs and a quite positive view - which nothing later changed. I understand in the vaguest possible way the NAACP attitude, but, for me, those shows were very positive!! I firmly agree with that Hazel connection - though Hazel was not one of my favorites and Beulah was.

Probably more important because of its later influences

[actionsub · 7/10 · 12 September 2017]

With response to WMAV08's questions about its airing, "Beulah" aired on ABC, for starters. There were syndicated shows that were in more broadcast markets than ABC in 1950-52, and many times ABC would share a channel with another network. In TV's early days, channels might be dually aligned with more than one network (you still had DuMont which in the early 50s might have been more established than ABC.) Just because you were a network station didn't mean you by default would carry all their shows. (That's why on old programs you will hear a phrase like "over MOST of these same CBS stations".) That may account for the difficulty finding it in network listings. I would also hazard a guess that it cleared in few southern markets as well, in spite of the resumes of those who filled Beulah's role in the TV show. There were sly hints at how times were slowly changing for African- Americans. For instance, the opening credits had Beulah winking at the camera and saying, "Don't let nobody tell you I'm in the market for a husband. I could be, but they don't SELL husbands in the market..." Consider that line in the historical context of slavery, and it's pretty subversive. The show may play a bit to stereotypes of the time, but Beulah seems to be more of a forerunner for later "maids" like Shirley Booth's "Hazel" and especially Ann B. Davis's portrayal of Alice on "The Brady Bunch." Of course the primary successor to Beulah would be Robert Guillaume's 70's character "Benson" from "Soap". Because of the changing mores of the time, Benson's wits got him promoted from a butler to a government official in his own right in his own show.

Beulah

[mmcga59481 · 21 July 2006]

I am a baby boomer and have very fond memories of the Golden Age of Television. As a child growing up during that time, one of my favorite shows as "Beulah." It was originally aired on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 with Ethel Waters then Louise Beavers (with a different cast) as the star. The 6 or 7 TV episodes Hattie McDaniel filmed were never aired until the show went into syndication (approximately 1955). It aired locally in Cleveland, Ohio on a Monday-Friday basis from 1955-1962. Pretty long time for a syndicated show. It was extremely popular and well-liked locally by kids and their families. I am pleased to say I have audio copies of all the shows, video copies of about 9 of the shows (2 with McDaniel, 2 with Beavers, 3 with Waters). I also have 15-20 copies of the original radio show with Marlin Hurt, Hattie McDaniel and McDaniel's replacement (upon her death) Amanda Randolph (played "Mama" in "Amos-n-Andy"). I love this show!!!

I'm confused

[wmav01 · 8/10 · 13 June 2008]

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?

Try to view it through the eyes of an 8 to 10 year old

[pensman · 7/10 · 10 January 2018]

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?

"Somebody bawl for Beulah"

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 4 December 2020]

Like Amos And Andy, Beulah started out on radio and started with a white man doing an imitation of a black woman who was a maid. Beulah was a character on a number of radio shows and so popular she eventually got a show of her own.

Early television was mostly radio shows moved over to TV with established public favorites and like Amos And Andy, Beulah now had to be played by a black actress.

One thing about Beulah as you look on the credits you see an ever changing cast of regulars of the white family that employed her Beulah and her friends. Beulah was played by Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, and Louise Beavers and she had as a boyfriend handyman Bill and as her Ethel Mertz the occasionally scatterbrained Oriole.

One thing that remained constant was that Beulah was the wisest one in the house. Always tactful her wisdom got the family out of many a crisis.

Health reasons were why McDaniel quit and other commitments limited Ethel Waters. Louise Beavers finished the series up.

When you come down to it, Beulah was in many ways a black version of Hazel. Or maybe it's the other way around.

No Laugh Track for a Reason

[caspian1978 · 6/10 · 26 September 2015]

To say that The Beulah Show is simply not racist is false. Whether you are sensitive or not, the tendency to down grade what is racist or not should answer the question if something is in fact racist.

Beulah depicts a character that did exist in the 1950's suburbia America. A domestic and sometime subservient by her own choice, Beulah may not have clearly been the butt of the joke, but was part of it. She spoke her mind but never crossed the line. Generations later in the 70' and 80's the "black servant / nanny" would take a more modern look from shows like Benson and Gimme' a Break. This time, the servant would put the "white" Employer in his and her place. Here, Beulah remembers that there is a fine line not to cross in 50's white America.

Her boyfriend is depicted as lazy and uneducated. Nothing positive from his character. Beulah's best friend also had limited education and was equally lost. Compared to the "white" family (the Henderson's) that Beulah served, the only major difference most of the time was the color of their skin. Mrs. Henderson was a perfect example of the so called "white privilege." Uneducated and without skills, the Wife and Mother of the family spends most of her day not being a Mother or a Wife, then again, she has more privilege and more status than Beulah.

I think it is important that we review the Beulah Show as a serious depiction of a period piece. The audience should always ask themselves what the show is trying to inform and influence to their audience. The depiction of the black servant in post war time America is demeaned. Why is that?

I will agree with another review that the so called racism industry calls it racist simply because it depicted a black woman as a domestic. Then again, compared to Amos'n Andy, the Beulah show did not showcase any "black" actors as doctors, lawyers or business owners. Kingfish did not eat his dinner alone in the kitchen like a servant. He had his own home and had status in the black community. Beulah's existence was only to serve her "white" employers. Beulah is a reflection of a time past. Not so much of her profession but of the era that she lived in. So whether this show is high or low on the racist scale, the point is to show why it is considered racist and how to justify it with a modern perspective.

Racist Propaganda Show From a Racist Era.

[chi_town_fed · 1/10 · 30 August 2018]

Hollywood always has been and continues to be the most racist institution in modern history. Beulah is one of many films propagating black mental and physical subjugation, and white supremacy like so many others from 1930 - 1990. This subliminal technique reinforces racist stereotypes of African Americans and White Americans.

Based on this and a litany of similar films, all white Americans were once perfect families and all African Americans were poorly educated servants who's value in society was defined by the status and morals of the people they serve. The damage these covert white supremacy films caused is unquestionable. As children watched this and similar shows their sense of supremacy (white) and low self esteem (black) was being fed and cultivated for generations. Each person saw society's expectation of them in this and similar shows. Who recalls other stereotype characters such as "Huggy Bear" and "Rooster?" Look them up if you do t know who they are. The show "Beulah" is just as harmful.

All of the lipstick on Earth cannot beautify this stereotypical pig of a propaganda film. The damage this film does to the dreams and self esteem of African Americans like me is beyond measure. Add to it the damage it does to white Americans who grow up believing the "look at how perfect we are" hype. Adolf Hitler being a prime example of the dangers of belief in race-based supremacy. These films are despicable as they attempt to make the one true evil that must always be confronted by decent human beings seem pleasant.

I am what has been labeled as African American. I speak strongly against racism exhibited from any ethnic group, especially my own. I tell black associates and cousins that I won't standby and allow them to spew race-based hate, anytime they engage in it in my presence. If only everyone did the same versus pretending there is nothing to see here.

NO ONE TODAY is to blame for the ignorance portrayed in this and similar films. So let us please stop pretending there is something good about this and other "yessum" stereotype films. All I am offering is the truth and nothing more. It may be hard to accept, but the truth will set you free.

Individuals who fail to see the racism in this and similar films are living in "bliss."

Hattie McDaniel provided charming family comedy.

[mbgrossman-1 · 19 September 2005]

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.

Don't know about other episodes but

[lrek-1 · 24 January 2006]

I just watched "The Waltz" (aka "Beulah the Dance Teacher") and, in this episode at least, Beulah comes across a lot like Hazel -- the wise maid who helps the kids when the parents are completely clueless. It's not exactly a plea for tolerance, but it's not a racist minstrel show, either.

The previous reviewer got several things wrong. First, Donnie doesn't want to learn to dance to be popular with girls; he's taking a dance class (at his parents' insistence), doing badly, and doesn't want to embarrass himself at the final party ("It's gonna be brutal," he says. "I'm gonna have to dance in front of mom and dad and everyone.") Beulah and Bill tell him that dancing can be fun, and offer to show him their stuff, so Donnie puts on the waltz record he borrowed from his teacher. "I got a hunch this Madame Matilda's a square," Beulah says. " Come on, let's get something a little more groovy, a little more solid." Thus they jive.

Second, when Beulah says, "It don't seem possible, but I put my big foot in it again," it's not because of Donnie's dancing. In fact, Donnie was such a bad dancer that none of the girls in his class wanted to be his date, so Madame Matilda assigned one of the girls to go with him. But, when she had to cancel, Beulah arranged a blind date with a new girl in the neighborhood -- who turned out to be several years older and about two feet taller than Donnie.

Third, he claims that Donnie's parents were scandalized because their kid was dancing the boogie woogie. Sorry, no. At the party, Donnie is dancing the waltz with his date -- badly, tripping and falling. Beulah and Bill, serving refreshments, take pity on him and Bill puts the boogie record on the Victrola. Donnie and his teenage date get the rhythm. It's Donnie's prudish dance teacher who's scandalized. "I have never seen such a barbaric exhibition is all my life," she says. When she yells at Donnie ("You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"), the Hendersons storm out, Donnie in tow. Oh, that boogie woogie. Oh, that rock and roll. Oh, that rap music. Kids today!

Now, when a reviewer gets his facts so wrong, it makes me wonder. Has he actually seen the episode? Was he just careless? Or does he have ax to grind?

Yes, there are stereotypes here -- the father is stiff and pompous, the mother ineffectual, the dance teacher a dowager, and Oriole is dumb as a bag of rocks and has a laugh like a mouse being pulled through a keyhole. But Beulah, Bill and Donnie are as real as '50s sitcom characters got. I could hang with them.

It's always easy to look askance at earlier eras from today's oh-so-much-more-enlightened perspective. If there's overt racism in this episode, I don't see it. If you're interested, find a tape, watch it, and decide for yourself.

Beulah was way ahead of its time--7 reasons why!

[margot · 9 March 2006]

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?)

Pathetically unfunny

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 5 May 2004]

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.