'The Beulah Show' - Beulah Goes Gardening (1952)

★★★★ · Amazing · Philosopher Jay · 2009-05-17

This was the first American television series to feature a Black actress in the lead role. Like "Amos and Andy" it started in 1950 and lasted one year longer than "Amos and Andy" until 1953. It is the only show that was really integrated. While the show may be considered racist for showing Beulah as a stereotypical maid in a white household, we should remember that this reflected a large part of society at the time. The show is funny and sweet once you get past the stereotypical premise. I remember seeing the show in the afternoons on television. Since it went off the air in 1953, the year of…

★★★★ · Hattie McDonald was first class · ERD. · 2010-04-12

Hattie McDonald was a wonderful actress. I enjoy seeing anything she is in. While "The Beulah show" may now be considered racist sterotyping, I feel Hattie gave her character dignity and sweetness.

★★★★ · Reminiscent of South Africa · skilpad · 2010-03-19

It's scary how similar the programme and its racial views were to my upbringing in South Africa in the 1980's. The whole issue of a white family with the black servants, the gardener (who we would have called the garden boy), Beulah bringing the food through to the dinner table etc... was almost like a flash back.

★★★ · "Somebody bawl for Beaulah?" · Shadows_Girl · 2008-05-14

"Beaulah" was a spin-off character from the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio program which you can find elsewhere here. What most peop[le don't know is that, on radio, the voice of Beaulah was actually supplied by Marlon Hurt---a white GUY. (You know now why you hear the gasps of laughter from the radio audience when Beaulah first begins to speak, don'tcha? Marlon had a habit of standing with his back to the microphone (and the audience) until he had to deliver his first line. I give it three stars for its historical value as a TV show.

★★★ · I started with Beulah in the 1940's on RADIO · The Bridge · 2010-11-23

After Grammer school at Normandie Ave and Santa Monica Blvd, my friend and I would walk to his house just two doors west of where they did the recording of the Beulah Show in a store front building on the south side of Fountain Avenue just west of Normandie Avenue. I remember very vividly a very NICE Marvin Miller (the announcer) and of course the very kind lady who kept telling my friend and I to stay in school and do good, Hattie McDaniel. They recorded the show on transcription. Sometimes we had all the chairs filled, maybe twenty of them, and other times just my friend and I were there.…

110A assignment 1 · Jasmin.williams · 2013-08-22

Title: The Beulah Show Episode: Beulah Goes Gardening “Beulah Goes Gardening.” Narr. Hattie McDaniel. Writ. Nathaniel Curtis. Dir. Richard L. Bare. Perf. Hattie McDaniel, Enerst Whiteman, David Bruce, Stuffy Singer. Prod. Hal Roach Studios. The Beulah Show. ABC. Los Angeles Affiliate. KECA-TV (MLA Format) In many ways The Beulah Show followed the trending production of hybrid entertainment common in the 1950s. While original in terms of showcasing the first prominent female role for a Black Womyn as the star; it followed a growing trend of radio programming migrating into television…