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.
