Amanda Randolph

Amanda Randolph
Randolph as "Beulah" on radio show of the same name
Born	(1896-09-02)September 2, 1896 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	August 24, 1967(1967-08-24) (aged 70) Duarte, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
Nationality	American
Other names	Mandy Randolph
Occupation	Actress, singer, pianist
Years active	1919–1967
Spouse(s)	Arthur Sherman (m.1918–?) Harry Hansberry (m.?–1961)
Children	2
Relatives	Lillian Randolph (sister)

Amanda E. Randolph (September 2, 1896 – August 24, 1967) was an American actress, singer and musician. She was the first African-American performer to star in a regularly scheduled network television show, appearing in DuMont's The Laytons.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Randolph was the daughter of a Methodist minister and a teacher. She had a younger sister, Lillian who also became an actress.

The Randolph family moved frequently. At the age of 14, Randolph began earning extra money playing piano and the organ in Cleveland, Ohio. Around 1919, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where 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. Randolph 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 its star, 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.