Amanda Randolph

• Name — Amanda Randolph • Birth Name — Amanda E. Randolph • Born — 2 September 1896 • Birthplace — Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. • Died — 24 August 1967 • Place of death — Duarte, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills • Other Names — Mandy Randolph • Occupation — Actress, singer, pianist • Years Active — 1919–1967 • Spouse — Arthur Sherman (m.1918–?) Harry Hansberry (m.?–1961) • Children — 2 • Relatives — Lillian Randolph (sister) Barbara Randolph (niece)

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 the piano and 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, whom she later appeared with on The Amos 'n' Andy Show from 1951 to 1953). 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. Randolph worked on the vaudeville and burlesque circuits as a comedian and as a singer, noting that Abbott and Costello also got their start the same way. Randolph took a four-year hiatus from show business in 1932; she married and helped her husband run their restaurant in New York called The Clam House, which was a favorite of those in the entertainment industry. She then returned to performing, playing piano at a Greenwich Village club called The Black Cat. She continued recording for Bluebird Records, a label created in 1932 and owned by RCA Victor Records. She did the vocals with her own band, billed as Amanda Randolph and her Orchestra. The records were made in New York City on October 8, 1936. On that date, Amanda cut: "Please Don't Talk About My Man" (Bluebird 6615), "Doin' The Suzie-Q" (Bluebird 6615), "Honey, Please Don't Turn Your Back On Me" (Bluebird 6616), "For Sentimental Reasons" (Bluebird 6617), "He May Be Your Man But" (Bluebird 6617), and "I've Got Something In My Eye", (Bluebird 6619-B). She also recorded "After Hours"; some of these songs can be heard on radio station KBRD which also broadcasts on the internet.

She married Harry Hansberry sometime after 1940. Hansberry was the owner of the "Hansberry's Clam House" (aka "Edith's Clam House") at 146 West 133rd Street, New York City's most famous gay speakeasy in Harlem, The couple had two children before separating, and they remained estranged until Hansberry died of a heart attack in 1961.

Randolph died of a stroke in Duarte, California, on August 24, 1967, aged 70. She is survived by a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Evelyn. She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills beside her sister, Lillian.

• Comes Midnight (1940)

• Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy Video by Hulu • "Lying Lips (1939)" at Archive.org

• The Beulah Show at Internet Archive-1954.

Amanda Randolph is recorded as actress, singer-songwriter, composer, jazz musician and comedian.