Butterbeans and Susie


Butterbeans and Susie were an American comedy duo comprising Jodie Edwards and Susie Edwards. They married in 1917, and performed together until the early 1960s. Their act, a combination of marital quarrels, comic dances, and racy singing, proved popular on the Theatre Owners Booking Association tour. They later moved to vaudeville and appeared for a time with the blackface minstrel troupe the Rabbit's Foot Company.

Career

Early career and marriage

Edwards began his career in 1910 as a singer and dancer. Hawthorne performed in African-American theater. The two met in 1916, when Hawthorne was in the chorus of the show Smart Set. They married onstage the next year.
The two began performing as a comic team. They had been touring with the Theatre Owners Booking Association with an African-American husband-and-wife comedy team, Stringbeans and Sweetie May. Upon the death of Stringbeans in 1917, a TOBA promoter asked Edwards to take the stage name Butterbeans and, with his wife, take over Stringbeans and Sweetie May's act. Butterbeans and Susie appeared for the first time shortly thereafter.

Comedy act

Butterbeans and Susie's act played up the differences between the two. Susie wore elegant dresses and presented an air of composure and sexiness. Butterbeans, in contrast, played the fool, with his too-small pants and bowler hat, bow tie, tailcoat, and floppy shoes. He was loudly belligerent: "I'd whip your head every time you breathe; rough treatment is exactly what you need." However, his pugnaciousness was belied by a happy demeanor and an inability to resist Susie's charms.
Whereas Stringbeans and Sweetie May stressed song and dance, Butterbeans and Susie emphasized comedy with content that was frowned on by moralists. The typical act featured a duet, a blues song by Susie, a cakewalk dance, and a comedy sketch. Short bouts of bickering peppered the act. The humor often concerned marriage or occasionally black life in general. One of their more popular numbers was "A Married Man's a Fool If He Thinks His Wife Don't Love Nobody but Him". The act was risqué at times. One of their more popular comic songs was Susie's saucy "I Want a Hot Dog for My Roll", full of racy double entendres:
The song was accompanied by Susie's provocative dancing and Buttberbeans's call-and-response one-liners: "My dog's never cold!" "Here's a dog that's long and lean." "I Want a Hot Dog for My Roll" was one of the few songs that Okeh refused to release.
The act usually ended with a song by Susie that showed that the two really were happily married, followed by Butterbeans's trademark song-and-dance number, "The Heebie Jeebies" or "The Itch". During this dance, Butterbeans thrust his hands in his pockets and began to scratch himself in time with the music. As the tempo increased, he pulled the hands back out and scratched the rest of his body. According to Stearns, this was the moment when the audience "flipped".

Recordings and film

Butterbeans and Susie made several recordings of blues songs interspersed with comic banter for Okeh Records between 1924 and 1930.
In 1926, they made a recording with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, a mildly salacious blues number called "He Likes It Slow".
In 1960, they issued an album on King Records' Festival label.
78 RPM Singles - Okeh Records
8147AGET YOURSELF A MONKEY MAN5/27/1924
8147BWHEN MY MAN SHIMMIES5/22/1924
8163ACONSTRUCTION GANG9/12/1924
8163BA TO Z BLUES9/15/1924
8180AI CANT USE YOU9/15/1924
8180BA MARRIED MAN'S A FOOL5/22/1924
8182AKISS ME SWEET9/12/1924
8182BI GOT YOUR BATH WATER ON6/6/1924
8192AADAM AND EVE1/12/1925
8192BCONSOLATION BLUES1/12/1925
8199AHOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO GET MY LOVIN'?1/12/1925
8199BTHAT SAME DOG1/12/1925
8202ALEAVING BLUES1/12/1925
8202BDO RIGHT PAPA1/12/1925
8209ASUE I DON'T WANT YOU NO MORE5/2/1925
8209BI HAD A LONESOME JOURNEY BLUES4/20/1925
8219AHYDRANT LOVE6/1/1925
8219BBROWN SKIN GAL6/1/1925
8224AIF YOU CAN'T BRING IT YOU'VE GOT TO SEND IT6/1/1925
8224BI'LL PUT YOU UNDER THE JAIL6/1/1925
8233ADON'T START NOTHIN' HERE TONIGHT5/2/1925
8233BYOU AIN'T TALKIN' TO ME4/20/1925
8241ACOLD STORAGE PAPA6/20/1925
8241BBOW LEGGED PAPA6/16/1925
8303AYOU'RE FOLKS WILL START WEARING BLACK3/10/1926
8303BLET THE DOORKNOB HIT YOU IN THE BACK3/10/1926
8307ANOT UNTIL THEN3/10/1926
8307BNOT UNTIL THEN PT.23/10/1926
8319AMAMA STAYED OUT THE WHOLE NIGHT LONG3/10/1926
8319BTAIN'T WHAT YOU USED TO HAVE3/10/1926
8323ALOVE ME AND THE WHOLE WORLD IS MINE3/24/1926
8323BDEACON BITE 'EM IN THE BACK3/24/1926
8335ANOT TODAY, SWEET MAMA3/24/1926
8335BYOU KNOW WHY YOUR MAMA HAS THE BLUES3/24/1926
8355AI CAN'T DO THAT6/18/1926
8355BHE LIKES IT SLOW6/18/1926
8392ADA DA BLUES9/22/1926
8392BMY DADDY'S GOT THE MOJO9/22/1926
8399APAPA DON'T HOLD BACK ON ME9/22/1926
8399BSWEET PAPA BUTTERBEANS9/22/1926
8432AYES I'VE BEEN CHEATIN'12/5/1926
8432BHARD LUCK BLUES12/5/1926
8502YOU'RE A NO COUNT TRIFLIN' MAN5/6/1927
8502OH YEAH3/31/1927
8520DEAL YOURSELF ANOTHER HAND9/24/1927
8520JELLY ROLL QUEEN9/24/1927
8556TAINT NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS9/24/1927
8556GONNA MAKE YOU SORRY5/6/1927
8598THERE'S BEEN SOME CHANGES MADE6/30/1928
8598WATCH YOUR STEP6/30/1928
8614I AINT SCARED OF YOU6/27/1928
8614FAST FADIN' PAPA6/27/1928
8670THAT'S MORE THAN I CAN STAND2/21/1929
8670I WANT A GOOD MAN2/21/1929
8687GET AWAY FROM MY WINDOW2/21/1929
8687GET YOURSELF A MONKEY MAN2/21/1929
8701PUT YOUR MIND RIGHT ON IT2/21/1929
8701GONNA START LOOKING FOR A MAN TO TREAT ME RIGHT2/21/1929
8769I AIN'T GONNA DO THAT NO MORE2/1/1930
8769BETTER STOP KNOCKIN' ME AROUND2/1/1930
8833ELEVATOR PAPA8/11/1930
8833TIMES IS HARD8/11/1930
8893YOU DIRTY MISTREATER1/30/1930
8893BROKE DOWN MAMA1/30/1930
8911DEAL YOURSELF ANOTHER HAND8/13/1930
8911RADIO PAPA1/30/1930
8950APAPA AIN'T NO SANTA CLAUS8/13/1930
8950BWHAT IT TAKES TO BRING YOU BACK2/1/1930

Legacy

Susie Edwards died December 5, 1963. Jody Edwards died October 28, 1967 at the Dorchester Inn outside of Chicago IL. Butterbeans and Susie used their fame and influence to help younger black comedians. After seeing Moms Mabley in Dallas, for example, they helped her gain acceptance at better venues. Even after leaving show business, they remained friends with many black entertainers and put up down-on-their-luck comedians in their Chicago home. Stepin Fetchit stayed with them at some point in the 1950s or 1960s.