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Elevator Papa, Switchboard Mama

Butterbeans & Susie

Jodie Edwards, Susie Hawthorne

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This record was made in New York City on August 11th 1930 with Jodie 'Butterbeans' Edwards and Susie Edwards vocals, accompanied by Eddie Heywood on piano.

The husband and wife vaudeville act billed as "Butterbeans & Susie" may not have quite ranked among the most well known artists at least not in white households, but beginning in the early '20s they were the top comedic music act on the black touring circuit. Jodie "Butterbeans" Edwards and Susie Hawthorne traveled a route from New York, to Chicago, to Detroit with great success continuing throughout the '50s. As masters of the double entendre duet characteristic of Hokum, Susie's stage persona would serve as the model for dozens of other dominant females on record and film later in the 20th century. Jodie Edwards played the humorously inadequate husband to a tee. The comic setup was a common one in both the white and black entertainment community, but their performances were considered too sexually suggestive for most white audiences of the day. "Butterbeans & Susie" recorded extensively (particularly for the OKeh label) through the 1920s before returning to the stage with the onset of the Great Depression.