Butterbeans & Susie may not be household names but they earned a living all those years from their on-stage singing and battling in black vaudeville which was quite unlike their off-stage marital union of 50 years. Susie played the dominating, no-nonsense wife and 'Beans was the "monkey man" who couldn't live up to Sue's expectations in love-making. Their act was a standard for African American audiences and followed in the tradition of the earlier Stringbeans & Sweetie, but was much too frank and earthy for white audiences.
