Cover Art by: Gail Nobles

Hello! I'm Gail Nobles, and I hope you're enjoying Amos and Andy. I'm going to talk about Ernestine Wade; was best known for playing the role of Sapphire Stevens on both the radio and TV version of the Amos and Andy show. She enjoyed playing the demanding and manipulative wife of George Kingfish Stevens.

Ernestine began playing Sapphire Stevens in 1939, but originally came to the Amos and Andy radio show in the role Valada Green, a lady who believes she had married Andy.

One of the episodes that Ernestine Wade played in from Amos and Andy as Sapphire is Sapphire Disappears (1951). It was so funny.After Sapphire and her mama go missing Kingfish got scared and started thinking the worst. The first thing he does is call Amos and Andy telling them to rush to see him because it was a matter of life and death death.

When they got to Kingfish, he said, “Boy, my wife done disappeared!”

He makes me laugh. His eyebrows raised up and his eyes were full of fear. Kingfish really believed that something had happened to Sapphire. He went all out of his way to find out if anything was going on.

Andy said, “Maybe Sapphire don't runoff with some man.”

And Kingfish had a very funny response. He said, “Don't be silly Andy. Anybody that would runoff with her is under lock and key.”

But see, what it was, Sapphire was with her mother. Her mother wanted her to stay away from Kingfish until he found a job. Sapphire went away with her mother to go to Miami.
Kingfish and Andy took the subway to Brooklyn. I won't tell you the whole story but it was really funny.

Look for the television episode Sapphire Disappears. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. It will make you laugh.

In a 1979 interview, Ernestine said that she would often be stopped by strangers who recognized her from the television show saying, “I know who you, are and I want to ask you is that your real husband?”

They were asking about her TV husband Tim Moore. She had frame signed photos from the members of the Amos and Andy television cast. Tim Moore wrote the following on his photo: My best wishes to my darling battle ax from the Kingfish Tim Moore.”

I'm Gail Nobles. Today's topic: Ernestine Wade as Sapphire.