I knew that the wife of Amos was Ruby, having watched in real time every episode of Amos and Andy on tv.
The info in post #4 was certainly of use, but the claim by “Harold” in that link was more speculative than what I posted. “Harold” says he watched all the tv episodes. But he doesn’t say he listened to any or all of the radio episodes.
The writer named “Bob” almost gets it correct, saying he remembers a radio episode in which Kingfish says to Amos—I think he just confused Amos with Andy. Probably because we all agree that Amos had a wife named Ruby. That doesn’t mean that Andy couldn’t had a girlfriend named Ruby.
The writer of the Free Press article obviously talked to someone who no doubt had more information that all of us pundits. The amount of detail in the article was the clincher for me.
I’m watching the above episode now on Amazon Prime Video. During opening monologue Pamela Austin walks in. She says she wants to do a trick. She counts to 3 and then disappears. A few seconds later she reappears. Rowan and Martin ask her to do it again, She repeats the trick but this time Sammy Davis Jr. appears. That is when Sammy makes the “Ruby Begonia” joke. The way it was delivered, it seems clear that this was some sort of ongoing, possibly inside, joke in Hollywood, supported by the audience laughing (Unless it is a laugh-track). So I have to assume it originates prior to 25 March 1968.
I don’t recall hearing it in the prior 8 episodes.
By the way, so far Sammy has said “Here comes the judge” 20-30 times and I have only watched a little over half the episode.
Bumping this because I was just tending my begonia:
The phrase shows up in issuenine of the early Marvel Comics spoof, Not Brand Ecch. The cover date is August 1968, so it would probably have gone out the door in late spring or early summer. A comic book like this would have been a lagging cultural signifier, so it’s an indication that the phrase probably would have been easily recognizable at that time.