| ZaSu Pitts | |
| Birth Date: | 3 January 1894 |
| Birth Place: | Parsons, Kansas, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Holy Cross Cemetery |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1917–1963 |
| Children: | 2 |
| Signature: | File:1926 Signature of Zasu Pitts, silent film actress (SAYRE 1715) (cropped).jpg |
ZaSu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, starred in many silent film dramas, such as Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic Greed, and comedies, beforetransitioning successfully to mostly comedy roles with the advent of sound films. She also appeared on numerous radio shows and, later, made her mark on television. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 at 6554 Hollywood Blvd.
ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas, the third of four children of Rulandus and Nelly (née Shay) Pitts. Her father, who had lost a leg while serving in the 76th New York Infantry in the Civil War, had settled the family in Kansas before ZaSu's birth.
The names of her father's sisters, Eliza and Susan, were purportedly the basis for the name "ZaSu", i.e., to satisfy competing family interests. It has been (incorrectly) spelled as Zazu Pitts in some film credits and news articles. Although the name is commonly mispronounced or, or, in her 1963 book Candy Hits (pg. 15), published the year of her death, the actress gave the correct pronunciation as "Say Zoo", recounting that Mary Pickford had predicted "many will mispronounce it", and adding, "How right she was."
However, when introducing herself on the September 4, 1952 episode of I've Got a Secret, she herself pronounced it as Zay-zoo. Her comedy series partner Thelma Todd also clearly addresses her as Zay-zoo in the hospital room scene of Alum and Eve (1932).
In 1903, when Pitts was nine years old, her family moved to Santa Cruz, California, to seek a warmer climate and better job opportunities. Her childhood home at 208 Lincoln Street still stands. She attended Santa Cruz High School, where she participated in school theatricals.
Pitts made her stage debut in 1914–15 doing school and local community theater in Santa Cruz. Going to Los Angeles in 1916, at the age of 22, she spent many months seeking work as a film extra. Finally, she was discovered for substantive roles in films by screenwriter Frances Marion, who cast Pitts as an orphaned slavey (child of work) in the silent film A Little Princess (1917), starring Pickford.
Pitts's popularity grew following a series of Universal one-reeler comedies, and earned her first feature-length lead in King Vidor's Better Times (1919). The following year she married her first husband, Tom Gallery, with whom she was paired in several films, including Heart of Twenty (1920), Bright Eyes, Patsy (both 1921) and A Daughter of Luxury (1922).
Pitts enjoyed her greatest fame in the early 1930s, often starring in B movies and comedy short films, teamed with Thelma Todd. She played secondary parts in many films. Her stock persona (a fretful, flustered, worried spinster) made her instantly recognizable and was often imitated in cartoons and other films. She starred in a number of Hal Roach short films and features, often in partnership with Thelma Todd as two trouble-prone working girls. At Universal she co-starred in a series of feature-length comedies with Slim Summerville. Switching between comedy short films and features, by the advent of sound, she became a specialist in comedy roles.
ZaSu Pitts had hidden talents as a dramatic actress. She was given the greatest tragic role of her career in Erich von Stroheim's -hour epic Greed (1924). The surprise casting initially shocked Hollywood, but showed that Pitts could draw tears with her doleful demeanor, as well as laughs. Having been extensively edited prior to release — the final theatrical cut ran just over two hours — the movie failed initially at the box office, but has since been restored to over four hours and is considered one of the greatest films ever made.[1] [2] Based on her performance, von Stroheim labeled ZaSu Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress." He also featured her in his films The Honeymoon (1928), The Wedding March (1928), and Walking Down Broadway. Pitts's performance in Walking Down Broadway was dramatic, with her character showing a repressed romantic interest in her girlfriend; the studio reshot these scenes with Pitts, now playing the girl's companion for laughs, and von Stroheim's directorial credit was removed from the film.[3] The film was finally released in 1933, much changed, as Hello, Sister!.
ZaSu Pitts was so recognizable in comedies that the public didn't take her dramatic efforts seriously. In the classic war drama All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Pitts was cast as the distraught mother of young soldier Lew Ayres, but at preview screenings her intense performance drew unintentional laughs. Her scenes were refilmed with Beryl Mercer. In 1936 RKO needed a replacement actress for its Hildegarde Withers series of murder mysteries; Edna May Oliver had left the studio and Helen Broderick succeeded Oliver in the role. Pitts was chosen to succeed Broderick. In theory, it was a good idea: Pitts seemed to fit the role of a prim, spinster schoolmistress. However, mystery fans couldn't accept the fluttery Pitts as a brainy sleuth who matched wits with the police, and after her two Withers films the series was abandoned.
Beginning in the 1930s, Pitts found work in radio. She appeared several times in the earliest Fibber McGee and Molly shows, playing a dizzy dame constantly looking for a husband. When Marian Jordan temporarily withdrew from Fibber McGee and Molly due to illness, Pitts made guest appearances opposite Jim Jordan as Fibber. Pitts also guested on variety shows, trading banter with Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, W.C. Fields, and Rudy Vallee, among others. She played Miss Mamie Wayne in the soap opera Big Sister., and was heard as Miss Pitts on The New Lum and Abner Show.[4]
In 1944, Pitts tackled Broadway, making her debut in the mystery Ramshackle Inn. The play, written expressly for her, did well, and she took the show on the road in later years. She was also a familiar attraction in summer-stock theaters, playing annually in the Norma Mitchell play Post Road.
Postwar films continued to give her the chance to play comic snoops and flighty relatives in such fare as Life with Father (1947), but in the 1950s, she started focusing on television. This culminated in her best-known series role, playing second banana to Gale Storm in ABC's The Gale Storm Show (1956) (also known as Oh, Susanna), in the role of Elvira Nugent ("Nugie"), the shipboard beautician. In 1961, Pitts was cast opposite Earle Hodgins in the episode "Lonesome's Gal" of the ABC sitcom Guestward, Ho!, set on a dude ranch in New Mexico. In 1962, she appeared in an episode of CBS's Perry Mason, "The Case of the Absent Artist". Her final role was as Gertie, the switchboard operator in the Stanley Kramer comedy epic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Pitts was married to actor Thomas Sarsfield Gallery from 1920 until their 1933 divorce. Gallery became a Los Angeles boxing promoter and later a TV executive. The couple had two children:
In 1933, Pitts married John Edward "Eddie" Woodall, with whom she remained until her death.[5] [6]
Declining health dominated Pitts's later years, particularly after she was diagnosed with cancer in the mid-1950s. She continued to work, appearing on TV and making brief appearances in the films The Thrill of It All and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. She died in Hollywood on June 7, 1963, aged 69, and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City. Pitts wrote a book of candy recipes, Candy Hits, which was published posthumously in 1963.[7]
ZaSu Pitts was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960, for her contribution to motion pictures. Her star is on the south side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1994, she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp along with fellow actors Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow and Charlie Chaplin as part of The Silent Screen Stars stamp set, designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. Her birthplace of Parsons, Kansas, has a star tile at the entrance to the Parsons Theatre to commemorate her.
In the film Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), W.C. Fields asks his niece, played by Gloria Jean, "Don't you want to go to school? You want to grow up and be dumb like ZaSu Pitts?" Gloria Jean replied "She only acts like that in pictures. I like her."
Actress Mae Questel, who performed character voices in Max Fleischer's Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons, reportedly based the fluttering utterances of Olive Oyl on Pitts.
| Silent | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1917 | Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm | Undetermined Role | Uncredited |
| '49–'17 | Party Guest | Uncredited | |
| Becky | |||
| 1918 | A Modern Musketeer | A Kansas Belle | Uncredited |
| How Could You, Jean? | Oscar's Sweetheart | Lost film | |
| Lost film | |||
| Lost film Scenes deleted | |||
| 1919 | A Lady's Name | Emily | Incomplete Four of five reels survive at the Museum of Modern Art |
| As the Sun Went Down | Sal Sue | Lost film | |
| Men, Women, and Money | Katie Jones | Lost film | |
| Better Times | Nancy Scroggs | A copy is held at the EYE Film Institute Netherlands | |
| Jennie Jones, The Jazz Kid | |||
| Poor Relations | Daisy Perkins | Lost film | |
| 1920 | Bright Skies | Sally | |
| Heart of Twenty | Katie Abbott | ||
| Seeing It Through | Betty Lawrence | ||
| 1921 | Patsy | Patsy | |
| 1922 | Is Matrimony a Failure? | Mrs. Wilbur | Lost film |
| For the Defense | Jennie Dunn | A copy is held at the EYE Film Institute Netherlands | |
| Youth to Youth | Emily | Lost film | |
| A Daughter of Luxury | Mary Cosgrove | Lost film | |
| 1923 | Mary of the Movies | Herself | An incomplete copy is held at the Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision Cameo role |
| The Girl Who Came Back | Anastasia Muldoon | Lost film | |
| Souls for Sale | Herself | Cameo role | |
| Three Wise Fools | Mickey | A copy is held at the Cinematheque Royale de Belgique | |
| Hollywood | Herself | Lost film Cameo role | |
| Poor Men's Wives | Apple Annie | Lost film | |
| Tea: With a Kick! | 'Brainy' Jones | ||
| West of the Water Tower | Dessie Arnhalt | Lost film | |
| 1924 | Daughters of Today | Lorena | |
| The Goldfish | Amelia Pugsley | An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress | |
| Triumph | A Factory Girl | Copies are held at the George Eastman Museum and the Library of Congress | |
| Changing Husbands | Delia | A copy is held at the Library of Congress | |
| The Legend of Hollywood | Mary Brown | ||
| Wine of Youth | Lucy | A copy is held at the George Eastman Museum Scenes deleted | |
| The Fast Set | Mona | Lost film | |
| Secrets of the Night | Celia Stebbins | ||
| Greed | Trina | Film is extant, but original 42 reel version is lost | |
| Sunlight of Paris | |||
| 1925 | Polly Jordan | A copy is held at the Cinemateket-Svenska Filminstitutet | |
| The Re-Creation of Brian Kent | Judy | A copy is held at the Library of Congress | |
| Old Shoes | |||
| Pretty Ladies | Maggie Keenan | Film is extant, but technicolor sequence is lost | |
| A Woman's Faith | Blanche Odile | ||
| The Business of Love | Miss Wright | ||
| Thunder Mountain | Mandy Coulter | Lost film | |
| Lazybones | Ruth Fanning | ||
| Wages for Wives | Luella Logan | Lost film | |
| Nancy | Lost film | ||
| 1926 | Mannequin | Annie Pogani | |
| What Happened to Jones | Hilda | ||
| Monte Carlo | Hope Durant | A copy is held at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film library | |
| Early to Wed | Mrs. Dugan | Lost film | |
| Sunny Side Up | Evelyn | ||
| Risky Business | Agnes Wheaton | ||
| Her Big Night | Gladys Smith | A copy is held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive | |
| 1927 | Casey at the Bat | Camille Gibson | A copy is held at the Library of Congress |
| 1928 | Wife Savers | Germaine | Lost film |
| 13 Washington Square | Mathilde | Copies are held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Library of Congress | |
| Buck Privates | Hulda | A copy is held at the George Eastman Museum | |
| Cecelia Schweisser | |||
| Sound | |||
| 1928 | Sins of the Fathers | Mother Spengler | Part-talkie |
| 1929 | The Dummy | Rose Gleason | |
| The Squall | Lena | ||
| Twin Beds | Tillie | ||
| The Argyle Case | Mrs. Wyatt | Lost film, only the sounds to reels 3, 5, 7, and 9 survive, and possibly the soundtrack at the UCLA Film and Television Archive | |
| Her Private Life | Timmins | ||
| Oh, Yeah! | The Elk | ||
| Paris | Harriet | Lost film, only the soundtrack survives | |
| Telephone Girl | |||
| This Thing Called Love | Clara Bertrand | Lost film, only the technicolor sequence survives | |
| 1930 | No, No, Nanette | Pauline Hastings | An incomplete copy is held at the BFI National Archive |
| Honey | Mayme | ||
| All Quiet on the Western Front | Frau Bäumer | Silent version trailer only; scenes deleted | |
| Ethel | |||
| The Little Accident | Monica | ||
| The Squealer | Bella | ||
| Monte Carlo | Bertha | ||
| War Nurse | Cushie | ||
| The Lottery Bride | Hilda | ||
| River's End | Louise | ||
| Sin Takes a Holiday | Annie | ||
| The Honeymoon | Caecilia | Lost film; released only in Europe | |
| Free Love | Ada | ||
| Passion Flower | Mrs. Harney | ||
| 1931 | Finn and Hattie | Mrs. Haddock | |
| Bad Sister | Minnie | ||
| Beyond Victory | Mademoiselle Fritzi | ||
| Seed | Jennie | ||
| A Woman of Experience | Katie | ||
| Their Mad Moment | Miss Dibbs | ||
| The Big Gamble | Nora Dugan | ||
| Penrod and Sam | Mrs. Bassett | Alternative title: The Adventures of Penrod and Sam | |
| Liesl, the Maid | |||
| The Secret Witness | Bella | ||
| On the Loose | Zasu | Short film | |
| 1932 | The Unexpected Father | Polly Perkins | |
| Broken Lullaby | Anna, Holderlin's Maid | ||
| Steady Company | Dot | ||
| Shopworn | Aunt Dot | ||
| Destry Rides Again | Temperance Worker | Alternative title: Justice Rides Again | |
| The Trial of Vivienne Ware | Gladys Fairweather | ||
| Strangers of the Evening | Sybil Smith | ||
| Westward Passage | Mrs. Truesdale | ||
| Is My Face Red? | Morning Gazette Telephone Operator | ||
| Make Me a Star | Mrs. Scudder | ||
| Roar of the Dragon | Gabby Woman | ||
| The Vanishing Frontier | Aunt Sylvia | ||
| Blondie of the Follies | Gertie | ||
| Back Street | Mrs. Dole | ||
| Nora Rafferty | |||
| Once in a Lifetime | Miss Leyton | ||
| Madison Square Garden | Florrie | ||
| They Just Had to Get Married | Molly Hull | ||
| 1933 | Out All Night | Bunny | |
| Hello, Sister! | Millie | ||
| Professional Sweetheart | Elmerada de Leon | ||
| Her First Mate | Mary Horner | ||
| Love, Honor, and Oh Baby! | Connie Clark | ||
| Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men | Sybby 'Sib' | ||
| Meet the Baron | ZaSu | ||
| Mr. Skitch | Maddie Skitch | ||
| 1934 | The Meanest Gal in Town | Tillie Prescott | |
| Two Alone | Esthey Roberts | ||
| Three on a Honeymoon | Alice Mudge | ||
| Sing and Like It | Annie Snodgrass | ||
| Love Birds | Araminta Tootle | ||
| Private Scandal | Miss Coates | ||
| Dames | Matilda Ounce Hemingway | ||
| Their Big Moment | Tillie Whim | ||
| Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch | Miss Hazy | ||
| Mirabelle | |||
| 1935 | Ruggles of Red Gap | Prunella Judson | |
| Spring Tonic | Maggie Conklin | ||
| Going Highbrow | Mrs. Cora Upshaw | ||
| She Gets Her Man | Esmeralda | ||
| Hot Tip | Belle McGill | ||
| The Affair of Susan | Susan Todd | Alternative title: Alone Together | |
| 1936 | Thirteen Hours by Air | Miss Harkins | |
| Mad Holiday | Mrs. Kinney | ||
| The Plot Thickens | Hildegarde Withers | ||
| Sing Me a Love Song | Gwen Logan | ||
| 1937 | Wanted! | Winnie Oatfield | |
| Merry Comes to Town | Winnie Oatfield | ||
| Forty Naughty Girls | Hildegarde Withers | ||
| 52nd Street | Letitia Rondell | ||
| 1939 | Dulcey Lee | ||
| Naughty but Nice | Aunt Penelope Hardwick | ||
| Mickey the Kid | Lilly Handy | ||
| Nurse Edith Cavell | Mme. Moulin | ||
| Eternally Yours | Mrs. Cary Bingham | ||
| 1940 | It All Came True | Miss Flint | |
| No, No, Nanette | Pauline Hastings | ||
| 1941 | Broadway Limited | Myra | |
| Niagara Falls | Emmy Sawyer | ||
| Weekend for Three | Anna | ||
| Miss Polly | Miss Pandora Polly | ||
| The Mexican Spitfire's Baby | Miss Emily Pepper | ||
| Uncle Joe | Julia Jordan - the Widow | ||
| 1942 | Mexican Spitfire at Sea | Miss Pepper | |
| Geraldine | |||
| So's Your Aunt Emma | Aunt Emma Bates | Alternative title: Meet the Mob | |
| Tish | Aggie Pilkington | ||
| 1943 | Let's Face It! | Cornelia Figeson | |
| 1946 | Breakfast in Hollywood | Elvira Spriggens | |
| 1947 | Life with Father | Cousin Cora Cartwright | |
| 1950 | Francis | Nurse Valerie Humpert | |
| 1952 | Denver and Rio Grande | Jane Dwyer | |
| 1954 | Francis Joins the WACS | Lt. Valerie Humpert | |
| 1957 | This Could Be the Night | Mrs. Katie Shea - Landlady | |
| 1961 | Aunt Theodora | ||
| 1963 | Olivia | Released posthumously; filmed in 1962 | |
| It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | Gertie - Switchboard Operator | Released posthumously; filmed in 1962; (final film role) |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Lum and Abner | Miss Pitts | Episode: "Pilot" | |
| 1954 | Miss Preen | Episode: "The Man Who Came to Dinner" | ||
| 1955 | Screen Directors Playhouse | Selma | Episode: "The Silent Partner" | |
| 1956 | Miss Appleton | Episode: "Mr. Belvedere" | ||
| 1956–1960 | Elvira Nugent | 91 episodes | ||
| 1957 | Private Secretary | Aunt Martha | Episode: "Not Quite Paradise" | |
| 1960 | Loretta Kimball | Episode: "Dimples" | ||
| 1961 | Guestward, Ho! | Episode: "Lonesome's Gal" | ||
| 1962 | Perry Mason | Daphne Whilom | Episode: "The Case of the Absent Artist" | |
| 1963 | Burke's Law | Mrs. Bowie | Episode: "Who Killed Holly Howard?" Posthumous Air Date |