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ZaSu Pitts (January 3, 1894 (?) – June 7, 1963) was a United States movie actress. She was one of the more popular stars of the early motion picture era.
Name and birth date
Her unusual first name was coined from parts of the names "Eliza" and "Susan", female relatives who both wanted Pitts's mother to name the child after them. In many film credits and articles, her name was rendered as Zazu Pitts or Zasu Pitts. Though her name is commonly mispronounced as "Zazz-oo", in her 1930s film shorts with Thelma Todd (see below) it is clearly pronounced on-screen (by Todd) as "ZAY-sue;" her name was also consistently pronounced "ZAY-sue" during her recurrent guest appearences on Fibber McGee and Molly's show in 1939.
There is some disagreement as to her birth date: some on-line biographies claim Pitts was born January 3, 1894, but the Internet Broadway Database gives her birth date as January 3, 1898. Her California death record claims she was born January 3, 1901, and making matters more confusing, the Social Security Death Record reflects a birthdate of January 3, 1900.
Biography
Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas and grew up in Santa Cruz, California.
Pitts was discovered by screenwriter Frances Marion and made her debut in the silent film The Little Princess (1917), starring Mary Pickford. Pitts became a leading lady in Erich von Stroheim's masterpiece Greed (1924); based on this performance, von Stroheim labelled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". Von Stroheim also featured her in his films The Wedding March (1928) and Walking Down Broadway (1933), which was re-edited by Alfred L. Werker and released as Hello Sister.
Pitts enjoyed her greatest fame, however, in the 1930's, often starring in B movies and comedy shorts, often teamed with Thelma Todd. She also played secondary parts in many films. Her stock persona (a fretful, flustered, worrisome spinster) made her instantly recognizable and was often imitated in cartoons and other films. She starred in a number of Hal Roach shorts and features that were popular, but her brief stint in the Hildegarde Withers mystery series was not well received.
Films featuring Pitts include Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) and two film adaptations of No, No, Nanette - one in 1930 and another in 1940. Pitts achieved renewed fame in television in the 1950's, notably costarring in Gale Storm's sitcom Oh, Susanna. Her last role, shortly before her death, was as a voice actress (switchboard operator) in the Stanley Kramer comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(1963).
Marriage
Pitts was married to actor Tom Gallery from 1920 to 1932. They had two children: a daughter, Ann Gallery, and a son, Don Gallery (né Marvin Carville La Marr), whom they adopted after the 1926 death of his mother, silent film actress Barbara La Marr.
Death
Pitts died of cancer in Hollywood, California in 1963. She was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery although she was not known to be a Roman Catholic.
Trivia
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1994, she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
When Hollywood switched to talkies Pitts, who had a distinctive nasal voice with a wavering vibrato, switched from dramas to comedy roles.
Mae Questel characatured Pitt's voice for the character "Olive Oyl" for the Fleischer Studios animated cartoon version of the comic strip "Popeye".
From the 1940s through the early 1960s, Pitts also made numerous television appearances, including her role in Oh! Susanna (1956-1960), with Gale Storm as her niece.
She was on radio, appearing several times on the earliest Fibber McGee and Molly show. Her character was a somewhat dipsy dame who was constantly looking for a husband.
Referred to sadistic gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as a "ferret".
Conservative both politically and financially, she left her lucrative job with Thelma Todd over a money dispute with Hal Roach, and often complained about taxes.
Filmography
1917
Uneasy Money (short subject)
Tillie of the Nine Lives (short subject)
A Desert Dilemma (short subject)
His Fatal Beauty (short subject)
Canning the Cannibal King (short subject)
He Had 'em Buffaloed (short subject)
The Battling Bellboy (short subject)
O-My the Tent Mover (short subject)
Behind the Map (short subject)
Why They Left Home (short subject)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (role unconfirmed)
'49-'17
The Little Princess
A Modern Musketeer (short subject)
1918
A Dog's Life (short subject) (scenes deleted)
Who's Your Wife?
Good Night, Paul (role unconfirmed)
How Could You, Jean?
The Pie Eyed Piper (short subject)
A Society Sensation (short subject)
The Talk of the Town
The Greatest Thing in Life (scenes deleted)
A Lady's Name
1919
As the Sun Went Down (1919)
Sunnyside (short subject) (scenes deleted)
Men, Women, and Money
Better Times
Poor Relations
1920
Seeing It Through
Bright Skies
Heart of Twenty
1921
Patsy
1922
Is Matrimony a Failure?
For the Defense
Youth to Youth
A Daughter of Luxury
1923
Poor Men's Wives
Souls for Sale (Cameo)
The Girl Who Came Back
Mary of the Movies (Cameo)
Three Wise Fools
Hollywood (Cameo)
Tea: With a Kick!
West of the Water Tower
1924
Daughters of Today
The Goldfish
Triumph
Changing Husbands
Legend of Hollywood
Wine of Youth (scenes deleted)
The Fast Set
Secrets of the Night
Greed
1925
1925 Studio Tour (short subject)
The Great Divide
The Re-Creation of Brian Kent
Old Shoes
Pretty Ladies
A Woman's Faith
The Business of Love
Thunder Mountain
Lazybones
Wages for Wives
The Great Love
1926
Mannequin
What Happened to Jones
Monte Carlo
Early to Wed
Sunny Side Up
Risky Business
Her Big Night
1927
Casey at the Bat
1928
13 Washington Run
Wife Savers
Buck Privates
The Wedding March
Sins of the Fathers
1929
The Dummy
The Squall
Twin Beds
The Argyle Case
Her Private Life
Oh, Yeah!
Paris
The Locked Door
This Thing Called Love
1930
No, No, Nanette
Honey
All Quiet on the Western Front (appeared in silent version)
The Devil's Holiday
Little Accident
The Squealer
Monte Carlo
War Nurse
The Lottery Bride
River's End
Sin Takes a Holiday
Passion Flower
Free Love
1931
Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 6 (1931) (short subject)
Finn and Hattie
The Bad Sister
Beyond Victory
Seed
Let's Do Things (short subject)
A Woman of Experience
Their Mad Moment
Catch as Catch Can (short subject)
The Big Gamble
Penrod and Sam
The Pajama Party (short subject)
The Guardsman
War Mamas (short subject)
The Secret Witness
On the Loose (short subject)
1932
The Unexpected Father
Broken Lullaby
Seal Skins (short subject)
Steady Company
Red Noses (short subject)
Shopworn
Destry Rides Again
Strictly Unreliable
The Trial of Vivienne Ware
Strangers of the Evening
Westward Passage
The Old Bull (short subject)
Is My Face Red?
Make Me a Star
Roar of the Dragon
The Vanishing Frontier
Show Business (short subject)
Blondie of the Follies
Back Street
Alum and Eve (short subject)
The Crooked Circle
Once in a Lifetime
The Soilers (short subject)
Madison Sq. Garden
Sneak Easily (short subject)
1933
They Just Had to Get Married
Asleep in the Feet (short subject)
Maids a la Mode (short subject)
Out All Night
The Bargain of the Century (short subject)
Hello, Sister
One Track Minds (short subject)
Professional Sweethearts
Her First Mate
Love, Honor and Oh Baby!
Aggie Appleby Maker of Men
Meet the Baron
Mr. Skitch
1934
The Meanest Gal in Town
Two Alone
Three on a Honeymoon
Sing and Like It
Love Birds
Private Scandal
Dames
Their Big Moment
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
The Gay Bride
1935
Ruggles of Red Gap
Spring Tonic
She Gets Her Man
Hot Tip
Going Highbrow
The Affair of Susan
1936
Thirteen Hours by Air
Mad Holiday
The Plot Thickens
Sing Me a Love Song
1937
Merry Comes to Town
Wanted
Forty Naughty Girls
52nd Street
1939
The Lady's from Kentucky
Naughty But Nice
Mickey the Kid
Nurse Edith Cavell
Eternally Yours
1940s '1940
It All Came True
No, No, Nanette
1941
Uncle Joe
Broadway Limited
Niagara Falls
Weekend for Three
Miss Polly
Mexican Spitfire's Baby
1942
Mexican Spitfire at Sea
The Bashful Bachelor
So's Your Aunt Emma
Tish
1943
Let's Face It
1946
Breakfast in Hollywood
1947
The Perfect Marriage
Life with Father
1950s
Francis (1950)
Denver and Rio Grande (1952)
Francis Joins the WACs (1954)
This Could Be the Night (1957)
1960s
The Teenage Millionaire (1961)
The Thrill Of It All (1963)
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Zasu at IMDB
www.imdb.com/name/nm0686032/
Photo Gallery
www.santacruzpl.org/history/...oto.shtml
Zasu at Golden SIlents
www.goldensilents.com/stars/z...tts.html
Gallery at Silent Ladies and Gents
www.silent-movies.com/Ladies/PPitts.html
ZaSu Pitts (January 3, 1894 (?) – June 7, 1963) was a United States movie actress. She was one of the more popular stars of the early motion picture era.
Name and birth date
Her unusual first name was coined from parts of the names "Eliza" and "Susan", female relatives who both wanted Pitts's mother to name the child after them. In many film credits and articles, her name was rendered as Zazu Pitts or Zasu Pitts. Though her name is commonly mispronounced as "Zazz-oo", in her 1930s film shorts with Thelma Todd (see below) it is clearly pronounced on-screen (by Todd) as "ZAY-sue;" her name was also consistently pronounced "ZAY-sue" during her recurrent guest appearences on Fibber McGee and Molly's show in 1939.
There is some disagreement as to her birth date: some on-line biographies claim Pitts was born January 3, 1894, but the Internet Broadway Database gives her birth date as January 3, 1898. Her California death record claims she was born January 3, 1901, and making matters more confusing, the Social Security Death Record reflects a birthdate of January 3, 1900.
Biography
Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas and grew up in Santa Cruz, California.
Pitts was discovered by screenwriter Frances Marion and made her debut in the silent film The Little Princess (1917), starring Mary Pickford. Pitts became a leading lady in Erich von Stroheim's masterpiece Greed (1924); based on this performance, von Stroheim labelled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". Von Stroheim also featured her in his films The Wedding March (1928) and Walking Down Broadway (1933), which was re-edited by Alfred L. Werker and released as Hello Sister.
Pitts enjoyed her greatest fame, however, in the 1930's, often starring in B movies and comedy shorts, often teamed with Thelma Todd. She also played secondary parts in many films. Her stock persona (a fretful, flustered, worrisome spinster) made her instantly recognizable and was often imitated in cartoons and other films. She starred in a number of Hal Roach shorts and features that were popular, but her brief stint in the Hildegarde Withers mystery series was not well received.
Films featuring Pitts include Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) and two film adaptations of No, No, Nanette - one in 1930 and another in 1940. Pitts achieved renewed fame in television in the 1950's, notably costarring in Gale Storm's sitcom Oh, Susanna. Her last role, shortly before her death, was as a voice actress (switchboard operator) in the Stanley Kramer comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(1963).
Marriage
Pitts was married to actor Tom Gallery from 1920 to 1932. They had two children: a daughter, Ann Gallery, and a son, Don Gallery (né Marvin Carville La Marr), whom they adopted after the 1926 death of his mother, silent film actress Barbara La Marr.
Death
Pitts died of cancer in Hollywood, California in 1963. She was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery although she was not known to be a Roman Catholic.
Trivia
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1994, she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
When Hollywood switched to talkies Pitts, who had a distinctive nasal voice with a wavering vibrato, switched from dramas to comedy roles.
Mae Questel characatured Pitt's voice for the character "Olive Oyl" for the Fleischer Studios animated cartoon version of the comic strip "Popeye".
From the 1940s through the early 1960s, Pitts also made numerous television appearances, including her role in Oh! Susanna (1956-1960), with Gale Storm as her niece.
She was on radio, appearing several times on the earliest Fibber McGee and Molly show. Her character was a somewhat dipsy dame who was constantly looking for a husband.
Referred to sadistic gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as a "ferret".
Conservative both politically and financially, she left her lucrative job with Thelma Todd over a money dispute with Hal Roach, and often complained about taxes.
Filmography
1917
Uneasy Money (short subject)
Tillie of the Nine Lives (short subject)
A Desert Dilemma (short subject)
His Fatal Beauty (short subject)
Canning the Cannibal King (short subject)
He Had 'em Buffaloed (short subject)
The Battling Bellboy (short subject)
O-My the Tent Mover (short subject)
Behind the Map (short subject)
Why They Left Home (short subject)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (role unconfirmed)
'49-'17
The Little Princess
A Modern Musketeer (short subject)
1918
A Dog's Life (short subject) (scenes deleted)
Who's Your Wife?
Good Night, Paul (role unconfirmed)
How Could You, Jean?
The Pie Eyed Piper (short subject)
A Society Sensation (short subject)
The Talk of the Town
The Greatest Thing in Life (scenes deleted)
A Lady's Name
1919
As the Sun Went Down (1919)
Sunnyside (short subject) (scenes deleted)
Men, Women, and Money
Better Times
Poor Relations
1920
Seeing It Through
Bright Skies
Heart of Twenty
1921
Patsy
1922
Is Matrimony a Failure?
For the Defense
Youth to Youth
A Daughter of Luxury
1923
Poor Men's Wives
Souls for Sale (Cameo)
The Girl Who Came Back
Mary of the Movies (Cameo)
Three Wise Fools
Hollywood (Cameo)
Tea: With a Kick!
West of the Water Tower
1924
Daughters of Today
The Goldfish
Triumph
Changing Husbands
Legend of Hollywood
Wine of Youth (scenes deleted)
The Fast Set
Secrets of the Night
Greed
1925
1925 Studio Tour (short subject)
The Great Divide
The Re-Creation of Brian Kent
Old Shoes
Pretty Ladies
A Woman's Faith
The Business of Love
Thunder Mountain
Lazybones
Wages for Wives
The Great Love
1926
Mannequin
What Happened to Jones
Monte Carlo
Early to Wed
Sunny Side Up
Risky Business
Her Big Night
1927
Casey at the Bat
1928
13 Washington Run
Wife Savers
Buck Privates
The Wedding March
Sins of the Fathers
1929
The Dummy
The Squall
Twin Beds
The Argyle Case
Her Private Life
Oh, Yeah!
Paris
The Locked Door
This Thing Called Love
1930
No, No, Nanette
Honey
All Quiet on the Western Front (appeared in silent version)
The Devil's Holiday
Little Accident
The Squealer
Monte Carlo
War Nurse
The Lottery Bride
River's End
Sin Takes a Holiday
Passion Flower
Free Love
1931
Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 6 (1931) (short subject)
Finn and Hattie
The Bad Sister
Beyond Victory
Seed
Let's Do Things (short subject)
A Woman of Experience
Their Mad Moment
Catch as Catch Can (short subject)
The Big Gamble
Penrod and Sam
The Pajama Party (short subject)
The Guardsman
War Mamas (short subject)
The Secret Witness
On the Loose (short subject)
1932
The Unexpected Father
Broken Lullaby
Seal Skins (short subject)
Steady Company
Red Noses (short subject)
Shopworn
Destry Rides Again
Strictly Unreliable
The Trial of Vivienne Ware
Strangers of the Evening
Westward Passage
The Old Bull (short subject)
Is My Face Red?
Make Me a Star
Roar of the Dragon
The Vanishing Frontier
Show Business (short subject)
Blondie of the Follies
Back Street
Alum and Eve (short subject)
The Crooked Circle
Once in a Lifetime
The Soilers (short subject)
Madison Sq. Garden
Sneak Easily (short subject)
1933
They Just Had to Get Married
Asleep in the Feet (short subject)
Maids a la Mode (short subject)
Out All Night
The Bargain of the Century (short subject)
Hello, Sister
One Track Minds (short subject)
Professional Sweethearts
Her First Mate
Love, Honor and Oh Baby!
Aggie Appleby Maker of Men
Meet the Baron
Mr. Skitch
1934
The Meanest Gal in Town
Two Alone
Three on a Honeymoon
Sing and Like It
Love Birds
Private Scandal
Dames
Their Big Moment
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
The Gay Bride
1935
Ruggles of Red Gap
Spring Tonic
She Gets Her Man
Hot Tip
Going Highbrow
The Affair of Susan
1936
Thirteen Hours by Air
Mad Holiday
The Plot Thickens
Sing Me a Love Song
1937
Merry Comes to Town
Wanted
Forty Naughty Girls
52nd Street
1939
The Lady's from Kentucky
Naughty But Nice
Mickey the Kid
Nurse Edith Cavell
Eternally Yours
1940s '1940
It All Came True
No, No, Nanette
1941
Uncle Joe
Broadway Limited
Niagara Falls
Weekend for Three
Miss Polly
Mexican Spitfire's Baby
1942
Mexican Spitfire at Sea
The Bashful Bachelor
So's Your Aunt Emma
Tish
1943
Let's Face It
1946
Breakfast in Hollywood
1947
The Perfect Marriage
Life with Father
1950s
Francis (1950)
Denver and Rio Grande (1952)
Francis Joins the WACs (1954)
This Could Be the Night (1957)
1960s
The Teenage Millionaire (1961)
The Thrill Of It All (1963)
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Zasu at IMDB
www.imdb.com/name/nm0686032/
Photo Gallery
www.santacruzpl.org/history/...oto.shtml
Zasu at Golden SIlents
www.goldensilents.com/stars/z...tts.html
Gallery at Silent Ladies and Gents
www.silent-movies.com/Ladies/PPitts.html
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Re: 1/3 Zasu Pitts
Thu, January 4, 2007 - 11:40 PMWhat's up with that orchestra named after her anyhow?
