ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and
comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the advent of
sound films. She may be best known for her performance in Erich von Stroheim's
epic silent film, Greed. Early life
Eliza Susan Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas, to Rulandus and Nelly Pitts; she
was the third of four children. Her father, who had lost a leg while serving
in the 76th New York Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, had settled the family
in Kansas by the time ZaSu was born. The names of her father's sisters, Eliza
and Susan, were purportedly the basis for the nickname "ZaSu", i.e. to satisfy
competing family interests. She later adopted the nickname professionally and
legally. It has been spelled as Zazu Pitts in some film credits and news
articles. Although the name is commonly mispronounced ZAZ-oo or ZAY-soo, or
ZAY-zoo, in her 1963 book Candy Hits, Pitts herself gives the correct
pronunciation as "Say Zoo" , recounting that Mary Pickford had predicted,
"[M]any will mispronounce it", and adding, "How right [she] was."
In 1903, when she 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.
Career 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 twenty-two, she spent many months seeking work as a film
extra. Finally she was discovered for substantive roles in films by
screenwriter Frances Marion. Marion cast Pitts as an orphaned slavey in the
silent film, The Little Princess, starring Pickford. Years later, she was
the leading lady in Erich von Stroheim's Greed. Based on her performance, von
Stroheim labeled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". He also featured her
in his films The Honeymoon, The Wedding March, War Nurse and Walking Down
Broadway, released as Hello, Sister!. Pitts' popularity grew following a
series of Universal one-reeler comedies and earned her first feature-length lead
in King Vidor's Better Times. The following year she married her first
husband, Tom Gallery, with whom she was paired in several films, including
Bright Eyes, Heart of Twenty, Patsy and A Daughter of Luxury. In 1924, the
actress, now a reputable comedy farceuse, was given the greatest tragic
role of her career in Erich von Stroheim's 9 1⁄2-hour epic Greed. 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.
Pitts enjoyed her greatest fame in the 1930s, often starring in B movies and
comedy short films, teamed with Thelma Todd. She played secondary parts in many
films. Her stock persona 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, and 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 was relegated to comedy roles. A bitter disappointment
was when she was replaced in the classic war drama All Quiet on the Western Front
by Beryl Mercer after her initial appearance in previews drew
unintentional laughs, despite her intense performance. She had viewers
rolling in the aisles in Finn and Hattie, The Guardsman, Blondie of the
Follies, Sing and Like It and Ruggles of Red Gap. In 1936 and 1937 she portrayed
Hildegarde Withers in two movies, succeeding Edna May Oliver as the
spinster sleuth, but they were not well received.
In the 1940s, she found work in vaudeville and on radio, trading banter
with Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, W.C. Fields, and Rudy Vallee, among others.
Pitts' activities on radio included playing Miss Mamie Wayne on the soap
opera Big Sister. She appeared several times on the earliest Fibber McGee and
Molly show, playing a dizzy dame constantly looking for a husband.
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. Post-war films continued to give Pitts the chance to
play comic snoops and flighty relatives in such fare as Life with Father, but in
the 1950s she started focusing on television. This culminated in her best
known series role, playing second banana to Gale Storm on CBS's The Gale Storm
Show in the role of Elvira Nugent, the shipboard beautician. In 1961, Pitts was
cast opposite Earle Hodgins in the episode "Lonesome's Gal" on the ABC
sitcom, Guestward, Ho!, set on a dude ranch in New Mexico. In 1962, Pitts
appeared in an episode of CBS's Perry Mason, "The Case of the Absent Artist".
Her final role was a switchboard operator in the Stanley Kramer comedy
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Personal life
Pitts was married to Thomas Sarsfield Gallery from 1920 to 1933. Gallery, an
actor, became a well-known Los Angeles boxing promoter and later a TV
executive. The couple had two children: Ann Gallery and Donald Michael "Sonny"
Gallery, whom they adopted and renamed after the 1926 death of his mother and
Pitts' friend, silent film actress Barbara La Marr. In 1933, she married
John Edward "Eddie" Woodall, with whom she remained until her death.
She was a Republican, and became active in the party in 1958.
Declining health dominated Pitts' later years, particularly after she was
diagnosed with cancer in the mid-1950s. She continued to work, however,
appearing on television and making a brief appearance in The Thrill of It All
and in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. She died June 7, 1963, aged 69, in
Hollywood and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City. Pitts wrote a
book of candy recipes, Candy Hits by ZaSu Pitts, which was published
posthumously in 1963. Legacy
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 her importance as a silent film star was
affirmed when she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp
along with luminaries such as Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow and Charlie Chaplin
as part of The Silent Screen Stars stamp set, designed by caricaturist Al
Hirschfeld. In Parsons, Kansas, there is a star tile at the entrance to the
Parsons Theatre to commemorate her. In the film Never Give a Sucker an Even
Break, W.C. Fields asks his niece, played by Gloria Jean, "Don't you want
to go to school? You wanna be dumb like ZaSu Pitts?"
Actress Mae Questel, who performed character voices in Max Fleischer's
Popeye the Sailor cartoons, reportedly based the fluttering utterances of Olive
Oyl on Pitts. Selected filmography
= Television= See also
Pitts and Todd Notes
References External links
ZaSu Pitts at the Internet Movie Database
ZaSu Pitts at AllMovie ZaSu Pitts at the Internet Broadway
Database Photographs and literature