I have located several sites which have information about Zasu Pitts, but they don’t seem very complete, nor do they answer some questions I have. I recently saw this actress in a very small role in an old Loretta Young - David Niven movie, where she played a drably confused comic wife. I also have seen her in an early movie in which she played a serious role, that of a miser who ruined her life. I understand that she was a young beauty when she first came into the fore, which raises two questions: 1) How did she get transformed into a comic character, and 2) Was there a time when the name Zasu Pitts was NOT considered a hilarious name? Because if she was a pretty starlet, why would she be called by such an ugly name? I have also checked movie information sites, but they are so cluttered with buy this and buy that that I can’t get the facts. (I also remember Vera Vague, who appeared on the Bob Hope show, but there is very little on her).
The first movie you’ve referenced is Eric von Stroheim’s GREED (nee McTEAGUE), which has its own little cult here among the Straight Dopers.
(Incidentally, SHE was the miser in the story, and she pretty much ruins her husband’s life, but he gets back at her by murdering her, and then he dies horribly in Death Valley, so THAT’S all right.)
Ms Pitts probably achieved her acme of celebrity as the co-star of a number of comedic short subjects in which she was paired with the comely Thelma Todd (best known as the shapely blonde in the Marx Bros.’ MONKEY BUSINESS and HORSE FEATHERS).
Ms Pitts also played Charles Laughton’s love interest (hah!) in RUGGLES OF RED GAP.
Ms Pitts, while attractive, was a small and birdlike woman…not really Hollywood’s Tender Dream of Lust. By the time she hit thirty she was already doomed to play character roles and “nervous lady” comic roles.
And just what do you think is so funny about the name Zasu? George and Mary Bailey liked it enough to hang it on one of their daughters!
Omigosh, ZaSu Pitts!
I can’t answer for the early funniness of her name . . . She entered films in the 1910s as a character actress; she was never a great beauty, though not ugly by any means, either. She was already established as a minor comic actress when Erich von Stroheim cast her in the dramatic lead in “Greed” (1924, I believe). No dice, though—either because of her name or her talents, she was still cast in comic roles.
She played the mother in “The Public Enemy” (1931), but audiences laughed when they saw her—so, despite a terrific dramatic performance, the role was recast with Beryl Mercer. ZaSu went on to play minor comic roles through the 1940s.
Extra tidbit: the cartoon hyena Har-Dee-Har-Har was supposed to be ZaSu Pitts (remember his whine, “Oh, dear, oh, my?”).
Hah!
Further simulpost proof that Eve and I are two separate people!
[Yeah, right, like I can’t have two E-mail addresses and hit “submit” on two keyboards at once . … ]
—“Ukulele Eve”
Ahem . . . I’m afraid the petals in question belonged to Zuzu, not ZaSu.
Well, they MEANT to name her “ZaSu”…Mary was a BIG fan… but the recording nurse screwed up the spelling!
{stamps off in a huff}
And I believe young Ms. Bailey’s name was originally “Susan”, who was probably called “Sue-Sue” as a wee tot, and a sibling who couldn’t pronounce same called her Zuzu, and the nickname stuck. But that’s just a WAG on my part.
Mostly because I can’t imagine George and Mary inflicting such an original name on one of their all-american kids.
Well, with TV, she made it into the 1950s, as well.
Anyone remember Gale Storm?
IMDB link
hmmm? I only barely remember (now that I’ve been reminded) that she was in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 1963.
[note: I fixed the link. -manhattan]
[Edited by manhattan on 12-12-2000 at 07:10 PM]
$@U%^# comma.
Yeah…she was the telephone operator in the police station.
I was gonna say that in my first post, but I figgered RUGGLES OF RED GAP should take pride of place.
Am I the only one who gets all weepy when Laughton recites the Gettysburg Address?
Eve, I seem to recall reading somewhere that the animated Olive Oyl’s voice was modelled on Ms. Pitts as well. She also had a whiny “oh, dear, oh, Popeye.”
Confirmation, anyone?
According to Ephraim Katz, in his wonderful The Film Encyclopedia, her name was “derived from combining the names of two of her father’s sisters, Eliza, and Susan.” Which lends credence to Eve, as if she needed any.
As to whether Eve and Ike are two separate persons, I rather envision a pair of writing desks, back-to-back, with both furiously typing to see who can answer an old movie question first, and jealousy slowly creeping in, and, on a dark and stormy night, one kills the other, and the survivor writes a play about it, and…
Damn! Been done.
I actually saw Zasu Pitts in a stageplay, Everybody Loves Opal, at the Pasadena Playhouse in, geez, about 1960. She was old then.
Fear If your time frame is correct, she was 62! If you think that is “old”, perhaps you should stay out of the Strom Thurman thread. :eek:
At 56, I both hate you for thinking that 62 is “old” and envy you your youth(assumed).
More “Bits on Pitts,” culled from her NYT obit:
• Born 1900, died 1963
• First film: Mary Pickford’s “The Little American” (1917)
• Last film: “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (posthumous, 1963)
• She and her husband, director Tom Gallery, adopted Barbara La Marr’s son when she died in 1926
• von Stroheim called her “the screen’s greatest tragedienne”
• She did indeed appear on “The Gale Storm Show” in the 1950s
• And her name was a combination of two of her maternal aunts’, EliZA and SUsan.
Now, anyone for Lyda Roberti? Skeets Gallagher?
P.S. I was wrong—Beryl Mercer replaced ZaSu in “All Quiet on the Western Front,” not “Public Enemy.”
I neglected to mention that I was but 6 years old at the time. My mother took me to a play to broaden my experiences; I think she was afraid I watched too much TV.
Anyway, it must have been my relative youth. I’m a lot closer to 62 now, so it doesn’t look so decrepit.
Wonderful information. Does anybody remember Vera Vague from the old Bob Hope show? There were so many vague or
“dumb” characters in the old shows, including Jane Ace on the radio program EASY ACES, written by her husband Goodman Ace who wrote for the old SATURDAY REVIEW magazine; Irma from MY FRIEND IRMA, radio and movie; and the immortal mystery Portland Hoffa, the wife of Fred Allen in real life, but just Portland with her zany letters from “Mama.” She is unclassifiable, and was mainly there to laugh sincerely when Fred said anything, and to make her voice waver all over for comic reasons. It’s great to see the name of Zasu Pitts
come to life again on the web. Judy Canova anyone?
One more matter of interest: Chicago had two classical music stations on FM for a long time, and one of them played
old radio shows on Saturday afternoons. Now somebody has bought this station, so we will have NO old radio shows anymore (and I was looking forward to Jack Benny Month, which was usually February or March), and only ONE classical music station as a la the DUNCIAD of Alexander Pope, Goddess Dulness Ascends her throne and the darkness of ignorance settles over all."