ZaSu Pitts: Learn My Name!

[sclogse1]

I'm watching some very early Rudolph Valentino, and Zasu and just showed up... and she's immediately catching my eye. In these very early silents, she behaves a bit like Elaine May, with a touch of Maggie Gyllenhaal. She shows something very special, even if she doesn't speak. She moves about in a little way that shows a very special sweetness and play. She really stands out! I'm totally charmed by these early performances...find them...

[chaussee123]

I just read that in her own words, that she said it was pronounced Say-Zoo  and her mother's two sisters were Eliza and Susan

[hebneh]

I had always thought in the past that it was pronounced "zah - soo".

However, I note that Thelma says "zay - Zoo", not "soo".

As I recall, this was a contraction consisting of parts of ZaSu's two grandmothers' first names.

[ninelivecat]

What a beauty

[Onlymusical]

Thelma Todd was incredibly beautiful, too bad she was allegedly murdered by Pat DiCicco, the same gangster who allegedly beat Ted Healy to death with Wallace Beery and DiCicco's nephew Albert "Cubby" Broccoli.

[MckyMseNTarotCrds]

Turner or some channel was playing a bunch of the Pitts&Todd shorts a few months ago. I'd never seen any of them before; they were great. There was this one episode where Thelma and Zasu had bad colds, so they went to a health spa. It was, like, wall to wall leggy, gorgeous flapper chicks. So hot. Really funny, too. They were a great team.

[Pittmail88]

Huge fan os Zasu and Thelma Todd. Popeye's Olive Oyl is a caricature of Zasu's voice and mannerisms. "Oh Dear". She kinda looks like her at times too, though much exagerated of course.

[JohnnieBeer]

Cool video, ednayarkspay! Thanks for educating this dummy!

[haitipi]

The prototype for Laverne & Shirley and many other female comedy duets since. But none could ever match this pair.

[windstorm1000]

Funny and beautiful!! What more could you ask for?? Brava Thelma! And Zazu is cooky/stupid funny!

[philip]

It's not pronounced as it's spelled. It's correctly pronounced Say Zoo, according to her book "Candy Hits," and as you can hear in this series of clips, especially at 0:22 & 0:44 - they really speed by.

[mnemonictsunami]

Oh come on ZaSu!

[slave69247]

that's my great-grandmother! it brings a big smile to my face to see these clips! thanks to whoever put it together. :)

[4933juju]

I stand corrected. She should have changed the spelling. I loved her in the Gale Storm show.  Cute clip!

[emb1st]

i do believe i got it on the first go round....LOL

[PHX99]

There was a WC Fields movie where he yells at one of his kids, "Who do you think you are, Zasu Pitts"? Cute clip.

[tcrownprince]

hahahahahaha cool

[only4u1000]

Thank you for this clip!! :)

I love Thelma...any chance of uploading the whole film?

:)