Zasu Pitts
1894 - 1963Based on her performance, von Stroheim labeled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". He also featured her in his films The Honeymoon (1928), The Wedding March (1928), War Nurse (1930) and Walking Down Broadway, released as Hello, Sister! (1933). However, for the most part, with the advent of sound Pitts was mostly relegated to comedy parts. A bitter disappointment was when she was replaced in the classic war drama All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 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 (1931), The Guardsman (1931), Blondie of the Follies (1932), Sing and Like It (1934) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). 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 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 (1956) (also known as Oh, Susannah) in the role of Elvira Nugent ("Nugie"), 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 as Gertie, the switchboard operator in the Stanley Kramer comedy epic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Tea: With a Kick!
Erle C. Kenton
Doris May, Creighton Hale
The tale of Bonnie Day, a rambunctious young lady who is rankled when she is expelled from college for serving tea in her room. She goes on to open up a tearoom in a fancy hotel, saving all the profits to pay the legal fees for her father who has been unjustly jailed. Mr. Day's rival has embroiled him in a crooked stock deal and made him appear to be the guilty party. Meanwhile, Bonnie is in the midst of a romantic dilemma; her Aunt Pearl wants her to wed Napoleon Dobbings, but Bonnie much prefers helpful young lawyer Art Binger.
Tea- With a Kick!
A Lady's Name
Walter Edwards
Constance Talmadge, Harrison E. Ford
Bright young novelist Mabel Vere is engaged to Gerald Wantage, a prig who angrily objects when she advertises for a husband in order to elicit ideas for her new book. Mabel's roommate, Maud Bray, a physical culture expert, frightens away the less desirable suitors, while the writer responds to the more interesting letters, and soon becomes embroiled in a number of adventures.
A Lady's Name
The Talk of the Town
Allen Holubar
Dorothy Phillips, George Fawcett
Her strict upbringing is driving Genevra French (Dorothy Phillips) crazy, so when she gets her hand on a book called "How to Attract the Opposite Sex," she takes its advice to heart. She uses her newly found wiles on Lawrence Tabor (William Stowell) and gets him to marry her. Only after the wedding does she tell him she married him just to get away from her family, and that she intends to do exactly as she pleases.
The Talk of the Town
Ruggles of Red Gap
Leo McCarey
Charles Laughton, Mary Boland
In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles, a gentleman's gentleman and butler to an Earl is lost in a poker game to an uncouth American cattle baron. Ruggles's life is turned upside down as he's taken to the USA, is gradually assimilated into American life, accidently becomes a local celebrity, and falls in love along the way.
Ruggles of Red Gap
Changing Husbands
Paul Iribe, Frank Urson
Leatrice Joy, Victor Varconi
A bored rich housewife wants to go on the stage, but her husband won't let her. When she meets a despairing actress who looks exactly like her, she suggests they swap places for a little while, giving the actress a break while the rich husband is out of town. But the rich husband comes back early, causing havoc for the actress, plus the rich housewife is finding herself attracted to the actress's boyfriend.
Changing Husbands
The Broken Lullaby
Ernst Lubitsch
Lionel Barrymore, Phillips Holmes
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Broken Lullaby
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Stanley Kramer
Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Disneyland '59
Hamilton Luske, Marshall Diskin
Eddie Albert, Danny Alguire
Walt Disney and Art Linkletter co-host a live celebration of Disneyland's 1959 expansion that consisted of the debuts of Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail, and the Submarine Voyage, a project so massive that it was called "The Second Opening of Disneyland". Highlights include a mammoth, star-studded parade and the official launching of the Disneyland submarines by U.S. Navy officers. Among the guests are then-Vice-President Richard Nixon and family, Clint Eastwood, and Meredith Willson, who leads the Disneyland band in his own "76 Trombones." Sponsored by Kodak, the commercial spokespersons include Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.
Disneyland '59
Buck Privates
Melville W. Brown
Lya De Putti, Malcolm McGregor
Pvt. Smith, an American soldier stationed in a German town during the occupation of Germany after World War I, falls in love with the daughter of the town's leading citizen. The problem is that his sworn enemy, Sgt. Butts, also has designs on the girl. Butts comes up with a plan to get rid of his competition and get the girl for himself, but things don't go quite the way he planned.
Buck Privates
Seed
John M. Stahl
John Boles, Genevieve Tobin
Bart is a clerk for a publishing company; he has written a novel. His wife Peggy and he have five children. Bart's former girlfriend Mildred is manager of the company's Paris office. She manages to get the novel published and talks Bart into marrying her after he divorces Peggy. Initially successful, Bart must turn to writing trash to keep Mildred in money. When he sees how well his four sons and daughter Margaret have grown without his help, he asks Peggy to let them all come live with him and Mildred. Peggy agrees, but the arrival of his beloved children puts Mildred's future in jeopardy. Written by Ed Stephan
Seed
How Could You, Jean?
William Desmond Taylor
Mary Pickford, Casson Ferguson
A lost Film. Mary Pickford plays a socialite who, having lost her fortune, takes a job as a Swedish cook. She falls in love with a chauffeur who, lo and behold, is a slumming millionaire.
How Could You, Jean?
Lazybones
Frank Borzage
Madge Bellamy, Buck Jones
Steve Tuttle, the titular lazybones, takes on the responsibility of raising a fatherless girl, causing a scandal in his small town. Many years later, having returned from World War I, he discovers that he loves the grown-up girl.
Lazybones
