Pitts wrote, “I was packing to go home when Hal Roach sent for me. The next day the studio edited Pitts out of the film. When Pitts’ character in Western Front appeared on screen, the audience laughed. On opening night the film was preceded by a short comedy film in which Pitts had also starred. Her wish was granted when she was cast in the 1930 film All Quiet on the Western Front. After earning acclaim for her performance as the lead in the 1924 drama Greed, Pitts appeared in a series of short comedies but never lost her desire to secure more dramatic roles. Marion and Pickford agreed that Pitts would play Pickford’s opposite in The Little Princess, and her career was launched. On her first day at the studio, Pitts met Francis Marion, who wrote many of the scripts for Mary Pickford’s films. However, Mother decided to send me to some friends in Hollywood … so off I went … dreading the ordeal that lay ahead of me.” Shy, self-conscious, my only interests were growing flowers, cooking, and finishing high school. But maybe you can become an actress.” I shuddered at the thought. “You’ll never make a seamstress,” my mother said sadly, “you can’t even sew a button on straight. Pitts started working to help make ends meet. After her father died in 1908, Pitts’ mother and two siblings took in renters to try to hang on to their home. In her 1963 book, Candy Hits, Pitts wrote “It is really pronounced ‘Say Zoo.’” Pitts’ family lived in Parsons until she was nine years old when they moved to Santa Cruz, California, for warmer weather and better job opportunities. Her name is a combination of those of her mother’s sisters, Eliza and Susan. ZaSu Pitts was one of four children born to Rulandus and Nellie (Shay) Pitts. One woman who became a star was born in Parsons and would go on to enjoy a career of more than 200 films, often playing a worrisome spinster. Several motion picture actresses grew up in the vicinity of Cherryvale, Independence, and Parsons.
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