Pitts and Todd were a comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 duo from the 1930s, put together by Hal Roach

Hal Roach

Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...

 as the female counterpart to Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

. The duo consisted of actresses Zasu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...

 and Thelma Todd

Thelma Todd

Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy...

.

History

Roach had previously paired Anita Garvin

Anita Garvin

Anita Garvin was an American actress and comedienne who appeared in both silent and sound films. She is best known for her work with comedians Laurel and Hardy and Charley Chase....

 and Marion Byron

Marion Byron

Marion "Peanuts" Byron was a petite, plucky American movie comedienne.She was born in Dayton, Ohio. After following her sister into a short stage career as a singer/dancer, she was given her first movie role as Buster Keaton's leading lady in the film Steamboat Bill Jr. in 1928...

 together in 1928 and 1929 but only three films resulted. Both Pitts and Todd had been working with Roach in various short films and feature films previously. The duo worked together for 17 short films. Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel

Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...

 and Oliver Hardy

Oliver Hardy

Oliver Hardy was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.-Early life:...

 made a guest appearance

Guest appearance

In show business , a guest appearance is a participation of an outsider performer , usually called guest artist , in an event , i.e., the participation of a performer which does not belong to the regular crew In performance...

 in Pitts and Todd's 1931 short On the Loose. The 1930 Leroy Shield

Leroy Shield

Leroy Shield was an American film score and radio composer.-Career:A native of Waseca, Minnesota, Shield was an employee of RCA Victor's National Broadcasting Company, for which he composed and conducted on-air musical pieces...

 song "Beautiful Lady" was used as the theme song for the Pitts and Todd films. The team's 1932 short film Show Business was directed by Jules White

Jules White

Jules White born Julius Weiss was a film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring the Three Stooges.-Early years:...

 and was later re-worked as a Three Stooges

Three Stooges

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...

 Columbia short A Pain in the Pullman

A Pain in the Pullman

A Pain in the Pullman is the 16th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

from 1936.

In mid-1933, ZaSu Pitts left the Hal Roach

Hal Roach

Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...

 studios and Patsy Kelly

Patsy Kelly

Patsy Kelly was an American stage and film comedic actress.-Early life and career:Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrants, John and Delia Kelly, and made her Broadway debut in 1928...

 was brought in as Thelma Todd's new partner. This team filmed 21 more short films together until Todd's death in 1935. The next pairing was Patsy Kelly and Pert Kelton

Pert Kelton

Pert Kelton was an American vaudeville, movie, radio and television actress. She was the first actress who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and was a prominent comedic supporting film actress in the 1930s...

 for one short, and then Kelly and Lyda Roberti

Lyda Roberti

-Life and career:Born in Warsaw, Poland, Roberti was the daughter of a clown and as a child performed in the circus as a trapeze artist, and as a vaudeville singer. As the family toured Europe and Asia, Roberti's mother left her husband, settling in Shanghai, China where the younger Roberti earned...

 for two shorts and one feature film, Nobody's Baby. Roberti died in 1938 at age 31.

In 1941, ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly made their only appearance together in the feature film

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 Broadway Limited. The duo echo Laurel and Hardy in one sequence when sharing a bed with a baby and a leaking hot water bottle.

ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd

• Let’s Do Things (MGM, 1931)
• Catch As Catch Can (MGM, 1931)
• The Pajama Party (MGM, 1931)
• War Mamas (MGM, 1931)
• Seal Skins (MGM, 1932)
• On the Loose (MGM, 1932)
• Red Noses (MGM, 1932)
• Strictly Unreliable (MGM, 1932)
• The Old Bull (MGM, 1932)
• Show Business (MGM) (1932)
• Alum and Eve (MGM, 1932)
• The Soilers (MGM, 1932)
• Sneak Easily (MGM, 1933)
• Asleep In the Feet (MGM, 1933)
• Maids à la Mode (MGM, 1933)
• Bargain of the Century (MGM, 1933)
• One Track Minds (MGM, 1933, with Spanky McFarland
  Spanky McFarland
  Spanky McFarland may refer to:*George "Spanky" McFarland , American actor, member of Our Gang*Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, lead singer of the band Spanky and Our Gang...
  
  )

Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly

• Beauty and the Bus (MGM, 1933)
• Backs To Nature (MGM, 1933)
• Air Fright (MGM, 1933)
• Babes In the Goods (MGM, 1934)
• Soup and Fish (MGM, 1934)
• Maid In Hollywood (MGM, 1934)
• I’ll Be Suing You (MGM, 1934)
• Three Chumps Ahead (MGM, 1934)
• One Horse Farmers (MGM, 1934)
• Opened By Mistake (MGM, 1934)
• Done In Oil (MGM, 1934)
• Bum Voyage (MGM, 1934)
• Treasure Blues (MGM, 1935)
• Sing, Sister, Sing (MGM, 1935)
• The Tin Man (MGM, 1935)
• The Misses Stooge (MGM, 1935)
• Slightly Static (MGM, 1935)
• Twin Triplets (MGM, 1935)
• Hot Money (MGM, 1935)
• Top Flat (MGM, 1935)
• All American Toothache (MGM, 1935)

Patsy Kelly and Lyda Roberti

• Hill Tillies (MGM, 1936)
• At Sea Ashore (MGM, 1936)
• Nobody’s Baby (MGM, 1937)

ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly

• Broadway Limited
  Broadway Limited (1941 film)
  Broadway Limited is a 1941 American film directed by Gordon Douglas. The film takes its name from the Broadway Limited train that the Pennsylvania Railroad used to run between New York and Chicago.-Plot:...
  
  (United Artists, 1941)