Zelda Sears


Zelda Sears was an American actress, screenwriter, novelist and businesswoman.

Early life and background

She was born as Zelda Paldi near Brockway Township, St. Clair County, Michigan, into a multi-lingual family that spoke French, Italian and English. Her father, Justin Lewis Paldi, was a first-generation Italian immigrant engineer and horse breeder, and her mother Roxa Tyler was of English heritage.
Her entry into the job market at age 12 was borne out of a family financial crisis. Merchant L.A. Sherman conducted an essay contest for his store's opening day, with Sears submitting the winning entry and being rewarded with a position as cash runner for the sales staff. In the evening hours, she educated herself on secretarial skills. She was eventually promoted to the position of sales clerk. When she expressed an interest in writing, Sherman transferred her as a reporter on his newspaper the Port Huron Daily Times.
In June 1889, at age 16, she made her acting debut as alternating roles in a Port Huron production of Esther at the City Opera House. Setting her sights on a newspaper career, she journeyed to Detroit, Michigan, with no luck finding a job, and then ventured to Chicago, Illinois. While rooming at the Chicago YWCA, and waiting for her big break in the newspaper business, she worked for Longnecker and Company painting flowers on boxes. She earned extra money by selling her original greeting card verses.

Acting and writing careers

In 1892, she married actor Herbert E. Sears, and would continue to use his name professionally after the dissolution of their marriage three years later. She got her foot in the door of the Chicago Herald newspaper by contributing to its humor column. When her father died, Sears began reading the numerous play scripts in his extensive personal library, adding to her already considerable interest in the profession. Actress Sarah Bernhardt performed in at Chicago's Daly Theater in 1894, and Sears initially set out to secure an interview with the star for the Herald. She ended up being hired as an extra in the production, changing the course of her professional life. Later continuing with a local acting stock company, and honing her craft with Hart Conway's American Conservatory of Acting, she eventually relocated to New York. Producer A.L. Erlanger offered her a small role as one of the ballerinas, a skill she had to learn on the job, in the 1896 production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Casino Theatre. She spent the next few years expanding her skills with traveling stock companies.
's The Nest Egg with Zelda Sears at the Park Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, ca.1911
As she continued to pursue acting roles, Sears operated her own public stenography/typewriting service in New York, near the Empire Theatre on Broadway. Her clients were theatre people, playwrights. She soon developed into a proficient script doctor, with an eye towards becoming a playwright herself. It was during her 1900 performance as the jealous murderess La Colombe in Wine and Women at the Boston Theatre, that she met her future collaborator, playwright Clyde Fitch. He offered her a part in his new play Lover's Lane. While continuing her professional relationship with Fitch, including as his script doctor, she took a full-time job with theatrical producer Henry Wilson Savage. The company's vice president Louis C. Wiswell would eventually become her second husband. Under Fitch's influence, performing in seven plays written by him, she began to develop the stage persona she would become most identified with, a spinster wise in years but eternally yearning for marriage. Journalist Ada Patterson would later proclaim Sears "The Greatest of Stage Old Maids".
She began writing for films at the request of Cecil B. DeMille and MGM in the early 1920s, and continued to do so for more than a decade.

Death

On August 6, 1918, Sears married her long-time friend Louis C. Wiswell. She died at age 62 in her Hollywood home in 1935, from undisclosed causes. She was survived by Wiswell, and a sister, Marie Paldi.

Stage

Partial listing:
YearTitleTheatreNotes
1889EstherCity Opera House As Azila
1889La Dame aux CaméliasDaily Theater Extra
1896Jack and the BeanstalkCasino TheatreAs a ballerina
1900Woman and WineThe Boston TheatreAs La Colombe. Written by Arthur Shirley and Benjamin Landeck
1901Lover's LaneManhattan TheatreWritten and staged by Clyde Fitch
1903Glad of ItSavoy TheatreWritten and staged by Clyde Fitch
1904The Coronet of the DuchessGarrick TheatreWritten and staged by Clyde Fitch
1905Cousin BillyCriterion TheatreWritten and directed by Clyde Fitch
1907The TruthCriterion Theatre, Lyceum TheatreWritten and staged by Clyde Fitch. Sears played Mrs. Crespigny, reprised her performance in a 1914 production, and assumed the role again when the drama was adapted as a 1920 film of the same title.
1908Nearly a HeroCasino TheatreMrs. Doolittle
1908GirlsDaly's TheatreAs Lucille Purcelle; written and staged by Clyde Fitch
1909The Blue MouseLyric Theatre
Maxine Elliott's Theatre		Replacement performer; written and staged by Clyde Fitch
1909GirlsHackett TheatreRevival, reprised her role as Lucille Purcelle
1910The Girl He Couldn't Leave BehindGarrick Theatre
1910Keeping Up AppearancesCollier's Comedy Theatre
1910The Nest EggBijou TheatreLead role as Hetty Gandy
1914The TruthLittle TheatreReprise performance as Mrs. Crespigny
1915The Show ShopHudson Theatre
1916Fast and Grow FatGlobe Theatre
1917Captain Kidd, Jr.Cohan and Harris Theatre
1917Mary's AnkleBijou Theatre
1919Tumble InSelwyn TheatreAunt Selina
1920The Girl in the LimousineEmpire TheatreAunt Cicely
1921Lady BillyLiberty TheatreMusical based on a book by Sears; lyrics by Sears
1923The Clinging VineKnickerbocker TheatreMusical, lyrics by Sears
1923The Magic RingLiberty TheatreMusical based on a book by Sears; lyrics by Sears
1924LollipopKnickerbocker TheatreMrs. Gerrity, musical based on a book by Sears; lyrics by Sears
1925A Lucky BreakCort TheatrePlaywright
1926Rainbow RoseForrest TheatreBased on a story by Sears

Filmography

YearTitleRoleWriterNotes
1920The TruthMrs. CrespignySilent film
1921The Highest BidderMrs. SteeseSilent film
1924CorneredSilent film based on the 1920 play Cornered by Dodson Mitchell and Zelda Sears
1926The Clinging VineSilent film based on the play The Clinging Vine by Zelda Sears
1926Corporal KateXSilent film co-written with Marion Orth
1926The Cruise of the Jasper BXSilent film adaptation by Sears and Tay Garnett of the 1916 novel The Cruise of the Jasper B by Don Marquis
1927The Night BrideXSilent film adaptation
1927No ControlXSilent film
1927Rubber TiresXSilent film adaptation by Sears and Tay Garnett
1927The Rush HourXSilent film adaptation by Sears of March 1923 short story "The Azure Shore" by Frederic Hatton and Fanny Hatton in Harper's Bazaar
1927The Wise WifeXSilent film adaptation by Sears and Tay Garnett of the 1928 Arthur Somers Roche novel of the same name
1929Devil-May-CareXDialogue
1930The DivorceeHannahXFilm treatment
1930The Bishop Murder CaseMrs. Otto Drukker
1930Road to ParadiseSound remake of the 1924 silent film Cornered, both of which are based on the1920 play Cornered by Dodson Mitchell and Zelda Sears
1931Susan Lenox XDialogue
1931PoliticsXStory, with Malcolm Stuart Boylan
1931DaybreakXContinuity
1931ReducingXContinuity
1931InspirationPauline
1932New Morals for OldXDialogue
1932EmmaXDialogue
1932ProsperityXScreenplay, with Eve Greene
1933Broadway to HollywoodXSears and Harlan Thompson were brought in as Script doctors
1933Tugboat AnnieXWith Eve Green, adaptation of "Tugboat Annie " short stories by Norman Reilly Raine in The Saturday Evening Post
1933Beauty for SaleXWith Eve Greene, screenplay
1933Day of ReckoningXWith Eve Greene, screenplay
1934The Cat and the FiddleXSears and Eve Greene were brought in as script doctors
1936His Brother's WifeSears and Eve Greene originally slated as writers, but are not credited in the final product
1934Operator 13XWith Eve Greene and Harvey Thew, screenplay
1934Sadie McKeeMrs. Craney
1934This Side of HeavenXWith Eve Greene, adaptation of the 1932 novel It Happened One Day by Marjorie Bartholomew Paradis
1934A Wicked WomanGram TeagueXWith Florence Ryerson, screenplay
1934You Can't Buy EverythingXWith Eve Greene, adaptation

Sourcing

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