La Collectionneuse: Mitzi Green

Mitzi Green made her first steps on stage at age 3 and, within a few years, was featured in her own vaudeville act. She later became a child star in films. When pitted against such scene stealers as Zasu Pitts, Leon Erroll, Edna May Oliver, Louise Fazenda or Wheeler and Wolsey, she more than held her own. A seasoned trouper from an early age, she knew how not to be overshadowed. As was the case for many child stars, her movie career declined as she reached adolescence. But it was not a problem for Mitzi, who would bounce back on stage. She was also happy in her private life: in 1942, she married Joseph Pevney, who would later become a noted movie and TV director, and they had four children.


Dutch postcard, no. 69. Photo: Paramount.


Dutch postcard by A.L.I., no. 67.


American postcard in the 'Greetings from Hollywood' series.

A child prodigy

Mitzi Green was born on the 22nd of October 1920 in New York, U.S.A. Her parents were vaudevillians Joe Keno and Rosie Green.

According to an interview she gave in June 1930 to the newspaper The American Jewish World, she made her stage debut when famous artist Gus Edwards put her in one of his sketches at age 3.

When she was 4 years old, the stage-struck little girl begged her father to take her into his act. He relented and she was allowed to give a successful imitation of vaudeville stars Sadie Burt and George Whiting. It was a short-lived experience as her parents next sent her to public school.

At age 6, she performed at a benefit performance and did an imitation of Moran and Mack, a duo known for their popular black-face comedy act. She was noticed by a booker from the Interstate Theatre Circuit who offered to sign her as a headliner. Her father accepted, provided that she would continue her studies with a private teacher.

Later, she went on the Orpheum Circuit. At that time, she was known as 'Little Mitzi, The Child Mimic'. At the end of the 1920s, she played at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Paramount liked her act and hired her.


Dutch postcard, no. 511. Mitzi Green in Tom Sawyer (John Cromwell, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5744/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Mitzi Green and Jackie Coogan in Tom Sawyer (John Cromwell, 1930).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 546.

Movie star

Mitzi Green made her screen debut as Mary Brian’s impish half-sister in The Marriage Playground ((1929). The Dutch-bobbed little girl quickly caught on with movie audiences and became one of the foremost child stars of her time.

In 1930, as Zasu Pitts’ bratty daughter, she had the opportunity to sing an excerpt of the standard 'Sing You Sinners' in one of Honey‘s musical numbers. In the all-star musical revue Paramount on Parade (1930), she imitated Maurice Chevalier and the duo Moran and Mack. Love Among The Millionaires (1930), The Santa Fe Trail (1930), Finn and Hattie (1931), Skippy (1931), Dude Ranch (1931) and Newly Rich/Forbidden Adventure (1931) followed.

She also played Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931). In the star-studded short The Stolen Jools (1931), sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes to raise funds for a tuberculosis charity, she solved the mystery of Norma Shearer’s robbed jewels. Mitzi Green’s screen persona was not that of the usual sweet and loving little girl and, in several of her films, she played mischievous, vivacious or misbehaving youngsters.

After her stay at Paramount, she starred in two R.K.O. movies. In Girl Crazy (1932), from a successful George and Ira Gershwin Broadway musical, she played Bert Wheeler’s annoying little sister and imitated Bing Crosby, Roscoe Ates, George Arliss and Edna May Oliver, while singing 'But Not for Me'.

Next came the title role in Little Orphan Annie (1932), an adaptation of a popular comic strip, in which she gave imitations of the Marx Brothers. Unfortunately, she soon reached an age when she couldn’t play little girls anymore. The public discovered a grown-up Mitzi in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934). The former child prodigy had a musical number in which she impersonated George Arliss. Eighteen years would pass before she appeared in another film.


Dutch postcard.


Spanish postcard by Editorial Fotografica, Barcelona, no. A.186. Photo: Paramount. Mitzi Green, Robert Coogan, Jackie Cooper and Jackie Searl in Skippy (Norman Taurog, 1931).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6204/1, 1931-1932.

Back to the stage

Having outlived her movie fame, Mitzi Green went back to live performing. In 1936, she played at the posh Versailles nightclub in New York.

From April to December 1937, she starred on Broadway in the successful Rodgers and Hart musical 'Babes In Arms', in which she introduced the famous tunes 'My Funny Valentine' and 'The Lady Is a Tramp'.

For the 1939 film version, M.G.M. replaced Mitzi Green and Ray Heatherton with their two top young stars, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

Her next two Broadway appearances were not hits: 'Walk With Music' in 1940 and 'Let Freedom Sing' in 1942 respectively closed after 55 and 8 performances.

But she bounced back with Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s musical 'Billion Dollar Baby', which ran from December 1945 to June 1946.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6408/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.


British postcard in the Autograph Series, London, no. A34.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6895/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.

A versatile performer

In 1946, Mitzi Green starred in the radio show 'Passport to Romance'.

Night clubs, notably the Copacabana in New York, regularly booked her and she continued to add new imitations to her repertoire, such as cabaret singer Hildegarde.

She made a short-lived screen come-back as Abbott and Costello’s co-star in Lost in Alaska (1952) and in a good supporting part in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952).

She also played a stuntwoman in the TV series So This is Hollywood in 1955. At the beginning of the 1960s, she toured with the musical 'Gypsy'.

Mitzi Green died of cancer on the 24th of May 1969.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7231/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Paramount.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 546a.


American postcard.

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.