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Cissy Fitzgerald (born Mary Kate Kipping; The Green Book Magazine Volume 9; page 521 1 February 1873 – 10 May 1941) was an English-American vaudeville actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in numerous silent film and sound film films. Fitzgerald acted in a popular Gaiety Girl show beginning in 1894 and was filmed in the role in 1896 in a self-titled short film shot by Thomas Edison's film company. She did not appear in films again until 1914 where she signed with the Vitagraph Pictorial History of the Silent Screen by Daniel Blum c. 1953 company and was quite popular in feature films and her own series of Cissy short films. Very little of Fitzgerald's silent material survives except her comic backup role in the 1928 Lon Chaney vehicle Laugh, Clown, Laugh.
Fitzgerald claimed to have been the first woman in motion pictures, on 50 feet of film at the Edison labs in New Jersey in 1896. Best of Plays of 1894–1899, p. 3 c.1955 by John Chapman and Garrison Sherwood However, Annabelle Whitford had been filmed in 1894 by Edison engineer W. K. L. Dickson and the Lumiere Brothers in France were shooting motion pictures, including men and women coming and going from a factory, by 1896.
Fitzgerald married Oliver Mark Tucker and had two children, a son and a daughter.Silent Film Necrology 2nd Edition by Eugene Michael Vazzana c. 2001 Who Was Who on Screen by Evelyn Mack Truitt c. 1983
Fitzgerald took a hiatus from acting to marry Oliver Mark Tucker in Great Britain and then travel the world in celebration. Cissy and her new husband visited India, Africa, Australia, and China before the start of World War I. Fitzgerald returned to the United States to relaunch her film career. Her break from films lasted from 1916 until the beginning of 1921. Later in 1921, Cissy featured in five comedies produced by her own small company "Cissy Fitzgerald Productions", on the west coast of America.
Fitzgerald is credited as the first female producer of films. The films she starred in under "Cissy Fitzgerald Productions" were marketed as "refined comedies", and included Cissy's Saucy Stockings, Seeing America Thirst, Cissy Invades Bohemia, Cissy's Economy, and Comes Back Cissy. Cissy.
Fitzgerald reinvented herself yet again as a feature film actress in the 1920s and the 1930s. She appeared in many silent and sound films in a plethora of genres, many of which still exist. The best known of her feature film parts is Giancinta in Laugh, Clown, Laugh from 1928, a Lon Chaney film about a circus clown who cannot seem to cheer up, that befriends an Italian count who experienced bouts of uncontrollable laughter. Because Fitzgerald as Giancinta is a minor character, it is speculated that the history of Fitzgerald's uncontrollable winking limited the importance of her role in Laugh, Clown, Laugh. Cissy Fitzgerald was signed with several film companies during her career as an actress, including Kleine Studios, Vitagraph, Casino Studios, and Broadway Star Studios.
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