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Les origines (1873-1893)

Fille d'un propriétaire terrain (Land owner) (recensement 1871. Bearsted), Marie, Kathe Kipping est née en 1872 près de Londres. Elle n'a que 5 ans lorsque ses parents entament une procédure de divorce. Elle aurait voué une passion à la musique dès son plus jeune âge :

This remarkable English girl [...] was born in Kent, one of the suburbs of London, England, and came from an old English family in no manner ever connected with theatricals. From her earliest days, Miss Fitzgerald was always fond of music, and in her fourth year was known throughout the locality in which se was born, for her pretty childish dancing of the sailor's hornpipe and other fancy dances. In fact, she became so fond of this sort of thing that her parents became utterly dismayed, and sought to change the channel of her thoughts and inclinations.

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The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, dimanche 3 janvier 1897, p. 14.

C'est probablement à cause et à la suite du divorce de ses parents, en 1878, qu'elle est envoyée dans un [couvent], même si la presse invoque d'autres raisons moins triviales. Il va y rester jusqu'à l'âge de treize ans :

[...] where-upon she was dispatched to a convent, where she remained until her thirteen year. Miss Fitzgerald, on leaving the convent, found nothing in society as an outlet for her exuberant spirits, and it very soon dawned upon all that her natural vocation was the stage.

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The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, dimanche 3 janvier 1897, p. 14.

Son nom de scène "Cissy Fiztgerald" commence à apparaître dans la presse britannique, en 1890, alors qu'elle interprète le rôle de Donna Christina, reine d'Espagne, dans Ruy Blas, "a Gaiety Burlesque" de MM. A. C Torr et H. F. Clark. Elle fait alors partie de la troupe d'Auguste Van Biene. En 1891, Elle est recensée, comme actrice, à Southport. On la retrouve par la suite dans Carmen up to Data d'Auguste Van Biene (1891) où elle jour le rôle de Frasquita, puis dans Faust up to date du même Van Biene où elle interprète le jeune Faust. On la retrouve aussi dans Rip Van Winkle (1892), La Mascotte (1892)... Elle se fait également remarquer comme danseuse de "skirt dance" et de tarentelle.

"Cissy Fitzgerald" (from a Photo by Karoly. Nottingham.)
Pick-me-up, Vol. XIII, nº 327, 5 janvier 1895, p. 212.

En 1894, Cissy Fitzgerald, dans la troupe "Gaiety Girl" de George Edwardes, part pour les États-Unis et se produit, à New York, à partir du 18 septembre, au Daly's Theatre :

"A GAIETY GIRL" AT DALY'S.
ITS PREVIOUS SUCCESS IN LONDON-MISS REHAN'S TOUR.
One of the most interesting occurrences of the theatrical season thus far will be the first American production of "A Gaiety Girl," which will take place at Daly's Theatre on Tuesday evening. The piece is described as a musical comedy.

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New-York Daily Tribune, dimanche 16 septembre 1894, p. 7.

Le Kinetoscope et le Vitascope (1894-1896)

Alors qu'A Gaiety Girl rencontre un succès certain, Thomas A. Edison va accueillir la troupe, à West Orange, pour un tournage dans la Black Maria au début du mois de novembre 1894. Cissy Fitzgerald est pressentie pour participer à cette prise de vue, MAIS elle tombe malade et doit renoncer à danser sa danse serpentine. En outre, la scène est trop exiguë et, finalement, seules trois danseuses, May Lucas, Lucy Murray et Madge Crossland vont se retrouver face au kinetographe :

DANCING FOR THE KINETOGRAPH
A Party of the Gayety Girls Visit Edison's Laboratory at Orange.
The "Gayety Girls" went out to Orange, N. J., yesterday afternoon and gave an exhibition of high kicking before the Edison Kinetograph. On account of the limited space in the exhibition room only the three dancers in the second act appeared in costume. Miss Madge Crossland, Miss Lucy Murray and Miss May Lucas. They gave their high kicking act with great spirit. Miss Cissy Fitzgerald, who was to have accompanied the party and executed her serpentine dance, was ill and could not go.
Along with the dancers went Miss Decima Moore, the prima donna of the company, and two of the "Gayety Girls," Miss Grace Pacette and Miss Florence Lloyd. Mr. Malone, the manager of the company, also went, together with Major Kay and Cecil Hope.
The girls entered into the spirit of the occasion and kicked up their heels with refreshing frankness and freedom.

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New York Herald, New York, 2 novembre 1894, p. 11.

L'un des films de ce tournage, The Carnival Dance, a été conservé. La troupe, après son succès à New York part en tournée à Boston (Hollis Street Theatre. Décembre 1894), Washington (Albaugh's Grand Opera House. décembre). Cissy Fitzgerald va finalement céder aux propositions avantageuses du manager George W. Lederer et quitte sa troupe :

MR GEORGE EDWARDES, when travelling in the provinces not long since, noticed in Mr Van Biene's company a young lady named Cissy Fitzgerald, who was playing a subordinate part at a small salary. At the termination of her engagement Mr Edwardes offered her four times the amount of the money which she had been receiving, and engaged her for the tour of A Gaiety Girl in America. In New York Miss Fitzgerald made a great success, and attracted the attention of the "dudes" of that city, and she wrote to Mr Edwardes, asking him to double her salary, which, in the circumstances, he agreed to do. A short time afterwards, she again wrote and demanded £100 a-week, saying that if it were not paid to her she would leave the company at once, her contract for the tour having been made in England. Mr Edwardes could not see his way to granting this last request; and Miss Fitzgerald did leave the Gaiety Girl company, and accepted an engagement with Mr Lederer, of New York. We sincerely sympathise with Mr Edwardes, and regret that the practices of certain American managers are so peculiar. What London manager would think for a moment of tempting an artist in the service of one of the American companies which sometimes visit this country to break her contract?

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The Era, Londres, samedi 12 janvier 1895, p. 10

Elle va participer à la nouvelle production de Lederer, The Twentieth Century Girl. Par ailleurs, si Cissy Fitzgerald a manqué son premier rendez-vous avec le kinetoscope de Thomas A. Edison, il semble bien que le génie de Menlo Park se soit rattrapé peu après si l'on en croit une publicité publiée dans le Fall River Evening News.

Fall River Daily Evening News, Fall River, vendredi 25 janvier 1895, p. 4.

Peu après, elle figure dans la distribution de The Foundling dont l'inauguration a lieu à Chicago, le 11 février 1895, à l'Hooley's, et à New York, le 25 février à l'Hoyt's Theatre. Elle se fait remarquer pour ses danses qu'elle interprète au cours du deuxième acte de la pièce.

The Chicago Tribune, Chicago, dimanche 10 février 1895, p. 36.	Cissy's Latest Dance. Dance Gavotte. 1895

Cissy Fitzgerald va revenir dans les premiers jours de mai 1896 à Menlo Park pour un nouveau tournage : 

The vitascope people, by the way, are making constant additions to their collection of pictures. Miss Cissy Fitzgerald went down to Menlo Park on day last week, and she will soon be giving her famous wink on the screen at Koster & Bial's. Mr Wilson Lackaye, in the Svengali death scene from "Trilby" is also to be "vitascoped," and Chevalier, too, is to be presented. He will sing some of his songs into a phonograph, and while his picture is being shown the audience will hear him sing.

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New York Herald, New York, 10 mai 1896, p. 6.

Le titre éponyme, Cissy Fitzgerald, a la particularité d'être l'un des derniers à être tournés dans la Black Maria. Alors que la danseuse est sur place, J. Stuart Blackton, futur collaborateur d'Edison, est de passage à Menlo Park :

Twenty years ago J. Stuart Blackton was an artist on the Evening World in New York. He also wrote and illustrated special stories. He was given an assignment by the New York World ot go over to New Jersey and interview Thomas A. Edison, who was then making motion pictures and motion picture taking and projections apparatus. Young Blackton was to get the material for a page story ans to illustrate with sketches of Edison and his plant. In the company of the inventor he toured the establisment. One of the persons he saw before the camera was Cissy Fitzgerald, who was dancing and exhibiting her famous wink-the same alluring lid action which nineteen years later was to shine in Vitagraph's "The Win(s)some Widow."

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The Moving Picture World, 20 mai 1916, p. 1306.

Si Cissy Fitzgerald se fait remarquer par ses danses, elle doit également son succès à l'une des ses curieuses spécialités, à savoir, un clin d'oeil audacieux qu'elle lance aux spectateurs et qui fait couler beaucoup d'encre :

Cissy Fitzgerald's wink has gone astray. Even out here, where this music hall favorite has never been seen, much is known of her irresistible wink, for pilgrims from the East tell how it "took them by storm."
But the wink has gone astray and Cissy is embarrassed because she is no longer mistress of her twinkle, but is absolutely at its mercy. Like Bernhardt's real lion, it is valuable as an accessory, but out of its cage it is likely to create havoc. But it is nevertheless true, say the reports, that the wink has become chronic and that it indulges itself off as well as on the stage, and frequently trifles its time away upon sedate people whom Cissy never saw before and cares not to cultivate. So reckless has this little wink become that its mistress must conceal it behind a thick veil or suffer no end of mortification on account of its misbehavior. The scientists who are trying to reform the little thing attribute its conduct to the partial paralysis of certain muscles of the eye.

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Kansas City Journal, Kansas City, dimanche 22 novembre 1896, p. 12.

Après avoir quitté l'impesario Charles Frohman, Cissy Fitzgerald revient à New York où elle se produit au Koster & Bial's sans trop de succès, avant de quitter les États-Unis.

Et après... (1897-1941)

Au printemps 1897, elle est de retour en Europe. Assez insouciante et très dépensière, elle finit par dilapider tout l'argent gagné au cours de son séjour américain. En 1900, elle est au bord de la misère :

London is so accustomed to poverty ans starvation that the sight of this once merry and luxurious girl fairly sinking to her grave for the very want of food made no impression upon it. Indeed, in her altered looks and dejected face there was very little of the Cissy of four or five years ago. In a squalid apartment to which she had been driven by the rapid descent in her fortunes. Cissy Fitzgerald struggled and strained to keep body and soul together. Her heart, and then her health, failed her. Now she lies so ill that she may ever again leave her bed unless it be to go to the hospital or workhouse to die.

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"Her Winking Days Are Over. The Sad Story of Cissy Fitzgerald, the Dancer, Now Lying Seriously III", The Lafayette Sunday Times, dimanche 21 octobre 1900, p. 6.

La situation décrite pas le journaliste est peut-être un peu trop sombre. En effet, elle continue d'apparaître sur les scènes parisiennes (Les Folies-Bergère. septembre 1900) et londoniennes (The Tivoli, novembre) cette année-là. En 1901, elle est en tournée aux Indes. On la trouve également à Singapour en avril 1902 dans le spectacle The Casino Girl.

Pourtant sa carrière connaît un fort ralentissement en 1902 avant que son nom ne disparaisse de la presse britannique. Vers 1904, elle [épouse] [Oliver Mark] Tucker dont elle va avoir deux enfants, Osmond (1905) et Julia (1908). Son nom apparaît exceptionnemement dans le London Evening Standard (28 janvier 1913) lors des funérailles d'Auguste Van Biene. Au début de l'année 1914, Cissy Fitzgerald  est signalée à New York où elle entame une carrière au cinéma avec la Vitagraph Compagny. Elle fait ses débuts dans The Accomplished Mrs. Thompson (1914) :

The Accomplised Mrs. Thompson. (Vitagraph. Fri. June 12.)-Cissy Fitzgerald makes her debut as a Vitagraph actress in this comedy.

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The Motion Picture News, vol. IX, nº 25, 27 juin 1914, p. 67.

Elle est recensée à New York en 1915. Ensuite, elle rejoint la Casino (1915), société proche de la Gaumont :

Gaumont Signs Cissy Fitzgerald
Cissy Fitzgerald, who will shortly make her appearance as a Mutual star in "A Corner in Cats", a single reel comedy being screened at the Gaumont studios, for release in the regular Mutual program, was christened Marie Kathleen Cecelia Fitzgerald.

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Motography, 9 octobre 1915, p. 729.

Par la suite, on la retrouve chez World Pictures (1919) :

Cissy Fitzgerald signs contrat with World Film
World Pictures announces the signing of contracts that will give this company the distributing rights to a series of two reel comedies that will be produced by the Cissy Fitzgerald Film Corporation. Miss Fizgerald will be the star of these productions. This international artist has had considerable experience in screen work, having acted with the Vitagraph Company for several years, both in short subjects as well as in five and six reel features.

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The Moving Picture World, 13 septembre 1919, p. 1646, 

L'artiste va également fonder sa propre société de production, la "Cissy Fitzgerald Company" (1919).

Motion Picture News, 19 mars 1921, p. 2027.

Elle poursuit sa carrière au cours des années 1920. En 1927, sa fille Julia la rejoint et le mariage de son fils, Osmond Mark Tucker va donner lieu à un épisode singulier amplement repris par la presse américaine :

Cissy Fitzgerald Throws Hot One At Daughter-In-Law (By Associated Press) LOS ANGELES, May 21-Cissy Fitzgerald, vaudeville and screen star, in an answer to the $50,000 alienation *of affections suit brought against her by her law, Vera Tucker, yesterday charged that Mrs. Tucker was not legally divorced from her former husband at the time she married the 'actress' son, Osmund Mark Tucker. Mrs. Tucker in her suit filed a month ago accused Miss Fitzgerald, known in private life: as: Mrs. Cissy Fitzgerald Tucker, prejudiced her son a against his wife by telling him that she should have married a laborer Instead of a gentleman.

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Peninsula Daily News, 21 mai 1927, p. 6.

L'arrivée du parlant ne va pas interrompre sa carrière qui ne s'achève qu'en 1935 avec Strictly Illegal de la Gaumont British. En 1939, Cissy Fitzgerald est recensée à Brighton. Elle décède deux ans plus tard :

FIRST WOMAN FILM PLAYER
"Cissy Fitzgerald" Dead
Mrs. Cissy Tucker, famous in New York in the 'nineties as Cissy Fitzgerald, a musical comedy star in George Edwarde's and Charles Frohman's productions, has died at Ovingdean, near Brighton, claimed to be the first woman to play in motion pictures, and was the original "Gaiety Girl" in America. At a New York music hall in 1896 she received the then unprecedented salary of 750 dollars a week for 12 weeks. On returning to England she married and retired from the stage, but after the death of her husband she took up film work in America, running her own production company first in Miami and then in Hollywood. She starred in many two-reel comedies as " Cissy Fitzgerald, the Girl with the Wink." When the talkies came along she found fresh scope for her talent.
Returning once more to England, she continued her film work here. and co-starred with Leslie Fuller in " Strictly Illegal." She was born in Brighton 68 years ago. 

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The Gloucestershire Echo, Gloucester, samedi 10 mai 1941, p. 4.

Sources

"Miss Cissy Fitzgerald", The New York Herald, Paris, samedi 26 janvier 1895, p. 4.

FITZGERALD Cissy, "Tells of her dances. Cissy Fitzgerald who has charmed americans", The Ravalli Republican, Hamilton, vendredi 10 mai 1895, p. 6.

"Her Winking Days Are Over. The Sad Story of Cissy Fitzgerald, the Dancer, Now Lying Seriously III", The Lafayette Sunday Times, dimanche 21 octobre 1900, p. 6.

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1895

Physical Culture

1896

Cissy Fitzgerald

1914
	The Accomplished Mrs. Thompson (Vitagraph) (12 juin)
	The Ladies' War (Vitagraph) (17 juin)
	The Win(k)some Widow (Vitagraph)
	The Man Behind the Door (Vitagraph) (23 novembre)
	How to Do It and Why (Cutey at College) (Vitagraph (12 décembre)
1915
	How Cissy Made Good (Vitagraph) (2 février)
	The Evolution of Cutey (Vitagraph) (30 juin)
	The Dust of Egypt (Vitagraph) (4 octobre)
	A Corner in Cats (Casino/Gaumont/Mutual) (10 octobre)
	Zablitzky's Waterloo (Casino) (31 octobre)
	The Widow Wins (Casino) (28 novembre)
	Curing Cissy (Casino) (12 décembre)
	Cissy's Innocent Wink (Casino) (19 décembre)
	The Esterbrook Case
1916
	Leave It to Cissy (Casino) (2 janvier)
	What Ruby Did (-)
	The Mishaps of Musty Suffer (mars)
1919
	Cissy's Economy (14 décembre)
1920
	Cissy's Financial Flivver
	Cissy's Sassy Stockings
	Her Naughty Wink
1924
	Cornered (William Beaudine) (Warner Bros)
	Babbitt (Warner Bros)
	Vanity's Price is Coming From F.B.O.
	Flowing Gold
	Lilies of the Field
1925
	I'll Show You the Town
	If Marriage Fails
	Steppin' Out
1926
	Her Big Night
	The Love Thief
1927
	Redheads Preferred (Tiffany Productions)
	Al Joy (Tiffany Productions)
	The Side Show (Paramount)
	Matinee Ladies (Warner Bros)
	Women's Wares (Tiffany Productions)
	The Arizona Wildcat
1928
	Two Flaming Youths (Paramount)
1929
	Lilies of the Field
	Social Sinners
	The Painted Angel
	The Diplomats
1931
	Transgression (Radio Pictures)
1933
	The Masquerader (Goldwyn)
	Only Yesterday (Universal)
1935
	Strictly Illegal

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