Pretty Ladies

"Pretty Ladies" (1925) is a film starring Zasu Pitts, and marked the first credited appearance of "Lucille Le Sueur", soon to be known as Joan Crawford. According to Lawrence J. Quirk, author of "The Films of Joan Crawford", this film was the first and only time Crawford was credited by her real name. (Crawford is also billed as LeSueur in "MGM Studio Tour" from 1925 shown on Turner Classic Movies.) In "Pretty Ladies", Le Sueur was cast in the role of Bobby.

"Pretty Ladies" is a fictional recreation of the famed "Ziegfeld Follies". Pitts stars as Maggie, a dancing comdienne who longs for the life of other chorus girls but eventually finds love by being herself. There are many notable but obscure aspects about "Pretty Ladies". It was also the film debut of Myrna Loy who signed a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers the following year (1926) and finally signed with MGM and became a star in 1934 with the release of "The Thin Man". Also of note is that the white wig that Joan wore in the film was used by Bette Davis 37 years later in a film that starred Crawford and Davis, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962).

Joan debuted in films before this one. She was an extra in "The Merry Widow" (1925), "Proud Flesh" (1925), and was a double for actress Norma Shearer in "Lady of the Night" which was released in February 1925, a month after Joan arrived in Hollywood. Another prominent player in the film "Pretty Ladies" was Lilyan Tashman.