Zelma O'Neal

Zelma O'Neal (May 29, 1903 – November 3, 1989) was an American actress, singer, and dancer whose career spanned Broadway, early sound films, and the British stage during the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Rock Falls, Illinois, she relocated to Chicago with her family at age two and attended public schools until the age of fourteen, when she left to work in a factory before taking office jobs. Her path into entertainment began through vaudeville, initially performing without pay alongside her sister Berenice and a piano player before developing into a professional touring act. That touring eventually brought her to the East Coast, where she was cast in her first Broadway production.

O'Neal made her Broadway debut in the musical Good News, which opened in 1927. The production was a musical comedy set on a college campus, and her performance drew notice from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times, who described her dancing to "The Varsity Drag" as performing herself into willing exhaustion. The paper also characterized her as possessing a personality resembling that of a caged cyclone. She traveled with the production to London in 1928, where she met British actor Anthony Bushell, who was appearing on Broadway in Somerset Maugham's The Sacred Flame. The two married in New York on November 22, 1928.

She returned to Broadway for the musical Follow Thru, which opened in January 1929 and ran for nearly a full year. In the production she and Jack Haley performed "Button Up Your Overcoat" together, and the pair also appeared in a second-act number titled "I Could Give Up Anything But You." Atkinson again reviewed her work favorably, noting that she danced with every joint in her body and made herself invaluable throughout the evening. O'Neal subsequently appeared in the West Coast production of Follow Thru in Los Angeles in October 1929, and remained in California to begin her film career. Her Broadway credit for Follow Thru is listed in the verified database records covering her stage work from 1927 to 1931.

Her early film work included two Paramount Pictures releases in 1930: Paramount on Parade and the film adaptation of Follow Thru. She also appeared in Peach O'Reno in 1931. In the spring of 1930, she and Bushell took a delayed honeymoon trip through Germany, France, and England. By November of that year she was performing in vaudeville again, where reviewers noted that her time in Hollywood had lent her a more ladylike appearance, though she retained enough of her earlier style to satisfy audiences with renditions of "Button Up Your Overcoat" and "Varsity Drag."

O'Neal's final Broadway appearance came in February 1931 in the drama The Gang's All Here. The production received poor notices and closed after three weeks. She and Bushell relocated to London in 1932, where she built a second stage career. The New York Times noted in December 1934 that she had been announced for the cast of Jack O'Diamonds, a play that toured England before opening in London in February 1935 to favorable reviews. The Daily Telegraph remarked that she was a rare attractive woman who did not mind making a fool of herself. She and Bushell divorced in 1935, though they subsequently appeared in at least one production together without sharing the stage directly. O'Neal appeared in Swing Along in Manchester and London in 1936 and returned to New York in June 1937. Her British film credits from this period include Mr. Cinders, Freedom of the Seas, There Goes Susie, Spring in the Air, Give Her a Ring, Joy Ride, and Let's Make a Night of It.

O'Neal retired from performing in 1938. In 1984 she published her reminiscences under the title Memoirs from Scotts Hill. She died in Largo, Florida, on November 3, 1989, and was cremated following her death.