Maria Ziccardi

Maria Ziccardi began her career in the 1910s as an extra at Vitagraph Studios in Flatbush, Brooklyn, down the street from her family home where she attended church as a young girl with Dolores and Helene Costello, daughters of Vitagraph star Maurice Costello (Dolores went on to become a film star in her own right and marry John Barrymore). At Vitagraph Maria began getting parts in silent films starring Alice Low and Anita Stewart with the promise of more to come, when she fell in a gym accident during an exhibition for parents at the Girls School in 1914. Threatened with paralysis, she was diagnosed with double curvature of the spine, and both legs were put in the abarjacket cast for nearly three years during treatment at Roosevelt and Vanderbilt hospitals. When the casts were removed and she recovered partial use of her legs, dancing was recommended as an exercise to correct the spine, which she pursued with enthusiasm and a determination to succeed. She resumed studies at P.S. 153 in Homecrest, Brooklyn, and participated in amateur theatricals where she was seen by producer David Belasco who awarded her a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After her first year she left when Belasco cast her in "Son-Daughter" on Broadway, Leonore Ulric's first starring vehicle; Maria also served as Ulric's understudy. A year later she appeared as Cuca, the Mexican girl, in "Blue Bonnet" with Ernest Truex. Belasco advised her next to take a two-year training course in stock and she joined the Myrkle-Harder Company, touring throughout the Northeast in leading roles and character parts. In 1923 she married her first husband, Ralph Burtis, whose family owned a funeral home and piano stores. Maria and her husband were active in Asbury Park social clubs, theater, and charitable events for hospitals; hospital benefits were a lifelong endeavor in gratitude to doctors who treated her spinal injury. Maria and Ralph's daughter Janet shared their passion for theater and became an actress, appearing with her husband, Michael Cripanuk, in stock and film. In 1931 Maria married Frank Carter, a bond salesman on Wall Street, and moved to NJ, living in Westfield, Pittstown and Lebanon, where she became an actor and director of plays in Hunterdon County. She retired in 1969 when she moved to Sun City, Arizona with her husband.