Trixie Friganza on AllMovie

Hefty vaudeville performer Trixie Friganza (born Delia O'Callahan) enjoyed some success in films in the 1920s. Once describing herself a "perfect 46," Friganza rose from the chorus to headlining at the New York Palace, mainly by delivering an endless stream of self-deprecating "fat girl" jokes. Her screen performances in such comedies as The Whole Town's Talking (1926) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928) were purely a matter of whether the audience found making fun of overweight women a hoot. Friganza can be seen as Lon Chaney's customer in The Unholy Three (1930), as Big Jo in the Paramount Western Wanderer of the Wasteland (1935), and, as herself, in a bizarre Dwain Esper short entitled How to Undress in Front of Your Husband (1937). Her career was cut short by crippling arthritis.