Zella Russell was a well known vaudevillian

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 star from about 1912 to the late 1940s on the Columbia

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 circuit. She was born in the Worcester

Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....

 area of Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 and began her career as a pianist in the silent movie

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 theaters the Palace and the Dreamland in the Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 area. She moved into vaudeville, joining Al Reeves show "Big Burlesque Review" both with a piano act and acting in light comedy routines. Her piano specialty was playing pop tunes of the day in a classical arrangement. Her playing was so popular that it often "stopped" the show, the audience demanding she keep playing. Newspaper profiles of the day credit her with attending the New England Conservatory of Music

New England Conservatory of Music

The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...

, but this cannot be confirmed by their records.

She married Harry K. Morton, a fellow vaudevillian. She died in February, 1952 in the Somerville, New York area. Her husband died in May, 1956. She had one son, Harold, who died in childhood.

Broadway productions

• Blossom Time, Sep 4, 1943 - Oct 9, 1943, as Mrs. Kranz
• Blossom Time, Dec 26, 1938 - Jan 1939, as Mrs. Kranz
• The Love Song, Jan 13, 1925 - Jun 6, 1925, as Lizette
• Springtime of Youth, Oct 26, 1922 - Dec 23, 1922, as Pepita
• The Sweetheart Shop, Aug 31, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920, as Daphne

Film

• Avenging Waters, 1936, as "Mrs. Eloise Smythe"
• Taming the Wild, 1936, as "Mrs. Elizabeth Bolton"