Mitzi McCall

Mitzi McCall is an American comedian and actress. Life and career Early years McCall debuted onstage at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Strange Bedfellows in 1948. In the early 1950s, then still known as Mitzi Steiner, McCall had the Kiddie Castle program on KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received national attention in 1952 via an Associated Press story about a five-year-old Pittsburgh girl with a cleft palate who spoke her first words while watching the actress in a pantomime on television. Afterward, doctors "didn't know what to say. They held a special meeting, examined Claire, and told the happy parents that she was cured." In 1953, she was featured on Studio 10, a program on KGTV in San Diego, California. She performed in productions at The Pittsburgh Playhouse before heading to Hollywood.