Anita Garvin (born Anna Frances Garvin; February 11, 1906 – July 7, 1994) was an American stage performer and film actress who worked in both the silent and sound eras. Before her retirement in 1942, she reportedly appeared in over 350 shorts and features for various Hollywood studios. Her best known roles are as supporting characters in Hal Roach comedies starring Laurel and Hardy and Charley Chase. Early life and stage career Anna Frances Garvin was born in 1906 in New York City, the middle child of three children of Anne (née Donovan) and Edward J. Garvin, a native of North Carolina. "Stagestruck" as a child, her desire to become an entertainer was encouraged by two sisters who were members of another family living in the same apartment building as the Garvins. The sisters were also dancers in vaudeville. "They were very nice to me", recalled Garvin in a 1978 interview, "They'd teach me different steps and I would practice with them." In 1918, only 12 years of age, she applied for a job as a bathing beauty in one of Mack Sennett's New York stage shows. When the casting agent asked her age, Garvin replied, "'Well, almost 16'". She got the job. The next year she joined the Ziegfeld Follies and later performed in The Earl Carroll Vanities. In 1920, she appeared on stage as "The Kirchner Girl", a 10-minute vaudeville act produced by Ernest Brengk. The 14-year-old performer recreated the poses of women in seven different paintings by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. For each simulated artwork, she was able to change costumes on stage by means of a curtain suspended between two columns. In its April 16, 1920 review of the act, the widely read trade paper Variety states, "Miss Garvin is a stunning looking brunet [sic] who has a corking figure, and is ideally suited for the act." She then appeared in Herman Timberg's Frolics of 1922 before joining a tour with the musical Sally. She performed in that show for two seasons, opting in 1924 to remain in California when the tour left the state for other scheduled venues. In Hollywood, Garvin began working for Christie Film Company's comedies. She recalled her co-star Bobby Vernon dropping butter on the floor onto which she stepped and tumbled, cementing her career as a comedian. Charles Lamont brought her over to work for Educational Pictures. Then, in 1926, she