Martha O'Driscoll

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Martha O' Driscoll
File:Martha O'Driscoll.jpg
Born(1922-03-04)March 4, 1922
Tulsa, Oklahoma U.S.
DiedNovember 3, 1998(1998-11-03) (aged 76)
Ocala, Florida, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actress, dancer, socialite
Years active1936-1947
Spouse(s)Richard D. Adams (1943-1947) (divorced)
Arthur I. Appleton (1947-1998) her death (4 children)

Martha O'Driscoll (March 4, 1922 – November 3, 1998) was an American film actress from 1937 until 1947. She retired from the screen in 1947 after marrying her second husband, Arthur I. Appleton, President of Appleton Electric Company in Chicago.[1][2]

Life and career

O'Driscoll's mother was a financial partner in the Hollywood Mar-Ken School. The school's director, Mrs. Bessire, had a son, William Kent Bessire. The two women decided to name the school after their children—Mar came from Martha and Ken from Kent. The school remained open until the early 1960s.[3]

Trained in singing and dancing, O'Driscoll was seen by choreographer Hermes Pan in a local theater production in Phoenix; Pan suggested to her mother that O'Driscoll might do well in movies. They[who?] moved to Hollywood in 1935, but Pan was out of town, so they[who?] answered an advertisement for dancers. O'Driscoll was given a role in Collegiate (film) (1935), a musical in which Betty Grable had an early leading role.

O'Driscoll was given more visible parts and began pitching products in magazine ads for Max Factor and Royal Crown Cola, among many others. These advertisements also promoted her upcoming pictures. She had other small dancing roles in Here Comes the Band, The Big Broadcast of 1936 and The Great Ziegfeld. In the last, she was spotted by a Universal talent scout who arranged for her to have a screen test, followed by a contract. Her roles were initially small: in her first Universal film, She's Dangerous (1937), she was not credited by name. In the Deanna Durbin vehicle Mad About Music (1937) she was billed as "pretty girl." Her face appeared on such advertisements as Charm-Kurl Supreme Cold Wave and Max Factor Hollywood Face Powder. Universal loaned O'Driscoll to MGM for parts in The Secret of Dr Kildare (1939) and Judge Hardy and Son (1940), starring Mickey Rooney.[4]

It was RKO, however, which gave O'Driscoll her first two starring roles, as romantic interest to the cowboy Tim Holt in Wagon Train (1940), and notably as Daisy Mae in the first screen version of Al Capp's popular comic strip Li'l Abner (1940), which also featured Buster Keaton.[5]

Paramount became interested in the actress and acquired her contract, casting her first as a maid in Preston Sturges's classic comedy, The Lady Eve (1941). Later she appeared in Cecil B DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind (1942). DeMille was too busy filming to appear at Grauman's Theater to plant his prints in cement for the Walk of Fame, so instead they brought it[clarification needed] to him. Martha O'Driscoll, along with Hedda Hopper and Sid Grauman, were photographed at his side during that moment.[6]

O'Driscoll was then given the lead in the B film Pacific Blackout (1942), starring Robert Preston. The actress followed this with a role in Young and Willing (1943). The studio loaned her back to Universal, which cast her in Olsen and Johnson's Crazy House (1943), then loaned her to RKO for Richard Wallace's stylish thriller, The Fallen Sparrow (1943) with Maureen O'Hara.[7]

In 1943, she starred alongside William Holden and Susan Hayward in Young and Willing.[8]

In the early 1940s, O'Driscoll toured with Errol Flynn and the USO, performing for the troops all over the world. In 1943, she married Lieutenant Commander Richard D. Adams (U.S. Navy) on September 18, 1943, but they separated ten months later.

O'Driscoll co-starred with Noah Beery, Jr., in five films. She also starred in the cult classic House of Dracula with Lon Chaney, Jr., and John Carradine; she also starred in Week-End Pass (both 1945). The following year, she made her last Universal film, Blonde Alibi, receiving top billing as a girl who sets out to prove her lover (Tom Neal) innocent of murder. Her last film was Edgar G. Ulmer's Carnegie Hall (1947).[9]

Following her last film and a final divorce decree on July 18, 1947, from her first husband, she married, two days later, Chicago businessman Arthur I. Appleton. Appleton was the president of the Appleton Electric Company, a company founded by his father. Martha retired from show business in 1947 to start a family; the couple had four children: James, John, Linda and William.[10]

O'Driscoll served as an officer in such Chicago-based organizations as the Sarah Siddons Society, the Ways and Means Committee of Chicago's Junior League, and the Women's Board of the Chicago Boys' Clubs; she was also treasurer of the World's Adoption International Fund. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was a guest speaker at numerous movie-nostalgia conventions.[11][12]

The Appletons started a stud farm, Bridlewood, in Ocala, Florida. In 1984, the Appletons built and took delivery of a 138' Feadship yacht, also named Bridlewood.[13]

In 1984, the couple, along with Arthur Appleton's sister, Edith, built the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala.[14]

After Appleton retired, he and O'Driscoll spent the remainder of their years between their home in Chicago, Bridlewood Farm, and their home in Miami on Indian Creek Island.[15]

Death

Martha O'Driscoll died on November 3, 1998, aged 76, in Miami, Florida, and was entombed in Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery. She was survived by her husband, four children and two stepchildren, as well as 13 grandchildren.[16]

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ "Obituary: Martha O'Driscoll". The Independent. November 9, 1998. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  2. ^ "A Historical Review of Appleton Electric Creating the Brand in Chicago pt.1". 2013. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Mar-Ken History". www.mar-ken.org. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  4. ^ Galloway, Doug (November 16, 1998). "Martha O'Driscoll Appleton". Variety. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  5. ^ Li'l Abner (1940 film)
  6. ^ David (November 16, 2012). "It's The Pictures That Got Small ...: HAND AND FOOTPRINTS OF THE STARS AT GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATRE - PART 3". It's The Pictures That Got Small ... Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  7. ^ The Fallen Sparrow
  8. ^ Young and Willing
  9. ^ "Movie Stars of the '40s", by David Ragan; published 1985, by Prentice Hall
  10. ^ Obituary: Martha O'Driscoll, by Tom Vallance, for The Independent; published 9 November 1998; retrieved 10 May 2013
  11. ^ Obituary: Martha O'Driscoll, by Tom Vallance, for The Independent; published 9 November 1998; retrieved 10 May 2013
  12. ^ "AllMovie | Movies and Films Database | Movie Search, Ratings, Photos, Recommendations, and Reviews". AllMovie. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  13. ^ Netherlands, Feadship Holland B.V. The. "Homepage - Feadship Royal Dutch Shipyards". Feadship Royal Dutch Shipyards. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  14. ^ "History of the Appleton". Appleton Museum of Art. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  15. ^ OLIVER, MYRNA (November 6, 1998). "Martha O'Driscoll; Actress, Arts Patron". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  16. ^ OLIVER, MYRNA (November 6, 1998). "Martha O'Driscoll; Actress, Arts Patron". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved August 29, 2017.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Martha_O%27Driscoll&oldid=874536605"