Martha O'Driscoll
| Martha O' Driscoll | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 4, 1922 Tulsa, Oklahoma U.S. |
| Died | November 3, 1998 (aged 76) Ocala, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, dancer, socialite |
| Years active | 1936-1947 |
| 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. Her 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. She retired from the screen in 1947, to have and raise children with her husband, Arthur I. Appleton, President of Appleton Electric Company in Chicago, the company his father, Albert I. Appleton founded.
Trained in singing and dancing, O'Driscoll was discovered by choreographer Hermes Pan in a local theater production in Phoenix, which led to unbilled bits in musical movies from 1935. They moved to Hollywood in 1935, but Pan was out of town, so they answered an advertisement for dancers and O'Driscoll was given a role in Collegiate (1935), a musical. Betty Grable had an early leading role in the film and its songwriters, Mack Gordon and Harry Revel, played themselves as co-chairmen of the school's music department.
She was groomed in more visible parts and began pitching products for Max Factor and Royal Crown Cola, among many others, in magazine ads, while such endorsements promoted her upcoming pictures in return. 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.
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