"Tillie" Maude O'Dell: Beaufort girl, Broadway actress

This post was last revised on 16 February 2024.  -- gmc

When families die out in a particular community, contributions of native sons and daughters get lost to time. Such is the case of Matilda C. "Tillie" Maude O'Dell (spelling varies), a woman of considerable stage presence and some enduring historical mystery. Rowland and Wise wrote of her: "Many of Beaufort's youth learned to dance from Maude O'Dell, perhaps Beaufort's most famous export at the turn of the century."
 
Maude was the daughter of  James O'Dell and his wife, the former Alice Clancy. Her birth name was Matilda, hence her nickname in Beaufort as "Tillie." Maud appears to have been her chosen stage name. (Maud was quite a popular name for baby girls circa 1890 - 1910).  Her birth year is given variously as 1870, 1872, 1874 and the month of birth variously as August or November, depending on the source. She had an older half brother, Benjamin, and a younger brother named James after their father.

Tillie first appears in the 1880 census as a 9 year old girl, living with her parents who ran a bakery at the time and her half-brother, Benjamin C., aged 14. The Odells have two boarders: Levi Wenstein, a music teacher from Georgia; and, Lizzie Botume, a teacher most closely associated with the "Old Fort" Plantation Freedman's school. A mulatto man, aged 20, Benjamin Johnson, is listed as the family's servant.

Tillie Maude attended Miss Kelly's Seminary in Charleston and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She used the money she saved from giving dancing lessons in Beaufort and Port Royal to enter New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1894. There she was introduced to Broadway producer Daniel Frohman and as they say, the rest is history. 

The US Federal Census 1900 census shows Tillie's occupation as "actress."

Tillie married twice, first a wealthy mine owner, Adolf F. Hagemann and in 1902,  Arthur Lispenard Doremus, son of a prominent New York physician. She had no children with either husband.

According to Rowland and Wise, Maude and another Beaufort born actress, Esther Dale, always promoted the beauty and economic development of their hometown. O'Dell would often visit her mother during the summers and bring show business guests along to enjoy the sights. Tillie was good friends with another Broadway star, Billie Burke, whom millions of children worldwide recognize as "Glinda the Good Witch" from the Wizard of Oz (1939)  movie. When Maude and Billie went swimming in the Beaufort River, "all of Beaufort stopped to watch." 

It was always Maude's intent to return to Beaufort to live out her days once she retired from the stage and screen. An article published in the Beaufort Gazette shortly after her death reported that in personal correspondence with an unnamed Beaufort resident Maude wrote: "'I mean to make my home a "Mecca" for tired people who have a right to 'rest on their oars.' Beaufort doesn't produce a 'quitter,' but I tell you in confidence I'll be able to quit after this season." The article ends with this statement: 

Almost in sight of rest in her beloved Beaufort, Miss Odell has been taken suddenly from the scene. She died in costume, but not in character for Miss Odell was the antithesis of Sister Bessie. Long was she South Carolina's principal representative on the stage. She was of its queen in the halcyon days of the American theater, and she was still prominent in these changed seasons." 

This entry written by Dennis Adams used to be on the Library's first website, 1997 - 2016:

"Tillie" Maude Odell Doremus (1870 -1937): The stage career of Beaufort's best-known actress spanned almost forty years (half of that time was with the Shuberts in New York). Doremus appeared for 400 nights in The Prisoner of Zenda, her first real success. She went on to appear in The Student Prince, Show Boat and Tobacco Road (in the role of Sister Bessie Rice). Maude Odell Doremus was found dead in her dressing room just before the curtain was to go up on a performance of Tobacco Road. The cause of death was a heart attack. According to former Beaufort resident Brent Breedin, Ms. Doremus owned what was then known as the Edward Barnwell House (1405 Bay Street in Beaufort), which was bought soon after her death by sheriff James Edwin McTeer.

In the March 8, 1937 New York Times column on estate matters, subsection "Maude Odell's Estate $5000", James Odell, of 129 48th Street, was her sole beneficiary. Her brother did not have long to enjoy her estate. He died only 3 months later, on May 27th, in Beaufort. His death certificate, available through the Ancestry Library Edition database in all of our branch libraries, indicates that he died of alcohol poisoning. He lies adjacent to his mother and sister in the Historic St. Peter's Catholic Churchyard cemetery.

The Internet Broadway Database gives Maude's extensive stage credits. She appeared in more that 20 Broadway shows between 1898 and her death.  

Tobacco Road ran for a total of 3182 performances in the Forrest Theatre, 230 W. 49th Street. (The theater was renamed for the great American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1959). Odell acted the role of Sister Bessie Rice from opening night on December 3, 1933 until her death backstage on February 27, 1937 awaiting her cue for Act 2.

The Internet Movie Database lists four films for Maude O'Dell:  uncredited in Daredevil O'Dare (1934); Supper at Six (1933) ; and two silent black and white films from 1915 Gambier's Advocate and Niobe.

You can view 16 images of Maude Odell in the digital Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, an archive of almost 5 million items documenting the theatrical arts held by the New York Public Library.

The BDC has a vertical file of newspaper clippings about her and other members of the Odell family and a small archival collection about the Sea Island Hotel when her mother owned and managed the property from 1878 - 1918. The ODELL MAUDE (1870 - 1937) vertical file contains a series of New York Times theater reviews of some of the plays she was in from 1897 through 1933 that was donated to the Library by Brent Breedun in 2016.  We also have a vertical file about the history and former occupants of 1405 BAY STREET.  Please make an appointment to review the contents by emailing: bdc@bcgov.net or calling us at 843-255-6468 to make those arrangements.    L

Sources:

"Odell, Maude" Wikipedia

"Popular Baby Names by Decade," Social Security Administration

Contents of the ODELL, MAUDE (1870 - 1937) vertical file.

Bridging the Sea Islands' Past and Present, 1893 - 2006  (The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, vol. 3) by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise (University of South Carolina Press, 2015), pp. 116, 302-304.

Ancestry.com. United States Federal Censuses, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930.

Ancestry.com. South Carolina, Death Records, 1821-1965 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. 

"Miss Maude Odell," Beaufort Gazette, 8 April 1932, p. 4.   

"Home of an Actress, Witchdoctor, and a Poet: The Edward Barnwell-Geddes Dowling House, 1405 Bay Street" by Beaufort Online, 1 February 2020.                    

Internet Broadway Database

Internet Movie Database

Find-A-Grave website

Sources of Images: 

The portrait at the head of the post (ID: TH-41099) comes from the Billy Rose Theatre Collection in the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery.

The "Musical and Dramatic Entertainment" ad is from the Palmetto Post, 31 May 1894, p. 2.

The Sea Island "Hotel and Pier in Beaufort" postcard is from the BCL's Russell J. Arnsberger Postcard Collection hosted on the Lowcountry Digital Library website.

Find a Grave, database and images, James F. O'Dell,  Memorial page for James F. O'Dell (8 March 1883 - 27 May 1937), Find a Grave Memorial ID 74499080, citing Saint Peters Catholic Church Cemetery, Beaufort, Beaufort County, South Carolina, USA; Maintained by Fletcher (contributor 47100597).