:Martha Holliday

{{Infobox person

| name = Martha Holliday

| image = Martha Holliday.jpg

| landscape = yes

| alt =

| caption = Holliday in Yank, the Army Weekly magazine, 1945

| birth_name = Harriette Olson

| birth_date = {{birth date|1922|8|3|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Fort Smith, Arkansas, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1970|11|22|1922|8|3|mf=y}}

| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| resting_place = Glen Haven Memorial Park, Sylmar, Los Angeles

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1940–1948

| spouse =

}}

Martha Holliday (born Harriette Olson August 3, 1922 – November 22, 1970) was an American actress and dancer. She was a prima ballerina with the Pro-Arte Ballet Company in Havana, Cuba, and had a starring role as the romantic feminine lead in the film George White's Scandals (1945). She also appeared as a pin-up model in Yank, the Army Weekly.

Early life

Holliday was born in 1922 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but moved to Oklahoma City as a child. She became a dancer as a child and a professional ballet dancer while in high school. On the same day she graduated from high school, she received a contract as a prima ballerina with the Pro-Arte Ballet Company in Havana, Cuba. After a brief stay in Cuba, she moved to Hollywood, California. She got a job at age 18 with Warner Brothers Studios, hoping to act but instead being assigned as a dance instructor. For three years, she taught dance routines to Warner Brothers stars.

Acting career

In 1942, Holliday choreographed Jimmy Cagney's dance routines in the musical film Yankee Doodle Dandy. She also served as a leg double of the film's female stars for complex dance routines. Her early film appearances were limited to dancing under her birth name.{{cite news|title=Ascending Star (Movie Makers)|author=Robert Lunn|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=December 2, 1945|page=24|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-eugene-guard-ascending-star-movie-m/130080766/|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com}}

In 1944, Holliday signed a contract with RKO Pictures.{{cite news|title=Martha Holliday Is Films' Latest Cinderella|newspaper=The Bergen Evening Record|date=January 15, 1945|page=13|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-martha-holliday/130081798/|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com}} RKO changed her name to Martha Holliday.{{cite news|title=The Talk of Hollywood|newspaper=The Evening Sun|date=January 22, 1945|page=13|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-evening-sun-martha-holliday/130081559/|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com}} Hoping to establish herself as an actress, she studied acting under Lillian Albertson.{{cite news|title=Role That's Close to Stardom Is Reward for Martha Holliday|author=Will Whiteside|newspaper=Richmond News-Leader|date=August 27, 1945|page=15|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-richmond-news-leader-role-thats-clo/130081215/|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com}} Instead, she was again assigned to teach dance routines to others. Finally, she secured a starring role as the romantic feminine lead in the musical comedy George White's Scandals (1945). Producer George White predicted early stardom for Holliday, and a writer in The Des Moines Register noted "Verily, the slippers of Cinderella now are on Martha Holliday's erstwhile tiptoeing tootsies!"{{cite news|title=Martha Holliday Tiptoed From the Ozarks to Oklahoma to Hollywood|newspaper=The Des Moines Register|date=May 6, 1945|page=Magazine 3|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-des-moines-register-martha-holliday/130080158/|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com}} After the film was released, one reviewer wrote, "While Martha Holliday has nimble toes and a pretty face, her English accent is fairly unusual."{{cite news|title="George White's Scandals"|newspaper=Dayton Journal|date=October 11, 1945|page=6|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-herald-george-whites-scanda/130078253/|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com}} It proved to be her only featured role.

Holliday appeared as a pin-up girl in Yank, the Army Weekly magazine in December 1945. As U.S. senator Joseph O'Mahoney read a passage from the publication on the Senate floor,{{efn|He was reading it because there was something he wanted to put into the record.}} the image of the reverse page (Holliday's pin-up photograph) was displayed to the members of the Senate and passed from hand to hand. Columnist Harold Heffernan wrote, "The languorously graceful pose of Martha Holliday lazily sunning herself beside a swimming pool created a near-panic in the United States Senate."{{cite news|title=Favorite Pin-ups of the Yanks|newspaper=Omaha World-Herald|date=April 28, 1946|page=3C|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/omaha-world-herald-favorite-pin-ups-of-t/130083602/|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com}}

Holliday also had smaller, uncredited roles in The Enchanted Cottage (1945), as the hat check girl in The Flame (1947), as Trudy Marsh in I, Jane Doe (1948), and as Pearl in Lulu Belle (1948).{{cite news|title=Martha Holliday|publisher=Turner Classic Movies|accessdate=August 16, 2023|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/88086%7C107801/Martha-Holliday#overview}}

Death

Holliday retired from acting in 1948. She died in 1970 at age 48 in Los Angeles. She is interred in Glen Haven Memorial Park in Sylmar, Los Angeles.Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 25047-25048). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Filmography

class="wikitable sortable"
Year ! Film ! Role ! class="unsortable" \| Notes
1943 \| Thank Your Lucky Stars \| Dancer \| (uncredited)
1945 \| The Enchanted Cottage \| Bit Role \| (uncredited)
1945 \| George White's Scandals \| Jill Martin \|
1947 \| The Flame \| Hat Check Girl \| (uncredited)
1948 \| I, Jane Doe \| Trudy Marsh \| (uncredited)
1948 \| Lulu Belle \| Pearl \| (uncredited)

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

! Film

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

1943

| Thank Your Lucky Stars

| Dancer

| (uncredited)

1945

| The Enchanted Cottage

| Bit Role