Olive Morrell
{{Short description|English actress and singer (1877–1937)}}
Olive Morrell, born Olive Miller (1877–1937), was an English actress, singer and Gaiety Girl best known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies.
Early life
Morrell was born in Highbury in 1877[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7814/images/LNDRG13_118_120-0191?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=015b64b545eda8c30429303981b7c2e2&usePUB=true&_phsrc=QKi115&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=152407 1901 England Census for Olive Morrell], London, St Marylebone, via Ancestry.com {{subscription required}} and grew up in Highgate, near London. A singing teacher introduced her to theatrical producer George Edwardes, which led to roles at the Gaiety Theatre, London.[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/126563348?searchTerm=Olive%20Morrell "Confidences of Stage Favorites: Miss Olive Morell"], The Sunday Times, December 9, 1906, p. 5, via Trove
Career
Morrell played roles in the Edwardian musical comedies A Greek Slave (1898–1899),Wearing, J. P. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nF8pAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA382 The London Stage 1890–1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel], Scarecrow Press (2013), p. 382. {{ISBN|9780810892828}} San Toy (1900),[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23158034/olive_morrell_1900/ "Grand Theatre"] The Age, April 21, 1900, p. 8, via Newspapers.com {{open access}} A Country Girl (1902–1904), The Catch of the Season (1904–1906), Sergeant Brue (1904), Under a Panama (1904),[https://books.google.com/books?id=cC9IAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA260 "'Sergeant Brue' at the Prince of Wales"], Sketch, August 31, 1904, p. 260 The Talk of the Town (1905), and The Spring Chicken (1905).Caryll, Ivan and Lionel Monckton, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tmw9AQAAMAAJ&dq=Olive%20Morrell&pg=PP7 The Spring Chicken], Chappell & Company (1905), unnumbered cast page. She appeared in a benefit performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury in 1906."Trial by Jury at the Terry Matinee", The Bystander, June 20, 1906, p. 603Edwards, G. Spencer. [https://books.google.com/books?id=rf1EAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA894 "Concerning Olive Morrell"], Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, August 5, 1905, p. 894
As a Gaiety Girl, Morrell's appearance and gowns were at least as reviewed as her talents, and she was a popular subject for photo postcards.[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175379621?searchTerm=Olive%20Morrell "Miss Olive Morrell"], Punch, November 8, 1906, p. 8, via Trove In 1904, Morrell defended actresses from criticism by writer Marie Corelli, writing: "Actresses are not more extravagant than other people."[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23159235/olive_morrell_1904 "Corelli Attacks the Women"], Buffalo Times, August 28, 1904, p. 14, via Newspapers.com
She toured as a performer in musicals and pantomime in Australia for six months in the 1906–1907 season.[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231863632?searchTerm=Olive%20Morrel "Miss Olive Morrell"], The Sunday Sun, Sydney, October 7, 1906, p. 1, via Trove The press interest in her appearance continued: "She is distinctly English, with her lovely complexion of milk and roses, a skin as fine as a baby's, straight delicate features, and good grey eyes", wrote one interviewer in a Melbourne newspaper, continuing to describe her teeth ("perfect"), her smile ("bewitching"), her eyebrows, her hair, her height, and her dress.[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146639330?searchTerm=Olive%20Morrell "The Interviewer: Miss Olive Morrell"], Table Talk, Melbourne, November 1, 1906, p. 12, via Trove In the same 1906 interview, Morrell said:
"If any girl has any ability for the stage, I never blame her for going on. ... It is really the best thing a woman can do, and now there is a very much better class upon the stage. Managers have realized, I think, that a girl who is decently educated and nicely brought up is quicker to understand and learn, and also that she generally makes a better impression than the comparatively uneducated girl."
Personal life
Morrell married Australian politician Willie Kelly in 1908, in London.{{cite book|author=Kelly, Frederick Septimus|author-link=Frederick Septimus Kelly|editor=Thérèse Radic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ErX1-eHqmVUC&q=Olive%20Morrell&pg=PT384 |title=Race Against Time: The Diaries of F. S. Kelly|publisher=National Library Australia|date=2004| page=395|isbn=9780642107404}}[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175152095?searchTerm=Olive%20Morrell "Mr. William Kelly M. P., Marriage to Miss Morrell"], Telegraph, Brisbane, February 20, 1908, p. 4, via Trove In 1909 the couple had a daughter, Mary Wentworth Kelly, and in 1911 they were living with four servants in Knightsbridge in London.[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_00429_0135_03?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=101577cf73fab7afd903892ee95ca25a&usePUB=true&_phsrc=QKi120&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=1384956 1911 England Census for Olive Kelly], London, St Margaret and St John, via Ancestry.com {{subscription required}} When they separated, Morrell moved back to England with their daughter.{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Rutledge|first=Martha|id2=kelly-william-henry-7091|title=Kelly, William Henry (1877–1960)|year=1983|volume=9}}
Morrell died in Hampstead in London in 1937.[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7579/images/ons_d19371az-0678?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=101577cf73fab7afd903892ee95ca25a&usePUB=true&_phsrc=QKi121&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.115923776.797651137.1626211650-752963078.1621020919&pId=28292606 England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 for Olive Kelly] 1937, Q1, via Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}
References
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External links
- The National Portrait Gallery, London has [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp101800/olive-morrell six postcard images of Olive Morrell], by various photographic studios.
- The U. S. National Library of Medicine has [https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101611413-img a photograph of Olive Morrell in a nurse's uniform], from about 1908, in their digital collections.
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Category:19th-century English actresses
Category:20th-century English actresses
Category:English expatriates in Australia
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English vaudeville performers
Category:Actors from the London Borough of Islington