# Maudi Darrell

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{{short description|Actor}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Maudi Darrell
| image              = MaudiDarrell1908Bystander.tif
| alt                = Photograph of a young white woman, in a glamorous pose, with bare shoulders and voluminous wavy hair.
| caption            = Maudi Darrell, from a 1908 publication.
| birth_name         = Maud Rhoda Didcott
| birth_date         = 10 February 1882
| birth_place        = [London, England](/source/London%2C_England), U.K.
| death_date         = 31 October 1910
| death_place        = 
| occupation         = Actress, [Gaiety Girl](/source/Gaiety_Girl)
}}
'''Maudi Darrell''' (born '''Maud Rhoda Didcott''', 10 February 1882 – 31 October 1910) was an English actress on the London and New York stages, and a performer in [vaudeville](/source/vaudeville). She was one of the fashionable young women known as "[Gaiety Girls](/source/Gaiety_Girls)".

==Early life==
Maud Rhoda Didcott was born in [London](/source/London) in 1882, the daughter of Hugh Jay Didcott and Rose Fox. Her father was a theatrical agent, and her mother was a dancer who had a novelty act involving singing while skipping rope.<ref>Henry George Hibbert, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3B5KAQAAMAAJ&q=Didcott&pg=PA142 ''Fifty Years of a Londoner's Life''] (Dodd, Mead & Company 1916): 110, 145.</ref><ref>John Hollingshead, [https://books.google.com/books?id=k2suAAAAYAAJ&dq=Rose+Fox+%22skipping+rope%22&pg=PA345 ''Gaiety Chronicles''] (A. Constable & Company 1898): 345-347.</ref> Her father was Jewish, but Maudi Didcott was educated at the Sion House Convent at [Bayswater](/source/Bayswater).<ref name="Obit">[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64441186 "Actress's Sad Fate"] ''The Northwestern Advocate and Emu Bay Times'' (January 7, 1911): 2.via [Trove](/source/Trove){{open access}}</ref> Her sister Violet Raye was also an actress.<ref>Richard Anthony Baker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WdWwBAAAQBAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA215 ''British Music Hall: An Illustrated History''] (Pen & Sword 2014): 215. {{ISBN|9781473837409}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lnw4AQAAMAAJ&dq=Violet+Raye+Chart&pg=PA53 "A Chat with Miss Violet Raye"] ''The Sketch'' (October 31, 1894): 45.</ref>

==Career==
thumb|Maudi Darrell in ''The Beauty of Bath'' (1906)
Maudi Darrell appeared in popular musicals and comedies, including ''[The Beauty of Bath](/source/The_Beauty_of_Bath)'' (1906),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=E9EUAAAAYAAJ&dq=Story+of+the+Beauty+of+Bath+Play+Pictorial&pg=PA142 "The Story of the Beauty of Bath"] ''The Play Pictorial'' 45(7)(1906): 141-143.</ref> ''Mrs. Ponderbury's Past'' (1907),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=o6RFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA1066 Photo caption], ''Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News'' (August 24, 1907): 1066.</ref> ''The Cassilis Engagement'' (1907),<ref name="Green">[https://books.google.com/books?id=BTVIAQAAMAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA148 "Heard in the Green Room"] ''The Sketch'' (February 13, 1907): 148.</ref> ''[The Gay Gordons](/source/The_Gay_Gordons_(musical))'' (1908), and ''[The Belle of Brittany](/source/The_Belle_of_Brittany)'' (1908).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zDZPAAAAYAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=RA1-PA14 "It's Daffodil Time in Brittany"] ''New York Star'' (November 28, 1908): 14.</ref> Her signature song was "By the Side of the Zuyder Zee", from ''The Beauty of Bath''.<ref>Seymour Hicks, [https://books.google.com/books?id=L5INAAAAYAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell+Bullough&pg=PA312 ''Twenty-Four Years of An Actor's Life''] (John Lane Co. 1911): 312.</ref> She was a popular "postcard actress", with portraits of her sold in postcard format.<ref name="Green" /> "Her appearance has the peculiar exotic beauty of a [Beardsley](/source/Aubrey_Beardsley) drawing," noted one critic, "if she appealed to a boy at all, she would appeal with great force."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LVs8AQAAIAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA169 "Mr. St. John Hankins' Comedy at the Stage Society"] ''The Academy'' (February 16, 1907): 169.</ref> She had a valuable collection of diamonds, and the "Maharaja of Kuch Behar" (Sir [Nripendra Narayan](/source/Nripendra_Narayan)) presented Miss Darrell with "the finest emerald in England", in admiration for her beauty.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10295212/maudi_darrell_obit_1910/ "Maudi Darrell Dies in English Home"] ''The Inter Ocean'' (November 6, 1910): 9. via [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com){{open access}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1909-04-04|title=Actress Find a Way to Win Back Suitor|pages=17|work=The Inter Ocean|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50175101/actress-find-a-way-to-win-back-suitor/|access-date=2020-05-04|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Maudi Darrell married Scottish-born mill owner Ian Bullough in 1909.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=34A4AQAAMAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA367 "Maudi Darrell, Spinster No Longer"] ''The Sketch'' (March 31, 1909): 367.</ref><ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/96986684/733A6D78A1404A2BPQ/1 "Wedding Interest London"] ''New York Times'' (March 28, 1909): C1.</ref> She died the following year, from complications of a [paralysis](/source/paralysis) of unknown origin and acute [appendicitis](/source/appendicitis), aged 28 years.<ref name="Obit" /> Her widower married again in 1911, to actress [Lily Elsie](/source/Lily_Elsie).<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10295336/lily_elsie_and_ian_bullough_1911/ "'The Dollar Princess' Who Took the Dollars"] ''Oregon Daily Journal'' (December 3, 1911): 65. via [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com){{open access}}</ref> There were reports that Elsie fell ill from the same illness as Maudi Darrell, almost immediately after marrying Bullough.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1912-08-31|title=Lily Elsie, Pet of the English Stage, Who is Dying|pages=10|work=The Buffalo Enquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50174689/lily-elsie-pet-of-the-english-stage/|access-date=2020-05-04|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*The [National Portrait Gallery, London](/source/National_Portrait_Gallery%2C_London), has [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp101296/maudi-darrell-mrs-john-bullough three postcard portraits of Maudi Darrell].

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darrell, Maudi}}
Category:1882 births
Category:1910 deaths
Category:20th-century English actresses
Category:Actresses from London
Category:English expatriate actresses in the United States
Category:Jewish English actresses
Category:English vaudeville performers
Category:Deaths from appendicitis

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Maudi Darrell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maudi_Darrell) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maudi_Darrell?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.
