Maxine Elliott: Accomplished actress, theater owner

Born Jessie Carolyn Dermot in Rockland in the late 1860s or early 1870s, Maxine Elliott traveled to many overseas destinations including Europe and India with her father, Capt. Thomas Dermot, as a child.

She became interested in theater while a student at Notre Dame Academy, a finishing school in Massachusetts, then traveled to New York to study under famous actor and director Dion Boucicault. He chose her stage name, reportedly basing it on the state where she was born and an old family name, according to “Magnificent Mainers” by Jeff Hollingsworth.

Elliott worked for various theater troupes, eventually making her debut in January 1895 in London as Sylvia in “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” She had been married briefly in New York but divorced and married again in London the famous actor Nat Goodwin in 1896. That marriage didn’t last long either.

Elliott appeared in 1903 in New York in a play written for her titled “In Her Own Way” upon returning to the stage after her brother Louis Dermot was lost at sea. She was a talented actress, and she also had a head for business and managed to become quite wealthy while alternating between the stages of London and New York, according to Hollingsworth’s book.

In 1908, Elliott became the first woman since Laura Keene in President Lincoln’s day to build and operate her own theater – the Maxine Elliott Theatre in New York. She then bought an estate in England where her family, including another actress in the family – her sister Gertrude – lived.

Elliott’s final formal play of her early career was “Joseph and His Brethren” in 1913. The male leading role was played by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. She also appeared in two motion pictures, “Fighting Odds” and “The Eternal Magdalene,” both Samuel Goldwyn films. She then did cameo appearances and in 1920 acted in her final play, “Trimmed in Scarlet,” in her New York theatre.

Elliott did charity work during World War I as a Red Cross nurse, and even funded a houseboat converted to a hospital for which she received Belgium’s Order of the Crown, according to Hollingsworth. Elliott retired to the Riviera and entertained royalty and noblemen, including good friend Winston Churchill. She died in 1940 and was buried in Cannes, France.

According to Hollingsworth’s book, much of Elliott’s memorabilia can be found at Harvard University.Source: “Magnificent Mainers” by Jeff Hollingsworth, Covered Bridge Press, North Attleborough, Mass., 1995.

Maine’s history is full of female pioneers who blazed a path for the women of today. The Bangor Daily News, in cooperation with the Maine Historical Society’s online museum Maine Memory Network, the Maine FolkLife Center and others, will highlight a different woman each day throughout March. If you are just joining us for this series, you may find the installments you have missed at www.bangordailynews.com. Images (from left) courtesy Library of Congress, 1901 copyright by Burr McIntosh expired; Library of Congress, 1905 copyright by The Strobridge Litho. Co. of Cincinnati and New York expired.