Famed Broadway and Silent Film Actress Elita Proctor Otis Lived In Chester Park, Pelham
Elita Proctor Otis was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1851 according to a variety of sources, although her obituary in The Pelham Sun says (apparently erroneously) that she was only 56 at the time of her death in 1927. She was a daughter of William Henry Otis, a banker. Her paternal grandmother was Eliza Proctor, sister of Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont, and a lineal descendant of the famed English poet, Adelaide Proctor.
As a young woman, Otis learned her craft as an amateur participating in productions sponsored by the "Comedy Club." She first attracted wide notice playing the role of Mrs. Eastlake Chapel in John Stetson's production of "The Crust of Society." Her success in Comedy Club productions led her to become a professional actress. By the mid-1890s she was working with a number of the most famous producers of her time. She starred in a host of Broadway and national tour productions including:
"The School for Scandal," "New Blood," "Sporting Life," "Wine and Women," "The Purple Road," "About Town," and "The Two Orphans." After a starring tour as "Nancy Sykes" in her own version of "Oliver Twist" she appeared under the management of famed agent William A. Brady.
Images of Elita Proctor Otis Portraying Various Brooadway and National
Tour Roles Including "Nancy Sykes" in "Oliver Twist" (1895), Carmen
in "Carmen" (1896) and in "Women and Wine."
NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.
After achieving fame on Broadway and in national tours, in 1900 Otis married William Carpenter Camp, a New York broker and son of Isaac Camp, an organ manufacturer of Chicago. According to her obituary, this second marriage "was unsuccessful, and Miss Otis divorced her husband about fifteen years ago" (i.e., about 1912).
Shortly before divorcing her second husband, Elita Proctor Otis began acting in the new medium of silent films. As early as 1909 she is credited with roles in "Adventures of a Drummer Boy" (as "Elita Otis"); "Oliver Twist" (as "Nancy Sykes"); "Les Misérables (Part I)" (as "The Galley Slave"); and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (as Hippolyta).
Her film career extended another seventeen years including the following films:
- "The Great Diamond Robbery" (1914, as Mother Rosenbaum)
- "The Greyhound" (1914, as Deep Sea Kitty Doyle)
- "The Triflers" (1920, as Effie Stilwell)
- "Under Norther Lights" (1920, as Madge Carson)
- "The Torrent" (1921, as Anne Mayhew)
- "While the Devil Laughs" (1921, as Pearl De La Marr)
- "The Secret of the Hills" (1921, as Mrs. Miltimore)
- "The Infidel" (1922, as Miss Parliss)
- "Refuge" (1923, as The Princess)
- "Miss Nobody" (1926, as Miriam Arnold)
- "The Lost Express" (1926, as Mrs. Arthur Standish)
Source: "Elita Proctor Otis" in Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia (visited Aug. 24, 2016).
In about 1922, Elita Proctor Otis moved to Chester Park in the Village of North Pelham. She lived in a notable home about which I have written before: 45 Maple Avenue. See Thu., Jul. 23, 2015: The Home at 45 Maple in Chester Park Built to Serve as a Church.
Home at 45 Maple Avenue in Chester Park, Showing
the Stonework and the Pointed-Arch Windows.
Photograph Taken in 2003 by the Author.
Note: Click on Image to Enlarge.
Home at 45 Maple Avenue in Chester Park from a
Different Angle. The Facade Depicted in the First
Photograph Above May Be Seenn on the Far Right
Side in this Photograph Taken in 2003 by the Author.
NOTE: Click Image to Enlarge.
More Recent Google Maps "Street View" Image of
the Home at 45 Maple Avenue in Chester Park,
Showing Home in May, 2012.
NOTE: Click Image to Enlarge.
"from her couch she looked out upon the world with a bright faith that was never sanctimonious and a contentment than was never resignation. She created beautiful embroideries and dainty articles. She corresponded, by means of a typewriter, with scores of friends. Her only companion was her nurse, Alicia Gauvin, whom she dearly loved, and whose tenderness and understanding did much to make the long years more endurable. During the five years that she had lived in Chester Park, she had found much happiness in the quiet, friendly atmosphere. She made many friends here, and with frequent visits from older acquaintances from New York, she did not lead too lonely a life." (See full article below.)
In early May, 1927, Elita Proctor Otis suffered a stroke that paralyzed her entire left side. Although she seemed to improve for a time, it was the beginning of the end. Her sad obituary, published in The Pelham Sun, noted how she tried to add some color to her slowly-ebbing life by having her bedroom painted in bright pink and green shortly before her death:
"From her little hoard of savings, she took enough to paint her quaint rambling house. Her own bedroom, which was her entire world, she had decorated in her favorite pale green and pink. She found a new joy in planning for the future. But before her spring-like room was ready for her to occupy, she suffered a new attack of illness that brought with it the pain that only death could end. Still she insisted upon being moved to the now-completed chamber, where for two short weeks, she found a measure of happiness in the contemplation of her plans matured. Toward the end of last week, the soft green walls and fluttering draperies almost faded from her sight. The pain welled up and shut out the vision of the thing that meant so much in her shut-in life. And on Saturday, she seemed to realize that release was very near. At ten o'clock that night, under the influence of a narcotic, she sank into unconsciousness and on Sunday afternoon [August 14, 1927] she slept away into eternity."
Elita Proctor Otis was survived only by a cousin, Bessie M. West, of Detroit, and an adopted sister, Margaret Noxon of New York City.
Detail from Undated Photograph of Elita Proctor Otis.
Source: Library of Congress "Prints & Photographs
Reading Room" - Bain Collection, Reproduction No.
LC-DIG-ggbain-29702. NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.
* * * * *
"ELITA PROCTOR OTIS, FAMOUS ACTRESS OF GENERATION AGO, TAKES HER LAST CURTAIN CALL
(by Esther Perry)
-----
When the curtain fell upon the last scene of the last act of Elita Proctor Otis' life, the drama was not ended. There still remained the curtain calls. If her life has been dramatic, her death is no less so. For in death she still has maintained the individuality that marked her from the days when she created a sensation as an amateur actress with the Comedy Club through the years that brought her fame and adoration on the street called Broadway.
She knew that the play must end, and with its ending, she planned the curtain calls. Strangely, that final gesture held no measure of the vivacity and gaiety that had marked her greatest roles. Gone was the Nancy Sykes that captivated a thousand audiences, vanished was the Lady Teazle that once held fast the heart of the gay white way. The cold, still clay that inspired the reverent homage of scores of men and women was pathetically unlike the Elita Proctor Otis of a generation ago.
If, lying there so peacefully, in a casket whose soft green cover and pale pink lining seemed oddly like a symbol of the living rather than the dead, the shell of her whom America once had counted one of its most brilliant actresses was the cause of stifled sobs and tears that would not be unshed, the fault was not Elita Otis'. And if the Campbell Funeral Church, whence many a famous thespian has gone the trail that leads to eternity, was bitterly remote from the glare of the spotlight and the sound of applause, it was no less a stage set for an audience.
No sable shroud was her last costume. 'Let me lie in death, as I have in life,' the actress had begged, and so she lay, garbed in the gorgeous folds a Japanese embroidered kimona [sic] that silently bespoke the twelve years of invalidism that preceded her passing. Her snowy hair, once gloriously titian, was covered with a dainty be-flowered cap. A myriad of fair, bright blossoms surrounded her, but they were the flowers of mourning. Over her casket lay a blanket of laurel and pink rosebuds, the last gift to her nurse and companion.
On Wednesday, the casket was taken from the funeral chapel to the Little Church Around the Corner, where the same simple and fitting rites which have been a farewell to many of Miss Otis' contemporaries, were spoken for her. And she was laid to eternal rest at Woodlawn Cemetery, beside the mother who had been her most cherished memory through the years.
In the passing of Elita Proctor Otis there was a poignancy that increased as one realized the pathos of her life. While fame still cherished her and happiness still claimed her for its own, this woman was stricken down with neuritis. Instead of cancelling her engagement, she insisted with the courage and determination that has ever marked her, upon playing until the end of the week, when she collapsed. And from that time, until her passing on Sunday afternoon, Elita Otis was an invalid confined to bed.
With her body inactive, her mentality became more alert than ever. Her imagination quickened, and from her couch she looked out upon the world with a bright faith that was never sanctimonious and a contentment than was never resignation. She created beautiful embroideries and dainty articles. She corresponded, by means of a typewriter, with scores of friends. Her only companion was her nurse, Alicia Gauvin, whom she dearly loved, and whose tenderness and understanding did much to make the long years more endurable.
During the five years that she had lived in Chester Park, she had found much happiness in the quiet, friendly atmosphere. She made many friends here, and with frequent visits from older acquaintances from New York, she did not lead too lonely a life.
In the beginning of May, the even tenor of her invalid's life was disturbed by a stroke of apoplexy that paralyzed her entire left side. But she believed that she would recover, and as she began slowly to regain the use of her hand and arm, she planned for the coming of a new year. From her little hoard of savings, she took enough to paint her quaint rambling house. Her own bedroom, which was her entire world, she had decorated in her favorite pale green and pink. She found a new joy in planning for the future. But before her spring-like room was ready for her to occupy, she suffered a new attack of illness that brought with it the pain that only death could end. Still she insisted upon being moved to the now-completed chamber, where for two short weeks, she found a measure of happiness in the contemplation of her plans matured. Toward the end of last week, the soft green walls and fluttering draperies almost faded from her sight. The pain welled up and shut out the vision of the thing that meant so much in her shut-in life. And on Saturday, she seemed to realize that release was very near. At ten o'clock that night, under the influence of a narcotic, she sank into unconsciousness and on Sunday afternoon she slept away into eternity.
And the little house still stands, fresh and cheery, in its bright new paint. The gay pink curtains flutter from the windows. But there's a wistfulness about it all, because the courageous spirit of Elita Proctor Otis is gone.
Elita Proctor Otis Starred in Famous Productions
Elita Proctor Otis was born in Cleveland, Ohio, fifty-six years ago. Her father was William Henry Otis, a banker, and her paternal grandmother was Eliza Proctor, sister of Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont, and a lineal descendant of the English poetess, Adelaide Proctor. Miss Otis became a professional actress through her success as an amateur in the productions of the Comedy Club in which Elsie De Wolfe and Mrs. James Brown Potter first became known. She achieved her initial popularity as Mrs. Eastlake Chapel in John Stetson's production of 'The Crust of Society.' She played under the management of the most famous producers of her time and some of the productions in which she starred were 'The School for Scandal,' 'New Blood,' 'Sporting Life,' 'Wine and Women,' 'The Purple Road,' and 'About Town.' After a starring tour as Nancy Sykes in her own version of 'Oliver Twist' she appeared under the management of William A. Brady. She played Madame Frochard in the New York all-star revival of 'The Two Orphans.'
As a very young woman, she married Charles Howard Johnson, an artist, who died three months after their marriage. In 1900, she became the wife of William Carpenter Camp, a New York broker, son of Isaac Camp, an organ manufacturer of Chicago. Their marriage was unsuccessful, and Miss Otis divorced her husband about fifteen years ago. She died at her home, 45 Maple avenue, on Sunday afternoon, August 14th, following an acute condition brought on by a stroke of paralysis and the bursting of a tumor. She had been an invalid for twelve years. Her body lay at Campbell's Funeral Church in New York until Wednesday afternoon, when funeral services were conducted at the Church of the Transfiguration by Rev. William Phillips. Interment was made in the family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Miss Otis is survived only by a cousin, Miss Bessie M. West, of Detroit, and an adopted sister, Miss Margaret Noxon of New York City."
Source: Perry, Esther, ELITA PROCTOR OTIS, FAMOUS ACTRESS OF GENERATION AGO, TAKES HER LAST CURTAIN CALL, The Pelham Sun, Aug. 19, 1927, p. 11, cols. 1-3.
'
"ELITA PROCTOR OTIS
A Photograph Taken When She Was at
the Height of Her Career."
Source: Perry, Esther, ELITA PROCTOR OTIS,
TAKES HER LAST CURTAIN CALL, The Pelham Sun,
Aug. 19, 1927, p. 11, cols. 1-3. NOTE: Click
on Image to Enlarge.
Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Labels: 1922, 1927, 45 Maple Avenue, Broadway, Chester Park, Elita Proctor Otis
posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:55 AM
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