Martha O’Driscoll, Hollywood Horror Star and Horsewoman: Halloween Edition

 by
Tobi Lopez Taylor

An Arizona Horse History Project Essay

Just in time for Halloween 🎃, here’s a quick look at an actress from the golden age of Universal horror films who also made her mark as a breeder of champion Thoroughbreds. 

Born in Oklahoma, Martha O’Driscoll (b. 1922, d. 1998) grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and moved to Hollywood as a teenager to pursue a career as an actress and a dancer. Her first on-screen credit was in the 1938 Columbia film Girls’ School, and while she didn’t often get top billing during her movie career, she did work steadily for the next decade, appearing in nearly 40 films, ranging from Westerns to crime dramas to comedies. 

        One picture she appeared in, a Western musical called Under Western Skies, was set in her adopted home state of Arizona but was actually filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch near Los Angeles.

Martha made her Universal Pictures horror-film debut in 1944’s Ghost Catchers, a “horror comedy” starring the comic duo of Olsen and Johnson. (She’s shown here riding sidesaddle.)

        Her next horror role was in House of Dracula, a 1945 Universal film that is best known today for bringing together Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and the Wolf Man (see trailer). Martha played the part of Milizia Morelle, a nurse who is pursued by Count Dracula (John Carradine, not Bela Lugosi, wore the cape in this film).

O’Driscoll retired from acting in 1947. In July of that year, she married Chicago businessman and lifelong horse racing fan Arthur Appleton, with whom she had four children. In the late 1960s, Arthur bought his first racehorse, and by the mid-1970s, the couple established Bridlewood Farm in Florida, where they bred numerous stakes winners. 

Martha Appleton with a Bridlewood Thoroughbred.

        For many years, Bridlewood was often among the top 10 American farms in terms of money earned. The Appletons stood successful breeding stallions like Skip Trial, sire of Skip Away, Horse of the Year and winner of the Breeder’s Cup Classic, and Silver Buck, sire of Silver Charm, who captured the first two legs of the Triple Crown. 

        The couple also founded the Appleton Museum of Art, which has devoted an entire wing to equestrian art. Its website notes, “The Appleton’s equine art collection spans over 3,000 years of history from around the world. As Ocala is heralded as the Horse Capital of the World, horses and equine art may also be understood to be part of the Appleton’s DNA….Ranging from Eurasian Steppe Bronze Age horse-bridle bits to contemporary works, the equine art collection is particularly notable for its wide range of human-horse endeavors–riding, hunting, racing and farming.

        Martha died in 1998, and Arthur outlived her by a decade. In 2013, John and Leslie Malone purchased Bridlewood, with the intention of, as they put it, “spearheading its revitalization.”