E. J. ODELL, FAMOUS ACTOR

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 9

E. J. ODELL, FAMOUS ACTOR

"LAST OF BOHEMIANS" Australian Press Association—United Scrvm LONDON, 26th May. Mr. E. J. Odell, aged 93, tho actor known as "the last of the Bohemians" and "King of Savages," is dead. The father of the London Savage Club' and tho last of London's Bohemians, the late Mr. E. J. Odell, commonly known as "Old Odell," was 93 years old at the time of his death. Right to the last he. continued to wear his frock-coat and black sombrero, spending his days and nights between the Savage and the Yorick Clubs and the Charterhouse, where he lived for the last twenty-four years of his life. .The late Mr. Odell never possessed the gift of saving, and when he came upon hard times King Edward, a brother

"Savage," gave Mr. Odell a nomination to the Charterhouse, the home for aged men, which Thackeray 'described in "The Neweomes.*' Life in tho Charterhouse did not cut off the old Bohemian from his friends at the Savage and the Yorick, and ho maintained his reputation for telling stories to those present almost up to the time of his death. At one time it was Mr. Odell's boast that he was the last Londoner to go to bed, but he relinquished this distinction to those of "the bhoys" who frequent the post-war night clubs and breakfasted off bacon and eggs in the Piccadilly "all-night" restaurants. By profession the -late Mr. Odell was an actor, and his songs and recitations were always popular items at the Savage "Saturday nights" or the Yorick Club dinners in Covent Garden. It was, however, Mr. Odell's passion for burlesque recitation which brought about his professional downfall. Sometime in the 'seventies, Mr. Odell chose to give a burlesque of Henry Irving's "Hamlet" to a select gathering. Opening with the line "Now is the winter of our discontent," he pulled himself up with the remark, "Now, Mr. Irving, this is 'Hamlet,' not 'Richard lII.' " Foolery followed foolery until Irving was represented as suddenly abandoning the text of Shakespeare to chaso a bumble bee, whose buzz the comedian reproduced with amazing fidelity. Irving heard of the burlesque, and'proved unforgiving. Soon after Mr. Odell left the stage.