Lotta Crabtree

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lotta Crabtree

Lotta Crabtree , nee Charlotte Mignon Crabtree , (born November 7, 1847 in New York City , † September 25, 1924 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American actress , entertainer , comedian and philanthropist .

Lotta Crabtree was one of the wealthiest and most popular American entertainers in the late 19th century . She was active from her beginnings as a 6 year old until she retired from the stage at age 45. In public she was known as "The Nation's Darling". Her life story was filmed in Golden Girl (1951). She was embodied by Mitzi Gaynor .

Early years

Lotta Crabtree, daughter of Mary Ann Livesey and John Ashworth Crabtree, both English immigrants, was born in New York City in 1847. Her father was a bookseller who went to San Francisco in 1851 during the California gold rush in order to gain wealth. Lotta and her mother followed him two years later. They met him in the boom town of Grass Valley . During their stay there, they lived in a boarding house. Lotta soon drew the attention of a neighbor with her red hair, black eyes and unbridled laughter. It was about the dancer and actress Lola Montez , who encouraged Lotta in her enthusiasm for the performance.

The Crabtree family moved on to another guest house, this time in Rabbit Creek , 40  miles from Grass Valley. Soon after, Lotta made her first professional appearance in a saloon owned by the young Italian Mart Taylor. Crabtree began touring California and Nevada . During this time she made a name for herself in the mining camps as a dancer, singer and banjo player . In 1856 the family moved to San Francisco, from where Lotta regularly toured Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley . Lotta was known in 1859 as "Miss Lotta, the San Francisco Favorite". Her mother worked as her manager during this time and swept the stage after each performance of her daughter so as not to overlook a piece of gold. Not only was she the perfect stage mother, but she was also a smart businesswoman. Legend has it that her large leather bag with her daughter's earnings in gold became too heavy, so she bought real estate in the towns where her daughter performed.

Theater career

Lotta Crabtree, 1868 ( Library of Congress )
Attol Tryst, 2007 (Designed by the architect Frank Furness)

In April 1864, 16-year-old Lotta gave a farewell performance in San Francisco and the Crabtrees sailed back to New York City. On the east coast of the United States , Lotta began starring in a number of plays : The Old Curiosity Shop , Uncle Tom's Cabin , Little Nell and the Marchioness. In this context, the playwright John Brougham rewrote these works by Charles Dickens for her. With her petite size, Lotta Crabtree was predestined to be the embodiment of children. Known as "Lotta Polka" and "Lotta Gallup" in America in the late 1860s, she was a national star by the age of 20. In 1875 she toured the United States with her own drama company. She reached the peak of her career in the 1870s and 1880s. In public she was known as "The Nation's Darling" and "The Belle of Broadway".

In the 1880s, Lotta Crabtree was considered the highest paid actress in the United States. She made up to $ 5,000  a week. Her mother continued to manage her affairs: booking performances, looking for locations and organizing theater people. When the trunk got too heavy, her mother invested her daughter's earnings in local real estate, racehorses, and bonds . In addition to their investments, some of the money was used to support local organizations such as the Massachusetts Society for Aiding Discharged Prisoners, which was founded in 1846, and to build drinking fountains. Lotta's Fountain , the most famous of these drinking fountains, still stands at the intersection of Market and Kearny Streets in San Francisco and acts as a gathering place every April 18 to commemorate the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake .

Lotta Crabtree traveled abroad with her mother and brothers. She learned French , visited museums and started painting. After touring abroad, she returned to San Francisco where she played at the California Theater . She could be seen there in the play Little Nell and the Marchioness by John Bowen. During her absence, she was missed by her audience and given a warm welcome on her return.

In 1885 her mother had an 18-room summer house called Attol Tryst built in Breslin Park, part of Mount Arlington on the shores of Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey . The first part of the name "Lotta" is only written backwards. The house was designed by the famous architect Frank Furness in Philadelphia designed.

Late years

As a result of a heavy crash in Wilmington ( Delaware ) Lotta Crabtree was forced to retire. After her recovery at Lake Hopatcong, she attempted a comeback in 1891, but then decided in 1892, now she was 45 years old, to finally retire from the stage. At the time, she was the richest actress in the United States. She had her last appearance in 1915 on "Lotta Crabtree Day" in San Francisco at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition .

Lotta Crabtree had many admirers but never married. Sometimes she said that her mother would never allow it, as it deprived her of the ability to be forever young. In addition, her career left her with no time for family life. In her retirement she traveled and painted, but also did charitable work. In this context, a study trip to Paris ( France ) in 1912 should be mentioned. In her later years she moved to Massachusetts. She owned arable land there in the southern part of Squantum , a district of Quincy , immediately south of Boston (Massachusetts). The reasons for purchasing this land are now believed to be as follows: She wanted to use the land herself. She bought it because of her brother Ashworth's health problems. The land was meant for their horses. Much of the property was then sold in the form of house plots in the 1930s and 1940s. Children who passed Crabtrees Land on their way to school in those days often passed two small markings made of local granite that had been set up. The names "Ruby Royal" and "Sonoma Girl" were engraved on these - that was the name of two of their horses. The stone for "Ruby Royal" still exists today and can be found on Livesey Road . Local street names include Ashworth Road, Livesey Road, Sonoma Road, and the coastline of Crabtree Road. Ashworth and Livesey were both family names.

The burial site of Lotta Crabtree in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx

Lotta Crabtree spent the last 15 years of her life at the Brewster Hotel, which she bought in Boston. She died there on September 25, 1924 at the age of 76. In her obituary in the New York Times she was called "Eternal Child". Her critics used the adjectives malicious, unpredictable, impulsive, foolish, teasing, piquant, exuberant, happy and at the same time diabolical. Crabtree was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx . She left her $ 4 million net worth to a charity that cared for veterans, aging actors, and animals. The use of the property was temporarily prevented by a number of people who unsuccessfully challenged their last will. The foundation still exists today.

Honors

literature

  • Dempsey, David K ​​.: Triumphs and Trials of Lotta Crabtree, (with Raymond P. Baldwin), New York: William Morrow & Company, Volume VII, 1968, 341ff.
  • Jackson, Phyllis Wynn: Golden Footlights - Merry-making career of Lotta Crabtree, New York: Holiday House, Volume VI, (1), 1949, 310ff.
  • Mazow, Leo G .: Picturing the Banjo, Penn State Press, Pennsylvania, 2005, ISBN 978-0-271-02710-4
  • Rather, Lois: Lotta's Fountain, Oakland, California, 1979, pp. 99ff.

Web links

Commons : Lotta Crabtree  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kaufmann, Susan: Star power on Lake Hopatcong: the inimitable Lotta Crabtree , Hidden New Jersey, June 30, 2013
  2. ↑ a b Lake Hopatcong's Most Famous, Part 2: Miss Lotta , Lake Hopatcong News, June 14, 2009
  3. ↑ a b Lotta Crabtree and Lola Montez , Standing Stones
  4. ↑ a b c d e Lotta Crabtree , History of American Women, February 12, 2013
  5. ^ Little Nell and the Marchioness , Internet Broadway Database
  6. ↑ Charlotte Mignon Crabtree in the Find a Grave database . Accessed April 21, 2016.
  7. ↑ Zeigler, Peggy: MS-3150-Crabtree, Lotta M. (Abstract of Title) ( Memento of February 5, 1998 in the Internet Archive ), California Historical Society (CHS)
  8. ^ Historical Photographs, Photo AAA-9420 , SF Public Library.
  9. ↑ Ryan, Tim: Over 100 Gather In SF To Commemorate 1906 Earthquake; 2 Living Survivors Absent , CBS SF Bay Area, CBS Local Media, April 18, 2014
  10. ↑ 104th Anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 , City and County of San Francisco
  11. ↑ James R. Smith: San Francisco's Lost Landmarks, 2004
  12. ↑ Lake Living: Attol Tryst , Lake Hopatcong News, May 20, 2010
  13. ^ Mount Arlington Historic District , Living Places, 2013
  14. ^ Lotta Crabtree (1847-1924) , zpub.com
  15. ↑ Finding aid for Lotta Crabtree, Will case, 1870-1928 ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / oasis.lib.harvard.edu archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard Law School Library, October 23, 2014
  16. ↑ Crabtree, Lotta, 1847-1924 ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / oasis.lib.harvard.edu archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Harvard Theater Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, January 13, 2011
  17. ^ Lotta's Fountain , Atlas Obscura
  18. ^ The Lotta Fountain, Boston, Massachusetts , Tourist Trapped, Jan. 18, 2013
  19. ↑ Chicago Church to Get Actress' Memorial Window , The Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 8, 1931, p. 21
  20. ^ De Young, Ruth: Famed Windows of Churches Produced by Ancient Art , Chicago Tribune News, April 6, 1932
  21. ^ Window dedicated to Memory of Lotta Crabtree's Mother , Cambridge Public Library, Digital Library Consulting, March 7, 1931
personal data
SURNAME Crabtree, Lotta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crabtree, Charlotte Mignon (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress, entertainer, comedian, and philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1924
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts