By 1859, she had become Miss Lotta, the San Francisco Favorite. She occasionally experienced ‘stage fright’ but with a little coaxing from Mary Ann, once on stage she became a professional. The theaters in San Francisco brought Lotta to a real stage for the first time and started her on the road to fame. Touring the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. In 1856, the family moved to San Francisco, where Lotta became frequently in demand while According to legend, when the large leather satchel containing Lotta’s earnings in gold got too heavy, Mary Ann would buy real estate in the towns where they toured. She was not only the quintessential stage mother but also a shrewd businesswoman. Mary Ann served as Lotta’s manager, and swept the stage after every performance, looking for any bits of gold she might have missed. Soon after, Lotta made her first professional appearance at a tavern, and began touring throughout the California and Nevada Gold country, making a name for herself by dancing, singing and playing the banjo. The Crabtrees moved again and set up another boarding house, this time in Rabbit Creek, forty miles north of Grass Valley. Tiny, red-haired, six-year-old Lotta danced and sang for the local miners, while they showered her with gold nuggets and coins. After finally joining John at Grass Valley, the Crabtrees ran a boarding house for the miners. Therefore, Lotta and Mary Ann befriended a group of entertainers, who gave them a temporary home, and Mary Ann enrolled Lotta in dance classes. John, however, was not at the docks to meet them. Her father left for San Francisco in 1851, seeking his fortune in the California Gold Rush.Ī year later Mary Ann sold the book shop, and she and Lotta took a ship to the Isthmus of Panama in those pre-canal days and crossed by land before picking up a second ship for the journey to Northern California, where they would meet John at the town of Grass Valley. She was born Charlotte Mignon Crabtree on Novemin New York City to British immigrants Mary Ann Livesey Crabtree, an upholsterer, and John Ashworth Crabtree, a book seller.
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