WOMEN OF THE WEST' -- Part 4

CRABTREE

Posted By: David (email)
Date: 2/15/2005 at 12:12:48

LOTTA CRABTREE (Con't)

'Fairy Star Of The Mother Lode'
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Matt Taylor had come west as a strolling musician, but in order to survive
in this rapidly growing area, he had taken up the management of a local
tavern. Next to this building he constructed a small log theater. During
slack periods of the bar business, he taught dancing, singing, acting, and
the like to whomever would pay.

Mary Ann was convinced of his abilities to teach her child, and soon Lotta
became a delightful competitor to other traveling Fairy Stars. She quickly
learned to dance the Irish jig, and wearing a pair of cobbled brogans, a
miniature shillelagh and green breeches, a vest, and green satin top hat,
she thrilled the Irish immigrant miners. The jig and the reel were followed
by a group of tender ballads such as "How Can I Leave Thee?" Her
performance was happily followed by a rain of quarters, gold nuggets, and
Mexican dollars. The young entertainer collected these in a shoe and
hastily put it all in the safe care of her mother.

Mary Ann was an astute businesswoman as well as a stage mother, and she was
quick to follow up on this unexpected new bounty. leaving an unsettled
husband in favor of taking her daughter on tour, she was later known to have
told friends that "she was more interested in money than men." And for the
remainder of her life, men were considered obstacles rather than the means
of survival.

Her mother's fervent desire to see Lotta a great star did not hinder the
child's future. Instead, being a thrifty woman, Mary Ann wisely managed the
earnings, investing much of the gold and silver dollars (which she noted as
too heavy to carry") in property of the towns where the young performer
entertained. She carried a large leather grip later on, and much of the
gifts and money were transferred to a steamer trunk for safekeeping. But
investments continued all through Lotta's career.

While Lotta was still a child, another baby was born. And soon John
Ashworth Crabtree, Jr., became part of the traveling company. Once again
their father had disappeared on one of his many periodic excursions and it
was time to take to the road, with the little family in Mary Ann's care.
The magnificent pine-covered Sierras were truly beautiful to behold in
summer. But for a small party on mules, they could be treacherous as well
as scenic. It was usually quite warm during the sunlight hours, but at
night the sky was blue-black, and a chill wind blew among the thick clumps
of brush, which shadowed dark ravines.

Nevertheless, the traveling actors moved on. Led by strolling musician Matt
Taylor beating his drum, the troupe would descend on the town.

Entering the small mining camps, some of which consisted of only tents or
wooden shacks and saloons, Mary Ann would find a suitable place and engage
it for several performances. Whether it was a barroom, a school, or a
grocery store, it soon became a theatre with sawhorses and planks for a
stage. The buildings were poorly built, and conditions were bad at best,
with dirt floors, no heat, and blankets hung for stage curtains.

But the audience was enraptured with the elfin redhead and her whimsical
twists and kicks. The lonely miners clapped and wept and hailed her as
another Fairy Star. At the close of the performances, coins would be taken
from worn money pouches and thrown, clattering, onto the sawhorse stage.

Occasionally, Lotta would become shy, and her mother would gently but firmly
push her onto the stage. But she soon overcame this, and once she was the
center attraction, Lotta turned professional. The family would travel all
summer long, Lotta dancing bashfully and boldly by turns, kicking her feet
and singing with a growing charm. Mary Ann was the one to impose discipline
and to offer encouragement when needed, but Lotta was becoming the star.

As time went on, Mary Ann fashioned a stove-pipe hat with no top. With this
the child gathered the coins, watching with puzzled amusement as they
rattled back onto the floor boards. The crowds of miners loved this
innocent scene and soon it became part of the act. Mary Ann recognized also
that it was the character songs that Lotta did best and the audiences
enjoyed most. Trouping across the northern California counties, Lotta was
blackface, Irish, or patriotic, depending on the mood. Soon she became the
pet of the miners, and she would be carried off stage on a miner's shoulders

As the child's repertoire of songs grew, Mary Ann found that one of the
favorites was Lotta's impersonation of Topsy from Harriet Beecher Stowe's
Uncle Tom's Cabin. "It's so wicked," she would exclaim over and over with a
mixture of deviltry and innocence in her voice. The routine became so
popular that it remained part of her act through most of her long career.

To Be Continued. . . In the winter the family returned to San Francisco.
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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
February 2, 2005
iggy29@rnetinc.net