Lotta Faust

Charlotte "Lotta" Faust (February 8, 1880 – January 25, 1910) was an American actress, dancer, and singer born in Brooklyn, New York, to Mary Hauff Faust and Frank Faust. Her Broadway career spanned from 1900 to 1909, during which she accumulated credits across multiple musical productions.

Faust's theatrical work began in 1896 with The Sunshine of Paradise Alley, produced by Denman Thompson. In 1900 she appeared in The Belle of Bohemia, and the following year she took on the role of Geraldine Fair in The Liberty Belles, which played at the Madison Square Theatre in September 1901. Her visibility grew considerably through her participation in The Wizard of Oz during the 1904–1905 season, where she performed the Sammy song. She subsequently joined Joe Weber's company for Wonderland in 1905. The White Hen, starring Louis Mann at the Casino Theatre, featured Faust among its cast in 1907. That same year she became part of Lew Fields's troupe, appearing in The Girl Behind the Counter during the 1907–1908 season, followed by The Mimic World in 1908 and The Midnight Sons in 1909, the latter serving as one of her final stage engagements before her death.

Faust also maintained a vaudeville career alongside her Broadway work. In April 1900 she appeared at the Casino Theatre performing a cake walk, an act she developed with partner Frank Bernard. In August 1908 she returned to the same venue with a Salome interpretive dance that drew both praise and criticism from audiences. Faust herself described experiencing both horror and fascination during those performances. She was among a group of notable performers associated with the American "Salomania" craze of the period, which also included Ada Overton Walker, Eva Tanguay, Vera Olcott, La Sylphe, Gertrude H. Hoffman, Ruth St. Denis, Mademoiselle Dazie, Julian Eltinge, and Fanny Brice.

Faust was married twice. Her first husband was Paul Schindler, a musical director; the 1900 census records the couple living as boarders with the Green family, and Faust divorced Schindler in 1902. She subsequently married Richard Ling, a singer and comedian, shortly after that divorce. She initiated divorce proceedings against Ling not long before her death, and at the time she died she was engaged to Malcolm A. Strauss, an illustrator.

Faust died on January 25, 1910, at a sanitarium located at 33 East 33rd Street in New York City. The cause of death was pneumonia, which developed following a surgical operation she had undergone several weeks earlier.