Singer and Actress. A contralto with operatic training, she became a leading Broadway and vaudeville performer of the early 20th. century. Raised in New York from an early age, she received vocal lessons from her opera singer mother (singing in public at six), and is said to have appeared in vaudeville as early as 1894. Her first documented performances, however, came in the 1897 “Rally Round the Flag”, at Keith and Albee’s Union Square Theater. Carus soon found success in both New York and Chicago; “Nell Go-In” (1899), “The Giddy Throng” (1900), and the 1902 “The Wild Rose” were particularly well-received. She appeared in the first “Zigfield Follies” in 1907, had a major success in 1911 with “The Wife Hunters”, and helped popularize Irving Berlin’s first hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”. After 1915, she limited herself to vaudeville. Her personal life was turbulent, with an early failed marriage, and an 1897 suicide attempt after a lover killed himself. (bio by: Bob Hufford)