Musical comedy actress and singer of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. A petite brunette with luminous eyes, a mischievous smile and perfect figure, Lotta (originally Carlotta) Faust began her acting career in 1897 at age 16, after she was discovered working behind a dry-goods counter at a New York store, Abraham and Strauss. She made a big impression when she joined the stage cast of “The Wizard of Oz” in February, 1903, in the role of Tryxie Tryfle.      She joined the Lew Fields stock company, where she was cast in soubrette roles. One of them was in the role of Merri Murray, “America’s Leading Chorus Girl,” in “The Girl Behind the Counter,” which opened at Lew Fields’ Herald Square Theater in October, 1907. In her role of Salome with her Dance of the Seven Veils, her provocative moves were considered quite daring for her time. During one performance, she performed with so much “exquisite abandon” (per one reviewer) that she was arrested. The judge dismissed the case the following day. Lotta Faust was married to and divorced from tenor Richie Ling, and was engaged to society artist Malcolm Strauss at the time of her untimely death. She had entered Dr. Bull’s private New York City sanitarium for an undisclosed minor operation.  She appeared to be recovering until she contracted an infection two weeks later.  The lack of details about her illness and her marital circumstances suggested the possibility of a miscarriage or abortion, but the facts never became publicly known.  Her funeral at Manhattan’s Stephen Merritt Funeral Home drew close to two thousand of her theater colleagues and fans, and the crowd was so dense, police were forced to close down Eighth Avenue for one block on either side of the funeral home.  Pallbearers included Lew Fields, Lee Shubert and Victor Herbert. With her star ascendant, Lotta Faust was dead, two weeks before her thirtieth birthday. (bio by: James Lacy)  Family links:  Parents:  Mary Hauff Faust (1857 – 1926)  Spouse:  Richie Ling (1867 – 1937)* *Calculated relationship