Lottie Alter

Alter was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin,[1] the daughter of Frederick Pernal Alter.[2] In 1902 she was described as being "in her early twenties",[3] but she was also described as being "17 years of age" in 1890,[4] and "22 years old" in a 1893 profile, which suggests a birthdate sometime in the early 1870s.[5]

Arthur Vezin and Lottie Alter in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1908).

Alter began acting in the American midwest by 1890,[6] playing soubrette roles in touring companies managed by Henrietta Crosman, Joseph Jefferson and Charles Frohman, in such shows as The Cricket on the Hearth, Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, The Country Circus,[5] Fifi,[7] The Shadows of a Great City, The Girl I Left Behind Me,[8] and Hearts are Trumps.[9] On Broadway, she acted in To Have and to Hold (1901), The Vinegar Buyer (1903),[10] The Trifler (1905, with Esme Beringer),[11] Charley's Aunt (1906), and Excuse Me by Rupert Hughes (1911). Of her work in Excuse Me, critic George Jean Nathan wrote that she was among "the best in a generally capable cast."[12]

She toured Australia and Great Britain in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. In 1916 she was leading her own company on vaudeville.[13]

Silent film appearances by Alter included roles in Advertising for a Wife (1910, short), An Arizona Romance (1910, short), The Eternal City (1915, with Pauline Frederick and Thomas Holding), and The Lottery Man (1916, with Oliver Hardy and Thurlow Bergen).

Alter married a fellow actor, Harry C. Bradley, in 1923.[14] She died in Beechhurst, Queens, New York, in 1924, probably in her late forties.[15]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lottie Alter.

• Lottie Alter at IMDb 
• Lottie Alter at the Internet Broadway Database
• Photographs of Lottie Alter in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, New York Public Library Digital Collections.
• A photograph of Lottie Alter by Matzene, in the University of Washington Libraries.