{{infobox person | image = Jack Lotto 1900.jpg | caption = Jack Lotto in about 1900 | name = Jack Lotto | birth_name = John Egington | birth_place = Kinver, Staffordshire, United Kingdom | birth_date = 11 October 1856 | death_place = Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom | death_date =28 August 1944 (aged 87) | occupation = Entertainer }}
'''Jack Lotto''' (born '''John Egington'''; 11 October 1856–28 August 1944) was a British music hall performer of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras whose speciality was a trick-cycling act. With entertainer Joe Elvin he co-founded the show business charity the Grand Order of Water Rats in 1889. Later he managed his children in the popular cycling act 'Lotto, Lilo and Otto'.
==Biography== Lotto was born as John Eggington or Eginton (there are various spellings) in 1856 in Kinver in Staffordshire, the son of Elizabeth and Joseph Eggington, a Bundler of Iron.<ref name=Tree>{{Cite web |url=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kcegginton/famtree/sedgley/128.htm |title=Pedigree Page for John Egington aka "Jack Lotto" |access-date=2014-05-27 |archive-date=2014-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529052329/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kcegginton/famtree/sedgley/128.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1877 in Sheffield he married Clara Parkin (1861-1904), the daughter of John Parkin and Martha Sutcliffe. Their children were Alfred (born 1878), Walter (born 1879), Ernest (born 1881), Annie (born 1883), John (1884), Clara (born 1886), Albert (born 1887), Arthur (born 1890), Joseph (1891), Daisy (1892), Charlotte (known as Lottie) (1893), John (1893), Edward (known as Val Lotto) (1895), May (born 1896), Victoria (born 1896), Bertie (1897) and Winnie (1898-1899).<ref name=Tree/> Several of the children were managed by their father in the music hall trick-cycling act 'The Lottos', or as 'Lotto, Lilo and Otto - The Champion Juvenile Bicyclists'.
In 1889 Lotto and entertainer Joe Elvin owned a trotting pony called The Magpie.<ref>Golden, George Fuller. [https://archive.org/details/myladyvaudevill00goldgoog ''My Lady Vaudeville and her White Rats'']. Published under the auspices of the Board of Directors of the White Rats of America, 1909. p. 31.</ref> On one occasion The Magpie was described as "looking like a drowned rat." As the pony was a regular race winner, its owners decided that they would use the profits to help performers who were less fortunate than themselves. Taking the name from their wet, bedraggled pony, the Grand Order of Water Rats was formed to collate their efforts, as well as to serve as a social club for performers.
In September 1899 'Lotto, Lilo and Otto' appeared at the Shoreditch Empire in London,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.elta-project.org/browse.html?recordId=2883 |title=Programme for the Shoreditch Empire - 11 September 1899 - the East London Theatre Archive |access-date=27 May 2014 |archive-date=28 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528010250/http://www.elta-project.org/browse.html?recordId=2883 |url-status=dead }}</ref> at the Charing Cross Music Hall in Lambeth in May 1894,<ref>[http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/evanion/Record.aspx?EvanID=024-000000734&ImageIndex=0 'Gatti's Charing Cross Music Hall, Lambeth - Whitsun Entertainments, 1894'] - British Library website</ref> and at the Tivoli Music Hall on The Strand in March 1895.
'Lotto, Lilo and Otto' also appeared in the silent film ''Clever and Comic Cycle Act'' in 1900, directed by James Williamson and filmed at Hove in Sussex.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0891297/ ''Clever and Comic Cycle Act'' (1900)] on the Internet Movie Database</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20140528065954/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/533eeabfa6af4 ''Clever and Comic Cycle Act''] on the British Film Institute website</ref>
On his death in Croydon in Surrey in August 1944 he was buried next to his friends and fellow music hall entertainers Joe Elvin and Eugene Stratton at Bandon Hill Cemetery.<ref>[http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Burials.htm Music Hall and Variety Artistes Burial Places - The Arthur Lloyd Music Hall and Theatre History Website]</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lotto, Jack}} Category:1856 births Category:1944 deaths Category:British music hall performers