Johnny Opp, the son of Bavarian immigrants, ran a saloon on Lower Manhattan's Bowery and was also active in local neighborhood politics.

[2][3] Her work as a journalist eventually brought Opp within close orbit of many in the theater world and some, including Sarah Bernhardt and Emma Calvé, tried to convince her to become an actress.

[1] She returned to England in 1900 to perform with Alexander's company for several seasons in productions of Anthony Hope's Rupert of Hentzau, playing Holf; Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, as Antoinette de Mauban; Walter Frith's The Man of Forty, as Mrs. Egerton; Pearl Craigie's The Wisdom of the Wise, in the role of Annabel East; Charles Haddon Chambers' The Awakening, playing Mrs. Herbertson; and Henry V. Esmond's The Wilderness, taking the part of Edith Thorold.

Opp return to New York in 1902 to play opposite William Faversham in The Royal Rival, an adaptation of Jules Massenet's Don Caesar de Kazan by Gerald du Maurier in which she assumed the role of Marlta.

By autumn she seemed to had recovered her health and returned to the stage with Faversham in The Hawk by Francis de Croisset and Marie Zane Taylor (English translation).