Molly Picon moved with her family to Nevada Street in Philadelphia before she was three. It was in Philadelphia that she performed in public for the first time, in 1903, at age five. Picon's mother, who worked as a seamstress for a Yiddish theatre, entered her daughter in a talent contest. On the way to the contest, a drunk on the streetcar challenged the child to perform then and there. She did, and then collected two dollars in coins from the passengers. She went on to win the contest, and a legendary theatre career was born.