Lulu McConnell

Lulu McConnell (April 8, 1882 – October 9, 1962) was an American comic actress from Kansas City, Missouri, whose career spanned vaudeville, Broadway, film, radio, and television. She is particularly remembered for her raspy voice and her work as a panelist on the comedy radio program It Pays to Be Ignorant.

McConnell began her performing life in church socials before joining a repertory theatre company at the age of 17. She subsequently moved to the vaudeville circuit, where she met and married fellow vaudeville performer Grant Simpson in 1907. Her distinctive vocal quality, which she described as resembling a sawblade, traced back to a 1910 performance at the Alhambra Theatre, where a bout of stage fright caused her to lose her voice mid-show. Rasping through the remainder of the performance, she found the audience responded favorably, and the quality became a defining characteristic of her stage persona.

Her Broadway career extended from 1920 to 1937, with performances at the Winter Garden Theatre among other venues. Her credits included the musical Cross My Heart, the revue The Vanderbilt Revue, the musical Ballyhoo of 1932, Something for Nothing, and Bet Your Life. In 1936, McConnell appeared in two feature films: the musical Stage Struck and the comedy Lady Luck.

Later in her career, McConnell became a regular panelist on It Pays to Be Ignorant, a comedy radio program that aired from 1942 to 1951. The show was structured as a parody of the quiz show format, with McConnell and two other recurring panelists delivering deliberately incorrect answers to general knowledge questions. She died on October 9, 1962, in New York City, where she had been residing, while visiting the home of a former maid.