New-York tribune., 1921-06-19
Success Due To
Hard Work.
Not Luck
Lulu Mcconnell, of "Snan.
sho's,'' Tells of Value
of Stock Experience in
Her Old Home Town

III
At the close of the first performane.
Of "Selwyns' Snapshots Of 1927 in n.
SeIwyn Theater nobody was surprisss
tha+ Lulu Mcconnell shared honor.
with Nora Bayes, Lew Fields and n.
Wolf Hopper. Having witnessed II.
manner of her arrival on Broadway IN
Lew Fields's production Of "The poo,
Little Ritz Girl" the world and -.
wife were prepared to see Miss lie.
Conneli make a personal hit in .ha
Selwyns' snapshot revue. Certa;nIv
she fulfilled the expectation. keen;,..
her audience laughing with her comedy
r1ethods in every trayesty in which sbs
appeared.
Asked to diagram few cf the biyb
Lights along the professional road
which has brought her out On the sum
mit Of success, after two appesranees
in New York productions, Miss Nc.
Connel laughed at the suggestion that
sch arrived overnight in The frs. Of
these.
This Is Her Second
Appearance on Broadway
While The Poor Little Ritz Grip
was the first musical comedy on Broad.
way for me and 'Selwyns' Snapshots
of 1922 represents only my second
appearance in big metropolitan pro-
duction, 1 didn't just happen to achieys
success in either show" the eomed.
enne commented.
"When I made my first appearance
with Mr.. Fields the wiseacres an.
nounced that chance had landed NE on
my feet, but they were quite mistaken.
landed there after years Of the hard
est work any player can know. It be-
gan in Kansas City, my home town,
when l was just fourteen. In stock
organization in that town I played
every sort of role known to the stage.
Comedy, tragedy, romance-al came
into my experience. Our stock COM
pany was never afraid to tackle any-
thing, and we usually got away with
it. Also, I Aave experienced all the
horrors Of one-night stands in roper
tory company and worked in vaude-
vile houses where ambitious perform
ers were permitted to play all <he way
from two to six shows a day.
"My stock company experience was
my most valuable because it developed
versatility, but next to this / feel
owe great debt of gratitude to vaude-
vile. Through it I gained self-conf-
dence and the ability to make friends
with an audience. The vaudeville artist
has to rely so thoroughly on herself to
get over that she never passes up a
bet. She has only a few minutes in
which to register success, and she must
make those minutes count. There's no
coherent story, no dramatic interest,
no help from a big company of players
to aid her in getting over. So she has
to establish her own relationship with
her audience, and do it quickly To
this necessity l owe the development
of my sornedy sense. OF course, it
must have been there-my sense Of
the ridiculous-or I could never have
developed it. But vaudeville was the
channel through which it grew.
Thinks Snapshots" Is Good
AS Vacation
''That reminds me that Ths Poor
Little Ritz Girl did not represent my
first Broadway appearance-the wise
acres to the contrary-for have
worked with the folk over at the Palace
Theater time and again. As far as a
production in q so-called Legitimate
theater was concerned, they were right,
however. But 4 Broadway success in
musical comedy or revue isn't neces-
sarily dependent upon a Broadway ex-.
perience. l proved that in The Poor
Little Ritz Girl I've proved 1t again
in 'Selwyns' Snapshots Of 1921 In both
productions the public has received me
cordially"
Miss Mcconnell referred 10 the ova-
tion accorded her in the big musical
revue now on view at the Selwyn The
ater with great modesty, for her tray
estes in "Selwyns' Snapshots Of 1921
are feature of the production. But
Miss Mcconnell only shakes her head.
and tells them that she never had such
a good time in her life as she's having
in Snapshots"
For there's nothing that makes ne
quite so happy as to make other people
happy" she said. "The laughter which
comes to me over the footlights is such
a tonic that shall not even need
vacation this summer"
Fall proH,xc4;n,,s prso~,,iSed