What Johnny Carson rarely did: walk onstage to applaud his own guest. Seventy-year-old Lit Connah got the full treatment on October 19, 1978, the night she played coast-coast live-to-tape. To view her ten minute interview and a portion of her number, click here.
Caroline Elizabeth "Lit" Whitlock was to the manor born in Charlotte on March 15th, 1909, the daughter of "stern" prominent attorney Paul Whitlock, senior partner at Whitlock, Dockery, Ruff & Perry and "a permissive mother who thought life should be fun and never taught me to do anything in the house. " Lit recalled that her first public performance took place when she was 11 or 12 with ten year old classmate John Scott Trotter-- later Bing Crosby's bandleader-- her accompanist. "A friend and I did an apache dance, and I sang 'How Come You Do Me Like You Do, Do, Do?'"
For the next three years, Lit was engaged as a Chester Hale dancer, touring the country in a unit which played the Paramount-Public movie palace circuit.
Lit was a line dancer in Gamby-Hale's "Cheerio" which originated at the New York Paramount Theatre (left), and much to her surprise (right) she had made it to Broadway.
Having sewn her wild oats, in 1932 she returned to Charlotte where she was invited to join the Junior League and settle down. Instead, she taught dancing.
Far from settled, Lit returned to New York the next year where "she caught herself a man." That man was Doug Connah, a Manhattan native three years older than Lit who had been graduated from Williams and the Columbia School of Journalism and who worked for the radio network of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Key to their match was creativity. Lit was naturally creative, and Doug hailed from a creative family whose father was the well known society painter and bon vivant, Douglas John Connah. Below, the elder Connah's portrait of the indolent novelist-to-be Agatha Christie.
"Perhaps the most unique skit of the evening," wrote the Constitution, "was perfectly cast with Edwin Peeples -- six feet six-- and his diminutive partner Lit Connah. Together they made 'Every Animal Has a Mate' the hit of the evening."
Mrs. D. D. Connah garnered more free publicity when "Nice Goin" played the new Army hospital in Chamblee. Much of Atlanta's talent in the olden days came from out of town, and Lit and Doug, he most likely her press agent, brought the polish of the big city to the small town.
Over the next eight years, Lit produced two more children, while keeping her fingers in as puppeteer for the League's Children's Theatre. In 1949 Lit played in the Follies to end all Follies, this one for the Tallulah Falls school. Lit provided her own act bemoaning the drudgeries of housework, about which she knew nothing.
Lit Connah's press machine never ceased.
Christmas, 1950.
Lit later recalled that she "wrote, directed, choreographed, produced, performed in, and emceed nine musical revues for the Junior League," the 1969 offering shown here.
In November 1974, she appeared for a local dance company as Mother in The Who's "Quadrophenia" which received a ghastly notice from Gerald Jones, later banned from Ruth Mitchell performances because of his unpleasant reviews.
However, Lit Connah was noticed by producer David Sheppard and Ben Thompson, a new-in-town stage director out cruising for talent. "She did a crossover with a broom and stole focus from the dancers," recalled David. "We sneaked backstage and got her phone number." Two months later, Ben and David hired her for their first offering, tab versions of two musicals entitled "Broadway Times Two." In her first paying job since 1931, Lit played Berthe (the Irene Ryan role) in "Pippin" and Mother in "Over Here." To see the complete program book, click here.
Her press machine lurched into action, and a pre-production shot showed off what the other Junior Leaguers lacked-- a high leg lift, still intact from "Cheerio" forty-six years later. The show ran ten weeks, and she received raves. To an interviewer, she lied, "I did a few things, but for most of the forty-six years, I was not really on the stage." Not really getting paid, that is.
The following year, Ben and David opened a revue supper club, and at age sixty-seven Lit's "No Time at All" nightly brought down the house, accompanied by Paul Ford and his band. Lit's spot was at midnight, and husband Doug served as chauffeur and claque at every performance. To view a promotional film of the show, which includes shots of Lit and Doug, click here.
"Those seven months at the Manhattan Yellow Pages were the highlight of my life," Lit later recalled, where she was given another number, "Ballin' the Jack" with director/MC Ben Thompson who asked the elderly lady, "Do you have time to do a time step?"
She was named "the Swinging Grandmother" and photographed with her papier-mache animals which she constructed in her spare time.
In 1978, Ben Thompson (sans David Sheppard) cast her as Little Orphan Annie in his new Club, but when poor Ben was fired before the show opened, she was orphaned again and played the part solo.
Lit's fame spread when she began to receive commercial work, her best spot for C&S Bank as the little old lady who kicked up a storm at the competitor's cash machine.
Her youngest son Jimmy decided that his sixty-nine year old mom was good enough for Johnny Carson, and even her hometown newspaper heralded the impending national celebrity of their non-Society Matron. (See video at top of article.)
Lit at age seventy-one in 1980, the year her soulmate Doug passed away.
Her last documented stage performance was in 1988.
Lit passed away in 2004, and the gal who outgrew Charlotte when she was ten was sent directly to Heaven.
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Thanks so much to Jimmy Connah, who has waited patiently five years for this piece. Also thanks to his son, Cameron, for posting the Carson clip. Thanks to Doug Jr. for his fine biography of his grandfather. Thanks to David Sheppard and Paul Ford.
November, 2020.