Leona Anderson

She was the younger sister of Broncho Billy Anderson, who co-founded Essanay Studios in Chicago in 1907.

[3] Kovacs' widow, Edie Adams, later recalled that "She (Anderson) knew she was camp, but she was very funny, and very sweet.

Music to Suffer By featured Anderson slaughtering several classics and standards, such as Georges Bizet's "Habanera" from Carmen and Cole Porter's "I Love Paris", as well as new material such as "Rats in My Room" (which earned enough notoriety to be covered by Danny Neaverth and Joey Reynolds, and by NRBQ a few years later)[6] and "Limburger Lover".

By the late 1950s, she had become widely known for her bad singing, which was apparently an act she created to mock the pompous style of serious opera singers; "Opera singers just can't kid themselves properly ... they can never let their voices go," Anderson was quoted as saying.

[1] Music critic Ned Raggett asserts "hearing her crack, strain, burble, and otherwise demonstrate that her singing voice is completely surplus to any requirements might either be seizure-inducing or seizure-removing, depending on how you place your speakers.

Lobby card from Ashes (1922).