Carol Channing

Infobox actor
name = Carol Channing


imagesize = 140px
caption = Carol Channing in 2000
birthname = Carol Elaine Channing
birthdate = birth date and age|1921|1|31
birthplace = Seattle, Washington
yearsactive = 1950 - present
spouse = Theodore Naidish (div.)
Alexander Carson (1953-1956)
Charles Lowe (1956-1999)
Harry Kullijian (2003-)
homepage = http://www.carolchanning.org
goldenglobeawards = Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1967 "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
tonyawards = Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1964 "Hello, Dolly!"
Special Tony Award
1968 Lifetime Achievement
1995 Lifetime Achievement
awards = Hollywood Walk of Fame
6233 Hollywood Blvd

Carol Elaine Channing (b. January 31 1921, Seattle, Washington) is an American singer and actress. The recipient of three Tony Awards (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, Channing is best remembered for her role Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", and as Dolly Gallagher Levi in "Hello, Dolly!".

She is world renowned for her reedy voice, her wide eyes and smile, and her star presence. Her distinctive voice and persona are frequently parodied.

Childhood and education

An only child, Channing was born in Seattle, Washington. Her father was George Channing, a journalist, whose newspaper career took the family to San Francisco when Channing was only two weeks old; her mother was the former Carol Glaser. She went to school at Aptos Junior High School, where she met and fell in love with an Armenian-American boy named Harry Kullijian. They lost touch when she went to Lowell High School in San Francisco. At Lowell, Channing was a member of its famed Lowell Forensic Society, the nation's oldest high school debate team.

According to Channing's memoirs, when she left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont, her mother informed her that her father, a journalist whom Carol had believed was born in Rhode Island, had in fact been born in Augusta, Georgia to a German American father and an African American mother. According to Channing's account, her mother reportedly didn't want [Channing] to be surprised "if she had a black baby". [Citation |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_20_102/ai_93974696 |accessdate=2008-04-21 |title=Carol Channing reveals her father was Black |date=Nov 4, 2002 |publisher=Jet ] [ [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0211/27/lkl.00.html CNN.com ] ] Channing kept this a secret to avoid any problems on Broadway and in Hollywood, ultimately revealing it only in her autobiography, "Just Lucky I Guess", published in 2002 when she was 81 years old. Channing's autobiography, containing a photograph of her mother, does not have any photos of her father or son. [ [http://cartoonbox.slate.com/chanlowe/ Cartoonbox.slate.com] ] Her book also states that her father's birth certificate was destroyed in a fire.

Career

Channing was introduced to the stage while doing church work for her mother. In a 2005 interview with the Austin Chronicle, Channing recounted this experience:

:"My mother said, 'Carol, would you like to help me distribute "Christian Science Monitors" backstage at the live theatres in San Francisco?' And I said, 'All right, I'll help you.' I don't know how old I was. I must have been little. We went through the stage door alley [for the Curran Theatre] , and I couldn't get the stage door open. My mother came and opened it very easily. Anyway, my mother went to put the Monitors where they were supposed to go for the actors and the crew and the musicians, and she left me alone. And I stood there and realized – I'll never forget it because it came over me so strongly – that this is a temple. This is a cathedral. It's a mosque. It's a mother church. This is for people who have gotten a glimpse of creation and all they do is recreate it. I stood there and wanted to kiss the floorboards." [cite web | title = Faires, Robert "The Carol You Don't Know, "Austin Chronicle" (July 22, 2005) Online Edition | url = http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-07-22/arts_feature.html | accessdate = 2006-05-10 ]

Channing's first job on stage in New York was in Marc Blitzstein's "No For an Answer," which was given two special Sunday performances starting January 5 1941 at the Mecca Temple (later New York's City Center). Channing then moved to Broadway for "Let's Face It", in which she was an understudy for Eve Arden. Decades later, Arden would play "Dolly" in a road company after Channing finally relinquished the role.

Five years later, Channing had a featured role in a revue, "Lend an Ear". She was spotted by author Anita Loos and cast in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" as Lorelei Lee, the role that brought her to prominence. (Her signature song from the production was "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend".) Channing's persona was strikingly like that of the character: simultaneously smart yet scattered, naïve yet worldly.

Channing came to national prominence as the star of Jerry Herman's "Hello, Dolly!" She never missed a performance during her run, attributing her good health to her Christian Science faith. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, in a year when her chief competition was Barbra Streisand for "Funny Girl". She was deeply disappointed when Streisand, who many believed to be far too young for the role, signed on to play the role of Dolly Levi in the film, which also starred Walter Matthau and Michael Crawford.

She reprised the role of Lorelei Lee in the musical "Lorelei". She also appeared in two New York revivals of "Hello, Dolly!", and toured with it extensively throughout the United States. She also appeared in a number of movies, including the cult film "Skidoo" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie", opposite Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. For "Millie" she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1966 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. During her film career she also made some TV show cameos and did voice overs in cartoons. One of her best known voice over roles was Canina LeFur in the Disney show, "The Rescue Rangers".

Channing was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995 [cite web | title = Hodgins, Paul, "Carol Channing: A Lifetime of Experience", "Orange County Register" (February 4, 2006) | url = http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/entertainment/atoz/article_982986.php | accessdate = 2007-08-21 ] , and an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Stanislaus in 2004. [cite web | title = Moran, Frankie, "Carol Channing to Offer Highlights From Her Six Decade Career", "North County Times" (November 8, 2006) | url = http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/14/entertainment/theater/12_00_2611_8_06.txt | accessdate = 2007-08-21 ] That same year, she received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.cite news | first=Andrew | last=Gans | coauthors= | title=Carol Channing Honored By York Theatre Company | date=2004-05-13 | publisher= | url =http://www.playbill.com/news/article/86130.html | work =Playbill.com | pages = | accessdate = 2008-09-21 | language = ] She and husband Harry are active in promoting arts education in California schools.

Family life

She has been married four times. Her first husband, Theodore Naidish, was a writer. Her second, Alexander Carson, played center for the Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian football team. They had one son, Channing, who took his stepfather's surname and is now a Pulitzer-prize-nominated cartoonist publishing under the name Chan Lowe. [http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-chanlowe,0,4028956.cartoongallery] [Citation |url=http://cartoonbox.slate.com/chanlowe/ |title=Meet Chan Lowe |publisher=Slate |accessdate=2008-04-21 ] In 1956 she married her manager and publicist, Charles Lowe. They remained married for 42 years, but she abruptly filed for divorce in 1998. He died before the divorce was finalized. After Lowe's death and until shortly before her fourth marriage, the actress's companion was Roger Denny, an interior decorator. [Citation |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/10/24/DD225951.DTL |title=Looking swell: Carol Channing's back in the spotlight with memoir and plans for new show |first=Steven |last=Winn |date=October 24, 2002 |publisher=San Francisco Chronicles |accessdate=2008-04-21 ]

On May 10, 2003, she married Harry Kullijian, her fourth husband and junior high school sweetheart, who reunited with her after she mentioned him fondly in her memoir. The two performed at their old junior high school, which had become Aptos Middle School, in a benefit for the school. At Lowell High School, they renamed the school's auditorium "The Carol Channing Theatre" in her honor. The City of San Francisco, California proclaimed February 25, 2002 to be Carol Channing Day, for her advocacy of gay rights and her appearance as the celebrity host of the Gay Pride Day festivities in Hollywood. She shared the stage with Richard Skipper, well-known Carol Channing Tribute Artist. Richard recently did a benefit for The Dr. Carol Channing-Harry Kullijian Endowment For The Arts. Carol and Harry were in attendance.

Theatre credits

*"No For an Answer" (January 5 and January 11, 1941
*"Let's Face It!" (October 29, 1941 - March 20, 1943) (understudy for Eve Arden)
*"Proof Through the Night" (December 25, 1942 - January 2, 1943)
*"Lend an Ear" (December 16, 1948 - January 21, 1950)
*"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (December 8, 1949 - September 15, 1951)
*"Wonderful Town" (February 25, 1953 - July 3, 1954) (replacement for Rosalind Russell)
*"The Vamp" (November 10 - December 31, 1955)
*"Show Girl" (January 12 - April 8, 1961)
*"Hello, Dolly!" (January 16, 1964 - December 27, 1970) (left show in 1967)
*"Four on a Garden" (January 30 - March 20, 1971)
*"Lorelei" (January 27 - November 3, 1974)
*"Julie's Friends at the Palace" (May 19, 1974) (benefit performance)
*"Hello, Dolly!" (March 15 - July 19, 1978) (revival)
*"Legends!" (January 7, 1986 - January 18, 1987) (national tour)
*"Hello, Dolly!" (October 19, 1995 - January 28, 1996) (revival; farewell tour)

Filmography

*"Paid in Full" (1950)
*"The First Traveling Saleslady" (1956)
*"All About People" (1967) (short subject) (narrator)
*"Thoroughly Modern Millie" (1967)
*"Skidoo" (1968)
*"Shinbone Alley" (1971) (voice)
*"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1978) (Cameo)
*"Alice in Wonderland" (1985)
*"Happily Ever After" (1993) (voice)
*"Thumbelina" (1994) (voice)
*"Homo Heights" (1998)
*"The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars" (1998) (voice) (direct-to-video)
*"" (2003) (documentary)
*"Family Guy: 'Patriot Games"' (2006)

References in modern culture

Channing voiced herself in the Family Guy episode "Patriot Games", in which she wins a match over Mike Tyson on FOX's Celebrity Boxing. She is savagely beaten by Tyson throughout the fight but always stands up when knocked down while repeating "you're going down, young man"; Tyson eventually collapses from exhaustion, giving Channing the championship belt.

Ryan Stiles often impersonated her on the American version of the improv comedy show "Whose Line is it Anyway?", as did guest star Robin Williams in a single episode. Stiles once had to impersonate her 'getting stuck to things', and decided he would stick to host Drew Carey's desk. He accidentally smashed the light on the side of it with his head, getting glass stuck in his hair, but continued the sketch in character [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NeU3t0l-0 YouTube - Whose Line Is It Anyway - Party Quirks ] ] Another memorable Carol Channing moment was during the game "Scenes From a Hat" when Stiles impersonated her while reciting Clint Eastwood's "Do you feel lucky?" line from Dirty Harry and the line "I'm Spartacus" from Spartacus. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMkHKC8O4i8 YouTube - Whose Line Is It Anyway- Scenes From a Hat ] ]

The red satin, sequin-bedecked costume, designed by Freddy Wittop, that Channing wore during Hello, Dolly was donated to the Smithsonian by Channing and theatrical producer Manny Kladitis, following the thirtieth anniversary tour of the musical Hello, Dolly! It is currently on display at the National Museum of American History.cite web | url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=116 | title="Hello, Dolly" Dress | publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution | accessdate=2008-06-19]

References

External links

* [http://www.carolchanning.org/ Carol Channing official website ]
*
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* [http://www.americantheatrewing.org/downstagecenter/detail/carol_channing Carol Channing] - "Downstage Center" interview at American Theatre Wing.org
* [http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/interactive/video/index.html#c TonyAwards.com Interview with Carol Channing]
* http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/251.7/popup/index.php?cl=6098608

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title= Sarah Siddons Award - Sarah Siddons Society, Chicago
before= Myrna Loy
years=1966
after=Eve Arden
succession box
title=Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
years=1968
for "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
before=Jocelyne LaGarde
for "Hawaii"
after=Ruth Gordon
for "Rosemary's Baby"