The American actress and singer CAROL CHANNING, who has died at the age of 97, became a Broadway legend, if only because she created the title role in the musical Hello, Dolly! A great lady of the musical theatre is recalled here by Michael Darvell…
Carol Channing was born in Seattle, Washington on 21 January 1921 and she died on 15 January 2019, just two weeks short of her 98th birthday. She packed a lot into her career as an actress, singer, dancer, cabaret artist and comedian, but will inevitably be remembered for creating the part of Dolly Levi in Jerry Herman’s musical Hello, Dolly!, which she played in several productions on Broadway, on tour and in London.
There was no doubting the talents of Carol Channing from the time she studied drama at Bennington College where she became a natural performer and particularly in comedy.
Throughout her career she created a comic persona to which her audiences responded. She appeared to be rather ditzy and off-the-wall in her monologues on stage which showed she was obviously a born entertainer. She brought great warmth to her audiences and in return they gave her love, affection and respect. It was her personality as a naturally funny lady and her sometimes deeply gruff voice that endeared her to the general public.
Channing’s first entry into the theatre was via her mother when she helped her deliver newspapers backstage. Working on stage she was first seen in Marc Blitzstein’s No for an Answer in 1941 at the Mecca Temple, which later became the New York City Center. At 19 on Broadway she understudied Eve Arden in Let’s Face It!, a Cole Porter musical from which came the song ‘Let’s (Not) Talk About Love’. Lend an Ear was a 1948 musical by Charles Gaynor but it was the following year when Channing really hit the big time in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the Jule Styne/Leo Robin musical in which Channing played Lorelei Lee, the heroine of Anita Loos’ famous book.
Loos thought Channing was perfect for the part of an American woman going to Paris to seek her fortune and a little romance as well. The show gave Channing some great songs including ‘Bye, Bye Baby’, ‘I’m Just a Little Girl From Little Rock’, the show’s title song and, of course, the hit number ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’, one of the numbers that stayed with Channing all her working life.
Sadly, she didn’t get to play Lorelei in the film version – that went to Marilyn Monroe. Channing also played in a revised version of the show called Lorelei, in 1974. It ran for more than 300 performances in New York following a US tour the previous year.
The biggest success for Channing came in 1964 with Hello, Dolly! It was written by Jerry Herman with Ethel Merman in mind but Merman was not available at the time, although she eventually played it in 1970. Mary Martin also turned it down initially but subsequently played it in London in 1965.
So Channing got the title role and made it all her own as the matchmaking Dolly Levi who returns to Yonkers in New York to look for a wife for millionaire Horace Vandergelder. Based on Thornton Wilder’s comedy The Matchmaker, the initial production ran for nearly 3,000 performances, was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, winning ten including Best Musical and Best Actress for Channing. It went on to have productions all over the world. Channing appeared in revivals in 1975, 1978 and 1995 and she also brought it to London in 1979.
Hello, Dolly! had a brilliant score and lyrics by Jerry Herman to a book by Michael Stewart. Some of the show’s songs include ‘I Put My Hand In’, ‘It Takes a Woman’, ‘Put On Your Sunday Clothes’, ‘Ribbons Down My Back’, ‘Love, Look in My Window’, ‘Before the Parade Passes By’, ‘Elegance’, ‘It Only Takes a Moment’, ‘So Long Dearie’ and not forgetting the title song which has always been the highlight of the show. She was disappointed not to be cast in the film version of Hello, Dolly! Her part, the role she created and played more than anybody else in the world, went to Barbra Streisand.
Between productions of Hello, Dolly! which Channing played over the years for more than 5,000 performances, she also performed in other shows including Carol Channing with Her Ten Stout-Hearted Men at Drury Lane in London in 1970. She also appeared in productions of Wonderful Town, The Vamp, Show Girl, The Millionairess, Proof Through the Night, Show Business, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Legends by James Kirkwood.
She appeared in a few films, The First Travelling Saleslady (1956) with Ginger Rogers, Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) with Julie Andrews, and Skidoo (1968) directed by Otto Preminger. She was one of the guests in Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) and did voiceover work on some animation films. Channing also appeared in several television series including The Red Skelton Hour, The George Burns Show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, The Love Boat, Where’s Wally?, The Addams Family and Family Guy etc.
Carol Channing was married four times, first to Theodore Naidish, then Canadian football player Alexander Carson, by whom she had a son, Chan, who became a cartoonist. Both marriages ended in divorce.
She then married Charles Lowe, producer of The George Burns Show and of some of her own shows. He died in 1999 and then she finally married her first love from schooldays, Harry Kullijian in 2003 and he died in 2011.
Carol Channing was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981. Her autobiography Just Lucky, I Guess: a Sort of Memoir was published by Simon & Schuster in 2002.
Carol Channing: 31 January 1921-15 January 2019
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