Carol Channing: From Footlights to Lobby

Carol Channing's name is probably one of the most recognizable in show business.  She created the role of Lorelei Lee in the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; she played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion before Claire Danes was even born. She replaced Rosalind Russell in the musical Wonderful Town. She received an Academy Award nomination for tap dancing on a xylophone in the movie Thoroughly Modern Millie.  She played the White Queen in a television adaptation of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland."  She also won a Tony Award for her performance in Hello, Dolly!; a role she went on to play over 5,000 times on Broadway, on tour and in revivals.  What's more, Carol Channing is that rare performer who has never missed a scheduled performance. In short, she is a theatrical gem.

At the youthful age of 86, Carol Channing is still going strong.   Just recently, the Broadway Legend received several great honors.  Senator Jack Scott presented her with the California Senate Resolution; Chancellor Charles Reed of the California State Universities presented her with a Certificate of Appreciation; and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger presented her with a Certificate of Recognition.  All of these honors were a result of Miss Channing's untiring efforts to promote programs for the performing arts in California schools and universities.

Reached by telephone while she was performing at the Hollywood Bowl, the star who brought the character of Dolly Gallagher Levi to life so vividly on stage was in a very upbeat and enthusiastic mood.  Her show the night before had gone extremely well and she had great praise for Pink Martini, the jazz orchestra she was performing with.  "Boy it was heaven!  There were 18,000 people there last night? You know, part of my performance is a tribute to Merv Griffin.  I've known him since he came to Lowell High School in San Francisco.  He sang for us.  Although, I think, he was a couple of years younger than I am, we were still in high school at the same time.  He was on a radio station while he was in school.  Later on we became fast friends in New York. Hello, Dolly! Played the St. James Theater on 44th Street and he was in the Little Theater [now the Helen Hayes], where he broadcast his TV show.  Now at one point there was a problem with Con Edison.  You're a New Yorker, right?  Well you know how many times Con Edison blows up.  There were flames coming out of the manholes and elevators were stopping and people were stuck in them.  It was dark.  There was a blackout finally, because Con Edison blew up or something.  I don't remember exactly what happened.  Now, we were right next door to Merv Griffin and he took his television lights and came over and lit our stage with them.  He had power because they worked on something called New York State Electricity.  They work differently and they don't need Con Edison.  He lit up the stage.  The air conditioning went off and it was in the middle of summer; it was terrible hot, and Merv came over with a huge box of Kleenex and went up and down the aisles giving everyone Kleenex so they could wipe the perspiration off.  We told the crowd to take their jackets off?he helped me with that?and we were the only show that went on during the blackout.  Merv stayed there throughout the whole performance and told the crew exactly where to focus the lights because he'd seen the show so many times.  I had to make a fast change and he said, 'I know, one zip and it's Hello, Dolly!'  Oh, I loved him.  Everybody did!"

Miss Channing was enormously happy with Pink Martini. "It's a new orchestra and they're innovators.  I'm just crazy about them.  They said I could only do two numbers with them and I said that I was so crazy about the Pink Martini that I would do anything, even if it was only half a number!  Well, we did the two songs and the house came down  and there were all kinds of standing ovations.  That was last night.  Now I've got to do it again tonight.  I mustn't talk about it because it might not happen again!"

Another reason for Miss Channing's happiness was the return of her famous "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" dress.  It had been taken by a homeless man as Miss Channing and her husband, Harry Kullijian while the couple was checking in at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel.  Valued at $150,000, the dress was designed for the 1971 musical Lorelei, which was a revision of Miss Channing's earlier success, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  The garment was located by the LA Police that morning in a park near the hotel. The Bob Mackie original was on its way to the Smithsonian.

"Oh they found it and they spread it out on a bed and photographed it.  There it was, the original dress with all those diamonds and they could hardly carry it.  It's so beautiful but it looks much better on the bed, I think!"  In the original version of the show, Miss Channing wore a costume of yellow and black bugle beads.  "It made me look like the Statue of Liberty," comments the star. However, the revisal featured something quite different. "This was made purely of diamonds.  It's the same dress that I keep wearing.  I wear it all the time.  Nothing will equal it because it looks so dignified; so grand."  When Bob Mackie was designing the dress he had the actress sing the lyrics to "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" over and over for inspiration until he got an inspiration for the design of the costume.  Finally inspiration struck!  "Bob and his assistant were sitting on the bench and they broke out in a cold perspiration when both of them finally said, 'That's it!  A turtleneck from earlobe to earlobe and diamonds straight down on fall-colored chiffon and heavy, heavy diamonds'. Because the dress was so elegant, it contrasted with the lyric I was singing and made everything I said funny.  All of a sudden it was hilarious."

Both Miss Channing and her husband were positively ebullient about the recognition they'd both received a few days earlier for promoting performing arts programs in California schools.  This is a subject near and dear to the couples' collective heart.  "Only real schoolteachers know how important the performing arts are in education.  We were all given different gifts and they should all be exercised, but some of the gifts don't include understanding WHY we have to have this Foundation.  In London during the war, the general was saying to the British people, 'We have no money so we will have to get down to only the bare necessities so we will start by eliminating the arts..'  Winston Churchill was in the audience and he got up and said, 'Then what are we fighting FOR?'  That's exactly what it is all the time.  We are fighting for our heredity, our culture, and our standards of civilization." The Channing-Kullijian Foundation is basically a scholarship program.  The funds raised at the shows she does at Universities as split between the Endowments Scholarships and the University for their arts program. So far, she has raised over $250,000 for Endowments Scholarships alone.

The dynamic performer continues, "You see, this is really Harry's dream.  Harry is of Armenian parentage and his father was an immigrant who had to take lessons in English to get started in America.  Harry and I met when I was twelve and he was thirteen and we went steady together throughout junior high school in San Francisco.  He formed a little band and it became the school band.  I never got off the school auditorium stage but we were exposed to the arts.  I thought that all parents went around the house spouting the poetry of Milton Keats and Shelley like my father.  My mother loved museums and they were free in those days.  I thought that all parents took their children to museums regularly.  It turned out that the other children hadn't been exposed the way I had. Harry, however, grabbed it.  He grabbed; he grabbed everything about music, theater, painting?all the arts., not just theater or dance.  The arts truly fertilize a young person's brains.  Harry was our finest soccer player, but when he graduated, he received the medal of honor for the "Best-All Round Student in Aptos Junior High.  His grades went zooming.  The next year I got the same medal."

According to Miss Channing and her husband, a young person's brain is a veritable sponge; it soaks everything in and the arts trigger special responses. "They stimulate the brain and suddenly a child is better in human biology and other subjects like algebra and geography.  You get smarter and once you're exposed to the arts, the whole world looks like a masterpiece.  It's not that we're trying to turn students into artists, we're just trying to get them to appreciate the arts."  Miss Channing claims that she's very fortunate to have received such an arts-friendly upbringing, but claims Mr. Kullijian had the same good fortune because, "he got is second-hand from my parents."

Recently, one of Broadway's favorite leading ladies was involved in a lecture series called "Second Chance" where she addressed students who had dropped out of school.  She told them that they had to learn from their failures..  "Something good comes out of every failure and everything that goes wrong.   You learn that you won't do that again and all that.  The thrill of achievement is far greater than any drug or any fun you think you're having without it.  These kids grabbed it and gave a standing ovation.  These were very underprivileged children. Isn't that wonderful?"

When the conversation turns to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actress becomes almost reverential.  Schwarzenegger, who was born near Graz, Austria was eduated there.  Austrian schools are known for their all-encompassing curriculum, and the former Kindergarten Cop has a strong background in the performing arts. It's no wonder, then, that he would laud the efforts of Miss Channing and her husband. "He had us up there to Sacramento, where he gave me a citation of 'wherases' and all that stuff, but HE is an artist.  Most definitely.  We're all artists once we're exposed to it.

Carol Channing continues to expose people to the performing arts.  Her one-woman show is performed across the country and she delights audiences with anecdotes of her career that spans over 60 years.  Whether she's standing behind the footlights and entertaining crowds, or lobbying for additional funding for arts programs, she is is nothing less than remarkable and deserves every accolade that comes her way.

Photos courtesy Harlan Boll: Carol Channing with the register in the original 1964 production of Hello, Dolly!; Carol Channing in the Bob Mackie dress for Lorelei; Harry Kullijian, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carol Channing receive California Senate recognition; Harry Kullijian and Carol Channing