Carol Channing, RIP

Cafe Society
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I’m starting this because I’m surprised no one else has.

Carol Channing, she of Broadway’s hello Dolly! and Gentemen Prefer Blondes, has died at the age of 97. She was performing well into her nineties.

I’ve only seen her on TV, but she was an icon.

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A true theatre icon, and a great loss.

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Charming lady.

I saw her live show about five years ago, where’d she’d reminisce about her career. Lot’s of great stories and she clearly loved being in front of an audience.

Most memorable moment was when she said, “I was in a musical called Hello, Dolly.” The audience applauded. Then she said with her voice filled with wonder and delight, “You remember!” like she thought she never expected anyone to.

A loss to the world.

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I’m sure I’ve seen her in things, but I really only know her from this.

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RIP Carol Channing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOQwxup-jv4
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Goodbye, Dolly

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I was about to post that same clip

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May she rest in peace. A sweet lady, by all accounts.

Heh. I thought of that, too. And what if she had been the first celebrity on the Moon? (at 2:57 here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMeG7iNGp-g

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I saw her in Hello, Dolly when she was quite elderly and they had to choreograph around her - to the point of “dancing” her off-stage during some of the big numbers, I’m sure so she could sit. But she was still wonderful, beaming all the way to the cheap seats where I sat!

We’ve lost a treasure…

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Now we’ll have to be content with Ryan Stiles.

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I’d never heard her ‘young’ voice - that last clip shows what made her a star.

In other news, Rich Little would be in trouble if he wasn’t already retired.

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Here she is at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, with her best-known song adapted for the occasion: Carol Channing for Lyndon Johnson (stock footage / archival footage) - YouTube

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Rich Little hasn’t retired. In fact he’s performing in Vegas this month. But his bank of voices is indeed dwindling.

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Perhaps not her finest cinematic effort, but nonetheless performed in her inimitable style:

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“No, Carol, no, no no, Carol, don’t you dare do Hello Dolly one more time!”

(Sung to the tune of “Hello Dolly”, of course!)

(From Forbidden Broadway, if you must know.)

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I couldn’t find any pics of her father George Christian Channing (born George Christian Stucker), but it looks as though the product of a *Black domestic and White man. Apparently he was light-skinned enough to pass as White, since his WWI draft registration indicated his ‘race’ as ‘Caucasian.’ The 1900 census had previously shown him as ‘Black’.

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From Larry King interview in 2002:

Emphasis mine. Cool lady.

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Thanks for posting this; she was indeed the epitome of awesomesauce.

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I saw her in the original 1964 Hello, Dolly! What a performance! RIP, Dolly.

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I genuinely have always thought Stockard Channing was Carol Channing’s daughter. But nope, not even close. No relationship at all. Carol only ever had a son, and Stockard uses a married name.