All Photos: Alan Mercer Hair & Make-up: David Blackstock
Carol was born in Seattle, Washington, the only child of George and Adelaide Channing. Her mother was born Jewish. Her father was a city editor at the Seattle Star. His newspaper career took the family to San Francisco when Carol was only two weeks old. Her father later became a successful Christian Science practitioner, editor, and teacher.
According to Carol's memoirs, when she left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont, her mother informed her that her father, a journalist who 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 Carol's account, her mother reportedly did not want Carol to be surprised "if she had a black baby". Carol 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.
Carol 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.
Carol was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995, and an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Stanislaus in 2004. That same year, she received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre. She and husband Harry Kullijian are active in promoting arts education in California schools with the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation. Harry is Carol's fourth husband and junior high school sweetheart, who reunited with her after she mentioned him fondly in her memoir.
My friend Larry Ferguson called me one day and said he was working with Carol on a new gospel CD and would I take the cover photograph? Naturally I said yes. Working with a legend like Carol Channing is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm so glad I had the chance to do it. I was able to sit with Carol for ten minutes last week right before she celebrated her 90th birthday at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. She is full of life and enthusiasm and quite an inspiration.
AM: Hi Carol, Thank you for talking to me for the blog. I want to celebrate your 90th birthday!
CC: Oh thank you. That's good of you!
AM: Did you enjoy working with our good friend Larry Ferguson?
CC: Oh yes, Larry in Nashville Tennessee. Larry is a dear. His wife is a dear too. She sends me eyelashes and lipstick and all kinds of wonderful cosmetics.
AM: You'll never have to buy anymore.
CC: No I never will. I have them piled up at home. She's a doll and I love Larry.
AM: Do you consider yourself a gospel singer?
CC: Oh my father was a gospel singer. He was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia. But yes, I am a gospel singer and I grew up with all this wonderful music.
AM: You recorded some country music at one time as well didn't you?
CC: Yes I did, but I forgot it since it's been so long now. (laugher)
AM: Do you have a favorite memory of any of these gospel songs?
CC: Oh this is the milkman who went from house to house singing this song in his horse drawn milk wagon. He would sing, "Mama send me a letter, Papa send me a stamp, I hung my jawbone on the fence, I ain't ever seen my jawbone since" (Carol is singing this to me now) He would sing this between every house. He'd start the song over every time he left a house. The song lasted just long enough to get to the next house.
AM: You know all these classic songs?
CC: Daddy would teach me all these songs and told me this is Americana. This is coming up out of the ground and it bloomed and blossomed south of the Mason Dixon line. This is real Americana and our history!
AM: And so are you!
CC: Thank you.
AM: Are you making a Patriotic CD next?
CC: Yes and that's the best one. I wish Larry had released this one first. I cried over it because it's so genuine. Boy we gotta sing those Patriotic songs now.
AM:: Tell me a little about your foundation.
CC: It's called the Channing/Kullijian Foundation after my husband and myself.
AM: You've known Harry a long time and have an interesting story with him as well.
CC: I met Harry when I was twelve and he was thirteen. He was center on the Soccer team and when he graduated he had the best grades. He also got an award for being the best scholar and athlete. Even today when I think about it...every time he kisses me I'm twelve years old. That's the truth.
AM: That's a beautiful feeling.
CC: Oh it's heaven!
AM: Now your foundation has to do with the arts doesn't it?
CC: Yes , they've taken the arts out of public schools under the fiction and the lie that we need art the least. ALL we need is the arts. That's what Albert Einstein said. You can't understand the theory of relativity if you don't have the arts. Everybody that ever accomplished anything knows that's the truth. It churns your brain and gets the creative juices to start.
AM: You know this for a fact don't you?
CC: I found this out over a lifetime in the theater with very little time off. I did a couple of movies, but I found out the arts stimulate your brain. Only I have this feeling about 'Hello Dolly' yet I saw many of the other Dolly's that Mr. Merrick got after he sent us on tour. They each had their own interpretation of Dolly and I thought they were each valuable.
AM: Since you are so closely associated, did you ever confuse yourself with Dolly?
CC: Well I don't come from New York and I'm nothing like her. Of course it's my own emotions that see Dolly but perhaps it is me...I don't know.
AM: Why do you keep working?
CC: It's all of life. It's like saying why don't you die?
AM: Well some people like to retire and just enjoy life?
CC: That's because they were working at something that wasn't the arts.
AM: Are you still a Christian Scientist?
CC: No but it's good training. It's good for all children. My father worked with doctors. He had deep respect for them. He was one of the great heads of the Christian Science movement but I can't say that I am.
AM: Did you give it up a long time ago?
CC: Oh no I didn't give it up. Harry is an Armenian and they were the first to recognize the crucifixion and say alright we are all Christians. I am a Christian.
AM: Are you excited about having a 90th birthday party?
CC: Yes I am terribly excited! I love all the people who are going to entertain me. These are my friends. I can't wait to see everyone.
AM: How do you feel about being a legendary icon?
CC: I never think about it. I think if you do then you're not an icon anymore. It's about expressing the wonders of singing a song or creating a character. I am always looking for the spine of a character and I found it in 'Hello Dolly' and it's to rejoin the human race. I asked Thornton Wilder, who is one of the six greatest playwrights in America according to our American Government, if that was the spine of Hello Dolly and he couldn't tell me. He had to think about it, but he called me the next day and said I was right. The spine has to include every character in it. It's all about rejoining the human race. Dolly talks to her dead husband and says, "Efrem, I want to rejoin the human race before the parade passes by!" Everything comes out of that.
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