Can someone explain Carol Channing?

Do you remember when you were a child and you watched the Muppets and loved them?

She was a human version of a Muppet.

OMG. From OP's post I've just realized I thought this was Carol Channing.

OP, have you ever heard of “comedy?”

OP is an idiot looking for attention.

r2 Same! Who the hell is the broad in your photo, then?

Her pussy was very popular.

Jazz Baby

It's Carol Burnett R5. This whole time I thought she was Carol Channing with the corn.

I pictured her like this:

with Miss Dinah Shore

I love her!

She was listed on Richard Nixon’s Enemy list. She said it was the highest honor of her career.

She was foisted upon us by the US Corn Lobby.

I saw her in 1994-95 when she toured with HELLO DOLLY in my area. A great stage performer - knew how to grab the audience.

OP? Raspberries!

So much blasphemy on this thread.

Carol Channing spoke to my drama class when I was at UT and she was utterly delightful - in high school, a group of friends and I used her as a private joke so I kind of rolled my eyes when she showed up but I was enchanted and fell in love. She was exactly what one would expect: So sweet, so encouraging, so funny.

Eli Wallach also spoke to us and I wish I had realized what a tremendous actor he was at the time. I do now.

R10

I’m thisclose to buying that poster, thanks for sharing it. Gregory Peck - makes me love him even more. But no John Lennon? Was he just hated by Hoover?

R7, They couldn’t even have a token Black in that number?

She was extremely overrated.

R16, Carol Channing’s father was black.

Jessica Tandy and Julie Andrews were both notoriously screwed over in stage to screen adaptions. It happened to Carol Channing twice.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes went to Marilyn Monroe.

Hello Dolly... no explanation needed.

Her grandmother was African-American.

Not a single visibly Black person in that scene despite a jazz orchestra and a party full of guests. Even the waiters are white.

Streisand gave Channing a very small mention in her memoir - when she discussed being offered the movie 'Hello Dolly'.

In the past, Channing spoke of the 'matinee lunches' she and Streisand (and one other musical actress) would enjoy twice a week on Broadway in 1964-65, when 'Funny Girl' and 'Hello Dolly' were running. When the Tony noms were announced, they would each tease each other and say 'You're going to get the award, not me!'. Channing believed they had a nice friendship, even after the Tonys.

I'm surprised Barbra didn't mention any of this in her memoir when discussing her run on Broadway.

Channing was a comedic character actress who, because of her presence and persona, could do lead roles in the right vehicles.

It is a mistake to consider the full-parody Channing with her startlingly sexy and odd presentation when she was starting her career and when she had her first triumphs.

The proud vocal-trick pop performers of color and the squeal-voiced white gals who rule the stage now do not reach the breadth of what theater performance conveyed in the 1930s-1960s on Broadway. Theater has never been less "live" because of the corporate, focus-group approach, and the difficulty of theater finding a way to be fresh and relevant without choruses declaiming pop-driven bullshit at the audience continues to hand things to Disney-type schtick.

R22, Streisand clearly states in her memoir that she urged 20th Century Fox to hire Carol Channing for the film version of “Hello, Dolly!”.

Streisand did not want to make the film, thinking she was too young, which she was.

R14 you always present a very distinct experience. You are DL GOLD. Just sayin thanks ❤️

She was a great stage star who filled a theater. I saw her in Dolly and Lorelei.

She was also an amazing speaker. I went to an AIDS benefit showing of TMM at the Astor Plaza. I believe it was Joel Segal who introduced the film. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Obviously the audience was filled with Millie fans. The idiot then proceeded to put down and criticize the film saying things like the film contained so much talent but was a disappointment. I couldn't believe this guy on such an occasion. Channing then followed him and in a most calm, intelligent, eloquent, way off the cuff without a hint of snark in her voice proceeded to rip him to shreds. He didn't know what hit him and was completely flustered. I thought wow a master class in putting down an opponent.

Ever heard or seen her Cecelia Simmons (I think that’s the name) monologue?

She was a character comic, a great wit, kind, and against the image, an intellectual in life- kind of like Phylis Diller.

[quote] Carol Channing spoke to my drama class when I was at UT and she was utterly delightful - in high school, a group of friends and I used her as a private joke so I kind of rolled my eyes when she showed up but I was enchanted and fell in love. She was exactly what one would expect: So sweet, so encouraging, so funny.

Similar happened with me. She showed up at our university as a favor to a faculty member, and without any real planning, she spoke to our entire theater dept. that day for nearly 3 hours, sharing the most incredible stories, advice, experiences, etc. of her time in show business. It was absolutely incredible, and everyone was in awe. She was sharp as hell, had nearly endless energy, absolutely glowed in person, and just gave and gave to us. She almost didn't want to even leave. It's an experience I'll never forget. To be in such an intimate setting with that kind of real star power. There's nothing like it. ps. She's aware of the all the jokes/memes about her, and she had a great sense of humor about them.

[quote] Carol Channing’s father was black.

Barely.

She's a little corny.

R29 . . .

R24 Yes, I know. Read my post again - I said she gives Channing a brief mention when she discusses 'Hello Dolly'.

I then go on to say that she never mentioned the 'matinee lunches' they used to have between shows, twice a week when the two of them starred on Broadway in 1964. It was something which Channing had talked about in interviews during her lifetime, and the friendship the two of them developed. Curious why Streisand left this out when she discussed her Broadway run.

We had to cut SOMETHING out of those endless pages.

As has often been said often about Channing, Merman, Martin, etc., you have to have seen them perform live to appreciate their talent and charisma.

How clueless do you have to be to confuse Carol Burnette and Carrol Channing?!?

How clueless do you have to be to misspell Carol Burnett?

R32, I recall Channing bashing the “Hello, Dolly!” film in numerous interviews over the years and how hurt she was that she wasn’t cast.

At least she won the Tony that year over Streisand.

R27 - it is comedy gold and my favorite monologue that Miss Carol Channing does.

R10 That list wouldn’t look out of place today. Except it would be a phone book.

Michael Bennett said that the few times she's ever been given the chance to perform on camera, she approaches it the same way she does when she's onstage. Front and center, playing to the balcony. He said it no wonder the drag queens love her.

Thoroughly Modern Millie was said to be her audition for the movie version of Dolly. Watching it, there's no way a studio would invest millions for audiences to have to suffer through that.

Here she is on Letterman when he had an early show. She keeps showing her panties (really) and Letterman tries to get her off the stage.

Not all of us are a thousand years old R35.

R28

Yes! She acted as though we were doing her a favor - she was just fabulous. What year was this for you? It was 1987 for me.

R25

Thank you! I love reading all the DL stories and hope mine add a little something here and there.

I always found her insufferable.

Still do.

She's wonderful in Millie. And Ernest Lehmen the producer of the film of Dolly said of course you would cast her. Then he saw Millie. Maybe Ross Hunter fucked her over. Too big too broad to carry a two and a half hour Todd AO movie musical. I think Streisand did it out of spite because she lost the Tony to Channing. Ha! I get the last laugh!

I think Dolly has aged extremely well. Streisand is both warm and very funny in it. And she sings the hell out of the score. I would say that the dance numbers are too long and uninspired. Kidd had lost it by this point. But John DeCuir and Irene Sharaff do for New York City at the turn of 20th Century what they did for ancient Egypt. A production design to die for.

She was one of those unique talents of the 50s like Red Skelton and George Jessel.

Well she was a gay icon I guess, but I never thought she was talented. She interviewed for a magazine a few years ago where she was asked how she feels about her gay fans, who obviously made her career, and she said "well you know what the Bible says about those people". I was like OK what a rancid fucking stupid cunt - go fuck yourself and go to hell you stupid talentless whore. I don't know why the gays love her - she sold us out as soon as she could. never speak bad of the dead - she's dead - good. out with the trash you stupid fucking dumb cunt.

[quote] Not a single visibly Black person in that scene despite a jazz orchestra and a party full of guests. Even the waiters are white.

A lack of racial diversity in the year 1967

MUST

BE

STOPPED!

Many of the greatest musical theatrical talents of the 20th century could not translate their success to film because they projected too big for the cameras: Channing. Merman, Zero Mostel.

[quote]How clueless do you have to be to misspell Carol Burnett?

Apparently clueless enough to misspell Carol Channing as well.

She was the Jennifer Coolidge of her time.

Skidoo. She is a key highlight.

r47, I don't believe she said that until I see proof. She was a savvy dame and I'm skeptical.

R53, Carol was married to a gay man for decades.

“In 1998, Star published Channing's claims that her husband she was divorcing after 41 years, Charles Lowe, had been cheating on her with ... a man! "I know finally realize the truth is that Charles left me for another man. I know he's been having a homosexual relationship." Even though Lowe denied it, Channing also made a claim that the two only had sex twice in their four-decade-long marriage. "Shortly after my marriage, my husband announced that he was impotent and we have never been intimate again to the present day," she previously said in court papers. "At that time, I did not know that our lack of intimacy had, in fact, nothing to do with my husband's alleged impotency or any other psychological or physical conditions." When he died in 1999, she told National Enquirer, "He's gone and I hope he rests in peace. Regardless of our differences, I'm not looking back. I just want to go forward and be surrounded by the love of my son and my family," despite previously alleging to the magazine that he physically and emotionally abused her.”

[quote]She keeps showing her panties (really)

She is wearing a long skirt and pantyhose. While we do see a couple of flashes of knicker through all that when she is demonstrating the exercises, the other woman (who is young and pretty) is wearing a leotard that barely covers her pussy and quite happily sits cross-legged facing the camera while everyone pretends to be embarrassed about Channing. Double standards much?

R56, uh, no. After she gets an initial laugh when her panties might have accidentally been shown, she keeps lifting her dress. It's quite pitiful.

My point is that you can see far less of her than you can of the girl in the leotard, but nobody's upset about the latter.

The fact that people confused Carol Channing with Carol Burnett.....I can't believe people that fucking DUMB exist

[quote[Jessica Tandy and Julie Andrews were both notoriously screwed over in stage to screen adaptions. It happened to Carol Channing twice.

Carol Channing was pure magic on stage. I never realized that until I saw her in the 10th-anniversary of "Hello, Dolly!" in 1974, when she was still young enough to give it all she had. She was a joy to watch. But she was too much for movie screens, or even TV screens. She was larger than life. That works on stage, but can be way too much and even grotesque on screen. "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" was a much better movie for having Marilyn Monroe in Channing's role. The camera adored Marilyn, and she's delightful in that movie.

[quote] uh, no. After she gets an initial laugh when her panties might have accidentally been shown, she keeps lifting her dress. It's quite pitiful

It TWIRLED up.

Bitch be passing for white for 97 years.

She had 4 husbands. I would be more surprised if only one of them was gay.

This is an interesting tidbit on her Wiki page…puts the “corn incident” in a whole new light!

Channing had unique dietary habits. In 1978, she said she had not eaten restaurant food in 15 years and preferred only organic food. When invited to restaurants, she would bring several sealed containers with her own food, such as zucchini or chopped celery, and simply ask for an empty plate and glass.[citation needed] For dessert, she would eat seeds.[citation needed] By 1995, Channing had resumed eating food served by restaurants.[68]

No. Nobody can explain Carol Channing. She has an abundance of je ne sais quoi

She had absurdly large feet

R47, that is an absolute lie. She loved her gay fans which I know first hand. She was a close friend in Palm Springs with one of my best friends. She was a doll and very very funny, and smart.

You don’t win Tonys and star in Broadway productions without talent. Streisand’s talent is so huge it almost knocks you over- her voice for the ages. Other talents like Channing and Stritch are best seen on the stage- in person.

Who? All I know is what stood the test of time is that she's the corn poop lady. 💩🌽

If I never hear about Carol Channing and corn again, it will be too soon. DL is like a dog with a bone when it comes to certain jokes and never tires of running them into the ground.

Until recently I just assumed there were only two Carols, Kane and Brady.

I'm almost 50 and the only thing I know her from is playing Julie's aunt on The Love Boat multiple times.

This is really a senior thread.

Well, smell you, R70! The smug ignorance of the young! Sheesh!

- Crypt Dwelling Eldergay, not even a theatre queen, who nevertheless appreciates a theatre goddess such as Carol.

She had a vocal range of roughly six notes.

[quote]Please correct me if I'm wrong.

LITERALLY the most unnecessary request in DL history.

R9 It wasn't easy for a couple of coloured girls to get ahead like that in the early 1960s.

When I brought her to NH in 2007 and 2008 for two AIDS benefits, she wanted to be sure all of our clients had been given complimentary tickets. When I told her that they had but some were too ill to attend, she came up with a plan.

She went to each of the client's home, who were unable to attend, and did a ten-minute show for them. She would arrive and say, "I'm Carol" and then proceed to sit with them, holding their hand and singing a couple of songs to them. Then she would kiss them on the cheek and tell them that she loved them.

A kind and caring woman who would say, "So many of those wonderful boys who performed with me aren't here. I owe it to them to give all I can to those infected and affected..."

R65

That was our high school Carol Channing joke: her huge feet and her constant wearing of buckled shoes.

R75

That is a beautiful story. Good for her and for you for organizing those benefits.

(R77) Thanks. She fell in love with NH and vice versa.

Speaker as a senior, I had no idea why she was so beloved. True of many 50s stars like George Gobel and Mamie Van Doren.

Sad when people don't know the names of anyone with actual talent, but everyone has the name of Autotune hustlers and their wet ass pussies on their lips.

Carol would have benefitted from autotune.

Seriously, Martin Gottfried said she should have done some "serious" musical comedy like Sweeney Todd. He said she would have been a fantastic Mrs. Lovett. Hey, since Sutton did it, it might have been interesting.

[quote]The fact that people confused Carol Channing with Carol Burnett.....I can't believe people that fucking DUMB exist

Did you somehow miss the 2016 presidential election?

Okay, you have a point, R82.

What's the corn story?

Female Drag Queen

I thought it was sweet that she rekindled her romance with her middle school boyfriend, when they were reunited in their eighties.

Can you imagine last seeing your first love in the 1930s, then seeing each other again in the 2000s -- how much the world changed!

They were married for nearly a decade before his death. Then she followed several years later.

I saw her on her last Hello Dolly tour – late 90s? I remember her saying she was 75. She was amazing and having the time of her life with the show. The scene in the restaurant where she's at the table by herself for a bit was a comedic tour de force. The woman behind me squealed, She's like Lucy! They don't make 'em like this anymore.

[quote]She's like Lucy! They don't make 'em like this anymore.

Thank God!

[quote] I'm almost 50 and the only thing I know her from is playing Julie's aunt on The Love Boat multiple times. This is really a senior thread.

Then you truly belong here, hun!

[quote]What's the corn story?

She was the original choice to star in this commercial, but the Mazola company went in another direction right before it was shot.

Carol Channing appealed enormously to groovy hippies like Tommy Tune.

I knew her son from college. He became an editorial cartoonist.

Were they close?

Her son, Channing Carson, was a product of her second marriage, not the gay husband.

She looked great as a brunette

Lucy does Carol.

R66 was she usually happy and on? She seems so in every pic.

She had a feud with LA CBS critic David Sheehan. He did a review of "Lorelei" (he hated it) and then introduced Carol for an interview. Carol blasted him in the LA Times and then Sheehan returned the favor whenever she appeared in LA. She was at the Greek Theater with George Burns and after saying how great Burns was, he said Carol Channing was also there and he wasn't even going to play her tape because he was sure she was embarrassed enough.

[quote]Her son, Channing Carson, was a product of her second marriage, not the gay husband.

At school he was known as Channing (Chan) Lowe, his stepfather's surname.

[quote]Can someone explain Carol Channing?

I don't know. I've never carol channed.

The OP photo of her reminds me of how her look and photographs in that timeframe made her seem to me like a white version of Diana Ross during her late-1960s Supremes era.

R94 He was her biological child by her first husband, but the gay second husband adopted him. Carol said her second husband had sex with her only one time during their long marriage. Does that make him bisexual or just not gold star?

He was the biological child of her second husband, R102. She was married four times.

[quote] Can someone explain Carol Channing?

No, it’s an unexplainable phenomenon. You just have to suspend disbelief and go with it.

Mid-century Broadway borrowed the star system of Hollywood, where the important thing wasn't the best voice or the greatest looks but to be instantly recognizable. Uniqueness was valued far above talent. And in that nobody was more successful than Carol Channing.

Nobody looked like her, nobody sang like her, nobody danced like her. Of course they took this too far (Timothy Leary, e.g.) and when it spilled into commercials it was pretty much over. But for the period she was the textbook example of what a star should be.

Carol looked younger than her daughter Stockard.

[quote] Carol looked younger than her daughter Stockard.

OMG, they’re related?

R103 My mistake. I thought she was married 3 times. I know she married her high school sweetheart at the end.

Major Bush voter, huge supporter of Mexican men selling elote.

People love standing around a train wreck.

R102 is an idiot.

[quote]I'm almost 50 and the only thing I know her from is playing Julie's aunt on The Love Boat multiple times.

I first saw her in the 1985 made-for-TV movie, Alice in Wonderland.

Jam tomorrow, jam yesterday, but never jam today.

This is why people need to explain Carol. It's baffling how they allowed her to "sing".

So here’s the thing about Carol Channing. Did she become a parody of herself? Kinda. But you have to realize, in the 1950s and ‘60s there was no Rip Taylor, no Harvey Fierstein, no RuPaul. But there was definitely an audience for campy musical comedy, and Carol filled that void. Here she is from 1969, doing two “characters” that she had been doing in Vegas and in nightclubs for over a decade. Of course she already had the ridiculous wig and the baby doll voice; that was her “Carol Channing” persona. But when she steps out from behind the screen and clicks into her Marlene Dietrich impression, she is SPOT. ON. It’s brilliant and very subtle, not unlike a Sweeney Sisters medley from SNL, of if someone like Kristen Wiig did a takeoff on Madonna’s current tour. That’s how famous (and famously self-indulgent) Dietrich was in her concerts; she nails her vanity and her tiny vocal range wickedly (and even throws in a “bit” about people staring at her pussy that I can’t believe the censors allowed.) Oh, and her legs look great. As for Cecilia Sisson, it was a character she had built and refined over the course of fifty years; she was still doing it at a Kaye Ballard concert in Palm Springs in 2015. Classic. People shouldn’t think of her as a singer, because that wasn’t her end goal. She was known as a singing COMEDIENNE. Emphasis on the comedy. Think Bert Lahr. Think Sophie Tucker. Think Catherine O’Hara as Lola Heatherton.

Can someone please explain Otto Preminger's SKIDOO (1968)

[quote]Can someone explain Carol Channing?

She was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

I saw her first in Lorelei at the Chicago Lyric Opera house before it went to Broadway--she had broken her am the night before, but nothing in her performance would have tipped you to it--other than, at the curtain speech, she talked about "being in this awful cast," and then faux-realized the double-meaning. Ten years later she brought her nightclub act to a dinner theatre type space at Water Tower Place and was charming, funny, and smart. I saw her during her last tour of "Dolly" at the Shubert--the vocal range was even more limited (it was never wide to begin with), but, boy, the performance and character were still there and canny and joyful. I know she did Shaw at some point and played a closeted (maybe unconscious) lesbian in a play about women in the army in WWII that did not run, but for which she received very good reviews.

What's there to explain? She liberated us from our devotion to housework and enslavement to tv commercials!

It takes a lot of smarts to play that dumb. See also Gracie Allen.

[quote]At school he was known as Channing (Chan)

Was he Asian?

r113 Ann Jillian was a "Broadway great"?

I never really got her appeal either, at all. When she was probably close to eighty, she did an engagement on Bleecker Street (Life Café?) and a friend dragged me.

The show was a hybrid cabaret where Carol sang a few songs, her showtune hits as I recall, but only about five songs. The rest of the show was just her telling stories, and much of it seemed fairly unscripted, many of her stories were about her childhood and family. She was fascinating, hilarious, touching and truly comic in a very modern way. I got the feeling no two performances were anything alike. It was one of the best "in-one" shows I've seen to date.

She would be thrilled to know you thought she was being "unscripted". It takes a lot of talent to pull that off.

[quote]When she was probably close to eighty, she did an engagement on Bleecker Street (Life Café?) and a friend dragged me.

Of course, that was the wonderful show, part of a series called SINGULAR SENSATIONS at The Village Gate with Glen Rovenat, I saw that as well, and she was wonderful. She also told the story of reuniting with her high school sweetheart, Harry, and then brought him on stage.

R21 It wouldn't make sense to have black people in that scene.

Does anyone else recall her saying that something would come out about her that would surprise everyone ... probably after she was gone... Is it maybe that she was part black? I do think that came out when she was still living. I had my own very weird thoughts on it... thinking possibly she was actually male, due to her gravel-gertie voice. What do I know. I was a kid at the time.

Yes, r128, I think Carol had a black grandparent, no?

[quote]It takes a lot of smarts to play that dumb. See also Gracie Allen.

And early Goldie Hawn.

R128, Daddy was black.

Nope. Dad was multiracial with an African American mother and a German Jewish father. He became a Christian Scientist.

R132, If her father had a black mother, then he was technically black.

If a child’s mother is Jewish, then the child is considered Jewish.

Her father was Jewish and changed his religion. She is not Jewish.

You obviously go by the one-drop rule but not everybody does. If you look racialy ambiguous and have one Black parent, you can identify as black, biracial or whatever.

According to most sources, Carol's maternal grandparents, Otto Glaser, and Paulina Ottmann, were both of German-Jewish origin. Her father had a German (not Jewish) father and African-American mother. Carol was raised Christian Scientist, but would be considered Jewish by Jewish Law (Halacha) if her maternal grandmother was indeed Jewish.

Carol herself finally acknowledged in interviews that her father was black.

She was an odd bird. Very mannish, too.

One of the things about those old Broadway stars was that the biggest successes could project BIG because there used to be no proper miking. They had to get their voices and personalities over the footlights to fill what were very large spaces (like the Winter Garden) and play to the back rows, and so the big stars had outsized voices and outsized personalities.

r138 that's why Ethel Merman became such a big Broadway star. In the days before body mikes her voice could carry to the back of the theater.

She was great in Six Degrees of Separation, and again on The West Wing.

Carol Channing as herself would have been the perfect next door neighbor on Three's Company. A single cat lady or former stripper or something. Teaching Chrissy how to fan dance to get men.

I think even Channing would have found Three's Company beneath her.

That's odd since it was prime time hit and she would have been lucky to play herself in character part.

Can someone explain OP?

Carol found Three’s Company’s corny toilet humor beneath her.

Carol tried and failed on TV several times including a pilot produced by Desilu. A sitcom where she was a supporting player. She was unbearable on film but the exaggeration might have worked on TV,

Can everyone F&F this thread. I am sick of seeing the nightmarish picture of her in my feed. I try to block this thread and it still keeps appearing.

If it really gets your panties in such a bunch, block the OP, r147, and then you won't see the thread and it won't keep appearing.

Can someone explain the corn story?

OK, the actual corn story:

There's an urban legend that Carol Channing was miked for a production of "Hello Dolly," and in one long scene where she was offstage she went to use the bathroom. She forgot her mike was still on.

During a lull in the next scene, her voice came on loud and clear in the auditorium through the mike saying, "CORN? When did I eat CORN?", followed by the sound of a flush.

(It's funnier if you're told the joke in person and someone can do the line using a good Carol Channing voice.)

Thank you r150. That is so gross but pretty funny.

As for Carol Channing, who gets shot out of a cannon and as usual grins like an albino Louie Armstrong, she projects too big for even this elephantine movie.-Pauline Kael on Thoroughly Mundane Millie

Saw her in Lorelei at a Massachusetts summer stick theatre in the 1970s.

She changed costumes throughout the show behind a curtained cubicle in the aisle right next to me.

^summer stock

Carol Channing = CORN.

Carol on Oprah 1984 at age 63. Chanming died two weeks before her 98th birthday in 2019

She frightened me as a child.

There must have been some value to her special diet. I remember hearing that she used to carry her own food in jars when she traveled.

Diet had nothing to do with it. Her mom lived to almost 100.

The title of this thread is perfect.

Carol Stockard Channing Tatum O'Neal.

[quote]There must have been some value to her special diet

CORN! COOOOOORRRRRNNNNNNN!!!!!