From the NYT obit:
“Performing is the only excuse for my existence,” she said during her last Broadway appearance, in the 1995 revival of “Hello, Dolly!” “What can be better than this?”
AND: Channing had a style that invited impersonation, and here you can see her personally thank Bob the Drag Queen:
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22 comments:
she made people happy.
Without even clicking on the video, I can hear her voice in my head singing, in her very distictive way, that song. Funny what makes an impression on us so that years later it's possible to recall without effort.
RIP Ms. Channing. Your Dolly will be the one I remember.
What a wonderful talent.
So Long, Dearie.
Goodbye, Dolly!
Too soon?
Depending how we reckon these things, she was also a person of color. At least, her grandmother was.
I remember in the 60's watching her or Ethel Merman sing on some show like Ed Sullivan, and wondering why this woman was popular and how she made a living in show business. I heard women sing better in church than them.
And that's why there's 31 flavors at B-R.
I think "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" was her signature song. You don't hear it much anymore. It has the wrong vibe for our era......I liked her voice. She could bring out the humor in the lyrics, and her voice had a warm, friendly timbre. Well, she had a successful career and lived to be 97. As good as it gets.
I always had an avoidance-level distaste for Carol Channing. She assumed how much she impressed people.
Nothing personal, just the professional act.
Zsa-Zsa was similar but not so aggressively annoying. Just tedium-inducing. Is there another guest soon.
I just went to a production of Hello Dolly. It holds up pretty well, though a couple of the jokes were only funny in the abstract, if you thought about them in the context of the times in which it was written. But I always had a semi for Carol Channing. Really the whole play is just about a setup for the song, which is like a pageant or a parade or something centered on Dolly. Perfect for her.
I am old enough to remember seeing her on TV from time to time when she was still a performer, and not a museum piece. It always grabbed my attention when she appeared on the screen. Like the definition of a star.
and how she[Ethel Merman] made a living in show business.
You never saw her in a short skirt because her balls would show.
finally, rhhardin and I disagree! OK, I like Meg Ryan too.
You never saw her in a short skirt because her balls would show.
When Arturo Toscanini heard Merman, he said "Castrato".
When you consider that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, her 97 years doesn't seem to have been such a long ltime. For much of her life, there was no such thing as television, let alone a remote control for it. Even the most fortunate among us lead blighted, foreshortened lives.
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"I think "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" was her signature song."
She played the role on stage that Marilyn Monroe got to do for the movie.
From the NYT obit:
"To Ms. Channing’s disappointment, however, it was Ms. Streisand who was chosen to star in the 1969 film version of “Hello, Dolly!,” which meant that both of Ms. Channing’s signature roles ended up being played onscreen by other actresses: Marilyn Monroe had played Lorelei Lee in the movie version of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”"
I saw her in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" at her age 55. She was super.
One of the more interesting aspects of my working at a major airline during my university days was the chance to interact with celebrities passing thru.
Carol Channing was an absolute delight (with her makeup person in close tow).
Diana Ross? Amazing. Late flight out of LA arriving at my gate, very late, and the flight attendants relayed how Diana stood up for an hour during the delay and led the entire flight in song. What a lady.
I had a very very different experience escorting Barbara Walters between terminals after she returned from the Bahamas.
But back to Carol: an absolute treasure.
I'll always remember her historic boxing match against Mike Tyson. It took a lot of nerve for the old babe, especially at her age, to get in the ring with Iron Mike.
Should have starred in Hello Dolly not Babs Streisand.
Heard an interview with her on NPR 10 years ago and came off as very funny and intelligent.
OTOH, Monroe was a much better fit for the film version of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"
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