Remembering Carol Channing, 1921-2019

NEW YORK–StageZine mourns the loss of theater legend Carol Channing. Ms. Channing, best known for her role in Hello, Dolly!, passed away today at age 97. We pay tribute to Ms. Channing with anecdotes and classic Channing illustrations provided by the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. The late Al Hirschfeld captured Ms. Channing’s ebullient presence most vividly in classic illustrations and the reproductions included here are courtesy of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation.

According to a Broadway League news release, to commemorate her life and work, the Committee of Theatre Owners will dim the lights of Broadway theaters in New York for one minute on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at exactly 7:45pm.

The Broadway League said: “On Broadway Ms. Channing appeared in: Hello, Dolly! (1995 Revival), Hello, Dolly! (1978 Revival), Lorelei (1974), Four on a Garden (1971), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Show Girl (1961), The Vamp (1955), Wonderful Town (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Lend an Ear (1948), Proof Thro’ the Night (1942), and Let’s Face It! (1941). She was in the original tour of Hello, Dolly! (1965) and played the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi over 4,500 times in her career. She also appeared in major touring productions including: Hello, Dolly! (1994 Revival), Legends! (1986), Jerry’s Girls (1984), Hello, Dolly! (1983 Revival), Sugar Babies (1980), Hello, Dolly! (1977 Revival), Wonderful Town (1954), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1951).”

“Carol Channing personified everything we love about American musical comedy: big, funny and joyous. To see her hold an audience in her thrall was a master class in star power,” said Thomas Schumacher, Chairman of The Broadway League. “Hello, Dolly! opened 55 years ago tomorrow. She always was famous for her timing.”

A Channing/Hirschfeld anecdote:

Channing claimed that Al had made her a star when she appeared in a musical revue, Lend An Ear in 1949. In June, 1949, he did a composite of “Supporting Players Whose Number Stop Their Musical Shows” that included Channing in a cloche hat as “The Gladiola Girl”. Channing was shocked, “That’s my father,” she said when she first saw it, yet she also realized that he had captured exactly what had been in her mind’s eye when she performed. “[Al] knew just what I was thinking,” She claimed that the producers and creative team for an upcoming musical adaptation by Jule Styne of the classic, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes saw the drawing and Anita Loos said “There’s my Lorelei Lee.”

“Al Hirschfeld did that for me. All of the sudden everybody came to see it. Well who’s that? We better go see it if Al Hirschfeld thinks that much of it.” Six months later she opened as the lead in the musical and played it for 740 performances. Al would draw her next two Broadway productions which were not hits, but it was Hello, Dolly! that would become her career defining role. As Al would later say about her last Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, when Channing first came down the stairs, “You know you are in safe hands.” His drawing of Channing as Dolly Levi, with her Victorian-styled dress, plunging neckline, big eyes, two dots for a nose, open mouth, her big hair, and even larger headdress literally became the logo for the show, used on programs, posters, and advertisements of all sizes as the show took its Broadway success on the road and it subsequent revivals.