|
LAist Interview: Carol Channing
September 11, 2007
 The Cocoanut Grove at
the Ambassador Hotel was the place to go for live entertainment in Los
Angeles. Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., and
Merv Griffin were among the many legends to perform there. This weekend
Pink Martini will
recreate the nightclub's magic at The Hollywood Bowl. Merv Griffin was to
have performed at these concerts. Now the evening will include a tribute to
him. The one and only Carol Channing will sing one of Merv's favorite songs
in memory of her good friend. I spoke with Carol about the Hollywood Bowl,
comedy routines, and "Hello Dolly".
What do you have planned for your Hollywood Bowl show?
I am doing two numbers. I was to do it with Merv Griffin. I was on
his program about seven times. He always wanted to sing "Bye Bye Baby". That
song was written by Jule Styne. They were the greatest oracles of their time
of musicals for movies and television and the legitimate stage. It was Leo
Robin, Jule Styne did the music. I am going to sing that in honor of Merv.
The next thing I am going to do is "There's No Business like Show Business"
with China. She has no last name. She is the vocalist for Pink Martini. They
are just fabulous. Unbelievable. Their conductor, he choreographs his
conducting. When he's at the piano, he sits half way up in a ballet plie. He
just, wow, he gets that orchestra to play like no other conductor. We did a
New Year's Eve show together. And China sings in all different languages. I
must say I am proud to work with Pink Martini again.
Merv Griffin was to perform that night as well. Now the evening will include
a tribute to him. What is your favorite Merv memory?
My first favorite memory is singing "Bye Bye Baby" with him. He loved it so
and I felt his love for the song. We sang it together. It was a duet. We
sang it anywhere anyone would tolerate it. Well, his show was in the Little
Theatre next to the St. James where "Hello Dolly" made it's big smash hit.
He was in the Little Theatre where he broadcast his television show. Merv
would come in all the time. We would go to each other's dressing rooms and
talk. One time all the lights went out all over the city. Merv was the only
one with lights to broadcast his television show. Somehow the television
lights were hooked up. He gave us his lights for our performance. I went up
and down the aisles with boxes of tissue for the audience because the air
conditioning was off. It was the middle of summer the most terrible hot day
in the world. Flames coming out of the manholes right in front of the
theatre. Nobody in the city could move. Elevators stopped, people were stuck
in them. It was just a big mess. Con Edison the power company would often go
off. Merv gave us the lights and we went ahead with our show and I went up
the aisles passing boxes of Kleenex. I asked the audience to remove their
jackets, their coats whatever they could and they mopped themselves with the
Kleenex.
 When
I looked you up on eBay I found some eclectic memorabilia. In addition to
playbills, Life Magazine, and TV Guide covers, there is an Effanbee Legend
Series doll and a ventriloquist dummy available. Do you have these items on
display at your house?
I don't have the doll, but I do have the ventriloquist
dummy.
Who
was your all time favorite costar?
George Burns. He had more sex appeal that anyone thirty years old. He was
about ninty-eight when I was working with him. The routine material that he
gave to Gracie was so durable and so basically funny that when I did it
people thought he wrote it especially for me. That's good material. It was
very funny. One routine was all about- the punch line was our feet turned
all black. And when the doctor arrived he said take off the black socks. We
sang number after number together. We had a full act in Las Vegas and across
the country for two years after Gracie died. It was like being knighted in
St. James Court in London. It's lasted all my life. Just that Gracie wanted
me to work with her George. Gracie said to me, look George won't work with
anyone that I don't choose and I choose you Carol.
My
Grandmother met you in 1937 on a cruise ship to Hawaii. You were a student
at Lowell High School in San Francisco at the time, what do you remember
about your trip to Hawaii?
I won an award for a speech I did called "What America Citizenship Means to
Me". I was exactly sixteen year old. The competition was the first event at
the new War Memorial Opera House. One judge kept pointing at us from the
wings say you won you won. There were twelve of us. And we didn't know who
she was pointing to. We couldn't tell. You, you she kept saying. On the ship
to Hawaii the captain asked me to sit at his table. I was overwhelmed. On
the trip you could bring someone. I bought my mother. She just loved the
trip. Oh I was so happy I could give her that. We got to Hawaii and everyone
from Punahou, the big Hawaiian high school met us. And they were so proud.
In
Reno in 1978, I saw you perform one of your best known roles, Hello Dolly.
How many time have you performed the role of Dolly?
Over 5000 times.
Where is your favorite place to visit in LA?
I guess the Hollywood Bowl. It goes all the way to Pasadena. Very few people
can project that far, but I was just built noisy and big.
|
