Carol Channing & Pearl Bailey
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CAROL CHANNING: Bio in Brief

Carol was born Jan 31, 1921 in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of a prominent newspaper editor, who was very active in the Christian Science movement. At just two weeks of age, her father’s work took the family to San Francisco, where Carol was raised, schooled and eventually found work as a model. Through determination, hard work, and her family’s support (not to mention a mandatory IQ test for which she scored one of the highest recorded results) Carol was able to attend Bennington College in Vermont that had one of the few existing arts programs in the country. She majored in drama and dance and was able to supplement her income by taking parts in the nearby Pocono Resort area.

A recipient of the 1995 Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, Ms. Channing has been a star of international acclaim since a Time magazine cover story hailed her performance as Lorelei Lee in Gentleman Prefer Blondes writing; "Perhaps once in a decade a nova explodes above the Great White Way with enough brilliance to reillumine the whole gaudy legend of show business." Since her 1948 Broadway debut in Blitzstein's No For An Answer, her Broadway appearances include So Proudly We Hail, Let’s Face It (Danny Kaye’s only musical), Lend An Ear (Theatre World Award), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Show Girl, Pygmalion, The Millionairess, The Vamp, Four On A Garden, and Wonderful Town. Making theatrical history, she won the Tony Award in 1964 for her legendary portrayal of Dolly Levi in Jerry Herman’s Hello, Dolly! Jacqueline Kennedy and her two children made their first public appearance after JFK's death by seeing her perform in Hello Dolly! and later visited her backstage. She has since played the role in over 5000 performances, including a smash London engagement at the great Drury Lane Theatre. She then spent over a year with her own revue, Carol Channing and Her Ten Stout Hearted Men -- without missing a single performance —and critically acclaimed tours of Jerry's Girls and Legends, in which she co-starred with Mary Martin.

Ms. Channing's happiest film project was Thoroughly Modern Millie, which set box office records and earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award. Other films include Otto Preminger's Skidoo (which she refuses to see), Archie and Mehitabel, and Thumbelina. Ms. Channing has starred in six TV specials, winning an Emmy for both Carol and George Burns. For her numerous recordings, Ms. Channing has recorded ten gold Albums and her original cast album of Hello, Dolly! was an all-time best seller in its field, which knocked the Beatles off the charts when it was released in 1964. When not performing in theatre, Ms. Channing has appeared in every major nightclub and concert hall in the country. Among her other acknowledgements is a Best Nightclub Act of the Year Award and Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award, but she considers an appearance on Nixon's "Hate List," among her greatest honors.

In 2003, the octogenarian has been enjoying a highly successful year promoting her recently released, best selling memoirs, "Just Lucky I Guess," and with her new highly applauded one-woman variety show, entitled "An evening with Carol Channing." Carol’s recently released memoirs have not only reintroduce her to audiences everywhere, but also a romance that was direct result of the publication of her memoirs, she became engaged to her Junior High school sweetheart, businessman Harry Kullijian. A proud mother, her son is a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist, who has the distinction of being a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

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