Carol Channing

Carol Channing has worked primarily as a comic stage actress and singer, along with occasional movie and television appearances. A leggy blonde with popping eyes and a voice that ranges from a baby squeal to a baritone growl, she has an oversized style that was best expressed in her two signature roles: as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! Channing attended Bennington College, where she studied dance and drama, then headed for New York, where she performed in clubs before making her Broadway debut in the chorus of the musical No for an Answer (Jan 5, 1941. She was an understudy in the musical Let's Face It! (Oct 29, 1941). Moving to Los Angeles, she worked as a model and also performed on the nightclub circuit. She landed a part in the revue Lend an Ear, which began on the West Coast, then moved to New York, opening on Broadway on December 16, 1948, for a run of 460 performances. In it, she spoofed a 1920s flapper, which led to her starring role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Dec 8, 1949), based on Anita Loos' novel, in which, as gold-digging Lorelei Lee, she became a Broadway star singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." The show ran 740 performances, and the cast album was a Top Ten hit in 1950. Channing appeared in her first film, with a small part in the drama Paid in Full in 1950. She worked in clubs and on television in the early 1950s. In 1954, she replaced Rosalind Russell in the Broadway musical Wonderful Town, then starred in the Broadway musical The Vamp (Nov 10, 1955), which had only a brief run. In 1956, she was in the film comedy The First Traveling Saleslady. She returned to Broadway in the musical Show Girl (Jan 12, 1961), a virtual one-woman show, which ran for three months and then toured successfully. The...