The name Carol Channing is well-known to me, as my friend David is perhaps her biggest fan. So it was incredibly appropriate that I finally got my own chance to meet her in his presenCe. In fact, he snapped the picture of us! But for those of you who don’t know much about her résumé, I’ll tell you a bit. As an actress/singer/comedienne, she is the recipient of three Tony Awards (including a Special Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award, and as Best Actress in a Musical for her part in Hello, Dolly – for which she is perhaps best known). She even received an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actress in Thoroughly Modern Millie. And she has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for the cast album of Hello, Dolly. Good stuff, indeed.
I feel very privileged to have not only seen Carol Channing perform (at the age of 90, no less!), in the S.T.A.G.E. (Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event) production of Original Cast 2 on Saturday, April 2, 2011, at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles. As you may have guessed, she performed the song Hello, Dolly – which is exactly what I would have hoped that she performed. She and her husband Harry also implored the audience for donations and participated in an auctioning off a meal with the couple.
After the show, as we lingered around trying to meet up with some of the celebrities of the show, Carol Channing eventually made her way out. She signed an autograph for my friend Bob – before her entourage announced that she was going to be moving on to the after-party. Her handler told me to move away and meet them at the stairs in front of the building where the party was being held and she would pose for a picture with me. They made good on their promise and I got a photo with her, and David was able to sneak one in as well as we ‘tag-teamed’ with the camera.
It was a great way to cap off the evening – and the final celebrity posting from the Original Cast 2 production: meeting a Broadway legend such as Carol Channing.
UPDATE: Since I didn’t get an autograph of Carol Channing during our first encounter, I was pleased that she made an appearance later that same year on behalf of the same charity that the S.T.A.G.E. benefit was for at the Hollywood Show on October 8, 2011. She was selling autographs and photo ops. I didn’t need the photo op, but I did purchase a great photo of her for $30 from Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which she was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
She was just as nice during this encounter as she was during the first one. Hello again Carol!
This concludes the celebrities of the 2011 Original Cast production. Return to the original posting here…
Celebrities encounters of the Fall 2011 Hollywood Show will continue…
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