cChanning, Carol1923╨actor and singerBorn on January 31, 1923, in Seattle, Washington, Carol Channing grew up in San Francisco. She left Bennington College in early 1941, during her second year there, to seek a career in show business. Praise for a small part in Marc Blitzstein╒s short-running No For an Answer was an early boost, and in 1941╨1942 she was for several months an understudy in Cole Porter╒s Let╒s Face It. After a dramatic role in the unsuccessful Proof Through the Night in December 1942 she turned to nightclub work, evolving an act that included impressions and satirical bits. For a number of years she made little progress in her chosen profession and was forced to take other jobs for support. In 1948, however, Channing won a role in Lend an Ear, a satirical revue staged in Los Angeles by Gower Champion. In December the show moved to New York, where it lasted for a year and brought Channing considerable critical attention. In December 1949 she opened on Broadway in the leading role of Lorelei Lee in an adaptation of Anita Loos╒s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her characterization of the coy, gold-digging Lorelei, highlighted by the show-stopping song ╥Diamonds Are a Girl╒s Best Friend,╙ was a sensation; the show ran nearly two years on Broadway and another year on tour. Over the next several years she appeared in Leonard Bernstein╒s Wonderful Town in 1953, The Vamp, an unsuccessful 1955 musical comedy, and The First Traveling Saleslady, a 1956 motion picture of little distinction, and then returned to nightclub work for a time. In 1961╨1962 she starred in Show Girl, a musical revue, and in 1962╨1963 she teamed with George Burns for a while. In January 1964 Channing returned to Broadway in Hello, Dolly!, a Jerry Herman adaptation of The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder. Her realization of the role of the brassy, indomitable Dolly Gallagher Levi was her second unique and classic creation in American musical comedy, and it won her a Tony Award for best musical comedy actress. In 1967 she won a Golden Globe Award for her supporting role in the motion picture Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 1968 she was given a special Tony award. In 1971 she appeared in Four On a Garden, and in January╨November 1974 she revived one of her great characters in a revue titled Lorelei. She also revived her leading role in Hello, Dolly! in New York and London from 1977 to 1980, and again in 1985. A frequent guest star of many television shows, she also hosted her own TV specials. She starred briefly with Mary Martin in the comedy Legends in 1985-1986, and played the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland, 1986. ~styl ` , ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ ( !I , !I < !I £ !I ⌐ !I ╓ !I φ !I ╒ 5¬ ╓ !I !I
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