LAist Interview: Carol Channing
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.
The Fireworks Finale: Pink Martini at the Cocoanut Grove will perform at the Hollywood Bowl
Friday, September 14 at 8:30 PM
Saturday, September 15 at 8:30 PM
Sunday, September 16 at 7:30 PM
HOLLYWOOD BOWL ORCHESTRA
THOMAS WILKINS, conductor
PINK MARTINI, special guests
CAROL CHANNING, special guest
HENRI SALVADOR, special guest
MARCHFOURTH MARCHING BAND, special guest
Tickets ($7 - $111) are on sale now at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office. 323.850.2000.
Hollywood Bowl