A city editor at The Seattle Star, he took a job at The San Francisco Chronicle; the family moved to California when Carol Channing was two years old.

"[15] She also considered the fact that she was able to see plays while very young to have been an important inspiration:I was lucky enough to grow up in San Francisco and it was the best theater town that Sol Hurok knew and he brought everybody from all over the world and we schoolchildren got to see them with just 50-cent tickets.

[17] When she was 17, Channing left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont, and her mother told her for the first time that her father had Black ancestry.

After playing a small part in the revue, The New Yorker noted her performance: "You'll be hearing more from a comedienne named Carol Channing.

Five years later, Channing had a featured role in Lend an Ear (1948), for which she received her Theatre World Award and launched her as a star performer.

[28] She said that his drawing of her as a flapper was what helped her get the lead in her next play, the Jule Styne and Anita Loos musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

From that role, as Lorelei Lee, she gained recognition, with her signature song from the production, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," among the most widely known.

[33] When Allen was forced to discontinue performing due to heart ailments, she saw that Burns needed a partner to play against on stage since he was best as a straight man.

The old-fashioned plot of Hello, Dolly, when first described, might seem uninspired, says columnist Dick Kleiner:But then you sit in the audience and Carol Channing comes out, turns on her huge eyes and monumental smile—and you sit there with a silly grin on your face for 2 1/2 hours, bathed in the benevolent spell of a great comedienne...It is hard to imagine her doing anything else but making people smile.

Besides Channing, six other stars played the title role during those seven years: Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey, Phyllis Diller and Ethel Merman.

[40] Channing reprised her role of Lorelei Lee when the musical Lorelei, directed by Robert Moore and choreographed by Ernest O. Flatt, premiered in 1973 at the Oklahoma City (6000 seat) Civic Center Music Hall and broke all box office records after six days' worth of performances sold out within 24 hours.

[41] To commemorate this record event, the street running in front of the Music Hall was renamed Channing Square Drive in her honor.

Lorelei had earned a hefty profit by the time it opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre on January 27, 1974, and ran for a total of 320 performances.

[43] Channing also appeared in a number of films, including The First Traveling Saleslady (1956), in which she gave future star Clint Eastwood his first onscreen kiss; the cult film Skidoo; and Thoroughly Modern Millie (starring Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, John Gavin, and Beatrice Lillie).

and her co-starring role in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Channing attracted the attention of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, who were interested in starring her in a sitcom.

[48][better source needed] During her film career, Channing also made some guest appearances on television sitcoms and talk shows, including What's My Line?

[53][54][55] In 1980, she guest starred on The Muppet Show where she participated in several skits, performed a medley of Jeepers Creepers, and sang her signature song, Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, as a duet with Miss Piggy.

", a love song being sung by Carol to a character known as Sammy the Snake (as voiced by Muppets creator Jim Henson).

[57] Songwriter Jule Styne, who wrote the score for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, invited her on his television special in 1987 where she performed another one of her signature songs, "Little Girl from Little Rock".

Just after the producer announces he wants a stage presence that is instantly recognizable to the entire country, Channing begins with her signature "Hello, Dolly!

[59] In January 2003, Channing recorded the audiobook of her best-selling autobiography Just Lucky, I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts, directed and produced by Steve Garrin at VideoActive Productions in New York City.

It was during the recording sessions that she received a phone call from her childhood sweetheart Harry Kullijian that rekindled their romance and led to their marriage a few months later.

He was a writer who in 1944 wrote Watch Out for Willie Carter,[18]: 52 [61] but during the nearly five years of their marriage, earned little income: "There was no money for food, clothing or housing.

She remembered his grandfather Sam Cohen introducing her to some of his neighborhood friends, who were amazed that she enjoyed hearing their funny stories.

She learned to speak fluent Yiddish from "Grandpa Cohen", a skill that helped her understand the boardwalk conversations that went on around her in town.

[18]: 51 Channing's second husband, Alexander F. Carson, known as Axe,[62] or "The Murderous Ax",[18]: 109  played center for the Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian football team and was also a private detective.

[64] In September 1956, "immediately following the entry of the divorce decree" from Carson,[63] Channing married her manager and publicist Charles Lowe.

As the judge stated, "The differences in environment and miles would result in a gross injustice in itself to the child, who at this very tender stage does not even know what his real father looks like.

[67] In 2003, while recording the audiobook of her autobiography Just Lucky, I Guess, at VideoActive Productions, NYC, produced and directed by Steve Garrin, Channing rekindled her romance with her junior high school sweetheart, Harry Kullijian, and they married on May 10, 2003.

When invited to restaurants, she brought several sealed containers with her own food, such as zucchini or chopped celery, and simply asked for an empty plate and glass.