Thornton Wilder, having seen Carol Channing in Hello Dolly!, the 1964 Broadway musical adapted from his play The Matchmaker, proposed rewriting his peculiar 1942 success The Skin of Our Teeth. His idea was that Channing could play the maid, Sabina (who is also a vamp), while doubling as the everywoman housewife Mrs Antrobus. It was her voice he wanted, the way it could flip from husk to squeak to a honk so basso that it became a plot point in the 1967 film Thoroughly Modern Millie, in which Channing starred opposite Julie Andrews.
Channing had her own number in Millie: Jazz Baby, a 1919 hit that opens “My daddy was a ragtime trombone player”, which perfectly showcased her genius for the comedy slide – a gift of her vocal range – and even more her delivery. Listen to her stretch and rasp the “a” and the “zz” in “jazz”, a vocalisation so wild that the film’s scriptwriters gave her the word “raspberry” as a dialogue keynote – she drawls it across many frames.
You wonder what 1940s Broadway made of Channing, who wasn’t going to turn out a steam-powered belter in the manner of Ethel Merman, real-homespun like Mary Martin or cool-funny like Eve Arden, whom she understudied. (All three later took stints as post-Channing Dollies.) Her lollipop head and muscular arms were unusual for the period, as was her voice for Broadway, with its often black-edged styling – one of Channing’s grandmothers was African American, although the influence was more perhaps her favourite performers, especially Ethel Waters’s mix of sexuality with energetic absurdity.
She was a character-player trying for lead roles. In her first Broadway success, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), she used the comedy of her growled vowels to keep her jazz age gold-digger (well, diamond-collector) Lorelei Lee on the sweet side of sleaze. If sugar daddies happened by, it wasn’t the fault of just a little girl from Little Rock. Playing Dolly, she barely descended into boom, even in When the Parade Passes By, written for Merman-level foghorn delivery. Channing, instead, worked a sadness in her husky middle voice.
Want a real treat? Listen to Channing as Mehitabel the Shinbone Alley cat, muse to Eddie Bracken’s Archy the poetic cockroach, on a 1954 musical concept LP take on the writings of the humourist Don Marquis, titled Archy and Mehitabel. Her mog enters to muted trumpet with a honky-tonk intonation; she trumpets herself with a nasal jazz delivery when Archy thwarts her intention that her kittens should drown. But also: “I’m a lady still” she purrs, then miaows “Toujours gai.” What a one-off.
