Carol Channing Mistaken For a Drag Queen!

By Michael Musto Mon., May 2 2011 at 3:15 PM

At the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, I caught Dori Berinstein's Carol Channing: Larger Than Life, a loving look at the saucer-eyed Broadway star's legend.

I already wrote about a Tony winner being evicted from the room.

But now let me tell you a couple of highlights from the movie itself.

One of the best stories told in it is the one where someone once approached Channing, certain she was a drag impersonator.

"Who are you?" they pressed.

"I'm a trucker from Toledo," the musical actress replied, dryly.

They're still pulling their jaw off the pavement.

Other tidbits from the film:

*When the movie version of Hello, Dolly! came out -- starring Barbra Streisand, not Channing, of course -- people said to her, "She's great, isn't she?"

"I'd say, 'Isn't she?' and I'd shut up!" reveals Channing, still pissed.

*Another less than thrilling incident: Carol's kiss with hunky Clint Eastwood in The First Traveling Saleslady was so awkward it was the very first thing cut from the film.

Alas, there's no mention of the psychedelic gangster flick Skidoo or the doomed grand-diva comedy Legends, but there is a clip of Carol doing a "Haitian corn grinding song," which might explain how those corn stories started!

After the film, the legend took the stage and said she liked the film (though she cutely added, "It's long, isn't it?").

She told some stories from her life, and though we'd already heard them verbatim in the movie, we were captivated.

What a dolly.

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@JoeWatchesTV

Maybe those tourists thought they saw Channing on Drag Race?

http://is.gd/Zl7lmm

mjm

did they include the story about Carol being banned from Cafe Society in the early '40s for her impersonation of Ethel Waters? and her replacement? some girl named Lena Horne...

Ryanglitter

More Carol Channing gossip from the doc's International premiere at Hot Docs last night:Director Berinstein did a Q&A in which she revealed that up until the day he walked on set to start shooting the Dolly movie, he thought his co-star was Carol Channing, and that was the source of his dislike of Barbra

franco

A kiss is still a kiss???

Carol's kiss with hunky Clint Eastwood in "The First Traveling Saleslady" was so awkward it was the very first thing cut from the film...

...and the 1956 film was commercially unsuccessful. Carol Channing was quoted as calling it the picture that killed RKO studios. The movie poster even misspelled the title. "THE FIRST TRAVELLING SALESLADY."

Other controversial and cringe worthy couplings:

Barbra and Omar in the 1968 romantic musical film "Funny Girl."

When a publicity photo of Omar Sharif and Barbra Streisand kissing was released to the newspapers and with the emotions of the 1967 Israeli-Egyptian Six Day War still running high, Streisand's mother made her feelings against Sharif known. "My daughter isn't going to work with any Egyptian!"

The Egyptian press began a campaign to get Sharif's citizenship revoked over the kiss. The Egyptian headline read: "Omar Kisses Barbra, Egypt Angry." When asked to respond to the controversy, Barbra Streisand tried to make light of it. "Egypt angry!" she said. "You should hear what my Aunt Sarah said!".

1971, Bud Cort as Harold Chasen, a 20-ish boy and Ruth Gordon as Dame Marjorie “Maude” Chardin, a 79-year-old free spirit in "Harold and Maude."

The interracial sex scene between Sam Elliot and Whoopi Goldberg from 1987's "Fatal Beauty" was considered too risque at the time and was left on the editing room floor. The film was marketed with the tag line "An earthquake is about to hit L.A. It's called Detective Rita Rizzoli."

Any others???

Southern Dave

Carol gives Good Show.

Always has, always will.I've laughed at the same stories she tells for 40 years because it's the WAY that she tells them! As if she's not quite sure why they're funny (a la Gracie Allen)..

The highlights of her nightclub act for me were her Marlene Dietrich ("Vat do you think of my dress? Iss too flimsy for a granmuzzer?") and her languid singing of "You're the Cream in My Coffee" leaning against a pillar while one leg swung lazily back and forth. And Cecilia Sissons, of course. And her signature songs...

As a person, she has great generosity of spirit, but that doesn't stop her from spontaneous, stinging wit when she feels like it. (Re Mary Martin, her co-star in "Legends": "Well, you get onstage and try acting with an alcoholic and see how you like it!")

Sass

The corn stories involve someone ALLEGEDLY overhearing Carol in a restroom stall saying "Corn? When did I eat corn?"

Musto

In the doc, Carol says that "the director" (i.e. Gene Kelly) pretty much threw out the concept of the show. Anyone know what she meant by that?

billyjoe

The "Dolly" movie folks also didnt hire Eileen Brennan or Charles Nelson Reilly.

Movielover

Carol shoulda played Dolly! At least Babs did a decent job of it. More of an outrage that Angie Landsbury didn't play Mame and Lucy was horrible in the movie. It would have been a classic with Angie. Though Carol would've been great in Dolly, nobody could have done On a Clear Day better than Babs did!