Carol Channing Centennial: A Thoroughly Wacky Nomination

by Cláudio Alves

Carol Channing was a force of nature. The actress electrified the Broadway stages, originating such famous roles as Lorelei in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and the titular character in Hello, Dolly!, but the husky-voiced sensation with a mega-wat smile went on to find success in front of cameras too. Whether acting or just being herself, there's effervescent energy to Channing's screen presence, a frenetic joy that made her both a camp icon and an entertainment powerhouse whose fame persists to this day, long after her heyday and even her death. Throughout her legendary career, Channing won four Tony Awards, a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame, a Golden Globe, and even an Oscar nomination. Since we're all a bit Oscar-obsessed around here, the star's centennial celebration feels like a good time to reminisce about that achievement, its inherent weirdness, and wacky charm…

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Showbiz History: Regina King, Happy Days, and Meryl's sixth Globe win

6 random things that happened on this day, January 15th, in showbiz history

1948 This date is iffy (the internet can't seem to agree) but some say John Huston's classic The Treasure of Sierra Madre had its premiere in Los Angeles. At any rate, factually, it came out in sometime in January. A year later it will be up for four Oscars including Best Picture and win Best Supporting Actor for Walter Huston, the director's father. Later Huston will direct his daughter Anjelica to an Oscar win for Prizzi's Honor making him the only person in Oscar history to direct two family members to Oscars. The Hustons were the first three-generation Oscar winning family. The Coppolas followed later...

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Carol Channing (1921-2019)

by Nathaniel R

RASPBERRIES!

Carol Channing shouted that inexplicable fruit slang out with such gleeful fervor in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), that this fruit couldn't stop quoting it as a child. It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Ms Channing has died just two weeks shy of her 98th birthday. Still, Carol wouldn't approve of a heavy heart. She lived a long full life and if she saw anyone frowning, she'd undoubtedly shake out that round white wig in a joy frenzy while shouting something insane to change the mood of the room...

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CAROL

Happy 97th* birthday to the one and only Carol Channing! I wish I were as rich as Jeff Bezos so I could commission Todd Haynes to make her a biopic by her 100th: Carol (2021)

* Carol Channing is the third oldest living Academy Award nominee for acting behind only the 101 year olds Olivia de Havilland and Kirk Douglas.

The Furniture: Thoroughly Modern Millie

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber...

Thoroughly Modern Millie opened 50 years ago this week, in the spring between San Francisco’s Human Be-In and the Summer of Love. None of 1967’s Best Picture nominees, immortalized as the birth of the New Hollywood in Mark Harris’s Pictures at a Revolution, had yet opened, but there was already something in the air.

Director George Roy Hill capitalized on this countercultural moment with an extravagant show of concentrated nostalgia. Thoroughly Modern Millie leaps back to the Roaring 20s, America’s last moment of liberated sexuality and conspicuous consumption before the Great Depression. Its flamboyant, frenetic ode to the flappers and their world was a big hit, making more than $34 million and landing 10th at the yearly box office. The film was nominated for seven Oscars including Art Direction-Set Decoration.

Yet its portrayal is not without contradictions...

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