special guest artist, Carol Channing...

The Pink Martini concert last night was excellent.  They are always such a pleasure to listen to.  They started out with an interesting and incredibly exciting Ravel's Bolero.   

But they have a disturbing habit of having guest artists in their program.  And they always choose someone really old.  Why is that? 

We went to a Zoo Concert a year ago and they had some really old lady (who I believe was local) onstage, but it was only for one number.

Last night, they were supposed to have Kitty Carlisle Hart, but she was in the hospital.  Lord, she's 97...what could she possibly have done onstage?

Instead, they had Carol Channing.  I remember her from various 60's and 70's variety shows on TV...which my parents liked to watch.  Last night, she did some singing and a little dancing and shimmy-ing (which disturbed Adam and Bonnie as being just so wrong...lol).  And it lasted way too long.  Unfortunately, her voice is not what it was and her duet with China Forbes really reminded us of that fact.

I had to look Carol Channing up on Wikipedia and found these interesting facts:

She is turning 86 in January.

When she left for college, her mother told her that her father was half-African-American and passing for white. 

She fell in love in junior high, but lost touch with the boy.  She finally was reunited with him and married him when she was was 82.  He is her 4th husband. 

Comments

[Arlene]

Oh my, I can only imagine what Carol Channing's voice sounds like now. I was never all that fond of it when she was younger, so the warbling was probably more than anyone should be asked to endure. I do like Pink Martini, though.

[leah]

how funny that you got to see carol channing! :-)

i hope your year is full of many more fun surprises, loads of creativity, love and laughter!!

[Tonya @ Kingfisher Cove]

Wow, Kitty Carlisle Hart is 97? I guess she would be. I only remember her on "What's My Line", back in the '60s and I thought of her as old THEN. What's up with all the old folks -- and why would they even WANT to perform? Why wouldn't they want to just gracefully retire? Maybe it's some need to hang on to that fame thing. (Or maybe they blew all their money back when).

[Elizabeth]

wait-- carol channing never had a nice voice at all-- always gravelly, I can't imagine what it sounds like now-- yikes!

Happy New Year Violet!!!!

[Margaret]

I remember Carol channing! It's hard to believe that she is that old; I think of that group of singers/dancers as being 60ish. Pink Martini is a very catchy band; they do a song in French that I can't play because it gets stuck in my head all day long!