Death Elsewhere

Carol Channing

NEW YORK (AP) — Tributes from stars like Kristin Chenoweth and Bette Midler poured in to honor the life and career of Carol Channing, the three-time Tony Award-winning musical comedy star who delighted American audiences over 5,000 performances as the scheming Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway and beyond. She died Tuesday at 97.

Publicist B. Harlan Boll said Channing died of natural causes at 12:31 a.m. Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California. Boll says she had twice suffered strokes in the last year.

Besides “Hello, Dolly!,” Channing starred in other Broadway shows, but none with equal magnetism. She often appeared on television and in nightclubs, for a time partnering with George Burns in Las Vegas and a national tour.

“Channing was one of the few who paved the path for so many women in theater and beyond,” Chenoweth wrote on Twitter. “I will forever admire and look up to you, Carol.” Midler called Channing “a complete original” and “a legend.” Playwright Paul Rudnick called Channing “the delirious soul of musical theater.”

Channing’s outsized personality seemed too much for the screen, and she made only a few movies, notably “The First Traveling Saleslady” with Ginger Rogers and “Thoroughly Modern Millie” with Julie Andrews.

Over the years, Channing continued as Dolly in national tours, the last in 1996, when she was in her 70s. Tom Shales of The Washington Post called her “the ninth wonder of the world.”