Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Carol Burnett

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip

Carol Burnett

In my big gay church, there are many, many wings. One such wing houses The Women Of Television. These ladies came into our living rooms each week to add a bit of glamor, perhaps some humor, to our dull, gray lives. Oh, they may have also graced the silver screen or trod the boards, but their greatest gift to the world has been the glimpse of magic they shared with us week after week. 

One such queen?

Carol Burnett.

Multi-talented with a gift for laughter. 

She kept us in stitches for years and it felt as though the magic would never go away.

During the reign of her variety show, with the help of her gifted, in sync ensemble, whether she was spoofing a Hollywood classic, singing a song or doing a sketch featuring one of her iconic characters, she kept America glued to the tube.

Maybe it was the Bob Mackie gowns? Who can say?

And then, with a final tug of an ear lobe... it was over.

She moved on... to do film and stage work. 

And though her life has seen it's share of heartache, she shouldered it and carried on. She even took on the tabloids and won. 

Yes, our lady of laughter could never be kept down for long. 

And her legacy will live forever... just ask her ten year-old fans.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here's three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic? Becoming Carol

"I come from Texas, and my grandmother and mother were born in Arkansas."

"Originally, I came from Texas, and we lived on - I guess you'd call it welfare, what we called relief."

"My childhood was rough, we were poor and my parents were alcoholics, but nobody was mean. I knew I was loved. We were on welfare, but I never felt abandoned or unloved."

"My grandmother and I followed my mother here, to a house a block north of Hollywood Boulevard but a million miles away from Hollywood, if you know what I mean. We would hang out behind the ropes and look at the movie stars arriving at the premieres."

"On the good days, my mother would haul out the ukulele and we'd sit around the kitchen table - it was a cardboard table with a linoleum top - and sing."

"My mother was very funny. My dad had a great sense of humor. My grandmother, too."

"My grandmother and I saw an average of eight movies a week, double features, second run."

"I was very entertained by Betty Grable and Judy Garland."

"I was raised going to the movies with my grandmother as a kid. And then I'd come home, and my best friend and I would act out the films that we saw."

"My grandmother and I would go see movies, and we'd come back to the apartment - we had a one-room apartment in Hollywood - and I would kind of lock myself in this little dressing room area with a cracked mirror on the door and act out what I had just seen."

"I've always been optimistic. And I have a feeling that it happened because of going to all those movies with my grandmother in the '40s because there was no cynicism."

"I had always been quiet and studious in school. I was the high school editor of the newspaper."

"Well, I don't know how astute I am, but I did want to be a journalist when I was growing up."

"I was kind of shy as a kid. I was a pretty good student. I was a wallflower, or nerd, if you will."

"I didn't really get comfortable until I got to UCLA, and I had to take an acting course because I was studying theater arts."

"When I was in college at UCLA, I took a playwriting course. I was all set to be a writer. But I had to take this acting class as a theater arts major. I had to do this scene in a one-act comedy. I just said this line, and then... this laugh happened. I thought, 'Whoa. This is a really good feeling. What have I been missing?'"

"I had a good loud voice and I wasn't afraid to be goofy or zany."

"I was in California, and I was going to UCLA, and I knew I certainly didn't have movie star looks. I remember seeing pictures and photos of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, who were kind of average looking. I said, 'Well, that's for me, then, to go back to New York and try to be in musical comedy on Broadway.'"

"When I went to New York to try and make it, I never thought it wouldn't happen."

"In '57, I got a job at the Blue Angel nightclub, and a gentleman named Ken Welch wrote all my material for me. I lived at a place called the Rehearsal Club that was actually the basis for a play called Stage Door."

"I struggled for a while, but when I was cast in an Off Broadway show called Once Upon a Mattress, that kind of put me on the map."

Shy - Carol Burnette

from the musical Once Upon A Mattress

(1964)

I'm Still Here - Carol Burnett

from the musical Follies

(1985)

The Ladies Who Lunch - Carol Burnett

from the musical Company
(1999)

And one last parting shot...

"My favorite is doing the television show, as a variety show, every week. If the show wasn't that great one week, we could always come back and apologize, you know?"

"I'm glad I was born when I was. My time was the golden age of variety. If I were starting out again now, maybe things would happen for me, but it certainly would not be on a variety show with 28 musicians, 12 dancers, two major guest stars, 50 costumes a week by Bob Mackie. The networks just wouldn't spend the money today."

"When I was starting out in this business, that was the norm. You did it all. You looked around, and entertainers could dance, sing, play the piano, act, make you laugh."

"It's not a bad thing to be able to do many things onstage. If you're an entertainer, you should be able to entertain. I'm proud to say that I'm not a one-trick pony."

"Because of YouTube, I'm getting fan mail from 10-year-olds and teenagers and college kids."