Online Auction Features Items from Carol Channing’s Rancho Mirage Estate
Carol Channing's Tony and Golden Globe awards, stage-worn costumes and other items from the entertainer's Rancho Mirage estate were auctioned off today.
According to Abell Auction Co., Channing's 1964 Tony Award for her lead role in the musical "Hello, Dolly!" sold for $22,000, and her 1968 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" went for $16,000.
Other items auctioned include various photographs and artwork, and the tiara worn by Channing in the production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," which fetched $2,000.
An undisclosed portion of the profits from the online auction will go to Channing's favorite charities -- Broadway Cares and Equity Fights AIDS, along with Bennington College, where she briefly attended classes.
Channing died in 2019 of natural causes in Rancho Mirage at the age of 97.
She got her start in the 1949 Broadway play, which gave her a lifelong theme song, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.'' Channing was perhaps best known for starring in more than 5,000 performances of "Hello, Dolly!" -- both on Broadway and elsewhere -- as 1890s matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi. The show, based on Thorton Wilder's "The Matchmaker,'' opened in 1964.
