I was on a board at the Denver Center. It's Chairman was Donald Seawell. He was close friends with Bankhead and at the beginning of every meeting he would tell us a story about her. His conference room was full of pictures of her and memorabilia. It was always amazing to hear these inside stories and to walk around the room and look at all of the memorabilia. I would sometimes get there early to look as he would change things out and there was something new to see.
Saw this magical woman in a theatre-in-the-round in the 70’s as a child. Of course she sang “Hello Dolly” in the big finale. I was sitting in the front row, and she grabbed my hand and sang to me for a few moments, her sparkly dress and bright lights flashing. Being a very reserved and shy child, it was shocking to say the least. I never recovered, but I never forgot. She was beautiful.
I ran into Carol Channing once in Namies beauty supply in North Hollywood. I heard that voice in the next aisle over and I peaked around the aisle and it was her and she was radiant and she had the shiniest why does hair I’ve ever seen she was just beautiful and a lot taller than I thought she would be.
@@JeffmChicago You are very welcome. It is easy to get them confused especially since Lucy and Desi still played the Ricardos. I read the entire reason they did was the show was because they did not want to do the standard 39 episodes per year for I Love Lucy but they wanted to continue in some way. They only did a total of 13 episodes over the course of three years. BTW, Bette Davis was originally targeted for that episode but had an accident that prevented it. I think Tallulah was a better choice because, as excellent as Bette was in dramatic roles, Tallulah was , IMO, a better comedienne. In a small way it was just because Tallulah's greatest success on stage was The Little Foxes and Bette got the movie role ! BTW , I Love Lucy was one of three tv series that ended it's run as the number one show in the ratings and ceased production voluntarily ; the other two were The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld.
We come in all shades. But as people used to say in the old days, it only takes one drop. She had a fabulous career, but it wouldn't have been possible if the public had known that back then...
