A plug for Carol Channing and Aptos Middle School
Today's Chronicle Sunday Datebook (aka the Pink Section) has a cover story on the legendary musical theater star Carol Channing, for which writer Steven Winn accompanied the 87-year-old Channing and her husband, Harry Kullijian, on a tour of their old haunts, highlighted by a visit to Aptos Middle School. Channing and Kullijian were teen sweetharts there in the '30s (when it was Aptos Junior High School).
I was an Aptos parent through two kids, 2002-2008. We love Aptos, and Aptos fans love the story of Channing and Kullijian, so the Pink Section feature gives me a chance to retell it.
(By the way, Aptos is part of the San Francisco Unified School District, not part of the other Aptos, the beach town south of Santa Cruz. It's located off Ocean Avenue, not far from Stonestown, in the quiet neighborhood of Balboa Terrace.)
So Channing and Kullijian went their separate ways after junior high (she went to Lowell and he went to Lincoln, which is presumably not why they split up). She became a star; he became a businessman; they married others a few times. Then, in her early 80s Channing wrote a biography, "Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts." It mentioned her junior-high romance with Kullijian, and one person who happened to be acquainted with both of them read the book and decided to re-introduce them.
They were married in 2003. The Chronicle did a story on their marriage that mentioned their junior-high romance, and the Aptos PTSA decided to send them Aptos Tigers sweatshirts for a wedding present (via Channing's agent). Channing had her agent call the school and offer to do a benefit at Aptos. So our school had this incredible performance in September 2003. We got decent publicity, but surprisingly, it didn't sell out. I'm convinced it was because it just didn't compute to people that Carol Channing would actually perform at an unglamorous local public school -- that they assumed they were reading wrong and it was a show about her. But it was the real Channing, right there in Mr. Addiego's auditorium.
She was amazing -- dancing and belting with incredible energy at 83, winning the audience over (needless to say, the middle-school kids had had to be told who she was) with her anecdotes, the real thing. My trumpeter son's first performance with the Aptos Jazz Band was on the stage with Carol Channing.
It's sweet that Channing and Kullijian dropped by to pay tribute to Aptos again this month. Also sweet: They have started a philanthropy to support the arts in California public schools, the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts. Some people just really deserve to be called stars.
I was an Aptos parent through two kids, 2002-2008. We love Aptos, and Aptos fans love the story of Channing and Kullijian, so the Pink Section feature gives me a chance to retell it.
(By the way, Aptos is part of the San Francisco Unified School District, not part of the other Aptos, the beach town south of Santa Cruz. It's located off Ocean Avenue, not far from Stonestown, in the quiet neighborhood of Balboa Terrace.)
So Channing and Kullijian went their separate ways after junior high (she went to Lowell and he went to Lincoln, which is presumably not why they split up). She became a star; he became a businessman; they married others a few times. Then, in her early 80s Channing wrote a biography, "Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts." It mentioned her junior-high romance with Kullijian, and one person who happened to be acquainted with both of them read the book and decided to re-introduce them.
They were married in 2003. The Chronicle did a story on their marriage that mentioned their junior-high romance, and the Aptos PTSA decided to send them Aptos Tigers sweatshirts for a wedding present (via Channing's agent). Channing had her agent call the school and offer to do a benefit at Aptos. So our school had this incredible performance in September 2003. We got decent publicity, but surprisingly, it didn't sell out. I'm convinced it was because it just didn't compute to people that Carol Channing would actually perform at an unglamorous local public school -- that they assumed they were reading wrong and it was a show about her. But it was the real Channing, right there in Mr. Addiego's auditorium.
She was amazing -- dancing and belting with incredible energy at 83, winning the audience over (needless to say, the middle-school kids had had to be told who she was) with her anecdotes, the real thing. My trumpeter son's first performance with the Aptos Jazz Band was on the stage with Carol Channing.
It's sweet that Channing and Kullijian dropped by to pay tribute to Aptos again this month. Also sweet: They have started a philanthropy to support the arts in California public schools, the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts. Some people just really deserve to be called stars.
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