Born: April 26, 1933
NEW YORK (AP) – Carol Burnett, a girl suddenly hit by TV’s lightning fame, keeps murmuring to herself, “It can’t be me, it can’t be me.”
Miss Burnett (24 years, 5 feet 6 ¾, 120 pounds) has been in a whirlwind of appointments, phone calls, swarming agents and personal appearance bids since she stepped before the mike a few nights back and sang a song entitled “I Made A Fool of myself Over John Foster Dulles” … on the NBC–TV Jack Paar show … Daily Palo Alto Times, California, August 15, 1957
With the help of John Foster Dulles, Buddy Hackett, the Stumptown Players and a mysterious and anonymous benefactor who gave her $1,000 to move to New York and pursue her dream, Burnett made it to the top. Who doesn’t love Burnett? Here’s how she got started …
Carol Burnett and Lofti Mansouri, accompanied by Bob Fremont, will sing musical-comedy selections at the Hollywood Community Sing’s Tuesday night program at Plummer Park. The Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1952
Burnett and Mansouri were students at UCLA in 1952. Burnett would later describe how she came to major in theater at the school …
“I wanted to be a journalist,” she said, “But they didn’t have an undergraduate school of journalism. So I took some theater courses as the closest thing to journalism and the bug hit.” The Daily Argus, White Plains, New York, November 26, 1956
As for Mansouri, he did quite well as well. He went on to be the general manager of the Canadian Opera Company and the San Francisco Opera.
Burnett performed in several UCLA productions and also landed a summer job with the Stumptown Players theater company. In the production of Tenants of the House …
Carol Burnett gives a subtle, neurotic undertone to the role of the daughter who marries to get away from her mother, suggesting that the author might profitably have given further attention to this character and to her place in the “family romance.” Petaluma Argus-Courier, Petaluma, California, August 4, 1953
Her first big break came during a party her senior year at UCLA, as she later described …
“I did a scene from “Annie Get Your Gun” with the fellow who later became my husband, Don Saroyan. Well, this fellow asked Don and me what we wanted to do. We said break into show business in New York. The next day he sent each of us $1,000.
“He gave it to us on three conditions – he was to remain anonymous, we were to consider it a loan to be paid back in three years and we had to promise to help someone ourselves later on.” Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, California, January 2, 1957
The anonymous benefactor remains a mystery all these years later. Burnett and Saroyan married in 1955 and were divorced in 1962. Saroyan’s acting/directing career was much less successful than the career of Burnett.
Burnett’s next break came when …
Buddy Hackett is getting a girlfriend on “Stanley” – she’s singer Carol Burnett who appeared briefly on “Omnibus” a couple of shows back mimicking Ethel Merman. Contra Costa Gazette, Martinez, California, October 19, 1956
Stanley was a live sitcom produced by Max Liebman in which Hackett ran a newsstand in a swanky Manhattan hotel and got into all sorts of hijinks with an assortment of colorful New York characters. Liebman was a successful Broadway and TV producer-director. Stanley was cancelled after one season. Burnett explained how she landed the role …
This past summer, Carol again clowned and sang on the borscht circuit where Max Liebman, producer of “Stanley” saw her. “I remember I was just sitting down to dinner on a Tuesday in October. I got a call asking me to read for Liebman and “Stanley.” I hate reading, but Buddy Hackett put me right at ease. I got the job on Oct. 22.”
Since that time, Carol and Don, a TV director, have been saving their money. “Both of us want to pay back the $1,000 loans. And the way things have been going for me, there’s a good chance, I hope, that we’ll have it all for him well ahead of schedule.” Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, California, January 2, 1957
“Buddy’s fun to work with,” [Burnett] volunteered. “You never know what’s going to come out of his mouth. He’ll make up words and stray from the script.” The Daily Argus, White Plains, New York, November 26, 1956
After Stanley was cancelled, Burnett created a night club act that highlighted her amazing comedic, singing and mimicking abilities, and she also appeared as a guest on several TV variety and talk shows.
She has taken lady weather forecasters and reduced them to shreds, including the Tennessee Williams fan who doesn’t know why the sun has to sink and why everything must end this way. She has assassinated the musical comedy stars who sing high, low and overdrive, and the girl who has sung with a band so long that all she can do is smile, even when she’s singing “The man Who Got Away.” She has wrecked the movie star who turns up in Vegas (with four of the hardest-working chorus boys ever seen) who concludes her act with a simpering bow and the statement: “In all humility, if I don’t win the Academy Award this year – it’s fixed.”
And on top of it all she can sing, act, and sell. If a truck doesn’t scrag her crossing streets, she will adorn a lot of theater marquees and magazine covers as time wears on. Citizen-News, Hollywood, California, June 24, 1957
Why the heck would this reporter/columnist (Robert Ruark) jinx Burnett by suggesting she could be scragged by a truck while crossing the street? That’s just bad form. But he was right, Burnett was on her way.
Burnett leaped back into the news with her parody song about falling in love with John Foster Dulles, who, at the time, was Secretary of State. He’s the one they named the airport outside of Washington, D.C. after. Here’s a clip of Burnett singing the Dulles song on The Gary Moore Show.
Her vocal outburst and comic accompaniment on the NBC–TV Jack Paar show evoked some squawks from sensitive viewers. The state department, however, reflected official amusement. The secretary himself asked for a recording, and Miss Burnett found herself clutching wildly to maintain business and personal aplomb. Actually, Carol did the attention-grabbing song with some hesitancy.
“I guess I’m really a coward,” explains the girl who hails from San Antonio via Los Angeles. Although the item has been a show-stopper since going into her act at the Blue Angel night club [in Manhattan] a month ago, Carol felt it might be misunderstood on television. “I wouldn’t ever want to offend anyone,” admits the comedienne, who admits voting Democratic.” Palo Alto Daily Times, August 15, 1957
Over the next few years, Burnett starred on Broadway and television and cemented her legacy with The Carol Burnett Show (1967 – 1978).
If you found this story interesting, you might like to read my From Unknown to Famous stories about Bruce Springsteen, Ernest Hemingway, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marilyn Monroe, Amelia Earhart, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Elvis, Little Stevie Wonder and Alex Trebek and many more. Please subscribe to this blog and get alerts every time I post a new one (lots more are coming).
From Unknown To Famous 