Carol Burnett
American actress (1933 - )
- || At The Bottom
1954 -- Carol Burnett was an aspiring actress with big teeth, a gawky figure and seemingly no opportunities to break into the theatrical world of New York City. She had recently moved there with her boyfriend after their junior year at the University of California at Los Angeles. Though she'd performed in a number of musicals and comedies while at UCLA, Burnett had only been a theater major for a little over a year, and her resume was awfully thin for someone looking to make a career on stage. When she began approaching agents, they either turned her aside or assumed that she would only be able to find work in a chorus here and there. When she expressed an interest in leading roles, they rolled their eyes or stared back in disbelief. To get by from week to week, Burnett took a job as a hat check girl at a restaurant on 49th Street, where she earned enough to pay the rent at the boardinghouse where she lived. Recent family trauma had only added to the challenges Burnett faced that year. Her father, Joseph Burnett, had just died, having drank himself to death over the course of many years; her mother, also an alcoholic, would succumb three years later. Though Burnett's parents loved her and had never mistreated her, alcohol had always disrupted their lives, and they had never been able to provide a stable home life for her. Burnett had been raised for the most part by her grandmother, who did not approve of Burnett's move to New York and asked her to come home by Christmas if she had not become a star.
- || At The Top
1978 -- Carol Burnett smiled, thanked her audience and -- for the last time -- sang "I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together," the theme song from one of the most successful television programs of the past decade. After eleven seasons and dozens of Emmy Award nominations (including three actual awards), The Carol Burnett Show was ending its run on CBS. Burnett herself had become one of the most respected comedians of her generation. The show relied on a classic vaudeville format featuring short comic skits and musical numbers, combined with celebrity guest appearances and question-and-answer sessions with her audiences. The show allowed Burnett to display her own wide-ranging talents as a singer, actress and comic -- including her famous "Tarzan" yell -- but the show was also a showcase for Burnett's colleagues, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, each of whom became a star in their own right. After The Carol Burnett Show ended, it continued to run in syndication and Burnett continued to appear on stage and screen, earning a variety of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her work. In 2003, Burnett was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and in 2005 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with President George W. Bush praising her "goodness of heart, her sincerity, and the wonderful spirit that comes through" in her performances.
- || The Comeback
Burnett had been caught in a classic dilemma facing many aspiring performers: She could not expect to get work until she had more experience, but she would not gain any experience until she found more work. Instead of waiting around for opportunity to find her, Burnett created one for herself. With the other young women living at her boarding house, she organized variety shows that soon enough caught the attention of some television agents and producers, who booked her for several short stints on a children's television show and as Buddy Hackett's girlfriend on a short-lived comedy called Stanley. She also began performing at a nightclub called the Blue Angel, where she performed and sang for appreciative audiences.. Finally, in 1959 she caught her big break -- a starring role in a Broadway musical, Once Upon a Mattress, which earned her glowing reviews from the New York Times and the New Yorker. When the show closed after almost two years, Burnett moved on to "The Garry Moore Show" and a weekly nationwide audience. When her own weekly show went on the air in September 1967, few were surprised when it turned into an immediate hit.
