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Harry Kullijian, the junior high sweetheart of Carol Channing who re-met and married her 70 years later, has died. Kullijian collapsed on Monday and died of an aneurysm at Rancho Mirage Hospital.
His late-life romance with Channing is quite a story. It began when the actress mentioned Kullijian in her 2002 autobiography, Just Lucky, I Guess. She starts off innocently enough:
“The leader of the school band was Harry Kullijian. I was so in love with Harry I couldn’t stop hugging him.”
Sweet. She was 11 and Harry was 15, she says. Then Channing drops the clutch and shoves it on down into overshare:
“Remember, these were times way before the Pill. Now condoms are necessary, we hear, but the Pill, I’m sure we all agree, caused the sexual revolution… Naturally, it was the hardest thing in the world not to make love to Harry. Not that I knew anything about how to make love, or what it was leading to. I just wanted to be close to him and hug him from head to toe.”
Hello, dolly!
But it all stayed innocent. Kullijian went to Channing’s parents and told them “I will never get your Carol into any kind of trouble.” Her father told Channing, “I like that boy.” Then they drifted apart, as kids will. Channing hit Broadway and became famous. Kullijian fought in World War II and Korea, grew walnuts in Modesto, and was married for 60 years until his wife died in 2002.
Then a friend read Channing’s book and told Kullijian he ought to call her. “Call Carol?” Kullijian replied. “I thought she was dead.”
Not the most romantic line, but call her he did. The two hit it off all over again. Said Channing: “We went on talking from the last conversation when we were 15 years old.” They married in 2003.
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In her book, Channing explains their 15-11 age gap in junior high by saying she had skipped second grade, while Kullijian’s Armenian family “didn’t believe in starting children in school until later.”
Trouble is, Channing turns 91 in January and Kullijian would have turned 92 today. They’re really only 13 months apart, so he couldn’t have been four years older back then. Maybe Channing remembered it wrong. Or maybe she was telling a little fib about her age, as actors will.
No matter. Kullijian had a great line about being Mr. Carol Channing earlier this year:
“We go to these celebrity events and, of course, everyone knows and loves Carol and wants to talk to her. Then they point to me and ask, ‘Who’s he?’ So I’ve adopted a new name: Who’s He?”
By the way, if the words “Mr. Carol Channing” are ringing a bell in your brain: no, Harry Kullijian was not that Mr. Carol Channing. You’re thinking of Charles Lowe, her third husband, whom she divorced in 1998 after 42 years of marriage:
“The famous and seemingly inseparable Hollywood and Broadway couple of Channing and Lowe took on a tinge of infamy in May 1998 when Channing sued him for divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court. She accused him of squandering her fortune, abusing her mentally and physically, and having sex with her only once or twice in their long marriage.”
Not much hugging there.
It sounds like it all worked out for the best in the end, and you have to love the story. Channing and Kullijian spent Christmas together, and she was with him when he died. Here’s his obituary.
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See our biography of Carol Channing »