Discography
Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen Songs (1957)
Best Beat Forward (1958)
The Persian Room Presents Diahann Carroll (1959)
Porgy and Bess (1959) (with the André Previn Trio)
Diahann Carroll and the André Previn Trio (1960)
Fun Life (1961)
Modern Jazz Quartet – The Comedy (1962)
Showstopper! (1962)
The Fabulous Diahann Carroll (1963)
A You're Adorable: Love Songs for Children (1967)
Nobody Sees Me Cry (1967)
Diahann Carroll (1974)
A Tribute to Ethel Waters (1978)
The Time of My Life (1997)
Her 1968 debut in Julia, the first series on American television to star a black woman in a non stereotypical role, was a milestone both in her career and the medium. In the 1980s she played the role of a mixed-race diva in the primetime soap opera Dynasty.
Carroll was the recipient of numerous stage and screen nominations and awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress In A Television Series in 1968. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for the 1974 film Claudine. She was also a breast cancer survivor and activist.
Carroll was born in the Bronx, New York, to John Johnson, of Aiken, South Carolina, and Mabel (Faulk), of Bladenboro, North Carolina. When Carroll was an infant, the family moved to Harlem, where she grew up. She attended Music and Art High School, and was a classmate of Billy Dee Williams. In many interviews about her childhood, Diahann Carroll recalls her parents' support, enrolling her in dance, singing, and modeling classes. By the time Carroll was 15, she was modeling for Ebony. After graduating from high school, she attended New York University, majoring in sociology.
Carroll's big break came at 18, when she appeared as a contestant on the Dumont Television Network program, Chance of a Lifetime, hosted by Dennis James. On the show, which aired January 8, 1954, she took the $1,000 top prize for a rendition of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein song, "Why Was I Born?" She went on to win the following four weeks. Engagements at Manhattan's Café Society and Latin Quarter nightclubs soon followed.
Carroll's film debut was a supporting role in Carmen Jones (1954) as a friend to the sultry lead character played by Dorothy Dandridge. That same year, she starred in the Broadway musical, House of Flowers. In 1959, she played Clara in the film version of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, but her character's singing parts were dubbed by opera singer Loulie Jean Norman. She made a guest appearance in the series Peter Gunn, in the 1960 episode "Sing a Song of Murder". She starred with Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward in the 1961 film Paris Blues. In 1962, Carroll won the Tony Award for best actress (a first for a black woman) for the role of Barbara Woodruff in the Samuel A. Taylor and Richard Rodgers musical No Strings. In 1974, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Claudine. The role of Claudine had been written specifically for actress Diana Sands, (who had made guest appearances on Julia as Carroll's cousin Sara) but shortly before filming was to begin, Sands found out that she was terminally ill with cancer. Sands attempted to carry on with the role, but as filming began, she became too ill to continue, and recommended her friend Carroll take over the role. Sands would not live to see Claudine. She died in September 1973; Claudine, starring Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones, was released in April 1974.
Carroll is well known for her title role in the 1968 television series Julia, which made her the first African-American actress to star in her own television series where she did not play a domestic worker. That role won her the Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress In A Television Series" in 1968, and a nomination for an Emmy Award in 1969. Some of her earlier work also included appearances on shows hosted by Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, Judy Garland, and Ed Sullivan, and on The Hollywood Palace variety show. In 1984, Carroll joined the nighttime soap opera Dynasty as the mixed-race jet set diva Dominique Deveraux, half-sister of Blake Carrington. Her high-profile role on Dynasty also reunited her with schoolmate Billy Dee Williams, who briefly played her onscreen husband Brady Lloyd. Carroll remained on the show until 1987, simultaneously making several appearances on its short-lived spin-off, The Colbys. She received her third Emmy nomination in 1989 for the recurring role of Marion Gilbert in A Different World.
In 1991, Carroll played the role of Eleanor Potter, the wife of Jimmy Potter, portrayed by Chuck Patterson, in The Five Heartbeats, a musical drama film in which Jimmy manages a vocal group. In this role, Carroll was a doting, concerned, and protective wife alongside actor and musician Robert Townsend, Michael Wright, and others. In a 1995 reunion with Billy Dee Williams in Lonesome Dove: The Series, she played Mrs. Greyson, the wife of Williams' character. In 1996, Carroll starred as the self-loving and deluded silent movie star Norma Desmond in the Canadian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of the classic film Sunset Boulevard. In 2001, Carroll made her animation début in The Legend of Tarzan, in which she voiced Queen La, an evil sorceress and ruler of the ancient city of Opar.
In 2006, she appeared in the television medical drama Grey's Anatomy as Jane Burke, the demanding mother of Dr. Preston Burke. In December 2008, Carroll was cast in USA Network's series White Collar as June, the savvy widow who rents out her guest room to Neal Caffrey.[4] In 2010, Carroll was featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docudrama entitled, 1 a Minute, and she appeared as Nana in two Lifetime movies: At Risk and The Front, movie adaptations of two Patricia Cornwell novels.
Carroll was present on stage for the 2013 Emmy Awards, to briefly speak about being the first African American nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She was quoted as saying, "talented Kerry Washington better win!" Washington erroneously stated that Carroll was the first black performer ever to be nominated for an Emmy. Actually, at least three black performers were nominated before Carroll, who was first nominated in 1963. These performers include: Ethel Waters for a guest appearance on Route 66, in 1962; Harry Belafonte, nominated in 1956 and 1961 and winning in 1960; and Sammy Davis Jr., who was nominated in 1956 with Belafonte.
Carroll was married four times, first to record producer Monte Kay in 1956. Her father boycotted the wedding ceremony, presided by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. The marriage ended in 1962. The union produced a daughter, Suzanne Kay Bamford (born September 9, 1960), who became a freelance media journalist. In 1959, Carroll began a nine-year affair with married actor Sidney Poitier. She claimed that Poitier persuaded her to divorce her husband and he would leave his wife to be with her. When Carroll got her divorce, Poitier didn't keep up his end of the bargain, yet the relationship continued until 1968. Carroll dated and was engaged to British television host and producer David Frost from 1970 until 1973. In 1973, Carroll surprised the press by marrying Las Vegas boutique owner Fred Glusman. Several weeks later, she filed for divorce, charging Glusman with physical abuse. In 1975, Carroll married Robert DeLeon, a managing editor of Jet. She was widowed two years later when DeLeon was killed in a car crash. Carroll's fourth marriage was to singer Vic Damone in 1987. The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, had a legal separation in 1991, reconciliation, and divorce in 1996.
Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. She said the diagnosis "stunned" her because there was no family history of breast cancer and she had always had a healthy lifestyle. She underwent nine weeks of radiation therapy, and was clear since. She frequently spoke on the need for early detection and prevention of the disease.
Carroll died of cancer on October 4, 2019 in Los Angeles.
Carroll was a founding member of the Celebrity Action Council, a volunteer group of celebrity women who served the women's outreach of the Los Angeles Mission, working with women in rehabilitation from problems with drugs, alcohol or prostitution. She helped to form the group along with other female television personalities including Mary Frann, Donna Mills, Linda Gray and Joan Van Ark.
Hit The Road To Dreamland
Diahann Carroll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Time to hit the road to dreamland
You're mine baby
Dig you in the land of nod
Hold tight baby
We'll be swinging up in dreamland
All night baby
Where the little cherubs trot
You been a-blowing his top in the blue
Never saw the likes of you
Bye bye baby
Time to hit the road to dreamland
Don't cry baby
It was divine but the rooster has finally crowed
Time to hit the road
Look at that knocked out moon
He been a-blowing his top in the blue
Never saw the likes of you
Bye bye baby
Time to hit the road to dreamland
Don't cry baby
Well it was divine but the cuckoo has finally crowed
Time to hit the road
Time to hit the road
Time to hit the road
The lyrics to Diahann Carroll's song "Hit The Road To Dreamland" appear to be about bidding farewell to a loved one as they drift off into a peaceful slumber. As the title suggests, the song invites the listener to join the singer on a journey to the land of dreams, a place where their troubles will temporarily disappear. The repeated refrain of "bye bye baby" and "time to hit the road to dreamland" emphasises the idea of leaving behind the troubles of the real world and enjoying a peaceful rest.
The lyrics evoke images of whimsical dreamscapes, where the moon is "knocked out" and "blowing his top in the blue." The singer describes the land of nod as a place where "little cherubs trot," suggesting a playful and carefree atmosphere. The repeated use of "baby" throughout the song adds to the dreamy, soothing tone, as if the singer is tenderly lulling the listener to sleep.
Despite the emphasis on dreamland, the song acknowledges that eventually, the realities of the waking world will come calling. The "rooster" and "cuckoo" references suggest that morning has arrived, and it's time to "hit the road" and face the day ahead. However, the song leaves the listener with the comforting thought that they can always return to dreamland when they need a respite from the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Bye bye baby
It's time to say goodbye to the person being addressed as 'baby'
Time to hit the road to dreamland
It's time to go to sleep and enter the world of dreams
You're mine baby
The person being addressed is in a relationship with the singer
Dig you in the land of nod
The singer wants the person being addressed to fall into a deep sleep
Hold tight baby
The singer wants the person being addressed to stay with them in the dreamland
We'll be swinging up in dreamland
The singer wants to have a fun time with the person being addressed in the dream world
All night baby
The singer plans to stay in the dreamland all night with the person being addressed
Where the little cherubs trot
Referring to the cute, angelic figures in the dreamland
Well look at that knocked out moon
Referring to the full moon in the night sky
You been a-blowing his top in the blue
Implying that the person being addressed has been amazing and has left a lasting impression
Never saw the likes of you
The singer has never encountered someone as wonderful as the person being addressed
Don't cry baby
The singer is consoling the person being addressed, who may be sad to leave the dreamland
It was divine but the rooster has finally crowed
The night is over and it's time to wake up as suggested by the crowing of the rooster
Well it was divine but the cuckoo has finally crowed
An alternate version of the line, still referring to the end of the dreamland adventure
Time to hit the road
It's time to get up and start the day
Time to hit the road
Repeating the line to emphasize the need to start the day
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: HAROLD ARLEN, JOHNNY MERCER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind