Carol Channing and Mario Lanza 100 -- January 31, 2021

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Actress Carol Channing and tenor Mario Lanza were both born 100 years ago today, on 31-January-1921. 

Carol Channing was born in Seattle. Her family came to San Francisco when she was a baby and she grew up here.  She was always the center of attention.  Herb Caen wrote about her frequently. 

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My mother likes Mario Lanza. He ate too much, drank too much, appeared in only a handful of movies and died at 38, but he sure had a beautiful voice. I remember seeing The Great Caruso on Dialing for Dollars or another afternoon show and being impressed. My grandfather had often spoken of his admiration for Enrico Caruso. 

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Carol Channing, RIP -- January 16, 2019

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I was sad to learn that Carol Channing had died.  She was born in Seattle but came to San Francisco as a baby and grew up here.  She was always the center of attention.  Herb Caen wrote about her frequently.

Sterling Hayden 100 -- March 26, 2016

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Actor Sterling Hayden was born 100 years ago today, on 26-March-1916.  He preferred sailing to acting, but he was in some good movies, like Johnny Guitar, Asphalt Jungle, Doctor Strangelove and The Godfather.  He enlisted in the Marine Corps during World War Two, went to officer candidate school, then got assigned to the OSS, where he worked with Yugoslav partisans and got a commendation from Marshal Josip Broz Tito. I remember how San Francisco columnist Herb Caen would write about Sterling Hayden when he lived in Sausalito. For a time he lived in one of the pilot houses of the ferryboat Berkeley, which was moored in Sausalito.

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Ferryboat Berkeley moored in Sausalito in the 1960s.  It housed a warren of shops known as the Trade Fair.  It is now preserved at the San Diego Maritime Museum.