Charles Albert Cannon (September 11, 1911 – August 14, 2003), a singer, theater performer and co-founder of Starlight Opera in San Diego, California, was born in the coastal town of

San Quintín, Baja California San Quintín is a city in San Quintín Municipality, Baja California, located on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The city had a population of 4777 in 2011. San Quintín is an important agricultural center for Baja California. The city is also an emer ...

, near Ensenada.

Early years and education

Charlie Cannon was just 2½ when he performed for the first time in the lobby of his father's Baja California hotel. While attending San Diego High School, he sang in a boys' quartet and played saxophone in the student band. In the 1930s, he performed vaudeville-type shows in Grossmont High School's auditorium for an El Cajon theater group. He attended San Diego State College, where he met

Art Linkletter Arthur Gordon Linkletter (born Gordon Arthur Kelly or Arthur Gordon Kelly; sources differ; July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of ''House Party'', which ran on CBS radio a ...

, according to the ''

San Diego Union-Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

'', and together they wrote an

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

. Cannon served three-and-a-half years in the U.S. Army during

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and was stationed in the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Musical career

In 1945, Cannon, William Dean, Julius Leib and Robert J. Sullivan founded the San Diego Civic Light Opera Co., which ultimately became the Starlight Theatre in Balboa Park. It moved to its permanent location, in a 4,200-seat bowl, in 1948. During its first season in 1946, Cannon debuted on stage in

Gilbert & Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ''H.M.S. Pina ...

's "Mikado," presented in the San Diego Zoo's Wegeforth Bowl. Next, he starred in '' The Chocolate Soldier'', ''

H.M.S. Pinafore ''H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which ...

'', '' Naughty Marietta'', ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...

'', and '' Hansel and Gretel''. Cannon performed in musicals and served as choral director for 15 years of stage roles and more than 600 performances until 1961 when he became the company producer. '' The San Diego Union'' once wrote, "Charlie Cannon is Starlight Opera's 'big gun.' " In 1964, he began performing as a piano-bar entertainer at the Red Fox Room, a steak house in San Diego, until 1985. Upon his retirement, he moved with his wife Joy, also a singer and performer at the Starlight Theatre, to Clarkston, Washington. The Starlight Theatre, ranked one of the oldest continuously producing musical theater companies in the country, closed in 2011 after the theater filed for bankruptcy. The School for Creative Careers has asked the

City of San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

to enter into a new lease agreement once repairs are done on the theater.

Family

Charlie Cannon and his wife Joy (who died in 1999 at age 70), had two children, son Robert Cannon of San Diego and daughter Laura Doan of Manchester, England.

References

External links

''San Diego Union-Tribune'' obituary.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannon, Charlie 1911 births 2003 deaths Mexican emigrants to the United States American male musical theatre actors American musicians of Mexican descent Musicians from San Diego Male actors from San Diego Singers from California 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers Hispanic and Latino American musicians American male actors of Mexican descent San Diego High School alumni