Background
Charlie Cannon was just 2½ when he performed for the first time in the lobby of his father"s Baja California hotel.
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Charlie Cannon
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended San Diego State College, where he met Art Linkletter, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, and together they wrote an operetta.
Career
While attending San Diego High School, he sang in a boys" quartet and played saxophone in the student band. Cannon served 3½ years in the United States. Army during Second World War, and was stationed in the South Pacific. In 1945, Cannon, William Dean, Julius Leib and Robert J. Sullivan founded the San Diego Civic Light Opera Company, which ultimately became the Starlight Theatre in Balboa Park.
lieutenant 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"s "Mikado," presented in the San Diego Zoo"s Wegeforth Bowl. Next, he starred in The Chocolate Soldier, His Majesty’s Ship Pinafore, Naughty Marietta, The Barber of Seville, and Hansel and Gretel.
Cannon performed in musicals and served as choral director for 15 years, then as the company producer, beginning in 1961. In 1964, he began performing as a piano-bar entertainer at the Red Fox Room, a steak house in San Diego, until 1985.
The Starlight Theatre, which remains open, is ranked one of the oldest continuously producing musical theater companies in the country.
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Born
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Died
August 14, 2003 (aged 91) -
Nationality
United States