Herbert Eugene Caen (April 3, 1916 – February 1, 1997) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalist whose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings, local anecdotes, and insider gossip -- often poking fun, but rarely if ever hostile or ill-willed -- appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle for almost sixty years, except during a relatively short stint at the San Francisco Examiner. His name was a household word throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for decades; his funeral was one of the best-attended in San Francisco history, and republications of his old columns remain a prominent Chronicle feature many years after his death.
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Born in Sacramento, Caen came to prominence with his It's News to Me column, which first appeared July 5, 1938 in the San Francisco Chronicle. Except for 1950 to 1958 (when he wrote for the San Francisco Examiner) he remained with the Chronicle his entire life. Caen called his work "three-dot journalism" in reference to the ellipses which separated his column's short items. (His son Christopher's publishing company is Ellipsis Media.) He had a considerable influence on pop culture, particularly its language. He coined the term beatnik in a 1958 column[1] and popularized hippie during San Francisco's 1967 Summer of Love.[2] He was interviewed in Jack O'Connell's 1968 film Revolution.[3] He also playfully popularized many other (if more obscure) concepts and terms, such as Frisbeetarianism.
His popular "Namephreaks" feature presented people whose names were related to their occupations or hobbies (such as a Nancy Canceller who operated a post office cancellation machine). Caen credited many namephreak entries to a mysterious "Strange DeJim," who frequently submitted jokes as well. Often suspected to be simply a Caen alter-ego, DeJim was revealed after Caen's death to be a Castro District writer.[4]
Caen's reputation for reliabilty was high enough that when, in 1985, he reported (incorrectly) the unlikely-sounding proposition that "Gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson had become night manager of the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre—a local "adult theater"— a number of readers went to the club hoping to meet Thompson. (Though Thompson was indeed living in San Francisco and a friend of the Mitchells, he never worked for them in any capacity.)
When Caen received a special Pulitzer Prize in 1996 ("for his extraordinary and continuing contribution as a voice and conscience of his city")[5] he referred to it in his column as his "Pullet Surprise." Despite a terminal lung-cancer diagnosis in 1996, Caen continued to write almost until his death.
He often referred to San Francisco as Baghdad by the Bay, a term he coined to reflect the city's exotic multiculturalism. A collection of his essays, Baghdad-by-the-Bay, was published in 1949 and in 1953 he published the book Don't Call It Frisco after a 1918 Examiner news item of the same name.[6]
For many years, San Francisco had a double-decker freeway along much of its waterfront on the east side of the city, called the Embarcadero Freeway because it was built over the street named the Embarcadero. Many residents, Caen among them, considered it an eyesore as it blocked views of the bay. The freeway was never completed to its original design, although the portion that was completed was heavily used because it provided access to Broadway and Fisherman's Wharf. Caen frequently lambasted it in his column, dubbing it The Dambarcadero. In 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake severely damaged the freeway, and the decision was made to demolish it rather than repair it. Remaining in place, but now open to the sky, is the Embarcadero, a small portion of which is named "Herb Caen Way...," with the three dots included in honor of his writing style. The wide promenade serves as the most eastern street in San Francisco, wrapping the city from the northeast corner, proceeding along the waterfront, and terminating near the new stadium for his beloved San Francisco Giants.[7]
Caen willed to the city of San Francisco a fireworks display which was given at Aquatic Park in front of Ghirardelli Square following his death. The fireworks display concluded with a pyrotechnic image of a typewriter on the bay. This tribute was attended by many of his friends and fans, who gathered on Herb Caen Way ... on the Embarcadero, lit candles protected from the wind by dixie cups, and walked north along the waterfront to Aquatic Park.
Caen has been recognized as a formative influence by a younger generation of Bay Area writers as diverse as Alex Steffen and Susie Bright. He can be seen in Jack O'Connell's San Francisco documentary The Hippie Revolution (1996), a reworking of O'Connell's earlier Revolution (1968).