Some big stars have walked the streets of our fair town. Here are some worth bragging about.
James Durbin Ever seen a James Durbin cupcake? We have. The bandana-wearin’, high-note-nailin’, burnin’-piano-jumpin’, Tourette’s-sufferin’ sensation who was robbed (robbed!) of the American Idol title last season hails from our town, and Santa Cruz fell all over itself making hay of that fact, throwing a ginormous party in his honor following his defeat on Idol complete with, yes, cupcakes in his likeness. Our mayor even proclaimed it the Year of James Durbin, to show everyone how craaaazy about James Durbin we all are. Necessary details: He got his start at Kids on Broadway, a local theater troupe, studied with Doobie Brothers alum Dale Ockerman and worked at the Domino’s in Capitola—proof that great people start out just like the rest of us.
Jonathan Franzen The National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections wrote half of his last book, Freedom, in an office in Cowell College. Thrilling, yes—but he seems to be there when the students aren’t. He and his longtime partner, Kathryn Chetkovich (also an excellent writer) used to spend half the year at her cabin in Boulder Creek and half of it in New York. Now they’re ensconced on the Westside for a few months of the year (mostly summer and part of the winter), affording Fabulous Franzen the opportunity to indulge his newfound love of birding.
Angela Davis In the ’60s and ’70s she was associated with the Black Panthers, the Communist Party and the civil rights movement, and in 1970 was tried and acquitted for involvement in the kidnapping and killing of a judge. She’s definitely the most famous female black intellectual communist the world has ever seen, and she retired from UCSC in 2008 after 17 years in the History of Consciousness Department, so you’ll never get to take a class from her. And her classes were so popular. Sorry!
Alfred Hitchcock From 1940 to 1974, the famed director owned a second home on 200 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains north of Scotts Valley, where he and his wife Alma entertained such A-list celebs as Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier. Did living in Santa Cruz influence the great master’s work? Well, in 1961, following a freak incident in which seabirds poisoned by an algae outbreak dive-bombed the city of Capitola, Hitchcock reportedly requested back issues of the Sentinel in order to study up on the event. The Birds came out two years later. We’re just sayin’.
ZaSu Pitts The silent film actress (who, unlike many actors of the silent era, actually had a career in the talkies too) was born in Kansas, but at the age of 9 she moved with her family to Santa Cruz, to a house on Lincoln Street right between the Nickelodeon and Jack’s (an ideal address, if you ask me). Maybe the strangest thing about her is her name, a combination of her aunt’s names (Eliza and Susan) pronounced, improbably, “Say-zoo.” Huh?
