Marian Zailian

1927 - 2023

Marian Zailian
August 20, 2023
Marian Zailian was a journalist's journalist. Born in 1927, she was a woman who thrived in what was largely a hard-drinking, hard-partying male world. An entertainment reporter, Marian reveled in reviewing Broadway shows and interviewing top celebrities. She loved nothing more than caviar and champagne.
Marian was born to an Armenian-American family. Her father, Aram, left Turkey just as the Turkish persecution of Armenians was intensifying. Her mother Arax was born in New York City. Aram and Arax married in Fresno, but soon moved to San Francisco where Aram, a leather worker, set up shop. But during the Depression, the family moved back to Fresno to make a go of farming. The farm was not young Marian's idea of the good life. She knew from an early age that she wanted to "get the hell out of Fresno."
Her career as an entertainment reporter began when, as a student at Fresno State University, Marian got the chance to interview Frank Sinatra. A year later, Marian made her move back to San Francisco, transferring first to San Francisco State and then to the University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated with a B.A. in Journalism. Marian quickly found her place in the local community newspapers, including the San Rafael Daily Independent.
According to Marian, one day around 1955 she got a call asking her to come for an interview at the San Francisco Chronicle. "I thought it was a practical joke," she would recount, "but the caller said, 'Miss, I'm serious.'" Marian joined a crew at the Chronicle that included Herb Caen, Stanton Delaplane, Art Hoppe, Karola Saekel, and her close friend John Stanley.
Marian started in the Women's World section. By the early 1960s, she had moved to the Sunday Datebook, better known as the "pink section" because it was printed on a special shade of pink newsprint. She would spend the next thirty years as the section co-editor. Writing each week, she published almost a thousand interviews of celebrities from the movies, theater, dance, cabaret, opera and symphony. Her interviewees included Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Tilson Thomas, Bob Fosse, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Angela Lansbury, Burt Reynolds, John Cleese, and Penn and Teller - among many, many others.
Perhaps Marian's favorite interview was with the notoriously shy illustrator Edward Gorey. As Marian told the story, they initially sat in stony silence, with Gorey only providing yes or no answers. Then Marian asked him about his cats. Gorey, a cat lover, lit up, and for the next hour they talked warmly about farm cats, Marian's cats, and Gorey's cats. Marian always found a way to get her interview.
For Marian, the world of entertainment was more than a job–it was her life. She attended plays and concerts, was a regular at Symphony and Opera openings, and joined fellow journalists at bars and restaurants throughout town.
She found her perfect partner in 1972, when she married fellow Chronicle reporter Mitchell ("Mike") Thomas. During the decade they had together, Marian and Mike had a ball. With three other Chronicle couples, they bought a cabin–literally a 600 square foot surveyor's shack–at Stinson beach, where they threw famous parties. Mike died prematurely in 1980. Marian never got over Mike and never married again.
Marian was a world traveler in an era when single women didn't go to exotic places unaccompanied. She went on safari in Kenya and traveled to Tahiti and Egypt. In Soviet Armenia she gave away almost all of her clothes and purses to young Armenian women. In Paris she met famed Armenian-American writer William Saroyan. In Germany she purchased her beloved red Porsche 356.
In 1993, Marian retired from the Chronicle. After that, she spent time volunteering for the Symphony and Opera, seeing friends, caring for a succession of extremely opinionated cats, and spending an increasing amount of time with her family, including her beloved sister Nectar Kaiser.
Marian is survived by her sister Nectar, nephews Brian Zailian and David Kaiser, niece Karri Kaiser, and grand-niece Zoe Kaiser. Marian was predeceased by her elder brother Aram Zailian. Marian leaves behind hundreds of taped interviews-now digitized for posterity-an amazing record of a truly one-of-a-kind life.
Funeral services will be held for Marian at St. John's Armenian Apostolic Church on Sunday, September 17 at 3pm. All are welcome.