Carmel Magazine

36 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 4 Photo: Kelli Uldall / Photographed at The Hat Shop, Carmel e's one of those people for whom one name is all he needs. Like Bono. Sting. Flea. Mention the name Mac to just about any socially aware Monterey Peninsulan and along with a smile comes instant recognition: Mac McDonald, one of the best-known — and beloved — men i n Monterey County. From the Monterey Jazz Festival to a Carmel art gallery opening; from Sand City's West End Celebration to the Big Sur Fashion Show; from Pebble Beach Food and Wine to the Santa Cruz Blues Festival, if it's a cultural happening, McDonald is there, soaking up — and in many cases making — the scene. For the past two-plus decades, McDonald was employed at the Monterey Herald, working his way through the newsroom to become editor of GO!, the paper's long-lived weekly entertainment supplement. He got his start in the news biz in Cambria, moving on to Oroville and eventually landing at the Carmel Pine Cone before jumping ship to the Herald. "I've done everything in a newsroom: covered city council and school board meetings, written police reports, obits and features, even wrote a pet col- umn told from the animal's perspective," McDonald says. "But my true love has always been covering entertainment." That's part of what spurred his move to Carmel. "There was no entertainment in Oroville," he laughs, "so I couldn't write about it." McDonald cites one evening in 1986 as a career highlight. "[then-Pine Cone publisher] Bill Brown and I were the only ones in the office when Clint Eastwood walked in and announced that he had decided to run for mayor." Since the issue coincided with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the world media was in town, the story instantly went viral. More than for his coverage of the local entertain- ment scene though, McDonald is known by one and all as a big-hearted guy. He and his trademark fedoras are a welcome sight wherever they appear, a sign that the event is truly a happening. No matter where he hangs his hat, he will always be Mac About Town. — Michael Chatfield H icon Mac McDonald Entertainment Expert, Newshound, and Man About Town 036 Icon Mac McDonald_Carmel Mag 4/25/14 4:22 PM Page 1

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