Ed Asner gives Dutch Flat some celebrity sheen

He's warmed the cockles of moviegoers' hearts as Santa in 2003's "Elf" and co-starred in one of TV's greatest sitcoms, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Now, it turns out, Ed Asner has also discovered the tucked-away Gold Rush town of Dutch Flat. With a few minutes to kill before a regional news scrum last week just outside of Dutch Flat, where searchers were attempting to find evidence of a missing woman, I found a comfortable chair to sit in outside the Dutch Flat Hotel Bed and Breakfast and pulled out a book to read. A few moments later, owner Sussy Flanigan had invited me inside to sit in the 150-year-old parlor in front of a roaring fire. Talk turned to some of the more celebrated guests the hotel is reputed to have lodged. William Howard Taft stayed at the hotel, Flanigan said. He's best known as the nation's most portly president and once getting stuck in a bathtub.American's Sweetheart Mary Pickford also was a Dutch Flat Hotel guest around 1923, Flanigan said. If it's true, my guess is she dropped by when fellow United Artists owner Charlie Chaplin was filming silent film classic "The Gold Rush" around Truckee in 1924. Pickford would buy the old Union Saloon bar in Old Town Auburn for her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, and move it to Pickfair in Hollywood. But that was through some intermediaries and eight years later. Flanigan and her husband, Tom, re-opened the hotel 1½ years ago as a six-room bed and breakfast inn. Dutch Flat is located about two miles from Interstate 80 and it's kept its rustic charm through luck more than anything else.It's said to be the only Gold Rush era town that hasn't had a major catastrophic fire. Three hundred people live in its cozy environs. The whole place has been certified as a national historic landmark.Asner first arrived a year ago to spend Thanksgiving with an old friend - retired judge and Dutch Flat resident Bill Newsom. He made the return trip this past month, staying in the Dutch Flat Hotel's family suite. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, son of Bill Newsom, also dropped by the hotel, Flanigan said.Intense onscreen as Lou Grant in 1970s' "Mary Tyler Moore Show" and as the tough-as-nails editor in "Lou Grant," Asner, 76, is more laid back in real life, Flanigan said. More like his Santa Claus character in "Elf." He padded around the hotel in his sweats, graciously greeting fans who had heard about his visit. It was a thrill for one fan in particular, who described Asner as a "down-to-earth, funny guy." Back in the day, Flanigan was a regular "Mary Tyler Moore Show" viewer. "I never missed a Friday night," she said. MEDIA COMINGS AND GOINGSReporter Ryan Sabalow is bidding adieu to the Journal on an upbeat note. Sabalow, who's leaving for the Redding Record Searchlight to take on reporter's duties there, was beaming one recent morning after none other than the prestigious Washington Post had used swaths of his interview with the parents of Bear River High School grad John Lucente for a story on the soldier's burial at Arlington National Cemetery.While Sabalow wasn't mentioned by name for bringing out the conflicting emotions of parents whose 19-year-old son was killed in action in Iraq, the Auburn Journal was credited three times in the story "Determined Since Boyhood to Be a Marine," by the Post's Leef Smith ... Tune in Saturday on Fox40 News at 10 p.m. and the shivers and shakes from the forecaster may not be from any new cold front moving into the Sacramento area. The station has a new weekend forecaster. She's Louisa Hodge and comes to Sacto from Chico, where she worked at KNVN-KHSL. She also has experience as a television news photographer and editor in West Palm Beach, Fla. for WPTV ... In the milestones department, Placer County Water Agency general manager Dave Breninger and his wife, Linda have just marked the 20th anniversary of their Old Radio Theater. An assemblage of recorded broadcasts from the golden age of radio, Old Radio Theater has now been on the air for more than 800 shows. It's currently a staple on Nevada City's KVMR community radio station at 9 p.m. every second Sunday. The eclectic station, by the way, recently made some signal improvements to wrap Truckee into its coverage area.TURKEY DAY TV TREATAuburn-area teen Mikayla Mays is back from the Big Apple after getting a short-but-sweet debut on national TV. Mays was on vacation last summer in New York and, on more than a whim than anything else, tried out for the big opening number in Herald Square that started off the NBC Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade telecast. Traveling back to New York last month, the 13-year-old found herself in intense rehearsals with 460 other kids for the "We Give Thanks." And in against-the-odds, a-star-is-born fashion, Mays was one of the few children to be featured in a close-up shot on the national TV telecast. The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.