George Christopher left school at the age of fourteen when his father James became seriously ill, and he became sole support of his family.
14 Facts About George Christopher
2.
George Christopher sold newspapers and became a copy boy at the San Francisco Examiner.
3.
George Christopher ran for mayor in 1951 and lost by fewer than 3,000 votes to incumbent mayor Elmer Robinson.
4.
In November 1955, George Christopher again sought the post of mayor.
5.
George Christopher won in a landslide over Democrat George Reilly.
6.
George Christopher was instrumental in bringing the New York Giants baseball team to San Francisco in 1958 and in securing the funding to build Candlestick Park on the abandoned lands of Sunset Scavenger on Candlestick Point; the ballpark opened for the Giants 1960 season.
7.
George Christopher's administration has been credited with the building of the Brooks Hall, twelve new schools, seventeen firehouses, six public swimming pools, the five-story Fifth and Mission and the underground Civic Center garages.
8.
George Christopher was known for his strong stand on civil rights.
9.
George Christopher lobbied and succeeded in opening mental health and alcohol treatment centers under city funding.
10.
George Christopher later told the Federal Government they were no longer welcome in city buildings, but he sided with the committee and spoke for the propaganda newsreel-style film made by the committee about the event titled, Operation Abolition, that blamed Communists for the so-called City Hall riot of May 13,1960.
11.
In 1958, George Christopher was defeated in the Republican primary for US Senate by Governor Goodwin Knight.
12.
In 1962, when Richard Nixon ran for governor, Christopher ran for lieutenant governor, losing to incumbent Democrat Glenn M Anderson.
13.
George Christopher lost the June 8,1966, Republican primary for Governor of California to motion picture and television actor Ronald Reagan, who won with 77 percent of the vote.
14.
Historian Geoffrey Kabaservice points out that a Drew Pearson column that highlighted a 1940 arrest of George Christopher for buying and selling underpriced milk, a story fed to Pearson by the staff of incumbent governor Pat Brown, and George Christopher's underwhelming response to that column contributed to the loss.