Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph

Author John Steinbeck was born in the left front bedroom of this Salinas house, now known as the Steinbeck House. He would later live in the Los Gatos area, as well.

Picture from the Past

Local pretenders found free drinks with 'fame'

By John S. Baggerly

Today our subject is John Steinbeck again--plus an impostor at the old Hotel Lyndon who said he was John Steinbeck. But first this writer must apologize to Geoff Frey, whose first name was misspelled as Jeoff during our Picture From The Past on Sept. 6.

Grandmother Lea Frey of Los Gatos, who submitted a photograph of son Randy in his first Little League uniform, verified the name of her grandson is, indeed, Geoff.

This reporter learned the importance of double-checking names while writing obituaries for the long gone Oakland Post-Enquirer when he failed to check the City Directory and thereby "buried" an alive man with exactly the same name as one who was deceased.

Last week's column on Steinbeck was written, supplemented with information provided by Audry Lynch, now of Saratoga and author of Steinbeck Remembered. This reporter made a mistake in the Sept. 13 column when he had Lea Frey lending her Blossom Hill School classroom for use by the Los Gatos Little League Board. This "lending" took place at the old University Avenue School.

Not long after World War II, a friend phoned to say that John Steinbeck and his wife were supposedly residing at Hotel Lyndon, and that perhaps I would like to interview him, having interviewed Steinbeck before World War II at his mountain home.

The hotel clerk directed me to "Steinbeck's" table. Having just finished four years in the U.S .Army, I first thought I had forgotten Steinbeck's face. But as soon as we got to talking, it became apparent the man was a fake.

"Steinbeck" didn't seem to know that he had two homes in this area. When asked were he was headed next, he replied, "We are going to San Francisco to see what makes that town tick." That did not sound Steinbeckian, either.

I excused myself and en route to the front door shook my head to the clerk. The pretender did not skip out on his room rent, but this writer later heard that he netted a few free drinks from fellow drinkers by pretending to be Steinbeck.

Prior to WW II, an officer from Cooperstown, N.Y.,--heart of American baseball--wrote the former Los Gatos Times to ask if Hal Chase's son still lived in Los Gatos. A pretender was apparently "working" Southern states for free drinks by saying he was Chase's son. The young Hal Chase told this newspaper that it was not him and that he still lived on University Avenue and worked in San Jose.

Now, here's a story about John Steinbeck that is true.

A movie had been made in the Bay Area of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and he and actor Charlie Chaplin, John Ford and the movie's director were enjoying the Lyndon Hotel bar when music began playing on the street outside. A San Francisco organ grinder was playing along N. Santa Cruz Avenue in front of the hotel. Playing little towns was a practice of grinders when San Francisco's summer tourism died out.

Also in the Steinbeck group listening to the Grinder were his father-in-law, Will Henning, father of Carol, Steinbeck's first wife, along with Norm Gray, a frequent golfing partner of Henning.

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