Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Program from Los Gatos Weekly-Times files

The old pageant cover from 1946 was designed by Disney cartoonist and Los Gatan Marcellite Wall. Dean Jennings wrote the script.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Yearly pageants offered summer entertainment

What does a Los Gatos pageant have to do with Las Vegas gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel?

Stay tuned.

But first a brief look at pageants, which were our town's favorite entertainment from the 1920s until World War II.

As early as the previous century, the Ford Opera House at 140 W. Main St. housed the Chautauqua players and their variety shows, as well as lectures by explorers and historians and instrumental and vocal music.

Wilbur Hall, Los Gatos author, was responsible for establishing the pageant grounds by converting an abandoned winery site into an outdoor stage behind Town Hall--now Civic Center.

The first presentation was "The Pageant of Fulfillment" on June 21, 1919. The theme was the development of the trees that bear blossoms and fruit for the enrichment of life.

Hall wrote three more pageants: "The Californians" (1920), "Keang/Foo the Exile" (1921) and "El Gato de Los Gatos" (1922). Town preparation for early pageants was a yearlong undertaking and late-summer dates became standard after June evenings proved to be chilly.

"The Mesa Trail" (1923) was a tale of Hopi Indian life written and directed by Grace Hyde Trine, who lived at the time with her husband at Montalvo in Saratoga.

The 1924 pageant escapes this writer. Then came "La Favorita de Los Gatos" (1925), a sequel to "El Gato de Los Gatos."

"La Senora" (1926) was another pageant written by Hall and marks the first and only use of a water curtain--an unwelcome breeze dampened the orchestra and patrons in front rows.

Ignacio Ortega wrote "La Mirmauera" (1927). Local contractor J.C. Monk built the sets, while a waterfall at the rear was supplied by a fire hydrant above the stage on Clelland Avenue. This use of water soaked no one.

"Tashida" (1928) utilized a Buddha statue the size of a barn door. "The Magic Lamp" (1929) and "Gypsy Knight" (1930) were written by Ruth Comfort Mitchell, author and wife of a state senator living here at the time.

According to newspaper files, pageants were on hiatus from 1931 to 1937, when town jubilees and variety shows took place at the pageant grounds. Admission was a 50-cent "gold" button, available at local stores.

"Trail Days" was written in 1940 by local pulp author Owen Atkinson, who built his story around a true incident--disgruntled teamsters tearing down a tollgate and throwing it over the town bridge. Bandit Rolph Conwell dashed across the stage on his palomino horse and snatched the tollgate receipts from gatekeeper Prentiss Brown, then principal of Los Gatos High School. All ended well.

Dean Jennings, a former San Francisco newsman who later lived in Marin County, made "Trail Days" the best-publicized pageant. Jennings' writings on Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel resulted in a movie. Siegel was shot in the Hollywood home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, because of his mismanagement in building the Starlight Hotel. Gangland backers were touchy about losing money.

"The Los Gatos Centennial Pageant" (1987), an overview of Los Gatos history, was written and directed by Kathryn Kapp Morgan; its venue was the LGHS front lawn. Mickey Benson was producer, and narrators were Mary Foster and Paul F. Dolan.

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