Best of Picture from the Past
Local druggist was inspired by the beauty of Josephine Baker
By John S. Baggerly
Los Gatos druggist W. John Whisenant sold gobs of sunburn creams, thanks to the beautiful African American dancer-singer Josephine Baker, who started the suntan craze among French women on the Riviera.
Having been in the R.O.T.C. at UC-Berkeley, Whisenant qualified for a military ocean trip to Paris in the early 1920s to celebrate the Allies' victory in 1918 over Germany in World War I. America's General John J. Pershing, head of our military forces during the war, headed the trip.
Thus, WJW saw Baker perform. Born on Jan. 3, 1906, in St. Louis, the tall, shapely Miss Baker was plucked from the chorus line of La Revue Negre to dance and sing solo and soon became a major dancer and singer in the Follies Bergere, where many Yanks saw her perform. Her most sensational performance was dancing in the nude except for a short skirt of bananas dangling around her waist. She later owned her own nightclub, and with all that exposure, French women decided they could simulate her skin tone by sunbathing on the Mediterranean.
Following French styles, American women and men took to the beaches. Consequently, druggists did a flourishing business in sunburn lotions.
Whisenant went from high school in Medford, Ore., to Berkeley, where he met Lura Fauts, whose father owned and operated one of Santa Clara County's last "country stores" at 47 E. Main Street in Los Gatos, the present location of the Move It Fitness Studio.
Country stores were so-called because they sold foodstuffs and farm items such as overalls and shovels. After graduating and marrying, Whisenant and Fauts took over her parents' store.
No stranger to work--he worked his way through Cal--Whisenant got up at 4 a.m. to prepare baked goods. He immediately installed a drug department, a cosmetics department and a soda fountain.
As a teen, Whisenant loved automobiles, and when the Cord was produced by the Auburn Auto Co. of Auburn, Ind., Whisenant bought the first one in Santa Clara County from James D. Shaw, a San Jose auto dealer and the father of Emerson Shaw, today a resident of The Meadows.
In today's photograph, the Whisenants are shown flanked on the left by a friend, Mr. Lawrence, and "Choppy," a member of the store's staff. The photograph was taken at Los Gatos High School on a knoll overlooking the baseball field, which today is the site of the swimming complex and gymnasium. When this photo was taken in the 1930s, the old school, left, served as a wood shop and auto shop and also housed a few classes.
In the 1920s and '30s, school athletic teams were transported in private autos. Volunteer drivers were given gasoline at a Shell station across Main Street at what is now the site of the Christian Science Church. Athletes felt lucky when assigned to ride in Whisenant's Cord.
Material on Josephine Baker courtesy of Los Gatos Library Reference Department.
John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Times archives.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
