Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph

The late actor Vincent Price was just one of many famous people who came to town in the past.




Best Of Picture From The Past

Celebrities caused a stir when visiting Los Gatos

By John S. Baggerly

Oh, where have those downtown service stations gone--those stations whose owners were quick to phone the press when celebrities drove into their stations and asked for directions.

Still living here is 95-year-old Ed Malatesta, who left his station--where Domus stands today--to help actor Gregory Peck dislodge his auto stuck on "The Grade" above Los Gatos. Other local station operators included Dorsey Purviance, Art Rebello, Jack Powers, Louie Sporleder and Paul Crider. The latter was not related to J. Walter Crider of Crider's department store.

That dressy fellow in today's picture is a young Vincent Price, who came to town seeking antiques. Driving a state-of-the-art camper, he stopped at a Saratoga service station and was waited on by Los Gatos High School student Dave Replogle who, in turn, asked this reporter for directions to the Los Gatos antique shop of George and Mary Montgomery.

Price was engaged by Sears Roebuck & Co. as an art buying consultant. To make certain the actor found the Montgomerys', this reporter waited at the curb on W. Main Street and was rewarded by seeing Price's camper. Mary welcomed Price, and your nosy reporter got to observe for a while. Particularly amusing were three LGHS girls who pretended to be interested in merchandise while ogling the actor. LGHS was a closed campus then, so the girls risked hours of detention.

It was the late Lou Sporleder at his Shell Station on the southwest corner of Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and N. Santa Cruz Avenue who called the press when actor Charles Laughton and chauffeur asked directions to Leanora Ghetti's El Campo Bello on Roberts Road. Having stayed the previous night in Monterey, they got recommendations about Ghetti's cooking. Laughton graciously submitted to an interview while eating, and local reporter Beth Grover Rondone did the interview.

During that period, Laughton was reciting the story of "Ruggles of Red Gap" nationwide. Ruggles was a fictitious butler brought from England to Red Gap, Wash., who broke his status as butler and raised himself into business. The recitation was a bouquet to the American Way and was well-received wherever Laughton recited Ruggles' words.

When television became a household item, the public became familiar with the faces of the Smothers Brothers and Alfred Hitchcock. Both were recognizable as they drove through town: the brothers to their vineyards and Hitchcock to his Santa Cruz Mountains home. Hitchcock's face also was familiar because he had himself shown at the start of his movies and performed cameos in his own films.

Henry Duffy also brought a steady flow of movie faces to Los Gatos. Duffy owned and operated the Alcazar and President Theaters on Montgomery Street in San Francisco, and it was his practice to bring stars to his Kennedy Road home for the weekend. Duffy had an agreement with Hollywood to employ lesser stars for his chain of theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland and Seattle.

Betty McClendon, Los Gatos' senior dance teacher, recalls that her sister Bryce was Duffy's secretary at the Alcazar and that Duffy's wife, Dayle Winter, sang in one of his shows: "My sweet little Alice Blue gown when I first wore it down into town, I was both proud and shy as I felt every eye..."

When Winter sang at the Los Gatos Christian Science Church, her husband joked softly, "She'll never sing here again. She didn't get a hand on her entrance."

Photo: Los Gatos Film Festival

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