A portion of the Blossom Festival program cover from 1926
'Crapshoot' is a rather indelicate term to be used in connection with such an exotic experience as blossom time in the Santa Clara Valley, but there is some relevance. As the Saratoga Blossom Festival grew from its homespun beginnings in 1900 to elaborate concerts and pageantry, those who were planning the event were faced with a serious problem: If dancers, musicians and singers had to be recruited several months in advance, how could there be any certainty that the assigned date would coincide with the peak of the blossoms, which, after all, was what the whole thing was all about?
The short answer was, they couldn't. The orchards' blooming season, even with crops maturing at different times, was a very few weeks at the most, and this was affected by such things as unseasonal hot spells, cold snaps or unusually heavy or light rainfall, with the result that choosing a propitious date was, well, a real crapshoot.
Overall, the box score was pretty good, with one or two notable exceptions, such as the 1915 deluge that kept Franklin D. Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the Navy, from making a speech here. The festivals themselves were triumphs of civic enterprise and cooperation.
During the time they were held, the last one being in 1941, practically every governor of the state appeared as a speaker. A famed Welsh tenor, R. Festyn Davies, who had trained choruses of servicemen at camps during World War I, was recruited to organize a local chorus for the 1919 Blossom Festival. Some kind of musical zenith was reached in 1926 when the program included selections by the Festival Chorus, consisting of units under several post-Davies directors, and a concert by the San Francisco Symphony, under noted director Alfred Hertz. Until 1928, the locale for these events was Festival Glen, a natural amphitheater on the site of the present Saratogan condominiums on Saratoga Avenue. In 1928, the location was moved to a site off Fruitvale Avenue, near the present Valle Vista Drive, where the audience sat on one hillside facing the platform, which was at the base of another hill. That year also marked the introduction of original ballets by Vivian Amet Johnston, and, later Dorice Andreuccetti.
There was a two-year hiatus during the Depression years of 1934 and 1935, and the programs were resumed in 1936 at Festival Glen. Adding a touch of class to the stage platform at both locations was the installation, along rear and side edges of stately white columns, surmounted by classical urns--actually made of sheet metal--giving the whole affair an air of Grecian or Roman magnificence. Two of these white columns stood at the entrance to the festival grounds, with a large sign in gold letters, "Saratoga Blossom Festival."
When Army Field Artillery units were encamped here for a time after the outbreak of World War II, one of the first things they did was to paint over the white-pillared entrance with camouflage colors. Too visible to enemy bombers.
There are many facets to the Blossom Festival story, such as the period from 1904 to 1933, when interurban cars of the Peninsular Railway brought hordes of visitors to the festivals and ran special Blossom Tours around the valley. There were related activities, such as the Sunrise Services held at the Three Oaks Way home of the Rev. Edwin Sidney "Everlasting Sunshine" Williams, who conceived the idea of a Blossom Festival in 1899. Williams died in 1918, and his grave can be seen at Madronia Cemetery.
Although World War II effectively ended the Blossom Festival in what had become its traditional format, the spirit lived on. After the war, Blossom Time Chip-in Day was observed as a community celebration. In 1951, a festival was revived under the old name with an elaborate parade. In recent years, the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce has kept the name alive with a celebration, sans blossoms, at Wildwood Park. None was held this year, however.
Perhaps the longest-standing observance using the traditional name was the Blossom Festival Golf Tournament, held at La Rinconada Country Club in Los Gatos. Even that has gone by the boards, however. The 49th and final one was held last year.
Sic transit gloria mundi, and sic transit blossoms.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 5, 1997.
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