Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph
Before she grew up and became a famous actress, Saratoga schoolgirl and Los Gatos High School graduate Olivia de Havilland posed for this Saratoga Festival publicity shot.
The year was 1923 when San Jose tried to "kidnap" the Saratoga Blossom Festival. The Los Gatos Mail-News screamed it across the front page in two-inch type: PROTEST MADE IN LARCENY OF THE BLOSSOM FESTIVAL.
Los Gatos guarded the Saratoga Festival as its own.
"Spies" from the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, it was reported, "studied the workings and format of the annual Saratoga celebration and planned a similar event."
The Saratoga Festival was started in 1900 by a preacher with the cheerful name of "Everlasting Sunshine" Williams. It was this Rev. Edwin Sidney Williams, a Saratoga minister, who suggested the event in celebration of the end of a drought that threatened the fruit industry of California.
Special events at Saratoga's Wildwood Park attracted thousands of visitors who were treated like royalty. Every conceivable horse-drawn vehicle was mustered to cart the sightseeers through the foothills, the ideal location from which to view the blanket of blossoms stretched over the valley floor. In early festivals, governors orated, bands played and children danced throughout the town. Concerts and orations took place at a natural amphitheater located at the southwest corner of Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and Fruitvale Avenue, which today leads to the campus of West Valley College.
The Interurban Railroad Line was founded in 1903, thus connecting San Jose, Campbell, Los Gatos and Saratoga. Its big red cars were filled at festival time.
Spectators from San Francisco and Oakland arrived at Los Gatos depot by train on their way to view the blanket of white blossoms that stretched from the local foothills to the Mt. Hamilton Range east of San Jose.
Back to that dastardly San Jose "kidnap" plot:
When Saratoga announced its 1923 dates of March 24 and 25, San Jose proclaimed March 23 and 24 as the dates for its "San Jose Fete," a thinly disguised attempt to upstage its neighbor's traditional event, and, perhaps, replace it entirely.
Despite the San Jose sneak attack and a second World War, the Saratoga Blossom Festival continued for a number of years. Celebrations started with a pancake breakfast followed by all-day entertainment, barbecue, pony rides and arts and crafts people selling their wares.
Besides the 1923 support of the Mail-News and Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, Saratoga received the backing of The Agronomy League of Santa Clara County. This group mailed the Blossom Festival Committee the resolution it sent to the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, plus a $50 donation.
In those farming days, Mail-News publisher Andrew Falch and editors did not think it necessary to explain that "agronomy" means the science of soil in relation to crops.
Today's publicity photo for a festival circa 1928 is of Saratoga schoolgirl Olivia de Havilland, who later traveled by interurban car to Los Gatos High School, from which she graduated in 1934. Five years later, she appeared in a major role in the movie epic Gone With The Wind. Later, she won two Oscars for Best Actress. Today, she is busy at her Paris home writing a family history.
Last weekend, the annual Blossom Festival Golf Tournament was held at La Rinconada Country Club, a lone reminder of Saratoga's Blossom Festival.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 22, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved