The Los Gatos Opera House is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and a centennial celebration will be held on Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. For the occasion, Opera House staff and town volunteers will be dressing it up like the days of old, complete with period costumes, music, food and drink.

"We're going back to the period, to the 1904 era," says Marie Tallman, vice president of marketing at the Opera House. "The costumes will be of that era, and we're serving food and drink that was new to the public, first introduced at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis." These menu items include iced tea, hamburgers, hot dogs and ice cream. Since alcohol didn't arrive in Los Gatos until 1906, say event organizers, a cash bar will be available "for those who desire a taste of the Wild West."

Old-style music will be played by the San Jose Wind Symphony, and for the first hour of the event, when attendees will mingle and enjoy the food and drink, a slide show of historic photographs will be presented, courtesy of Peggy Conaway and staff and volunteers from "Hooked on Los Gatos: The Los Gatos History Project," a collaboration between the Los Gatos Public Library and the Museums of Los Gatos. Conaway spearheaded the History Project, which began around June of 2003, and is also the author of the brand-new book Images of America: Los Gatos, just released on Sept. 27. The book is a collection of historic photographs that come together to tell the history of the town from 1860­1960. Conaway's book will be on sale at the event, and she will be signing copies.

Another highlight of the evening will be a presentation by renowned author and historian J.S. Holliday, who Councilwoman Sandy Decker calls a "true Mark Twain."

"If you ever wished you could have met Mark Twain, here's your chance," said Decker.

Holliday's presentation is called "Few Women, Fewer Rules: California's Wild Men and the State They Formed" and touches upon California's "risk-taking culture," which Holliday says prevailed in the decades before the Opera House existed.

"In the gold rush years, there were not too many women; the men came out to California, intending to pick out their gold and come home, returning to other states or to Europe. They came overwhelmingly, with their women at home," Holliday says. "Women bring a sense of moral authority to a society, and so with the absence of women, they became risk-takers. There was a sense of freedom, of escape—they drank too much, they gambled too much. There was a great deal of escape from the rules of home."

Holliday's books—Rush to Riches: The Making of California and The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience—will be on hand at the celebration, and Holliday will be signing copies alongside Conaway.

According to Tallman, the Opera House was built in 1904, opening its doors for the first time on Oct. 10. Its very first performance was by the Sweet Clover Company, with the Los Gatos Band playing in the background.

The Opera House was owned by E.L. Ford, who was also the stationmaster for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He bought the land after the fire of 1901.

"Because there wasn't any cultural center in the area, he thought it was important, so he built it with his wife's capital," says Tallman.

The Opera House became a regular stop on the vaudeville circuit, in which traveling musicians went from town to town, Tallman says.

"Back then, it had a stage, a curtain, the works," she adds. The bottom floor housed various retail businesses, such as a stationery store and an ice cream parlor, and the opera house was located on the upper floor.

Ira Spector, who is helping with promotions for the anniversary celebration, says the Opera House "was the first major cultural center in the area and helped impart an air of civility to the community following several raucous decades marked by gambling, drinking, prostitution and lynch mobs."

Tallman says E.L. Ford later ran off with one of the performers, and the Opera House was sold, later becoming a hardware department store and after that, an antique store. It later evolved to host a variety of town happenings, such as graduations, civic events, town government events and social events.

Later, Paul Dorsa restored the Opera House to its original condition, around 1992. According to Tallman, the Opera House still has the original tin in the walls and ceiling that it did in 1904, which is the most tin of any place in the state. After the restoration, it was reopened as a banquet facility.

"Now we have everything here—rather than just a banquet site, we refer to it as an 'event site.' We host weddings, corporate meetings and functions, fashion shows, product launches, fundraisers, school proms. It's a myriad of events and functions that we have here," says Tallman. "However, we decided to keep with the historic tradition of having retail on the first floor." The Opera House now has stores such as the Studios Antique Shop, Island Pedicure, Venus Envy boutique, Real Women boutique, The Well interior design, Village Caterers and more.

Tickets for the Opera House anniversary celebration are $35 and include refreshments. All proceeds benefit "Hooked on Los Gatos: The Los Gatos History Project."

The Los Gatos Opera House is located at 140 W. Main St. Tickets to the anniversary event can be purchased at the Opera House, the Museums of Los Gatos, the Los Gatos Library or the Chamber of Commerce. They can be purchased with a check, made payable to "Library Trust Fund—Digitize," or can be purchased with a credit card at the Chamber of Commerce. Doors open for the event at 6 p.m., and the program begins at 7 p.m. For more information, call 408.354.1218.