Los Gatos Weekly-Times file art
The Los Gatos 5-Spot was once a familiar sight to hungry diners.
Picture from the Past
The local 5-Spot drive-in was popular in Los GatosBy John S. Baggerly
In the late 1930s, the Los Gatos 5-Spot opened with look-alike drive-in eateries in both Campbell and San Jose. It was obvious these towns were hep to a style of food service that was launched by the Texas Pig Stand in 1921. The movement rushed quickly westward and became particularly big in Los Angeles, where flashy costumed waitresses rolled up on skates to auto drivers' windows and took orders.
A Mr. Bierman was owner/manager of the Los Gatos 5-Spot at the southeast corner of Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and N. Santa Cruz Avenue. All service was indoors and parking was under shady trees. Among the waitresses were Jean Wilks and Winifred Helm, daughter of legendary Los Gatos High School football coach Doug Helm. She later became Winifred Farris, wife of LGHS coach Paul Farris, a World War II veteran. Today they live in Rio Vista.
The Internet has scores of books on American drive-ins and car hops on roller skates rendering curb service. In the Bay Area, there was Fat Boy Drive In in Redwood City. It later became a franchise and appeared along Highway 101. Down in Glendale, Bob's Big Boy was a drive-in worthy of Las Vegas. Long-legged waitresses on skates, in military costumes with garrison hats and plumes rolled up to take customers' orders.
With the drive-in craze came lucrative salaries for waitresses, and competition was fierce for jobs at the most popular locations. Employers sought waitresses who had that special something--the more charm, personality and beauty a girl had, the better her chances of landing a plum job. One example in the 1940s was Sivil's Drive-In in Houston, Texas, where prospective hops had to pass the scrutiny of the owner's wife, 21-year-old Mrs. J. D. Sivil, who made sure the applicants were between 18 and 25, had good figures, a high-school education, health cards, and "come-hither" personalities.
Like most hops, Sivil's hops were expected to smile, stand erect, memorize the menu and endeavor to sell large orders of food. A cardinal rule was that the hop could not touch a customer. Change was placed on the tray, not in the customer's hand. Also, a hop could not touch a car or leave the lot during her shift. Trays were balanced on one hand and carried at ear level. The two costumes the girls purchased for $37 (boots were an additional $5) were to be kept absolutely spotless.
Sivil also coached hops in diction, deportment and the importance of laughing at customers' jokes. Punishment for small infractions, such as carrying a tray too low, was folding a thousand napkins. Larger offenses merited immediate dismissal.
Los Gatos' 5-Spot stood at a historic location. The area had been our town's first formal cemetery and was flanked on the east by railroad tracks. Across the street stood Hunt Bros. Cannery. After the cemetery bought land as Los Gatos Memorial Park at 2255 Los Gatos-Almaden Road, bodies were moved from 1890 through 1924. The ex-cemetery plot became cottages for cannery workers.
In the 1950s, Los Gatos-Saratoga Road was widened into a cross-town freeway to Los Gatos Boulevard. When the 5-Spot closed, real estate agent Effie Walton used part of the property to develop the Little Village area, where Village Lane runs today.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
