San Jose: from orchards and parks to a booming, thriving city
Image by San Jose Historical Museum
About 100 years ago, SJ CoC commissioned a film on the wonders of “The Valley of Heart's Delight” (later edited for TV in '62). Go ahead: reheat your leftover turkey, get comfy, and get whisked to the 1920's—where families are busily harvesting prunes, taking trips via automobile, and feeling that “anything is possible” in San Jose. Excerpts (transcribed) from the 1962 version, below.
San Jose in 1922 seemed ready to burst with progress. The man who best expressed its spirit of optimistic boosterism was, appropriately enough, the manager of the Chamber of Commerce Roscoe D. Wyatt. Envisioning his city as the future hub of a vast urban and agricultural complex, Wyatt produced a motion picture to let the rest of the world know of the wonders of the Santa Clara Valley. What Wyatt was seeking in 1921 was a trickle of newcomers for the Santa Clara Valley. What the valley got in the years that followed was a flood.
This is a record of what it was like before the flood. This was the time of the Valley's transition as it changed direction from a country of fertile orchards and sleepy towns and began picking up speed down a new road.
The direction that road would take at its first turning was pointed out many years before by a Frenchman named Louis Pellier, who in 1856 surmised that the soil and climate of the Valley were ideal for the growing of prunes. …
At harvest time, the success of the prune orchardist often depended on the size of his family, for harvesting was a determined exercise in what later came to be known as “togetherness.” … A good prune packer in 1921 could make two or three dollars per 10-hour day, carefully placing one layer of choice prunes in the box. The remainder was filled by machine.
In less than 60 years, by 1915, the Santa Clara Valley was producing more than one-third of the world's prunes. Prunes were the largest orchard crop, but apricots were and still are important to the Valley. They were put through a process called sulfuring to disinfect the fruit; and when they were pitted for canning by fast-moving female fingers, the pits, as well as the fruit, were saved. (1:12–4:47)
The early industry in the Santa Clara Valley came into existence because of agriculture or to serve it. But those who could see a little farther down the road perceived the day when the Valley would be an industrial center in its own right...
After six days of physical labor, what did they seek on the seventh? Relaxation? A preposterous idea. The seventh day was as crowded with activity as the other six. There was so much to be done...
If you lived in San Jose, of course you went to Alum Rock Park. For the youngsters, Alum Rock Park was a wonderland of pleasures. There was a death-defying slide which warmed the seat of the pants... the tingling mixture of movement and sound created by the merry-go-round... the natatorium (it was really an indoor swimming pool, but no one called it that). … And if you were ailing or just feeling a little out-of-sorts, the water was full of minerals and such, which made it taste awful, but everyone declared it was positively medicinal. The grown-ups could practice what many Americans of later generations have forgotten: the tranquil art of strolling. When you could stop and chat with old friends and get all the news. (6:55–10:44)
By 1916, Americans felt they finally understood the meaning of that famous phrase “the pursuit of happiness.” It was obvious they intended to pursue it in an automobile. Even on the mountain roads, the horse was seen less and less. More and more, the sound of hooves in the distance was being replaced by an ear-shattering roar and clatter and squeal. Cars were changing habits, changing the way of life, and, most of all, changing the landscape.
On West Santa Clara Street in San Jose, as on so many thoroughfares, the old surfacing wasn't good enough for modern times. Concrete was laid by methods considered the ultimate in technology. Highways were widened and straightened.
The steamroller became a common sight as El Camino Real was resurfaced for the motorcar; and before long, the advanced units of what was to become a never-ending parade of cars roared down the road which would someday be US Highway 101. Getting there was half the fun; the other half was getting back. …
Whatever traffic regulations existed in those carefree years were regarded with amused tolerance and completely ignored. Somehow, each driver seemed to get to where he was going or decided instead to go where he was getting to. In San Jose, the pace was almost too fast to comprehend. (15:21–18:00)
… no matter how high flown [Roscoe Wyatt's] phrases [in the original 1922 motion picture], how flowery his rhetoric, reality outstripped his adjectives. Roscoe Wyatt's glowing report to the world, designed to bring growth and prosperity to the Santa Clara Valley, was a masterpiece of understatement in a way he never suspected or intended.
On the other hand, he may have known and in his own Chamber of Commerce vocabulary may have tried to [describe] an instant in history which would flash by before any man could grasp its magic.
Perhaps he was saying in this film, “Hold these moments a little longer. Reach out and take them before they fade. Capture if you can, for only a little while, the joy, the innocence, and the beauty that is here.”
For it did exist once. There was such a time. And in that time, there was no better place to be. (22:44–24:11)
Watch the whole thing here.
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