13 The Other Place

Above is a computerized drawing of what the Spivey's Drive-In in Mountain View, Calif., looked like in the 1950s as created by Mike Carroll. Mr. Carroll has compiled a virtual version of the drive-in at his web site and has given his permission for his work to appear on this site.

A Virtual Spivey's Five-Spot

At a web site titled the Santa Clara Valley in the Fabulous Fifties, computer artist Mike Carroll has developed a virtual Spivey's Five-Spot Drive-In, based on a real 1950s' Five-Spot that was located at El Camino Real and Grant Road in Mountain View, Calif. Go to: Fifties' Five-Spot
On his web site, Mr. Carroll writes that Spivey's, which was next door to a drive-in theater, had a half-circular shape, common among drive-ins of that day.
In that respect, it was similar to the Cross Roads in Santa Cruz, Calif.
The Five-Spot, according to Mr. Carroll, sported an orange and yellow theme inside. The Cross Roads interior, on the other hand, was green and beige.
But both had a circular counter and booths against the large, slanted picture windows, smaller dining areas off to one side, and jukebox players on the tables and the counter.
"During its heyday," Mr. Carroll continues, "the Spivey's chain was quite well known in the Santa Clara Valley, which included restaurants in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Campbell and Santa Cruz."
There also was a Five-Spot in Los Gatos on Santa Cruz Avenue -- the city’s main street. The small chain was owned by the Spivey Family, who lived in the Willow Glen section of San Jose.
In Santa Cruz, the Five-Spot and the Cross Roads' were competitors. With a mid-1950s' population of about 20,000 people, Santa Cruz was only able to support two such establishments because of the large summer tourist crowds, which actually started gathering in May and stayed through most of September, particularly weekends.
The Santa Cruz Five-Spot was located at Ocean and Water Streets but is now the site of a two-story office building. Ocean Street was an extension of Highway 17 coming from San Jose and the Bay Area.
Before it became Spivey's Five-Spot Drive-In, the drive-in at Ocean and Water Streets was called Bosley’s Drive-In, remembers Marilyn (Cunningham) Hanson of the Santa Cruz High School Class of 1954. Marilyn lives in Ben Lomond, a community in Santa Cruz County’s redwood-forested San Lorenzo Valley.
At least five members of the SCHS Class of '54 worked at the Five-Spot while another five worked at the Cross Roads -- Rose Wall, John Biondi, Ruth Roinestad, Lou Silva and Bev Caton at the Five-Spot and Sylvia Antonelli, Gene Machado, Nancy Cummimgs, Len Klempnauer and Jean White at the Cross Roads. If those numbers held true throughout the decade, then something like 100 different Santa Cruz High students of the 1950s worked at our two local drive-ins.
Mr. Carroll's wonderful site is well worth a visit. It also includes a short interview with him on a San Jose TV channel.

Spivey's Five-Spot in Los Gatos, Calif.

On March 3, 1999, the Los Gatos Weekly Times published a memory piece on the Five-Spot in that city, which is about 30 miles from Santa Cruz, titled, "The Local 5-Spot Drive-in Was Popular in Los Gatos."
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.
NOTE: The San Jose 5-Spot at 869 South First Street has been recommended by the city's historic preservation officer as an historical landmark. Go to: "Landmark Designation for the Five-Spot"

McDonald's Origins

In the July 18, 1999, South Coast Today section of the on-line edition of the New Bedford, Mass., Standard Times newspaper, the paper published an article titled, "The McDonald's Story." Go to: McDonald's
According to the newspaper, McDonald's wasn’t started by Ray Kroc in Illinois, as popularly believed and promoted by Mr. Kroc, but by two brothers from Manchester, N.H. -- Mac and Dick McDonald.
"With a $5,000 loan, after being turned down for several others, they opened a barbecue drive-in three blocks from San Bernardino High School in 1940 with cute carhops who attracted teenagers and low prices that attracted families," the newspaper reported.
"The restaurant was profitable," the paper continues, "but the McDonalds weren't satisfied. Carhop service was slow, and teenage boys lingered and plugged the parking lot ... The fast-food restaurant was born in December 1948 ... The McDonalds fired the carhops and dishwashers, cut an unwieldy 29-item menu to nine and replaced plates and silverware with paper wrappers, bags and cups. They trashed the drippy condiment table. Customers would come to the counter to order food and get it in seconds, not the 15 to 20 minutes they usually waited. Hamburgers cost 15 cents, french fries a dime. A family could eat for $2.50."

National Trust for Historic Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation chose the plight of the Cross Roads as its "Story of the Week" on Friday, May 3, 2002. An article about the Cross Roads situation was posted in the organization's on-line edition of Preservation Magazine. Read it on page 14.

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