San Jose is set to officially recognize its small but pivotal part in the history of the Grateful Dead, the legendary 1960s band that’s more often associated with our neighbor to the north.
But as San Jose Rocks founder Dan Orloff and former Mercury News sports columnist Mark Purdy will tell you, the Grateful Dead actually got their start in downtown San Jose. That’s where the band first performed under that name on Dec. 4, 1965.
Before that, the band — Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bill Kreutzmann and Phil Lesh — had performed around the Peninsula as the Warlocks. They changed names before playing the San Jose gig at one of Ken Kesey’s “acid tests” where LSD was as much a part of the scene as the music and lights. The rest, as they say, is history.
The house where the Grateful Dead played its first concert (as the Grateful Dead) nearly 50 years ago sits guarded by a dog on St. James Street in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. At the time of the concert on Dec. 4, 1965, the house was located on South Fifth Street until it was moved to make way for the new San Jose City Hall. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
A San Jose City Council committee signed off on the idea earlier this year, and Orloff and Purdy have started a campaign to raise $35,000 by June 30 for a public celebration to honor the 60th anniversary, along with a plaque that will be placed at the site of that first Grateful Dead concert.
Which happens to be right about where San Jose City Hall stands today.
For years, it’s been widely believed and reported that the historic event took place at a Victorian house at 43 S. Fifth St., which was later moved to make way for City Hall’s construction more than 20 years ago.
However, an interesting wrinkle came to light this month that throws into question the exact location of the show. Heritage Auctions has a poster up for bid that is billed as the very first Grateful Dead concert poster because it’s for the acid test in San Jose on Dec. 4, 1965. But the address on the poster is 38 S. Fifth St. — basically across the street from the house everyone has thought was the sacred site. The high bid for the poster was $25,000 as of Thursday night.
Members of the Grateful Dead pose in a 1985 photo in Marin County, Calif. From left, back row, are Bill Kreutzman, Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia, and Mickey Hart. In front are Brent Mydland, left, and Bob Weir. (AP Photo) AP File
Nobody doubts the authenticity of the 12-by-18 inch poster, which was saved by two then-teenage sisters who lived on the Peninsula and were fans of the Warlocks. But lore and circumstantial evidence has always pointed to the 43 S. Fifth St. house as the house. It’s possible the acid test and the show took place in different locations or that it was moved after the poster had been made.
Purdy put his reporter’s hat back on and dug up that the 38 S. Fifth St. house — which would have sat in the plaza just south of the city council chambers — was demolished after an arson fire damaged it beyond repair. There may be no way to ever definitively know which house hosted the performance, but Orloff and Purdy contend the plaque will still be in the right place since both locations were so close together.
“For a band that has lyricized about a ‘long strange trip,’ it is probably appropriate that the precise spot of their first performance as the Grateful Dead may forever remain hazy,” Purdy wrote.
If you want to find out more or contribute to the fundraising effort, head to www.sanjoserocks.org.
FARMER’S MARKET RETURNS: After a two-year hiatus, downtown San Jose will get a farmers market back this Wednesday at a brand new location: Hammer Theater Plaza on South Second and San Antonio streets. It’ll run each Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and it’s being produced by the Regional Farmers Market Association, which also does the Friday markets at Kaiser Permanente’s Skyport location.
The Downtown Farmers Market was started by the San Jose Downtown Association in 1993 and was a big lunchtime draw on Fridays at San Pedro Square for years until it moved from that location after the COVID-19 pandemic forced restaurants to use the street space for dining. A two-year run on South First Street followed, but it never really got the same business and the afternoon hours made it more difficult for vendors.
With more activity around Paseo de San Antonio these days — thanks to San Jose State’s Spartan Village in the old Signia hotel’s south tower, plus the opening of Campus Burgers, Eos & Nyx, the Moment on the Paseo shops and Studio Petall — there might be enough critical mass to make this location work. Get vendor updates and other details on Instagram at @downtown_farmers_market.
READY, SET, GROW!: It’s that time of year again when we try to remember — or imagine — when this was the Valley of the Heart’s Delight. And for those who try to recapture those days with their home gardens, you’ve got the UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara’s annual Spring Garden Fair coming up April 26 at Martial Cottle Park in San Jose.
The big draw may be the summer plant sale, with tomatoes, herbs, peppers and succulents galore, but there are also activities for kids, demonstration gardens and educational talks. Invasive beetles are a big topic this year, and Master Gardener Pamela Trounstine will give an 11 a.m. talk about how they’re attacking trees throughout the valley and what you can do about it.
The fair runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and it’s free to attend, though parking at the park costs $6.
FINE PRINTING: The most common question asked in the 10 years of the Bay Area Printers’ Fair & Wayzgoose is almost certainly “What’s a wayzgoose?” And just to save Jim Gard of the San Jose Printers Guild from answering it quite so often, I’ll share that it’s an old-timey term for a printer’s party.
And in this case, it’s also a decade-long celebration of printmaking, books and letterpress printing that takes place April 26 at History Park in San Jose. Vendors, artists and printmakers will be around various parts of the park, but if you visit, be sure to stop by the Printing Office where the San Jose Printers Guild has all of its types, forms and letterpresses and you’ll probably walk out with a nice hand-printed souvenir. It runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and you can get a schedule of activities and vendors at www.sjprintersguild.com.
OUR FAIR LADY: The Stanford Theatre is following up its “Great Directors” festival by paying tribute to one of the screen’s most beloved stars, Audrey Hepburn, over the next month. The series kicks off April 25-27 with a double feature of “Roman Holiday” and “Sabrina,” with the 1964 classic “My Fair Lady” on May 2-4. May 4 would have been the 96th birthday of Hepburn, who died in 1993. The fest continues with “The Nun’s Story” (May 9-11) before closing with a double-feature of “Funny Face” and “Charade” (May 16-18). Get the showtimes at www.stanfordtheatre.org.
You may have noticed the omission of one iconic Hepburn role, 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” In recent years, that movie has become “problematic” because of Mickey Rooney’s offensive, stereotype-driven portrayal of a Japanese character. I don’t know if that’s the reason the film has been shelved this time around — the Stanford last screened it in 2017 — but that’s fine with me if that’s the case. We’ll miss Holly Golightly and “Moon River,” but it could use a rest.
