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Published on 04/21/1999 All articles from this issue

'Junior' Dutton: Los Altos postmaster carried a Colt .45

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Voice of the Past

Harry "Junior" Dutton was a longtime Los Altos resident from the early 1920s. His family income was modest. He and his older brother, Gale, earned spending money with after-school jobs. Harry learned business from some of the town's founders. He remembers seeing the postmaster's Colt. 45. Dutton shared memories in December 1998 at his home in Portola Valley.

The G&S Theater on Main Street was owned by Jack Gregory and Jack Shoup. Mrs. Gregory played the piano while the Saturday films were shown. The pictures were silent, so if you didn't have music, the kids would eventually get very noisy and make it uncomfortable.

My brother, Gale, was the projectionist. When Gale went to Stanford, I got the job. I remember the afternoon of my 13th birthday. I carried the heavy film containers up that steel ladder for the first time alone. My brother said to me, "It's your job now, because you're in your teens."

We had two projectors. If one projector stopped, the adults acted just like little children, whistling and stomping their feet. Some of them even demanded their money back - particularly if they didn't like the film.

I got to see all the wonderful films, like Douglas Fairbanks in the "Crimson Pirate" and Noah Beery in "The Mark of Zorro." We usually had a newsreel for 10 minutes followed by a cartoon or comedy that would last a half hour. Then the main feature, which would be about an hour and a half.

Jack Shoup was smart enough to situate a U.S. Post Office inside the G&S Pharmacy. The entrance was through a side door so you would also see things in the pharmacy you wanted to buy. It was Prohibition then, and there weren't a lot of medicines like now. Many of the very staid people of Los Altos just kept a bottle of Haig & Haig Scotch whisky on a shelf in a closet.

The postmaster then was a man named Johnny Francisco. Johnny carried a big Colt .45 revolver. My friend, Ralph Raymond, and I used to beg Johnny to show us that gun. All the U.S. postmasters were required to have a sidearm. This goes back to the days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Johnny wore that gun in a huge holster whenever he delivered or received mail. He'd put us off from day to day. Then, finally, he would wait until there was no one else in the store and he'd say, "Psst! Is it all clear now?" Our eyes would be wide open as he would show us that huge cannon.

Adapted by Donna Shoemaker for Los Altos History House. Call 948-9427, or e-mail "LAVoices@aol.com" to participate in the Los Altos History House Oral History Program.