Painless Parker rode the Los Gatos-San Francisco line
By John S. Baggerly
Painless Parker, the flamboyant advertising dentist, rode the Los Gatos commute train to San Francisco, the heart of his eight-state dental empire.
The Parker fortunes, including the income from offices in Canada, were at their zenith when he purchased 218 rolling acres in the Saratoga foothills where Prospect Road leaves the valley floor. The selfstyled "Tooth-Plumber" had parlayed street dentistry in New York and San Francisco into an empire of some 240 workers, including 79 dentists.
Los Gatos-San Francisco commuters saw the vigorous Dr. Parker swing aboard the train at Azule, on the Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, a mile from his home. Commuters, too, saw a man similar in many respects to Father Riker, the spiritual and financial ruler of Holy City, a cult community in the hills south of Los Gatos on the old two-lane Santa Cruz Highway.
Both men were self-promoters. Both knew the inside of courtrooms and both told the public what God liked and disliked. Parker: "God hates those who do not take care of their teeth." Riker said "Ours is the Perfect Christian, Divine Way."
Both men had practiced on the streets of San Francisco. Parker had graduated from dental college in New York City where he started as a sidewalk dentist before working in Canada and Alaska and eventually on the streets of San Francisco, where his chair was placed on the bed of a horse-drawn wagon. A band played with the dual purpose of attracting a crowd and overlaying the moans of patients who were given whiskey as a painkiller.
Almost immediately, the state dental association attacked Parker for the name "Painless." He went to court and and had his name legally changed.
Riker needed no court action to call himself "Father." For all of the criticism of Parker, students of his career gave him credit for bringing dentistry to those of lower means. And Riker gave permanent jobs to homeless men.
To bring attention to himself, Parker entered a yacht race to Hawaii and almost lost his life at sea.
Parker died at age 80 in 1952; Riker expired at age 96 in 1969. The names of both men lived on in court battles over the disposition and use of their lands.
Parker's son Ned became a licensed dentist in Oregon. It seems he could never pass the examination in California.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 3, 1996. © Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. |
