Stars Return to Hollywood High
Hollywood High, the school that has churned out celebrities like an assembly line, celebrated its 100th birthday Saturday with hundreds of alums gathered to reminisce about growing up in the midst of Tinseltown.
“I got my first agent here,” said Charlene Tilton, class of 1976. “She saw me in a play.”
Within a few years, Tilton landed a starring role in the television series “Dallas,” playing oil heiress Lucy Ewing.
It was a reunion in many ways like any high school reunion. Alums mingled much of the day, meandering through the hallways and poring over old yearbooks and photos in the library. There was talk of grandchildren, current medical ailments and those alums who have unfortunately graduated to the great beyond.
But this is Hollywood, and it was hard to escape the fact that the school has served as a career launching pad for a long list of actors.
Inside the school’s library building are several walls covered with star photos, much like walls in local delis or dry cleaners. Graduates and attendees include Judy Garland, Fay Wray, Carole Lombard, Jason Robards, John Ritter, Julie London, Tuesday Weld, Linda Evans, Carol Burnett, Mike Farrell, Stefanie Powers and Ruta Lee.
“I was here the same time as Carol Burnett,” said Robert Adrian, 71, class of ’51. “She was fun at parties and would make a few cracks, but I never thought she’d go on to do what she did.”
The school took up its current location at Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue in 1904, when the film industry was in its infancy. As the years passed, many sons and daughters of those in the business went to Hollywood High, along with those who couldn’t resist the lure of the studios that surrounded the school.
“We all worked at Central Casting” for the studios, said Dolly Conlin Parker, a member of the class of ’44 who started working in movies before and during high school. “My first movie was ‘Tom Sawyer,’ and we filmed it in Malibu. I also drove a buggy away from the burning of Atlanta in ‘Gone With the Wind.’ ”
Lee, best known for her television work for more than four decades, recalled taking the long road to the school. She was born in Montreal, the child of Lithuanian immigrants. “My mother decided that I was Lithuania’s answer to Shirley Temple, and so I ended up here,” she said.
“I spent my entire three years here in this theater and I learned more about show biz here; I wrote, produced and starred in shows here.”
Yet, there were also plenty of people in attendance Saturday who said that the school wasn’t all that different from any other high school. Tilton, for example, said one of her fondest memories was a kiss shared with someone special in the quad.
“It was still high school; you still had lunch with your friends around the trees,” said Lynn Samuels Myers, 50, of the class of ’72. “The only star that I recall when I was here was Robert Carradine.”
Math and science were Myers’ passions. She said she later graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Redlands.
Time has inevitably brought changes to Hollywood High.
Various buildings on the campus have been added and subtracted over the years. The Long Beach earthquake of 1933, for example, helped bring down the old administration building, which is now a parking lot.
And the makeup of the student body has undergone a transformation. Today, the 3,000 students represent various ethnicities.
Ralph Lunstedt, 76, class of ‘46, said his fondest memory of the school was meeting his wife of 52 years there. “We were in the same home room,” he said.
“He was an L, I was a K,” added Roberta Knapp Lunstedt. “We went to the senior prom together.”
Said Ralph, “I paid $5 for a corsage and I had my favorite suit cleaned and pressed for a buck and that was it. We still have the photo on the dresser.”
Added Roberta, “Wherever we’ve gone, if I mention we went to Hollywood High, they all know it. It’s because of the stars.”
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