HOLLYWOOD HIGH RECOGNIZED ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORICAL PLACES.

by smf for 4LAKidsNews

16 May 2014  :: This afternoon a bronze plaque was unveiled on the front steps of the Hollywood High School Library recognizing Hollywood High’s historical significance.

Hollywood High is and was and will forever be the most famous high school in America – and probably the world.  It was famous for being famous before Andy Warhol coined the phrase. The interorr walls of the schools are painted with the names of famous alumni from show biz and the entertainment industry – and the entry vestibule of the library in covered floor to ceiling with pictures of the famous and near famous.  Off to the left of the  entryway is a museum packed with alumni artifacts and memorabilia – from stars and starlets and writers; directors, producers and politicians and judges and Secretaries of State; Doctors and Lawyers and – if not Indian Chiefs – actors who played Indian Chiefs on the small screen and large!

Even if you don’t exactly know who Lana Turner was you know she was a Hollywood High coed discovered on a stool at the soda fountain at Schwab's. The story is apocryphal and Schwab's has closed and moved and been reinvented a number of times – but Hollywood High endures at the corner of Hollywood and Highland – a cluster of Streamline Moderne buildings still educating the young people of a community that invents and reinvents The American Dream on a daily basis – and sells it to the world. Hollywood High made its own history. As School Board member Steve Zimmer said at the plaque unveiling: Hollywood High was already a historical place long before the national registry recognized it as such.

Joining LAUSD and City of LA dignitaries were a number of HHS Alumni –”old boys and old girls” who didn’t need much prodding to break into the school fight song, proudly if dimly remembered:

We’re loyal to you Hollywood!
We’re crimson and white, Hollywood!
We’ll back you to stand, ‘gainst the best in the land.
For we know you have sand, Hollywood!
    Rah!   Rah!
Then win for us now, Hollywood;
We’re backing you all, Hollywood;
Our team is our fame protector.
On boys, for we expect a 
Vict’ry from you Hollywood.
        Che’hee, che-ha, che-ho, ha ha
        Che’hee, che-ha, che-ho, ha ha
Hollywood!  Hollywood!    H o l l y w o o d !
Fling out that dear old flag of crimson and white;
Lead on your sons and daughters who for you fight;
Like men of old on giants, placing reliance,
Shouting defiance; Osky Wow Wow!
Beneath these grand old hills, the best in the land.
For honest labor and for learning we stand,
And unto you we pledge our heart and hand, 
Our Alma Mater, Hollywood!
Alma Mater, Hollywood.

But most important of those honored were the members of the current and immediate past student bodies – who collaborated with real historians to document  the history of the school and applied the National Register of Historic Places at the United States Department of the Interior for the recognition.

It was they who Achieved the Honorable – and do so every day.  - smf, HHS  Class of ‘66