Shadows of Stardom Still Linger in Corridors of Hollywood High

Leave it to Hollywood to house its students in a Streamline Moderne school building. Hollywood High sits at Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, holding itself aloof from the tarnished glitter of the Strip behind a line of palm trees and a monumental flight of stairs. But instead of Greek temple fronts and imposing columns, its face to the community is festooned with neo-Mayan decorations and inscriptions that spell out the importance of education. This is a populist, exotic version of that traditional neighborhood monument, the high school.

Obviously, Hollywood High is not just another school. It has had so many famous graduates that there is even a book written about it.

But much has changed over the years.

Gone are the days when stars and starlets made passes at normal class life there, gone are several of the imposing structures that filled out the 11-acre site, gone is much of the paint and careful care that once graced these structures.

What remains is the myth, captured by the name of the football team (The Sheiks, after the Valentino role) and the optimistic grace of its two main structures, the Science and Liberal and Household Arts buildings.

Facing onto Sunset, these twin buildings were constructed from the designs of Marsh, Smith & Powell in 1936 to house most of the campus classrooms. Each of them is really two buildings, one facing Sunset, the other parallel to Highland. A colonnaded porch and bridge--now closed off--connects them. Together, these structures give a definite edge to the sprawling campus. Made out of reinforced concrete, they are simple, two-story objects that use the slope of the site to rise out of a base of planters and steps with a great deal of dignity.

The straightforwardness of the design is almost severe, offering not much more than industrial sash windows set within plain walls topped by a plain cornice.

But the cubical composition of the entrance, cut through by the rounded corner facing the street, creates a sense of excitement that is then carried through by the “textile block” neo-Mayan decorative concrete surrounds that border the expanses of windows. Bas-reliefs of scientists and poets and the inscriptions (“To Live Is To Think,” “Science Is Truth Found Out”) tell you exactly what the meaning of these slightly anonymous structures is.

Inside, the buildings contain rows of classrooms set on either side of the familiar, locker-lined, linoleum-floored hallways. The Science Building has almost completely been taken over by offices. Behind the grand facades, the work of education takes over, and it is generally not a pretty sight. The rear of the Science and Arts buildings is even plainer, and quickly gives way to a succession of temporary buildings and anonymous modern boxes housing the gym and auditorium.

Only the library, a small structure renovated from an assembly hall at the same time the two classroom buildings were built, shares some of the decorative flourishes and monumental intentions of the two front buildings, including a lavish WPA-style mural that depicts all the greatness of Hollywood, from theater to filmmaking to the Hollywood Bowl.

Hollywood High puts a proud face on its current predicament, which includes trying to educate 2,500 multilingual students in a cramped facility. It still sings the praises of the glamorous Hollywood for which it once educated those students. Now that the city and developers are pumping millions of dollars into renovating that entertainment mecca, one can only hope that the home of the Sheiks will regain some of its glory.