John Marshall High: From Wrecking Ball to Star

Whenever I get a chance to re-photograph an old shot from my 35mm point-and-shoot camera days, I am happy to do so. Back then, I used ALL the automatic settings and the flash for every shot, ensuring every detail was obliterated by that blinding light! I snapped the above shot of John Marshall High School from a tour bus back in 2005. Twenty years later, I drove back up to the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles and rectified my former lapses in photographic judgment.



Even though it’s a cool piece of historic architecture and a recognizable location for many famous films, it barely survived the wrecking ball. Edited from a 2017 feature from the LA Curbed website:

John Marshall High School’s Hollywood dream nearly died on February 9, 1971. The 6.6-magnitude Sylmar earthquake struck that day, just before dawn, killing 64 people. Among the casualties: A number of buildings at John Marshall High School, designed by George M. Lindsey in the Collegiate Gothic style. Several of the damaged structures were subsequently condemned, including the campus's eye-popping centerpiece: A five-story tower rising above Tracy Street in Los Feliz like a Tudor-brick cathedral. The threat of a wrecking ball loomed.



Today, John Marshall High is regarded as a treasured artifact. After pieces began falling from the famed tower in 2012, the school district approved $1.1 million in repairs to the historic structure. When the problem was found to be more serious than previously thought, more than 10 times that amount was allotted, and a temporary glass scaffolding was erected to protect students and faculty from falling debris. But, in 1971, John Marshall hadn’t yet transcended its status as an ingénue. It was already famous among locals for its use in Mr. Novak, the NBC TV series that followed an idealistic young teacher (James D. Franciscus) during his first year in the classroom.



But it had yet to rack up the A-list credits that would cement its stardom. “I guess film production ended up there, because it's so accessible,” says class of ’72 alumnus and music photographer Aaron Rapaport. “ABC was a half block away and all the studios." Geographic convenience aside, JMHS’s formal beauty was undeniably more important in attracting industry attention. Like the similarly photogenic Los Angeles High School located in Mid-Wilshire, the campus was an aesthetic jewel of the Los Angeles Unified School District and a popular draw with Hollywood location managers. Unlike the latter school, which also suffered damage in the 1971 quake, Marshall's dramatic edifice was spared demolition. “I was involved with the effort to retain and renovate the high school, not destroy it like they did to Los Angeles High School, where they turned a beautiful school into a cookie-cutter school,” says John Marshall alumnus (class of ’57) and former Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who served in the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1978. “In the [Assembly] I put in legislation to stop that. And finally the school board backed down and renovated [it].”



The success of that campaign (spurred on by several neighborhood activists) was an undisputed win for Hollywood, a town well-known for its infatuation with physical beauty. “It's a gem,” says Marcia Hinds, a production designer who helped secure the campus for the 1998 teen comedy Can't Hardly Wait. “It's one of a kind.” Many LA-area high schools have extensive filmographies, but John Marshall is distinguished by the sheer number of iconic movies and TV shows that have used the campus as a backdrop. While I was unable to independently confirm several productions rumored to have shot there (Rebel Without a Cause allegedly shot interiors at the school, but I turned up no evidence of this), there are countless others whose use of the campus is well-documented.



Though Venice High School largely stood in for Rydell High in the classic 1978 musical “Grease,” John Marshall's athletic field provided the setting for the school carnival where John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John performed “You’re the One that I Want,” “We Go Together,” and then fly off in a hot rod.



Alumna Anne-Marie Johnson, who attended JMHS from 1975-78 before going on to star in such TV series as What Happens Now, In the Heat of the Night, and In Living Color, speaks enthusiastically about seeing the film’s cast milling around campus.“Those of us in the theater arts department were all very excited because Sid Caesar and Eve Arden and John Travolta and Olivia [Newton-John]—I mean, we were all just starstruck,” she says. “They were all on our campus for several days ... I just remember sitting in the bleachers watching them film the same scene over and over and over.” John Marshall High’s Grease connection runs even deeper: Annette Charles (née Annette Cardona), who played Cha Cha in the film, was an alumna. As noted by Joanna Erdos, a former student who taught at the school for over 30 years, the actress’s death in 2011 prompted the school to plant a tree in her honor.

Below is my 2005 shot of the field behind the school where the carnival sequence was filmed for “Grease”:



How it looks today:





Other films that used John Marshall include “Zapped” (1982), “Bachelor Party” (1984), Van Halen “Hot for Teacher” music video (1984), “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984), “Pretty In Pink” (1986), and the film version of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1992). If you can’t get to Los Feliz, the video below is your next best option!



See more Hollywood movie location photos at my main website.