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.

Melissa on the West Coast, Pt. 3

The two hour drive from Palm Springs to Hollywood would have been easy-breezy, except for the loss of the passenger side window. In a classic case of “Driving Miss Lazy,” Melissa sat in the backseat with Willis to avoid the constant blast of hot air from said missing window. We left mid-morning; I noticed as we got closer to our destination that the temperature outside was slowly rising. By the time we got Los Angeles, it was over 90 degrees. It was safe to say that although it wasn’t voiced, nobody in the car was in a happy place. However, the show must go on, so we continued with our list of film location visits, with the first one being the “Mildred Pierce” (1945) house in Glendale, which was first covered here. Snap snap and it was back in the car to visit Rizzo and Danny who were talking about “sloppy seconds” at Frenchie’s house from “Grease” (1978).



I don’t know about sloppy, but we were definitely hot and sweaty by this point.



And yet… we carried on. Next stop: Jane Hudson’s house from “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”(1962):



While the exterior of the house was used for a number of scenes, the film crew also built a replica of it on the soundstage at Warner Brothers. Note in this publicity still you can see the door AND the interior of the set on the far right.



Temperatures continued to rise as patience plummeted, so I made an executive decision: time for lunch. Mauro Cafe at Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue was the perfect place to get cool in the shade, hydrate, and enjoy a delicious meal. This has to be one of my favorite spots in Hollywood; the staff is super friendly and the food is tasty.



The tart lemon slush is a favorite of mine.





My chicken parmesan sandwich hit the spot:



And yes, the carrot cake was every bit as decadent as it looked.



Once I dropped Melissa off at her hotel I headed toward the Chateau Marmont, where I finally felt like I could relax and breathe…until I realized I’d left my camera back at Mauro Cafe. Willis and I piled back in the car and quickly retrieved it. Yes, that caused a few moments of panic.



My room (39) was one I had never been in before and it was lovely.



Willis was happy to be at his home-away-from-home.



What a great view of the patio and Sunset Boulevard from my window:



Willis and I crashed and then went downstairs for a late dinner. There was a piano player! What a fantastic touch.



The roasted chicken, broccoli, and mashed potatoes were delish.



Yes, Willis had some of the chicken. How could you resist this face?!?



No, he didn’t get any of my Coconut Panna Cotta dessert.



We slept well that night. Almost too well; Willis was not happy when I tried to get him up for his morning walk.



I love strolling through the nearby West Hollywood neighborhoods, as there are so many cool historic homes and apartment buildings, like The Andalusia from 1926:





I want those garage doors!



The Mi Casa apartments on Havenhurst were used in the 1974 film “Chinatown.”



This is where Detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) snapped clandestine shots of Hollis Mulwray with a young woman he was supposedly having an affair with.



It’s a gated building, so I couldn’t get in to see the courtyard where the scene was filmed.



It’s the details that draw me in:



Afterwards,  it was time for my morning swim and for Willis to relax. Please, no pictures.



Next up: Sid Krofft at the Chateau!

See more photos at my main website.

The Return of Myrna

In 2005, I was making one of my frequent trips to L.A. and decided to visit Venice High School, the setting for Rydell High School in “Grease” (1978). There were actually two other Schools used for Rydell, but that’s another story and not the one for today. When watching the movie, I noticed something was missing.



The fountain and statuary in front of the school.



It turns out that the model for the centerpiece of the original statue was none other than Hollywood legend, Myrna Loy.



From the Hometowns Hollywood website:

Loy’s father died on November 7, 1918, of Spanish influenza. Upon his passing, the family permanently relocated to California, where they settled in Culver City. Loy attended the exclusive Westlake School for Girls in Holmby Hills and continued to study dance in Downtown Los Angeles. When her teachers objected to her participating in theatrical arts, her mother transferred her to Venice High School, and at 15, she began appearing in local stage productions. In 1921, Loy posed for Venice High School sculpture teacher Harry Fielding Winebrenner for the central figure “Inspiration” in his allegorical sculpture group Fountain of Education [Two other students posed for the kneeling man and seated woman]. Completed in 1922, the sculpture group was situated in front of the campus outdoor pool in May 1923, where it would stand for decades. A few months later, Loy’s “Inspiration” figure was temporarily removed from the sculpture group and transported aboard the battleship Nevada for a Memorial Day pageant in which “Miss Myrna Williams” participated.











If the buildings behind the Loy statue look different, that’s because they are. On March 10, 1933, the Long Beach Earthquake critically damaged the 1924-built school, and it was subsequently torn down. For two years, classes had to be held in tents until the replacement school was built. On January 22, 1935, ground was broken for the art deco styled buildings that still stand today. 



Back to the Hometowns Hollywood website:

While the statue had miraculously survived the 1933 earthquake, its story took a turn for the worse decades later. Over the years, the statue of Loy outside of Venice High School in Los Angeles became not only a landmark after Loy became famous, but an object of vandalism from neighboring schools, especially University High. It was customary prior to the Venice-Uni football game for students from Uni to throw paint on or otherwise vandalize the statue. When I was a student at Venice, legend had it that one year, a group of students from Uni actually removed the statue and drove it in a truck to Santa Monica pier where they threw it over the side and into the water. Not surprisingly, damage took its toll.

In the above photo, the sign in the pond says, “NOTICE: ANY ONE TAKING PLANTS OR FISH WILL BE PROSECUTED.” What about the statues?!? I believe this lack of attention/respect to Myrna is what caused the events that followed!

In 1978, the sculpture was mutilated by vandals with heads and arms removed. They were restored in 1980 by William Van Orden, a Venice painter and sculptor. However, he reconfigured the arms to make them less accessible to vandals. So sad that this had to be done; what is wrong with people?!?



The caption for the above photo from Calisphere:

Dying Sculptor Races Against Time and Vandals ... The architectural centerpiece of the Venice High School campus is a giant iron cage inside which can be glimpsed an old man clambering laboriously over a temporary scaffold ... The cage, recently built, is a monument to the persistence of the man, William Van Orden, a sculptor who has given the last 10 years of his life to restoring the statue in the cage ... The 7-foot-tall statue of Venus rising from the sea, accompanied by two male figures, was sculptured by a Venice High School teacher, Harry Winebrenner, in the 1920's, and a 16-year-old student, Myrna Williams, was his model"--New York Times, June 12, 1989. William Van Orden, repairing statue in Venice High School. Photograph dated Oct. 17, 1980.

Van Order’s LA Times April 4, 1990 obituary:

William Van Orden, the sculptor known for his meticulous restorations of Venice High School’s statue of actress Myrna Loy after numerous assaults on it by vandals, has died at 67. Van Orden, who completed his 12th restoration of the statue despite ill health and waning strength, died of cancer March 18 at a nursing home. Over the years, Van Orden worked thousands of hours repairing the Loy statue and two other statues at the entrance of the campus that were the target of countless pranks and acts of vandalism. “They call me the Don Quixote of Venice,” he said in a Times article last year. “They don’t realize that I take that as a compliment. Myrna is my windmill.” Van Orden was honored in June by Venice High School students at a dedication ceremony for the newly restored statue, which is now enclosed in a protective iron cage. He was also awarded a proclamation from the city. The Myrna Loy statue first came to Van Orden’s attention after vandals in 1978 used dynamite to blow off its head and arms. A year later, Van Orden drove by and saw the damaged statue and, grabbing a tool box, began making repairs. “I took out my chisel and mallet and started hammering on it when the principal came out and asked me, ‘What are you doing?’ ” he told The Times. “I said, ‘I’m here to fix the statue.’ ” The Venice artist began his most recent restoration about a year ago after vandals battered the heads of all three statues. Van Orden again rushed in to do repairs, but this time, he said, he did not believe he would live to finish the job. Doctors had told the artist that his death was imminent. “I decided not to abandon her,” he said at the time. “I had to return one more time. This is my life’s work, and after I finish this job I feel I can pass the job on to someone else.” But Van Orden managed to complete the restoration of the 7-foot-tall statue of Loy, which is a depiction of the goddess Venus rising from the sea. It was sculpted in the 1920s by Harry Winebrenner, a nationally known sculptor who also taught art at Venice High School. He chose as his model a 16-year-old art student named Myrna Williams, who later gained fame on the screen as Myrna Loy. Van Orden received an outpouring of support and national attention following news reports about his efforts to preserve the statue. “He wanted so much to see it declared a historical landmark so it could be protected and preserved from future damage,” said Rodan Van Orden, the artist’s 19-year-old son. Van Orden said his father never felt he received the recognition he deserved from his work on the statue. “You know he was a fine artist, a good painter.” At Venice High School, officials and students were saddened by Van Orden’s death. “He always had time to sit and talk with the students. He touched a lot of lives here,” said Sharon Gebhart, the school improvement coordinator.

After decades of exposure to the elements and vandalism, the original concrete statue was removed from display in 2002 (which is why it wasn’t there when I visited in 2005). The original statue was replaced in 2010 by a bronze duplicate paid for through an alumni-led fundraising campaign during a highly-publicized ceremony.

And here’s how it looked on my visit last weekend:





Myrna looks great from all angles:



The accompanying plaque:



While I am very glad that Myrna has returned, it seems a bit sad that the fountain and other two figures were lost in the process. The water that originally cascaded down her arms is gone and now she just stands solo. Hopefully one day the rest of the original art installation can be returned, as Myrna seems to be a bit out of context.

See more Venice High School photos at my main website.