This collection includes approximately 40,000 photographs by commercial photographer Ralph Morris, who worked in the Los Angeles area from 1939-1981. His advertising and industrial clients included department stores, restaurants, the automobile and petroleum industries as well as business executives. Also included is the Luckhaus Studio collection of architecture, fashion, the movie industry, sports and street scenes, images which Morris obtained in 1939. Manual Arts High School, established in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, was the third school in Los Angeles (after L.A. High and L.A. Polytechnic High) and is the oldest high school that remains on its original site in the L.A. Unified School District. When it was founded, Manual Arts was a vocational high school, but as of 2006, it teaches a traditional curriculum and has an estimated student body of 4,000. The high school has endured difficult times in its 99 years: in 1933 an earthquake destroyed the original site, and two more earthquakes caused more damage in 1971, and 1994; it has also survived through two civil disturbances, in 1965 and in 1992. After the first earthquake, architects John and Donald Parkinson designed and built the school's new buildings in PWA Streamline Moderne Style. In 1994, the school was reconfigured to a four-year school, catering to grades 9-12. In 1996, the school was named a California Distinguished School. Noted alumni have included: (Actors) Kathryn Grayson, Robin Harris, Paul Wynfield, (Director) Frank Capra, (Artists) Philip Guston, Reuben Kadish, Jackson Pollock, (Athletes) Jon Arnett, Lyman Bostock, Tom Fears, Dwayne Polee, (Musicians/Singers) Verna Arvey, Nacio Herb Brown, Lawrence Tibbett, (Politicians) Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Bernard Jefferson, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Goodwin Knight, among many others. Exterior view of the Manual Arts High School Auditorium building, located at 4131 S. Vermont Avenue, between 41st and 42nd streets. It shows a tall, white building with three large entrances and multi-paneled windows above each doorway. Another building is barely visible in the background on the left corner.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
Manual Arts High School (Los Angeles, Calif.) School buildings--California--Los Angeles High schools--California--Los Angeles Auditoriums--California--Los Angeles Parkinson & Parkinson
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