The Smiley Smile Message Board

Just saw this on reddit, from someone's high school yearbook. Great pic from the Pendleton days, with extra added saxophone Love.

http://i.imgur.com/9ginbrJ.jpg

The Beach Boys - Nov 22, 1962 at William Howard Taft High School, Woodland Hills, CA     

I went to Taft High School in the 60's when the School was new. To me those were the days of Innocence compared to the High Schools of today. Rock and Roll was beginning, school dances were "tame" compared to the same events in this day and age. No one was searched for drugs or weapons. No one could even imagine something like that. Not to say that there wasn't some ditching school on occasion (maybe escape to the bowling alley for a couple of classes) or an occasional "late to class" in the morning because the waves were so awesome that morning. And sure there were always a few kids drinking at the drive-in theatre, making out in cars and getting a little crazy. We "fell in love", we broke-up. We cruised Van Nuys Blvd. in muscle cars, "lifted" front ends, lowered all around - thus the term "low-rider". Ate at Bob's Big Boy and A & W Root Beer. Drag-raced on DeSota (it was a dead end street). We danced to Doo Wah Diddy Diddy, the Lion Sleeps Tonight and listened to Jan and Dean, Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney, the Supremes and the Beach Boys who played at our school in the Gymnasium!! I attended my first concert, the Beattles and rushed the stage.

Girls skirts were measured in the Girl's V.P.'s office to make sure they were "long enough" or you were sent home to change. Students (just the guys I guess) got "swats" from the gym teachers. Smoking cigarettes was an absolute no no (you had to hide behind a building or go across the street to the market)

 In my senior year some of my friends were getting "Draft Notices". We heard about a war in Viet Nam and we were scared that some of our friends might die. And some did. It was the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, Revolution and Demonstrations and the theme of movies to follow for decades. Our innocence was shattered with the Assassination of JFK and the draft. But these were the years I never will forget.

Sally Landry

Marvellous pic, marvellous memories. Thank you both!

Fantastic pic! Thanks for sharing!

Ah yessssssssssssssssssssss.  White socks and black shoes.  THOSE weren't the days. :lol

Great picture.  Lousy stage.  Can you imagine?  Well ya.  Until *we* got into 'concerts' in the school auditorium in the later 60s...dances were held in either the gym [Watch the FLOOR!!!]  No hard soul shoes allowed...or in the cafeteria.  At least that's how it was done where I came from.

Mikie!!!  Respect sir. :3d

Wow----thanks, shadownoze. And thanks to Mikie for a fascinating follow-up post.

This sounds rather heavenly (aside from the draft notices, which is tragic). Kids today are treated like inmates. Even when I went to HS in the 90s, if we were one minute late to school without a doctor's note (parent note wasn't good enough), we got detention. Cutting class got you suspended! But imagine the Beach Boys playing your school, even if they weren't too well known yet. Wow.

What a great early picture for the collection!  :-D

Amy, just to be clear, the story above was by a student and Beach Boys fan in the L.A. area named Sally Landry. Ten years later, when I went to high school in Northern Cali, it hadn't changed that much. Music was much different - it was getting into album Rock. Some people smoked a J during lunch out by the railroad tracks, and fights were settled by fists; no weapons were around. Mini anti-war protests in the Quad area. The girls would push the limit with very short skirts and low-cut blouses and platform heels.  :P  Everything else described by Sally was pretty much the same, except at school dances you had mandatory chaperones with a rule to keep your hands above the waist, especially in the dark. No touchy-feely or extracurricular activity allowed. What a stupid rule, huh?

I figured, from the signature.  :-D

Hey, right down the street!

Um, I thought it's a well-known picture of early BBs? No? That was their best uniform, not lame as striped shirts and tight slacks. 2nd best is '74 Rockin' Eve suits, 1st Beachago. If I recall, it was a one-off thing to dress like that.

(http://i.imgur.com/9ginbrJ.jpg)

No need for that, I saw the link. Thanks tho.

Not an opinion that was shared by Dennis ;D

They should bring this back!   :-\

No. First time I've seen it.

Didn't pay any attention to the year book text under the picture 'til jst now..."...bellow and blare their surfing songs..."  :lol  "Bellow and blare"?  I don't even see any old fashioned PA columns.  What?  are they running the voices through the guitar amps?

"Bellow and blare".  That's funny. :lol

This is one of the photos I came across while researching Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963, my forthcoming book to be published this spring/summer by McFarland. The photo will appear in the book.  It took me nearly two years to find and purchase a copy of the 1963 Atinian yearbook so I could use the best original source for the photograph.

I reasoned, quite simply, actually, that the Boys must have played a lot of high school dances in their early days. Many of them perhaps still undocumented. So I researched high schools, yearbooks, alumni websites, school newspapers, public libraries, and local newspapers for high schools within a reasonable driving distance from 3701 West 119th Street in Hawthorne. For William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, CA, I spoke to a few people who were students or teachers at the time and attended the concert.  Only students who had purchased activity cards for the semester were allowed to attend certain school-sponsored events, including the Beach Boys concert.

To give you some idea of my obsessiveness with the band's early history, I reasoned that the photograph that appeared in the school's 1963 Atinian yearbook was not the only photograph of the band taken that night.  Most likely a roll or two of film, probably black & white, was shot and contact sheets were made from which this photo was selected.  Were the negatives, contact sheets, or other prints lingering in some long-forgotten metal filing cabinet?  Well, I had to know.  I struck out at the school.  No archives, no dusty filing cabinets, no time capsule, nothing. And I had a champion at the school who just loved the story. I then reasoned that perhaps the yearbook photographer, justifiably proud of his work, kept the negatives or contact sheets. I tracked him down and he graciously agreed to be interviewed. He was the activities director who arranged for the show, attended the concert, and took the photograph. And, yes, he took "a roll or two of black & white photographs" that night.  And, no, he did not keep them.  He turned them into the yearbook office at the school where, presumably, they were tossed sometime during the intervening fifty years. Arrrgghh!  But that's how research goes. I was thrilled when I first saw this photograph, excited and anxious to speak with the photographer, and bummed to learn the other photos had been discarded.  There are roughly two seconds, brimming with hope and possibility, after you ask the question, "By any chance did you save the negatives?" before those hopes are dashed and kicked to the curb. Oh, well.   

One thing about this show still nags me. The date is generally believed to be Thursday, November 22, 1962. Ian and Jon go with that date in their book. I have not been able to independently verify that date. Perhaps, Ian came across some proof of which I am unaware. That would not surprise me! No one I spoke with who attended the show could recall anything more specific than "fall 1962." But Thursday, November 22, 1962, was Thanksgiving and school would have been closed that day and probably the following Friday as well. I suppose the concert could have been a special event for activity card holders and held on the Thanksgiving holiday. It just struck me as odd.  But, what happens the following day in Beach Boys land -- Friday, November 23, 1962 -- will have to wait to spring/summer   ;D

I'll not break my promise; the secret is safe until your book is published

FTFY.  ;D

Gotta agree that the date seems really odd, in fact highly doubtful.  I simply cannot imagine that the concert took place on Thanksgiving day, or the day after, for that matter, when the school would have been closed as well.  I'm guessing you were unable to locate any Taft HS newspapers from that era, where either an activities calendar, ad for the concert, or article about the concert would have most likely appeared, or a Taft HS Alumni Assn with a newsletter whereby former students could be asked if they had an old HS newspaper mentioning the concert.

Still, a really cool early pic, and very impressive research on your part, including tracking down the photographer!  Really looking forward to your book.

The Holy Grail of early photos must surely be the set mentioned by Alan's mom as having been taken fall 1961.

[This is where Jim hints he's found them...  ;D]

Cool!

Jim, I have a friend who claims to have walked in on a Beach Boys performance at Hawthorne High in 1962.  Would it be in any way helpful to put you in touch with him?  Also when I was with the Standells, Larry Tamblyn talked about backing the Beach Boys at the Rainbow Gardens in early '62.  He said they were mostly a vocal group for those shows, I believe he said only one of them played an instrument.

That would be, respectively, July 14th and any/some/all of the following dates:

2/16
2/17 (both as a four-piece, no Alan)

3/9
3/23
3/30 (all w/David)

I would cast considerable doubt on what Tamblyn said about only one playing an instrument as there's a pic from early March showing all bar Mike playing the usual.

I think someone (forget who, might have been Ian) actually corroborated that they did a few early gigs unplugged, and he had those shows pegged as one of the February ones.  I'm vague on the deets but I remember this because I, too, was doubtful of Larry's recollection until someone else stepped in and said it tracked their knowledge, which was much deeper than mine...which is why I brought it up.

The actual thread is buried here somewhere, we can go dig it up if it's important.

Is this the thread in question?
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=10263.0

Yup, that's it.

Amazing to learn that you play with The Standells. "Dirty Water" is one of my all-time favourite garage band tracks. :=)

Make that "played".

I was wondering about that. Thanks!

Because he's moved on from that gig, or because the Standells no longer play?

They're still playing from time to time.  I left the band in 2011 for various reasons, but wish them well and it was a great thrill to play with them.