Welcome to the Crescent Heights Alumni Webpage

Crescent Heights Blvd. Elementary School, 1931

The class of summer 1956 wishes to welcome all alumni to our Crescent Heights Blvd. Elementary School webpage.

Crescent Heights Blvd. Elementary School, located at 1661 So. Crescent Heights Blvd in Los Angeles, CA, is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The original classroom building was built in 1926 and, after earthquake damage, our classroom building was demolished in the mid-1970s.

Below are scans of miscellaneous PTA-sponsored open house programs from the 1960 and 1970s. Also included is a copy of the article announcing the retirement of James H. Finis, school custodian (See OUR CUSTODIAN section on this site).

One such open house was attended by 17 of our classmates. Were you among them?

Our Times

Between 1955 and 1956, we frequently walked to and from the school, located only blocks away from our homes. Dwight D. Eisenhower was our president, admired and respected everywhere in the world. Lincoln pennies had wheat on the reverse side and first class postage cost three cents. Our parents read the L.A. Times-Mirror or the L.A. Herald Examiner each day. World events included the Cold War and nuclear testing, the Suez crisis and the upcoming Melbourne Olympic Games.

Our world, however, was the neighborhood bounded by Pico Blvd. to the north, Robertson Blvd. to the west, Guthrie Blvd. to the south, and Fairfax Blvd. to the east. Dividing us was La Cienega Blvd., where we spent much of our spare time when we were not playing on our own streets.

We attended movies shown at the Stadium, Lido, and Picfair theatres located along Pico Blvd., played miniature golf at the Hi Point Miniature Golf course on La Cienega Blvd., and bought baseball and football cards along with Pez candies and Red Hots at Marty’s Bike Shop.

We went shopping with our parents at the Daylight and Big Town Markets, where we often separated ourselves in the newspaper and magazine section so that we may sit on the floor and read MAD Magazine and other favorites.

Our most frequently visited diners included Nick’s Coffee Shop and Kentucky Boys BBQ on Pico Blvd.

We rode our bikes and roller skates on our streets and to the Adohr Farms property on La Cienega Blvd.

Adohr Farms property, La Cienega Blvd.

or to the Projects between Guthrie and Cadillac Aves. We ate push-up ice creams purchased from the Good Humor Man and Happy Jack. We occasionally saw the Helms Bakery truck turning from Airdrome onto Crescent Heights Blvd.

We appreciated those folding cardboard Helms trucks given to kids for free whenever we could get him to stop for us.
At home, we watched TV in the living room and played with our collector’s cards and playing cards in the kitchen, choosing war and canasta among our favorites. The kitchen sink counter top had a stack of S & H green stamp booklets.

In our bathrooms, boys applied Brylcreem and girls washed their hair with beer. (By the way, girls, where did you get the beer?)

In our rooms, we either played with dolls and other toys or assembled model airplanes and cars. Our homes had backyard incinerators not in use since 1951. We had only one telephone, located either in the living room or dining room and our telephone numbers began with Bradshaw, Madison, Walnut, Webster, Whitney, Wyoming, or York.

At school, we had our lessons and our routines. We also had homework! Let’s not forget handing in our book reports and then hearing those frightening words from our teacher: DROP! We were reminded to put our hands over our head, get under our desks, and never look towards the windows.

We also had our fun at school, however. On the playground, we played ball, tag, hopscotch, jump rope, and flipped nickels and dimes against the wooden wall on the handball court. On rainy days, we closed our eyes, put our heads down on our desks in the classroom and put up our thumb, playing Heads Up-Seven Up. And let’s not forget the square dancing we did in the school auditorium, an original building still in use today.

Our field trips included Olvera Street and the wholesale market in downtown L.A., and even the Bank of America on Pico Blvd. near La Cienega Blvd. to open our first bank accounts.

Fifty years later, we realize that there was really only one world and life has been a roller coaster with many ups and downs. We’ve been there…done that. Looking back, Crescent Heights Blvd. Elementary School is largely gone now as we remember it, as are many of the above-mentioned places and things that accompanied our childhood. When we went flying high to junior high, our lives changed forever. At Louis Pasteur Junior High School, we played academic musical chairs and as time went on, we saw our best friends less and less. As stated by Richard Dreyfuss at the end of the film, Stand by Me (1986), “Friends came in and out of our lives like busboys in a restaurant.”

When we on the S’1956 reunion committee spoke with you on the telephone or communicated by e-mail, you talked to us as if we saw you yesterday. You told us things that one only tells close friends or family members, as if we were part of your family. Perhaps we are, in a way….an extended family.

Our bodies don’t listen to us much anymore and for some of us, our bodies declared war many years ago. Some of us are gone. Well, they are not really gone if they are not forgotten. My own best friend at Crescent Heights Blvd. School, a graduate of the W’ 1956 class also pictured on this website, died 20 years ago of cancer. I’ll both remember him and miss him forever.

Our world is very different now. We are constantly reminded of this fact by our media. While shopping one evening with my wife and daughter in the supermarket, I instinctively went to the magazine rack near the market's entrance. After a few moments scanning it's contents, I suddenly realized that there were no MAD Magazines. In fact, there were no humor magazines! Magazines that were in abundance I decline to describe or list here, however.

Upon arriving home and putting away our groceries, I kissed my daughter and said "Good night", and went to the TV to watch a late night movie on the cable station, BRAVO. Instead, I found a serial program called Real Housewives of Orange County. I'll just leave this one for your imagination. :-}

It's true that we don’t know what the future holds for us but at the same time, we can and do cherish these days before we had hobbies and goals. Wasn’t Richard Dreyfuss correct when, at the end of Stand by Me, he typed on his computer screen the following phrase,

I never had any friends like the ones I had when I was twelve. Does anyone?

This site is therefore dedicated to (1) the graduates of the 1940s and 1950s who passed through its corridors along the road to higher education and (2) to the Crescent Heights staff who helped us along the way.

Glenn A. Gorelick

Class of S' 1956

Our Graduation

Our graduation - Summer 1956

1. Michael Day
2. Steve Woodland
3. Richard Walanka
4. Barry Lee
5. Jon Lax
6. Steven Rose
7. Myron Cohen
8. Ron Gartner
9. Fred Crown
10. Sid Marantz
11. Jeff Broude
12. Caryn Beil
13. Marilyn Gould
14. Karen Roth
15. Andrea Sampson
16. Dianne Kishineff
17. Judi Small
18. Elaine Cantor
19. Carol Bryer
20. Linda Passy
21. Vana Perry
22. Elaine Elfand
23. Carol ?
24. Nanette Berman
25. Naomi Proodian
26. Marlin Wallach
27. Howard Fruchtman
28. Joan Dubman
29. Barbara Baron
30. Marcia Annes
31. Linda Zaslow
32. Christina Lauritzen
33. Marie (Elva) Fedaleo
34. Amy Rose Davison
35. Georgia Gordon
36. Jo Ann Goldberg
37. Marilyn Lewin
38. Nancy Shanbaum
39. Annette Schuman
40. Diane Goldfield
41.
42. Susan Berkowitz
43. Lynn Messler
44. Susan Hart
45. Eddie Wallach
46. Jeff Waldman
47. Joel Morse
48. Richard Herman
49. Ronni Kordell
50. Roberta Ruud
51. Patty Bernhard
52. Barbara Butterman
53. Kathy Kingsdale
54. Nanette Blank
55. Lauren Singer
56. Andrea Kozberg
57. Janet Lawrence
58. Judy Klassman
59. Bonnie Wallach
60. Barbara Dubkin
61. Loretta Shipkin
62. Larry Kaltman
63. Mark Rosenbaum
64. Joel Silverstein
65. Dan Aron
66. Larry Baum
67. Phillip Silver
68. George Chumo
69. Ricky Ruben
70. Ron Herman
71. Ken Greenbaum
72. Bob Bassett
73. Barry Bernstein
74. Michael Borden
75. Ron Wolfson
76. Glenn Gorelick
77. Paul Stanford
78. Anton Marantz
79. Joel Kimmel
80. Dennis Angel
81. Mike Fradin
82. Leonard Hoffman
83. Billy Miller
84. Barry Kass
85. Robert Feldman
86. Harry Goldfinger
87. Dave Wellner
88. Mr. Lloyd S. Weitzman
89. Mrs. Elsa W. Peck
90. Mrs. Virginia Dawson
91. Mr. William Mahoney

Not in photo:

Rosemary Jonas
Sipora Kahan
Joan Ludwig

Steven Stein (through 4th grade only)
Eileen Ruby (through 4th grade only)

Our Classmates

Our Teachers

Mrs. Jean B. Graeber, 4th & 5th grades
(Nov. 24, 1909 - Mar. 5, 2002)


l to r: Lloyd S. Weitzman, Virginia Dawson, William Mahoney, Elsa W. Peck (Principal),
PTA representative (far right)

Mrs. Virginia Dawson, 6th grade

(Oct. 10, 1898 - Nov. 14, 1993)

l to r: Mr. James H. Finis (Custodian), Ron Gartner (A6), William Mahoney l to r: Jon Lax (A6), Phillip Silver (A6), William Mahoney

Our Teachers (photos)


Mr. Lloyd S. Weitzman biography
Pacific Palisades High School website

www.dolphinsafterdark.org/U-Z.htm

Our Custodian

JAMES H. FINIS
(April 22, 1898 - April 5, 1978)

Our Principal

Principal, Sep. 1939 - Jun. 1972

Our 50th Anniversary Reunion: Class of S' 1956

Pre-Reunion Pizza Get-Together

Date: Sat., September 30, 2006
Time: 7 PM
Location:

Maria's Italian Kitchen
16608 Ventura Blvd.
Encino, CA 91436

Photos:
Top to bottom:
Arnie and Barbara (Butterman) Friedman; Diane Kishineff (Steiman); Richard Herman; Rosemary Jonas (with Diane Goldfield Forst's husband, Myron); table view, left to right: Nanette Berman (Jones-Grossman), Dianne Kishineff (Steiman), Sid Marantz, Phil Silver (standing) and Mike Fradin (facing Sid)




Our 50th Anniversary Reunion

Date: Sun., October 1, 2006
Time: 10 AM - 3 PM
Location:

Lake Balboa Park (Anthony C. Beilenson Park)
6300 Balboa Blvd.
Van Nuys, CA 91406

Invitation:

Program:


Announcements and Sign-in - Eileen Ruby (Zaroff)

Welcome and Acknowledgments - Glenn A. Gorelick

Reunion Committee members:

Glenn A. Gorelick, Nanette Berman (Jones-Grossman), Georgia Gordon (Capo), Eileen Ruby (Zaroff), Sid Marantz

Refreshments:

Myron and Diane Goldfield (Forst)

Sound System:

Ron Gartner

A Road Trip to 1955-56 - Glenn A. Gorelick

James H. Finis and the
children's lost lunch money box - Mrs. Derricheard Finis (widow)

Plaque donation for service to Crescent Heights Blvd. School: Jan. 17, 2007

James H. Finis (Apr. 22, 1898 - Apr. 5, 1978) - Sid Marantz


Class of S' 1956 Attendees:

Dennis Angel

Marcia Annes (Strauss)

Dan Aron

Barbara Baron (Federman)

Bob Bassett

Nanette Berman (Jones-Grossman)

Pat Bernhart (Venn-Watson)

Barry Bernstein

Mike Borden

Barbara Butterman (Friedman)

Barbara Dubkin (Wexler)

Elaine Elfand (Jaeger)

Mike Fradin

Howard Fruchtman

Ron Gartner

Diane Goldfield (Forst)

Georgia Gordon (Capo)

Glenn A. Gorelick

Marilyn Gould (Rotter)

Susan Hart (Lipkin)

Richard Herman

Rosemary Jonas

Irwin (Larry) Kaltman

Barry A. Kass

Dianne Kishineff (Steiman)

Marilyn Lewin (Cooper)

Anton (Tony) Marantz

Sid Marantz

Joel Morse

Eileen Ruby (Zaroff)

Loretta Shipkin (Zaroff-Cooke)

Phillip L. Silver

Joel Silverstein

Judi Small (Cannon)

Marlin Wallach

Photos: Can you identify your classmates?
To see our reunion photos, visit our album.


Memorial Plaque Donation
J.H. Finis (Apr. 22, 1898 - Apr. 5, 1978)


Crescent Heights Blvd. Elementary School

Crescent Heights Blvd. Elementary School

Library

Wed., Oct. 17, 2007 (4 - 5 PM)

Donation of memorial plaque honoring the service of J.H. Finis, school custodian
Donation of three photos: Memorial plaque (J.H. Finis, custodian), Mrs. Elsa W. Peck, principal, and the graduating class of S' 1956

Mrs. Derricheard Finis, Rialto, CA

Marilyn Gould (Rotter), Sid Marantz, Derri Finis

Sid Marantz (with plaque), Michael Hamm, (Coordinator, Language Arts/Social Justice Magnet Program)

Sid Marantz, Cherise Pounders (Interim Principal), Social Justice magnate pupils

Glenn A. Gorelick (with photo of Elsa W. Peck)