“Award Presentation — Hollywood Professional School Gold Key Award winners for professional achievement salute Barry Curtis, graduate of class of 1961, and dean’s honor student at University of California at Los Angeles, who received the Hollywood Professional School award for outstanding achievement in higher education. Presenting the awards were Dr. and Mrs. Frederic P. Woellner, professor of education emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles, Bertha Mann, director, Mary Anderssen, principal. Some of the outstanding professional students in the group are: Linda Gino, folk singer on the Red Skelton Show; Carl Wilson, member of The Beach Boys singing group; Joanne Marshall of My Favorite Martian TV show; Cubby O’Brien, star of motion pictures and Las Vegas shows; Michael Winkelman of the Real McCoys TV show.” - Los Angeles Evening Citizen News (January 16, 1965)
“Carl was still attending Hawthorne High as late as the spring of 1963 (Dennis had been expelled for fighting a year earlier), but harassment from young teachers jealous of his campus status reached a critical level. Cleaning up one day after printing class, Carl was jarred to hear his instructor jeer. ‘Oh, yes! Look good before you go out there and see your public.’ Late in his junior year he went to the bathroom without permission and was maliciously marked a truant and suspended. With a ten-day band tour imminent, the length of the suspension made it impossible for him to complete the year and get credit for it since he wouldn’t be in class the legal number of days. Murry went to the principal’s office to sign papers authorizing Carl’s release from Hawthorne High, and for his senior year Carl was enrolled in Hollywood Professional School. Dave Marks and Diane and Marilyn Rovell also attended this performing arts academy, founded in 1922. Carl found the change to be ‘a scream — the total opposite of going to public school. It was truly for professionals, for people who worked. It started at 9:40 and got out at twenty minutes to one — a short day. I’d tell the lady who runs the school, “Well, I’m gonna go out shopping,” and she says, “Ooo-kay. Have a nice time!” The sumptuous 1964 graduation ceremonies at the Brentwood Country Club were a ‘weird’ augury of the deflection from his lower-middle-class upbringing that success had enforced.” - The Nearest Faraway Place (1994)