By Allan R. Ellenberger

The ceremony occurred in an age of massive change for Hollywood. The movie industry was in the process of turning the little community into a world-famous center of entertainment and the streets were being transformed by the constant influx of new businesses, new housing and new public buildings. All of that was happening against the backdrop of the very real memory of the war. Like so many other communities in the country Hollywood had sent men over to fight and not all of them came back. Armistice Day was a chance to remember the cost of the war and to pass that on to a new generation.

From a contemporary newspaper account headlined "Memorial Tree Exercises Held" the dedication got under way at 10 o’clock that Saturday morning. The Hollywood Post of the American Legion formally presented a large conifer to Hollywood High School and the community. It was to be much more than just a decorative tree on the campus. It was to be a permanent memorial to the men who had given their lives in the military. The living branches and the fact that it would go on growing were to be a symbol of remembrance, of gratitude and of the lasting impact of those who had died.

The next day's paper described the gathering as "very impressive, very reverent and yet lightened with a very real living hope." Dr Frank R Roudenbush conducted the ceremony, delivered a prayer and then spoke about the significance of the memorial. Roudenbush, himself a veteran, knew what it meant. He pointed out that the men being commemorated were not there to be affected by the memorial in any way, but their sacrifice would be a very real example to those who came after.

Hollywood High School, circa 1920s, at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue. The building was demolished around 1934 following damage from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Today, the memorial tree and bronze plaque commemorating Hollywood’s World War I dead stand on this corner.

Roudenbush pointed out that only God could create a tree, which made it the absolutely right symbol for men whose sacrifice could never be repaid in any tangible way. A living memorial, he said, was something that no monument could ever really be. As it grew it would be a living reminder of those who had died.

The acting principal of the school, A.B. Forster, accepted the tree on behalf of Hollywood High School and the community at large. He made it clear that it was an occasion for the youth of the country to remember the service and sacrifice of the men who had given their lives in defense of the nation. He said it was a chance for the students to appreciate the privileges they had and to recognize the sacrifices which had made those privileges possible.

His concluding words captured the purpose of the ceremony:

"In the very shadow of the flag for which the honored men died, we have planted this tree as a living memorial and a source of inspiration to emulate the noble example of those who have gone."

Music was part of the solemnity of the observance with the Hollywood Post band (under the direction of Harold W. Roberts) playing a number of selections including John Philip Sousa's “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” American Legion Vice-Commander Leonard Wilson also delivered an address at the start of the day's program. After the ceremony the group gathered at Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard for a parade which left at 10.30 a.m. The parade arrived at Legion Stadium at 11 a.m. where further Armistice Day observances were held.

Above, the American Legion's Armistice Day parade makes its way from Hollywood High School to Hollywood Legion Stadium on El Centro Avenue, November 11, 1922.

The event was part of a wider national campaign to mark America's involvement in the Great War. All over the country people were erecting memorials, planting memorial trees and creating parks in memory of the dead. For Hollywood High School the tree was a particularly personal memorial. It wasn't some distant monument on a battlefield; it was a tree in the very heart of the school community and would serve as a constant reminder to each generation of students of the cost of the war to their town.

Two years later on June 25, 1924, Hollywood High would again honor its WWI alumni who had died in the war with the formal dedication of its Memorial Auditorium. That was a more substantial expression of the same spirit of commemoration as the tree planting had been. The auditorium was in the original Beaux-Arts style, and it survived the Long Beach earthquake of March 10, 1933. The campus around it was of course reconstructed to a large extent.

The quake did a tremendous amount of damage to four of the major Hollywood High buildings (Administration Building, Gym, Science Building and Household & Fine Arts Building) and all of them were beyond repair. A complete rebuilding program was the result and the school's face was completely changed. A number of the older buildings were replaced by new ones designed by the firm Marsh, Smith and Powell in the 1930s and there were further changes and additions in the years that followed.

Somewhere in the midst of all these changes the original Armistice Day tree seems to have simply disappeared. We don't know what happened to it. It could have been taken away during the rebuilding following the 1933 earthquake, or during some subsequent building or landscaping project. There's as yet no documentation to establish when it went. The tree that remains at the memorial today is obviously a lot younger than one that would have been planted in 1922, though its age has not been independently verified.

Above, the memorial tree and bronze plaque honoring Hollywood’s World War I dead stand in front of Hollywood High School at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Below, a close-up of the original plaque, now 104 years old.

How the plaque has survived all the alterations to the school is another mystery. It may have been there throughout the reconstruction, or it may have been saved and reinstalled under this tree at a later stage. We don't know when it was installed. Either way, its survival is remarkable, given the amount of work done to the site.

Something quietly goes on with this rather plain memorial. Of course, thousands of students have passed it over the years, many of them probably completely unaware of the ceremony which gave it significance. It's not a Hollywood landmark. It's a small, rather worn plaque which is completely unobtrusive. What it does represent, however, is a very significant moment in the life of the community. A moment when the community stopped to remember the dead and made a promise (in the form of a living tree) that their sacrifice would not be in vain.

Today, November 11, 2026, the dedication is 104 years old. The Hollywood of 1922 is long gone, and the tree planted that morning is probably lost to history. The original bronze plaque is still there, though, still bearing the namesake of the Hollywood of 1922. In a city where so much of the past has been wiped out, it's a small but significant win that the original Hollywood dead haven't all been forgotten. The tree is gone; the Hollywood dead are not.

More than a century ago, Hollywood honored its World War I dead with a memorial tree at Hollywood High School. Today, its original bronze plaque still survives. Did you know about this forgotten tribute? Please comment, rate, and share my latest Hollywoodland Revue feature and help keep the memory of Hollywood's fallen heroes alive.