James Arness, Last (Maybe) Of His Kind

Last or so of the kind of WWII vets who took their GI Bill money & attended the Pasadena Playhouse to study acting or meet girls, that is. Memory fades, & it's probably too big a concept to search easily, but several future show biz names (if not want-to-be actors) decided to take courses at the Playhouse to meet actresses. ('Cause we all know what actresses are like.)

Not that Mr. Arness himself went there to meet dames, mind you.

After an honorable discharge from the Army, Mr. Arness used the GI Bill to join the acting program where he was discovered by an agent.

Ah, an example:

INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…When US Marine Sgt. Hugh O’Brian was discharged onto the streets of LA after WWII, he decided he liked having danced with starlets at the wartime Hollywood Canteen so much, he wanted to be around them fulltime. Wanting to take advantage of his GI Bill to study acting, he discovered there were only two places he could go to get a degree: the Pasadena Playhouse and Los Angeles City College.* “Hell, City College was a lot cheaper so that’s where I went,” recalled O’Brian.

*Known to local cognoscenti as "The University of Vermont."

LACC was founded in 1929 on Vermont Ave. on the site that was formerly the campus of UCLA.