A
little over a week ago, while visiting Lincoln Center, I photographed this
building at the corner of 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. But
millions of music and television fans would scoff at the idea of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts as any old building.
The
easiest way to remember it is as the inspiration for the fictional setting of the 1980
film Fame,
as well as the TV series spinoff that ran from 1982 to 1987. But even
that might not indicate the full star quality of this specialized secondary
school. The following is an extremely partial list of famous alumni: Jennifer
Aniston, Adrien Brody, Ellen Barkin, Hal Linden, Cy Coleman, Carole Bayer Sager
James Burrows, Liza Minnelli, Janis Ian, Laura Nyro, Suzanne Vega...I could go
on and on.
If
the school has an unwieldly name, it’s because it’s actually the union of two
institutions founded separately: the High School of Music and Art, founded by
New York Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia in 1936, and the School of Performing Arts, created in
1948. Lincoln Center's creation in the 1960s provided the impetus for amalgamating the two institutions into this, one of four specialized high
schools in New York City.
The
building that you’re looking at now opened in 1984, with a state-of-the-art
concert hall and theater. Well, the best and brightest who enter this highly
competitive high school deserved no less.
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