From 1929 to 1968, a small military school operated at the corner of Melrose and Wilcox avenues, endeavoring to prepare young men from Southern California and other parts of the world for their collegiate coursework.

Bing Crosby’s twins, Phillip and Dennis, as well as their brother, Gary, attended the Black-Foxe Military Institute. (photo courtesy of Patrick O’Donnell)

Although the Black-Foxe Military Institute, which served students from kindergarten through 12th grade, has been inactive for almost 50 years, the preparatory school helped turn generations of boys into men — a feat that graduates still appreciate decades later.

“It wasn’t all peaches and cream because nothing is, but I would say most of the people who attended — unless they were forced to attend against their will, if you will — felt it was a good experience,” said Patrick O’Donnell, of the Class of 1949.

Every so often, graduates will organize a school-wide reunion to reflect on the institution that played such a critical role in their upbringing. Aside from their memories and a house on an adjacent property, there is little left to recognize the institute’s impact on their lives.

At least, that was the case until O’Donnell penned “Hollywood Cadets”, an ode to “what is, perhaps, a forgotten part of the Golden Age of Hollywood,” according to the blurb that O’Donnell wrote on the book’s back cover.

The Yorba Linda resident admits that he can’t quite recall why he decided to write the book, but it’s evident that he remembers fondly the time he spent at the Black-Foxe Military Institute.

“For the most part, people left it feeling good about themselves, and about the environment and especially about the faculty,” O’Donnell said.

According to “Hollywood Cadets”, the school was founded by “highly respected Hollywood financier” Charles E. Toberman, who acquired the property that had once been the home of the Urban Military Academy after the previous tenant defaulted on their mortgage.

“He had never intended to own a prep school, but once he found himself in the position of owning one, he wanted it to measure up to those in the East,” O’Donnell wrote.

The institute was named after two of its original administrators, majors Harry L. Black and Earle A. Foxe. Foxe served as the school’s first president, while Black was its first commandant of cadets.

O’Donnell also noted the contributions of Harry H. Gaver, who served at the Urban Military Academy and was named Black-Foxe’s first headmaster, and Earle L. Deitz, the “financial man on campus.”

The 1949 graduate paid homage to the “excellent” faculty and staff members who taught at the institute. O’Donnell said English teacher Jack Schell, who taught at the institute for 18 years, was the best teacher he ever had.

“We were very, very fortunate to have had those kinds of teachers,” O’Donnell said. “And I was a crappy student, frankly. I didn’t spend the time I should’ve [focusing on the coursework].”

The book gives a glimpse of what daily life was like at the gone-but-not-quite-forgotten military institute. In addition to traditional academics, the school taught elements of military life, such as close order drill, marksmanship and military science and tactics.

Black-Foxe offered a host of extracurricular activities, such as marching band, football, horseback riding, polo, swimming, basketball and baseball. While Cumnock School and the Raenford and San Rafael military academies were common rivals, the “most intense” rivalry was with Harvard Military Academy, now named Harvard-Westlake School.

In addition to athletic events, the school hosted an annual carnival, dances, parties and stage shows. However, the boys at Black-Foxe also found sources of entertainment that weren’t exactly school sanctioned.

In “Hollywood Cadets”, O’Donnell recalls the time a cherry bomb detonated at the feet of two faculty members, and the story of Charles Lutes and “his cronies” throwing a bowling ball through a telephone booth.

Frequently — or infrequently, depending on who one asks — the students would call on the school’s fastest runner to slip out of the dorms at night, run to the not-yet-famous Pink’s Hot Dogs stand, dart to the Academy Drug Store for sodas (and possibly stolen beer) and hightail it back, O’Donnell wrote.

With Hollywood being Hollywood, Black-Foxe was often visited by celebrities, some of whom enrolled their children at the school. Bing Crosby’s twins attended, as did Buster Keaton’s two sons.

According to O’Donnell, the military school closed for a variety of reasons. He wrote that the death of Gaver in 1954 was the “greatest blow suffered by Black-Foxe.” It was also impacted by the social protests of the 1960s.

In 1965, a fire occurred in Gaver Hall, which housed the cadet dorms, and Black-Foxe ceased being a boarding school after that. That year, the school was sold to a nonprofit group, which could not keep the institution afloat. In 1968, the school closed.

“Toward the end, the school was not what it should have been,” O’Donnell said, adding that some graduates from that era still feel very strongly about Black-Foxe.

He attended from 1942 to 1949, starting originally as a board cadet and later switching to become a day student. The 83-year-old author said he enjoyed the sense of comfort that came with attending a smaller school and praised the lack of distractions — i.e. females — at Black-Foxe.

“It was a very good experience for me,” O’Donnell added.

“Hollywood Cadets” is available on Amazon. For information, visit the Black-Foxe alumni site at www.bfmi.org.