In the 1930s teens overdosed, too

This achingly sad story in the news today might seem like a problem that started in the 1960s and only got worse: Hollywood High School Student Dies and 3 Overdose on Fentanyl-Laced Pills (people.com)

However, Rave told me it started from the day they opened the doors at Beverly Hills High School in 1927. She was in one of its early 1930s freshman classes (I know which one, but don’t want to identify her). She recalled cars idling at the curb outside the school: drug pushers looking for rich kids.

Beverly Hills High School at one year old. You can see places just off of Moreno Drive where cars would idle in the early 1930s, waiting for students to step off campus property and buy whatever they wanted drug-wise. Notice the oil well at the left. Rave had oil well stories that I’ll share later. Public domain photo here: Water and Power Associates

Her best friend from Beverly Hills High died of a drug overdose at age 18, shortly after graduation.

Rave also knew W. C. Fields and Spencer Tracy, and all about their multiple trips to rehab (there was an equivalent even back then, a type of specialty spa). People working for drug dealers would take lowly jobs as orderlies, and quietly tip off the team with information like private phone and room numbers, to make temptations easily accessible. This continues today, no matter how expensive the rehab.

Rave used no drugs as a youth, and she only drank moderately her whole life. Her stories about only drinking ginger ale while Tennessee Williams frequented bars were no doubt true, perhaps because she intended to drive him home. When I knew her she liked a little wine, but she rarely refilled her glass, claiming it only took a few sips to get her tipsy. She was a tiny person at five-foot-nothing, so some of that was physiology, but losing her best friend so tragically surely had a lifelong effect.