Hollywood High’s marching band hit its lowest...

Hollywood High’s marching band hit its lowest note in 1988 when the group shrank to six musicians--too few even to spell out “HOLLYWOOD.”

Causes of the decline ranged from a lack of funding to an influx of foreign-born students unfamiliar with American music.

But the band is making a comeback. Musician Herb Alpert donated $5,000 to the group on Friday to match a similar contribution by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. And band membership has increased to 50 since director Joe Montgomery came to the school last year.

Montgomery’s goal is for the once-mighty Marching Sheiks to be allowed back in the Hollywood Christmas Parade. The chamber has barred the group for eight years, explaining that it must “protect the quality” of the nationally televised event.

“We do a lot of face-to-face recruiting on campus and we also go to the junior high schools to talk about our program,” said the bandleader.

Montgomery said the donation will help fill out the Hollywood High Brass.

“Right now,” he said, “the school has one trumpet.”

Now if Alpert really wanted to help, maybe he could play it.

You may have read in this space and in Jack Smith’s column how the comedy routines on some old “Laugh-In” episodes actually foreshadowed world events. “Laugh-In,” whose 20-year-old re-runs now appear on cable TV, had gags that mentioned Ronald Reagan serving as President from 1980 to 1988, the Berlin Wall falling in 1989, and an oil spill in Orange County.

That program doesn’t stand alone as a modern Nostradamus, though. The 1974 movie “Earthquake” also foreshadowed a historic confrontation.

Early in the film, a police chase ends with a crash in Beverly Hills. One officer chews out another, pointing out that the cop car had just run over the hedge of a prominent resident: Zsa Zsa Gabor.

April 1--no fooling--is the second anniversary of sorts for another celebrated Rolls-Royce driver, David Spellerberg. He’s the guy who received more than 1,000 parking tickets for docking his car all day outside his gallery on Rodeo Drive. He claimed he was only giving modest Rodeo “some glitter and glamour.”

Though Spellerberg’s chauffeur faithfully fed a parking meter $15 a day, the city found his $200,000 Silver Wraith in violation because it was in a one-hour zone. A judge later ended the fun by issuing an injunction that requires Spellerberg to move the 1954 jalopy at least 500 feet after sitting for an hour.

Now, Spellerberg has organized a caravan of 100 sympathetic Rolls owners, who’ll hog Rodeo Drive’s curbs between noon and 1:30 on Sunday, the second anniversary of his first ticket. “We’ll have models dating back to 1920 for people to see,” he said.

For all the attention he’s brought his automobile model, Spellerberg says he was recently turned down for membership by the ungrateful Southern California Rolls-Royce Owners Club.

“I guess they don’t like my style,” he explained, needlessly.

MiscelLAny:

Ice cream first appeared in L.A. in 1856, pioneer Harris Newmark wrote. He didn’t say which flavor. Nor at which mini-mall.