As dedicated readers may know, we've discussed in-depth the setting for the film (which is NOT Austin), TX. You can read all about that in this post: Dazed is not set in Austin! The genesis for many of the stories and characters (and of course, the names) comes from Richard Linklater's freshman, sophomore and junior years at Huntsville High School in Huntsville, TX (he transferred to a Houston high school for senior year for baseball scholarship purposes). The wonderful book by Melissa Maerz, Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, delves deeply into Linklater's time in Huntsville and I highly suggest you check it out.
What I'd like to do here is a bit of analysis from the visual side, and before the days of electronic social media, there were yearbooks. Sure, yearbooks still exist but they aren't nearly as important as they used to be. They were pretty much THE only way back then to document your school year. So let's take a look at the Huntsville High School yearbook for the year 1976, the same year that Dazed takes place.
Before we look at a bunch of pictures, a quick refresher on Linklater and how he's a bit like two characters in the film. Kinda like Mitch Kramer in the movie, Rick was a freshman in the 1975-1976 academic year. Essentially the writer/director of Dazed is both Pink and Mitch. Pink is Linklater as a senior, talking to Mitch who is Linklater as a freshman. He took himself at the start of HS and the end of HS, made them into two different characters and had them interact with each other - pretty cool. What would your senior self say to your freshman self? Here's a Facebook post from a nearby high school that played against Hunstville at the end of the 1976 season where Linklater saw some mop up action at QB and gives you an idea of his high school sports background: Hunstville Hornets vs A&M Consolidated Tigers. You can also check out a couple of Huntsville Item articles on the Linklater family. Sadly, Rick's mom Diane passed away in 2017.
Finally, just because Linklater used their names doesn't mean any of these people were exactly (or even a little) like the characters in the movie. He may have been thinking of someone else he knew but liked someone else's name. Certainly don't expect people with the same name to look a lot like their movie counterpart, ok? Also, I used green highlighter because green is the color of Huntsville High School. Finally, all pics are clickable if you want to see them closer/bigger.
Right off the bat, it's hard to not notice all the Bicentennial references
just like in Dazed:
In addition to being freshman VP, Richard was also an Escort to the freshman Queen and an award winner in the woodshop (he made a "cheese" board - typos are unavoidable - and there's not one picture of a paddle in the yearbook)
Rick has 2 older sisters who also attended Huntsville High, Tricia and Susan:
OK, let's get into people with names that Linklater used (either in the movie or in earlier versions of the script). First up is Pentico. You'll remember that (Chris) Pentico shows up in the doorway of Mr. Payne's class, wearing a Kiss t-shirt and shaking the car keys, signaling that he was indeed able to borrow his brother's car to help Mitch, Carl, Tommy and Hirschfelder escape from school without being smacked in their behinds with a hunk of wood. The yearbook also shows us the car's owner, the older Pentico brother Joe, who in real life was a senior in 1976. I wonder if Joe Pentico ratted out the freshman to fellow seniors Benny, Mel and O'Bannion?
Little brother
Big brother
In the movie Joe owned this sweet 1964 Buick Electra and let Chris use it as a getaway car for his freshman pals:
How about Don? Mr. Overalls-wearing, coming on to the female teachers, Mr. Don Dawson himself. Well, in the earlier versions of the script Don's full name was Don Dollar, and who do we find in the yearbook?
Kevin Pickford, too bad his party got busted man. In the original script his name was Keith Pickford, and here he is:
Coach Conrad and his staff, who could forget them? This is what the actual football coaching staff looked like back in 1976, plus I had to throw in the reference to the lovely older man and his wife who grab Pink at Mitch's baseball game. He said 22 letterman, but Linklater's yearbook has 17.
How about some of the ladies from the film? Here we have Kaye Faulkner, the senior girl not so into the hazing and who has deep thoughts about Gilligan's Island. In real life she was Denise Faulkner:
Next let's check out Shavonne, the beauty who documented all the Gilligan's Island episodes on the chalkboard, later needed her jeans zipped up with pliers, and accused Don Dawson of something premature. We never learn her last name in the movie, but it's there in earlier versions of the script and it matches the yearbook:
from the script:
Hey, could someone please tell this guy to get the hell off of White Lightning? Clint's not gonna be happy if it gets scratched. Also, there was a sophomore named Steve Bruno, perhaps the source of Clint? (Clint's last name in the draft script is Bruno)
Everyone remembers Tony, he of the Abe Lincoln dream, right? Part of the poker playing crew that decides to go out for the night since it's the last day of school. I'm sad to report that there is no one in the 1976 yearbook named Mike Newhouse, or anyone even with the last name Newhouse. So no "I Wanna Dance!" in this post, sorry. Also no female (or male) with the last name of Dunn, so I can't show you the inspiration for red-headed Cynthia. But here's Tony, who in the movie is Tony Olsen and in the real life is Tony Olm:
OK, everyone seems to not like Carl Burnett. He's certainly a bit of a weasel - he runs away with Tommy after the baseball game, asking Mitch to exit out the gate in right field "because they're gonna get you anyway". Then he and Tommy (Tommy's a dick too, for going along with Carl all the time) actually invade the 8th grade dance make-out room and pressure Hirschfelder into leaving when he's "getting there". Unforgiveable! Here's Carl Burns (also Burns in the early script, Burnett in the movie) and William Hirschfelder (amazingly named Adam Hirsk in the early script) from the 1976 yearbook:
uh, Mitch is way cooler than Carl, no offense to Linklater's script:
Here's a random guy from the 1976 yearbook who, to me, seems to be dressed like and channeling Mr. Fred O'Bannion quite a bit. Unfortunately, there's no one with the last name O'Bannion in the yearbook so this is what you get:
Before we get to the big names and a special surprise to end this post, let's take one more look at the handsome freshman, Richard Linklater:
Anyone know this mean senior girl with a real attitude? Her name is Darla Marks, and here is possibly her counterpart in the yearbook. Originally in draft scripts, Darla's last name was Woods. Remove the "s" and we find Darla Wood in the yearbook. I like to think real-life Darla Wood was lovely and not at all like Darla Marks in the movie. AIR RAID:
If you've made it this far, you're probably pretty hardcore and know that in 2004 three former classmates of Linklater from Huntsville High School sued Universal Studios (not Richard Linklater, because Universal has a lot more money than Linklater!). They sued for defamation of character, and said they have suffered
embarrassment and ridicule because of the characters based on them in Dazed. The three were Bobby Wooderson, Richard Floyd and Andy Slater. I present to you Bobby and Tommy Wooderson (Bobby's younger brother), Richard (Ricky) Floyd and Andy Slater:
Tommy was a fellow freshman like Linklater, Bobby Wooderson had graduated the year before, Ricky Richard "Pink" Floyd was a senior (no evidence he was on the football team, though) and Andy was a sophomore. Needless to say, the lawsuit was dismissed.
Everyone remembers the Top Notch from the movie, but it was a substitute for the chain drive-in restaurant that Linklater remembered from his high school days, and that's Sonic. The local Sonic in Huntsville was nice enough to pay for an ad in the yearbook, and here it is:
And now we've reached the end of what I found in the 1976 yearbook for Huntsville High School. I'm ending with a bang and the biggest surprise that I found. Yes, it was real! Presenting to you all, the REAL Emporium:
Looks a lot like the movie, right? Amazing to see an ad for the actual real-life Emporium! One last added bonus - in the early scripts, Mitch and Jodi's last name was not Kramer, but Kerr. And of course in the movie Simone's last name is Kerr. Check out the ad above the Emporium's ad in the yearbook:
That it folks. I hope you enjoyed this long and visual post and that I didn't drag you into water that was too deep. Many of my posts are for hardcore fans, but this one went really hardcore. Thank you all for taking the time to check it out.
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