Hollywood Forever Cemetery

  

click photo to enlarge		 If you are one of those people that want to see the stars you will see more of them here then any place else. It was originally called Hollywood Memorial park and is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angles. It was started in 1899 on 100 acres. It now has only 60 acres as 40 were sold off to Paramount Studios. Part of the land was set off for a dedicated Jewish Burial grounds called Beth Olam Cemetery where people from Hollywood's Jewish community are buried. Jules Roth bought the cemetery in 1939. Jules was a convicted felon and used a lot of the money from the cemetery's operations to pay for his own luxuries and let the cemetery fall into a state of disrepair.

click photo to enlarge		 In order to settle tax bills he owed he sold off two strips of land along Santa Monica Blvd which became strip malls. According to the current owners, Tyler and Brent Cassidy,  he never repaired roofs or earthquake damage to crypts and siphoned off about 9 million dollars from the endowment fund meant to take care of the place for perpetuity. Today the Cassidy's have sunk considerable money and time restoring the cemetery.

click photo to enlarge		 Today Karrie Bible does a wonderful job giving historical walking tours of the cemetery. She considers herself the "Lady in Black" who used to come and leave a rose on Rudolph Valentino's grave every year. Although she says she is more of the historical Lady in Black and not like the original who would swoon over Rudolph. She does a truly wonderful job on her tours and I highly recommend it. Some of the more famous people there are: Douglas Fairbanks, Don Adams, Mel Blanc, Charles Chaplin Jr, Lana Clarkson, Cecil B. DeMille, Peter Finch, Griffith J. Griffith, Darren McGavin, Johnny Ramone, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.

click photo to enlarge
               click photo to enlarge