LMGI COMPASS
|
Fall 2020
•
43
Lakeside, you'll fi nd
actor/director John Huston,
Valerie "Rhoda" Harper,
Soundgarden's Chris
Cornell and punk legend
Johnny Ramone. Along
the eastern wall, lies the
fi rst transgender screen
superstar Holly Woodlawn,
immortalized in Warhol fi lms
and Lou Reed's epic "Walk on
the Wild Side." Holly came
from Miami, Florida, and is
now interred in a wall crypt
covered in red lipstick kisses
from drag and transgender
pilgrims. There are famous
and infamous 'neighbors'
such as Las Vegas visionary
Bugsy Segal and, speaking of
Bugs, voiceover legend Mel
Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Yosemite
Sam, Foghorn Leghorn…) is
interred here, his epitaph?
"That's All Folks!"
There are monuments
to historic Los Angeles
fi gures like the Chandlers
of Los Angeles Times/Mirror
fame alongside an eagle-
topped tribute to Times
workers killed in a bombing
to protest Harrison Gray
Otis' vehement anti-union
advocacy. There is a 20-ft-
tall white granite rocketship
monument commemorating
the 1958 Atlas missile launch,
a memorial to Carl Morgan
Bigsby, his inscription:
"Retired by God."
The current owners have
revitalized the historic screen
land cemetery. They actively
support industry professionals
who wish to fi lm at the
cemetery or continue their
cinematic immortality among
their peers at Hollywood
Forever once 'retired.' I have
been walking at the cemetery
nearly every morning during
our 'COVID hiatus' and fi nd
more fascinating details about
the property and its residents
every day. I love this place
and have spent many happy
days fi lming, parking and
attending Cinespia Screenings
held on the lawn adjacent to
the west-end mausoleum (not
on graves). There is also an
incredible Dia de los Muertos
Festival held every year. I hope
to live to be 100, but when
it's my fi nal scene, I'm ready
to move into my high-rise
couch crypt with a perpetual
view of the Hollywood sign,
forever. My epitaph? "Location,
Location, Location!"
