We got there early, so I was
able to get a clear shot of her crypt, but by the time we left, the tourists
were stand three deep, completely blocking your view.
The slot to one side of Marilyn is vacant because it belongs to Hugh Hefner. The slot above her is also empty
but once belong to Richard F. Poncher. He once told his wife, “When I croak, if you don't put
me upside down over Marilyn, I'll haunt you the rest of your life." So, he was flipped in his coffin and placed in the crypt over Marilyn. However, after 23 years, his wife sold the crypt for $4.6 million to pay off her $1.6
million mortgage on their Beverly Hills home. Poncher has been moved to a different
location, but I bet he is still face down in his coffin.
The only mausoleum, belongs to
The Armand Hammer Family.
There are a few markers from the 20's and earlier.
The below 1906 marker was the oldest one I found.
There are several crypt alcoves like the one Marilyn is in and a few locked rooms like the one below.
Harry S Warren was an Academy Award winning composer and lyricist. His plaque shows the first few
notes of You’ll Never Know (Just How Much
I Love You).
Actor Lemmon, one of
Monroe’s co-stars in Some Like it Hot,
simply reads, “Jack Lemmon in.”
Karl Malden who won the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actor for A Streetcar Named Desire and One-Eyed Jacks, has a marker that plaintly states, " Loving Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great-grandfather."
Best Supporting Actor for A Streetcar Named Desire and One-Eyed Jacks, has a marker that plaintly states, " Loving Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great-grandfather."
Walter Matthau who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Fortune Cookie, also has a marker that makes no mention of his career. The same for Carroll O'Conner (All in the Family) and Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's Angels).
Darryl Zanuck and his wife Virginia had novelettes carved on
their markers.
Cornel Wilde, nominated for Best Actor Academy Award in 1945.
Here’s a curiosity, Wikipedia says, “Kornél Lajos Weisz (his given name) was born in 1912 in Previdza, Hungary
(now Slovakia), although his year and place of birth are usually and
inaccurately given as 1915 in New York City.” Yet, his grave maker says, 1915.
Since he was buried 22 years before Wikipedia was born his children didn’t get
to read the footnote: “United States Census 1930;
Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: 1576; Page: 9B; Enumeration District:
1009; Image: 1057.0. This record dated April 9, 1930, gives Wilde's birthplace
as Hungary and his birth year as approximately 1912. Furthermore it indicates
his immigration to the U.S. in 1920.”
Viola Kates Stimpson was a 1920’s dancer/chorus girl who
returned to college in 1951 and became a classroom teacher for the LA public
schools until her retirement in 1971 when she returned to acting doing numerous
commercials, and small television and films roles.
Harry J. Essex, Screenwriter
of Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Jim Backus a radio, television, film and voice actor. He’s
best remembered as Thurston Howell the 3rd from Gilligan’s Island.
Kate Coscarelli was a best-selling fiction writer who died at
72 from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Loretta King Hadler starred in Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster.
Woodman of the World have been in most cemeteries I've visited.
This memorial park, founded in 1905, is smaller than a city
block but it’s jam-packed with plain folks and Hollywood Greats.
