PLAYTHINGS : The Ultimate E-Ticket

Southern California is perhaps the world’s greatest tourist spot, with everything from the Hollywood Walk of Fame to the Venice Boardwalk beckoning the eager sightseer. And then there’s Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, which attracts more than a million visitors each year with 315 acres of fun, shops and attractions for the entire family--not to mention a lot of dead people.

Come to think of it, it also has some uncanny similarities to another, more famous attraction:

Disneyland: Walt Disney built it.

Forest Lawn: Walt Disney is buried there.

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Disneyland: Biggest tourist draw in ultraconservative Anaheim.

Forest Lawn: Biggest tourist draw in ultraconservative Glendale.

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Disneyland: Offers American history at “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.”

Forest Lawn: Offers American history at Freedom Mausoleum.

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Disneyland: Parades.

Forest Lawn: Funeral processions.

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Disneyland: Skyway to Tomorrowland.

Forest Lawn: Garden of Ascension.

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Disneyland: Explores life after death in Haunted Mansion.

Forest Lawn: Explores life after death in the Hall of the Crucifixion-Resurrection.

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Disneyland: Little Mermaid in “Fantasmic” show.

Forest Lawn: “Little Mermaid” in the Heron Fountain pond.

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Disneyland: “Happiest Place on Earth.”

Forest Lawn: Last Place on Earth.