Rest in Peace : AN UNUSUAL LANDMARK CALLED FOREST LAWN

“I believe in a happy eternal life,” begins the Builder’s Creed of Dr. Hubert Eaton, founder of what is probably the most famous permanent address in the United States, the Forest Lawn cemetery chain.

Eaton, who acquired the first Forest Lawn in 1917 and built the institution into a giant business, believed that “memorial parks” should be places for the living. Thousands of visitors who come to the two best known of the Forest Lawn outlets--situated in Glendale and the Hollywood Hills--seem to agree.

The immaculately groomed parks, with their commanding views of downtown Glendale or the Ventura Freeway, are best known for their giant art reproductions and celebrity graves. In the trade, they are simply known as the Disneylands of cemeteries.

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The Big Sleep

Scattered throughout Forest Lawn’s Glendale and Hollywood Hills cemeteries are the final resting places of numerous celebrities. But don’t ask Forest Lawn where they are. Citing the requests of the stars’ families, the cemeteries will not release the locations of celebrity grave sites, though a few privately published guidebooks have done just that. Among the famous folks interred at the parks:

Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Glendale

Gracie Allen

Humphrey Bogart

Nat (King) Cole

Sammy Davis Jr.

Walt Disney

W.C. Fields

Larry Fine

Errol Flynn

Clark Gable

Chico Marx

Mary Pickford

Spencer Tracy

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Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills

Lucille Ball

Bette Davis

Andy Gibb

Buster Keaton

Ernie Kovacs

Charles Laughton

Stan Laurel

Liberace

Ozzie Nelson

Rick Nelson

Freddie Prinze

George Raft

Mysteries and Myths

“Waltsicle”: One of the most enduring of Hollywood rumors is that Walt Disney was frozen at death in 1966 to be revived at a later date. But Dick Fisher, publicity manager for Forest Lawn, confirmed that Disney’s cremated remains rest in the Glendale park. Fair warning to celeb hunters: his final resting place is one of the hardest to find.

Unlisted: Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, some believe, was buried with a live telephone at her side. Not true, according to the spoilsport book “Rumor!” by Hal Morgan and Kenny Tucker.

Down the Hatch: Errol Flynn was supposedly buried with six bottles of whiskey. “Don’t know anything about that one,” Fisher said.

Vacancy: Jean Harlow’s elaborate crypt room, purchased for a reported $25,000 upon her early death in 1937 by her boyfriend, William Powell, has space for three crypts. Her mom is in one of the other two, but it remains a mystery as to who was to go in the third, according to the “This is Hollywood” guide by Ken Schessler. “No information on that,” the forthcoming Fisher said.

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The Last Word

The oldest remaining epitaphs date back to ancient Egypt, where the tombs of pharaohs were inscribed with pleas asking the gods’ mercy on the deceased. Although many modern epitaphs contain literary and spiritual quotations, most represent a brief impression of the deceased’s personality. Some examples glimpsed in both parks:

A Wonderful Guy

A Resolute Seeker After Truth

She Did It The Hard Way (Bette Davis’ grave)

Having a Wonderful Time--Glad You’re Not Here

Don’t Forget Our Next Doubles Match

Off to Greener Fairways

Just Kicking Back

Master of Mirth *

A political Epitaph: Anthony John Bittson, who was interred in the Glendale park in 1985, left behind more of a speech than an epitaph. Running to 45 words, it includes such thoughts as, “It Was the Electric Push Button That Emancipated the Toilers and Not the Antiquated Theories of Karl Marx. . . . “

Source: Forest Lawn Memorial park, This is Hollywood; Researche by DAVID BRADY and DAVID COLKER CRISTINA RIVERO / Los Angeles Times