Sale of Landmark Cemetery Approved by Trustee

The on-again, off-again sale of Hollywood Memorial Park cemetery, where many film luminaries are buried, has been approved, a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee said Monday.

Tyler Cassity of St. Louis, who put down a $75,000 nonrefundable deposit and made a $375,000 offer for the cemetery during a January bankruptcy hearing, will be the new owner, trustee Duke Salisbury said.

“All concerned parties, including the state of California, the city of Los Angeles and the buyer’s moving force, Mr. Cassity, went the extra mile to make this very important transaction happen,” he said.

The cemetery is the final resting place of film legends including Rudolph Valentino, Tyrone Power and Cecil B. DeMille. It fell into disrepair after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Cassity formed Hollywood Forever Inc. to take control of the cemetery and said early on that he wanted to make the park “high-tech.” He proposed setting up a computer terminal in the cemetery where people could see digitized pictures of loved ones and information about their lives.

“The sale of the cemetery to Hollywood Forever Inc. opens an exciting new chapter in the history of the cemetery and should ease the concern of those owning property in the cemetery about its future,” said David Isenberg, an attorney for the trustee.