It was July 4 in Glendale, and Errol Flynn didn’t have a lot to say.
Neither did Walt Disney or Jimmy Stewart or Clayton Moore, TV’s Lone Ranger. As for Humphrey Bogart and Sammy Davis, Jr., they were hiding behind locked doors.
In fact, it was downright quiet and peaceful all afternoon at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, as we drove about, stopping the rental car here and there to get out and admire the green lawns, trees, sculptures and views. And to look for the graves of stars, of course.
2023 Deb McCaskey
Some of the statuary at Forest Lawn Glendale — one of which is a copy of Michelangelo’s David.
At the more extroverted Hollywood Forever cemetery down on Santa Monica Boulevard, they had just observed the holiday on July 1 with fireworks and a screening of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. We had a family event to go to that evening, but even if we hadn’t, being in the midst of huge crowds of people – living people, anyway – is not our idea of a fun time.
But here in the quiet hills above Glendale on the Fourth, all was quiet as – well, as the grave. Lots of graves. So, very quiet. The crowds here are underground or in niches, and all the more congenial for that.
When we visited there were just a few other live folks around, all nearly as well behaved as the permanent residents. We saw a couple sitting under some trees just off the road, and a small group with lawn chairs who appeared to be having a picnic – near a loved one’s final resting place, perhaps.
Glendale is the flagship Forest Lawn location – there are six altogether in southern California – and is the one where you’re most likely to find people from the Hollywood of the 1930s, the era we like to research.
Forest Lawn opened in 1906 and was taken over in 1917 by a new manager with the idea that the traditional marble orchard was depressing and unsightly. None of that here. It’s all rolling green hills, trees, flowers, fountains, and statuary here and there – while the dead rest under discreet grave markers level with the lawn.
According to the Smithsonian magazine, this is the place that set the standard for the modern cemetery – oops, sorry, memorial park. “Park” sounds so much less, you know, deathy.
There are several churches here including the famed Wee Kirk o’ the Heather, modeled on one dating from the 14th century in Scotland. Stained glass windows in the kirk illustrate the old Scottish song “Annie Laurie” – the lady for whom the composer “would lay me doon and dee.”
All so sad and romantic.
Public domain/Wikimedia Commons – Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection
The Wee Kirk o’ the Heather
Forest Lawn has also been described as the Disneyland of cemeteries, though it predates Walt’s theme park and, the Smithsonian speculates, may have inspired the great animator himself. Much less animated now, he and some family members share a walled garden with a statue of the Little Mermaid. (I know: I was hoping it would be Mickey, too.)
Getting a peek at the deathstyles of the rich and famous is not so easy here. There are no maps for sale, or organized tours, much less movie screenings and fireworks. No matter how wild and crazy folks might have been in life, they now live by Forest Lawn rules. Which I ended up thinking, you know, is fine. I’m not sure Elizabeth Taylor wants to hear from me anyway.
(Hollywood Forever, by contrast, has the maps and tours, not to mention an entire building – a pavilion – devoted to Judy Garland. Her frequent co-star Mickey Rooney is also easy to find in his crypt. But my favorite one is Burt Reynolds. His monument is a larger-than-life bust in a cowboy hat. His expression makes it seem like he would appreciate having company.)
2023 Deb McCaskey
Left, Burt Reynolds at Hollywood Forever. Right, Errol Flynn at Forest Lawn.
I could see returning here next time we’re in the area. Open space and quiet are hard to find in any city, and here you have a really big, really green, really well-tended garden where it’s nice to spend part of a warm day in the Los Angeles area, where you can find a peaceful spot and meditate on the meaning of life and death and picnics.
There’s also a museum here, with some very nice sculptures and, when we visited, an exhibit on panoramas, the large-scale art format that was all the rage in the 18th and 19th centuries. If you have a thing for panoramas, get there soon. This exhibit, “Grand Views, the Immersive World of Panoramas,” is open through Sept. 10, 2023.
A final thought: I’m not sure what one gets out of visiting graves anyway. It’s not like the folks themselves are actually, well, there. I mean, yes, if you dug them up and opened the coffin and looked in – okay, this is getting much too ghoulish.
What I mean to say is, I’m sure people’s souls (if we have them, and in my more optimistic moments I like to believe we do) have better things to do than hang around a place like this. Life reviews, spying on those they left behind, looking up old pals who died owing them money …
But if there are any ghosts around here, I expect one would be that of Errol Flynn. Very near his grave is the statue of a nearly naked woman, so close that it gives the impression that the old rapscallion is spending eternity looking up her skirt.
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Deb McCaskey 