[SpecialK]

Los Angeles National.

Richard Carlson played one of the leads in Creature From the Black Lagoon, and appeared in 3 other '50's sci-fi movies, plus TV.


William Powell was the first licensed black airplane pilot, founded the first all-black flying school, and launched the first all-black air shows.

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Last edited by SpecialK; 10-31-2014 at 02:49 PM.

[SpecialK]

Mt Sinai.

Helen Forrest was a popular vocalist during America's big band Swing Era, singing with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Harry James. In 1942, she was voted the top female performer in the US.


Walter Kent composed movie scores from the 1930s to the 1960s, and was nominated two times for an oscar. He co-wrote the song "I'll Be Home For Christmas" in 1943 (ironic as he was Jewish).


Lou Derman was a producer and writer of the 1970s comedy All In the Family, and produced the 1960s sitcom Mister Ed.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn Glendale.

Actor Wallace Beery started as an assistant to an elephant trainer. For 35 years he held the record for catching the largest black sea bass. He won the best actor oscar for The Champ in 1931.


Felix Bernhardt wrote the original music for the Christmas classic song Winter Wonderland. The very popular Perry Como/Andrew Sisters versions came out after his death.


Helen Burgess had little acting experience but was personally chosen by CB DeMille for The Plainsman. She was in only 3 other films before dying of pneumonia just before her 21st birthday.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn, Glendale.

Bert Kalmar Sr co-wrote the songs Who's Sorry Now? and I Want to be Loved By You, and wrote screenplays for the Marx Brothers movies Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup.


Drake Sather was a comedian and Emmy nominated TV writer with credit for Zoolander, Saturday Night Live, Dennis Miller Show, Ed, The Larry Sanders Show and NewsRadio.


Robert Stacy-Judd was an architect and author who designed theaters, hotels, and other commercial buildings in the Mayan Revival Style, most famously the Aztec Hotel on the original Route 66 in Monrovia.

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Last edited by SpecialK; 10-31-2014 at 02:59 PM.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn. Glendale.

Wiard Ihnen was an art director, winning two oscars, for Wilson and Blood on the Sun. He was married to costume designer Edith Head.


Gus Levene was an orchestra leader, best known for the first recording of White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby. Films included The King and I, Carousel, Giant, Marjourie Morning Star and The Music Man.


Tod Sloan was a horse racing jockey. He was accused of betting on races, and retired in 1901. After a failed restaurant business and mediocre acting career, he died of cirrhosis of the liver. In the National Museum of Racing and HOF.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn, Glendale.

EL Doheny Jr was the famous son of oil-man EL Doheny, Sr and was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. Jr died under mysterious circumstances, either suicide or murder. EL Doheny Jr was a devout Catholic, but is not buried in the Catholic Calvary cemetery with his family. Suicides don't get a Catholic burial - fueling that theory...


Literally a stone's throw downhill is T Hugh Plunkett, the chauffeur and eventually personal assistant to Edward L. Doheny Jr. The best guess is that mentally ill Plunkett shot Jr, then himself.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn, Glendale.

Astrid Allwyn acted on stage, then as Charles Boyer's fiancee in Love Affair, and was in the Shirley Temple film Dimples, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.


Bill Walsh produced many of Disney's live-action films. For the film Mary Poppins, he shared the oscar nominations for best film and the best writing.


Frank Borzage acted and directed early movies, and won oscars for Seventh Heaven in 1927 and Bad Girl in 1931. Other movie directing includes A Farewell to Arms, and Strange Cargo.

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Last edited by SpecialK; 10-31-2014 at 03:14 PM.

[SpecialK]

Grandview, Glendale has been closed for some time pending sale, and has only recently re-opened, 12-4 PM on Sundays. Overgrown grass, green or dead, covers many markers, and the mausoleums are still locked.

Chill Wills started as a singer, then moved to acting. He was the voice of Francis the talking mule in that series of movies, was in Giant, and was oscar-nominated for his supporting role in The Alamo.


Madge Blake started acting late in life. She is best known as Aunt Harriet on TVs Batman series, and was in The Real McCoys, and I Love Lucy. During WWII she worked on the detonator for the atomic bomb.


Verna Felton acted in Belles on Their Toes, The Fuller Brush Man, and Picnic, but was active behind the scenes as many voices in Disney movies and Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law. You can see the overgrown conditions here. I had to kick up all the grass.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn, Hollywood.

Leon Shamroy was a cinematographer on Leave Her To Heaven, The Robe, The King and I, South Pacific, Cleopatra, and others. Nominated 18 times for an oscar, winning 4 times.


Victor Milner started as a film lab assistant, rising to cinematographer with 8 oscar nominations including The General Died at Dawn, The Buccaneer, Reap the Wild Wind, The Furies, and winning for 1934s Cleopatra.


Gordy Bau was a makeup artist then supervisor on Out of the Past, Mr Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse, Strangers on a Train, A Streetcar Named Desire, Mister Roberts, and Rebel Without A Cause.

[SpecialK]

Hillside.

Marvin Mitchelson was a divorce lawyer for Marlon Brando, Groucho Marx, Quincy Jones, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hugh Hefner, Robert DeNiro, Bob Dylan and Sylvester Stallone. He introduced the concept of palimony in the Lee Marvin case.


Christopher Conroy was the founder of the flower shop franchise featuring distinctive red brick, open-air shops. He wanted to take the SoCal business nation-wide, but died before it happened (bought by 1-800-Flowers).


Mark C Bloome started with one Richfield gas station, and expanded into a chain of tire shops, pioneering the modern station design with a customer waiting room and nearby service bays.

[SpecialK]

Hollywood Forever.

Art Pepper played the saxophone and clarinet with Benny Carter and Stan Kenton. After some drug and legal issues, he played with Buddy Rich, and later toured Japan.


Gertrude Astor acted, mostly uncredited, in How Green Was My Valley, Reap the Wild Wind, Sunset Blvd, A Place in the Sun, When Worlds Collide, and The Sound of Music. This is in a dark alcove. ISO 6400, 1/15, f3.5...and I still had to lighten it.




Annetta Hill was a soprano singer, mostly in Italian operas, including Faust and La Traviata. She married Oscar Giaccaglia, who was decorated as Chevalier of Civil Valor by the King of Italy shortly thereafter.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn, Glendale.

Roy Russing was an auto racer of the 1920-40s. He won the Pacific Coast Championship in '40 and '41. He was killed in a crash during practice.


Lawrence Barnard was the creator and host of The Happy Wanderer travelogue show of the 1960s. A map of his weekly travel was available only at Ford dealerships, as Ford sponsored the show.


Chief Richard David Thunderbird was a Native American actor of the '30s and '40s, playing...an Indian, including Sitting Bull in 1936's Annie Oakley.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn, Glendale.

Russell Simpson acted in many John Ford movies including as Pa Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, and in Drums Along the Mohawk, They Were Expendable, and My Darling Clementine.


Lona Andre was a WAMPAS Baby Star, and acted in 50 films, mostly B varieties, before leaving for a successful Hollywood real estate career. She was married to actor Edward Morris for 4 months.


Fritz Leiber Sr acted in Shakespearean stage roles, then silent movies including Cleopatra, and Queen of Sheba. He played Franz Liszt in 1943's Phantom of the Opera. Father of writer Fritz Leiber Jr.

[SpecialK]

Forest Lawn, Hollywood.

Orville Hampton was a writer of bad TV and B movies, then contributed to Flipper, Perry Mason, Lassie and Hawaii 5-0.


William Mims acted in TV westerns, Lonely Are the Brave, Hot Rods to Hell, Columbo, Fantasy Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, and North And South.


Donald Nelson was a chemist at Sears Roebuck, rising to exec vice president in 1939. President Roosevelt picked him to lead the military procurement departments in WWII. He wrote Arsenal of Democracy about wartime industrial mobilization.

[SpecialK]

Carpinteria.

I must thank the grounds-keeper for volunteering to help me. He had a mobile app that led us to the markers that I would have no real chance to find as it is a "flat-in-grass" cemetery.

Oliver Prickett acted on stage under that real name, and as Oliver Blake in film, though he was usually uncredited. He played Geoduck in the Ma and Pa Kettle movies, and was in TVs Space Patrol, and Rin Tin TIn.


John Dehner was an animator for Disney, a DJ, and pianist before acting. He was Paladin on radio's Have Gun - Will Travel. He appeared in as many a 6 films and 9 TV spots in a year, usually the bad guy. He played the Commissioner in the movie comedy Airplane II.