When I'm In A New Town I Like To Go Hang Out Where The Dead Folk Are

Day 3, part one. In the morning I set off on a stroll to:



Easter Island....



Or more likely I walked past a props warehouse that had popped these props outside for a while.

This was on the way down to Hollywood Forever, a cemetery right in the heart of Hollywood. How much in the heart of Hollywood you ask?

Well if you wander towards the back wall,this is what you'll see.





Yep, the Paramount Studio lot. While I was there they were filming something involving a lot of shooting, and the sound of the volleys obviously carried.

At first I though it was a 21 Gun Salute, but those are normally more ordered and less random.

Onto the main part of the cemetery. Large chunks of it are brightly lit crypts, like this one:



At intervals there are seating areas, which one presumes are places for the dead to hang out, chat and catch up on things.



In some of the cooler crypts they even have a little piano for recitals, cocktails, that sort of thing.



Not a bad way to spend eternity, I guess.

Elsewhere in the cemetery is the Fairbanks Memorial Gardens. This is where the dead celebs hang out.

Gabba Gabba Hey





This one is the monument to both Douglas Fairbankses, Sr & Jr.

It's kind of algaed up if you get up close, but I shouldn't really criticise as it is grander than anything that will be erected to the memory of my passing.



I think perhaps the modesty of Fay Wray's memorial stone touched me more. There is also a bench and a tree close by.



Of course, when I go I want something a little more, well, a little more showy. Something like this, perhaps. Sitting there, master of my domain:



Except I think I'd maybe want it more life-like.

And perhaps with animatronics.

I've already been beaten to the world's first LOLTomb.




Cecil B DeMille is on the right.



And this is a close up.


(Yes, of course that gag would have worked better had it been Gloria Swanson's tomb, but we're working with what we've got here).


At the centre of this park is a lake, replete with ducks, swans, a warning sign about how aggressive mating birds can be and this monument to William C Clark.



Finally, as I was leaving I passed this and shed a tear:



I hope that reports of their death are exaggerated.



This is the first of a two parter. The next part will come soon.