Welcome to Hollywood Graveyard where we
set out to remember and celebrate the
lives of those lived to entertain us,
by visiting their final resting places.
Today we're exploring Valhalla Memorial Park
where Jiminy Cricket, Elmer Fudd, and Betty Rubble
are buried... it's true!
Oliver Hardy is here too.
Join us, won't you?
Pierce Bros. Valhalla Memorial Park
is located a few miles north of
Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley,
where the dead are treated to the
frequent spectacle of planes taking off
the nearby Burbank Airport. The cemetery
was founded in 1923 and was among the
first in the area to feature flat
cemetery markers.
The most notable
feature is the Grand Rotunda, which
was dedicated in 1925 and stood over the
original main entrance. In 1953, on the
50th anniversary of the Wright Bros.
first flight, the rotunda was rededicated
as the Portal of the Folded Wings:
a shrine to aviation.
Our first stop is just to
the east of the current main entrance
off Cahuenga. Here we'll find the man
known as the "last stooge", Curly-Joe DeRita.
Joe took on the role of Curly
after the death of Jerome Howard, the
original Curly. He performed with the
Stooges until they disbanded in the 1970s.
On the eastern edge of this lawn
is the Mausoleum of the Resurrection.
Inside, high on the back wall, is the
niche of composer Leigh Harline, the man
who penned the song that quickly became
the theme of the Walt Disney Company:
"When You Wish Upon a Star."
[music]
The song and score written
for "Pinocchio" won him an Academy Award.
He wrote music for many other Disney
films including "Snow White."
Up the road a little ways on the same
lawn to the east we'll find a handful of stars.
Valhalla isn't the best at
ensuring their graves don't become
overgrown - in fact I actually had to dig
up this next one. But here she is:
trailblazing African-american actress Madame Sul-Te-Wan.
The daughter of freed slaves
character actress Madame Sul-Te-Wan,
birth name Nellie Crawford, was the first
African-american actor male or female to
sign a film contract and be a featured
performer. She won praise for her role as
Tituba in the film "Maid of Salem,"
and can also be seen in "King of the Zombies."
Despite limitations Hollywood
placed on African-american performers in
that era
she worked steadily, and in 1986 was
inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
A few spaces northeast is the
grave of Arthur Q. Bryan, the man who
originated the voice of Elmer Fudd, one
of the few Looney Tunes characters not
voiced by Mel Blanc.
"Shhhh, be vewy vewy quiet
I'm hunting wabbits!"
The Q stands for "Quirk..."
seriously.
Just northeast of Arthur is another
African-american trailblazer, actor
Willie Best, sometimes credited as
Sleep 'N Eat. Best was one of the first
African-american actors to become
well-known, receive regular screen credit,
and be given proper character names.
He can be seen in the Charlie Chan film
"The Red Dragon," as well as alongside Bob Hope
in "The Ghost Breakers," Hope once referring
to Best as one of the finest talents he
had worked with. Producer Hal Roach
offered similar praise of Best.
Limited by the racist attitudes of early
Hollywood, Best was a tremendous talent
who was never able to fully spread his
wings, but worked hard with what he was
given, and paved the way for
African-american comedians to follow.
Continuing slightly south east we find
the grave of George Milford, one of the
great directors of early Hollywood.
Most notably he directed Rudolph Valentino in
his career defining roles in "The Sheik."
After 35 years in the director's chair
Melford eased up his workload and
focused on character acting, including a
role in Cecil B DeMille's "The Ten Commandments."
Straight west, just
across the street, we find the grave of
one of Hollywood's legendary makeup
artists, Bud Westmore.
Part of the Westmore dynasty of makeup artists,
Bud worked on hundreds of
notable films like "To Kill a Mockingbird,"
and "Spartacus." But it is for his work at
Universal creating monsters and aliens
that he is best remembered, including
Gil-man in "The Creature from the Black Lagoon,"
with Disney animator Millicent Patrick.
He also did the makeup on popular
TV shows like "The Munsters."
Back across the street to the northeast
is a small walled garden area. Here we
find the grave of Oliver Hardy, one half
of legendary comedy duo Laurel & Hardy.
Ollie was the pompous, rotund
characters to Stan's lean, childlike character.
They starred in over 100 films
together, both silent and talky.
Curious how he died? Let's watch...
Okay, so that was just a scene from their
film "The Flying Deuces." He actually died
of a stroke the ripe old age of 65.
His cremated remains are buried at this spot
in the middle of the garden.
Back in the car, turning right at the large fountain,
we drive all the way down to the
south-central part of the cemetery.
Just before the intersection, next to the road,
we find the grave of actor Barton MacLane,
who starred alongside Humphrey Bogart
in the classic film "The Maltese Falcon."
He can also be seen in his
recurring role as General Peterson on
"I Dream of Jeannie."
Due to construction
we'll have to head back around the way
we came to make to the main road east of
the large fountain. Heading east on this
road, just before the newly constructed
crypt structures, we find the grave of
actress Martha Vickers, right next to
the road on the north side. Vickers, who's
married name was Rojas, began her career
as a model and first appeared on screen
in the 1943 film "Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman."
One of her more notable roles
with as Carmen in "The Big Sleep."
She died of cancer at just 46.
Continuing east on this road we arrive at the
the Portal of the Folded Wings." In front of
the portal is a memorial to the crew of
the space shuttle Columbia, who perished
when the shuttle disintegrated upon
re-entry on February 1st 2003.
While not exactly Hollywood, it's good to
stop and remember these brave pioneering
men and women for their contributions
to the advancement of humanity.
Heading into the portal, on the wall to the right,
we find a memorial for famed aviator
Amelia Earhart. She was the first female
aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic
Ocean which she accomplished in 1932,
making her an instant worldwide celebrity.
During an attempt to
circumnavigate the globe in 1937 she
disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
The mystery of her disappearance
lingers to this day, fueling a broad
spectrum of theories as to what exactly
happened to her on that fateful flight.
Out back of the portal in the Garden of
Remembrance is a wall of plaques.
Here we find one of Hollywood's legendary
stuntmen, Yakima Canutt. He was a champion
rodeo rider before doubling for stars
like Clark Gable and John Wayne, mainly
in western films, quickly becoming the
premier stunt performer in the 1930s.
He worked closely with John Wayne to pioneer
many stunts techniques still used in
Hollywood today. Perhaps most notably he
staged and directed the epic chariot
race for the 1959 film "Ben Hur."
Continuing north along this outer road
we stop at the next intersection.
As mentioned earlier, construction and
renovations closed off some of the
smaller roads, so we'll have to park here
and take a bit of a walk.
No problem though. It's a beautiful day; the air cool
and clean from a recent rainstorm.
Once we reach the large tree next to a trash bin,
we turn south. About a quarter of the
way into the lawn is the grave of
Claudia Dell, who was a model and
actress. She can be seen in films like
"The Woman Condemned," and "Sweet Kitty Bellairs."
And according to legend
producer Harry Cohn was so taken by her
beauty he used her as the model for the
Columbia Pictures logo.
Back in the car we continue up and around to the
northern section of the cemetery.
We'll stop just past the first intersection
and had southwest to the far side of this
lawn to find Gail Russell.
Otherworldly beauty Gail Russell was poised to be a
huge star, appearing in films like
"Angel and the Badman," and "Wake of the Red Witch."
But her career suffered from her long
struggle with alcoholism... a struggle
which would eventually claim her life at
the young age of 36.
Back to the road, just a short distance
further west, on the north side,
if the grave of silent film actress
Mae Murray, known as "the girl with the
bee-stung lips." She was a headliner in
the Ziegfeld Follies before moving on to
the silver screen where she quickly
became one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
In 1919 she starred alongside newcomer
Rudolph Valentino in "The Delicious Little Devil,"
and found critical acclaim
a few years later in "The Merry Widow."
The advent of the talkies spelled doom for her career,
like so many others, and she soon
fell into obscurity, dying penniless
after several failed comeback attempts.
Earlier in our tour we met the man who
wrote "When You Wish Upon a Star."
Now we visit the man who brought that song to life.
Known as Ukulele Ike, Cliff Edwards
was the voice of Jiminy Cricket in
Disney's "Pinocchio."
[music]
A little further west is Robert Lowery, an
actor who frequently played roles in
action films, such as "The Mark of Zorro,"
and "The Mummy's Ghost." He was also the
second actor to play Batman on screen, in
the 1949 serial "Batman and Robin."
Continuing west we find Frank Lackteen,
a Lebanese born actor who is best
remembered for his frequent roles as the
exotic villain. He starred in over 200
films including "Tarzan the Fearless," and
"The Sea Wolf."
Straight south just across
the road is the grave of Aneta Corsaut,
who played Helen Crump on
"The Andy Griffith Show." She can also be seen
in the 1958 movie "The Blob."
Back in the car we continue around toward the main
entrance, past the large fountain to the
far west side of the cemetery, where
there are a series of open-air mausoleums.
In the Courtyard of Remembrance is a
wall of niches. Right at eye level is the
niche of Charles Criswell King.
The Amazing Criswell was a radio and
television personality who made psychic
predictions about the future on his
television program "Criswell Predicts," and
later in a book of predictions to the year 2000.
The flamboyant psychic often made
wildly inaccurate predictions, such as
the destruction of Denver by some
jelly-like substance, Mae West becoming
president in 1960, and the end of the
world on August 18, 1999. You can see him
in the opening of the cult classic
"Plan 9 From Outer Space."
"Greetings my friend. We are all
interested in the future, for that is
where you and I are going to spend the
rest of our lives. And remember my friend,
future events such as these will affect
you in the future.
You are interested in
the unknown, the mysterious, the
unexplainable, that is why you are here.
And now for the first time we are
bringing to you the full story of what
happened on that fateful day. We are
giving you all the evidence based only
on the secret testimony of the miserable
souls who survived this terrifying
ordeal. The incidents, the places, my
friend we cannot keep this a secret any longer.
Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward
the innocent. My friends, can your heart
stand the shocking facts about
graver obbers from outer space?
Criswell is said to have slept each
night in a coffin.
Just south is the Courtyard of Devotion, where we'll find
the grave of one of Hollywood's great
art directors, Richard Day. He designed
such legendary films as
"On the Waterfront," "A Streetcar Named Desire," and
"The Grapes of Wrath."
His work earned him seven Oscars and an
additional 13 nominations.
Finally we head south to the outer wall of the
the Mausoleum of Hope, where we'll find a
woman who is a staple on radio and
television from the 40s to the 60s.
Actress Bea Benaderet can be seen in many
popular television series of the era,
including the "George Burns and Gracie Allen Show,"
and "Petticoat Junction."
She also lent her unique voice and laugh to
the Looney Tunes as Granny, and
the Flintstones as Betty Rubble.
And that concludes our tour!
What are some of your
favorite memories of the stars we
visited today?
Share them in the comments below, and
be sure to like, share, and subscribe for
more famous grave tours.
Thanks for watching!
We'll see you on the next one.
So this is pretty cool. As part of
Valhalla's renovation efforts they've
covered one of their roads with lawn,
giving the appearance of a long green
carpet running through the cemetery.
In life stars walk the red carpet.
In death, the carpet is green.