Hello.

I hope you are enjoying the newly expanded Beneath Los Angeles site. I wanted to take this opportunity to report on some of the new pictures, as well as to respond to some of your recent comments and suggestions. With the latest update we are thrilled to bring you more pictures from inside the impenetrable fortress known as the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn, Glendale. Largely off limits to visitors, especially those of us with cameras, you may now view the final resting places of Jean Harlow, Gable and Lombard, W.C. Fields, David O. Selznick, Irving Thalberg and Norma Shearer, The Andrews Sisters, James Whale, and Ed Wynn. There will be more in future updates. Watch for Jerry Geisler, lawyer to the stars, and Johnny Hyde, the agent who launched the career of Marilyn Monroe.

Corrections: After going to great lengths to include the fact that Ted Healy, founder of the troupe which would become the Three Stooges, died while celebrating the birth of his only child, it was pointed out to me that this child was a son, John Jacob Healy, not a daughter. Mary Healy, born the same year (1937), was apparently his neice. No matter. The gist of the story is the same. I'm leaving it. I have also been corrected in that William Frawley's character on My Three Sons was Uncle Bub, not Bud. To me, he will always be Fred Mertz. My memories of My Three Sons involve William Demarest as Uncle Charlie. I'm leaving it.

Finally, it has been suggested to me more than a few times that we include locations for every grave on the site. While I am happy to reply to all individual requests for specific grave locations, BLA is not meant to be a reference site. It's about the photographs, and the stories. However, on our links page are many excellent sites for location references. Check out Find A Grave, Hollywood Underground, or the Grim Society of Los Angeles. They have maps and exact locations. Or, on the Bookstore page, check out Final Curtain, the best reference book available on the subject. While there, check out the Death of James Dean, and other titles by Warren Newton Beath. Warren and I recently completed our Ultimate Hollywood Book of the Dead, and it is currently being shopped to publishers. This book DOES contain maps and addresses, because it was conceived as a tour book. It has also been optioned as a TV special, so watch your TV listings.

Thanks for your notes and suggestions. Enjoy the site. We love doing it.

Steve

(Published: Wed Mar 20 2019; Hits: 388)

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