Forest Lawn Cemetery is located in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles and is the final resting place for several Hollywood celebrities including Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Liberace, John Ritter, Ed McMahon and David Carradine.
Pop music icon Michael Jackson was buried there on September 3, 2009 more than two months after his death.
History
Forest Lawn Cemetery is a chain of Southern California "'memorial parks"' founded in 1906 as a non-profit burial ground. One of the founders originated the concept of a "memorial park", a beautiful place for the living instead of a dreary cplace filled with lop-sided gravestones. In the last century a cavalcade of Hollywood and other celebrities have been laid to rest here.
Geography
Forest Lawn Cemetery has seven locations in: Glendale, Hollywood Hills, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Coachella, Indio, and Palm Desert. Each "'memorial park"' is filled with sprawling lawns, statuary reproductions of great art (such as Michelangelo's "'David"' and "'Moses"') and splashing fountiains laid out in a park-like setting with no upright gravestones to mar the serene scenery.
References
Fast Facts
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Fact:
Over 60,000 people have been married in one of the three wedding chapels at Forest Lawn including Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman and Regis Philbin and his wife Joy
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Fact:
Forest Lawn Cemeteries have more than 1,500 statues spread over 7 "memorial parks"
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Fact:
First to open a funeral home on dedicated cemetery grounds
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Fact:
Pioneered concept of "memorial park for the living
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Fact:
Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Samy Davis, Jr., Chico Marx, Don Drysdale, Jean Harlow, Dorothy Dandridge, Spencer Tracy, Theda Bara and others buried at Glendale or Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn "parks'
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Fact:
Evelyn Waugh's book, "The Loved One" inspired by Forest Lawn
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Fact:
Jessica Mitford's non-fiction critique, "Ther American Way of Death" also inspired another British writer, Jessica Mitford
