Category Archives: Book Spotlight

Book reviews.

Review: Dearly Departed Volume I

11 Wednesday Mar 2009

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Recently to cope with my never-ending quest to be in Southern California and my wish to learn as much as I can on how celebrities died. I took the liberty and ordered Dearly Departed Volumes I & II. Volume I arrived the last week in the mail so here is the review on Volume I of the DVD series Dearly Departed.

To begin Volume I is hosted by well-known celebrity death buff Scott Michaels. He also owns and maintains the websites Find A Death & Dearly Departed Tours. He is one of the most knowledgeable people I know of who knows his stuff on general celebrity gossip and scandals in Tinseltown. He’s been featured on the TV show E!’s “20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders” and has done a few online radio interviews. In the documentary Scott takes you on a tour of 18 celebrity death sites. Some of the demise of the celebrities featured in the documentary are well-known due to the vulgarity and in some cases perverse ending in their lives.

Combined with morbid humor and interesting commentary which many consider to not be tasteful in respect to the dead celebrity. Scott brings an interesting approach to how these celebrities died by using official documents such as death certificates and hours of research and in a few cases he actually tours the locations of where the celebrities died. His knowledge on how celebrities died and his way of presenting the stories are an interesting combination.

If you’re the type of person who is interested in the way famous people met their untimely demise and have the courage to take it all in based on the way Scott presents his stories. I highly suggest buying Dearly Departed Volume I. He brings his fascination with celebrity deaths and years of research into one delightful sensationally packed DVD.

Celebrities In Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory

15 Sunday Feb 2009

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The book Celebrities In Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory is the fourth and final book I bought recently during my book buying escapade… Written in 2001 by Allan R. Ellenberger the book has 250 pages… Featuring over 26 cemeteries in and around the Los Angeles area the author Ellenberger lists practically anyone who had something or the other to do with the film industry in Hollywood.

Arranged by cemetery in alphabetical order. Each listing of celebrities in the book organized by cemetery they are buried in. Lists the celebrities age at death, date and place of birth and death, cause of death, headline of the celebrities obituary, inscription on grave marker, location of grave (very helpful bit of info), and a film the celebrity took part in.

One of the neat things about this book is that it has six appendix listings for things such as “miscellaneous and unusual grave sites” which includes odd places where they were buried, “sea burials, cremation, and donations to science” which includes celebrities buried at sea or were cremated, “beyond Los Angeles” which includes celebrities buried in other parts of California, “LA cemetery Addresses” which includes the addresses of the cemeteries listed in the book, “websites” which includes useful website addresses to sites featuring celebrity grave sites or celebrity death, & “bibliography” which includes books used in the research and writing of this book.

This book is a very complete index of who’s who in Hollywood. I managed to get a used former library edition off Amazon which I might add came in excellent condition and appears to have hardly been read.

The only downside of this book… Which seems to be common in these index style books such as the book I have on Hollywood Forever Cemetery by Tony Scott is that it does not have any photos… But none the less the wealth of information packed into this small book is well worth obtaining your own copy. Unfortunately the book is out of print but you will find some decent prices for used copies if you surf over to your favorite used book website such as Abebooks, or Alibris.

Stairway To Heaven: The Final Resting Places of Rock's Legends

15 Sunday Feb 2009

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The book , is the third book I recently ordered. Written in 2005 and authored by J.D. Reed, and Maddy Miller the book has 160 pages, and clear color photos.

The book features many of rocks legends, covering such genres as Rock, R&B, Country, Rap, etc… Some musicians featured in the book include Keith Moon, Shannon Hoon, Ray Charles, David Ruffian, The New York Dolls, Jerry Garcia, The Ramones, Florence Ballard, and a host of many other musicians and artists…

One of the nice features along with interesting stories on the various artists is the large color photos of the grave sites not to mention smaller photos depicting the musician… The only thing I don’t like about the book is the shape of it… The book is some what of a rectangle shape which is kind of odd shape for a book but none the less its a very interesting read and the color photos do make up for it…

If your interested in various styles of music… And wish to check out photos of your favorite musicians grave site I highly suggest this book… But the greatest way to pay homage to them is to trek to their final resting place… If that is not a possibility looking at photos is the next best thing…

The Stars of Hollywood Forever: A Who's Who Guide of Hollywood's Final Resting Place

10 Tuesday Feb 2009

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Updated

I recently ordered this book from the lulu website which you can check out by clicking here… The book has some great information pertaining to the birth and death dates with city/state, and/or country of birth and death, mentions the location with section and plot numbers noted, gives a general number of the movies the celebrity starred in with a select few movies mentioned with years of production noted, along with some other great info… The book has 239 pages not including the bibliography, and the list of celebrities mentioned throughout the book who are buried in other cemeteries… The book is in an encyclopedic format starting with celebrities with the last name starting with A and last names starting with Z… This book is great to have, I firmly believe you will not be disappointed with the purchase and to boot Tony will send you a FREE insert supplement of pictures in yearbook form of the celebrities buried in Hollywood Forever…

Over all this book is a very well researched I can tell the author Tony L. Scott put a huge amount of research, and countless hours in the cemetery tracking down the gravesites… I’m very pleased to include this book in my growing grave hunting library… I highly recommend this book if you have a passion or interest in checking out the gravesites of the stars buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery or have the desire to add to your grave hunting library… The only downside about this book is that it does not include gravesite photos… Being that it would probably cost more to publish the book with photos its understandable to leave out the gravesite photos… But as mentioned he does send you a free insert supplement of pictures of the celebrities buried in the cemetery so its nice to put a face with the vast amount of names in the book without searching all over the internet…

Overall its well worth the $30.00 purchase for the paperback edition or the $18.00 purchase for a downloaded copy I personally reccommend the paperback edition… To close Tony is a joy to correspond with I can tell he knows his stuff about this cemetery… Hell, he mentioned to me the next time I make it out to LA to get in touch with him to go graving…

Book Review…

11 Thursday Sep 2008

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As previously mentioned I ordered two books off Amazon… They are “Graveyards of Chicago” and “Mount Carmel and Queen of Heaven Cemeteries”

To begin both books are very enjoyable to read and look through… I usually use these types of books as a reference when I’m out in the cemetery… The only thing I don’t like about both books is that they don’t list the locations in the various cemeteries where the notables are buried… I was surprised in a way that the book on Mt. Carmel didn’t list any locations compared to other books I have from Arcadia Publishing relating to the grave hunting topic… The plus side of the Mt. Carmel book is that it has various pictures of gangster grave sites a few of which I’ve never seen before so that was a nice surprise…

Over all both books are worth the purchase if your into grave hunting or local history…