Tag Archives: Beneath Los Angeles

Changes Coming To The Gravecast Podcast And Blog!

21 Monday Nov 2011

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Hey I wanted to bring you all up to speed on some things. Well for starters as mentioned a few blog posts back, I’m going to start including info on paranormal ghost hunting. As I feel ghost hunting, and grave hunting intersect in various ways. So to help diversify things on Gravecast, I feel it would be essential to include ghost hunting topics on the blog. To help kick things off with the ghost hunting aspect. I listed a few books on the required reading list related to ghost hunting which I’ve recently purchased, and currently reading.

Now that I’ve got the ghost hunting venture out-of-the-way. Another thing I’m planning on doing relates to The Gravecast podcast. I’ve noticed when ever I’d post new episodes of the podcast, there would be a spike in the number of people browsing the blog, and listening in to who I’d be interviewing from the world of grave hunting.

To help boost the viewers even more, I’m working on having one of my very good friends from LA, co-host the Gravecast show with me. I feel this will add a different point of view to what the interviewees’ have to say in their informative & insightful responses to the questions my self, and my co-host ask, plus it would make things a little more interesting.

The future co-host I’m talking about is noted author, & cemetery historian, Steve Goldstein who wrote the book “LA’s Graveside Companion: Where The V.I.P’s R.I.P.” is also the proprietor of the website Beneath Los Angeles. Steve’s got a ton of experience in grave hunting, not only that he’s a helluva nice guy, very personable as well, who I was delighted to of met when I visited Los Angeles last Spring. Needless to say I think he will be the perfect co-host of the show.

Grave Hunting Chronicles: Grandpa Bugsy by Steve Goldstein

19 Tuesday Jul 2011

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Awhile back, I decided to give some grave hunting friends of mine the opportunity to be guest bloggers of sorts for a series of reader contributed stories I’d like to call “Grave Hunting Chronicles.” These are life stories of grave hunters practicing their craft in the cemeteries they love. The next story I’m about to introduce to you, was graciously donated by my good friend & fellow graver Steve Goldstein. The story relates to a time when Steve, accompanied by a friend of his. Found the graveside crypt of notorious New York bred, Las Vegas gangster Bugsy Siegel. As you will soon find out the story has some interesting twists which will no doubt make you laugh, or at least bring a smile to your face. Anyway without further adieu here is “Grandpa Bugsy”

Grandpa Bugsy
By Steve Goldstein

Back in 1994, my friend Kelly was visiting from Portland, Oregon, and I took her around Hollywood to show her the sites. One place she really wanted to see was Hollywood Memorial Park (which was still called that back then, and was still under the so-called management of the criminally inclined Jules “Jack” Roth), and in particular, she wanted to visit the grave there of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, the infamous mobster who was killed in Beverly Hills back in 1947.

This was shortly after the devastating Northridge earthquake that year, so when we arrived at the cemetery and made our way to the Beth Olam Mausoleum in the back, we found it padlocked with a sign that read “Closed due to earthquake damage. Only Family members will be allowed in. Please check in at the Administration building to be granted access.”

Disappointed but not deterred, we made our way back to the main entrance of the park and into the Administration building. There we found an older, very dour looking woman sitting behind the reception desk. “May I help you?” she asked without ever looking up. “Yes,” I replied, “we would like to be let into the Beth Olam Mausoleum.” “Who are you here to see?” she asked, still not making eye contact with us. “Benjamin Siegel” said I. “Oh, and are you RELATED to Mr. Siegel?” she asked, dripping with sarcasm. “Yes,” I said, “I’m his grandson.” Of course, this was not true, but it was possible. Siegel had two daughters who were born in the early 1930s, about the same time my own mother was actually born, and if either of them had given birth in the mid-1950s to a male child, that child would be about my age and probably fit my general description. Crabby old lady finally looked up. “Really??” She was genuinely impressed now. “Benjamin Siegel was your Grandfather?  Do you know how many people come in here looking for him all the time?” “That’s very nice,” I said. “Can you please let us in?” “Right away, Sir!” She picked up a phone and called a groundskeeper to come and fetch us immediately. Kelly at this point was afraid she would burst out laughing so she ran off to the ladies room, leaving me sitting there alone in the lobby not knowing if I was about to be arrested for impersonating the relative of a dead gangster or actually be escorted to his crypt. She was gone a pretty long time and I was becoming more nervous by the second. I asked the lady if I should perhaps come back at another time. “Oh no, they’re on their way!” she assured me. On their way for what, I wondered.

Kelly eventually pulled herself together and indeed, a very nice groundskeeper pulled up in a golf cart and drove us back to the Beth Olam Mausoleum, where he unlocked the chains and allowed us to go inside, unescorted. He waited for us outside and gave us free reign for as long as we wanted.

We still laugh about that day all these years later. I like to imagine that the crabby old receptionist tells this story still, about how she met Bugsy Siegel’s grandson one day. And I hope she tells folks “He was very nice.”

And there you have it “Grandpa Bugsy” by Steve Goldstein. This story is one of my personal favorites, that Steve shares with his friends. So I just had to go through the proper channels to see about publishing it on this blog, for my readers to see. If your interested Steve has a website Beneath Los Angeles which chronicles the gravesites of famous people buried in Los Angeles. Not only that he also had the book “LA’s Graveside Companion: Where The VIP’s RIP” published by Schiffer Publishing.

Grave Hunting Chronicles: Locked Inside a Mausoleum With You By Steve Goldstein

01 Friday Apr 2011

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To make things a little more entertaining on Graveside Stroll. I’ve decided to offer some grave hunting friends the opportunity to share some of their favorite grave hunting stories with you, the readers of the blog. The first “Grave Hunting Chronicles” story comes to us from my dear friend Steve Goldstein. So without further adieu here is Steve Goldstein’s story titled “Locked Inside a Mausoleum With You…”

Locked Inside a Mausoleum With You…
by Steve Goldstein

It was a Wednesday, around 3:45 in the afternoon. I had just gotten out of a business appointment in Culver City and was done for the day, so I thought I would drop into nearby Hillside Memorial Park for a quick visit. It was my first time grave hunting here, so I went straight to the mausoleum. I knew the cemetery would close at 5:00, so I had just an hour or so to see the mausoleum and get out. Many people have seen this building without knowing it. It’s that big white one behind the Al Jolson Waterfall as you drive down the 405 Freeway. Ever since that day, I always point it out and tell this tale….

As I entered the building, a groundskeeper nodded hello to me. I nodded back and began to explore. Jack Benny and his wife, Mary, are in a great black sarcophagus at the end of the hall. Nearby, Eddie Cantor, Jeff Chandler, David Janssen, Georgie Jessel, Dick Shawn, Dr. Ralph Greenson (Marilyn Monroe’s shrink), Michael Landon, and Dinah Shore are all quietly entombed. Alan Sherman, Michael Bloomfield and other musical memories from my youth, plus baseball hall of famer Hank Greenburg. Great place, no doubt about it. I’ll have to come back. But now it’s 4:30, better get home.

I walked to the front entrance to the building and found it locked tight. No problem, I thought, I’ll just go out a side entrance. Nope, that’s locked, too. As I ran through the building, starting to panic now, every door was bolted shut. I knew that if I didn’t get out of there in the next 30 minutes, I was spending the night here, and I really didn’t want to do that. Although, of all the mausoleums to spend the night in, this one would be the one, because instead of the usual marble benches, this one had over stuffed couches, so if you absolutely had to sleep here, you would be pretty comfortable. But I wasn’t thinking about that right now. I was making noise. Lots of noise. I had to get somebody’s attention. I began to look around for something to throw through the glass doors. I was breaking out.

Suddenly, I became very calm. I noticed a small office to my right, the door slightly ajar. Entering the Mausoleum Office, I found a telephone on a desk. I picked it up and dialed ‘0.’  An operator answered, “Hillside, how may I direct your call?”
“I’m locked inside your mausoleum. I was wondering if you would send someone up to let me out.”  I’m sure she thought it was a prank call. She replied, “There is no phone inside the mausoleum.”  “Yes, there is, and I’m on it right now.”  She asked me what the extension was. I looked down at the phone and answered, ‘306.’  “I’ll call you back,” she said.

I waited what seemed an eternity. Finally, the phone rang. “Yes?” I answered. “Where are you exactly?” a confused sounding operator asked me. “I’m in a small office near the front entrance.” She instructed me to go stand by the door, and somebody would be along to let me out. Sure enough, moments later, the same groundskeeper who had greeted me an hour earlier came up to the door, laughing. “Locked you in, huh?”  “Yeah, funny stuff.”

With that, I left the Hillside Mausoleum, jumped into my car and sped off. I’ve been back many times, of course. And that mausoleum office has been locked every single time. I can’t help but believe that I had help that afternoon. I was making so much noise to get out of there, I probably woke up Jack Benny or somebody, and like the munchkins, they sent me home.

(excerpt from Beneath Los Angeles, © 2001 Steve Goldstein)

And there you have it the first Grave Hunting Chronicles story as told by veteran grave hunter Steve Goldstein. For those of you who are interested Steve is the author of “LA’s Graveside Companion Where The V.I.P’s RIP” which was published in 2009. He’s also the proprietor of the celebrity grave hunting website Beneath Los Angeles.com.