Yours truly at the gravesite of The King of Comedy Mack Sennett in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, CA

I arrived in Anaheim, two days ago. As stated the other day I departed Detroit around 6:55am. I arrived at the airport around 4:30am. After checking in, going through the hassling process of a TSA pat down, I arrived at the gate for departure. The plane ride was really nice. I had a layover in Denver, the airport was nice but cold. After arriving at my destination, I just hung out for a while, I found a nearby cigar shop, with over priced cigars so I ended up buying two Don Tomas cigars. They weren’t bad to smoke.

Al Jolson's lifelike Statue near his final resting place

The next day was fairly uneventful. Being that I would be doing what I came to Southern California to do and that is grave hunt. I decided to head to LA from Anaheim, to get a general feel for the area. I stopped by Hillside Memorial Park which is a beautiful Jewish cemetery in Culver City, CA. The grounds have nicely manicured lawns, friendly staff, did I mention the cemetery is also tourist friendly as well? After leaving Hillside, I went over to Hollywood Forever to briefly check the place out. After being interrogated by the little police academy rejected security guard, I was a little discouraged about taking any photos. So I just drove in then found a side exit and made my departure. I’ll be talking more about Hollywood Forever cemetery tomorrow, as that’s where I plan on visiting.

Now being that today is Friday May 27th. Today was the official kick-off day in which I got started doing LA style celebrity grave hunting. I met up with my very good friend Steve Goldstein (you might remember him from episode 5 of the grave hunting podcast) as I interviewed him about his exploits in grave hunting. Needless to say we met up at the mausoleum at the top of the hill behind the Al Jolson monument. And that’s where the tour began.

After snapping a few more photos of the Al Jolson monument, from which I photographed the previous day, we headed into the mausoleum where we found such Hollywood luminaries as Aaron Spelling (who is the father of Tori Spelling), Comedian & Actor Ben Blue, Eddie Cantor, Michael Landon, Max Factor Sr., & Jr. A few other names worth mentioning who Steve showed me the gravesites of included Sorrel Booke, he was the sheriff “Boss Hogg” on the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. Moe Howard of the Three Stooges is also there, along with LA gangster Mickey Cohn.

Comedian Ben Blue's gravesite.

Moving along the next cemetery Steve showed me was Holy Cross cemetery, which is located down the street from Hillside. At this cemetery we checked out the gravesites of Zasu Pitts, Sharon Tate, Ray Bolger, Bela Lugosi, John Candy, Chris Penn, and a few dozen more celebrities buried in the cemetery. Another thing I’d like to point out before I forget my good friends, and fellow gravers Jayne, and Mark, joined Steve and my self at Holy Cross. All in all it was a great day. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post as I’ll be frolicking over to Westwood Memorial Park, and Hollywood Forever. One final thing I’d like to mention is that despite the fact that I have both my camcorder, and digital camera with me. My good friend Steve noted that it’s not a good idea to be strolling around the cemetery with the camcorder. So unfortunately I wont be using my camcorder in the cemeteries I visit while out in LA. BUT my digital camera has a feature where it shoots HD quality videos. So starting tomorrow I might experiment with recording videos with my digital camera. All in all I’m absolutely loving it out here. The weather is beautiful, and I’m having some quality bonding time, some soon to be life long friends.

Actress Zasu Pitts gravesite in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, CA

Yours truly at the gravesite of The King of Comedy Mack Sennett in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, CA

I arrived in Anaheim, two days ago. As stated the other day I departed Detroit around 6:55am. I arrived at the airport around 4:30am. After checking in, going through the hassling process of a TSA pat down, I arrived at the gate for departure. The plane ride was really nice. I had a layover in Denver, the airport was nice but cold. After arriving at my destination, I just hung out for a while, I found a nearby cigar shop, with over priced cigars so I ended up buying two Don Tomas cigars. They weren’t bad to smoke.

Al Jolson's lifelike Statue near his final resting place

The next day was fairly uneventful. Being that I would be doing what I came to Southern California to do and that is grave hunt. I decided to head to LA from Anaheim, to get a general feel for the area. I stopped by Hillside Memorial Park which is a beautiful Jewish cemetery in Culver City, CA. The grounds have nicely manicured lawns, friendly staff, did I mention the cemetery is also tourist friendly as well? After leaving Hillside, I went over to Hollywood Forever to briefly check the place out. After being interrogated by the little police academy rejected security guard, I was a little discouraged about taking any photos. So I just drove in then found a side exit and made my departure. I’ll be talking more about Hollywood Forever cemetery tomorrow, as that’s where I plan on visiting.

Now being that today is Friday May 27th. Today was the official kick-off day in which I got started doing LA style celebrity grave hunting. I met up with my very good friend Steve Goldstein (you might remember him from episode 5 of the grave hunting podcast) as I interviewed him about his exploits in grave hunting. Needless to say we met up at the mausoleum at the top of the hill behind the Al Jolson monument. And that’s where the tour began.

After snapping a few more photos of the Al Jolson monument, from which I photographed the previous day, we headed into the mausoleum where we found such Hollywood luminaries as Aaron Spelling (who is the father of Tori Spelling), Comedian & Actor Ben Blue, Eddie Cantor, Michael Landon, Max Factor Sr., & Jr. A few other names worth mentioning who Steve showed me the gravesites of included Sorrel Booke, he was the sheriff “Boss Hogg” on the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. Moe Howard of the Three Stooges is also there, along with LA gangster Mickey Cohn.

Comedian Ben Blue's gravesite.

Moving along the next cemetery Steve showed me was Holy Cross cemetery, which is located down the street from Hillside. At this cemetery we checked out the gravesites of Zasu Pitts, Sharon Tate, Ray Bolger, Bela Lugosi, John Candy, Chris Penn, and a few dozen more celebrities buried in the cemetery. Another thing I’d like to point out before I forget my good friends, and fellow gravers Jayne, and Mark, joined Steve and my self at Holy Cross. All in all it was a great day. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post as I’ll be frolicking over to Westwood Memorial Park, and Hollywood Forever. One final thing I’d like to mention is that despite the fact that I have both my camcorder, and digital camera with me. My good friend Steve noted that it’s not a good idea to be strolling around the cemetery with the camcorder. So unfortunately I wont be using my camcorder in the cemeteries I visit while out in LA. BUT my digital camera has a feature where it shoots HD quality videos. So starting tomorrow I might experiment with recording videos with my digital camera. All in all I’m absolutely loving it out here. The weather is beautiful, and I’m having some quality bonding time, some soon to be life long friends.

Actress Zasu Pitts gravesite in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, CA