Short Stuff: Forest Lawn Memorial Park

Forest Lawn is no ordinary cemetery. Why? Listen in and find out.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
there's Chuck and guests. Who's here. It's j E. R.
I Jerry, our producer, and this is short stuff. I'm
glad you spelled that because no one ever spells it right.
I My brain wanted so bad to go to j
E l l Oh. Yeah, and I had to stop myself.

(00:24):
I think if you go back and listen, there's a
half of a pause there, and that's me stopping myself
from spelling jello instead. I'll bet you did. We know
each other so well? Can we talk about Forest Lawn Cemetery? Oh? Well, well,
you've probably never been there. I have not, have you?
I have? Uh? I used to live not too far
from there in Eagle Rock. Uh. It is a it's

(00:46):
called Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, kind of situated
between Pasadena and downtown l A. Which ended up being
a good thing back when it was first. What would
you do install it? Yeah? They installed the cemetery. I
guess you build things. And he established? Yeah, established, that's

(01:07):
the word. But it was established by Dr Hubert Eaton
about three acres worth in nineteen seventeen. Big thanks to
Kate Morrigan of how stuff works with this one. But
Hubert Eaton had it was a bit of a visionary
and that he was just sort of known as and
is still known as the Builder, this very revered figure

(01:28):
for doing something quite different with his cemetery. Yeah, he
was like one part Gomez Adams in one part Walt Disney.
That's what I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna put him mask.
But there's a plaque there called um with the title
the Builder's Dream and the Builder's Creed Creed, and he
says that um, he this is supposed to be a
great park, devoid of misshape and monuments and other signs

(01:50):
of earthly death, but filled with towering trees, sweeping lawns,
splashing fountains, beautiful statutory and memorial architecture. And it's signed
the Builder and apparently still today that's what they referred
to Dr Eaton as at the cemetery. But he achieved
his vision. Um. This was all established at a time, Chuck.
When you know, people have been making cemeteries in the

(02:15):
United States for hundreds of years by this time, and
there was like a certain way that you made them,
and Dr Hubert Eaton happened to be at this place
in southern California at a time where it was starting
to come alive, and it was a place where you
could reinvent yourself. And he used that opportunity to reinvent
cemeteries with Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Yeah, and it was

(02:36):
a time in southern California and Los Angeles where, uh,
well a couple of things on that he he wanted
it to be a place where people could go and
see art and feel like they've sort of had a cultural,
uh culturally enriching experience because at the time, you know,
doing what they called the Grand Tour. If you had

(02:56):
a lot of money and a lot of time, you
could fly to Europe and see all the art of
the world. But for people that didn't have a lot
of time and money, and this was again nineteen seventeen,
he wanted to give people a little bit of taste
of that in southern Cali and the place where he
ended up getting this land, like I said, between Pasadena

(03:18):
and downtown. It was um not a booming metropolis at
the time, but it ended up being in a very
great spot in Glendale because you know, it's l a
in the Southland. A lot of people ended up living
right there. Yeah. So um, yeah, and he really nailed.
But he was trying to do, which was make a
place where you you didn't come to more and death,

(03:40):
you came to celebrate life. Yeah, you wanted to attract
people that come and and you know, be among the
graves and this memorial. But but be thinking about how
great it is to be alive, and what better way
to do that than with replicas of Michelangelo's art. That's right? Uh,
should we take a break and come back and talk
a little bit more about the art and such? Yes,

(04:34):
all right, so you mentioned replicas of Michelangelo. There were
are certainly replicas of art there. There's also a lot
of original art. There's a full on museum. Um. The
largest religious painting in the United States and the largest
painting in the Western United States period. It's called the
Crucifixion from jan Stika. Yeah. He was a Polish artist

(04:57):
and get this, He created this painting, got it over
to the US for some exposition or another, and um,
it was too big, they did. They didn't have a
place to put it, and he didn't have the money
to chip it back home. So he had to leave
it behind in the United States, went back and died
in poland never saw his painting again. Yeah. A hundred

(05:21):
and wide by tall, and it's you know, it very
simply depicts the I guess the pre crucifixion when it
looks like Jesus's cross is still on the ground, the
other ones are in the ground and things are just
getting started. Yeah, it's a huge like landscape, like there's
all sorts of stuff going on. Yeah, but Forrest Lawn

(05:43):
acquired it and gave it the proper respect. It actually
built a building around it too. How is it specifically
so you gotta do No, one's gotta aloft that big?
Definitely not. That's a giant painting. I saw a picture
of it and there's a couple of people standing in
front of it and they just look like ants. Yeah,
it's it's very large. Um. I guess we should talk

(06:04):
a little bit because it is l A and there
are some very famous Angelina is buried there. Um. And
I would like to follow this up with the Hollywood
Forever Cemetery. It's it's another sort of their l A
has two great cemeteries, and that's the other one. But
they do fun stuff like movie Nights. Yeah, I saw
that in um Beneath the Silver Lake. Oh, I think

(06:25):
I saw that that's featured in Beneath the Silver Lake?
Was that what was going? I'm pretty sure the one
with Andrew Garfield. Yeah, Underneath the Silver Lake? I think
on top of Silver Lake. A few of the notable
people buried there are no less than Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Cable, sure,

(06:48):
who else? How about Bogey and Bacall both hit me
with another? How about that old sweet crooner Nat King Cole?
Oh you got any other crooners up your sleeve? I
wouldn't crude. Michael Jackson is there? I think he croon?
Did he crun? Yeah? I want to rock with you.

(07:08):
I'll buy that. But here's the deal. Apparently, if you
go to Forest Lawn, uh and I have been there,
but I didn't spend a lot of time there. I
think I was. I think I was on a job
shooting a stupid TV commercial or something. But you have
to and of course these days with the Internet, Internet
you can find out where everyone is buried. But it's
not one of those places that where you show up

(07:30):
and do a ghost tour or they say here's your
brochure where you can go see all the famous folks
that are buried here. Which is that's good, that's tasteful,
like there, that's not the point of it. Yeah, you know,
Creed So I mentioned how Hubert Eaten was half Walt Disney,
and he's very frequently compared to Walt Disney because of
some of the design of Forest Lawn. UM. There's a

(07:52):
lot of tutor Um architecture. UM. There's little difference burial
sections that have their own name and kind of like
vibe going on Inspiration Slope, Whispering Pines, Dawn of Tomorrow Um.
There's one called baby Land for infant burials, there's one
called Slumberland for children, and oh my gosh. Yeah, and

(08:14):
then I guess the rest of it is just called
You shouldn't feel as bad about these graves. Yeah, these
ones are fine. We have a cemetery very close to
our house that we walked through a lot on our walks,
and I love just sort of reading the headstones as
I walk by, and uh, you know, you'll come across
a grave that's two ft long and you're just like,

(08:36):
oh god, you can't even look like it'll just say infant.
Sometimes not even a name. Yeah, I mean this one
had a name, but I don't know. It's always interesting
the women always outlived the men. It seems like, uh,
quite a few like World War two veterans out there.
But it's uh. I enjoy cemeteries and but I've never liked,

(08:56):
you know, romped and partied in cemeteries like some people
do in college, you know, can't always like to read
the headstones and get a little bit of a story.
Sometimes I saw some writers say I don't remember who
it was, but they advised if you want to come
up with names, go to a cemetery, because you'll end
up coming up with like Kirkwood mcgilla cutty if you

(09:18):
just try to use your imagination. But if you go
to a cemetery, you're gonna find like actual people's names
that you can use, you know. Yeah, especially these days
when everyone's like I want my baby. This sounds like
they're from the eighteen tens. It's so weird. Uh. So
eaton going back to the Disney thing. Uh, Walt Disney
is buried there in fact, and you mentioned all of

(09:40):
the sort of similarities with Disney, and they are there
are people out there that said it's like the Disney
World or Disneyland of cemeteries, and Forest Lawn is very
quick to point out, no, no, no, we were here first,
and we like to say that Disneyland is the amusement
park of the Forest Lawns. It's they turned it on

(10:01):
its head. Um. There's something one more thing about Michelangelo's work.
There was like, I think a seventeen foot reproduction of David,
a very famous statue. Uh. And it has actually toppled
several times over the years, and they've had to remake
it every time. Most recently it toppled under its own
weight and I'm not sure if they've replaced it yet

(10:24):
or not. To someone standing there and then just a
giant three ft penis comes at them. Yeah, clocked him,
knocked him right out. Uh. And it made like this
a sound that went dong. Alright, I think we've desecrated
this episode. Wait, hold on, there's one more thing. Ronald
Reagan married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

(10:48):
It's true. People do get married there. There's a like
a legit church. Yeah, sixty thousand people have been married there,
one fifth of the number of people who are interred
there have been married there. I got married there. Did
you really know? You didn't? I get married at by
the poolhouse of my brother's neighborhood. That's what I thought. Yeah, okay,

(11:08):
you almost got me there. For a second though, I'm
I'm gonna start telling people that, Okay, why not? You
got anything else? I got nothing else? All right? Everybody's
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