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Historic Park. Tickets at lapride.org. Start

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Get your tickets at laist.com/events. Hello

0:33

LA! We're taking you back

0:35

to the movies, but this

0:37

time we're in a cemetery?

0:41

Welcome back to Revival House, our love

0:43

letter to vintage and indie movie theaters

0:46

across this city. I'm Brian De Los

0:48

Santos and this is How to LA.

0:51

My hot take, you haven't lived if

0:53

you've never been to Hollywood forever. You

0:56

know, the iconic cemetery on Santa Monica

0:58

Boulevard. It is in

1:00

fact still an operating cemetery that

1:03

hosts an iconic Dia de Los

1:05

Muertos event, concerts, movies, and even

1:07

yoga classes. Our

1:10

president, Tyler, actually became a certified yoga

1:12

teacher during lockdown, so every Tuesday is

1:14

Tyler Tuesday and he personally teaches the

1:16

yoga Tuesdays. You can also take

1:18

a tour of the place every Saturday morning. Over

1:21

90,000 people are buried here, including

1:24

some of early Hollywood's biggest stars.

1:26

We have my tour. We have the night tour that I

1:29

do. I mean, as much as

1:31

it is about honoring the dad, of course,

1:33

it's also about celebrating life and it's a

1:35

community space. It's a popular spot

1:37

to catch a movie during the summer thanks

1:39

to Cinespia, an LA-based organization

1:41

that brings movie magic under the

1:43

stars with outdoor screenings of classic

1:46

films. They show movies in

1:48

a few places around the city, but

1:50

the biggest, oldest, and most iconic venue

1:52

is on the Fairbanks Lawn in Hollywood

1:54

forever. It's definitely a

1:56

thing in LA. Groups of friends and family

1:58

make it an outing. I've got

2:00

the movie Selena there and let me tell

2:03

you the fans are out and about. Screenings

2:06

at the cemetery kick off of our

2:08

Memorial Day weekend on May 26th with

2:10

the thriller 7th. Now, since

2:12

I know you're gonna wanna go check this

2:14

out, I'm gonna give the mic over to

2:17

Harelay producer Victoria Leandro to give you the

2:19

411. She

2:21

recently spoke with Nispiya founder John

2:23

Wyatt and the official cemetery tour

2:25

guide Kerry Bible to get the

2:27

scoop on this place and its

2:29

relationship to the movies. Okay,

2:33

I have a confession to make. Taking

2:36

the cemetery tour with Kerry Bible a few weeks

2:38

ago was actually my first time

2:40

in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. When

2:43

you enter, it's immediately an

2:45

oasis. Rolling, green

2:47

space, vintage mosaics, a beautiful lake

2:50

and water feature all overseen by

2:52

the Hollywood sign in the Paramount

2:54

Pictures water tower. It's

2:56

beautiful and so much bigger than it seems from

2:58

the outside. As

3:01

one of the only cemeteries in Southern California that

3:03

allows for grave markers to be upright or

3:05

customized, there is a strong sense of personality

3:07

as you move through the grounds.

3:10

Graves with markers that include gardening space or

3:12

markers shaped like rocket ships or vinyl records,

3:15

there is a sense that people here really got to

3:17

choose how they wanted to be remembered. In

3:21

addition to some potential ghosts, it's

3:23

also home to a subtle cat colony

3:26

and an unbelievable amount of birds, including

3:28

a handful of peafowl. They gather in

3:30

packs of peacocks and you don't see usually

3:32

one that often you see them in a

3:34

group and they're very territorial

3:37

I think. So normally this is an

3:39

area that, see our mausoleum? As I

3:41

was leaving the cemetery, you could indeed

3:43

hear the peacocks holding court in the

3:45

new mausoleum. Wow, the peacock.

3:47

I apologize in advance for the microphone

3:51

and your ears. When

3:57

we do not have movies or concerts, the peacemails

3:59

are not available. get to roam our

4:01

52 acre property at their leisure. But

4:03

when we have the movies and all the other stuff, they

4:06

have to go back in the cages. I

4:08

would not want the job of taking care

4:10

of that. I was giving a tour one

4:12

day and I saw a gardener literally sprinting

4:14

across the lawn. He had a huge peacock

4:16

under each arm. There's something

4:18

undeniably magical about this huge green

4:20

space off of bustling Santa Monica

4:23

Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood,

4:25

full of creatures and gravestones. On

4:28

a bright, breezy Saturday morning, I headed off

4:30

to learn about this place on Kerry Cemetery

4:32

Tour. First off, welcome to Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

4:34

My name is Kerry Bible. I'm the in-house

4:36

official tour guide here. A

4:39

couple of ground rules before we get

4:42

started. First off, this is

4:44

still a fully working population

4:46

cemetery. So if we couldn't

4:48

have anybody grieving or

4:50

any situation to retire, there's no

4:52

activity. We need to be very quiet,

4:54

very respectful, and give people as

4:56

much space as possible. Kerry was

4:58

wearing a smart black dress with small buttons up

5:01

the front and a full 50s-style skirt. There's

5:03

a vibrant peacock decal on the front. She's

5:06

been giving tours here for over 20 years. As

5:08

a little girl, I fell in love with

5:10

classic Hollywood. My gateway drug was the

5:12

universal horror films of the 1930s.

5:15

So I didn't like Barbie, but I loved

5:17

Bela Lugosi and Boris Kerloff, and

5:20

every little girl showed. I never

5:22

lost my interest in these things. I got a

5:24

degree in film, and I moved out here in

5:26

the year 2000. I saw this

5:29

place and fell insanely in love, as

5:32

I hope everybody does who comes here, and

5:34

realized they did not have a tour guide

5:36

here. Maybe

5:38

that could be me. So I met with

5:40

a historian who mentors me, and met with

5:42

the owner of the cemetery. And I've not

5:44

been giving tours here several times a month

5:46

since 2002. The

5:49

current owner of the cemetery is Tyler Cassidy,

5:51

who Kerry describes as a visionary in the cemetery

5:53

world. Hollywood Forever was originally founded in

5:56

1899, but in the 1930s it

5:59

was plagued by scandal and violence. when a man named Jules Roth

6:01

ran the place. A white collar

6:03

criminal and convicted felon, Jules let the place

6:05

fall into a state of disrepair. Terry

6:08

says that at the time of his death in

6:10

1998, the cemetery was in bankruptcy on the brink

6:13

of being shut down by the state. That's where

6:15

Tyler Cassidy comes in, he's our current owner,

6:18

and where a lot of people saw this

6:20

place is a scandal-plag decrepit mess. Tyler

6:22

saw hope and he saw possibility.

6:24

He purchased this entire property for

6:26

a very low price at the

6:28

time in the late 90s. He

6:30

has pumped millions into it since then,

6:32

and I would say we're probably one of the

6:35

most innovative unique cemeteries you're likely to

6:37

find. The cemetery is really set up

6:39

like a community space. People

6:42

come together to grieve, dance, sing,

6:44

and a lot of that activity

6:46

happens on the Fairbanks lawn. Yes, as

6:48

in Douglas Fairbanks. His grave is

6:50

nearby. Below me and behind

6:53

me is the regal grave of

6:55

the magnificent Douglas Fairbanks senior. Doug

6:58

was an actor. He started out

7:00

on the stage but then found

7:03

his way into the movies and

7:05

the swashbuckling genre would be his

7:07

trademark. Movies like Robin

7:09

Hood, The Black Pirate, The Smeep of

7:11

Na Na, The Dump Show of the Iron

7:14

Man. Doug was also

7:16

a producer. He had his own

7:18

production company and absolute control over

7:20

his films. He was

7:22

an uncredited screenwriter, a stuntman, and

7:24

of course a star. He

7:27

divorced his first wife and married

7:29

the screens Mary Pickford and together

7:31

they were Hollywood's very first A-list

7:34

power couple. They had a house,

7:36

the press called Pick Fair. Yes,

7:39

the Pick Fair included people like

7:41

Albert Einstein and Amelia Earhart. Douglas

7:44

and Mary also co-founded United Artists

7:46

with Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith

7:49

which gave them absolute control over

7:51

the distribution of their films. You

7:53

might also remember these silent film

7:55

stars from our discussion of the United

7:57

Theater a few weeks ago. That's the former theater.

8:01

Unfortunately, when sound came

8:03

in, Pickford and Fairbanks were rendered

8:05

obsolete fairly quickly. They

8:07

each made only four sound films, one

8:10

of which they made together, and

8:12

then they were retired from the screen. They

8:15

wound up getting a divorce, and

8:17

Douglas married the socialite Lady Sylvia

8:19

Ashley, and he died

8:21

of a massive heart attack in 1939 at the age of 56

8:23

years old. And

8:28

this was meant to be a

8:30

regal and a royal tribute to

8:32

the first king of hundreds. And

8:37

you can see the emerald green line

8:39

back there. That's where we have our

8:41

movie screenings, our outdoor concerts, our

8:43

Day of the Dead main stage. It's

8:46

the largest Dia de los Muertos celebration

8:48

in the U.S. with hundreds of a

8:50

freddas, food vendors, and musical acts. Alright,

8:54

now let's talk about the group that makes all

8:56

the movie magic happen at this place, Cinespia. Just

9:00

enjoying the greatest art that

9:02

Hollywood made under the stars.

9:05

It's really a beautiful experience. We'll

9:07

get to that right after this break. I'm

9:12

Christina Cottorucci, and this season on Slow

9:14

Burn... It's called Proposition 6. The

9:16

Briggs Initiative. John Briggs

9:18

is going to fire every day in leather here,

9:20

the school teacher in California. With so much at

9:23

stake, young people became activists. We

9:25

can't let this happen in California. And

9:28

activists became leaders. Slow

9:35

Burn, season 9, Gaze Against

9:37

Briggs. Out now, wherever you listen. Start

9:43

your Saturday with something that will grow your

9:45

kiddo's brains and get their creative juices flowing.

9:49

Join us at LAS for a morning

9:51

of multilingual story times, interactive performances, art

9:53

making, and lots of kid fun. Bring

9:55

the whole fam and join us for a

9:58

super fun Saturday at LAS in Pasadena. on

10:01

June 1st. Tickets at las.com/event.

10:03

See you there. And

10:08

we're back with the Revival House. Cinespia

10:10

is the company behind the outdoor movies

10:12

at Hollywood Forever and other historic locations

10:14

in LA. The company

10:16

started in 2002 when founder John Wyatt was

10:18

looking for a place to screen some classic

10:21

films. This year will

10:23

be my 23rd year of doing

10:25

the screenings. It's a unique space.

10:27

This huge lawn among stars, character

10:29

actors, cinematographers, writers from Old Hollywood.

10:32

The idea of screening films so close to

10:34

Hollywood history was appealing to John. Seeing

10:37

a Cinespia screening at Hollywood Forever has

10:39

become a whole event. People

10:42

line up early to get their favorite spots on

10:44

the lawn, there are DJs from all over the

10:46

country, and there's an elaborate photo

10:48

booth of different themes each weekend where moviegoers,

10:51

often dressed in costumes or vintage garb, take

10:54

pictures. And then after the

10:56

sun goes down and it gets dark enough,

10:59

we start the movie, and

11:02

I feel like it's one of those only in LA

11:04

type of things. We've got

11:06

people who are aspiring

11:08

filmmakers, aspiring actors,

11:11

film fans. We

11:14

have famous people, A-listers,

11:16

actors. Sometimes we'll surprise the

11:18

audience with someone from the

11:20

film. They'll

11:23

do a little intro. And

11:25

I just don't know if any

11:27

other city would have

11:30

an audience made up of such

11:32

creative, interesting people on any given

11:34

night. And that

11:36

excitement from the crowd really

11:39

elevates the entire thing.

11:43

It really makes it feel almost

11:45

like a sports game or something

11:47

with everyone cheering. And if

11:49

you don't know the film and you're seeing it for

11:52

the first time, you're going

11:54

to really have this other alternate

11:56

experience with it, you know, something

11:58

you can't get at home. home

12:00

watching it by yourself. I

12:02

think that's really what it's about, is

12:05

all these people being together in real

12:07

life, being with your

12:09

best friends, being with your partner, and

12:13

just enjoying the greatest art

12:15

that Hollywood made under the

12:17

stars. It's really, really a

12:20

beautiful experience. It's

12:22

back in full swing after struggling in 2020.

12:26

Despite being an outdoor screening space,

12:28

since SPA was like so many

12:30

places, majorly affected by the

12:32

pandemic lockdown. Basically

12:34

me and my team started

12:37

looking for alternatives, started talking with

12:39

the city about what was allowed.

12:42

And we got

12:45

permission to do a series of drive-ins

12:48

where no person would be interacting

12:50

without any person. You know,

12:52

everyone's in their little bubbles. And

12:55

we worked with our

12:57

sponsor Amazon Studios to

13:00

make it happen. And we

13:02

just started doing a couple of day on

13:06

Fridays and Saturdays. And

13:08

immediately people just, the

13:11

response was incredible. People really needed it,

13:13

they really wanted it. It really gave

13:15

people an outlet to get out of

13:18

the house, to watch a movie, to

13:20

sort of almost pretend

13:22

things were tiny bit normal for

13:24

a moment. And then suddenly the

13:27

city very abruptly said, okay, you

13:29

can open. And so when

13:31

we did our first cemetery screening, I wasn't

13:34

sure exactly what was gonna

13:36

happen, but basically it sold

13:38

out almost immediately. And for

13:40

scale, the cemetery lawn can fit 4,000 people

13:43

for a movie screening. We have a

13:46

lot of people that wait in line. They wait

13:48

for hours in the

13:50

front and they're tailgating and they

13:52

wanna get their favorite spot on the lawn. And

13:55

that's what they like to do. And seeing those

13:57

people come in, I mean. my

14:00

breath away. I'm so curious about

14:02

the programming and how you determine films

14:04

and maybe I think you've already talked about

14:06

this but who might be your ideal audience

14:08

number? We want to show

14:10

classic films mostly

14:12

from the 20th century which sounds funny

14:15

saying but we

14:18

really want something that's going to appeal

14:21

to a modern audience. It's going to

14:23

keep them engaged. It's going to take

14:25

them on a ride. Not every great

14:27

film can do that and

14:29

some bad films can do that.

14:33

Bad quote unquote and

14:35

so really it's a search for something

14:37

that's really going to rock

14:39

the crowd and really be

14:41

fun but still perhaps

14:45

introduce a movie that young people

14:47

haven't seen yet that's truly a

14:50

masterpiece and needs

14:52

to be seen the way it was

14:54

intended on a big screen with an audience

14:57

not on a computer. I would

15:00

say that leads me to

15:02

my ideal audience member and

15:04

this is just me personally but

15:07

someone who has

15:10

say never seen the film

15:13

Sunset Boulevard has no

15:15

idea what it's about. Maybe even has never

15:18

seen a black and white movie and they

15:20

come in their friends drag them there. They're

15:22

having fun. They have the DJ. The photobooth.

15:24

They love the picnic and

15:27

they're you know not expecting

15:29

anything from the film and then the

15:31

film starts and grabs them and does

15:33

not let go until it's over. That

15:36

for me is like very

15:38

satisfying. If I can have

15:40

one person just be

15:43

like who's Billy Wilder? I gotta see

15:45

more movies. That's really

15:47

fun. You know that's the programmer's juice.

15:49

You really want to share the things

15:51

you love. And I'm

15:53

curious what does watching movies

15:55

alongside some of the folks who made them

15:58

add to the experience? A

16:00

few weeks ago, I spoke to programmer KJ

16:02

Ralph Miller at the Academy Museum Theaters, and

16:05

she mentioned ghosts. She said that she felt

16:08

movies bring people back to life, and

16:10

that wasn't even about screening in a cemetery. So

16:13

I asked Snesspio's John Wyatt, what's it

16:16

like to conjure folks up in Hollywood

16:18

Forever Cemetery? So many

16:20

people from the golden era of

16:22

Hollywood are interred at the cemetery,

16:24

and it brings to mind my

16:27

personal favorite movie to show at

16:29

the cemetery, which I already mentioned,

16:32

which is actually Sunset Boulevard. And

16:35

the reason is, it

16:37

becomes this incredible

16:40

meta experience, because

16:43

the theme is

16:46

aged Hollywood, the decay of

16:48

Hollywood, old Hollywood, and

16:52

new Hollywood coming in. So

16:55

they opened their big mouths, and now

16:57

came to talk. So

17:01

many of the people in the film are

17:03

buried at the cemetery, and when the main

17:06

character starts yelling their names, it's echoing through

17:08

the cemetery. They took the idols

17:10

and smashed them. A Fairbanks

17:12

is a Gilchrist, a Valentino's,

17:14

and over got no...some nobody.

17:17

One of Carrie Bible's tour stops is the grave

17:19

of Cecil B. DeNille, who appears as himself in

17:22

Sunset Boulevard and is a major part of the

17:24

film's climax. He started out

17:26

in Silent Film and directed the first

17:28

feature-length Western ever made in Hollywood in

17:30

1913. Then

17:33

he directed the Silent Film version of The Ten

17:35

Commandments in 1923, and the Talking and

17:39

Technicolor version in the 1950s with

17:41

Charlton Heston. He co-founded Paramount

17:43

Pictures, which is just on the other side

17:46

of the wall, and

17:48

many film fans know DeNille for

17:50

his appearance in Sunset Boulevard, where

17:52

Gloria Swanson has that famous line,

18:00

Gloria's director in the teens and 20s when she

18:02

was one of the biggest stars in the world.

18:05

So they were turning after all those

18:08

cameras. Life

18:11

which can be strangely merciful had

18:14

taken petty on Norma Desmond. The

18:17

dream she had plung to so desperately

18:21

had unfolded her. In Sunset

18:23

Boulevard, Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, a

18:26

famous silent film star who's been left behind by

18:28

the switched sound. Her desire

18:31

for stardom eclipses reality and the film ends

18:33

with one of the most iconic lines in

18:35

film history. And then

18:37

at the end she addresses the crowd

18:39

in her famous speech and the thrill

18:42

that runs through the audience. I

18:44

just want to tell you all how happy I am to

18:46

be back in the studio making a picture again. You

18:50

don't know how much I've missed all of you.

18:53

And I promise you I'll never desert you again. Because

18:56

after Salome, we'll make another picture and

18:58

another picture. You

19:00

see, this is my life. It

19:03

always will be. There's nothing

19:05

else. Just us. The

19:09

cameras. And those

19:11

wonderful people out there in the dark.

19:16

Alright, Mr. Deville, I'm ready for my close-up. Wow.

19:31

Yeah, I have chills now. Yeah, the

19:35

movie itself really just, you

19:38

know, it doesn't matter who you

19:40

are. It's so compelling. It

19:42

embodies everything that we try to do with our

19:45

screenings. Wow. Well,

19:48

you have my vote for Sunset Boulevard Summer.

19:51

Oh, thank you. Thank

19:53

you. We're

20:00

starting this again on May 26th with the

20:02

David Fincher thriller Seven, and movies will be

20:04

running Saturday nights through the summer. We'll have

20:06

links for Senespea and for Kerry Bible Cemetery Tour

20:09

in the show notes. We'll catch you

20:11

next time. Thanks

20:15

to Kerry Bible and John Wyatt for sharing their

20:17

stories with us. And

20:19

thank you for listening. Tune

20:21

back in on Friday to learn more about Merrick

20:23

Morden. He's an LA artist who photographed the gang

20:25

life and culture in the 1980s. We

20:29

currently have a solo show in Chinatown, so

20:31

we went there to visit him. Alrighty

20:34

y'all, see you then. This

20:37

episode was produced by Victoria Alejandro. The

20:40

rest of the How to LA team is

20:42

Monica Bushman, Eben Jacobi, Megan Botel, and Erica

20:44

Washington. Engineering support on

20:46

this series is provided by Hasnique Pagosian. Our

20:49

executive producer is Megan Larson, and I'm your

20:51

host, Brian De Los Santos. Support

20:54

for this podcast is made possible by

20:56

Gordon and Donna Crawford, who believe that

20:58

quality journalism makes LA a better place

21:00

to live. On

21:21

inheriting. Carol Park was 12

21:23

years old, working at her family's gas

21:25

station in Compton, California, when

21:28

a big moment in US history changed her

21:30

life. Korean businesses in South

21:32

Central have been torched, dozens looted. The

21:34

1992 LA Uprising. Why

21:38

would this happen? I didn't get to answer

21:40

that until I was an adult. Listen

21:42

to Inheriting from LA Studios and

21:44

BANPAIR Network, wherever you get your

21:47

podcasts.