WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Forest Lawn Memorial Park

0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:06.400
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and

0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.239
<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and guests. Who's here. It's j E. R.

0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:14.720
<v Speaker 1>I Jerry, our producer, and this is short stuff. I'm

0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.000
<v Speaker 1>glad you spelled that because no one ever spells it right.

0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.200
<v Speaker 1>I My brain wanted so bad to go to j

0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.320
<v Speaker 1>E l l Oh. Yeah, and I had to stop myself.

0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:26.119
<v Speaker 1>I think if you go back and listen, there's a

0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.280
<v Speaker 1>half of a pause there, and that's me stopping myself

0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:32.120
<v Speaker 1>from spelling jello instead. I'll bet you did. We know

0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:37.959
<v Speaker 1>each other so well? Can we talk about Forest Lawn Cemetery? Oh? Well, well,

0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.040
<v Speaker 1>you've probably never been there. I have not, have you?

0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:42.879
<v Speaker 1>I have? Uh? I used to live not too far

0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.559
<v Speaker 1>from there in Eagle Rock. Uh. It is a it's

0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.839
<v Speaker 1>called Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, kind of situated

0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:54.920
<v Speaker 1>between Pasadena and downtown l A. Which ended up being

0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.160
<v Speaker 1>a good thing back when it was first. What would

0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.400
<v Speaker 1>you do install it? Yeah? They installed the cemetery. I

0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:07.840
<v Speaker 1>guess you build things. And he established? Yeah, established, that's

0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:11.760
<v Speaker 1>the word. But it was established by Dr Hubert Eaton

0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.960
<v Speaker 1>about three acres worth in nineteen seventeen. Big thanks to

0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.720
<v Speaker 1>Kate Morrigan of how stuff works with this one. But

0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.640
<v Speaker 1>Hubert Eaton had it was a bit of a visionary

0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.360
<v Speaker 1>and that he was just sort of known as and

0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.720
<v Speaker 1>is still known as the Builder, this very revered figure

0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.440
<v Speaker 1>for doing something quite different with his cemetery. Yeah, he

0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:36.040
<v Speaker 1>was like one part Gomez Adams in one part Walt Disney.

0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.080
<v Speaker 1>That's what I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna put him mask.

0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.800
<v Speaker 1>But there's a plaque there called um with the title

0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.280
<v Speaker 1>the Builder's Dream and the Builder's Creed Creed, and he

0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.000
<v Speaker 1>says that um, he this is supposed to be a

0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.960
<v Speaker 1>great park, devoid of misshape and monuments and other signs

0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.960
<v Speaker 1>of earthly death, but filled with towering trees, sweeping lawns,

0:01:55.240 --> 0:02:00.280
<v Speaker 1>splashing fountains, beautiful statutory and memorial architecture. And it's signed

0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.000
<v Speaker 1>the Builder and apparently still today that's what they referred

0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.000
<v Speaker 1>to Dr Eaton as at the cemetery. But he achieved

0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.720
<v Speaker 1>his vision. Um. This was all established at a time, Chuck.

0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:15.080
<v Speaker 1>When you know, people have been making cemeteries in the

0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.520
<v Speaker 1>United States for hundreds of years by this time, and

0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.079
<v Speaker 1>there was like a certain way that you made them,

0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.840
<v Speaker 1>and Dr Hubert Eaton happened to be at this place

0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.640
<v Speaker 1>in southern California at a time where it was starting

0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.079
<v Speaker 1>to come alive, and it was a place where you

0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.400
<v Speaker 1>could reinvent yourself. And he used that opportunity to reinvent

0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.160
<v Speaker 1>cemeteries with Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Yeah, and it was

0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.919
<v Speaker 1>a time in southern California and Los Angeles where, uh,

0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.400
<v Speaker 1>well a couple of things on that he he wanted

0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.960
<v Speaker 1>it to be a place where people could go and

0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.640
<v Speaker 1>see art and feel like they've sort of had a cultural,

0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:54.640
<v Speaker 1>uh culturally enriching experience because at the time, you know,

0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:56.560
<v Speaker 1>doing what they called the Grand Tour. If you had

0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.360
<v Speaker 1>a lot of money and a lot of time, you

0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.120
<v Speaker 1>could fly to Europe and see all the art of

0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.120
<v Speaker 1>the world. But for people that didn't have a lot

0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.200
<v Speaker 1>of time and money, and this was again nineteen seventeen,

0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.760
<v Speaker 1>he wanted to give people a little bit of taste

0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.800
<v Speaker 1>of that in southern Cali and the place where he

0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.960
<v Speaker 1>ended up getting this land, like I said, between Pasadena

0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.960
<v Speaker 1>and downtown. It was um not a booming metropolis at

0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.600
<v Speaker 1>the time, but it ended up being in a very

0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.720
<v Speaker 1>great spot in Glendale because you know, it's l a

0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:30.679
<v Speaker 1>in the Southland. A lot of people ended up living

0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:35.200
<v Speaker 1>right there. Yeah. So um, yeah, and he really nailed.

0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.560
<v Speaker 1>But he was trying to do, which was make a

0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.800
<v Speaker 1>place where you you didn't come to more and death,

0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.240
<v Speaker 1>you came to celebrate life. Yeah, you wanted to attract

0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.360
<v Speaker 1>people that come and and you know, be among the

0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.160
<v Speaker 1>graves and this memorial. But but be thinking about how

0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.280
<v Speaker 1>great it is to be alive, and what better way

0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:57.560
<v Speaker 1>to do that than with replicas of Michelangelo's art. That's right? Uh,

0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.360
<v Speaker 1>should we take a break and come back and talk

0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.120
<v Speaker 1>a little bit more about the art and such? Yes,

0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.320
<v Speaker 1>all right, so you mentioned replicas of Michelangelo. There were

0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.440
<v Speaker 1>are certainly replicas of art there. There's also a lot

0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.200
<v Speaker 1>of original art. There's a full on museum. Um. The

0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.200
<v Speaker 1>largest religious painting in the United States and the largest

0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.880
<v Speaker 1>painting in the Western United States period. It's called the

0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:57.840
<v Speaker 1>Crucifixion from jan Stika. Yeah. He was a Polish artist

0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.039
<v Speaker 1>and get this, He created this painting, got it over

0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.560
<v Speaker 1>to the US for some exposition or another, and um,

0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:07.840
<v Speaker 1>it was too big, they did. They didn't have a

0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.839
<v Speaker 1>place to put it, and he didn't have the money

0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.160
<v Speaker 1>to chip it back home. So he had to leave

0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.280
<v Speaker 1>it behind in the United States, went back and died

0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:21.039
<v Speaker 1>in poland never saw his painting again. Yeah. A hundred

0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:26.200
<v Speaker 1>and wide by tall, and it's you know, it very

0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.760
<v Speaker 1>simply depicts the I guess the pre crucifixion when it

0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:35.000
<v Speaker 1>looks like Jesus's cross is still on the ground, the

0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:36.960
<v Speaker 1>other ones are in the ground and things are just

0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.280
<v Speaker 1>getting started. Yeah, it's a huge like landscape, like there's

0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.279
<v Speaker 1>all sorts of stuff going on. Yeah, but Forrest Lawn

0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.039
<v Speaker 1>acquired it and gave it the proper respect. It actually

0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.520
<v Speaker 1>built a building around it too. How is it specifically

0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.920
<v Speaker 1>so you gotta do No, one's gotta aloft that big?

0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.279
<v Speaker 1>Definitely not. That's a giant painting. I saw a picture

0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.000
<v Speaker 1>of it and there's a couple of people standing in

0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.560
<v Speaker 1>front of it and they just look like ants. Yeah,

0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.360
<v Speaker 1>it's it's very large. Um. I guess we should talk

0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.720
<v Speaker 1>a little bit because it is l A and there

0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.200
<v Speaker 1>are some very famous Angelina is buried there. Um. And

0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.200
<v Speaker 1>I would like to follow this up with the Hollywood

0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.840
<v Speaker 1>Forever Cemetery. It's it's another sort of their l A

0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.520
<v Speaker 1>has two great cemeteries, and that's the other one. But

0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.359
<v Speaker 1>they do fun stuff like movie Nights. Yeah, I saw

0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.160
<v Speaker 1>that in um Beneath the Silver Lake. Oh, I think

0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.760
<v Speaker 1>I saw that that's featured in Beneath the Silver Lake?

0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:30.599
<v Speaker 1>Was that what was going? I'm pretty sure the one

0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:35.960
<v Speaker 1>with Andrew Garfield. Yeah, Underneath the Silver Lake? I think

0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:41.880
<v Speaker 1>on top of Silver Lake. A few of the notable

0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:48.359
<v Speaker 1>people buried there are no less than Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Cable, sure,

0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:53.120
<v Speaker 1>who else? How about Bogey and Bacall both hit me

0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.800
<v Speaker 1>with another? How about that old sweet crooner Nat King Cole?

0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.040
<v Speaker 1>Oh you got any other crooners up your sleeve? I

0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.039
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't crude. Michael Jackson is there? I think he croon?

0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.200
<v Speaker 1>Did he crun? Yeah? I want to rock with you.

0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.480
<v Speaker 1>I'll buy that. But here's the deal. Apparently, if you

0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.040
<v Speaker 1>go to Forest Lawn, uh and I have been there,

0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:15.520
<v Speaker 1>but I didn't spend a lot of time there. I

0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:17.640
<v Speaker 1>think I was. I think I was on a job

0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.560
<v Speaker 1>shooting a stupid TV commercial or something. But you have

0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.720
<v Speaker 1>to and of course these days with the Internet, Internet

0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:27.120
<v Speaker 1>you can find out where everyone is buried. But it's

0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.040
<v Speaker 1>not one of those places that where you show up

0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:31.920
<v Speaker 1>and do a ghost tour or they say here's your

0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.360
<v Speaker 1>brochure where you can go see all the famous folks

0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.080
<v Speaker 1>that are buried here. Which is that's good, that's tasteful,

0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.200
<v Speaker 1>like there, that's not the point of it. Yeah, you know,

0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:46.440
<v Speaker 1>Creed So I mentioned how Hubert Eaten was half Walt Disney,

0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.840
<v Speaker 1>and he's very frequently compared to Walt Disney because of

0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.840
<v Speaker 1>some of the design of Forest Lawn. UM. There's a

0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:59.120
<v Speaker 1>lot of tutor Um architecture. UM. There's little difference burial

0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.280
<v Speaker 1>sections that have their own name and kind of like

0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:07.760
<v Speaker 1>vibe going on Inspiration Slope, Whispering Pines, Dawn of Tomorrow Um.

0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.120
<v Speaker 1>There's one called baby Land for infant burials, there's one

0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.680
<v Speaker 1>called Slumberland for children, and oh my gosh. Yeah, and

0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.360
<v Speaker 1>then I guess the rest of it is just called

0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:21.640
<v Speaker 1>You shouldn't feel as bad about these graves. Yeah, these

0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:23.920
<v Speaker 1>ones are fine. We have a cemetery very close to

0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:26.400
<v Speaker 1>our house that we walked through a lot on our walks,

0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.960
<v Speaker 1>and I love just sort of reading the headstones as

0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.120
<v Speaker 1>I walk by, and uh, you know, you'll come across

0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.280
<v Speaker 1>a grave that's two ft long and you're just like,

0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:40.880
<v Speaker 1>oh god, you can't even look like it'll just say infant.

0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.199
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes not even a name. Yeah, I mean this one

0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.440
<v Speaker 1>had a name, but I don't know. It's always interesting

0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.439
<v Speaker 1>the women always outlived the men. It seems like, uh,

0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:50.760
<v Speaker 1>quite a few like World War two veterans out there.

0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:55.839
<v Speaker 1>But it's uh. I enjoy cemeteries and but I've never liked,

0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.320
<v Speaker 1>you know, romped and partied in cemeteries like some people

0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.720
<v Speaker 1>do in college, you know, can't always like to read

0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.200
<v Speaker 1>the headstones and get a little bit of a story.

0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.600
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes I saw some writers say I don't remember who

0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:11.720
<v Speaker 1>it was, but they advised if you want to come

0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.880
<v Speaker 1>up with names, go to a cemetery, because you'll end

0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.120
<v Speaker 1>up coming up with like Kirkwood mcgilla cutty if you

0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.520
<v Speaker 1>just try to use your imagination. But if you go

0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.480
<v Speaker 1>to a cemetery, you're gonna find like actual people's names

0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:25.880
<v Speaker 1>that you can use, you know. Yeah, especially these days

0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:27.920
<v Speaker 1>when everyone's like I want my baby. This sounds like

0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:32.600
<v Speaker 1>they're from the eighteen tens. It's so weird. Uh. So

0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.880
<v Speaker 1>eaton going back to the Disney thing. Uh, Walt Disney

0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:40.200
<v Speaker 1>is buried there in fact, and you mentioned all of

0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.920
<v Speaker 1>the sort of similarities with Disney, and they are there

0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.280
<v Speaker 1>are people out there that said it's like the Disney

0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.320
<v Speaker 1>World or Disneyland of cemeteries, and Forest Lawn is very

0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.240
<v Speaker 1>quick to point out, no, no, no, we were here first,

0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.760
<v Speaker 1>and we like to say that Disneyland is the amusement

0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:01.560
<v Speaker 1>park of the Forest Lawns. It's they turned it on

0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:06.600
<v Speaker 1>its head. Um. There's something one more thing about Michelangelo's work.

0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.280
<v Speaker 1>There was like, I think a seventeen foot reproduction of David,

0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:15.120
<v Speaker 1>a very famous statue. Uh. And it has actually toppled

0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.640
<v Speaker 1>several times over the years, and they've had to remake

0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.800
<v Speaker 1>it every time. Most recently it toppled under its own

0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.559
<v Speaker 1>weight and I'm not sure if they've replaced it yet

0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.760
<v Speaker 1>or not. To someone standing there and then just a

0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:32.120
<v Speaker 1>giant three ft penis comes at them. Yeah, clocked him,

0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.680
<v Speaker 1>knocked him right out. Uh. And it made like this

0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:41.679
<v Speaker 1>a sound that went dong. Alright, I think we've desecrated

0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.360
<v Speaker 1>this episode. Wait, hold on, there's one more thing. Ronald

0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.200
<v Speaker 1>Reagan married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:50.800
<v Speaker 1>It's true. People do get married there. There's a like

0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:54.280
<v Speaker 1>a legit church. Yeah, sixty thousand people have been married there,

0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:56.800
<v Speaker 1>one fifth of the number of people who are interred

0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.240
<v Speaker 1>there have been married there. I got married there. Did

0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.120
<v Speaker 1>you really know? You didn't? I get married at by

0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.640
<v Speaker 1>the poolhouse of my brother's neighborhood. That's what I thought. Yeah, okay,

0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:10.719
<v Speaker 1>you almost got me there. For a second though, I'm

0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.160
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna start telling people that, Okay, why not? You

0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.760
<v Speaker 1>got anything else? I got nothing else? All right? Everybody's

0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:21.800
<v Speaker 1>short stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is a

0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.199
<v Speaker 1>production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,

0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.440
<v Speaker 1>visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:29.880
<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows.