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Short Stuff: Forest Lawn Memorial Park · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and guests. Who's here. It's j E. R.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I Jerry, our producer, and this is short stuff. I'm
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: glad you spelled that because no one ever spells it right.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I My brain wanted so bad to go to j
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: E l l Oh. Yeah, and I had to stop myself.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I think if you go back and listen, there's a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: half of a pause there, and that's me stopping myself
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: from spelling jello instead. I'll bet you did. We know
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: each other so well? Can we talk about Forest Lawn Cemetery? Oh? Well, well,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: you've probably never been there. I have not, have you?
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I have? Uh? I used to live not too far
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: from there in Eagle Rock. Uh. It is a it's
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: called Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, kind of situated
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: between Pasadena and downtown l A. Which ended up being
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a good thing back when it was first. What would
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you do install it? Yeah? They installed the cemetery. I
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: guess you build things. And he established? Yeah, established, that's
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the word. But it was established by Dr Hubert Eaton
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: about three acres worth in nineteen seventeen. Big thanks to
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Kate Morrigan of how stuff works with this one. But
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Hubert Eaton had it was a bit of a visionary
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and that he was just sort of known as and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: is still known as the Builder, this very revered figure
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: for doing something quite different with his cemetery. Yeah, he
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: was like one part Gomez Adams in one part Walt Disney.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna put him mask.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: But there's a plaque there called um with the title
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the Builder's Dream and the Builder's Creed Creed, and he
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: says that um, he this is supposed to be a
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: great park, devoid of misshape and monuments and other signs
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of earthly death, but filled with towering trees, sweeping lawns,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: splashing fountains, beautiful statutory and memorial architecture. And it's signed
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the Builder and apparently still today that's what they referred
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: to Dr Eaton as at the cemetery. But he achieved
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: his vision. Um. This was all established at a time, Chuck.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: When you know, people have been making cemeteries in the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: United States for hundreds of years by this time, and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: there was like a certain way that you made them,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and Dr Hubert Eaton happened to be at this place
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: in southern California at a time where it was starting
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to come alive, and it was a place where you
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: could reinvent yourself. And he used that opportunity to reinvent
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: cemeteries with Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Yeah, and it was
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a time in southern California and Los Angeles where, uh,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: well a couple of things on that he he wanted
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: it to be a place where people could go and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: see art and feel like they've sort of had a cultural,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: uh culturally enriching experience because at the time, you know,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: doing what they called the Grand Tour. If you had
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of money and a lot of time, you
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: could fly to Europe and see all the art of
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the world. But for people that didn't have a lot
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of time and money, and this was again nineteen seventeen,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: he wanted to give people a little bit of taste
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of that in southern Cali and the place where he
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: ended up getting this land, like I said, between Pasadena
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and downtown. It was um not a booming metropolis at
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the time, but it ended up being in a very
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: great spot in Glendale because you know, it's l a
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in the Southland. A lot of people ended up living
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: right there. Yeah. So um, yeah, and he really nailed.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But he was trying to do, which was make a
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: place where you you didn't come to more and death,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you came to celebrate life. Yeah, you wanted to attract
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: people that come and and you know, be among the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: graves and this memorial. But but be thinking about how
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: great it is to be alive, and what better way
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to do that than with replicas of Michelangelo's art. That's right? Uh,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: should we take a break and come back and talk
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: a little bit more about the art and such? Yes,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: all right, so you mentioned replicas of Michelangelo. There were
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: are certainly replicas of art there. There's also a lot
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: of original art. There's a full on museum. Um. The
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: largest religious painting in the United States and the largest
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: painting in the Western United States period. It's called the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Crucifixion from jan Stika. Yeah. He was a Polish artist
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and get this, He created this painting, got it over
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to the US for some exposition or another, and um,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: it was too big, they did. They didn't have a
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: place to put it, and he didn't have the money
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to chip it back home. So he had to leave
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: it behind in the United States, went back and died
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: in poland never saw his painting again. Yeah. A hundred
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and wide by tall, and it's you know, it very
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: simply depicts the I guess the pre crucifixion when it
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: looks like Jesus's cross is still on the ground, the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: other ones are in the ground and things are just
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: getting started. Yeah, it's a huge like landscape, like there's
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff going on. Yeah, but Forrest Lawn
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: acquired it and gave it the proper respect. It actually
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: built a building around it too. How is it specifically
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: so you gotta do No, one's gotta aloft that big?
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Definitely not. That's a giant painting. I saw a picture
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: of it and there's a couple of people standing in
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: front of it and they just look like ants. Yeah,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: it's it's very large. Um. I guess we should talk
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: a little bit because it is l A and there
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: are some very famous Angelina is buried there. Um. And
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I would like to follow this up with the Hollywood
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Forever Cemetery. It's it's another sort of their l A
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: has two great cemeteries, and that's the other one. But
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: they do fun stuff like movie Nights. Yeah, I saw
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: that in um Beneath the Silver Lake. Oh, I think
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I saw that that's featured in Beneath the Silver Lake?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Was that what was going? I'm pretty sure the one
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: with Andrew Garfield. Yeah, Underneath the Silver Lake? I think
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: on top of Silver Lake. A few of the notable
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: people buried there are no less than Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Cable, sure,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: who else? How about Bogey and Bacall both hit me
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: with another? How about that old sweet crooner Nat King Cole?
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Oh you got any other crooners up your sleeve? I
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: wouldn't crude. Michael Jackson is there? I think he croon?
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Did he crun? Yeah? I want to rock with you.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I'll buy that. But here's the deal. Apparently, if you
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: go to Forest Lawn, uh and I have been there,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: but I didn't spend a lot of time there. I
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: think I was. I think I was on a job
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: shooting a stupid TV commercial or something. But you have
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to and of course these days with the Internet, Internet
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you can find out where everyone is buried. But it's
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: not one of those places that where you show up
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and do a ghost tour or they say here's your
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: brochure where you can go see all the famous folks
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: that are buried here. Which is that's good, that's tasteful,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: like there, that's not the point of it. Yeah, you know,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Creed So I mentioned how Hubert Eaten was half Walt Disney,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and he's very frequently compared to Walt Disney because of
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: some of the design of Forest Lawn. UM. There's a
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: lot of tutor Um architecture. UM. There's little difference burial
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: sections that have their own name and kind of like
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: vibe going on Inspiration Slope, Whispering Pines, Dawn of Tomorrow Um.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: There's one called baby Land for infant burials, there's one
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: called Slumberland for children, and oh my gosh. Yeah, and
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: then I guess the rest of it is just called
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: You shouldn't feel as bad about these graves. Yeah, these
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: ones are fine. We have a cemetery very close to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: our house that we walked through a lot on our walks,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and I love just sort of reading the headstones as
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I walk by, and uh, you know, you'll come across
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: a grave that's two ft long and you're just like,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: oh god, you can't even look like it'll just say infant.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Sometimes not even a name. Yeah, I mean this one
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: had a name, but I don't know. It's always interesting
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the women always outlived the men. It seems like, uh,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: quite a few like World War two veterans out there.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: But it's uh. I enjoy cemeteries and but I've never liked,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you know, romped and partied in cemeteries like some people
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: do in college, you know, can't always like to read
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the headstones and get a little bit of a story.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I saw some writers say I don't remember who
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: it was, but they advised if you want to come
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: up with names, go to a cemetery, because you'll end
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: up coming up with like Kirkwood mcgilla cutty if you
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: just try to use your imagination. But if you go
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: to a cemetery, you're gonna find like actual people's names
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: that you can use, you know. Yeah, especially these days
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: when everyone's like I want my baby. This sounds like
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: they're from the eighteen tens. It's so weird. Uh. So
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: eaton going back to the Disney thing. Uh, Walt Disney
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: is buried there in fact, and you mentioned all of
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: the sort of similarities with Disney, and they are there
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: are people out there that said it's like the Disney
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: World or Disneyland of cemeteries, and Forest Lawn is very
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: quick to point out, no, no, no, we were here first,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and we like to say that Disneyland is the amusement
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: park of the Forest Lawns. It's they turned it on
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: its head. Um. There's something one more thing about Michelangelo's work.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: There was like, I think a seventeen foot reproduction of David,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a very famous statue. Uh. And it has actually toppled
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: several times over the years, and they've had to remake
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it every time. Most recently it toppled under its own
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: weight and I'm not sure if they've replaced it yet
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: or not. To someone standing there and then just a
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: giant three ft penis comes at them. Yeah, clocked him,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: knocked him right out. Uh. And it made like this
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: a sound that went dong. Alright, I think we've desecrated
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: this episode. Wait, hold on, there's one more thing. Ronald
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Reagan married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: It's true. People do get married there. There's a like
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: a legit church. Yeah, sixty thousand people have been married there,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: one fifth of the number of people who are interred
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: there have been married there. I got married there. Did
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you really know? You didn't? I get married at by
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: the poolhouse of my brother's neighborhood. That's what I thought. Yeah, okay,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: you almost got me there. For a second though, I'm
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna start telling people that, Okay, why not? You
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: got anything else? I got nothing else? All right? Everybody's
• 11:15
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• 11:21
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• 11:25
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