With the recent death of Elizabeth Taylor, the eyes of the world turned to Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California, as they often do when a movie star passes away. There are probably more movie stars per square foot in the 300 acres of Forest Lawn than in Beverly Hills, Hollywood or Brentwood, so Liz will not be lonely.

By coincidence, my wife Susan and I visited Forest Lawn just a few months ago, during a drive up the California coast in our 1968 Steve McQueen “Bullitt” Mustang. We hoped to see Steve’s grave, but were disappointed to learn that his ashes were scattered over the Pacific. We turned to Forest Lawn instead, since we had heard about it all our lives. It may seem ghoulish to want to visit a cemetery, but in our visits to well over 100 cemeteries on almost every continent, we have found that you can learn a lot about a people by the way they bury their dead.

We were especially intrigued by Forest Lawn, since much of what we had heard was not complimentary. First there was the 1948 satiric novel The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh, who wrote about the cemetery (disguised as “Whispering Glades”) and its supposedly garish ceremonies and tacky denial of death. Then there was the really hilarious and over-the-top song by Tom Paxton, with verses like:

Oh lay me down in Forest Lawn in a silver casket.
Put golden flowers over my head in a silver basket.
Let the drum and bugle corps, blow taps while cannons roar.
While sixteen liveried employees pass out souvenirs from the funeral store!

And the great tag line: “Rock of Ages, cleft for me – for a slightly higher fee.”

So we didn’t know what to expect. We didn’t expect to like it. But we did. Why? Well, history, art, privacy, beauty and price had a lot to do with it.

Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn

First, the history. Forest Lawn was founded in 1906 as a non-profit cemetery by a group of businessmen from San Francisco. Dr. Hubert Eaton from Liberty, Missouri took over in 1917, with the revolutionary new idea that a cemetery should be beautiful and uplifting, with no upright stones, but “memorial gardens” and art instead. He wanted his cemetery to “be as unlike other cemeteries as sunshine is unlike darkness.” The public and the new Hollywood film industry quickly responded. Stars and notables who have chosen to be buried there include Spencer Tracy, Lon Cheney, Humphrey Bogart, W.C. Fields, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, Gracie Allen, Walt Disney, Nat King Cole, Louis L’Amour, Casey Stengel and Jimmy Stewart.

There are now over 250,000 “residents” buried in the Glendale cemetery, and Forest Lawn has become a franchise, with five other outlets in the L.A. area. The Glendale location is a major tourist attraction, with over a million visitors per year, including Pope John Paul II!

Second, the art. One doesn’t expect to see great art in a cemetery (although “funerary art” can be fascinating and has a “language” all its own). But Forest Lawn offers original works by Matisse, a beautiful version in stained glass of the Last Supper, the Resurrection by Robert Clark, and the Crucifixion by Jan Styka – at 195 by 45 feet, the largest canvas painting in the world. These originals in the Forest Lawn museum and Great Mausoleum are supplemented by excellent full sized copies of all the works of Michelangelo and other major artists, scattered around the grounds.

Third, privacy. It can be frustrating to visit Forest Lawn, since many of the most famous graves are off limits to the public and others are unmarked. For example, the exclusive open air “Garden of Memory” has locked bronze doors and underground crypts to ensure privacy, and families are issued a special golden key to gain access. We managed to get in because a funeral service was going on, but we still couldn’t find the grave of Spencer Tracy.

We also tried to see the grave of Michael Jackson, in the Great Mausoleum, a huge granite building 25 feet high, almost the size of a city block, modeled after the Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy. But the building was locked, as it always is. Michael’s many fans were allowed to leave flowers and other mementos in the small courtyard outside the door.

As we examined these items, a rent-an-RV drove up, parked right beside the entrance, and disgorged three Italian girls who went up to the door, kissed it passionately, and left mementos. They had come all the way from Italy to pay their respects, and were planning to go on to see the gate to Dreamland, the Michael Jackson ranch near Los Olivos, California. Their entire American tour was planned around Jackson’s sites. This was clearly the modern-day equivalent of a pilgrimage to see the burial place of a saint.

Elizabeth Taylor also chose to buried, “fifteen minutes late to her own funeral,” in the Great Mausoleum, near her friend Michael Jackson. Doubtless there are numerous fans leaving flowers for Liz right now, outside the locked door.

While this emphasis on privacy is frustrating for us visitors, I have to respect it. Clearly many fans are so rabid that they would deface the graves of their saints with inscriptions, or take away chips of stone, if allowed to get close.

Fourth, the beauty. Forest Lawn is undoubtedly one of the prettiest spots in Los Angeles. In a town dominated by strip malls, Jiffy Lubes, smog, and streets filled with traffic, Forest Lawn stands out as a haven of tranquility and peace. I have never seen a better-kept cemetery, and the grass on the gorgeous rolling hills overlooking the city is a fabulous Irish green that you rarely see in California, except on a golf course. It is so beautiful that over 30,000 couples, including Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, have been married there.

Lastly, the price. OK, so I’ve convinced you that Forest Lawn is one of the most famous and beautiful cemeteries in the world. Now if you want to really get serious, this is the time. Ads on line show that, for example, “a lot in the Garden of Memory, behind a locked private gate by the Statue of David, among the movie stars” is “appraised for $15,500 but available now for only $8995 OBO.” Who could resist such a bargain? Eternity in paradise for a pittance.

See you there!

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In his quest to find the tombstones of his ancestors, Lew Toulmin has visited cemeteries in every state in the South. He lives in Silver Spring.