Celebrity graves are a surprise tourist attraction here are some suggestions for paying homage to deceased icons….
There’s no hiding place for celebrities these days – even in death. A-list graves have been turned into public shrines for fans to pay their respects, and have become pilgrimage sites. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the US, particularly Los Angeles, where the city’s amazing cemeteries are now tourist attractions in their own right – and free ones too.
Currently top of the “grave hunters” hit list is Michael Jackson, buried last year at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, an hour’s drive from downtown LA.
The King of Pop might have approved of his final resting place – the Great Mausoleum, architecturally inspired by the Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy. Its 11 terraces are each named after a flower. Jackson lies in the Holly Terrace, alongside Hollywood legends Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard.
Forest Lawn is concealed behind giant wrought-iron gates bearing the message “Cemeteries of today are wrong… they depict an end rather than a beginning”, and sits in 300 acres of rolling hills and replicas of early English Renaissance buildings.
For those seeking more intimate Hollywood glamour, the Westwood Memorial Park is a tiny cemetery hidden behind the high-rises that line Wilshire Boulevard. Fresh flowers adorn Marilyn Monroe’s tomb in the “Corridor of Memories” and the pink marble stone has had to be replaced several times because of lipstick stains from the kisses of Marilyn’s ever-adoring fans.
Some might argue graveyard tourism is just another reflection of our celeb-obsessed times, but anyone with an interest in Hollywood history will surely dig LA’s cemeteries…
TOP FIVE US PILGRIMAGE SITES FOR 2010
Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale – see above Dakota Building & Strawberry Fields, New York City – John Lennon
Graceland, Tennessee – do you need to ask?
Fairmount, Indiana – James Dean
Seattle, Washington – Kurt Cobain