Who2 Editorial Blog

Notes and Commentary from the Editors

Monday, August 17, 2009

"King of Popsicle" Succeeding Where Disney Failed

Walt Disney's body has long been rumored, falsely, to lie frozen beneath the Matterhorn at Disneyland.

But now comes word from The NY Post that Michael Jackson really has been frozen beneath the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. Jackson is getting the ice, it seems, where Disney could only manage to be boringly cremated.

The Post has one of those irresistable headlines -- "Chiller! Jacko Now the King of Popsicle" -- and adds in breathless Post-speak that the body was moved from "Motown biggie Berry Gordy's family crypt" on orders from Jackson's mother, Katharine:

Katherine is refusing to let her son be buried in an unmarked grave because she's terrified that robbers will snatch his body or that the site would be desecrated.

So he lies alone in a small, bare brick room with beige walls in a gold casket, which rests on a white bench and is encased in a clear fiberglass container that keeps frost out, the sources said.

Well, maybe. In any case, Jackson is clearly bucking to join Alexander the Great in our loop Oddly Preserved. Alexander was also placed in a gold casket, though he was then soaked in honey -- a gaudy touch that the Jackson family may be hard-pressed to match.

As a bonus coincidence, the cremated remains of Walt Disney are now buried at... Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.

Labels: Alexander the Great, Forest Lawn, Michael Jackson, Walt Disney

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:38 AM Share on Facebook 0 comments

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Where's Michael?

Turns out he is at Forest Lawn -- at least, temporarily:

Michael Jackson's body is at Forest Lawn cemetery, sources close to the family told ABC News, but a dispute among his brothers and mother over whether the King of Pop should be finally laid to rest at Neverland Ranch is delaying his burial.

Jackson's remains may not stay at Forest Lawn, however. The singer's brothers and mother, sources said, are engaged in a argument about whether he should be buried at Neverland Ranch, the Xanadu-like estate at which the King of Pop once held court but where he vowed never to return again after police raided the home looking for evidence of child molestation in December 2003.

Labels: Forest Lawn, Michael Jackson, Neverland

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 8:59 AM Share on Facebook 0 comments

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Forest Lawn: Michael Jackson's Final Resting Place?

(TV trucks outside Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills on 7 July 2009.)

A family funeral for pop star Michael Jackson took place at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills today, and Jackson reportedly (may) be buried there after his funeral today.

Forest Lawn has a long and slightly odd history. It's just over the hill behind the famous HOLLYWOOD sign; a friend and I once walked up the hill past the sign and its many security cameras, over the brow of the hill (Griffith Park to your right as you're heading north) and then down into Forest Park.

Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills is loaded with celebrities: Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Steve Allen and Telly Savalas among them. Ed McMahon and David Carradine just landed there, too.

(Note: Walt Disney himself is at a different Forest Lawn property, Forest Lawn Glendale, which is a few miles away.)

As an additional Hollywood touch, from the cemetery you can look right across the Ventura Freeway at the Disney animation studios in beautiful Burbank.

Forest Lawn's other claim to fame is its extravagant (some would say kitschy) tributes to the American Revolution. The cemetery includes a replica of Boston's Old North Church and other odd items. Per the Forest Lawn website:

- Feel the excitement of the American Revolution as you stand before the world's largest historical mosaic, The Birth of Liberty.

- Visit a faithful reproduction of Boston's fabled Old North Church

- See larger-than-life-sized bronze statues of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln

- Watch a free 26-minute movie about the American Revolution

- Tour the Plaza of Mesoamerican Heritage, a tribute to the early civilizations of North America who thrived in the land that is now Mexico

Not your average Boot Hill, in other words.

Hubert Eaton, who founded Forest Lawn, didn't go for the gloomy graveyard model. He believed in "memorial parks" where families could come to visit and even picnic among the dearly departed. Toward that end, he banned stand-up headstones in favor of flat tablets, and he's credited with inventing (as it were) this all-flat-tablet style of cemetery.

(Eaton, like Disney, is buried at Forest Lawn Glendale.)

We didn't even know it was a celebrity burial ground at the time of our walk, but we marveled over the Old North Church replica and the Revolutionary details, which have an olde-time Hall of Presidents feel. It's a strange scene.

As another friend said today, "All you need is a Ferris wheel and Michael will feel right at home."

Labels: David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Forest Lawn, Hubert Eaton, Lucille Ball, Michael Jackson, Steve Allen, Telly Savalas, The Old North Church, Walt Disney

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 12:33 PM Share on Facebook 0 comments

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