Hollywood Forever: Haunted Legends, Celebrity Graves & Ghost Stories from L.A.’s Iconic Cemetery

0:00 Speaker 1: You know, when people dream of moving to Hollywood, they

0:02 Speaker 1: picture the lights, the glamour, maybe landing a walk on

0:05 Speaker 1: role in a Netflix reboot, but not many dream of

0:08 Speaker 1: ending up here permanently. Welcome to Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where

0:14 Speaker 1: the dearly departed includes silent film stars, rock legends, mobsters,

0:19 Speaker 1: and the occasional ghost who doesn't seem ready for their

0:22 Speaker 1: final curtain call. Let's take a stroll through one of

0:25 Speaker 1: the most iconic and haunted cemeteries in America. Hollywood Forever

0:31 Speaker 1: was founded in eighteen ninety nine as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery,

0:36 Speaker 1: making it one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles.

0:39 Speaker 1: Originally just a patch of land with a view of

0:42 Speaker 1: Lemon Groves, it quickly grew into the place to be

0:44 Speaker 1: buried if you were anybody in early Hollywood. By the

0:48 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, the cemetery was flush with the who's who

0:52 Speaker 1: of Tinseltown. Celebrities weren't just buried here, they were practically

0:57 Speaker 1: auditioning for it. The cemetery was lit literally next to

1:00 Speaker 1: Paramount Studios, and some say the fence separating the two

1:04 Speaker 1: was symbolic. On one side, Stars on the Rise on

1:08 Speaker 1: the other stars who had risen and fallen.

1:12 Speaker 2: The decline, the drama, the dead.

1:16 Speaker 1: In the mid twentieth century, things got dark. The cemetery

1:20 Speaker 1: fell into disrepair, mausoleums leaked, fountains dried up, and owners, oh,

1:26 Speaker 1: they were too busy embezzling funds to maintain anything. In

1:30 Speaker 1: the nineteen nineties, things hit rock bottom. The cemetery was

1:34 Speaker 1: bankrupt and headstones were literally sinking. But in nineteen ninety eight,

1:39 Speaker 1: an unexpected hero appeared, a twenty seven year old entrepreneur

1:44 Speaker 1: named Tyler Cassidy, who bought the place at auction for

1:47 Speaker 1: a cool three hundred seventy five thousand dollars. He gave

1:51 Speaker 1: it a major facelift, like Hollywood style. He added summer

1:56 Speaker 1: movie nights projected onto the side of a Mausoleumuddly Hollywood

2:01 Speaker 1: Forever became a place for both mourning and movies.

2:05 Speaker 2: Who is Tyler Cassidy.

2:07 Speaker 1: Cemetery entrepreneur and innovator. Born in the nineteen seventies into

2:12 Speaker 1: a Saint Louis family deeply involved in funeral care and services,

2:17 Speaker 1: Tyler developed a passion early on for honoring the deceased

2:21 Speaker 1: in modern meaningful ways, especially after discovering an old audio

2:25 Speaker 1: tape of his grandmother at age thirteen.

2:29 Speaker 2: Education and early career.

2:31 Speaker 1: He attended Columbia University, earning an English degree. Came out

2:36 Speaker 1: during college and initially focused on creating life stories video

2:41 Speaker 1: memorial tributes, combining photos, interviews, and home movies to preserve

2:46 Speaker 1: loved ones legacies. At age twenty seven, in April nineteen

2:51 Speaker 1: ninety eight, Tyler, alongside his brother Brent, bid three hundred

2:56 Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars to purchase the bankrupt Hollywood Memorial

2:59 Speaker 1: Park later renamed Hollywood Forever. He acquired the cemetery under

3:05 Speaker 1: TiO LLC after noting its potential as both a cultural

3:09 Speaker 1: landmark and a center for innovative memorialization.

3:13 Speaker 2: His vision and impact.

3:16 Speaker 1: During his revival of the historic landmark, he led multimillion

3:20 Speaker 1: dollar restorations of cracked mausoleums, earthquake damaged structures, and aging gravestones.

3:27 Speaker 1: His efforts resurrected Hollywood Forever's architectural beauty, earning it a

3:31 Speaker 1: spot on the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen

3:35 Speaker 1: ninety nine.

3:36 Speaker 2: Tech Forward memorials. Bringing mourning into the digital era.

3:42 Speaker 1: Tyler created kiosks and in house Studios Forever Studios that

3:47 Speaker 1: produced weekly video obituaries, the first of their kind at

3:51 Speaker 1: a cemetery in the US. This multi media tribute model

3:56 Speaker 1: inspired funeral directors nationwide. He transformed from the cemetery into

4:01 Speaker 1: a vibrant community hub by partnering with Sinespia in two

4:04 Speaker 1: thousand and two, projecting classic films outdoors, and by launching

4:09 Speaker 1: large Day of the Dead celebrations, concerts, guided tours, and

4:13 Speaker 1: other cultural events. In his commitment to inclusivity, In nineteen

4:19 Speaker 1: ninety nine, Tyler honored Hattie McDaniel, who'd been barred from

4:23 Speaker 1: burial there in nineteen fifty two due to segregation, by

4:27 Speaker 1: erecting a cenotaph near Sylvan Lake. This restored a lost

4:32 Speaker 1: promise and reflected his vision of equity and redemption.

4:36 Speaker 2: Green burial pioneer Death Goes Granola.

4:41 Speaker 1: Beyond Hollywood Forever, Tyler spearheaded green burial initiatives in Marin

4:46 Speaker 1: County Fernwood, working to develop natural memorial landscapes focused on

4:52 Speaker 1: eco friendly burials without embalming or non biodegradable caskets.

4:57 Speaker 2: His business and legacy.

4:59 Speaker 1: The HU Hollywood Forever Cemetery experienced revenue growth from near

5:04 Speaker 1: zero in nineteen ninety eight to approximately six to ten

5:08 Speaker 1: million dollars annual revenue by mid two thousands. He brought

5:13 Speaker 1: innovation and tech by introducing kiosks for video memorials and

5:18 Speaker 1: live webcasting. Later consulting for HBO's six Feet Under, he

5:23 Speaker 1: expanded operations. He built multiple facilities, including pet cemeteries, under

5:28 Speaker 1: Forever Enterprises. Tyler Cassidy is not just the owner of

5:32 Speaker 1: Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He's widely recognized as an innovative death

5:37 Speaker 1: care pioneer. He merged tradition with technology, creating multimedia memorials.

5:43 Speaker 1: He revitalized a historic cemetery into a cultural epicenter. He

5:48 Speaker 1: championed inclusivity and environmental responsibility. His vision helped redefine modern

5:53 Speaker 1: American funeral and cemetery experiences. Let's move on to who

5:58 Speaker 1: has a home here in the haunts of the Hollywood

6:00 Speaker 1: Forever Cemetery.

6:02 Speaker 2: Famous graves and strange stories.

6:06 Speaker 1: Let's name drop some eternal residence. Rudolph Valentino, the original

6:11 Speaker 1: Latin lover of silent film. His early death in nineteen

6:15 Speaker 1: twenty six led to mass hysteria. Women reportedly fainted at

6:19 Speaker 1: his funeral. His crypt is regularly visited by the mysterious

6:23 Speaker 1: Lady in Black, who leaves a single red rose. Some

6:27 Speaker 1: say she's a paid actress. Others claim the real Lady

6:30 Speaker 1: in Black has been dead since the nineteen thirties and

6:34 Speaker 1: still returns. Douglas Fairbanks Senior and Junior buried in a

6:38 Speaker 1: massive marble tomb by the reflecting Pool. It's as if

6:42 Speaker 1: they said, even in death, Darling, we're not doing understated

6:47 Speaker 1: Judy Garland. Yes that Judy. Her remains were moved here

6:52 Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen from New York, fulfilling her family's wish

6:55 Speaker 1: for her to rest near her children. Somewhere over the

6:58 Speaker 1: Rainbow turn out to be just off Santa Monica Boulevard.

7:02 Speaker 1: Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Johnny Ramone, though his statue

7:06 Speaker 1: is here, his ashes aren't. Punk rock royalty, who brought

7:10 Speaker 1: new generations into the cemetery's cult fandom.

7:13 Speaker 2: Ghosts, apparitions and night whispers. You didn't think we'd skip

7:19 Speaker 2: the hauntings, did you.

7:21 Speaker 1: Many visitors report hearing whispering voices near Valentino's tomb, especially

7:26 Speaker 1: during the anniversary of his death. Some claim to see

7:29 Speaker 1: his ghost in a suit pacing around the colonnade as

7:32 Speaker 1: if waiting for someone. A cemetery groundskeeper once told a

7:36 Speaker 1: true story about working late one night near the abbey

7:38 Speaker 1: of the Psalms Mausoleum. He saw a man dressed in

7:42 Speaker 1: old fashioned clothes walking toward the exit. When he called out,

7:47 Speaker 1: no response, then the man vanished into thin air. The

7:51 Speaker 1: only logical explanation it was Peter Lore, perhaps taking a

7:56 Speaker 1: final stroll. Visitors also report sudden cold draft, the sensation

8:01 Speaker 1: of being watched, and soft piano music even when there

8:05 Speaker 1: are no events or electricity nearby. One woman visiting during

8:08 Speaker 1: Dia delo Smrtos swore she saw a little girl skipping

8:12 Speaker 1: through the gravestones, until she realized the girl was wearing

8:16 Speaker 1: turn of the century clothing and left no footprints.

8:20 Speaker 2: The Lady in Black more than just a legend.

8:25 Speaker 1: Let's start with the most famous ghost here, Rudolph Valentino's

8:29 Speaker 1: Lady in Black. She first appeared at his crypt in

8:32 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties. Dressed in mourning black with a veil.

8:36 Speaker 1: She placed a red rose on his marble tomb in

8:38 Speaker 1: the Cathedral Mausoleum and quietly disappeared. People assumed she was

8:42 Speaker 1: a grieving lover. Decades later, several versions of her identity emerged.

8:48 Speaker 1: Some say she was an actress named Dieitre Flame who

8:52 Speaker 1: visited him every year until her own death in nineteen

8:55 Speaker 1: eighty four. But here's where it gets weirder. Visitors and

9:00 Speaker 1: cemetery workers still report seeing her. After Dietra's death. In

9:05 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, a night security guard spotted a woman

9:08 Speaker 1: in black veils walking alone toward the mausoleum at sunset.

9:12 Speaker 1: When he approached, she vanished behind a pillar. Thinking it

9:16 Speaker 1: was a prank, he checked security footage. No one was

9:20 Speaker 1: captured on camera, even though he was looking right at her.

9:24 Speaker 1: Tourists have taken photos where a faint silhouette of a

9:26 Speaker 1: veiled woman can be seen hovering near Valentino's tomb. Some

9:31 Speaker 1: even claim they heard crying echoing inside the otherwise silent building.

9:35 Speaker 2: Valentino's cursed mirror.

9:39 Speaker 1: Let's double down on Rudy for a second. One lesser

9:42 Speaker 1: known artifact associated with him is a haunted mirror that

9:46 Speaker 1: once hung in his home and now reportedly resides in storage.

9:50 Speaker 1: Visitors to the cemetery who've seen the mirror when it

9:53 Speaker 1: was briefly displayed claimed to have seen Valentino's face reflected

9:57 Speaker 1: back at them even when standing alone. Some say their

10:01 Speaker 1: eyes burned or watered, as if filled with sudden grief

10:05 Speaker 1: or longing. Others reported nightmares that same night of silent

10:10 Speaker 1: film sets crumbling or being chased through old Hollywood lots. Coincidence, maybe,

10:18 Speaker 1: but the mirror is now kept away from the public.

10:21 Speaker 2: The shifting Mausoleum doors.

10:23 Speaker 1: In the abbey of the Psalm's Mausoleum, a massive marble

10:26 Speaker 1: walled chamber with soaring ceilings. Maintenance workers often report heavy

10:31 Speaker 1: bronze doors opening and closing by themselves. One longtime groundskeeper

10:36 Speaker 1: named Luis claimed he was working late one winter evening

10:40 Speaker 1: when he heard a slam echo down the marble hallway.

10:44 Speaker 1: Assuming it was a trespasser, he grabbed his flashlight and

10:47 Speaker 1: followed the sound. What he found chilled him more than

10:51 Speaker 1: the December air. The bronze crypt door of a nineteen

10:55 Speaker 1: thirty's actress had swung open several inches. No wind, no quake,

11:00 Speaker 1: no explanation. Luis quietly shut it. He never walked that

11:05 Speaker 1: hall alone again. The Girl in the Garden, a woman

11:09 Speaker 1: visiting the cemetery during a film screening, told this spine

11:13 Speaker 1: tingling story.

11:15 Speaker 3: I had stepped away from the crowd to the rose

11:17 Speaker 3: garden near the pond. That's when I saw a little girl,

11:20 Speaker 3: maybe six years old in a white lace dress, just

11:23 Speaker 3: standing near a headstone, watching the water. I assumed she

11:27 Speaker 3: was with a family, but no one was nearby. I

11:30 Speaker 3: turned around to get someone's attention, and when I looked back,

11:33 Speaker 3: she was gone, just like that, no footsteps, no rustling.

11:38 Speaker 4: Gone.

11:40 Speaker 1: She later looked up the grave the girl was standing near.

11:43 Speaker 1: It belonged to a young girl who died in nineteen

11:45 Speaker 1: eighteen during the Spanish flu pandemic.

11:48 Speaker 2: Phantom music from the mausoleum.

11:51 Speaker 1: Visitors often report soft organ music wafting through the cemetery

11:56 Speaker 1: at dusk. But here's the kicker. The Masilliam's organ hasn't

12:01 Speaker 1: worked in over a decade. One paranormal investigator, Heather A

12:06 Speaker 1: visited in twenty fourteen. She set up audio equipment outside

12:10 Speaker 1: the abbey of the Psalms after hours. On the playback,

12:14 Speaker 1: faint music can be heard, slow, somber, like a funeral dirge.

12:19 Speaker 1: There were no events at the time, no instruments, just her,

12:23 Speaker 1: the recorder and the dead.

12:26 Speaker 2: Lipstick on Johnny Ramone's statue.

12:29 Speaker 1: The towering bronze statue of punk legend Johnny Ramone is

12:33 Speaker 1: one of the cemetery's most iconic spots, but even it

12:37 Speaker 1: has its own eerie tail. Fans often leave mementos, guitar picks, notes, candles,

12:45 Speaker 1: but in twenty thirteen, a fan reported visiting early in

12:48 Speaker 1: the morning to leave flowers. No one else was around,

12:52 Speaker 1: but there on the base of the statue was a

12:55 Speaker 1: fresh lipstick kiss. When she returned hours later, it was gone,

13:00 Speaker 1: wiped completely clean. Others have reported similar oddities, picks disappearing

13:05 Speaker 1: minutes after being placed, or seeing someone strumming next to

13:09 Speaker 1: the statue only to realize they were alone. Paranormal teams

13:14 Speaker 1: who've done overnight investigations described the cemetery as active. One

13:19 Speaker 1: group claims emf meter's spike near Valentino's crypt and that

13:23 Speaker 1: spirit box sessions revealed phrases like showtime gurden gall left behind.

13:31 Speaker 1: In a twenty twenty one investigation, a team from the

13:34 Speaker 1: La Paranormal Collective set up in the Clark Mausoleum, resting

13:39 Speaker 1: place of silent era mogul William A. Clark Junior. They

13:43 Speaker 1: captured what sounded like faint coughing in a man's voice.

13:46 Speaker 2: Whispering, don't look back.

13:50 Speaker 1: Needless to say, they packed up early.

13:53 Speaker 2: Personal accounts and living memory. Debbie h local tour guide.

13:59 Speaker 5: I once gave a tour at sunset, and as I

14:01 Speaker 5: passed the mausoleum, every hair on my arm stood up.

14:05 Speaker 5: I turned around, and I swear I saw a woman

14:08 Speaker 5: in a nineteen forties hat and veil standing just inside

14:11 Speaker 5: the gate. I blinked. She was gone. Nobody in my

14:16 Speaker 5: group saw her. I thought maybe I imagined it, until

14:19 Speaker 5: one of my guests later sent me a photo. There

14:22 Speaker 5: she was faint and blurry behind.

14:24 Speaker 2: Us Marcus W Ground's crew.

14:29 Speaker 6: Some nights are peaceful, but there are nights, especially around Halloween,

14:33 Speaker 6: where it feels like the whole cemetery is awake. I've

14:36 Speaker 6: heard footsteps, laughter, and doors opening in empty mausoleums. Sometimes

14:41 Speaker 6: I just say out loud, I'm just here to clean

14:43 Speaker 6: folks carry on.

14:46 Speaker 2: Anna R. Fan of Old Hollywood.

14:49 Speaker 4: Every year on Valentino's death day, I visit. One year,

14:53 Speaker 4: I saw a rose appear on his tomb while no

14:56 Speaker 4: one was around. It was just there. And once I

15:00 Speaker 4: caught a scent of strong cologne, like vintage Bay rum.

15:04 Speaker 4: Though no one was wearing it, it felt like he

15:07 Speaker 4: was still entertaining us.

15:09 Speaker 2: Epilogue.

15:11 Speaker 1: More than a cemetery, Hollywood Forever is more than a

15:15 Speaker 1: final destination. It's a living monument to the drama, decadence

15:21 Speaker 1: and ghosts of Hollywood's past, where you can picnic, watch films,

15:26 Speaker 1: and maybe share your popcorn with the undead. So, next

15:29 Speaker 1: time you're in La, skip the Walk of Fame and

15:32 Speaker 1: head to the real star studded sidewalk where the stars

15:36 Speaker 1: never leave. Thanks for taking this stroll with me through

15:39 Speaker 1: the glitzy, ghostly grounds of Hollywood Forever Cemetery. If you

15:44 Speaker 1: love this episode, please like, subscribe and leave us a

15:47 Speaker 1: five star review. It helps more than you know, unless

15:51 Speaker 1: you're already a ghost, in which case, whisper it into

15:55 Speaker 1: the void. I'll hear it

15:57 Speaker 2: Until next time, Stay strange,