ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 10, 1996 TAG: 9611080013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: JEFF WILSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
After the splashy tributes, the obits writ large, the eulogies, the tearful graveside services, the ultimate final curtain falls on Hollywood's no-longer-living legends.
``That's All Folks,'' reads cartoon voice Mel ``Porky Pig'' Blanc's gray stone epitaph at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery. In keeping with the town's obsession with film credits, Heather O'Rourke, who died at age 12, lists her's: ``Star of Poltergeist One, Two and Three.''
Peaceful, punchy, poetic - even a few last laughs. Tombstone touches on the eternal niches of the famously departed often symbolize the show business world of those who have become permanent Californians.
Al Jolson's memorial at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City features a statue of the kneeling singer-actor and the word, ``Mammy.'' Nearby is George Jessel, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Jeff Chandler and Vic Morrow.
Robert Taylor, who was eulogized by Ronald Reagan, is remembered on a Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, plaque reading: ``A lifetime to go.''
Fans match hand prints in the cement at the Mann's Chinese Theater and they stroll Hollywood Boulevard's celebrated Walk of Fame for shrines to show business greatness. Others migrate to the graveyard repositories of the famous.
Most cemetery operators, however, protect the peace of their interred clients and discourage visits by fans, even refusing to point out the location of celebrity grave sites.
``We really have had no problems with tourists, mainly because we don't give them a map or anything,'' said Dick Fisher, spokesman for Forest Lawn Memorial Parks.
The Forest Lawn cemeteries offer a show business mother lode with a list that reads like who's who, or at least who was.
George Burns joined Gracie Allen at Glendale's Forest Lawn earlier this year. Sammy Davis Jr. is also there, along with Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart and Mary Pickford.
Flynn had wanted to be cremated with his ashes scattered at sea, but reportedly added, ``I can tell you I know my wishes will not be carried out.'' He was right. His third wife, Patrice Wymore, had him buried.
Two rumors persisted for years about the disposal of Disney's remains: He was frozen cryogenically for later ``reanimation,'' as they call it, and his ashes were scattered over Disneyland. The cemetery says Disney is in the family vault.
Nearby are the graves of Nat ``King'' Cole, Jeanette MacDonald, Dorothy Dandridge and W.C. Fields, who died on Christmas day 1946.
Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills was the final stop for Liberace, where the family tomb bears the entertainer's signature scrawl ``Liberace'' in wrought iron splendor.
Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, Freddie Prinze, George Raft, Ernie Kovacs, Ozzie Nelson and Gabby Hayes are also at the Hollywood Hills cemetery, just over the mountain from the famed HOLLYWOOD sign.
``To yesterday's companionship and tomorrow's reunion,'' reads the marker at Rita Hayworth's grave at Holy Cross cemetery in the Fox Hills area. Other famous residents there include Sharon Tate, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, Charles Boyer, Pat O'Brien, Jackie Coogan, Rosalind Russell, Spike Jones and Mario Lanza. Bella Lugosi - who is buried in his trademark cape - recently had his tombstone cryptically adorned with white jelly beans and pineapple chunks. Go figure.
At Westwood Memorial Park, a speck of land surrounded by high-rise buildings, hundreds usually show up for the anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe.
In past years, several hundred letters addressed to the late screen siren would arrive at the cemetery. If a return address was included, cemetery workers taped letters to her crypt, photographed and mailed it to the writer.
``We don't do that anymore. We only get about one letter a year now, usually from Europe,'' said a cemetery spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Also at Westwood Memorial Park are Natalie Wood, Donna Reed, Darryl F. Zanuck and Truman Capote.
The vault above Heather O'Rourke's once belonged to Peter Lawford's ashes, but his widow had them removed in 1988 and scattered at sea in what was a brief tabloid scandal. Lawford friends at the time, however, said half the actor's cremated remains were sprinkled in the Malibu surf during a raucous wake shortly after his death.
The cast at Hollywood Memorial Park includes John Huston, Cecil B. DeMille, Marion Davies, Tyrone Power, Peter Lorre, Rudolph Valentino, Peter Finch, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Bugsy Siegel.
Fairbanks is enshrined in marble before a reflection pool framed by palms; Power's name is carved into a marble memorial bench featuring the masks of Comedy and Tragedy; and in a small compartment in the Alcove of Reverence are Lorre's remains.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Actress Rita Hayworth's grave is at Holy Crossby CNBcemetery. 2. Mel Blanc, the voice of Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny and
others, provided a chuckle on his gravestone.