Offbeat and famous return from grave in West Adams
ART DECO monument is among architecture styles at the cemetery reflecting the era they were erected.
The “Offbeat and Audacious” Living History Tour is on Sat., Sept. 26 at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery at 1831 W. Washington Blvd.
Among those brought back from the dead in actor re-creations will be Tod Browning, director of Bela Lugosi in “Dracula.” (Browning also directed 1931’s “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi, and cult favorite “Freaks,” a flop at the time.) And meet the self-proclaimed heir to the throne, “Prince” John Rex de Guelph Windsor.
Con man “Prince” Windsor was a resident of Windsor Square at the end of his life, said Laura Meyers, coordinator of the West Adams Heritage Association tour.
Dressed in costume, actors will portray the deceased at their gravesides, or mausoleums designed with set vignettes.
Others whose final resting place is at the historic cemetery and portrayed on the tour include daredevil female pilot Josephine Callaghan, who was born without arms; widow Mable Monohan, a former vaudeville roller skater and mother-in-law to a Vegas gambler.
DIRECTOR Tod Browning with “Devil Doll” star Lionel Barrymore in drag, 1936.
SHAKESPEAREAN stage actress Constance Crawley with her pet monkey.
There’s a jazz saxophonist who played with the Count Basie Orchestra, a 1930s movie director, a boxing champ, a silent film-era actress, one of L.A.’s earliest motorcycle cops, and a stage actress who traveled with her pet monkey across America.
Open to all in countryside
Angelus Rosedale Cemetery was founded in 1884, when Los Angeles was a small town and the corner of Washington Blvd. and Normandie Ave. was in the countryside—outside city limits.
It was the first cemetery in Los Angeles open to all faiths and races, and it was the first to use a new approach in design called “lawn cemeteries… where nature and art conspire to surround the burial places of the dead with beautiful trees and flowers, natural scenery and works of monumental art.”
Tours will depart every 25 minutes, beginning at 9 a.m. (Advance paid reservations are required; each tour group’s participants are pre-assigned.)
Tickets are $35 (by September 10; afterwards or at the door, $40, space available).
For more information visit WestAdamsHeritage.org, or tours@westadamsheritage.org.
Category: Entertainment
