Hollywood Forever

Here’s a Monday morning recipe for weirdness. Take a neglected cemetary that’s behind a studio backlot that houses more than 100 industry icons (including Cecil B. Demille and Mel Blanc), and revitalize it. Then, for a twist, show movies for the public against the wall of a mausoleum:

“It makes sense when your neighbor is Paramount Studios,” Cassity said. “To me it’s dependent on the community around you and who is buried there. Is it memorializing them in some way? Showing movies in a cemetery where there weren’t film stars — it wouldn’t make sense. ” Cassity began by showing a Valentino film on the anniversary of the romantic hero’s death, when 200 to 300 fans would come by to pay their respects. Then he was approached by John Wyatt, the founder of Cinespia, a Los Angeles film society dedicated to screening and preserving classic films.

When are they showing Night of the Living Dead? Interestingly, the article describes Tyler Cassity as a “cemetary entrepeneur”. He apparently bought the place (it’s weird, isn’t it, to think of buying and selling cemetaries?) for a mere US $375,000 after it was badly damaged by a 1994 earthquake.