Adventures in Los Angeles: In which I go star spotting

I was a little unsure what to do when I woke up the next morning.  I wasn't quite feeling the "Hollywood tourist cliche" vibe.  I'm actually usually happy to indulge in the kitschy tourist experience, and without being ironic about it.  But with something which has, for better or worse, become part of global culture, going and seeing it for real almost seemed kind of redundant.  I looked at the map the hotel reception had given me and saw that there was a cemetery nearby.  This triggered a chain of ideas that led me to thinking "why don't I go and visit the grave of Virginia Rappe?"

If you haven't heard of her, Virginia Rappe was the original Hollywood bad girl.  Forget the alleged looseness of modern morals: this actress made Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton look like choir girls.  She was born to an unwed mother in 1891, had had at least two abortions by age 16, in 1918 had a child which was put into foster care, and in 1921 allegedly died as a result of a violent sexual assault by 'Fatty' Arbuckle (acquitted of manslaughter after three trials).

I found out that she was buried in the Hollywood Forever cemetery and got public transport instructions from google maps.  This is probably a good moment to mention the Big Blue Bus network in Los Angeles.  This particular network seems to cover a big whack of the Santa Monica and Hollywood areas.  It's a VERY good service.  The buses on the lines I used ran about every 20 minutes, and the cost to ride was $1.00 or $1.50 a trip.  Again, if you're in the area, you could do a lot worse than choose this as a means of getting about.

The Hollywood Forever cemetery, when I got there (after missing my stop and paying an accidental visit to the campus of UCLA - pretty place, by the way) is a very peaceful and well kept couple of acres off a nondescript stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard.

It's within sight of the Hollywood sign.  There are peacocks wandering the well tended grounds.

Inside the entrance is a flower store that also sells maps showing the locations of some of the more noteworthy interees, including the composer Erich Korngold, Vampira, Peter Lorre and Hattie McDaniel.  I found the grave of Ms Rappe, and then went on to some of the other graves.

What was especially striking was the simplicity of the headstones.  Often, they made only an understated hat-tip to the sleeper's profession - a scrap of a score for Korngold -

a Morticia Addams type figure for Vampira -

(perhaps inevitably) the phrase "that's all folks" for Mel Blanc.

Peter Lorre had only his name and dates -

By contrast, the grave for Johnny Ramone - a life size bronze statue with footlights - just seemed garish and tasteless -

It's certainly a place that you should visit if you have a chance in LA.

After I left there I bussed part of the way back up Santa Monica Boulevard.  I was feeling like lunch.  Ideally I'd have found somewhere small and unique to try, but I also wanted to find some free WiFi to upload photos and also somewhere with a clean bathroom.  I went to Ihop in West Hollywood.

I still had part of the afternoon left and so I went to the beach again - another 5.1 mile run, and this time also a swim!  It was pretty cool, and not really swimming weather, but when you're right beside the classical lifeguard station, how can you not?!?

I made another short walk on the pier and then returned to the Hotel.  Dinner of sandwiches, fruit, wine and bed.