Exploring Valhalla Cemetery, North Hollywood, CA - Famous Actors and Aviators Graves

[Music] On June 27th 1923 in LA's old city hall at 226 Broadway the City Council debated over the passage of ordinance 203 that would prohibit burials within city limits testimony was heard from residents as well as sanitary and soil experts without either side gaining a clear advantage finally edwin Meserve the former president of the Los Angeles Bar Association spoke of the important part that cemeteries play in the community and the necessity for setting aside land for burying loved ones to drive his point home he suggested that if ordinance 203 was passed then the council might as well enact another one prohibiting death the council tabled the ordinance indefinitely and at the same time granted the Osborn and fitzpatrick finance company the rights to establish a new Memorial Park in Burbank located west of the city with money from investors the company purchased 65 acres of countryside for the future Valhalla memorial and mausoleum park and they sent out their agents to sell plots what happened next would erupt into one of the biggest scandals to hit the funeral industry and in many ways it would be an omen for the looming Wall Street Crash of 1929 come walk with me as we explore some of the lives and stories in and about Valhalla cemetery when the planners of Valhalla cemetery laid out the grounds back in the mid 1920s they went with the popular Memorial Park design that did away with their traditional upright headstones the flat grave markers opened the cemetery giving the grounds a park-like appearance long tree-lined roads intersect at a 30 foot tall baroque fountain designed by esteemed California architect Kenneth McDonald jr. at night the fountain was illuminated by electric lights making it visible for miles around being located near the entertainment centers of Burbank and Hollywood valhalla became the final resting place for many of the industry stars if you should stop by the Veterans Memorial you will be only a few steps away from Joe DeRita a longtime burlesque comedian who also starred in a series of short films produced by Columbia your kid no must have been love at first sight and she forgot to take a second look however he is best remembered as curly Joe of the three stooges he joined the act in 1958 and his distinction of being the last stooge is engraved on his headstone Barton macLane had a long film career usually playing the heavy and classics like g-men The Maltese Falcon and the Treasure of the Sierra Madre but to most people he will always be remembered as the weary general Peterson on I Dream of Jeannie control the weather no sir I can't sergeant Rob I said I'd handle this yes yeah no sorry Robert my name is Wayman white cliff I used to be a goldfish swallower if you're familiar with the Golden Age of Warner Brothers cartoons then you're probably thinking that the voice you're hearing doesn't go with the face it belongs to portly comedian Arthur Q Bryan who was a star of both radio and film but most people recognize him or rather his voice as Elmer Fudd the rival of that screwy wabbit Bugs Bunny mr. wabbit I have a widow surprise for you [Music] [Applause] [Music] doll laughs I'll bet plenty of you men wear one of these working alongside Warner's preeminent voice actor Mel Blanc Brian created the perfect comic foil that still gives the world a wata WAAFs I mean a lot of laughs oh wait got gold at West a memorial to the Freemason stands in the part of the cemetery called the Masonic garden nearby is the Garden of Hope were rests not only a brother Mason but an underrated comic genius who made getting laughs look easy he is my personal favorite Oliver Norvell Hardy he was the large half of the legendary comedy duo Laurel & Hardy with partner Stan Laurel he made over a hundred films including the oscar-winning short the music box just a moment this requires a little thought now ease it down on my back the music box is packed with many hilarious stunts and most of them involve some terrible calamity be falling for all [Applause] but the one gag that gets the biggest laugh for me is when Stan performs the simple task of carrying a ladder what could go wrong Oliver Hardy's grave is attended regularly by adoring fans who come here from all over the world proving that laughter is both timeless and universal Martha Vickers was a model and an actress who played minor roles in horror films for Universal later Warner Brothers bought her contract and in 1946 she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the onyx leap in the role of bad girl Carmen Vickers sexually charged performance heated up the screen [Music] [Music] yeah cute despite her considerable talents Martha's film career never fully developed and she retired from acting in the early 60s in 1954 she married Chilean polo player and actor Manuel Rojas and though the marriage ended in divorce she kept his name and it appears on her headstone since the dawn of history mankind has dreamed of seeing into the future to gain foreknowledge of the destiny that awaits it and for over a millennia prophets and soothsayers have come forward claiming to have visions of tomorrow most were frauds but in the middle of the last century a clairvoyant appeared whose auguries were proven to be 87% accurate somewhere between Nostradamus and Miss Cleo you will find Charles Criswell King his fantastic prognostications came to the fore in the LOS angeles-based television program Criswell predicts greetings my friend we are all interested in the future for that it's where you and I are going to spend the rest of all Chris Wells pop-culture status was cemented with guest appearances on the Jack Paar show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson he also had a brief association with d-list movie director Ed Wood in 1968 he published the book Criswell predicts from now until the year 2000 some of his predictions include a space ray hitting Denver and turning solid substances into a rubbery material another warned that Pittsburgh would be attacked by cannibals he also forced saw actress Mae West being elected president of the United States and most direly he predicted that the world would end on August 18th 1999 well after all he was only 87% accurate on Memorial Day 1930 FAL hala got a new neighbor with the opening of United airport it was the second Airport to serve the Greater Los Angeles area and was also the largest until LAX opened in 1946 the airport is also the headquarters of lockheed aircraft come [Music] today almost 90 years and several name changes later airplanes taking off from Hollywood Burbank Airport fly over the cemetery like clockwork therefore there's no coincidence that Valhalla has so many memorials to Aviation's pioneers this is the Harriet Quimby compass rose fountain it commemorates the life and exploits of the woman who in 1911 became the first female to receive a pilot's license in the United States the following year she became the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel little over two months later Quimby was killed when she and a passenger were thrown from their airplane after encountering severe turbulence it happened in the days when seat belts and harnesses were not in common use though her life was brief she was nonetheless an inspiration for women to become pilots [Music] this brings us to what is unquestionably the grandest monument in Valhalla the magnificent portal of the folded wings the portal began as a grand gateway into the cemetery and the plans for its construction was announced to the public on June 8 1924 it was the brainchild of architect Kenneth McDonald the designer of the baroque fountain and it had an estimated cost of one hundred and forty thousand dollars or about two million dollars today and to look upon its exquisite decorations you can see that every penny was well spent [Applause] to create the Spanish Renaissance castings for the exterior McDonald commissioned Italian artist Frederico Georgey Georgey studied art in Rome before coming to the United States in 1909 he quickly made a mark for himself in the architectural world with his award-winning building designs at the San Francisco International Exposition of 1915 he was also a popular set designer in Hollywood where he most notably created the massive animal sculptures seen in DW Griffith's 1917 epic intolerance of Georgie's many public works one gets the sense that the Valhalla portal held a special significance with the artist especially when you consider that upon his death in 1963 he was buried within a few feet of his creation the completed gateway was dedicated with great fanfare on March 1st 1925 and for over a quarter of a century it was the main entry into the cemetery [Music] then on December 17th 1953 on the 50th anniversary of the Wright brothers first powered flight at Kitty Hawk the Gateway was closed to traffic forever and dedicated as a shrine to the pioneers of aviation renamed the portal of the folded wings it became the resting place for the cremated remains of more than 30 men and women who rode upon the wind the portal of the folded wings was the idea of aviation historian james gillette when he passed away three years after the portals dedication he like it's designer was buried close by the shrine he's so loved many of the persons and earned within the shrine stretch back to the very beginning of powered flight like the highly skilled mechanic Charlie Taylor in 1901 Taylor went to work at a bicycle shop in Dayton Ohio however the first project his new employers Orville and Wilbur Wright gave to him was the construction of a wind tunnel to test the aerodynamics of the gliders they were building when the Wright brothers moved on from gliders to powered flight they turned to Charlie to build them an engine by February 1903 the lightweight four-cylinder engine he designed produced 12 horsepower and 1,000 revolutions per minute more than the brothers would need 10 months later at Kitty Hawk North Carolina the Wright Flyer with Orville at the controls lifted into the air and flew 120 feet the brothers made three more flights that day the fourth and final flight traveled a distance of 852 feet in just under a minute it was a very modest beginning but on that day a new age began one that would within a human's lifespan see men walk on the moon and it all started with Charlie Taylor's motor mankind's first recorded ascent into the heavens occurred in Paris on November 21st 1783 and a hot-air balloon designed by another pair of brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier balloon development continued in Europe throughout the 19th century and by the 1850s means of propulsion were being added to make them navigable assuring in the age of the dirigible one of the pioneers of American airships was Roy Naveen Chu who began experimenting with balloons as early as 1900 within a short time he was piloting airships and public exhibitions across the country at the 1904 World's Fair in st. Louis he competed against dirigible makers from across the globe and won the grand prize feeling that America was falling behind Europe in the development of airships he founded a dirigible passenger service in Pasadena California to get greater exposure for his idea he staged a sightseeing tour for passengers over the city of Chicago [Music] Roy Navin Shu was also a gifted promoter and as the public's interest lean more towards heavier-than-air flight he convinced the Wright brothers to organize a team to demonstrate their airplanes to the public the brothers hired Navin Shu to manage the right exhibition team and the first pilot they trained was Walter R Brookins born in Dayton Ohio Brookins was a student of Katherine right the sister morville and Wilbur it was through her that his association with the famous brothers began as well as his lifelong fascination with flight as a member of the right exhibition team work and set many records that captivated the public's imagination in 1910 he set a distance record by flying nonstop from Chicago to Springfield Illinois that same year in Atlantic City he became the first pilot to reach an altitude of one mile at st. Louis Missouri in 1911 Brookins carried 5,000 pieces of mail a distance of 12 miles making it the first transportation of mail via airplane occurring seven years before the United States Post Office began regular airmail service Brookins was also one of the first daredevil pilots performing corkscrews and other hair-raising stunts after his death in 1953 he was the first aviator to be unearned in the portal of the folded wings John Moy sont had one of the busiest and shortest careers in aviation history born in Illinois to French Canadian immigrants John moved to Central America in his late 20s and went into the sugarcane business where he amassed a fortune his interest in aviation began in 1909 and he travelled to France to take flying lessons at the Blair EO school soon after getting his pilot's license my sont flew across the English Channel bringing along his mechanic and pet cat Fifi this made him the first pilot to carry a passenger from England to France he was also an innovator in aircraft design building the first airplane with an all-metal skin he formed the Moi's on two international aviators and performed aerial demonstrations across the United States after a flight by the Statue of Liberty in September nineteen ten he narrowly escaped death at a crash at Belmont Park in New York then at an air meet near New Orleans on New Year's Eve of the same year Moyes anse life and career came to a tragic end when he was ejected from his aircraft by turbulence he had been a pilot for a little more than a year his body was interred at Metairie Cemetery in Louisiana before being removed to the portal of the folded wings john-boy son wasn't the only member of his family to become a flyer his brother Alfred operated the moisted Aviation School in Long Island New York among the school students were his sister Matilda and her friend Harriet Quimby Matilda was the second woman to be issued a pilot's license in the United States she gave the honor of being first to Harriet to help promote her journalism career like her brother Matilda put on aerial exhibitions and even set a woman's altitude record of 1,200 feet she survived many near-death crashes but after the loss of Harriet Quimby in 1912 she made the decision to quit exhibition flying later she served as the president of the Women's International Air Association and was a member of the early birds upon her death in 1964 she was an earned in the portal of the folded wings with her brother John and sister Louise in the 1920s when aviation headlines were dominated by men there were a few women whose accomplishments were too remarkable to ignore one such aviatrix was Amelia Earhart and the other was Bobbie trout in 1929 only a few months after getting her license Bobbie began a series of record-breaking endurance flights for women her longest solo flight lasted 17 hours and 24 minutes and was also the first all-night flight by a woman later that year she teamed with rival endurance pilot Eleanor Smith and set an in-flight record of 42 hours which also included the first aerial refueling operation performed by a woman Bobby then went on to set an altitude record for a light class aircraft of 15,000 200 feet also in 29 she participated in the first woman's transcontinental air race two years later she broke another endurance record with pilot Edna Mae Cooper when they stayed aloft for nearly 120 three hours throughout her long remarkable life Bobby trout advanced ways to use aviation to help those in need with colorful aviatrix Pancho Barnes she formed the Women's Air Reserve a transport service that flew supplies and personnel to remote disaster areas Bobby's timeless influence on other women was evident in 1995 when Eileen Collins became the first female to pilot the space shuttle she brought two items with her into space one was Amelia Earhart's flying scarf and the other was Bobbie trout's pilot's license bearing the signature of Orville away [Music] the resting place of Lockheed research engineer Richard Dellavedova was once occupied by Jimmy angel a Barnstormer test pilot and Hollywood stunt flyer he was one of those Restless Cowboys of the clouds who was always looking for his next adventure when offered a lucrative job as an airline pilot Jimmy turned it down saying it sounded too much like driving a bus instead he took a job flying for an oil company in Venezuela and it was there in 1933 he achieved his greatest claim to fame during one of his flights he discovered the world's tallest waterfall at three thousand two hundred and twelve feet it was named Angel Falls after its Discoverer it seemed that Jimmy couldn't be kept down even after his death in 1956 three years after being interned within the portal his ashes were removed by his family and scattered over the falls bearing his name the walls of the portal of the folded wings are decorated with memorial Cenotaph Stu many distinguished Flyers placed here by aviation organizations they recognized pilots who dedicated their lives to the advancement of humanity through flight the achievements of Amelia Earhart including her solo flight across the Atlantic followed by her attempts at an around-the-world flight not only shattered records but also the many myths of gender bias Earhart's courage and skill made her a timeless inspiration for all and earned her a prominent place within the shrine general Billy Mitchell is considered by many to be the father of the United States Air Force his outspoken advocacy for the use of aircraft and warfare not only caused friction with his superiors but led to his highly publicized court-martial and the end of his military career his prediction however that future conflicts would be decided through airpower were later proven to be completely accurate Admiral Richard Byrd was a highly skilled aviator and navigator who trained Charles Lindbergh in advance of his solo flight across the Atlantic in May 1927 a month later Byrd made his own attempt to fly the Atlantic but made it only as far as the French coast by then he had already achieved his claim to fame of being the first to reach the North Pole with an airplane from 1928 to the year before his death he conducted extensive explorations of Antarctica advancing our understanding of one of the Earth's last uncharted regions [Music] Richard Byrd's copilot on the 1927 transatlantic flight was bertrand blanchard acosta he was known as the bad boy of the air for performing reckless stunts that got him in trouble with the authorities this might be the reason for the persistent rumor that during the transatlantic flight bird hit him over the head with a fire extinguisher to keep him from getting drunk although he had a penchant for being a Hellraiser Bertrand Acosta was a brilliant pilot and engineer and he rests here in the portal among his peers just outside of the portal gates is a memorial dedicated in 2008 to the astronauts who died aboard the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia [Music] countless times each day airplanes of all types of large and small fly over this portal those pilots who know of its significance might look down at it as a token of good luck for the journey that lies ahead but for some pilots who found themselves in distress it has also been a scene of tragedy like Charles DeWitt who in April 1940 was killed while attempting an emergency landing in the cemetery then in the early morning hours of July 18 1969 the portal became a symbol of tragic irony for one pilot and two passengers as soon as pilot Charles burns lifted his Piper Navajo into the air at 6:27 a.m. it began experiencing engine trouble according to an eyewitness on the airplanes initial climb the engines were backfiring and trailing black smoke the pilot seemed to be attempting a return to the field when he clipped a tree top sending the twin-engine Piper crashing into the concrete dome of the portal upon impact the airplane broke into two before hitting the ground the pilot and one passenger were killed in the wreck while the second passenger miraculously survived although sustaining serious injuries the crash was attributed to engine failure due to carbon buildup on the spark plugs of the number one engine as well as improperly secured cargo the damage to the portal was quickly repaired leaving no visible trace of the incident that took place two days before Neil Armstrong became the first human being to step onto the surface of the Moon [Music] [Applause] [Music] on a warm Sunday afternoon on March 1st 1925 crowds gathered in the San Fernando Valley to hear opera star Alice gentle sing at a free concert given to celebrate the opening of Valhalla's 140 thousand dollar marvel portal [Music] advertisements for the event ran in the Los Angeles Times for nearly a week they featured a program of the day's entertainment and gave directions on how to reach the remote location there was also a conspicuous disclaimer stating that the Osborne and fitzpatrick company owners of alcalá cemetery had nothing to sell and that they simply desired to show the public the great strides that had been made in the property's development naturally the advertisement said nothing about the federal mail fraud charges that promoters john r osborne and CC fitzpatrick were facing over the sale of plots and their cemetery the charges were the culmination of over a year's worth of buyer complaints filed with the state real estate commission the alleged corruption was so extensive that one attorney charged that the entire project was conceived in fraud to prey upon a gullible public it's difficult to say whether the Valhalla project began solely as a scheme to defraud the public or if it just turned into one but once Osborn and Fitzpatrick's company was granted permission to build their cemetery they started hiring an army of salesmen to sell Lots in their 65 acre tract they were all carefully trained on how to represent those Lots and to whom they should push them the preferred clients were the elderly and uneducated investors the salesmen were instructed to tell their clients that la cemeteries were at capacity and that the city was not permitting new cemeteries to be built this they said would result in a demand for burial spaces and that the prices on unused Lots would skyrocket they explained that for a modest investment they could purchase Lots in the new Valhalla cemetery if the client said they couldn't afford the investment price the salesman replied that they could put a little money down upfront and pay the rest off over time and if the payments were concerned that was no problem either because the salesman said the Lots would be in such hot demand that they could flip them for five or ten times what they paid if they did that theoretically they could pay off their loan and still walk away with a tidy profit before the first payment came do many couldn't wait to sign their name on the contract later some investors told how they mortgaged their homes sold businesses and drained their life savings to buy property in Valhalla all the Osborne and Fitzpatrick company had to do was watch the money pour in and pour in it did into the millions of dollars within a few short months but the party didn't last for long as it quickly became evident to the investors that the promise of quickly flipping their holdings was an empty one they realized that they'd been lied to about La cemeteries being filled up a study conducted at the time confirmed that there was enough space available within the city for over a million burials furthermore multiple buyers came forward holding deeds for the same plots others learned that their spaces were located under roads ponds and even the great portal itself meanwhile many investors who had dreams of profiting from their Lots found themselves going broke and falling behind on their payments by the beginning of 1924 they began to organize and drafted a letter to the real estate commission asking for help the commissioners investigation uncovered mountains of evidence for gross fraud and they turned their findings over to the DA's office in June 1924 when Osbourne and Fitzpatrick announced their plans to build the portal the federal government officially began its investigation and by December the two owners and four others were formally charged the following summer of 1925 Osbourne and Fitzpatrick were found guilty of 10 charges of mail fraud and sentenced to a year in a day for each charge to be served consecutively in federal prison however the pair were allowed to remain free while their case was being appealed and they were allowed to keep most of their stolen fortune during this time a curious bit of bad luck befell John Osbourne though some might call it karma in November 1925 he checked into a Pasadena hotel with his valid Jack Gordon once he was in his room Osbourne retired to the bathroom to shave and by the time he was finished he discovered that he'd been shorn of more than justice 5 o'clock shadow over $100,000 in Liberty Bonds and cash were missing from his room and so was Jack Gordon the police caught up with Jack two months later in Cleveland only he wasn't Jack Gordon his real name was Harold J Whittaker and not surprisingly he was a wanted criminal he and his girlfriend had been busy spending Osborne's money on cars and furs Whittaker was brought back to LA and locked up in the city jail on Valentine's Day but he didn't stay for long on March 3rd he and three other cons escaped from their 10th floor jail cell and calmly walked out the front door of the brand-new Hall of Justice Osbourne and Fitzpatrick remained free on appeal for nearly two years when in June 1927 the United States Supreme Court refused to hear their case they were sent to the federal pen in Leavenworth Kansas to begin their 10 year sentences in his son's absence Osborne's father John senior stepped in to run Valhalla he worked tirelessly to pay back those his son and partner had defrauded and to make the cemetery and honest business after serving three years Osbourne and Fitzpatrick were paroled in December 1930 and to the bewilderment of many went right back to work managing the cemetery although they were no longer involved in any fraud The Osbournes had to fight frequent charges of mismanagement as the cemetery routinely lost money lawsuits were filed by lot owners to force the company into receivership then in September 1935 John senior was summoned to a business meeting in Los Angeles as he sat behind the wheel of his car parked in the driveway of his Burbank home he fired two bullets into his chest perhaps he sensed the end was in sight and could no longer face it a few days later he was buried in the cemetery he tried so hard to keep eventually the state of California stepped in and made John Osborne jr. and Cece Fitzpatrick sell Valhalla to capable managers the story of what happened next is murkier than the water in the baroque fountain Cece Fitzpatrick vanishes like a ghost from the pages of history John Osborne opened a gambling parlor in West Hollywood and became a bookie he briefly made headlines in the early 40s when he was the star witness in the trial of a deputy sheriff he was paying protection money too and in case you're wondering what became of Osborne's former Vallot and escaped con Harold J Whittaker aka Jack Gordon after undergoing plastic surgery to change his appearance he was captured in New York when a jilted lover turned him in in 1927 he was incarcerated at Sing Sing prison under the bomb's law New York's version of three strikes and you're out he was scheduled to return to LA in 1947 to answer charges however there is no record that he ever did today the cemetery once described as being conceived in fraud has long since emerged from its troubled beginnings and plays an honourable and important role in the community and in the lives of its residents [Music] all that disturbs the peace here now is the periodic roar of jet engines in the lull between flyovers peace returns and keeps well the secrets of Valhalla you [Music] thank you for watching if you liked what you saw give it a thumbs up and if you enjoy these stories and are interested in becoming a sponsor please visit my patreon page by clicking the link in the description even the smallest contribution will go a long way to creating more content and if you haven't already subscribe to my channel now for more grave explorations

Channel: Grave Explorations

Views: 81,696

Rating: 4.8613553 out of 5

Keywords: laurel and hardy, three stooges, aviation history, amelia earhart, space shuttle, wright brothers, bugs bunny, elmer fudd, portal of the folded wings

Id: ZYYIoVuDUCU

Length: 44min 9sec (2649 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 04 2018