Famous Graves ~ Tom Mix, Ted Knight, Jimmy Stewart, Suzan Ball, Robert Young, Ethel Waters & More

so hi welcome to this episode of history hunters i'm here again at forest lawn memorial park in glendale california and i wanted to check out a number of graves of some very significant hollywood people we're going to start out with the grave of tom mix the famous western movie star who died in 1940 outside of florence arizona in a tragic car accident so i look at this grave i can't help but think about the fact that this man helped carry the casket of wyatt earp in 1929 tom mix is buried at the top of the hill just inside the entrance [Music] [Music] so on the grave of tom mix you see his very distinctive signature in his tm cattle brand this plaque has been out here in the southern california sun for about 82 years tom mix was a huge hollywood legend but he's just about been forgotten his death was a great shock to millions of americans he was only 60 years old there was a throng of about 2 000 people who attended his gravesite service here that october 1940. i saw one photograph where some boys who obviously looked up to him as a matinee idol standing at his coffin at his funeral at some funeral parlor but i can only imagine how confused they must have felt maybe the pain that they felt seeing their hero lifeless and dead in a coffin thomas edwin mix lived from 1880 to october 12 1940. he was a star in many early western films between 1909 and 1935. he appeared in 291 films all but nine which were silent movies in 1905 mix wrote in president theodore roosevelt's inaugural parade with a group of 50 horsemen led by seth bullock some of them being former rough riders years later hollywood publicist muddled this event to imply that mix had been a rough rider himself as a young boy tom lord had to ride horses and aspire to becoming a circus performer it is rumored that his parents caught him practicing night throwing tricks against a wall using his sister as an assistant tom mix's acting career made him a very wealthy man wealthy enough to afford extravagant cars like his prized 1937 cord phaeton the radical new design was an exciting one for one thing its nose completely replaced the traditional radiator grill in favor of horizontal louvers that curved all around the sides the design earned it the nickname of coffin nose a chilling observation in mixes case on october 12 1940 mix was driving in arizona from tucson to phoenix about 18 miles south of florence mick suddenly came upon a bridge washed away by a flash flood he only had time to swerve and overturned his car in a gully a large aluminum suitcase containing cash and other valuables on the shelf behind him hurled forward and struck him breaking his neck the car that carried mixed to his death the 1937 cord pheton has been restored by arizona collector bob white after a two-year effort at a cost of six hundred thousand dollars and here we find the grave of richard dix he was a popular actor as well 1893 to 1949 devoted husband and father loved by all who knew him and the words of jesus lo i am with you always and there's a likeness of jesus standing with his arms open dicks died of a heart attack after years of fighting alcoholism and right next to him is his son richard dix jr who lived from 1935 to 1953. the boy was only 18 years old when he was killed in a logging accident while working in the timber industry somewhere here in california one of the few actors to successfully bridge the transition from silent films to talkies dix's best remembered early role was in cecil b demille's silent version of the ten commandments in 1923 dix appeared in such films as the 1938 movie day of reckoning this is my wife oh boy oh she's lovelier than that what's going to be coming dick's starred in another rko adventure the la squadron he was nominated for the 1931 academy award for best actor for his lead role in the epic film cimarron if you ever come to forest lawn you have to check out this grave probably the most prolific actor here so here's the very simple grave of james maitland-stewart from may 20th 1908 to july 2 1997 for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee and thy ways all thy ways somebody's left some mementos here american flag some roses and next to him is his wife gloria patrick stewart said from 1918 to 1994 so she passed away before jimmy did by over three years in our most loving memories she will always be with us she made life better imagine that jimmy stewart stood over this grave and then what a lot of people don't know is that buried next to gloria is her son it was jimmy's stepson ronald walsh mclean he was a first lieutenant of marines he was killed in vietnam june 8 1969 he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty and as you can see there vietnam is written on his marker and there's also the marine insignia with the eagle standing on top of the globe i do have to say that jimmy's got quite a view of glendale and burbank jimmy stewart was such a prolific actor but i think my favorite film of his is it's a wonderful life but liberty balance is also a good film he was also in the shooters which was john wayne's last movie so it's a pretty cool designation so i found the grave of joe cobb lived from 1916 to 2002. he was an actor and while it's not politically correct to say this he was the original fat kid from the hal roach our game comedy series he was born in shawnee oklahoma in 1916 and was actually discovered while vacationing with his dad in los angeles he appeared in 86 episodes of our gang and made the transition successfully from silent films to talkies so way off in the distance over in that direction is the great mausoleum and if you come right over here to the veil of memory section you will find the final resting place of an early hollywood stuntman and western film actor art a cord who lived from 1890 to 1931. he had a pretty illustrious movie career at the time but hardly anybody today remembers who he is right in the middle of his marker is the veterans of foreign wars emblem vfw because he served in world war one there's also the inscription our pal art a cord he became a rodeo cowboy and was one of the few to have ridden the acclaimed bucking horse steamboat who later inspired the bucking horse logo on the wyoming license plate for the full eight seconds his rodeo skills were sharpened when he worked for the miller brothers traveling 101 ranch wild west show where he became friends with tom mix yakama knut bronco billy anderson and hoot gibson between 1910 and 1929 acord made over 100 short films mostly westerns and most of which are now believed lost forever his lifelong fight with alcoholism had taken its toll he played in a few sound films at the end of his career but by the time of his last silent film the white outlaw in 1929 he was looking tired and worn out he would sometimes disappear for days at a time causing a shutdown in film production he ended up performing in road shows and mining in mexico his cause of death was cyanide poisoning in chihuahua mexico although mexican police officially listed his death as suicide his friends suspected that he had been murdered by a mexican politician who caught heart having an affair with his wife [Music] now the guy who created forest lawn memorial park mr eden wanted this to be a beautiful place because he considered most modern cemeteries to be very insightly very ugly and very depressing he wanted this place to be a nice place to visit and you see this statuary right here it's pretty cool made out of marble the marker for mr overall walter edward overall died in 1947. so off to the left you will see the great mausoleum and i'm going to walk up the hill here to talk to you about this elaborate grave up here it's for amy simple mcpherson she lived from 1890 to 1944. she was a pentecostal evangelist and somewhat of a media celebrity in the 1920s and 30s he was famous for founding the four square church which pioneered the use of radio broadcasting to spread out the word of religious services and appeal for donations her angelus temple was an early mega church that fed the poor and tended to the needs of the needy in her time she was probably the most publicized protestant evangelist even surpassing the very famous billy sunday this is her first appearance on a national broadcast and we are very happy to have with us amy temple mcpherson angela temple myself as pastor of the temple was the first church in the world to own a radio station and when those shining silver towers were lifted up above our temple dome and flashed the message east west north and south our opportunity and privilege was broadened by hundreds of thousands of people who united with our radio church audience but now with a talking moving picture comes the great privilege of getting out the message to the ends of the earth she conducted public faith healing demonstrations also that attracted tens of thousands so in 1926 it was alleged that she faked her own kidnapping for publicity reasons it was on may 18 1926 when mcpherson completely disappeared from ocean beach there in santa monica everyone thought she had drowned but searches for her body were in vain the disappearance was kind of the same media spectacle that we saw during the gabby petito bryan laundry tragedy after weeks of unpromising leads mildred kennedy believed that her daughter was dead the temple was actually preparing a memorial service for her on june 23rd over a month after she disappeared and then mcpherson suddenly shows up alive in a hospital in douglas arizona and she gave a spiel about what happened to her she said that she was at the beach when she was approached by a couple who came up to her and wanted her to pray over their sick child they all walked over to her car and she was shoved inside and she was made to pass out with some kind of drug laced cloth held against her face eventually she ends up in a shack in a mexican desert and when her captives left her in the building she managed to escape out the window and she traveled to the desert for some 11 13 hours or an estimated 20 miles before reaching some border town that's really mysterious because nobody really knows if it was true but that's what she said happened so when she came back to los angeles though a crowd of about thirty thousand of fifty thousand people wanted to come out and see her that's quite a media spectacle as well so it was in september of 1944 mcpherson went up to oakland for a series of revivals she was planning to preach her popular story of my life sermon when mcpherson's son checked on her in our hotel room at 10 o'clock in the morning he found her unconscious with pills and a half empty bottle of capsules nearby and she was dead within less than an hour this is a must see look at the statuary on this thing it's the rave of joey brown famous comedian and actor lived from 1891 to 1973. the marker here on the side says he was the beloved husband understanding father and cherished friend his courage in the face of trouble his modesty and the rewards of triumph won over the love and esteem of people all over the world his personal integrity and devotion to all people reflected the love of the savior and to whose hands his life is given and i'm assuming he's buried there i need that slab right there captain dodd evan was his son he died tragically in a training mishap this mentions captain don evan brown commander first squadron sex fairing group air transport command the united states army air force in long beach killed in the line of duty october 8 1942 in palm springs california also buried here is catherine his wife she died in 1977 of the most memorable roles that i saw him in was the 1951 film showboat with a very beautiful actress ava gardner i want you to meet some of the greatest artists that ever played the river town he played captain andy hawks and he was known for in that role saying happy new year i think he was drunk i was so darn drunk i didn't know what i was saying great mausoleum's up here and right here is the grave of al frank baum writer of wizard of oz and his wife maud gagebaum now frank died in 1919 his widow died in 1953 it looks like some folks have left some mementos on top of his grave here lyman frank baum was an actor best known for his children's books particularly the wonderful wizard of oz in its sequels he wrote 14 novels in the oz series plus 41 other novels 83 short stories over 200 poems and at least 42 scripts despite his love for the theater bum tried to run a business in a newspaper unsuccessfully he moved to chicago and wrote for the saturday evening post in 1897 he wrote and published mother goose and prose a collection of mother goose rhymes written as prose stories mother goose was a success in 1899 bomb partnered with illustrator w.w denslow to publish father goose his book a collection of nonsense poetry this book was also a success becoming the best-selling children's book of the year in 1900 baum and denslow published the wonderful wizard of oz the work was a best-selling children's book within two years bomb went on to write 13 more oz related novels stage versions eventually led to the movie in 1939. on may 5th 1919 bomb suffered a stroke slipped into a coma and died the following day at the age of 62. his last words were spoken to his wife now we can cross the shifting sands now the bomb grave is right here but right in front are a number of family members the frank joslin bomb there's an elizabeth bomb there's a robert baum there's a edna ducker bomb there's a brenda bomb there's a harry neil bomb there's a phyllis and bomb and robert allison bomb this is a very cool statue here a baby and its mother check it out check the love between them again some great statuary this is for the white cower family i understand that leonard white cower who lived from 1872 to 1956 he patented the nursing bra then there is the schmidt and kotrail families overlooking the beautiful burial grounds here of forest law memorial park in glendale so this gravesite area was roped off but i broke the rules just to see the place where one of my favorite western authors is buried louie lamour he lived from 1908 to 1988 he was a prolific western writer he wrote over 400 short stories and about a hundred novels as well as numerous tv scripts and screenplays at the time of his death there were about 200 million copies of his books in print louis lamour was born in jamestown north dakota in 1908. as a boy he was captivated by stories of the old west including how his great-grandfather had been scalped by the sioux indians these stories laid the foundation for his interest in westerns he spent years wandering and doing an incredibly varied series of jobs and experiences he was an avid reader and collector of rare books his first novel hondo was published in 1953 by fawcett books and was his most popular book selling 1.5 million copies john wayne purchased the movie rights and starred in the film by the same name fawcett also contracted lamore for future western novels in 1962 wayne also starred in how the west was won over 45 of his novels or short stories were made into movies including stranger on horseback the burning hills the sackets and shadow riders outside of the great mausoleum is the unique gravesite of actor gene herschalt who died in 1956 his gravesite is marked with a statue of claude's hands a hands christian anderson character who left home to find his way in the world much as herschel himself had done the danish american actor is best known for starring on the radio series dr christian from 1937 to 1954 and in the 1937 film heidi herschel appeared in a total of 75 films and 65 movies with sound so this grape right here has a very sad story to it this is carol ann eckeland little as you can see she was four years old she was an actress in bluebird with a shirley temple film hammond humboldt no you don't come here come here this is the third time you tried to be born before your time don't you let me catch you at it again i'll go along on halloween night a dress caught on fire by a candle she died several days later not a very nice way for a little girl to go and she's buried right next to her father leonard eckland who died a little bit later quite a bit later 36 years later and over here is her heartbroken mother gladys died in 1985. at carol's funeral at forest lawn a few days later her five brothers served as her pal bears while quartet sang her favorite song somewhere over the rainbow she was buried with the toga that she wore as the unborn child in bluebird and this is the sister janna lund actually on this marker says janna cosette crowley janna lun was the younger sister of carolyn ekeland she performed on radio at age three and appeared in our game comedies in 1955 she joined the johnny carson show as a singer don't knock the rock in 1956 was her first film as an adult lund gave elvis presley his first on-screen kiss in the 1957 movie loving you in the movie high school hellcats she portrayed connie leader of the hellcats hey where's the lady werner home with the flu look who we've got a sub a man teaching home how wild as a singer she was also a member of the pied piper's and the roger wagner coral the latter of whom she sang at the coronation of queen elizabeth ii so i found the grave of robert george young robert young famous actor played a lot of movies in the 1940s he is probably best known by this generation as the tv actor who appeared in marcus wahlby md the 1980s i believe 70s 80s and he's buried right next to his wife who was elizabeth louise young she lived from 1910 to 1994 and robert is actually buried next to his parents margaret c young his mother went from 1870 to 1958 and next to his father captain thomas ed young who lived from 1859 to 1941. robert george young who lived from 1907 to 1998 was a film tv and radio actor best known for his leading roles as jim anderson the father character and father knows best from 1949 to 1954 and the physician marcus wobby in the tv show from 1969 to 1976. young appeared in over 100 films between 1928 and 52. he appeared with hollywood's most illustrious actresses yet most of his assignments consisted of short b movies also known as programmers which required brief two to three week shooting schedules actors who were relegated to such hectic routines appeared as young did in some six to eight movies per year all this contributed to young's depression culminating in the suicide attempt in 1991 later he spoke candidly about his personal problems in an effort to encourage others to seek help so this is one of the sadder graves that i'm going to visit today is that of susan ball long and i recall that james dean had heard about her death just about a month before his death she died on august 5th 1955 and james dean would die on september 30th 1955 and she was an actress she only was able to start about eight films from 1952 to 54. sadly at a young age she was diagnosed with cancer and her right leg had to be amputated that was in january 1954 that april susan married actor richard long who would later star in the big valley tv series she insisted on walking down the aisle fitted with an artificial limb beneath her wedding dress if you can imagine that took a lot of courage she didn't feel sorry for herself she didn't stop she wanted to continue entertaining so she became a singer on a nightclub tour in may of 1955. i can make a good man but two months later she had collapsed and doctors found that the cancer had spread to her lungs when she died on august 5th 1955 susan was just 21 years old a couple was very much in love and that inscription is very touching it says our love attends you on your new adventure it was pinned by the widower richard long so i found the grave here of theodore c kanubka you know him as ted knight of the mary tyler moore show which ran from 1970 to 77 he lived from 1923 to 1986. on the show he played ted baxter of course that vain shallow bombastic buffoon of a tv anchor ted baxter has come to represent the stereotype that news anchors are kind of these hollow people rather hired for their looks and not their journalistic ability his marker reads dearly loved by his wife dorothy his children ted elise and eric his sisters brothers nieces and nephews his admiring peers and millions of his adoring fans and it also has the term buy guy which is kind of a variation of his famous line of high guy on the show [Music] he is buried here next to his unsung hero wife dorothy who died in 2005. you might also remember that in 1980 he played in caddyshack the movie playing a comic villain judge elihu smails who was also a co-founder of a golf course where the movie takes place do you know what gophers can do to a golf course slicer i think they're tunneling in from that construction site or i'll be looking for a new greenskeeper he was the son of polish immigrants who settled in connecticut and ted was in high school when world war ii broke out he was among the first american troops to enter berlin now during his hollywood career he appeared in a vast array of tv shows including the wild wild west and even bonanza now i'm here specifically in this courtyard to find another grave and it's that of lionel stander he was probably best remembered for a number of roles playing a gruff harsh voice tough guy or a lovable gruff guy who acted tough but had a heart of gold in movies and tv shows he is best remembered probably for his role of max in the tv detectives show heart to heart from 79 to 84 and you probably remember starring in that was robert wagner and stephanie powers so his filmography included hangman also die 1943 and other anti-nazi war films during and after world war ii a lot of folks don't know that during the 1950s amid the red scare lionel standard was blacklisted for 10 years when the house on american activities committee discovered that he was a member of the american communist party he claimed that his membership was only to make himself more attractive to women but others testified that he was trying to recruit other liberal-minded actors to join the party stander was in strong support of the russian version of marxism and was known for spending many evenings with friends discussing the merits of stalin's form of communism in 1940 he was identified by the congressional dice commission as a communist and following his testimony he was fired from republic studios after being blacklisted by hollywood in the 1950s standard worked as a stockbroker on wall street yet continued to act on stage being a christian this is one of the graves that i was hoping to find and i did find it it's that of singer and actress ethel waters 1896-1977 and as you can see on her marker it's engraved with the title of the song she was best known for his eyes on the sparrow she performed jazz swing pop music on broadway stage and in concerts and she began her career in the 1920s singing blues a lot of you may remember her as being the one who sang at billy graham [Music] crusades and children [Music] i know and how i know that he watches [Music] we [Music] most people don't know that ethel waters was the product of a rape and she grew up impoverished if she had been aborted by her mother the world would have missed a huge blessing sadly she said she was never cuddled or liked as a child ethel came out of her life of poverty by performing and traveling vaudeville shows her big break came in 1919 when she made a debut at one of the famous new york city harlem nightclubs her soulful jazz style created a large fan base and in 1921 she released her first recording by the 1930s she was recognized as one of america's brightest broadway stars in 1949 waters was nominated for an academy award for her role in the film pinky she moved to los angeles to appear in the 1942 film cairo in 1939 waters became the first african american to start in her own tv show the ethel water show in 1950 waters was the first african-american actress to star in a tv series beulah which aired on abc from 1950 through 1952 but she quit that role saying that the portrayal of blacks was degrading a turning point in her life came in 1957 when she attended the billy graham crusade at the madison square garden years later she gave this testimony of what happened that night in 1957 i ethel waters a 380 pound decrepit old lady rededicated her life to jesus christ and boy because he lives just look at me now i look good and i know it but i tell you because he lives and because my precious child billy gave me the opportunity to stand there 18 years ago and seeing at the old madison square garden his eyes on the sparrow i thank god for that privilege 18 years later to still be able to say with the help of these children his eye is still on all aspires she was a fan of gospel music and from 1957 up until her death she sang regularly for the billy graham crusades in 1984 she was posthumously inducted into the gospel music hall of fame four hours can you believe it didn't find everybody that i wanted but i want to thank you so much for joining us on this episode of history hunters but thank you give us a like and a thumbs up tell your friends about history hunters [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: History Hunters

Views: 145,963

Keywords: Forest Lawn Memorial Park Glendale, Celebrity graves, Famous graves, History Hunters, Tom Mix, Richard Dix, Jimmy Stewart, Joe Cobb, Art Acord, Aimee Semple McPherson, Joe E. Brown, Frank Baum Wizard of Oz, Louis L'Amour, Jean Hersholt, Caryll Ann Ekelund, Jana Lund, Robert Young, Suzan Ball, Ted Knight, Lionel Stander, Ethel Waters

Id: gfHasP7Os8w

Length: 32min 49sec (1969 seconds)

Published: Sun May 08 2022