Where Are They Buried? (11 page)

In 1924 George composed his first classical piece,
Rhapsody in Blue
, as a piano concerto for a popular band, and its success made George contemplate the wide gap between Tin Pan Alley’s simple arrangements and classical music’s serious offerings. To him, that void represented an unrestricted frontier. By that simple abstraction, George strove to unite commercial and classical genres, and the result was historic jazz-oriented concert works such as
Rhapsody in Blue
and
An American in Paris
, as well as the folk opera
Porgy and Bess
. Almost every one of his concert works has entered the theater, and the American psyche,
and people with no interest in opera hum parts of his pieces without knowing where the material came from or even that it’s part of something larger.

In the mid-1930s George and Ira had a successful run in Hollywood writing for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers but, for some reason, the normally athletic and cheerful George grew less enchanted with the parties and womanizing he used to enjoy. In February 1937 his mind went blank during a performance, though a few moments later he continued without interruption. Two months after that, he had a similar blackout in a barbershop and, each time, George said the lapse was accompanied by the smell of burning rubber.

By June George was suffering painful headaches and was often confused, groggy, and irritable. Doctors could find nothing wrong with him and attributed his pains to stress. On July 9, George was too weak to get out of bed. He soon fell into a coma, and doctors finally diagnosed an inoperable brain tumor. George’s condition deteriorated rapidly and he died two days later at 38.

Following George’s death, Ira continued writing and made a successful living composing scores for films until his death from natural causes at 86.

Both George and Ira rest at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From the Sawmill Parkway, turn east onto Jackson Street, then left at the traffic light. The cemetery is a half-mile ahead on the right.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Follow the main drive into the cemetery. The brothers are in the third mausoleum on the right. Though the mausoleum’s primary marker is engraved “George Gershwin,” Ira lies there as well.

MAY 29, 1903 – JULY 27, 2003

Making a vast fortune out of the one-line-gag, Bob Hope’s career spanned eight decades and the applause on which he thrived seemed to be the source of his youthfulness. His historic show business career began at the age of ten, when he won a Charlie Chaplin imitation contest and soon after, he learned how to tap dance, joined a road-show musical, and performed in blackface. Bookings for stage theatrics as well as comic emceeing followed
and he honed his wit with his own radio program during the 1930s. But Bob wasn’t a bona fide star until he appeared in his first of more than 50 movies,
Big Broadcast of 1938
, in which he sang the signature tune that would become his theme song, “Thanks for the Memory.”

In 1940, he teamed with Bing Crosby for the first of their seven “Road” flicks and in a string of pictures beginning with 1941’s
Caught in the Draft
, he tended to play would-be ladies’ men that almost never got the girl. In 1950 Bob debuted on television, but wisely declined a weekly show and instead opted for semi-regular specials featuring musical skits by a bevy of entertainers and appearances by athletes and other celebrities. All the action invariably came after an opening monologue chock full of quips and
The Bob Hope Specials
became ratings blockbusters airing more than 300 times.

During World War II, Bob attempted to enlist but was told his talents would be better served as an entertainer to build morale and in that capacity his enduring portrait of compassion and humanitarianism was revealed. With a touring show of performers, this Ambassador of Goodwill, or G.I. Bob as the soldiers called him, became a staple of USO shows covering almost every overseas base and boosting the morale of more than 10 million troops. Bob continued his repartee with America’s military for the remainder of his life, he was given distinguished service awards from every branch of the armed forces and, after
being declared an honorary veteran by Congress, he called the distinction one of the most cherished of his 2,000-plus awards and citations.

As the years rolled along and his thousands of friends and associates from a life well-lived passed on by the hundreds, it seemed that Bob’s time, too, would be near—but Bob had the last laugh. In 1998, while eating breakfast one morning he was surprised to see members of Congress paying tribute to him on live television; a pre-written obituary had been released and media organizations picked up the story before the mistake was corrected.

Two years later, Hope attended the opening of the permanent Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment in the Library of Congress which includes 88,000 handwritten jokes as well as letters, photos, and other mementos. “His career pretty much parallels the history of American entertainment,” said a spokesman. “The gallery is both a history of Bob Hope and a history of American entertainment.”

At his death at 100, Bob was laid to rest at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From I-405, exit at Rinaldi Street and take Sepulveda Boulevard south. Make a left onto Stranwood Avenue and the cemetery is immediately on the left.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Follow the signs to Bob Hope Memorial Garden and there you’ll see the beautiful architecture and landscaping of his final resting place.

JUNE 14, 1909 – APRIL 14, 1995

Over the course of a long and diverse show-business career, the jovial balladeer Burl Ives was a memorable presence in 30 movies and a dozen Broadway productions, recorded over 100 albums, and gave countless radio and television performances.

As a child, he had performed in public for change, but his real start in the business came in 1929 when he dropped out of teachers’ college to wander the country like a vagabond, playing banjo and singing to keep himself fed. His first professional roles came in theater—Burl’s high-watermark there came later, though, in
1958, when he originated the role of Big Daddy in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
. By 1940 Burl had moved into radio with his own show,
The Wayfarin’ Stranger
.

At the same time, with his especially sweet and mournful method of singing folk ballads, Burl was putting his stamp on standards from
Jimmy Crack Corn
to
I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly)
as well as on such children’s songs as
Frosty the Snowman
and
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
. His role as the narrator in the TV version of that annual holiday classic has endeared him to several generations of young people.

Burl was an imposing figure who loved to smoke, eat, and drink. For most of his life, he carried more than 300 pounds on his frame. Despite his size, Burl lived to be 85, when he died of mouth cancer. He was buried at Mound Cemetery in Oblong, Illinois.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From I-70, take Exit 119 and follow Route 130 south to Route 33. Follow Route 33 east for eight miles
and turn north onto County Road 2100. After one mile, make a right onto County Road 1200 and the cemetery is a short distance on the left.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
The Ives’ plot is easy to find, just fifty feet behind the church.

JANUARY 18, 1892 – AUGUST 7, 1957

JUNE 16, 1890 – FEBRUARY 23, 1965

In 1919 Oliver Hardy, the fat one, began working as an all-purpose comic for the Hal Roach studio. In 1926 he was teamed with Stan Laurel, and a 30-year comedic partnership was initiated. In short time, the boys were hailed as the newest comedy sensation, and they eventually made more than 100 films. Their act was brilliantly simple: Hardy was an incapable buffoon, and Laurel was so exceedingly dumb that, in his eyes, Hardy was a genius.

The pair easily made the transition to talkies, as there never was a lot of dialogue anyway, and in 1932 Laurel and Hardy won an Oscar for their short subject
The Music Box
. In that film, they struggled to deliver a piano to the top floor of a house on a hill only to have it topple down after they both let go of it to wipe their brows. A sort of film history was made when, instead of getting the laughs from the visual of a falling piano, the audience was treated to a prolonged close-up of their faces as they listened to the piano exaggeratedly crashing downward. Though the fare’s premise seems painfully slight by the standards of today, film comedy had to start somewhere.

Oliver Hardy suffered a massive stroke in 1956 that left him partially paralyzed and never again able to speak. After a year in a bed, he died at 65. Oliver was cremated and his ashes interred at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
This park is easy to find at 10621 Victory Blvd., just 2½ miles east of Highway 170.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery, turn right and proceed toward the fountain. On the right, before you get to the fountain, there is a low, stone wall called the Garden of Hope. On the opposite side Oliver’s ashes are interred, and there is a plaque dedicated to his memory attached to the wall.

In 1965 Stan Laurel died at 74 after suffering a heart attack. It’s reported that he was in bed and said to his nurse, “I wish I was skiing,” and she asked, “Oh, Mr. Laurel, do you ski?” to which Stan replied, “No, but I’d rather be skiing than doing what I’m doing.” And then he died.

Stan was cremated and his ashes buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From Highway 134, which is the connector between Highway 101 and I-210, take the Forest Lawn Drive exit. Proceed west for a mile and the park’s entrance will be on the left.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Get a map from the information booth and drive to the Gardens of Heritage, which are across the drive from the Old North Church. Bolted to the second wall, two levels
behind the statue of Washington, is a white plaque that marks Stan’s resting place.

FEBRUARY 4, 1902 – AUGUST 26, 1974

JUNE 22, 1906 – FEBRUARY 7, 2001

JUNE 22, 1930 – MARCH 1, 1932