Dia de los Muertos 2011: The Militant Visits The Dead at Inglewood Park Cemetery

Today is Dia de los Muertos, or Day of The Dead. No, not the Grateful Dead, but it is a day where people show their gratefulness for their deceased loved ones. And though it's a holiday practiced by the Mexican community, here in multicultural Los Angeles, it's starting to grow into more than just a Mexican thang.

Last year, The Militant paid homage to some great Angelenos by visiting their gravesites at Culver city's Holy Cross Cemetery. Earlier this week, The Militant paid a visit to Inglewood Park Cemetery, just a few miles south.

At a sprawling 340 acres nestled between Centinela Park in the north and The (formerly Fabulous) Forum to the south, Inglewood Park Cemetery was founded back in 1905 by a group of businessmen who saw the need for memorial park space in the the Centinela Valley area (The City of Inglewood wasn't incorporated until three years later). The first people laid to rest there were the original settlers of that area and other places in the South Bay. There was once a Los Angeles Railway Yellow Car line along Florence Avenue (now part of the proposed Metro Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Line) which ran special funeral cars to the cemetery.

Inglewood Park also boasts having the most interments of any cemetery in Southern California, so it's quite a significant and historic resting place for many in the Southland.

A number of Los Angeles mayors have their final resting place here, beginning with John Bryson, who held a short mayoral term in 1888-1889. The controversial Frank L. Shaw, who was elected in 1933 and was the first American city mayor ever recalled from office five years later (due to police misconduct and corrupt mishandling of city funds), is buried here, as is his popular reformist successor, Fletcher Bowron, mayor from 1938 to 1953.

But the most recent, and most famous Los Angeles mayor, interred here is Tom Bradley, mayor from 1973 to 1993, the City's first African American mayor and the civic leader who gave us a skyline, a subway, an Olympics and the internationally diverse metropolis we know today.

Other elected officials resting here are U.S. Congressman Julian Dixon, whose efforts to federally-fund our Metro Rail system got his name immortalized at the 7th Street/Metro Center station. Also, County Supervisor and local political patriarch Kenneth Hahn (whose name is also immortalized in a Metro Station, for creating the Blue Line) is buried here.

Another famous African American who shaped Los Angeles and is buried at Inglewood Park is architect Paul Revere Williams, who designed The LAX Theme Building, The MLK General Hospital in Willowbrook, Hollywood's Hotel Knickerbocker and several stars' homes during his noteworthy career.

Several figures in the music world are buried here at Inglewood Park, most notably Ray Charles, who is buried in the large Mausoleum of the Golden West (under his full name, Ray Charles Robinson). Unlike Mayor Bradley, who rests just a few feet from the entrance of his mausoleum, the legendary blues and soul singer (and former Baldwin Hills resident) is interred deep within several halls from the entrance. Yes, the Militant walked through dimly-lit mausoleum corridors -- alone -- just to bring you a picture of his resting place (note the music treble clef in his name plate and the coins resting at the base).

Songstress Ella Fitzgerald is another music legend laid to rest here, but The Militant was unable to locate her tomb. 

There's another person from the entertainment world buried here, but you'd never know by looking at his name.

The name "William B. Thomas" may or may not be familiar to you, but his most famous character would make it all clear. For he was "Buckwheat," the character that Thomas, a native Angeleno, played for several years as a child actor in Hal Roach's Our Gang (a.k.a. The Little Rascals) film shorts from the 1930s-1940s. The most well-known of the black characters on that show, the racial integration - and equal treatment - of the cast back then was groundbreaking. Roach was inspired to create Our Gang after seeing an integrated group of kids play together in the Echo Park area. Only in Los Angeles! Although, Thomas' WWII credentials on his epitaph are inaccurate: Though he did serve in the U.S. Army, he was only 14 when World War II ended. He did serve during the Korean War era though.

Lastly, The Militant brings you two famous Angeleno attorneys who are eternally tied together in many ways at Inglewood Park:

Lawyer Johnnie Cochran, most famous for being the lead attorney in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and has represented everyone from former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt to 1992 Riots beating victim Reginald Denny, rests in the Manchester Garden Mausoleum in the southern side of the cemetery. And on the eastern side of the park forever rests his "Dream Team" defense partner...

Robert Kardashian, a native Angeleno attorney, businessman and patriarch of...well...you know.

Speaking of which, unlike the tombs of the former mayor, the famous architect, the legendary musician and his Simpson trial partner...there are no flowers on his grave. Gee, with all those rich and famous kids of his, you'd think they'd even bother to remember their dad? You know, the guy who provided them with  their wealthy lifestyle and the family name they wear like a brand? America tries to keep up with The Kardashians, but The Kardashians apparently don't bother to keep up with remembering their own father.

But this mysterious, anonymous Angeleno blogger did, as with the other legendary Angelenos who are laid to rest here at Inglewood Park Cemetery. So take a moment today to honor, in whatever way you wish, the Angelenos, whether rich or poor, famous or personally known, who have contributed in any way to your life in this city and love for this city and are no longer with us. Have a great Dia de los Muertos, y'allz.

Happy B-Day, George Takei - Actor, Activist, (Almost) City Councilman

Today is the 74th birthday of native Angeleno Geroge Takei, who is many things - actor, writer, Asian American and LGBT community activist and pop culture icon. But did you know he was almost elected to the Los Angeles City Council?

It goes like this - in 1973, after The Great Tom Bradley made history being elected as Los Angeles' first Mayor of African American descent in the May 29 General Municipal Election, he had to resign his incumbent seat as 10th District City Councilman, which he held since 1963.

With the seat vacant, a Special Election took place on September 18 of that year, which attracted around a dozen candidates for the seat. Being a Special Election filing a vacant seat, there was to be no run-off; the top vote-getter wins the office.

Takei ran for the Mid-City area council seat under the ballot description, "Television Moderator" - he was the co-host of Expression East/West, a local public affairs show that aired on KNBC at the time.

City legislative deputy David Cunningham won the election with 8,062 votes and served the seat until 1987, when he was succeeded by Nate Holden. The runner-up? Geroge Takei, with 6,387 votes - losing by a tally of only 1,675.

Had Takei been elected, he would have been the City's first Asian American on the Council, which was eventually achieved by Michael Woo, elected to the 13th District in 1985 (Takei would not have been the first openly-gay City Councilman (assuming he would have come out back then), as Joel Wachs preceded him in 1971). But he would have certainly become the first celebrity to serve in Los Angeles City office - not an unusual thing even back then, considering who was sitting in the Governor's office at the time.

Takei did have some experience in public policy; Mayor Bradley appointed him to the Board of Directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District (the predecessor agency to today's Metro), where he served for 11 years. While filming Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1978, he was called off the set to cast a tie-breaking vote for the RTD to create what we know now as the Metro Rail system. He was also credited with helping to create an arts program for Metro Rail, which is why nearly every Metro station is decorated with public art pieces.

Who knows what things would have been like had he been City Councilman? Mayor Sulu? Only a visit to a parallel universe through a multidimensional wormhole could tell.

George Takei campaign poster image from AngryAsianMan.com

Dia De Los Muertos 2010: The Militant Visits The Dead

Today, as you may or may not know, is Dia De Los Muertos. The Militant has written about people, places and events in Los Angeles, so the Militant figured he'd commemorate the day by visiting the dead.

The Militant was near the Westside on Monday, and happened upon a memorial park by the west end of the Baldwin Hills in Culver City. It was Holy Cross Cemetery, a 71-year old, 200-acre memorial park with sweeping vistas of the South Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

After some Militant research, he discovered that there are quite a few well known Angelenos who have made this their final resting place.

Upon entering the grounds and driving up the hill where a replica of Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture stands, and right under a tree to the right of it, the Militant spotted the headstone of a very beloved figure in Los Angeles sports and one of the greatest play-by-play announcers who have ever lived:
Yes, the great Chick Hearn lies here.

Up the road towards the north, not far from the front entrance of the cemetery's main chapel/mausoleum, lies another legendary Los Angeles sports figure, a man who helped expand professional sports to the West:
Former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, the man who brought a bunch of bums from Brooklyn and painted an entire city blue make his eternal home base here (The Militant won't say whether he heard the sound of somebody turning over underground in light of what has happened over the past year, or the horrific, unspeakable event that was to occur on Monday night). Being the great blue-bleeding Dodger fan that the Militant is, he can't thank Mr. O'Malley enough for his favorite team. But the Militant is also forever grateful for Mr. O'Malley's pioneering vision and initiative in making professional sports not only possible in this City, but in the entire western United States.

Another pioneer, this time in the world of motion pictures rests several yards to the east:
Though his epitaph reads, "Beloved King of Comedy," for the Militant, and this entire motion picture industry, he is known for so much more. Nearly a hundred years ago, he founded the Keystone Pictures Co. studios in Edendale (now part of Echo Park), which was the first motion picture sound stage in the world and the genesis of the film industry in Los Angeles.

Speaking of movies, Holy Cross is also the final resting place of countless legends of the silver screen. Located in the Grotto area (just a few yards south of Chick Hearn's grave, towards the entrance) are the gravesites of:
Actor and crooner Bing Crosby; and just a few yards north, on the right side of the Grotto near the curb:
Legendary actress Rita Hayworth.

More contemporary Hollywood figures spend their final repose here, including John Candy and Ricardo Montalban, though the Militant had a hard time trying to locate their gravesites.

Being this the time of the year that it is, there were many of the living making visits to their own stars in their lives here, leaving flowers, mementos or just spending a quiet moment with their loved ones.

One section of the cemetery was somewhat more decorated than the rest of the grounds, with many families standing over headstones, praying or paying respects. A look at the birth and death dates of the stones indicated that those buried in this section were mostly young children, who, for whatever reason, never had a chance to even enjoy a fraction of the lives that we have enjoyed. The Militant felt a little guilty being here, not knowing anyone buried here very closely (most of the Militant's own beloved who passed are buried in an unspecified land far, far away).

Whether or not you observe religious or cultural traditions, the Militant hopes that all of you living Angels in this City just take even a moment to remember your own beloved ones who are now no more in this life. However big or small, their legacy lives on as long as they are remembered.