In LA, people watch old movies at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the final resting place of Rudolph Valentino and more. It’s been happening for 5 years under the banner of Cinespia. And today, as I’m sitting at my laptop in Pittsburgh, NPR visits, talks to picnic-ers, and watches Psycho on the wall of the mausoleum with everyone else.
One of the things they don’t mention is that LA has very few public parks; in fact, it’s got one of the lowest greenspace-to-people ratios in the country. Pocket parks are rare, and there’s no easy-access LA version of NY’s Bryant Park. So Cinsepia is particularly cool in that the owners of the cemetery had to think public film screenings would be a good idea. And boy, are the owners cool — the photogenic, second-generation cemetery businessmen Brent & Tyler Cassity are practically the TV series 6 Feet Under come to life.
While I didn’t get to go before I moved away this summer, I take one part of the report as a word of warning. "We have to come earlier every year," said one picnicking attendee. Getting to the cemetery early isn’t so bad, tho. You can wander around and gaze at the graves of Hattie McDaniel, John Houston and Mel Blanc (it really does say, "That’s All, Folks").
From the New Yorker.