I See Dead People

                                                    Photographs © 2008 West Adams Heritage Association & Leslie Evans

Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with history? Family history, U.S. history, the history of Los Angeles, of my neighborhood, of the guy who built our house in 1909. I love it all, especially during times when the present seems especially challenging.

I live in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, an area that used to be the swankiest district in town before bad times, gangs, crack houses, and severe urban blight nearly killed it. For years now the area has been an enjoying a resurgence thanks to devoted residents and preservationists who are restoring what’s left of the magnificent hundred-year-old homes and making sure the inner city ‘hood is once again a great place to live.

I’ve written about Henry C. Jensen, the original owner of our house, who lived here from 1909 until his death in 1944. Henry is buried in his family plot at the nearby Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery. Every year, the West Adams Heritage Association picks five or six prominent people who are buried at Rosedale and brings them to life. Several years ago I played Henry Jensen, and despite my phobia of public speaking, I felt I was channeling the spirit of the man who built our house and many of the earliest movie theatres in Los Angeles. Ever since then, I’ve been volunteering at the Living History Tour. Last Saturday I led two of the three-hour tours and while I nearly collapsed from sunstroke (it must have been 100 degrees in the largely shadeless cemetery), I loved stepping back in time and hearing from a diverse collection of corpses.

And what a fascinating group of stiffs it was this year with look-alike neighborhood residents expertly playing the dearly departed. In the photos on the top of this post, you can see Captain Edward Lee Baker, Jr. (1865-1913) who was a Buffalo Soldier in the Indian campaigns of the West and the Spanish-American War. Baker (played by Albert Edmund Lord III) was a sergeant-major in the all-black 10th U.S. Cavalry and won a Congressional Medal of Honor for valor during the battle of San Juan Hill. A bunch of descendants of Baker’s were present on the tour, and because the captain was of mixed-race heritage, it was poignant to see the white, blond-haired kids meeting their African-American cousins for the first time. One little boy was carrying his relative’s sword that had been passed down through the generations.

Next to Baker is Ernestine Wade (1906-1983), a pioneering black actress who is best known for her role as Sapphire Stevens on the “Amos n’Andy” radio and subsequent TV show. Wade (played by Phyllis Williams) gave a fascinating talk about the controversies that always surrounded the hugely popular “Amos n’Andy” (especially during the radio years when the main characters were portrayed by white men in blackface) and the criticisms by African-American groups that eventually led to the show’s cancellation in 1953. Wade did not feel that her character, the wife of the Kingfish, was demeaning to blacks at all, and she spoke eloquently about the opportunities available for African-American actors at that time. Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American ever to win an Oscar (in 1939 for her incredible portrayal of Mammy in “Gone With the Wind”) is buried in Rosedale, not far from Wade’s grave. McDaniel wanted to be buried in a cemetery in Hollywood but when she died in the early 1950s, blacks were not allowed among the other famous dead people, even if they were Oscar winners, so McDaniel was buried at Rosedale, the only cemetery that always accepted people of all races. Wade ended her graveside talk by quoting her friend Hattie who once said of the criticism she received for playing so many servants in the movies, “I’d rather play a maid for $700 a week than BE one for $7!”

We also heard from the Reverend Asahel Morgan Hough (1830-1900) whose portrayer, Steven Box, was a dead ringer, even down to the unusual rectangular beard that was his own! Rev. Hough helped to establish the Methodist Church in Southern California and was married to Anna Gould, sister of millionaire “robber baron” tycoon Jay Gould. Hough was best known as one of the founders of the University of Southern California—the original Trojan!

We then paid a visit to the lovely Francesca de Paula Alexander Fleming (1865-1901), the great-granddaughter of Juan Dominguez, the owner of both the San Pedro Ranch and the Palos Verdes Rancho. Fleming (played by Gisa Nico) focused her talk on her glorious week as Queen of the Fiesta de Los Angeles of 1897, a  huge festival that dominated Los Angeles life during the 1890s. As Queen, Francesca presided over countless parades and fancy balls with her court, wearing an array of gowns, each one more extravagant than the next. Sadly, Fleming died just a few years after being the toast of the town.

One of the tours I led consisted almost entirely of descendents of another dead guy being featured, Swedish photographer Valentine Wolfenstein (1845-1909) who had one of the first photography studios in downtown Los Angeles. Wolfenstein (played by Hunter Ochs) told of his many adventures, including his stint in the Union Army during the Civil War and his subsequent trip west by wagon train. He also revealed his many romantic exploits that resulted in the great-, great-great-, and great-great-great-grandchildren that now stood before him in rapt attention. After his talk, during which he shared many of his beautiful photographs, Wolfenstein posed for photos with each generation of his family members who had gathered at Rosedale from spots all over the country. Some of them were seeing each other for the first time. I admit I was moved to tears watching the poignant scene of the modern-day Wolfenstein family meeting their illustrious ancestor. None of them had ever been to his gravesite at Rosedale. I only wish I could watch my own great-great-grandfather come to life but I’m afraid the cemetery in Staszow, Poland where my ancestors are buried was destroyed by the Nazis. A man named Jack Goldfarb has been working painstakingly to restore it since 2003 so maybe one day we can all meet there and conduct our own Living History tour.

The final character we met during the tour was the great actor Monroe Salisbury (1876-1935). Never heard of him? Few today have, even though he was one of the most famous men in the theatre and later in silent movies. In addition to leading two of the tours, I also wrote the script for Monroe Salisbury, forgotten superstars being one of my areas of great interest. The actor playing Salisbury, Chuck Kovacic, looked EXACTLY like the silent screen star and did an incredible job taking my script and adapting it into a true performance, evoking every ounce of pathos he could get out of the sad story of the forgotten star. As each tour group approached, Salisbury sat dozing on a chair, surrounded by props form the North Woods dramas of the teens, the film genre he made famous after appearing in “The Squaw Man” in 1913, directed by a young Cecil B. De Mille (considered the first full-length motion picture). As I meekly called out his name to wake up the slumbering actor, he jumped to his feet and dramatically bellowed a line from one of his plays as if he had been dreaming of his own past glories: 

“OH, HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN!”

I read that line in a play back in 1904, but it could have been my epitaph! Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. My name is Monroe Salisbury. I have appeared on the stage opposite some of the most gifted thespians the world will ever see. The great Eleanora Duse, John Drew, the Barrymores, Richard Mansfield, Mrs. Fiske. At one time, I was one of the biggest stars of the motion picture industry. I was a leading man of many North Woods dramas. What’s that you say? You never heard of a North Woods drama? You never heard of me? Ah, such is my sad tale of woe.

After achieving great success in the movies, Salisbury tried to produce and star in his own films. The powerful studio heads were aghast and did everything they could to sabotage Salisbury’s career. His 1920 independent feature, “The Barbarian” was a bomb, and his star fell quickly. Salisbury was never able to resuscitate his career. He had a few nervous breakdowns and in 1935 checked himself into the Patton State Hospital for the Insane. About a month later, he had a nasty fall there and cracked his skull open, dying a few days after that. Though once admired by millions, only four people attended his funeral at Rosedale.

I just eat this stuff up. If any of these photos look familiar, it's probably because you've seen Rosedale Cemetery in countless movies and TV shows from "Six Feet Under" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The organizers of this event, led by writer/researcher Laura Meyers, are already looking for people to feature next year. I’m on the lookout for a really juicy story from L.A. history involving a dead teenager, preferably one with red hair since my daughter Leah has been dying to perform in the Living History Tour.

If you’re ever in the ‘hood and feel like being haunted (I haven’t even mentioned the sad part of the cemetery that’s made up exclusively of hundreds of young children’s graves who died between 1906 and 1912), give me a call and I’ll escort you on a private tour of the West Adams dead. 

Comments

[La Framéricaine]

Dear Danny,

The world is so much smaller than we imagine.

On Friday, Sept 26th, I received an email at work from Dee Dee G, a friend whose Grandmother Mimi's father was:

Capitain Edward Lee Baker, Jr.
http://westadamsheritage.org/index.php?option=com_
content&task=blogcategory&id=22&Itemid=41

We would have come up to visit and tour but we simply couldn't afford the $30 per person tour fee. Thus, we stayed in the cultural desert of Orange County.

I, too, am a genealogy fan and, as the eldest in my family, have lots of wonderful documents and photos.

Your post and your photos of your neighborhood event are wonderful and it have me a frisson to image having come so close to crossing your path in real life without even knowing it. Amazing... I am going to send Dee Dee a link to your blog post!

Amitiés,

[Pam G]

Hi Danny:

Wonderful post and what a coincidence. I just returned home tonight from leading the annual living history tour of Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville District, expanded this year to a two-day event because of the city's 250th anniversary, dating from the time of the French and Indian War. I wrote the scripts for several of our reenactors this year and led a huge, tiring tour this afternoon over a two-mile stretch of Victorian homes bordering Allegheny Cemetery, one of the oldest in the eastern U.S. (And I have sunburn to prove it, too.) Like your neighborhood, this one has seen better days and now a growing number of young artists are trying to revitalize things. Still, I had to take great care with my group of elderly suburbanites this afternoon, not to lead them into some still "challenging" somewhat crime-ridden blocks.

Speaking of "dead" people, my mother has roots in this neighborhood going back 120 years, although she never lived here herself. We've had fun in the months leading up to this weekend's parties in finding places where her family used to live. We even found her mother's library card application from 1914 for display at the community hall cocktail party last night. It was in the basement of the library here for over 90 years and was found by a rather strange coincidence in a pile of books someone handed me at the beginning of August.

One of our reenactors portrayed the boxer Fritzie Zivic, a contemporary of Jack La Motta's, who once employed my grandfather to do some carpentry work. In character, Zivic said to me this afternoon, "No one knows me any longer. No one remembers my heroics any more." Another fella portrayed former 19th century Pittsburgh mayor and state senator Max Leslie and when he told my group that he died back in 1944 "right upstairs" in the property we were touring, I could see some in my group "shudder."

There was also a large tribute to the young Irish children killed in the explosion of the munitions factory here during the Civil War.

Meanwhile, as I gave tours of my own home Harrison Street house, we had two strange things happen: yesterday some stuffed animals on a dresser in a guest room were found turned facing the door (looking outward toward the tour group in the hall) instead of in their usual positions toward the bed and an hour ago as I cleaned up after the final wine and cheese party a glass flew off the kitchen counter and slammed into the sink--not once, but twice--when no one was around but it didn't break either. Now, I'm no believer in that but it seems we stirred up something. Should I say hello to my grandma I never knew?

I would love to tour this cemetery with you. I've done all the others in LA but this one. So expect an email the next time I'll be in LA.

Thanks for sharing!

[churlita]

Another great post. I love that stuff too. I love cemeteries and I wish we had a living history tour in ours here.

[scooterzz]

if obsessed with la history, this might strike a nerve....if not, sorry for the intrusion...

http://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/?p=1883

and, as always, love your posts.....

[Dagny]

Thanks for sharing this. Definitely something to add to my itinerary the next time I decide to head south.