Valhalla
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
On Saturday, July 18, 2009, my friend Bob and I made our most extensive visit to the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood. I am certainly no stranger to this burial ground as I have visited it in 1980, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 (at which time the photo above was taken). As you may have guessed, these visits to this cemetery where one might find the final resting place of Oliver Hardy, roughly correspond to my visits to Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills where Stan Laurel is buried. Read the rest of this entry »
Bruce Abbott’s film career was rather brief, and mostly he starred in low budgt flicks. In fact, these days he works as an architect and is semi-retired from performing. However, he did star in one over-the-top, entertaining, cult classic that made it a must to get an autograph from him. That movie was the insanely and disgustingly entertaining 1985 sci-fi horror flick Re-Animator. 
Ernest Borgnine falls into the classification as ‘legendary actor’ – and was one of the driving forces that inspired me to travel to Chicago on October 17, 2009. Although he looked great, he was 92 years old, so I didn’t know when there might be another chance to get to meet this Oscar-winning performer. Borgnine had claimed the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title character in Marty in 1955. 
Back home in Dayton, I was so tired from the road trip that Bob and I had taken across West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey on the morning of Sunday, June 20, 2009, I almost considered sending Bob out alone to see the few sites in my own backyard of Dayton, Ohio, that he wanted to see. Then I thought better and decided to be a good host…and get some photos with some of the cool things that we actually have in my little old home town.