The owners of Hollywood Forever Cemetery, final resting site for a number of celebrities including Iron Eyes Cody, Mel Blanc, Virginia Rappe, and both Darla and Alfalfa from Our Gang, are looking for a PR Agency to help them with a national rollout, according to a recent story in PR Week. Forever Enterprises, which also operates a cemetery in St. Louis and the Homicide Victims Memorial in California, "aims to alter the way Americans deal with death."

The company webcasts funerals and allows potential clients to record their own eulogies on videotape before they die. Hollywood Forever is one of the few cemeteries in the world to hold concerts, including one planned for October featuring jazz artists in a tribute to Woody Herman, who is buried there. "We're trying to take the creepiness out of the death-care industry," said a Forever Enterprises spokesman. Hollywood Forever is the site of several scenes from the soon-to-be released film, The Independent, starring Jerry Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. [09/16/2001]

February 10, 2012