Beneath The Trap Door: 1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 15

Los Angeles - Forest Lawn Cemetery

The Johnsons are still near Los Angeles, this time at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. With over a quarter-million people buried there and a million visitors a year (though I would presume not nearly that many in 1937) Forest Lawn is a sprawling place. It's got multiple chapels, works of art, fountains, and is the resting place of many celebrities. There's quite a list of the famous who are buried there on its Wikipedia page.

Included in the Johnson scrapbook is an informational booklet called Sacred Services in Sacred Ground, which includes a insert about the replica of the Last Supper painting located in their Memorial Court of Honor (pictured above).

And what cemetery would be complete without a 17" x 23" fold-out map? (above)

Our scrapbooker writes above, about the Wee Kirk o' the Heathers pictured in the postcard, "Replica of Glencairn - Annie Laurie's Church. The romantic story of Annie Laurie is recalled by the tiny church. A faithful reproduction of the one she attended throughout her life - 1682-1764. The original church was erected in 1310 and destroyed in 1885."

I'd never heard of Annie Laurie before. There's a poem about her written by William Douglas:

"Maxwelton braes are bonnie, where early fa's the dew

Where me and Annie Laurie made up the promise true

Made up the promise true, and ne'er forget will I

And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die

She's backit like the peacock, she's breistit like the swan

She's jimp aboot the middle, her waist ye weel may span

Her waist ye weel may span, and she has a rolling eye

And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die."

The poem was later turned into a song (there are many versions, but here is Deanna Durbin's, recorded in 1936, so very possibly heard by the Johnsons. By the way, she was only 14 years old when she recorded this song):