Photo: Kisses on the tomb of Valentino. Credit: Larry Harnisch/LADailyMirror.com

The Daily Mirror lunch at Astro Burger and tour of Hollywood Forever Cemetery was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Our distinguished guide, Karie Bible, showed us around and after 2 1/2 hours there were plenty of folks left for another excursion. Karie gave us a thumbnail sketch of the cemetery’s revival and showed us the graves of the famous, infamous and forgotten.

We saw the grave of Florence Lawrence, often described as the first movie star….

… the quiet elegance of Mr. Blackwell’s monument…

… the marker of John Huston …

… Don Adams …

… and Virginia Rappe. Notice that someone left a penny for luck – some tombstones were covered with rocks and there were several pairs of toy vampire fangs at the grave of Vampira. A new 3-D version of “Plan 9 From Outer Space ” had been shown the night before during a tribute to Johnny Ramone.

Toto too! (This is a cenotaph since animals aren’t allowed. Toto is buried somewhere under the Ventura Freeway around Studio City.)

Johnny Ramone’s memorial promoted a discussion about whether the inscription is grammatically correct:

By the way, don’t leave kisses on Valentino’s tomb. It’s hard to lipstick out of the marble. And it’s weird.