All comers accepted
Established in 1877, the Evergreen Memorial Park is the oldest existing cemetery in Los Angeles. Unique to its history is its willingness to accept all races, ethnicities, and religious affiliations. Armenians, Japanese, Chinese, American Civil War soldiers, and prominent local figures like Isaac Van Nuys, as well as the unknown and the indigent, all share the sprawling resting place.
Among Evergreen’s most unusual residents are more than 400 circus performers and carnival workers, buried side by side in the eastern end of the grounds. None of the graves appear fancy, but they are cared for with one fresh flower on each plot. “Showmen’s Rest,” created by the Pacific Coast Showmen’s Association, provided the space for this nomadic crowd of people, who might not have had money for a proper burial and often thought of one another as family.
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Address 204 N Evergreen Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90033, +1 323.268.6714 | Getting there Free on-site parking | Hours Daily 7am–5pm| Tip Fill up on delicious and non-greasy Latin food with lots of vegetarian and vegan options at Un Solo Sol Kitchen (1818 E 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033), about .2 miles from Evergreen.
Buried there is the 38-year-old Daisy Evelyn Marrion, a beautiful aerialist who, during a section of her routine where she was supposed to soar over the crowd secured by ropes tied around her ankles, instead plummeted 80 feet in front of a live audience. The ropes had failed. It’s said that watching Marrion free-fall and ricochet off a tree, a trailer, and a wire fence left the spectators in stupefied silence. Remarkably, she held on for six days before her shattered body finally succumbed.
You’ll also find the grave of “Dainty Dotty” Jensen. At 585 pounds, Dotty held the title of “Fat Lady” with Ringling Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s. Audiences delighted as she made her flesh jiggle when she laughed. She died prematurely of a heart attack at 43, weighing 350 pounds.
A nearby headstone remembers Hugo Zacchini, the “Human Cannonball.” His act was blasting out of a cannon designed by his circus-owning dad. Ironically, despite the risks of his death-defying profession, it was a common stroke that ended his life, at the relatively old age of 77.
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