Word: mausoleums
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...Held in the shadow of Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum on a warm summer night, the service proved a fitting setting for such star-studded grief. A "Thriller"-esque moon tinted orange by smoke from the nearby forest fires added to the dramatic backdrop. The specially built stage was adorned with six large bouquets of white lilies, white roses and green topiaries. Portraits of Jackson served as bookends for his casket...
...ceremony, Jackson's brothers led a procession of guests as they carried his casket into the Holly Terrace of the Great Mausoleum. Each person was allowed one final, personal farewell before walking away. One guest pointed to longtime Jackson family friend Clifton Davis' rendition of "Never Can Say Goodbye" (a song he wrote for the Jackson 5), performed earlier in the night, as a fitting summary of the collective sentiment. "[Davis] stopped the song at the end and said, 'Michael, we can't say goodbye,' " the guest recalls. "'But what we can say is that we love you.' " (See pictures...
...Great Mausoleum takes its architectural inspiration from the Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy, and features 11 terraces, each named for a flower and filled with its own set of luminaries. Jackson will lie in the Holly Terrace, sharing proximity with Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard. And Jackson will not be far from the comic Red Skelton, whom he once befriended. "Red was very fond of Michael and would no doubt find humor in the fact that they will be spending eternity together," says a Skelton friend...
...stained-glass lighting within the arched-ceiling architecture is not enough to put the fear of God into trespassers, the not-so-subtle security will keep them away. That has been a feature of the mausoleum long before its latest celebrity client. Family members and plot holders must pass through guards or security camera-manned doors in order to visit loved ones in the structure. Curious wandering is forbidden. Roger Sinclair, 77, a historian of cemeteries who has bought a plot for himself in the Great Mausoleum, was not made to feel welcome, even as a future occupant. Says Sinclair...
Lisa Burks, a friend of Sinclair's and a self-described "grave hunter" (her website is called Adventures in Grave Hunting), says she was once escorted from the Great Mausoleum by security after leaving flowers at Jean Harlow's grave. "If the Jackson family wants privacy, they could not have picked a better place than this," says Burks. "This place is the cream of the crop for protecting celebrities...