Hollywood Forever: Karie Bible
Photo by Mark Vieira, Courtesy of Karie Bible
by CHAD KENNERK
For more than two decades, Karie Bible has been the guiding voice and storyteller taking visitors from near and far through Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s legendary grounds. A historian, vintage devotee and lifelong lover of classic film, Karie shares stories of scandal, triumph and heartbreak that look beyond the myths and humanise stars. Her passion for honouring the pioneers of cinema has led to appearances on Turner Classic Movies, PBS, CNN, the History Channel, the Travel Channel and more.
Karie also regularly invites viewers into Hollywood Kitchen, her blog and cooking show, where she makes vintage recipes from the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age while delving into film history. Along her journey, Karie also found an unlikely partner in Close Up, a black cat who first appeared on Cecil B. DeMille’s tombstone, hence the name. Together, the well-known Angelenos embody the charm, mystery and magic of Hollywood Forever.
In conversation with Hollywood Forever Cemetery tour guide and Hollywood Kitchen host Karie Bible.
Film Review (FR): You were born on Halloween. You grew up next to a cemetery. One of your early classic film experiences was with Bela Lugosi’s Dracula. Your career feels very fortuitous.
Karie Bible (KB): That's true. My whole life, which you can't make up, is sometimes so absurd, but it's true.
(FR): You've served as the official tour guide for Hollywood Forever Cemetery since 2002. How did you initially get involved? And what does your role look like today?
(KB): When I first moved here, I saw and fell in love with the cemetery. I walked around and thought, 'This place is just magical. I wonder if they have a tour, because I want to take it.’ They didn't have one, and I thought, ‘Maybe that could be me.’ My mom and dad are very into history, so I grew up going to all sorts of forts and battlefields and stuff. So I saw plenty of tour guides, and I kind of got a taste of what it was like to be transported back in time by a really good tour guide. And I thought, 'You know what, I'd love to do that.' I met with a historian who's been my mentor to this day and also with the owner of the cemetery, who gave me kind of the green light. I've been there now since 2002. Good Lord, that's a long time, but there are other people who do it, by the way; I'm not the only one. I'm just kind of the in-house one, and I guess the one who's been there a while.
But what does it look like today? Well, I'm not a payroll staff employee there or anything. I do my tour, and I just love the residents there. I love sharing their lives, sharing their stories. The further in time we go, the more I worry this stuff is going to get forgotten or lost to time. That people won’t know who these stars are, especially the silent ones, or that maybe they won't care. My mission is to make them want to learn more. I had a young woman, she was probably in her early 20s, take the night tour I do sometimes a while back, and she texted me later, 'My boyfriend and I are going to go home and watch Peter Lorre movies all night. Thank you.’ And I was like, 'Yes, that's why I got out of bed today. That's why I do this. Thank you.’ These people were trailblazers. They were artists. They were laying the tracks that everything else in the future would roll down. I have so much love in my heart for all of them.
(FR): Who are some of your favourites?
(KB): Gosh, that's hard to say, because I love them all. But of course, Valentino; I love him, and he is definitely a favourite.
(FR): While we're on Valentino, how did you become a lady in black?
(KB): I'd heard about the lady in black, and I thought I'd like to do it. Every year, on August 23, we have an annual memorial service, and it gets anywhere from two to three hundred-something people. I wear all black. The cemetery drives me in the hearse limo, I get out, and I leave a rose on his grave. I don't cry, I don't faint, and I don't do that kind of stuff. Not that I'm knocking it, but I don't do that, and for me, it's just a way to keep his legacy alive and hopefully his memory in some way.
One thing I've been asked over the years is, 'Are you going to get angry or jealous if other women do it?' The answer is no, because I feel like we live in a culture that is always pitting women against each other all the time, and I hate that. There's this attitude that you can only have one woman in one field doing one thing. I say, ‘B.S.’. If other women want to wear black and wear veils and celebrate him and his life and his career, I say, the more the merrier. There is enough love to go around. So my friend Joanna Ramos does it, lots of other women now do it, and I love that. I say share in the love.
(FR): We saw that in the classic studio era; where studios were trying to pit female stars against one another for publicity.
(KB): I'm probably not the person to do this, but I wish someone would write a book about the history of female rivalry in Hollywood, because it was so blatant. There is an actress that is at Hollywood Forever. Her name was Peggy Shannon, and Paramount billed her as ‘Clara Bow's redheaded rival’. They did this unabashedly, and it was done to men too, but I think more often to women. The idea was, ‘If you ask for more money or make too many demands or get too out of line, you need to know that there's someone that looks like you, that can act like you, that is waiting in the wings to take over for you.’
Mary Castle, who was pitted to be the next Rita Hayworth. There were a lot of different blondes that were built up to be the next Marilyn. I think that's something almost every one of these studios did. Even Lizabeth Scott was called ‘the threat’ because she was supposed to be a threat to Lauren Bacall. What way is it to go through your life knowing there's an Eve Harrington peering over your shoulder every second, right? That's the way it was. And again, I'm not the person to do it, but I really want somebody, somewhere, to write that book, because I want to read that.
(FR): Yeah, I want to read that book too. A woman that's relatively new to Hollywood Forever is Judy Garland. What's the backstory there?
(KB): Well, I had heard we were going to get her for a long time. I'd get all excited, and then it would fall through. So I quit getting excited. It was like that for ages. We'd hear, 'Oh, it's happening. It's happening,’ and, ‘It's not going to happen.’ In January of 2017, I'll never forget how weird this was. I was in Big Bear at a cabin in the snow, and I walked in from a hike, and my phone started going off. This guy texted me, 'Hi, I work for American Airlines. I'm putting Judy Garland's casket on a plane’, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, who are you? How did you find me? What is this?’ This was weird, even by my standards. I got no response and I thought, ‘Okay, something is up. I don't know what it is, but something's up.’ Sure enough, we got her in January of 2017, and I was basically on a gag order for the first six months. We had black cloth all over the doors and windows in that area.
We waited until that summer, when it would have been her 95th birthday, and on that day we had a private event in that room where she's at, and that night we showed The Wizard of Oz on the back wall. It was thrilling. I love her so much, and it's been really amazing to see the response from the public, because I've had people walk in there and just start crying. I've had people walk in there and start singing at the absolute top of their lungs, so to kind of see that reaction from people was really beautiful.
(FR): It's tradition for people to leave mementos or tokens behind. What are some of the more creative items that you've encountered?
(KB): Someone made this big, beautiful painting of Judy Garland doing the 'Get Happy' number. It was gorgeous, and it was really big. It was there for a while, and then one of the funeral directors thought, 'Even in LA, there is humidity indoors.’ He thought something was going to happen to this painting, so he took it into the office and rescued the painting. When it was her 100th birthday, back in 2022, we did a whole Judy Garland at 100 series of plaques all over the cemetery, because we figured out there are tons of connections: people that knew her socially and people that worked with her.
(FR): She’s been reunited with Mickey Rooney at Hollywood Forever…
(KB): Yeah, we had all these plaques, and we noted how they knew Judy and what movies they made with Judy. I went to the crafting store and found this cool rainbow ribbon, because it's Pride month too. I was handing out rainbow ribbons to tie on the plaques, and I did a six degrees of Judy-themed tour. It was really cool. I love her so much.
(FR): Speaking of leaving things behind, you rightly have a pet peeve for lipstick and limestone. Can you explain the importance of not kissing someone’s memorial?
(KB): Here's the thing: lipstick has very strong colour pigments, and they are not easy to get out. In fact, they can permanently stain marble. I get the enthusiasm; I get it big time, but when people do that, the lipstick leaves all sorts of stains. I can show you several examples where that's become a permanent thing on these graves, the stains. In Paris, Oscar Wilde's grave was kissed so much they had to cover it in a glass box. But then the glass box got covered in lipstick. I don't know that they can win in that situation.
(FR): Hollywood Forever is more than just a cemetery. It really is a museum, and it's also a cultural event centre as well.
(KB): Yeah, it's interesting some of the questions people ask on the tour. This just happened again with a lady last week who was on the tour. One of the questions I come across almost every week is, 'I guess you have to be a movie star or rock star to be buried here, right? You have to be filthy rich and mega famous.’ And I'm like, 'No, I mean, that is what winds up on the tour, but that doesn't mean that's all you have to be.’ Statistically, 99% of our people are not movie stars or rock stars or filthy rich, so if somebody wanted to be cremated and scattered in our Rose Garden, that would be a very economical and affordable option for them. If somebody wants a giant mausoleum like in the centre of the pond, that's something we can talk about. We deal with every economic spectrum, everybody from every culture and every religion. I've seen them do it on the periphery. I just see stuff as I'm doing tours. We've done mariachi funerals. We've done Buddhist funerals. We did a New Orleans jazz funeral. I mean, you name it, we do it. We do serve everybody, and that's something a lot of people don't really realise.
(FR): How did the idea for Hollywood Kitchen come to you?
(KB): I've collected movie star recipes for a long time just for fun, and I'd been meaning to do a YouTube show or something. I'd been brainstorming, and then the lockdown hit. I live by myself in a little place, and I just thought, 'Okay, I've got to stay sane, and that is not going to be easy. I could either shelve that project for now, or I can just do it in the crudest way, doing it over Zoom.’ I started the project, and I was able to get a lot of people that were normally not available to someone like me because they were too busy. It worked out really well, and I'm having so much fun. I'm not the first person to do this; there's Jenny Hammerton of Silver Screen Suppers in England. She's like the original gangster of celebrity recipes. There's Samantha Richardson. There are a lot of people who've done them way before me, but I've just done my own little version.
(FR): What recipes would you say have been your biggest successes, and maybe one that has been a miss?
(KB): When I first started doing these, I would get people writing to me going, 'You know they didn't really make that,' and I'd say, ‘Okay, that's probably true, but it's a fun way to look at who they were and how they lived.’ It's a way to look at their lives and humanise them a bit, but I've been able to talk to Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich’s grandsons, and they've told me firsthand accounts of them making and serving food, so I know they did. Vincent Price wrote three cookbooks and had a cooking show in the UK. Vincent was the real deal, and also his stuff has never let me down, and neither has Ava Gardner's.
I'm really good friends with one of the board members of the Ava Gardner Museum in North Carolina, and her recipes have never once let me down. With the misfires, I think one of the problems is a lot of these recipes were either from cookbooks or they were published in newspapers or little flyers and pamphlets that were directed at women who were trained to be housewives and cooks. I wasn't. My mom tried, but you know what I mean? It'll be like, 'Place in a warm oven,' or 'Place until brown,' and you're like, 'Well, what time are we talking about?' And sometimes they'll leave out steps.
(FR): So trial and error is involved.
(KB): Oh yeah. Luckily, I have several friends who are far more experienced cooks than me. Often I'll send them a recipe, and I'll go, 'Okay, does this look remotely doable?' Because I hate wasting food, especially these days; it's expensive. I'll send it, and they'll go, 'Oh God, Karie, no. Here's what you need to do.' And other times they're like, 'That looks great.' Every year I do an Oscar cook-along where we complain about the Academy Awards, and there's like a theme every year, and we each pick a star, and then we cook something attributed to them. This year the theme was ‘never even nominated’.
I chose May West, and she had this fruit compote that was like pears, apples, and a banana mixed together with some nuts. It looked kind of yellow and lumpy, and everything kind of turned brown quickly, even if I put lemon juice on it. I didn't want to totally waste it, so I went to the refrigerator. I had some raspberries and strawberries, and I mashed them up and stirred them into her fruit compote. I got these little ready-made mini pie crusts at the store, and I scooped out the mixture, put it in the pie crust, and put in just one tiny pinch of brown sugar. I made the most delicious mini low-sugar fruit pies. They were fabulous.
(FR): You've appeared in documentaries, you've been on television, and you've been on the movie mecca: Turner Classic Movies. This year you got to appear at the TCM Film Festival. What was that experience like?
(KB): It was very emotional for me. This really good friend of mine, who was a frequent guest on Hollywood Kitchen and a film historian and writer, died a few months back, and they were laid to rest at Hollywood Forever the morning the festival started. I told a few friends, ‘I am all over the place. I'm crying my head off. I'm super excited and happy about the festival. I'm grief-stricken.’ I feel so fortunate because I've lived here 25 years and I've done the tour for 23.
Surviving my life is kind of a big deal, and when I walked out on the stage at Club TCM, I saw so many of my friends in the audience. I almost lost it. I was sitting there like, 'Don't cry, Bible, don't cry. Please don't cry in front of everybody.’ I did have this moment of thanking everyone for being there and TCM for doing the talk. It was emotional, but it was a huge honour. And I love the channel so much: they have been there for me during some very dark nights of the soul. I'm so grateful that we live in a world where they exist and that there are so many fellow classic film fans who love these movies and love these stars as much as we do. So it was exciting. I'm just so grateful.
(FR): Thinking back on your 25 years as an Angeleno and classic film fan. What are the moments for you that really stick out — the pinch-yourself moments?
(KB): I feel lucky to live here, because you can see classic films on a big screen almost all the time here. Last fall alone — I can't even believe this happened — but in a two-week time frame, I got to see Rita Moreno in person and Sophia Loren in person at the Motion Picture Academy on Fairfax. With Sophia, you could just feel the excitement. They showed Two Women, the film she won her Oscar for, and she stayed throughout the whole movie and watched it. At the end, she stood up, and there was just an immediate standing ovation. It was one of those moments where every hair on your body stands up. You feel like you're going to cry, and you're like, 'I can't believe this is my life.' Then she started to leave the theatre. No one mobbed her for an autograph. It was like the Red Sea; the audience just parted while the goddess left the theatre.
I had a godmother who I miss every day. Her name was Granny Joyce. She had a whole room of Gone With the Wind memorabilia in her house. She is the one who got me into Bette Davis and was one of the only people in my world that loved Classic Hollywood like I did and loved old things. She was very special to me. In 2008, Olivia de Havilland came to LACMA back when they had the Bing Theatre, and they presented The Heiress. It was a standing ovation. I was in tears, and I ran out to the parking lot at the end of the night and called Granny Joyce to report that I had just seen Olivia de Havilland. I just love these stars. I love this history. I just feel so lucky to live here and so grateful for what I've gotten to see and do. You think about death a lot when you're in a cemetery; it's kind of an occupational hazard. All the time, I just think, ‘I'm so grateful to be here, to be alive. If it all ends tomorrow, I've still had one heck of a life.’
KARIE BIBLE was born a heterochromatic baby (meaning she has two different coloured eyes) with the last name ‘Bible’ on Halloween night. Her passion for history led to her work at Hollywood Forever Cemetery where she has been serving as the official tour guide since 2002. You can read more and book at tour at cemeterytour.com. Karie has lectured at The Old Town Music Hall, The Queen Mary, The Homestead Museum and is also a ‘Lady in Black’ to honor silent film star Rudolph Valentino. She has appeared in the segments for Turner Classic Movies, PBS, CNN, History Channel and Travel Channel. Her book credits include Location Filming in Los Angeles with historians Marc Wanamaker and Harry Medved and Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays with Mary Mallory. A vintage lifestyle devotee, she lives in a 1920s apartment and collects clothing from the 1920s to the 1950s.
