Evergreen Cemetery 1887 – Boyle Heights
In Los Angeles, the circus never leaves town. They can’t; they’re six feet under. Evergreen Cemetery is the final resting place for members of the Pacific Coast Showmen’s Assn. An association started in Chicago by Buffalo Bill Cody back in 1913. It appears that carnies, like snowbirds, need a place to sit out the winter. And because the show must go on, members meet yearly during the winter interim, to recognize those that have passed during business hours.
Here at Showman’s rest, you can step upon greatness. Emily Bailey, a 300-pound “fat lady,” who lost her place in the spotlight, after having dropped the bulk; lived to be 99. Or Hugo Zacchini, the first human cannonball. The common freak show of yesteryear’s glory days, has been replaced by “spectaculars.” Those brightly lit beacons emanating from church parking lots across the “urbs.” The zipper, the tilt-a-wheel; an offramp short of a freeway.
To paraphrase Charles Manson “it used to be that if you were crazy , you were different, you were special, now everybody’s crazy.” Maybe he’s right. What it means to be different was questioned in Katherine Dunn’s 1989 landmark novel Geek Love, based on an albino dwarf’s experience of carnie life in her families traveling freak show. An influence that took root in the visual arts as well. Where more and more artist’s explore the validity of what it means to be judged grotesque.
The 400 graves that constitute Showman’s Rest are near First and Evergreen, next to a flagpole, north of the crematorium and reclaimed potter’s field. A “field” where mostly Chinese men were once buried. Evergreen was already a segregated cemetery, but due to anti Chinese immigrant legislation, the law denied these men their name, even in death – and they charged 10 bucks for the favor. The crematorium is the only part of the cemetery owned by LA county. It’s purchase, for the sole purpose of cremating it’s indigent dead. The MTA’s recent expansion of First street, to accommodate the Goldline, uncovered the remains of 174 men. DNA analysis revealed the majority to be Chinese. A shrine to those forgotten souls was recently dedicated – and their remains, ironically, reentered at Evergreen.
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