Cemetery

* Because my parents are buried there, I was relieved to read that Hollywood Memorial Park may be rescued and restored (Dec. 11). Even today it’s a place worth visiting, an undiscovered tourist stop. You’ll find the grave of Mel Blanc, man of a thousand voices. His tombstone bears the signature line he stuttered for Porky Pig at the end of countless cartoons, “That’s all, folks.� In Hollywood, humor survives.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the cemetery is the Russian section. The tombstones are monoliths with the face of the deceased etched in the stone. Although traditionalists might find it lacking in taste, the visage of a deceased human being does more than mere inscriptions to remind us of a life that was. Looking at the face of a young man who died of a drug overdose, you can imagine what he might have become. The worn countenance of an elderly Russian mother tells us of her struggles in the old country and her immigration to the promised land. Everyone is a star at Hollywood Memorial Park.

ALLEN D. ALLEN

Studio City

Caption: TAYLOR JONES, Augusta, Ga.