Fan Comment about Edna Purviance

From the Edna Purviance Hollywood Walk of Fame Petition:

"I have always been a fan of Edna, and she should have this great moment of glory, over 40 years after her death. I just wish there was any film of the woman in real life, to see footage of her talking, for instance would be incredible. I have just found out more about Edna thru this website, like her being a great musician. I can not wait for the books and films to come out about her, so that the world can remember and again fall in love with this wonderful young lady. May she finally be honored." - Michael J. McGettigan

To Michael and all of Edna's fans,
Stay tuned... If you keep wishing, maybe someday it might just come true... - L
NOTE: Edna Purviance (born October 21, 1895 in Paradise Valley, Nevada) died January 13, 1958 at the Motion Picture Country Hospital at Woodland Hills, California. She was being treated for cancer during the 1950s, before dying from throat cancer. Her grand niece helped take care of her in the early 1950s. Edna's funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, but she was interred at Grand View Cemetery in Glendale, California. more>

Grand View Cemetery Costs adding up

November 27, 2006 - The Glendale Press reports the cost of operating Grand View Cemetery for its limited 4 hours on Sunday has cost $31,000 since the last week in August. The list is long of all services that have to be paid to keep it open (street-sweeping, tree trimming, staff, portable restrooms, etc.) One would think insurance would be in that list as well.

The City plans to take their findings and reconsider their options in keeping the cemetery open for even fewer hours or even few days a month, or just shut it down altogether. Meanwhile all the lawsuits are still in play, even after the owner's death. The future of Grand View Cemetery is very unclear at this stage.

More about Edna Purviance and Grand View
Here is a link to City of Glendale with information and PDF files about Grand View.

March 30, 2007 - UPDATE

Edna's Sixth Year

News Update! The Sea Gull was released January 13th, 2008. It is now available. See more at ednapurviance.com.

November 25, 2006 - Edna starts her sixth year on the web! Edna had a record year again, with October the best ever. We are pleased with the visitors and interest Edna is getting worldwide.

We never expected it when we started in November 2001, when Garen Ewing of than The Chaplin Society and Chaplin UK, was the very first to link us in the worldwide web! It has been a great adventure that we thank Mr. Ewing and all the fans who have helped and visited Edna ever since!

Edna is not a modern day star, so huge numbers are not what we expect, but we have been helping the Facebook group this year in helping them gather signatures to help Edna get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This year brought more additions too with our project 'The Angel from Nevada' video (with Lita Hill) premiering in Hollywood and a new story about how Charlie Chaplin could have found Edna Purviance called Chance and Speculation.

We had a successful give away this last spring of the Charlie Chaplin Essential Film Music Collection with Carl Davis, so watch for another project along that line in the future.

Update: January 2008. The Sea Gull was released in January 2008. See ednapurviance.com or our latest Edna's Place entries for details.

We have a few new projects including the second section of Chance and Speculation coming in 2007 (see section one), more Chaplin Library additions from Dominique Dugros throughout 2007, and a surprise or two in store...

Much more on all of this as Edna enters her sixth year on the web! We like to thank all of Edna's visitors these past five years!


OH, I did say I planned a little something for today. Well, it is a little something, but this is no little train... But a special locomotive that ran for few years, just before trains were pass by for freeways.


Even in the early 1940s with cars and airline flights, Edna would travel at times by train to San Francisco from Los Angeles. One of the trains that traveled that route was called the 4449. This Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive traveled along the Coast Daylight Route between LA and San Francisco.

This year, I got to see the 4449 as it traveled on a special tour route in the Pacific Northwest. I only had a video camera and no tripod at the time, for it was a chance meeting of a great train from not so long ago.

I will place a special post for the 4449, but here is a peek at the video I took as it passed by one day. (The cars and 4449 Locomotive you see are all original and fully restored.)

March 2007 update: The caretakers of the 4449 are currently hoping to find a permanent home for the SP4449 engine. The current home, The Brooklyn Roundhouse, has an uncertain future, so a new home is being searched for in the Portland, Oregon area at this time.

Stuff and trimmings...

On Saturday, Edna starts her sixth year on the web, so I have a little something planned, as some of you are still getting over your Thanksgiving Dinners and first big day of holiday shopping.

This week I worked on a little update on the Drawing Page link that some of you have been visiting. I started a new page, with a link to the older page. I will be updating that page more in the future, but The Sea Gull is taking up the bulk of the free time.

Much work has been done and the schedule of early next year is looking good at this point. Watch for a date here or at Edna's site.













And finally, for you Chaplin fans always looking for something, a website call The Little Tramp has arrived recently. This one is said to be a Blog site, (much like The Little Fellow website). I like to thank them for the nice link too. So do take a visit!

So unless something hot comes up, all from here until November 25th!

(UPDATE: The Little Tramp site link doesn't not work, so I removed the link at this time. )

New Brief Glimpse

What to get that Charlie Chaplin fan...

First off, we like to thank you for the nice comments coming in for the Cinecon Report.

Next, The Sea Gull book is coming along. Christmas holiday season will delay things, but on schedule for early next year. Check back in for the date.

And to answer those holiday questions we get on what to get a Chaplin fan, there are many options. We have several guides on Edna's Site to help you out. These include MUSIC, DVD and BOOK Guides

And if in the UK, check out the Chaplin UK DVD GUIDE for films available in the UK.




In the meantime, with our heads pretty buried in working on Edna's first book, a little drawing I did recently of Charlie. Not perfect, but working on getting better at drawing him.

For our US visitors, we hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

UPDATE NOVEMBER 18th - Edna starts her sixth year on the web November 25th. A little launch of something new planned...

Cinecon 42 - Hollywood Report, Edna Purviance documentary

Cinecon 42
Our report of the September 2006 Hollywood Trip and presentation of 'The Angel from Nevada', the first showing of the Edna Purviance documentary featuring Edna's grandniece, Lita Hill.

With several EXTRA links including images from the video event.
Link to Article

Addition: Comment sent to us that was written by another fan who saw "Angel from Nevada" at Cinecon 2006. I'm sorry I don't know the author. (see comments for more)

"THE EDNA PURVIANCE DOCUMENTARY: This looks like a work still in progress, but remarkable interviews with Edna's great niece, herself quite the interesting lady. A nontraditional view of Edna, who did NOT pine away and die after her affair with Chaplin ended, but went out and lived a good full life and married the man of her dreams. I hope this one gets some walking money."

Just a little note: If you see our Hollywood Cinecon Report used on other websites, ednapurviance.org has not granted permission to anyone to do so. But we do appreciate your interest.

Grand View Cemetery Owner Howard found Dead

Note: I have placed updated links on bottom.

November 6, 2006 - Marsha Howard, who was one of the owners of the Grand View Memorial Cemetery and in the news this past year, was found dead on the Grand View Cemetery grounds this weekend. (There is a home on the grounds.) LA Coroner's says she apparently died of natural causes but no final conclusion at press time.

The Cemetery license was suspended last November by the state of California. It was found to have decades of miss management. Lawsuits have followed, that included closing of the Cemetery this year. It was reopened for limited visits only this last September.

Howard recently was trying to get her lawyers to place a gag order to keep the news of the trial out of the media. The judge had until December to make the decision. Also, the court ordered Howard to move all cemetery records to a document depository by November 15th.

Her death does leave the case with even more questions for the future of Grand View, since the suits were mainly against Howard.

She was 58 years old and in poor health, family report...

Update January 17th: Howard's death was caused by her diabetes
Learn more at Lisa Burk's GV Blog
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Update January 27, 2007: Grand View Viewing Hours 2007
From the Glendale News: " The city has released a revised visiting schedule for Grand View Memorial Park which cuts operating hours at the cemetery from each Sunday a month to two Sundays a month. The cemetery will be open from noon to 4 p.m. on Feb. 4 and 18, March 4 and 18, April 1 and 15, May 6 and 20 and June 3 and 17. The City Council will be re-evaluating the visitation schedule in March."

Grand View Tops the 2006 News Stories in Glendale:
"In life and death, Howard was one of Glendale's most closely watched figures in 2006, and the legacy of her actions at Grand View Memorial Park may live on for years to come." - Glendale News, Robert Hong
Update March 30, 2007 - Records to be reviewed by Attorneys

Update April 4, 2007 - Gravesite appears to have been sold twice.

Update October 5, 2007 - State Orders Owner to Sell

Update December 19, 2007 - Work Could Resume?

Update January 16, 2008 - Grand View Money Problems

Update February 1, 2008 - Remembering Grand View

Update February 3, 2008 - More Work Needed at Grand View

Update March 11, 2008 - ONE DAY OPENING PLANNED AT GRAND VIEW

Update March 30, 2008 - LA CBS news had a report from GV today on the one day opening

Update April 11, 2008 - Another opening planned for Late May(?)

Update May 20 - Grand View open for four hours May 25, 2008

Update June 10, 2008 - Grand View is sleeking for one day opening on June 29.

Update June 25, 2008 - Grand View will be open June 29, July 13 and July 27, 2008 from 12 noon to 4PM each Sunday. Click on link for more details.

Update: Story about June 29th opening. (Also July 13th and 27th, 2008 opening planned.)

Update Sept. 19, 2008 - "Judge Anthony Mohr approved the opening of the cemetery on Oct. 12 and 26, Nov. 9, 23 and 27, Dec. 21 and 25, and Jan. 1 and 6, according to a court report. The cemetery will be open from noon to 4 p.m. on those dates." - Glendale News more>

Update Oct. 23, 2009 - Lawsuit agreement and settlement near!

Update Nov. 18, 2009 - Settlement! more>

Grand View Cemetery is where Edna Purviance is interred.
(special thanks to Amy for the update on this situation... - L)

Thanks to the readers...

We like to thank all the readers who visited in October. It made for another record month for Edna's site (under all stat listings). One of the questions I still get asked is "why research Edna", and all I can say is "why not?" At least the readership to Edna's site over the years has shown me there is interest in her and the strong fan response for the book and video has been very encouraging.

I plan to launch the new Cinecon/Hollywood Report very soon. Just placing the finishing touches on it now, including newly arrived photos of Lita at the event!

As for 'The Sea Gull' book, work continues on it. We believe the very high readership of late for the site is in part due to interest in the coming book. We planned to have it out late this year, but I think my thoughts that it might be closer to early next year might come true. Part of that being printing and proofing delays. (Something called shipping, since we are closing in on the holiday season, could delay a few things.) We hope you'll agree that it's more important to get it the best we can than to rush it out for the holiday season.

We are producing this book ourselves, since we had no strong interest from other sources. Being our first book, I can understand. Except for Edna's site and connections with the site, and a brief but wonderful moment showing the video in Hollywood this year, I am unknown (and for that matter, so is Edna, beyond her circle of fans).

We are self-publishing the book, and we do not have deep pockets nor can we spend thousands of dollars to a publisher for this book. I make a modest income at best, and the Hills have been very generous in their help. We are doing this together as a project of our company Leading Ladies, and I have no intention of placing anyone into debt! Also, there is a second book in the works, travel and more research to accomplish, and all that will demand funds.

We will be printing the book through a print-on-demand printing company. I have read the pros and cons on such a choice, and are taking all possible precautions to ensure a quality result. The book may not be as slick as we would love to have in printing, but we are being careful in the proof printing process to get the best results possible. But that doesn't mean the layout or design will be short-changed. In fact, I feel very high about my husband's talent in
producing a very high-end looking product in design. My husband is donating his time to design and layout the book (he designed the cover you have seen here and on Edna's site) and will be the main editor, with the help of talented individuals in the Hill family. It is a
'family affair' in getting the first book on Edna out!

The Sea Gull is a book filled with never before seen images of beautiful 8x10 production stills showing Edna Purviance, Gayne Whitman, Eve Southern and Raymond Bloomer, from a film long lost. It will also showcase Josef von Sternberg's work, as well. With the only known negatives of the film destroyed, this will be the best look into this film to date. I will have a bio section on Edna in the book, information on the other players, about the location shoot and much more. The book will be an experience beyond the photos.

Again, thanks for helping Edna with a record October (best month ever!). I will release the date of the book as soon as we know. It will be posted here, on Edna's home page and on the Introduction page of the Chaplin Library. See the links to the right.

We have a strong desire to do this and believe it is a significant addition to silent film history.