Ace Frehley's Grave

What would a Fourth of July celebration be without fireworks? And what better fireworks display to witness than Ace Frehley’s 2007 Dunkin Donuts television commercial? Easily one of the best television commercials EVER, assuming you’re a KISS fan. Here’s a link to the commercial on YouTube, to refresh your memory.

Still from Ace Frehley Dunkin Donuts commercial (2007)

If you’ve ever attended a KISS concert, you know that pyrotechnics were a big part of the band’s stage show. Firepots, explosions, flashing lights were de rigueur, and Ace Frehley, the lead guitarist, had his guitar rigged up to shoot sparks! It’s difficult not to feel all that excitement standing in front of Ace’s final resting place. This past June, I visited his crypt at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NYC. 

Ace, or rather Paul Frehley, died in 2025. He was 74 years old. Hard to picture him at 74. The first time I saw him perform with KISS was in 1974, when he was just 23. That’s kind of how I pictured him for many years, face made up in his painted-on mask, spaceman costume, sunburst 3-pickup Les Paul, and more swagger than you could possibly imagine. The epitome of a lead guitarist in a dynamic rock band. Of course, none of the band members ever appeared to age, as they performed with the same painted faces for many years. Time is a challenging dimension.

Fans leave offerings, as you can see in my photos. No graffiti, all very tasteful. I brought an old guitar pick of mine, which I left on the artificial blue rose someone had left standing against his crypt cover. The pick was one I’d had since the 1970s, so it had the relevance of bringing me back to an era when I first saw KISS in 1974.

Here’s a short Instagram video of me placing the pick. I was rather shocked at how many “likes” I got when I posted this the day after I shot it. My IG feed (@mourningarts) is all cemetery-related images and videos. I typically get about 54 likes on each of my daily posts, mainly from cemetery nerds like me. The day I posted this video, I got 3,316 likes! A few days later, this was up to 8,855. Obviously, Ace touched a number of lives in his career with KISS and then as a solo artist after that. I have nothing but respect for the man.

Many people (literally hundreds) commented on the video in the first days it was posted, and most comments were positive and appreciative. A few people took issue with the fact that I left a Fender pick, thinking it was an insult to Ace, who mainly played Gibson electric guitars. The KISS Army is not to be trifled with. I’ve been playing guitar since around 1970, and I’ve never seen a Gibson guitar pick. I see them now on the Internet, but I’ve never seen one in real life or in a guitar store for sale. So, to be clear, this was not meant as an insult. My pick just had sentimental value to me. 

When I saw KISS the first time in September 1974 in a theater in Wilkes-Barre, PA, they were an opening act for Blue Oyster Cult. I was a huge fan of both bands, mainly as a result of buying their records (KISS had just released their first album) and reading about them in Creem magazine. KISS appeared on Don Kirchner’s Rock Concert and ABC’s In Concert, the late night concert television shows that pre-dated MTV, so people did have some idea of how wild their stage show was. As an aside, there was actually a lesser-known act that opened that show before KISS came on – they were a three-piece Canadian noise band called Rush. They had just released their first album as well, but the audience didn’t care. Rush was pretty bad – Led Zeppelin wannabes. Who knew that Rush would evolve into one of the world's most popular and successful prog bands? 

I had to sneak off to that show. I was 15 at the time and my parents did not want me to go, since I couldn’t even tell them when the show would end (concerts did not have 11 p.m. legal curfews then as they do now, so shows ran to all hours). I don’t recall the details, exactly, but I seem to remember “going to bed early,” climbing out the window of my second-floor bedroom, shimmying down the rain gutter, and walking the four miles to the Paramount Theater in Wilkes-Barre! I had to go - after all, I had already purchased the $6.00 concert ticket! I reversed the procedure after the show, getting home who knows when, with my parents never knowing that I was gone. Not quite as exciting as the movie, Detroit Rock City, but it was a coming-of-age adventure for me nonetheless!

That year KISS’s popularity grew so fast that they returned as headliners to the same theatre in Wilkes-Barre only two months later (December, 1974). I went to this show as well, this time with my brother Tim (who provided some of these show date facts). As I said, concerts did not have a hard stop at 11 p.m. back then, and I seem to remember this one running past 1:00 a.m.! 

Garden Conservatory Mausoleum

Finding Ace’s final resting place was nearly as challenging as getting to that first KISS concert. Once I found out he was a resident, I needed to visit. After a few attempts on the Internet to locate him, I saw that he was in a community mausoleum. Woodlawn has four of these, so I needed to do more searching. To add to the confusion, his parents are interred in a different community mausoleum in Woodlawn, and I believe there was some speculation that Ace’s body was placed in an unmarked crypt below those of his parents. However, Ace resides in the Garden Conservatory Mausoleum. He’s a bit difficult to find, this being a large building. Based on some photos I found on the Internet posted by previous visitors, I was able to find him after about twenty minutes of searching. Through the front doors, past the other spaceman (the white marble angel in the center of the building), and toward a rear corridor of the building. For video guidance to Ace’s crypt, you can watch this video, which I found after I visited, unfortunately. Would have saved me some time.

So why all the fuss? Why do fans want to visit? Why are they so intrigued by the video I posted? Most likely, these are people - from all over the world - whose lives were touched in some way by Ace. And visiting his grave, albeit vicariously, is a way to thank him and pay their respects. There are a lot of famous people at Woodlawn who I did not visit. I’m not a celebrity stalker. But I did visit the graves of a few well-known people whose work touched my life in some way. One of whom was Dorothy Parker, who lived in New York in the 1920s and was a theater critic. Her finely crafted prose was clever and often biting. I think of her line almost every morning when I walk into work and ask myself, “What fresh hell is this?” So of course, I visited her grave. 

If you visit Ace, or any grave at Woodlawn, do be respectful. There may be mourners there visiting their loved ones, and people grieve in their own way. When I was in the Garden Conservatory Mausoleum, an old guy was slow dancing in front of a crypt while holding his cell phone, which was playing Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” Music is often such a big part of our lives, and our memories. My brother Tim found this YouTube video of a fellow who visited Ace's final resting spot recently. He mentions some of his own reminiscences in the video and also leads you through the confusing hallways of the mausoleum right to Ace, which would be helpful should you want to stop in and pay your respects to this talented artist.

Rock ‘n’ Roll all Nite, Ace.

PPAC 2016 MEMBERS EXHIBITION

JULY 1 – 29, 2016 @ SAVERY GALLERY

ARTIST RECEPTION / July 7, 2016 / 6-8pm

319 N. 11th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19107

Above you see my entry in the annual “Members Exhibition” of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC). It is a first for me (no, I’ve been photographing cemeteries since the late 1990s, smart aleck) – my first publicly hung smartphone image. Seems a bit like cheating, that I didn’t make this image with some super-expensive, high-quality camera. I made it with an iPhone6, which I’ve only owned for six months. Perhaps it is time to stop telling people that I make all my serious photographs with film cameras!

I felt a bit guilty as I delivered the 12-inch square print (made on watercolor paper), archivally matted and framed in a 20-inch silver metal frame, to the exhibition’s curator. As I saw a dozen other people’s work waiting to be hung, I chatted with her about the fact that mine was made with a camera phone. She said she was fascinated by it on the submission site and was looking forward to seeing it in person. We chatted about the improvements in digital imaging technology, but I had to admit to her the main reason I made this image with my camera phone – I wasn’t about to climb over a wall into a graveyard at sunrise toting my Mamiya 645!

So yes, I did exactly that. Climbed a wall and a fence in the wee hours of the morning, into the closed Woodlawn Cemetery in Tampa, Florida. This was at the beginning of June, 2016. I was in town for a conference and was heading back to the airport that morning. Got up extra early and took Uber to the cemetery. I had never been here, and explored the grounds for over an hour – the hour just after sunrise. Imagine my surprise when I found this Victorian lady perched on her marble chair above her own crypt! The rising sun at her back haloed the outline of her statue in a breathtaking manner. The scene screamed, "Monochrome!"

At eight a.m., I called Uber to get a ride to the airport. About ten minutes later a woman of Spanish descent arrived in a late-model black Mercedes. She tentatively rolled down the passenger window as I said hello. As I opened the door, she laughed nervously and said, “I never picked up at a cemetery before. When I got the call, I thought, ‘Even THEY use Uber!'”

So come see my photograph in person, as well as dozens of others by talented photographers who are PPAC members. There is an opening reception, free and open to the public. I’ve reproduced below their announcement of the show from the PPAC website. I particularly like the last line: “As always, this survey of regional photographers will welcome a diverse array of photographic themes and subject matter.” I’m sure every photograph in the exhibit has a story behind it like mine. Come meet the artists and ask them!

JULY 1 – 29, 2016 @ SAVERY GALLERY

ARTIST RECEPTION / July 7, 2016 / 6-8pm

319 N. 11th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19107

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center website

Balancing a huge pool of talent with close-knit camaraderie, Greater Philadelphia is a welcoming home for any artist. As members of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center will tell you, it’s an even better place to be a photographer. To celebrate the talent within our community, PPAC will host our annual Members Exhibition from July 1 to 29, 2016 at SAVERY Gallery. The Member Show opening reception will be held on Thursday, July 7th from 6-8pm. As always, this survey of regional photographers will welcome a diverse array of photographic themes and subject matter.

Vote for Woodlawn Cemetery!

Over the years I’ve visited Woodlawn Cemetery in New York’s Bronx borough a few times, and it is a magnificent place. If you’re a cemetery photographer, it is a must-see. It’s one of the first cemeteries I found myself accidentally locked in, and oddly, the first cemetery I later intentionally allowed myself to be locked in, just so I could photograph the magnificent statuary! (Read more about that at the link below.)

For me the cemetery brought about other firsts – the first grandly opulent cemetery I’d ever seen where the statuary, landscaping, and mausoleums were laid out (pun intended) to breathtaking effect. It was all so precise yet natural − the first classical ‘garden’ cemetery I’d seen that was in such perfect condition. Woodlawn was also the site of my first paranormal cemetery experience (and you can read about that here), brought on by my desire to photograph this angel statue. 

The gargoyle detail you see above is from the cemetery's Belmont mausoleum (near the Jerome Avenue gate) - arguably one of the most fascinating mausoleums on the planet. It is a full-scale replica of the Chapel of St. Hubert in France, designed by Leonardo Da Vinci in the “Gothic Flamboyant” style in the early 1500s. The structure is the size of a small church and was the reason for my accidental lock-in all those years ago.

I’m telling you all this for two reasons: 1) you should visit; and 2) Woodlawn is competing with forty other New York City sites for a grant award to help with funding and restoration projects – and they can use your vote!

The cemetery is participating in the Partners In Preservation program, an initiative to give away three million dollars in New York City. Sponsored by  American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Partners in Preservation is a community-based program which provides preservation grants for local historic places. If you’ve ever been to Woodlawn and experienced its splendor, you’ll want to vote for them! So please take a moment to do so now: Vote!

Woodlawn Cemetery website
Read: Locked in and Climbing Out
Read: Voices in the Cemetery

Locked In and Climbing Out

When it comes to blood-chilling fear, being locked in a cemetery isn’t quite on par with public speaking, but its close. Still, I’d guess most people would opt not to be locked in a cemetery, given the choice. In my cemetery roamings, I’ve been locked in a few times. And believe me, it’s not something you get used to.

The main reason I now pay close attention to closing times is because of an adventure my brother and I had at Woodlawn Cemetery in the North Bronx, NYC. This was maybe in the summer of 2002, as far as I can recall, and my first time being locked in. I had convinced him to take the train with me from Philadelphia to the Bronx to go shooting in this grand old Victorian cemetery called Woodlawn. It’s all the way at the north end of a subway/elevated line at the Woodlawn stop, a pretty rough neighborhood. Worth the effort, though, as it is certainly one of the most elaborate and picturesque cemeteries in the country. Back then, it was my own precious discovery.

This being my first time at Woodlawn, I mistook the cemetery’s rear gate on Jerome Avenue for the main gate, (which is actually on Webster Avenue and East 233rd Street, clear on the opposite side of this huge 400-acre cemetery). The Jerome Avenue gate and wrought iron fencing were about 10 feet high. My brother made special note of that, and commented on the 4:30 closing time (he's such a worrywart).

We spent hours being awestruck by the amazing statues and mausoleums, especially the angels. One of the most fabulous memorials I have ever seen is the defeated Woodlawn angel shown in the image just below. (Years later a woman saw it in one of my shows and said, "It's so sad even the angels are crying.") I shot most of a roll of film of this singular statue, from various angles, bracketing exposures, and having my brother hold tree branches out of my way. I needed to get this down; the North Bronx is too far from home for a return trip.

As it turns out, the image you see here was actually taken on a second trip some months later, as my film developer messed up that entire roll of film−it came out severely overexposed (couldn’t have been MY fault, right?). All the other film I shot that day was fine, it was just this one roll, for some reason! (You can read more about my creepily eventful return trip in a previous Cemetery Traveler blog posting, “Voices in the Cemetery.”)

Detail of Belmont Mausoleum

So my brother and I spent about four hours at Woodlawn photographing the magnificent statuary and toward the end of the day, we began to make our way back toward the gate. Not far from the exit, I had my head turned by the magnificent Belmont mausoleum. The Belmont mausoleum (shown on the cover of the book, Woodlawn Remembers) is a full-scale replica of the Chapel of St. Hubert in France’s famed Loire valley (where the best wine comes from, I might add). It was designed by Leonardo Da Vinci in the “Gothic Flamboyant” style in the early 1500s. Da Vinci’s remains were placed in a sarcophagus in this original chapel. So this ain’t no ordinary mausoleum. Who could afford something like this? Or go to such a design extreme (see link below for more photos)? Its residents, Oliver and Alva Belmont, certainly had the money. Oliver Belmont was a millionaire (the oldest horserace in the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, is named for August Belmont, his father), and his wife Alva had enormous personal wealth as well, having previously married into the Vanderbilt family.

After we exhausted our film on the gargoyles and flying buttresses (I don’t really know what those are but I always wanted to say it), we realized it was 4:45! Aahhhh! To the gate!...... What?! CLOSED!!!

After some howls and imprecations on my brother’s part (directed mainly toward me), I took the predicament into consideration and figured it was possible to climb up the gate and down the other side. With my camera bag on my shoulder, I scaled up the inside of the gate, thankful for the built-in footholds of ornamental wrought iron, over the top and down the front. Getting Tim over the gate was quite another story−my poor brother had such a horrendous time! He cursed me coast to coast during both his ascent and descent. At one point, he was sitting on top of the closed gate with me outside trying to convince him that a safe dismount was indeed possible. I was conscious of cars on the highway slowing down to look at us, with the drivers probably thinking, “Why are they trying to get out? In this neighborhood, it’s certainly safer inside that cemetery!” But we got him out, with me jamming his feet into footholds he couldn’t see. Took about a half hour in the hot setting summer sun. To cool him down (in more ways than one) I bought him a few beers at the biker bar under the el stop across the street. Then we took the long series of train rides home.

Had we known there was a front entrance, we certainly would have tried to get to it to see if there were any live people about (I found out later that the main entrance was literally one mile away through the center of the cemetery, its that big!). As an aside, I came to find out even later that the gate we climbed over used to be quite famous. The Jerome Avenue gate of Woodlawn Cemetery was the site of a clandestine meeting related to the “Crime of the Century,” the supposed kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932. One evening, a police officer reported seeing a man sitting on top of the closed gate talking with someone on the sidewalk outside the gate. These men were believed to be Charles Lindbergh’s agent (Dr. John Condon) and the kidnapper/extortionist. For more on this, please see the link below.

Epilogue - The Return Trip

Since none of my images of the Weeping Angel came out, I was determined to have another go at it. I was on a mission--as the banner over Alva Belmont's crypt says,  'Failure is Impossible'. So I planned a solo trip a few months later. I knew when the sun would be illuminating that part of the cemetery and figured I needed to be in there after 4:30 pm (obviously after the gates were closed). I would wander around Woodlawn for a couple hours, allow myself to be locked in, spend as much time as I needed to make the photographs, then climb out. So my second experience being locked in a cemetery was elective. During the planning stage, a woman I know suggested we go together, take mushrooms, and spend the night in the cemetery. While the idea of crawling around licking tombstones didn’t appeal to me much, can you imagine having a bad trip in a cemetery?! I think I’d rather eat bees. So I went solo. Click the link here for my account of that eventful experience, “Voices in the Cemetery.”)

Further Reading:

PHOTOGRAPHING AT WOODLAWN CEMETERY

During my third visit to Woodlawn a year or so later, my friend Krista and I actually found the front entrance with the offices and gatehouse, on Webster Avenue and East 233rd Street. We signed in as official visitors (so unlike me), and were told that if we wanted to take photographs, we had to apply for a permit, and pay some nominal fee (it might have been $5 or $10), which we did. Curiously, they also told us we were not allowed to photograph any of the bronze sculptures! These rules may have changed in the past ten years, but the “Photography Permit Application” (which you’re supposed to submit in advance of your visit) is still on Woodlawn’s website.

Woodlawn Photography Permit Application
Woodlawn Cemetery Website
Woodlawn Cemetery Image Gallery
Lindbergh Kidnapping

Woodlawn Cemetery

Voices in the Cemetery

Many of the images I've photographed remind me of the experience acquiring the image. Sometimes, however, I was so scared that I never got the image!

I like to think that I'm not superstitious. However, I am susceptible to suggestion. One time I travelled to Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx (NYC) to shoot with my brother. I found the amazing life-sized statue at left (angels are the same size as us, right?) and photographed it. We ended up getting locked in, much to my brother's chagrin, but that's another story! After arriving home and processing the film, I found that somehow the film was grossly overexposed--useless. So I planned another trip a few months later, by myself, just to make photographs of this statue (one of those you see here)!

Not only that, but I scheduled my trip with the intent of being locked in the cemetery! The reason? The lighting is better at dusk. Photographers typically shoot at the edges of the day, in order for the sun to produce as much shadow as possible. Helps to create the illusion of a 3D image.

So I go to Woodlawn on the appointed day, spend a couple hours shooting around the cemetery, find the statue (which I've since titled, "End of Miles"), then hide and wait until the gates are closed (and locked). Having done this before, I didn't see a problem with scaling the 10-foot wrought iron gate to get out. (Also having done this before, I was prepared for the strange looks from passing motorists. I mean, in the North Bronx, I'm sure they thinking, "He's nuts! It's much safer inside the cemetery than out!").

When the setting sun was in the correct position, I made the photographs of the statue you see here. All that remained was to make my way through the cemetery to the front gate, scale it, then have a nice cold one at the Woodlawn el stop across the street.

On my way I stopped to photograph a statue. As I was looking through the viewfinder of my camera to line up the shot, I distinctly saw a long furry ringed tail disappear behind a bush! I left my camera on the tripod and walked over to, and around, the bush. Nothing! No hole, no animal. I could think of only one thing--The Bronx Zoo! What made this even more disturbing, was the deafening quiet of the cemetery.

Victorian Garden Cemeteries like Woodlawn were landscaped by architects in the 1800s with the purpose of maintaining contemplative serenity through floral beauty and silence. While in such an idyllic paradise, you simply cannot see or hear anything--not trains, planes, or automobiles! The silence is very much with you when you know you're the only person locked in the cemetery...

Already rattled from the tail sighting, I packed up my gear and continued (but this time briskly) walking toward the locked entrance gate. As I walked along, I passed a monument that had a statue of a woman with two children at her knee. I read the inscription as I passed--it was something like, "Dedicated to a mother who loved her children." As I said the word 'children' in my mind, there was a loud audible baby's cry! My blood froze as I ran for the gate! That statue is not the one I've included here--this one is simply for illustrative purposes. I was too scared to stop and photograph that one.

I've since discovered that the ransom money dropoff related to the famous Lindbergh baby kidnapping in 1932 occurred at this very gate!

More info on Lindbergh kidnapping