Tale from the Crypt

ONE OF HOLLYWOOD's most reliable and unique character actors was Mischa Auer, whom I wrote about here. You’ll note the kicker at the close of the piece: “When Auer died ... his body was cremated and the ashes interred in the Souls family plot in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Gloversville, NY, about a dozen miles from my house.”

Photo by B. A. Nilsson

There’s little reason for me to travel to Gloversville, which is a broken-down remnant of a once-thriving industry that gave the city its name. The most famous native son wasn’t even born there: Shmuel Gelbfitz was a native of Poland, who took the name Sam Goldfish when he worked in Gloversville’s garment business at the dawn of the 20th century – soon to end up in Hollywood with still another surname: Goldwyn.

Now the city sports a sad downtown perforated with so many empty shops that it has the look of a desperate, toothless grin. The Glove Theater struggles to give the city a worthy entertainment center, and it, too resonates with a Hollywood-related past: Junius Myer Schine took over a nickelodeon in the city in 1916, parlaying his success with it into a chain of theaters of which the Glove was the centerpiece.

A friend tipped me off to a food co-op that recently opened a few doors down from the Glove, and that’s what took me to the city yesterday, to enjoy a good lunch and buy some fresh berries. And then drive to a nearby cemetery to search for a stone. 

Photo by B. A. Nilsson

I found it thanks to Findagrave.com, clearly one of the internet’s more useful sites, which lists the actor here. I followed the longitude and latitude coordinates to a Google Maps link and printed the resultant image; I also plugged those coordinates into my GPS.

The GPS got me to within a couple of hundred feet of the marker, but its “Pedestrian” setting failed to indicate a clear path to my destination. I used the map printout to aim myself further, and when I spotted the big SOULS-DYER-LEE monument, I was still, according to the GPS, some 70 feet from the coordinates.

Actually, the Mischa Auer marker was at my feet. He’s to the left of Elise; her previous husband, Herbert Lee, is to her right. I can't help but imagine the irony the spirit of the Russian-born Auer must feel to be surrounded by all these dead souls. It would have been almost impossible to find without internet help, so stop by some time and we’ll grab a sandwich at the co-op and I’ll show it to you.