Beginning in 1995, the HSLB has conducted a living history tour at the city’s two oldest cemeteries. Located on Willow Street between Orange and California and adjacent to one another, Long Beach Municipal Cemetery and Sunnyside Cemetery are “home” to more than 20,000 past residents of the city.

The annual event takes place on the Saturday before Halloween and features graveside presentations by professional and volunteer actors who tell about the life and death of the person who lies there in rest. Each year’s tour features 10 stories – some are individuals who helped shape the city’s political past, others are ordinary people whose stories remind us that rich or poor, well-known or barely remembered, everyone has a story to tell. The actors present the stories wearing period costumes, bringing an aura of authenticity to the presentations. Many guests get so involved in the presentation that they forget that it’s an actor telling the story and ask “what was it like to live here in 1920?”

The tour is appropriate for anyone of any age. There is nothing scary about the presentations or the location. The ground is uneven, so we recommend comfortable shoes. And typically the morning is chilly but by afternoon, it’s quite warm, so you might want to dress in layers. There is some parking inside the cemetery and easy parking in the surrounding neighborhood.

In 2010, the tour will take place on October 30^th and it will be our 15^th annual event. We are currently identifying the graves and stories that will be told. Sources for the stories include obituaries, newspaper articles and, when we are lucky, family members of the deceased. If you have relatives or friends buried in either cemetery, we would be honored to hear from you and to share the life story of your loved one.

Tickets to the tour go on sale at 9 a.m. just inside the entrance to Sunnyside Cemetery. Tickets are on sale from 9 a.m. until noon. The tour takes approximately two hours to complete, the last presentation is given at 2:00 p.m. We offer both guided and self-guided tours.

Our actors wear period costumes, add to the authenticity and sense of history. We thank the Long Beach Playhouse and the Long Beach Shakespeare Company for their help in bringing history to life at our annual Historical Cemetery Tour



Mayor Bob Foster has been a volunteer actor for the past several years. Among the stories he has told a favorite is Kid Mexico, who was also known as the Bingo Baron of Signal Hill.