Frank E Campbell NYC, Funeral Home to the Stars

Anybody who is anybody in NYC and has lost a loved one knows the name Frank Campbell. Maybe they haven't even lost a loved one but just attended one of the many hundreds of funerals they service a year. Regardless the name Frank E Campbell Funeral Home is synonymous with Upper Class, Celebrity, Manhattan Elite and more importantly privacy and an almost Genie like funeral. They grant the final wishes of the elite akin to the late great Robin Williams of Aladdin in the Disney movie.

Frank and his funeral home first attracted international recognition in 1926, when a famously beloved on screen silent movie romeo Rudolph Valentino died of a ruptured ulcer at the tender age of 31. The crowds at the funeral were huge...and dramatic. There was a rumor that Frank had replaced Valentino's body with a wax figure because the crowd of fans became so maniacal. A little known fact was that Frank had paid some of the mourners to faint and swoon at the funeral to garner more coverage in the media. A bit like the keeners we had in old Ireland, Frank used some seriously innovative PR moves to engage the media and it worked. Apparently he also took out a $1 million insurance policy on his 15-year-old son, Frank Junior, making him "the most heavily ­insured boy in the country". His use of publicity, engagement of the media, innovation in the industry and advertising his funeral home built his home and name to what it is today.

Frank began this innovative voyage long before Valentino's funeral however and has even been credited with starting the purchase of obituaries in newspapers and of adding chapels of all faiths to a funeral home, something which is only hitting Ireland in recent years. When Frank founded the Frank E. Campbell Burial and Cremation Company in 1898, he attempted to change the way people thought about funeral service. At that time in America, most funerals were conducted in private homes, but New York was becoming a city of apartment dwellers and people no longer had space. He actually started it in Downtown Manhattan but Frank was a socialite in all the right circles and soon recognized his niche in the market and moved to the current address in the Upper East Side. He also began to use motor vehicles instead of the typical horse drawn carriages to carry the deceased. His innovative legacy continues today even though the funeral home is currently not in his family anymore but a part of the industry giant SCI.

“We make sure our entranceway is taken care of properly without having the family being inundated,” George Amato, current president of Frank E Campbell says. “In the building, we have a private elevator and a private floor for the visitation that takes place. We have our security men on the front door checking the people arriving to make sure they are on the list, and they are escorted properly upstairs.” Mobile or cellphones are banned from the main chapel. Simple additions but all add to the security, privacy and comfort for families of the rich and famous.

The home has catered for a huge variety of 'sombodies' including Heads of State, United Nations Ambassadors, Dignitaries, Royalty, and Celebrity members of the arts and entertainment world. The staff are well equipped in a variety of languages and religions and there are 3 funeral counsellors or 'experts' on site who are educated in everything from coffin sizing, decor, religion specifics and repatriation legalities. In total there are 53 people on staff but they regularly hire in extra staff on a regular basis such as off duty NYC police officers as security.

In 1969, when the beautiful and beloved Judy Garland died, as many as 1,500 fans stood vigil outside Campbell’s during a vicious NYC heat wave. Judy Garland's visitation lasted over 24 hours, some people coming through to pay their respects 3 times - up to 20,000 fans went past her glass-enclosed ­coffin to view her in repose. Mourners included Lauren Bacall (who became a Campbell's client when she died aged 89 on Aug 11th last year) , then-Mayor John Lindsay, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Garland’s daughters, Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft. In another PR stunt, the press was not allowed access which of course just heightened the appeal and intrigue.

Such is the association with Frank E Campbell's and Celebrity that when John Lennon was assassinated in 1980 the media presumed that they would be handling the arrangements, and camped out there. Such was the media mayhem that a decoy hearse had to be sent for the media to follow, which they did and Mr Lennon was transported to be cremated in peace.

George Amato says one of the most complex funeral arrangements in recent years involved the accidental-overdose death of 28-year-old ­actor Heath Ledger in January 2008. "I was very closely involved with the people who were hand­ling him, because he was going to be sent to Los Angeles and then Australia," Amato says. "There was the Warner Brothers private jet that was being used for him and the family, so there was a lot of coordination to make sure that it all went exactly the way they wanted it, and we had to maintain the privacy and confidentiality that they wanted."

In terms of crazy requests George was not willing to divulge too much and with good reason. Confidentiality is their number one promise. However families can dictate whatever they want, and Campbell’s promises that no legal request is ever denied. When asked what requests he could tell me about, he told me of  a time where a family requested a highly exotic and rare flower. Money was no object and rarely is, so I'm told. The funeral home's response? "if it is growing somewhere on this earth we will find it and get it to you for the service." And they did. At another service, a request had been made for the deceased’s two Doberman pinschers to stand at the foot of their master’s casket. They did and they never moved or barked.

The home deals with 'celebrity' in different ways too depending on family wishes. For example the recent Joan Rivers funeral was extremely private and had a guestlist whereas the recent Governor Cuomo was large and open to the public and they had to close down 79th to 86th street for 18 limousines to transport family and dignitaries from the home to St Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue in Midtown (a HUGE deal and irritant to New Yorkers). Then when Vice President Biden wanted to pay his respects the entire cathedral had to be searched and locked down for the visitation which is a huge security task.

Campbell himself died on Jan. 19, 1934, at age 62 of heart disease.

The list of clients reads like a Who’s Who: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Robert F. Kennedy, Ed Koch, Judy Garland, Leona Helmsley, Ed Sullivan, James Cagney, Greta Garbo, George Gershwin, William Randolph Hearst, Malcolm Forbes, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, L’Wren Scott, Heath Ledger, gangster Frank Costello and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Last spotted at the Frank E Campbell Funeral home include:
Aaliyah
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.
Arleen Auger
Herman Badillo
Lauren Bacall
Irving Berlin
Peter Boyle
Lord Buckley
James Cagney
Oleg Cassini
Montgomery Clift
Frank Costello
Joan Crawford
Walter Cronkite
Celia Cruz
Mario Cuomo
Candy Darling
Thomas E. Dewey
Dominick Dunne
Jeanne Eagels
Malcolm Forbes
Billy Martin
Greta Garbo
Judy Garland
George Gershwin
Adam Goldstein
Lesley Gore
Rita Hayworth
Leona Helmsley
Jim Henson
Philip Seymour Hoffman‪
Richard Isay
Peter Jennings
Madeline Kahn
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Mordecai Lawner‪
Heath Ledger‪
John Lennon
Dick Lynch
Mary MacLeod Trump
Norman Mailer
Bat Masterson
Ethel Merman
Anna Moffo
The Notorious B.I.G.
Les Paul
Ayn Rand
Tony Randall
Joan Rivers
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Jean Stapleton
Igor Stravinsky
Ed Sullivan
Arturo Toscanini
Fred Trump
Rudolph Valentino
Luther Vandross
Mae West
Tennessee Williams
A$AP Yams

The Ideal Death Show

Ideal Death Show and Good Funeral Awards 2015

So this weekend took me to London. A little outside of london is a quaint little English village called Winchester and for one day it becomes the hub of death in the UK. The Ideal Death Show, in its second consecutive year, brought fun, facts and deathly frolics.

Their approach to death seems to be quite tongue in cheek but factual which is nice and the village seem to embrace it.

First on my agenda was a public shrouding of  a live body. I’ve got to say I did not expect to get as emotional as I did when watching it but it seemd like such a beautiful personal final act for someone you love. I have often thought that coffins seem too impersonal – cold, detached and lonely. The shroud looked warm, comfortable and protective. The personal act of wrapping your loved one just seemed like you were caring for them like you would a newborn baby.

The fact that it is friendly for the environment and compatible with both burial and cremation was appealing also.

My disappointment of the show was the size of the exhibition. I expected a lot bigger. It was tiny and everyone looked a bit squished on top of each other. This made it difficult to collect your thoughts from one stand to another. There was the usual exhibiits and some unusual ones like a Viking Wicker Ship maker.

Top 10 funeral songs?

As found on several websites online - Here are the top ten funeral songs:

1. “Goodbye My Lover” by James Blunt
2. “You Raise Me Up” by Westlife
3. “Time To Say Goodbye” by Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli
4. “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler
5. “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion
6. “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John
7. “With or Without You” by U2
8. “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton
9. “Angels” by Robbie Williams
10. ”Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers

What do you think?? Right wrong? I think I might have to compile a list but my this list could be LONG!!!

Kevin Costners eulogy to Whitney Houston

Look Up

So what are we at?!

So what do we do here at Farewell? Well while we started off in the funeral planning business- it didnt quite work out - Irish people were not really open to the idea of planning their own funeral but it brought me on a journey to where I am today which is still evolving every week!

Currently I write books, articles and reviews of funeral planning, products, the industry, new businesses etc. I also speak on the radio or in documentaries about the same. While I am writing book number 2 at the moment my new range of memorial keepsake jewellery is flying out!

It started waaay back when I was in the States and my granny passed away. I didn't make it home for the funeral but she had given me (as most Irish grandmothers did!) a miraculous medal to keep me 'wholesome and pure' and while that might not have worked I did wear it to feel close to her after she passed. Soon however I was getting the typically snide remarks of "the virgin Mary" and "ooo aren't you a holy Joe" and it became uncomfortable because I would have to tell them that either yes I was or that they were an a** because my granny had died (usually the latter).

Then two years later we had to put our dog of 16 years down because she was suffering with strokes. This devastated us. We got her cremated and have her ashes in a box on our mantelpiece, an act most families of cremated loved one's do. But with these two experiences, I got thinking about how I could keep a piece of a loved one with me, wherever I went in the world (I intended to travel alot).

Farewell Celtic Ashes and Rainbow Bridge Memorials were born, looking after the Humans and Pets respectively. It only takes a teaspoon of some ashes to create a beautiful piece of memorial jewellery that you can keep with/on you forever.

So that is what I am currently up to at Farewell HQ! ;-)

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela  18 July 1918 - 5 December 2013

Former president of South Africa (1994-9) and an anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician, he was the first black South African to hold office and is often described as "the father of the nation".

His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997. Internationally, Mandela was the Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.

After the National Party came to power in 1948 and implementing their policy of apartheid, he rose to prominence and working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly arrested. In 1962 he was arrested, convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the African government, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mandela served 27 years in 3 different prisons. An international campaign lobbied for his release and was finally granted in 1990 after which he soon became president and implement anti apartheid laws.

Internationally, he acted as mediator between Libya and the United Kingdom in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial.

After his presidential term he refocussed his efforts on more charitable work in combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

He received international acclaim for his anti-colonial and anti-apartheid stance, having received over 250 awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Soviet Order of Lenin.

Seamus Heaney Poem

“Human beings suffer,

They torture one another,

They get hurt and get hard.

No poem or play or song

Can fully right a wrong

Inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols

Beat on their bars together.

A hunger-striker's father

Stands in the graveyard dumb.

The police widow in veils

Faints at the funeral home.

History says, don't hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change

On the far side of revenge.

Believe that further shore

Is reachable from here.

Believe in miracle

And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:

The utter, self-revealing

Double-take of feeling.

If there's fire on the mountain

Or lightning and storm

And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing

The outcry and the birth-cry

Of new life at its term.” 

― Seamus Heaney

The Disney Files - Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) 

An American animator, film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist hardly needs an introduction. An icon of the 20th Century.

He co founded the Walt Disney Productions (now The Walt Disney Company) which became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world with his brother Roy Disney.

Reportedly, his famous trademark signature was designed for him by one of his animators.

He, with his staff, created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse (Disney provided the original voice).

So where did it all begin? Well he was Irish of course! ;-)
Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901 to Irish-Canadian father Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney. His great-grandfather, Arundel Elias Disney, had emigrated from Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland where he was born in 1801.

He began a series of businesses and eventually set up an animation studio with his brother Roy.

In 1932, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of the series "Mickey Mouse.

Snow White: When the film industry learned of Disney's plans to produce an animated feature-length version of Snow White, they nicknamed it "Disney's Folly" and were certain it would destroy the Disney Studio. Both Walt's wife Lillian and brother Roy tried to talk him out of the project. The film became the most successful motion picture of 1938 and earned over $8 million on its initial release, the equivalent of  over $130 million today.

He died in December 15, 1966 from lung cancer in Burbank, California. The last thing he reportedly wrote before his death was the name of actor Kurt Russell, the significance of which remains a mystery, even to Russell.

"As long as there is imagination left in the world, Disneyland will never be complete."

Awards:

• 4 honorary Academy Awards
• 7 Emmy Awards
• Disney holds the record for both the most Academy Award nominations (59) and the number of Oscars awarded (22) between 1932 - 1959. His last competitive Academy Award was posthumous: 1969: Best Short Subject, Cartoons: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

JFK and Ireland - 50 years

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

(May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)

He was famously referred to by his initials JFK, and he was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.

John F. Kennedy, during his inaugural address, famously said
"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." 

He asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself"
"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."


Kennedy's ancestral home was Ireland - lest anyone forget it. And so we celebrate his infamous visit to Ireland in June 1963 in present day 2013.

A torch lit from the eternal flame at Kennedy's grave in Arlington National Cemetery has made its way to Ireland for a special ceremony this weekend (June 22nd 2013). His daughter Caroline Kennedy and sister Jean Kennedy Smith will use the torch to light an 'emigrant flame' in Mr Kennedy's ancestral home town of New Ross, Wexford.

In a Government dinner hosted by the Tánaiste at Iveagh House, Caroline Kennedy said that "even 50 years ago Ireland led by example by sending members of the Defence Forces to a UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo." Ms Kennedy said that the world owed Ireland "a debt of gratitude" for continuing to send peacekeepers to some of the most dangerous areas of the world and that the Northern Ireland Peace Process had shown the world "the power of hope and the importance of dialogue."

There has and always will be a great affiliation between the Irish and John F Kennedy and not just that he was the first president to visit the island seeking his heritage but he developed a great fondness for the country. The honour guard at JFK's graveside was the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Army. JFK had been so greatly impressed by the Irish Cadets on his last official visit to Ireland that Jackie Kennedy requested the Irish Army to be the honour guard at the funeral.

The Dash

The Dash

by Linda Ellis copyright 1996

I read of a man who stood to speak

at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone,

from the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth

and spoke of the following date with tears,

but he said what mattered most of all

was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time

that she spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved her

know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,

the cars…the house…the cash.

What matters is how we live and love

and how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.

Are there things you’d like to change?

For you never know how much time is left

that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough

to consider what’s true and real

and always try to understand

the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger

and show appreciation more

and love the people in our lives

like we’ve never loved before. 

If we treat each other with respect

and more often wear a smile,

remembering that this special dash

might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read,

with your life’s actions to rehash…

would you be proud of the things they say

about how you spent YOUR dash?

Copyright Linda Ellis see http://lindaellis.net for more details.

Milo O’Shea

http://irishphotoarchive.blogspot.ie/2012/11/milo-oshea.html

Irish actor Milo O’Shea passed away in New York last night (2 June 1926 – 2 April 2013).

Born and raised in Dublin, the veteran actor went to the Christian Brothers school in Synge Street.

O’Shea lived in New York, where he moved in 1976.

Described by Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan as “a giant of stage and screen” .
“During his career in theatre and film, both at home and abroad, he is remembered for the quality of his performances in a range of challenging and often ground-breaking roles”


Notable Roles:

• Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses in 1967
• Neil Jordan’s 1997 film The Butcher Boy
• 1968 Romeo and Juliet 
• American sitcom Cheers
• 1960s BBC sitcom Me Mammy 
• US comedy Frasier 
• US political drama the West Wing
• Roger Vadim's movie Barbarella as a mad scientist
• Most recently in Irish comedy The Matchmaker

He is survived by his wife the actress Kitty Sullivan, his sons - Colm, Steven and his three grandchildren. He was previously married to Glenroe actor Maureen Toal who died last year but couple divorced in 1974.

Saint Patrick's Day

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17th every year in honor of a guy called St. Patrick who died on the day in 461. 

This holiday has been celebrated by the Irish for over 1000 years! 

Born in Britain to a Roman Christian family around 390 A.D., his given name was Maewyn Succat. Aged 16, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a shepherd in Ireland for 7 years. He escaped and sailed back home on a pirate ship. After being ordained a priest and changing his name to Patrick, he traveled back to Ireland to to spread Christianity. After his death, he was largely forgotten until centuries later he was honored as the patron saint of Ireland. 

St. Patrick's Day parades actually began in America with the first St. Patrick's Day parade taking place in New York. The yearly St. Patrick's Day parade in New York is the world's oldest civilian parade. 

So why wear green?? Well there are two versions - the first is that the color represents the Emerald Isle or Ireland and Spring and shamrocks. Legend has it that the shamrock came about when St. Patrick was teaching the Irish about the Holy Trinity and used this three-leafed plant.

The second is that the wearing of the green traces back to when Ireland was a country divided and Catholics lived on the “green side” and Protestants lived on the “orange side.” The Irish flag is green, orange and white representing the catholic side of Ireland, the Protestants and neutrality.

Happy Paddys (not Pattys!!!!) Day! ;-)

100th POST!

How exciting to know that we have reached out 100th post here. That's not where the excitement ends because Farewell is changing and with it comes lots of new and exciting stories to tell so stay tuned into us, be safe, be happy and as one of my favourite Disney Characters says

"Always let your conscience be your guide..."

"Give a little whistle..."