ABSTRACT
A discussion of celebrity culture as a site of meaning-making, identification, and cultural history informs the positioning of Hollywood Forever as a site of cultural memory. Through memorial celebrations and commemorative events for stars such as Rudolph Valentino and Johnny Ramone, Hollywood Forever becomes a site where fans gather and return, taking photographs and leaving remembrances to demonstrate their ongoing involvement with the celebrities they admire. Due in part to the activities of tourists and fans, these stars remain in circulation in contemporary culture and are deployed as figures of cultural memory when meaning-making about the past is attached to their lives and creative work.
