Synopsis
Proposal for TV series: Cemeteries
By Joe Pegasus, May, 2005
This is a treatment for a series of entertaining and educational shows named: CEMETERIES.
The concept of the series is to educate the public concerning the culture of burial procedures locally and around the world. Even those among us who visit their loved ones’ gravesites have little indication of how cemeteries, cemetarians, and the death care industry operate. Consider the industry yourself, consider the notion itself; wouldn’t you had wrote burial rights instead of burial procedures? Although there are many ‘rights’ within the procedures, the sacredness of the cemetery has begun to fade in America. The mission of this show is not to crusade against that cultural change or impact; although mention to it is necessary, but to document it in its current context.
The format of the show will be to have a host (or hostess) who will accompany the viewer to different cemeteries each show. The host ought to have some wits about the industry. Someone who would, at least, realize that the Valley of the Kings in Egypt was not built to be a tourist attraction but a cemetery. Same for the Taj Mahal. Each show, or when pertinent, a guest from the cemetery in focus will act as a guide. This is mandatory at many cemeteries. Cemeteries themselves speak to their visitors through gravesite design, landscape and customer service. It is important to convey the values, messages and ideals set down for future generations found upon grave markers, monuments and edifices. It is also important to glean the going ons behind the scenes; both at the main office and the community which supports the cemetery. Although old, closed, forgotten and ruined cemeteries are difficult to unravel into our format; they offer wonderful and interesting resources for education and entertainment. Once every 4 shows you should cover such burial grounds. Such sites can be presented in an imaginable manner. Whereas active cemeteries will offer volumes in the way of it’s regulations, prices and methods of design, gravesite decorations, rights to burial, undertakings and maintenance; forgotten cemeteries have none of that. What they offer is pure communication from the past.
Being only the author to this treatment, I have little right to suggest how you structure the program. Many will lean toward a silly, spooky format. Being around grave yards and those servicing and visiting them all my 56 years, I suggest you turn a serious approach to the project. Not heavy; light and unobtrusive.
End of Synopsis.
Proposal for TV series: Cemeteries
By Joe Pegasus, May, 2005
Treatment
For want of a better host, I’ll host here a sample show: Please note that I really do not want the position but will fill it if necessary.
Scene 1,
Open upon the host sitting atop a granite step and leaning against a gray granite wall. Camera sees only the upper portion of the man and the source of the granite is not readily formulated. Host acknowledges camera.
Host: Hello, My name is Joe Pegasus. I am sitting here in a place where I spent my entire life. A place where everyone works and slaves to end up in&ldots;.
Scene 2,
Pan out to a view of the man sitting on a step to a mausoleum and leaning against it. Capture the entire structure including the name atop it - AURICCHIO. Man rises and strolls toward the camera.
Host: &ldots;in a cemetery.
Scene 3,
(Host seen aside the mausoleum.)
Host: My uncle Pat designed this mausoleum for my grandfather who died in 1960. Anyone who ever purchased a monument in and around New York City surely recognizes that name, Auricchio. It’s also known for its imported provolone, another uncle way off in Italy. My immediate family were a family of monument builders, designers and cutters who helped jettison the memorial industry into the 21st century. Personally I designed or affected the production of over 50% of the monuments in this cemetery during my career from 1972 through 2001; a fair percentage in others cemeteries as well, and I operate the world’s largest archive of commemorative design in the world. Speaking to future generations is what I do best. Yet my families grip on the course of the area’s industry has waned. We’re still around, but competitors have pushed us into a tiny corner. Maybe because, (Pan back to view the edifice) like my uncle Pat’s design for his dad, the family business got too economical. This monument says nothing to us except ‘I’m a vault.’ It could be an expensive tool shed for all we know. Given that it’s a mausoleum, uncle Pat sure believed in Minimalism! Says nothing about any of the lives whose stories end here except that they were stingy. Knowing them personally, I can attest they were not, few in my family are. Still, this is the way my family wants to speak to all future families. (View the structure from different angles and come to pause awhile on the cross at center top.) You get the feeling that, if this cemetery - a Catholic one - didn’t require a cross incorporated into the monument’s design, it wouldn’t be there. (Angle camera to watch the host walk from the structure as he says:} Does look out of place, doesn‘t it.
Scene 4,
(Walking along a row of mausoleums.)
Host: We’re in Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. By any standard this is a young cemetery. It’s first interments were in the nineteen forties when lines of caskets covered with American flags rolled right by here on their way to Long Island National Cemetery at Pinelawn, just a - excuse the pun - stone’s throw away. &ldots;.(give detailed history of the cemetery and the other 7 cemeteries surrounding it. This history will be closely related to the building up of Levittown and Long Island itself)&ldots;.
Scene 5, (Another man approaches: Grounds Supervisor Bob Lambert.)
Bob: Good day, Joe.
Host: Hi, Bob.
This is Robert Lambert, an old friend, although we have often at odds with each other.
Bob: Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Joe. But it is my job to enforce regulations handed down from the Brooklyn Diocese regarding design work. And you have very often pushed the envelope when it came to that.
(At this scene, because the viewer would had been briefed about the cemetery’s history in scene 4, reference to a Brooklyn diocese cemetery within Rockville Centre Diocese would be understood.)
(Although for this treatment, by this author - not a screen writer - there ought to be several scenes tucked in betwixt showing the grounds and, especially, monuments.)
Host: Tell us about those rules and regulations, Bob.
( Bob sites rules as the camera inserts scenes regarding the subject matter. I will assume here that he will open with the regulations regarding memorial design. However, he might and can begin with visitor rules and regulations. Naturally, this is rehearsed material and must be edited accordingly as not to get bogged down with one viewpoint or one topic.
(Eventually, Bob will draw the viewer toward the world outside the cemetery with mention to the line of monument builders and florists surrounding the cemetery.)
Scene 6,
(Could be any monument builder’s showroom, but will site my sister’s store here.)
Host: (Walking up the sidewalk leading to Holy Family Monuments.) Holy Family Monuments and Saint Charles Florist sit less than a half mile from where we just stood.
My dad built this studio in 1960. Was supposed to be handed down to my brothers and me, but they’re back in the family mausoleum. Me? I wanted to design for everyone and, to offset the stress of design - customers can ask for too much sometimes or presume they can design stone themselves - I took to the florist side of the business. This studio and its flower shop belong to my sister, Chickie.
Let’s go see what role they play in keeping a cemetery functioning and - as it were: alive.
Scene 7,
(Inside the showroom with the manager - Jeff Gobel.)
Host: This is Chickie’s manager, Jeff Gobel. I can attest that he is a hard working man, dedicated and knowledgeable.
Hey, Jeff, came to show my viewers what you do here.
Jeff: When you said ‘knowledgeable’ you said it all, Joe.
(Jeff will lead the viewers into the history and role of the monument builder, their design process from raw product to final setting (erection.) Many scenes will be inserted here including scenes at the stone quarry, cutting sheds and stone yards. A discussion involving the use of stone in memorialization will arise. This covers much territory because there has always been controversy over stone memorialization - as we‘ll cover when we visit a cemetery like Pinelawn Memorial which is all bronze markers. Further is the modern movement to bury in public mausoleums to save room but hide or remove the value of the individual. Amid this controversy is that of the Funeral Directors assuming the role of monument builder; there is a history attached to that movement. Furthermore Jeff will introduce us to the role of the flower shop.)
Scene 8 ,
(My shop: Ye Olde Friendly Flower Shop. The opening scene is on the large sign by which most people on Long Island know the store: LAST FLORIST BEFORE CEMETERY.)
Host: This is my shop. A pit stop for travelers from as far away as you can imagine. I have to offer them flowers, sure, but so much more. Refreshments, rest rooms, a distraction from the sad endeavor they trek upon. And, as the sign says, I’m not alone.
Scene 9,
(Several shots of the competition, all 6 florists and a gas station and a fire department.)
Scene 10,
(Doreen’s Flowers shop speaking with Doreen.)
Host: Not only a competitor but an old flame too. (We kiss and giggle.) You’ll find, as in may trades which require craftsmanship, that everyone knows and many people are related to each other. Often employees hop among the shops depending on who they’re comfortable working with or just for change. Several of the shop owners are from the same family. Very often there is romance an intrgue too. Yet you’ll find that everyone lives and breathes flowers, stone, design and loyality to the cemetery they service. When Dorie and I dated, for 6 years, our vacations were filled with hours spent in cemeteries we found during our travels across the country. Our gossip hovered around going-ons at the cemetery office, about who was doing what out in the field, how so-and-so was doing in sales, what was the latest innovations. It’s easy to form lifelong relationships under such conditions. Of all the relationships I’ve ever had, Doreen and I experienced a mutual one and a lasting one. We grew apart because, what else? My interest beyond the fortified walls of the memorial trade made her turn me away.
Doreen has the advantage of being the second, and more popular shop on the strip. Tell me, Dorie, how do you see your role in support and service to the local cemeteries?
Doreen: (Doreen’s shop is a stop n shop style florist; has to be when business is that fast and furious. She has no time for deliveries; no need for items which do not move quickly. Few, if any amenities for travelers. She will expound upon her role and finalize on the fact that she is a shop n shop model.)
Scene 11,
(Following the host who is carrying a bouquet of flowers, a jar of water and a camera as he walks around a section of grave stones at St. Charles Cemetery.)
Host: Unlike Dorie, I have to be full service shop. It fits well with me because, as a designer, I‘d rather get to know my customers - sometimes befriend them. (Walks to a gravesite and places the flowers.) I use to cut stone out here. For 28 years, in fact. My friend Dave and I would pull out hoses from a compressor on a truck (show the distance from the host to the imagined or contrived truck’s location) then add names and sometimes extra wording and designs to existing monuments. Terrible way to make a living. Another reason I became a free lance designer and florist.
Scene 12,
(Back at Ye Olde Friendly, inside at a computer. Visually display the going ons around the scene - the activity of a ‘cemetery’ florist.)
Host: (Sitting at a computer.) Your residential florist will delivery anything, anywhere. And once your sweet heart gets those beautiful flowers, he or she will phone you and show appreciation. That don’t happen in a cemetery florist.
Scene 13,
(Host displaying to camera a delivery confirmation letter - a photo of the grave site we were just at in scene 11 is on the letter.)
Host: Might think we send this along as proof of delivery. Fact is we send it along because they can’t get here from &ldots;.mention location of the client. Think of this as a virtual gravesite visit. Then&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;.
Scene 14,
(Ye Olde Friendly’s website. Camera shows the photo on a webpage.)
Host: &ldots;. Just to be 100% virtual, every photo is posted on a webpage for easy visitations.
Scene 15,
(Back at the family mausoleum. Scene is crossed with passing trucks and tractors)
Host: Saint Charles is a busy cemetery. As I mentioned earlier it came into its own with the baby boom and is expanding all the time in response to a growing Long Island population. It’s a world within a world. But this world, the cemetery, never actually gains importance or full recognition until &ldots; it dies.
Scene 16,
(Scene is in the oldest section of St. Charles - Resurrection Cemetery. This area would have been explained in the history of St. Charles Bob Lambert presented us with. It was originally a cemetery owned by the New York Diocese and sold to the Brooklyn Diocese when they opened St. Charles. Host leaning against an old memorial.)
Host: This stone, erected over 100 years ago, tells us - me and you - today what the world was like 100 years ago. Specifically how our ancestors regarded their family and friends, statesmen and the homeless. It reveals how - in this case - the Catholic Church marked the graves of their parishioners. Let’s put together everything we just learned and try to read this monument.
Scene 17,
(Close up of the stone. Move about according to dialog.)
Host: Firstly, is the stone itself. That it is a stone reveals an important aspect: this family desired to inform all future generations that John and Rose lived a life. They made their mark. We’re looking at it right now. Maybe they changed the world in many ways; gave us children who changed history; began organizations which we can not do without. But long after all that is forgotten, here remains John and Rose’s message to the future.
Both lived into their fifties, which is old age for that generation. The family did not causally discard John and Rose. They placed a stone; granite, the hardest of stones next to diamond, at the same location where the two will watch the sun burn out. Not bronze, not a small stone, not a wooden stick - granite.
Remember Jeff in Chickie’s showroom and our visit with him to the stone cutting shop? Remember the grain of the memorials they showed us? Look at this stone. It shows tool marks, a tight grain. Notice the design work, mostly tools not the powerful sandblasters we saw at the shop. This memorial was chosen right from the shop. This family dealt direct with the carver. There simply were no showrooms except in the major cities. This stone was hand picked from a series of pre-cut tablets or right from the block itself. This stone was crafted by hand. Human hands stroked every surface of this rock.
Secondly, the design. True to form, the Church ignores individual rights to send messages to the future. There is but one way - their way, their message. But, remember the explanation I gave you for the design at Jeff’s showroom? Let me read this stone to you. Listen for differences.
Here again we begin with the cross (focus on the cross), the central image on all monuments permitted in St. Charles. It is through the cross, by Christ’s (focus on the HIS in the imbus on the cross) offering on the cross that we obtain the kingdom of heaven (Pan out to see the chapel surrounding the cross) through the virtues of faith, hope and charity (focus on the 3 steps leading up to the cross). Surrounding and approaching the kingdom of God is our love for family, for one another (pan out so the floral design on both sides of the cross and chapel are in view). Here, John and Rose shared a deep love (Host points to the deeply carved roses). Their life together was fruitful - notice the abundance of leaves in the design which can represent children and mundane endeavors, and brought wisdom to their years. See these styled candles? Candles are a symbol. A symbol of creating light within darkness. The symbol of a teacher, inventor, preacher or scholar (host moves his hands and brings the small carvings of candles to the viewer‘s attention). John and or Rose were probably scholars or people others turned to for advice, at least, they were avid readers (Host makes note of the classical cut of the text panel), they were of the Nestino family, John was born in 1812 and died in 1870. Rose, his wife, born in 1816 and died in 1861. They are in God’s Care (Camera drops to the epitaph at the joint of the stone). This epitaph shows on a neat majority of religious oriented monuments from the mid 1800’s until it began to lose meaning near the end of the 20th century. Nowadays we see a lot of "Always In Our Hearts." But Always In Our Hearts" is a very different message than "In God’s Care." The voice from this stone indicates clearly that these two came from a caring community, family or maybe their entire culture was one of watching out for each other. Then, when John and Rose left their home world, their children turned that care over to the care taker of all people. Not to some memory, not to the forces and whims of nature or history. They took care to place their loved ones in the only hands they trusted above their own.
Did you hear the differences? Some things echo from a time not like our own, but basically and because of Church regulations, it‘s pretty much the same as today. However, don’t listen now, look. See those roses? Look here at the method used to cut that cross and chapel. Notice, perhaps above all, that the stone is in such condition as to be set just this morning. The people who lost their John, their Rose; the people who designed this, carved this stone and set it; everyone concerned with THIS stone didn’t need a host like me to tell them about what Cemeteries are all about. One day when an archeologist comes upon John and Rose, that discoverer will write that the people of John and Rose’s generation knew how to remember their dead. They cared for them deeply. Now, pull back and look where we are. (Pan to full scene.) They were laid to rest further from their neighbors; with elbow room. They were placed among trees, far away from the road. When family visited, they were expected to linger. To settle awhile in memories, fond or appreciative. Welcomed to offer flowers with no restrictions at all. It is a civilized message from a world where death was not feared and was no barrier. The Nestino family lived in a culture which realized that what they set in granite was a direct message, their message, to eternity.
Scene 18,
(Valley of the Kings ((or whatever site is chosen for the next episode)) Egypt. Host standing in front of towering figures. Tourists everywhere.)
Host: Most folk think of a cemetery as a quiet place. This is the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Cemeteries as we recognize them did not come into the our collective consciousness until a thousand years after these monuments were set. And most like to think of this destination as a hot spot for taking photos and to buy post cards to send back home. Fact is: this is a cemetery. Next time on Cemeteries I’m going to give you a tour in and around one of the oldest and still active cemeteries in the world. Beyond that we will visit the cemeteries of the rich and famous, grave yards of the notorious and a cemetery where those, like me, who spent their entire lives designing cemeteries find eternal rest. And, as not to gloss over the subject, we'll also visit cemeteries with haunting reputations as well.
End Treatment
Copyrighted 2005, Joe Auricchio