Gardens of Stone --- A Cemetery Blog by Alexandra Kathryn Mosca

I am always looking for a new angle from which to photograph Green-Wood's John Matthews (Soda Fountain King) monument. Here's my latest effort.

  Ebinger's Bakery was a fixture in many Brooklyn neighborhoods, beginning in the late 19th century. Perhaps their most famous creation was Ebinger's Blackout cake. Invented during World War II, it was named for the mandatory blackouts that protected the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Ebinger's locations ceased operation in the 1970s, but their famous Blackout Cake lives on. A number of bakeries offer their version, and recipes can be found online. The company's founder, George Ebinger (1859-1935) is buried in Green-Wood along with his wife, Katherine, and other familymembers. The couple died within months of one another.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, to a Jewish family, Anna Held often headlined the Folies-Bergere. Later, Held claimed Paris as her birthplace, shaved a few years off her age, and converted to Catholicism upon marrying a Uruguayan playboy, Maximo Carrera. With Carrera, Held had a daughter named Liane. In 1896, Held met Florenz Ziegfeld when he hired her to be in one of his productions.     By 1897, the two were in love despite being unable to marry legally (her first husband would not grant her a divorce). However, after seven years, they were considered husband and wife by New York’s common law. It was Held who inspired the ‘Ziegfeld Follies.’ Sadly, Held died at the age of 46 in 1918 from multiple myeloma, a rare disease at the time.  Her funeral was held at Campbell’s in NYC and was well attended by stars of the era, except for Ziegfeld, who disliked funerals. Held’s “Empire-Style” burial site boasts a stone arch and two benches. It was purchased for her by actr...