Sacramento Old City Cemetery Committee

08/24/2026

Scroll up top for info on ANIMAL CRACKERS movie tickets!
The Marx Brothers performed live in Sacramento many times, touring the country on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. The earliest performance I have found so far is “Fun In Hi School”, which they put on September 1911 at the Pantages Theatre (when they would have been in their early 20s). Most everything afterwards is at the Orpheum’s Clunie Theatre. They toured with their play “Home Again” from late 1914 to 1918, bringing it through Sacramento in October 1915 and again in February 1918. They would tour their show “N-Everything” through town in 1920 & returned in1922 with “On the Balcony”. They kept getting more popular, and there may be more local shows I missed in the years of 1922-1930, before they became mostly seen on the silver screen.
Over their stage career, they would have many live chances to hone and develop their routines and characters, including their names, on the vaudeville stages of the country. The attached review from 1915 calls Arthur (later Harpo) the funniest brother and mentions that Leonard (soon-to-be Chico) has “an odd way of shooting the piano keys with his thumb and forefinger,” which sounds like it was already one of Chico’s signature moves, even if the name wasn’t there yet.
Like most of their early films, “Animal Crackers” was a play that the Brothers had toured with. But they were ready for the big time, and that meant film. So while they shot their first film, “The Cocoanuts”, in the daytime in Long Island, they went back to Broadway and did the play “Animal Crackers” at night. It soon became their 2nd film.
In Sacramento, the film version of “Animal Crackers”, opened August 30, 1930, in the 1100 seat Capitol Theatre, 615 K Street. How many of our “eternal residents” were in attendance? I wonder…

08/22/2026

We're showing The Unholy Three in the cemetery on September 12, scroll up for ticket link. Here are some ads from the Sacramento Bee. The silent Lon Chaney crime thriller opened June 7, 1925 at the big and fancy 2,500-seat Senator Theatre at 9th & K Streets for a one-week run, with live acts & orchestra, the Senator Music Masters. It later played October 11, 12 & 13, 1925 at the "cozy" 400-seat Sequoia Theatre on K Street, which was unlikely to have an orchestra.
We are lucky to have live accompaniment by keyboard wizard Steven Coolidge.
Join us and our "eternal residents" in the cemetery for a an entertaining film by Tod Browning, director of Freaks and Dracula.

08/21/2026

://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/old-city-cemetery-committee/latino-history-tour

Por favor unete a nosotros

Once Spanish, then Mexican territory, California’s location on the left coast of the Pacific Ocean meant that Chileans, Peruvians and others from Central and South America were among the first 49ers digging for gold. Explore Latino contributions to local culture and history, and the state’s hist

08/13/2026

https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/old-city-cemetery-committee/kids-tour-1526536989

Join us this Saturday for the Kids Tour. Kids free!

Who says history has to be boring? Come hear tales of floods, fires, mayhem and the amazing accomplishments of the early residents of Sacramento. The kicker is that all of these stories are all true and taken from the residents of the Historic City Cemetery. Come see why truth is stranger than ficti

08/07/2026

https://engage.saclibrary.org/event/16862250

We've turned this popular tour into an entertaining and informative slideshow presentation! OCCC Board member Eric Bradner will give a live, in-person only show at the Belle Coolidge library on September 16th at 4:30 p.m.

Join The Old City Cemetery Committee to explore the Victorian fascination with Spiritualism. Feminism and protoplasm! Seances and suffrage! Progressive politics! Trick photography and toe-cracking! . Event starts at September 16, 2026 4:30 PM PDT

08/07/2026

Our Here Comes the Judge tour on Saturday will indeed happen, even in the 100+ heat. We will have waters and sodas for our brave attendees.
The photo is of Wilson A. Henry, Sacramento Police Judge for many years. His face was the one you would see after a night in the hoosegow. Later, as a Justice of the Peace, he married more people than any one man in California.
In one case, a defendant asked for subpoenas for 32 witnesses. Henry asked him if he couldn't just summon the whole city!

08/02/2026

From our upcoming Here Comes the Judge Tour:
Judge Amos P. Catlin took part in every great political battle of this state and was involved in much of the important litigation tried in the circuit and district courts of San Francisco and Sacramento, the supreme court of California and the United States Courts. In 1852, he was elected State Senator for Sacramento, as a Whig, and was the author of the narrowly passed legislation to return the Capitol to Sacramento. He was present at the 1850 squatters riots and the notorious “Spittoon Convention” of 1865, when two rival factions of the Democratic Party physically battled each other in their convention hall in Sacramento, hurling inkwells and spittoons at each other, hence the name.
Mr. Catlin was married in 1860, but would lose wife Ruth in February 1878, leaving him with 4 children. It was Catlin that suggested Mrs. Crocker gift her wonderful gallery to the city, and he that drew up the documents.
He was a friend of Theodore Judah, the famous railroad surveyor and engineer, and defended his reputation in articles appearing in the Sacramento Union. He subsequently served as the Union's editor, and successfully defended the Union in eight different actions for libel over ten years. He was elected to the State Board of Equalization in 1872, judge of the Superior Court in 1890, and was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor and other offices. He died in Sacramento on November 8, 1900.

07/11/2026

If you are going to the Cemetery anytime soon and taking pictures tag us in them! We want to marvel at your photos :)