Steve Goldstein

Steve Goldstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he developed his love of history and cemeteries at a very early age. Growing up within biking distance of the sites he studied in school where the Revolutionary War began, he was endlessly fascinated with making history come alive by visiting the locations where the events of hundreds of years before took place, and then visiting the graves of the participants. In those days, he made gravestone rubbings by placing butcher paper over the three-hundred-year-old stones and rubbing charcoal over them to reproduce the images of the stones.

Moving to Southern California at the age of 18, he continued studying and visiting the sites of historic events and touring around the local cemeteries, where he began his vast collection of photographs of the graves of what he calls "The Famous, the Infamous, and the Just Plain Dead" that make up his recently published book, "LA's Graveside Companion, Where the VIPs RIP" (Schiffer Books, 2009). The collection has become a favorite website for many over the past twelve years at www.BeneathLosAngeles.com and has led to Mr. Goldstein being frequently interviewed in print and on radio, including the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, KNX & KABC AM Radio, NPR and many other media venues. His newsletter has over 2,000 subscribers, and he has served as Master of Ceremonies for the past eight years at an annual dinner of cemetery enthusiasts known as Hollywood Underground.

His photographs have also been published in two books, "Weird California" (16 photos, pages 258-261), and "Last Laugh; A Book of Graveyard Humour" (18 photos throughout the book).

Mr. Goldstein resides in Redondo Beach with his wife, Jennifer, and owns a payroll service company. His hobbies (aside from gravehunting) include music, songwriting, film and history. He plays guitar and sings with the band Virtual Campfire. He serves on the Executive Board of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce.