So one of the things I love about Karie Bible — oh, I just love everything about her — is that her life is so singular, it just makes her fascinating. She is beyond the “Came-to-Hollywood” archetype and she has fashioned a really unique life in Los Angeles. 

Karie leads tours at Hollywood Forever cemetery and that is where I met her but she has deep knowledge of film history and old Hollywood and that alone just opens one portal of her very interesting life (FACTS: Born on Halloween night and has heterochromia — yeah, two different color eyes -- and if that isn't gothic enough for you, Bible is her true last name. I don't make up the facts, I just report them. As they pertain to a cemetery tour guide. And a black cat that crossed her path). 

Karie found me first from a Los Angeles magazine article about my Dog Noir series, which, if you know Karie, anything film noir-ish is catnip to her. 

She was between pets in her life but she told me about this black cat at the cemetery that she first saw on Cecil B. DeMille's tomb. He started following her around. There’s a feral cat colony on the grounds, not surprising to see a cat, but this chat noir (never took French!) had a thing for Karie and her tours. She brought him treats, always acknowledged his presence, they developed a little thing.

She named him Close Up. Because of the Cecil B. DeMille tomb and the famous line from "Sunset Boulevard." Of course.

"Let’s do a Dog Noir at the cemetery with Close Up," I said.

Even I will say that’s a ludicrous idea. My Dog Noir series involves a little dressing up. A little thought. A lot of spontaneity. With a pet owner, usually a dog owner, and a dog. You know. Not a feral cat outside in a cemetery.

By now you know I Iike ludicrous so my partner and I met Karie at the cemetery and we started walking toward the DeMille plot. Now, I know what you’re thinking. This Close Up thing is gonna be a bust. Cats are so so hard to photograph when they are “domesticated” (I have two, I know from experience, and they are both kind of cat jerks), what is even going to happen here? That was what I was thinking.

Close Up bounded across the cemetery lawn, leaped on to DeMille’s tomb, and skidded in, stopping right on top to get a pet and a treat from Karie, who was channeling her inner Gene Tierney from the 1945 film noir “Leave Her to Heaven” for this shoot. 

Like, who wrote this script?

And guess what? I got the pictures! I got ’em! As a pet photographer, I want to kind of shake you and say, we got images of a feral cat posing in a cemetery with a human being who is dressed up in period clothing!! Stylized! Do you understand this? Do know how unlikely that is???

I am not going to say that, but I will say it was a wonderful shoot and even LA’s notoriously clear skies decided to noir it up with some dramatic clouds.

This was four years ago and Karie and Close Up became kind of famous, not because of the photos, but the duo amassed quite a fan base. Close Up even accompanied Karie on her night tours, so dedicated a partner he came to be. He got lots of fan mail and sketches and became known.

A lot of stuff happened* and, naturally, everyone was telling Karie, with kindness of course, that she should take Close Up home with her, they just wanted to see this relationship continue outside of the graveyard. But she felt Close Up really was living his best life on the cemetery grounds… until he wasn’t. Got a little rough out there and we can't say stardom didn't get a bit to his head.

“No one ever leaves a star,” said Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard.” “That’s what makes one a star.”

And on January 23, 2024 this star became Karie’s cat and roommate and has taken to the indoors like Norma Desmond on a set.

You thought I’d quote,“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close up.”

Well. It goes without saying, Karie was ready for her Close Up. He brings her so much joy and companionship.  “In many ways, he rescued me,” she said.

I don’t know if Karie needs more people on her tours, but you’ve got to take her Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tour. You must, even though Close Up is off the tour now.  She also does this really fun Facebook video series The Hollywood Kitchen in which she makes recipes “written” by old Hollywood stars (ha ha, or their publicists — guacamole with sherry? I’m looking at you, Boris Karloff). Her guest list has been really incredible.

Oh wait a minute, someone get Karie Bible a book contract! She's a writer, you know? 

*Hollywood Forever has a feral cat colony that is taken care of but — without getting too far down a rabbit hole that isn’t mine — has become a dumping ground for unwanted cats. Don’t dump unwanted cats there. It’s not safe for anyone.