After no survivors stepped as much as declare Svend Petersen's ashes, longtime good friend and onetime pool boy Jonny Fink got here to the rescue: "He’s really in an idyllic and delightful place."
Svend Petersen has a ultimate resting place.
After the beloved Beverly Hills Lodge pool supervisor died at age 90 on Dec. 22, 2020, his stays had been caught in limbo for one 12 months, as no survivors claimed them. Enter Jonny Fink. A realtor and former producer (Arli$$), Fink met Petersen in the summertime of 1982 when Fink was employed to work on the pool.
“He was unbelievable,” recollects Fink, who's presently purchasing a e-book titled Memoirs of a Beverly Hills Pool Boy. “Very playful and lots of enjoyable. Svend took care of all of the heavy hitters that got here to the lodge, and he made certain that everybody felt necessary and had all the pieces they wanted.”
Petersen began as a lifeguard on the iconic property in 1959 shortly after arriving in L.A. from his native Denmark with solely a handful of dollars to his identify. He labored on the lodge for a complete of 54 years, throughout which period he grew near such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Johnny Carson and Faye Dunaway (who he taught to swim for her position in Mommie Dearest). In 2017, he fell on arduous instances and wound up homeless, saved by a pair of excellent Samaritans and a GoFundMe marketing campaign that helped him safe press consideration and a everlasting place to reside.
As for Fink, after graduating from faculty and shifting on from the Beverly Hills Lodge, he went on to mannequin in Europe earlier than segueing to Hollywood work (together with a catering stint for a “get together planner to the celebrities”) and producing. (The memoir he’s engaged on covers 40 years within the creator’s life from the lodge via “adventures or misadventures” in Europe all the best way to his time in Tinseltown.) Over the a long time, he saved in contact with Petersen as he usually popped by the pool to say howdy and verify in. Extra just lately, nonetheless, the 2 misplaced contact, however even nonetheless, Fink stated he couldn’t bear the considered Petersen not receiving a tribute or correct resting place, so he filed an ex parte petition to retrieve the ashes from the L.A. County morgue.
After an preliminary plan to ship Petersen’s stays to Denmark didn’t pan out, he settled on Solvang, a Danish village close to Santa Barbara that he recalled Petersen being keen on. “I’m so glad I might do that and provides him a correct sendoff that he would love and admire,” concludes Fink who orchestrated an intimate service at which he learn a quick eulogy in entrance of an engraved rock that reads “The Poolside Prince,” seen beneath. “He’s really in an idyllic and delightful place. I take consolation in figuring out that he’s now at residence.”
A model of this story first appeared within the April 13 subject of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.