The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton Motel

 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I heart Josh Duhamel!  Sigh!  So, last week, on a whim, I decided to do some stalking of fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton.  A few years back I had read on IMDB that Win A Date was shot almost entirely on location in a small town called Fayetteville, West Virginia.  But since I knew that at least one Win A Date  scene (the diner scene) was actually filmed in Los Angeles, I decided to do a little digging to see if I could find some other Tad Hamilton  filming locales in the L.A. area.  So I popped in my Win A Date  DVD and watched the special features to see if they uncovered any behind the scenes info.  And, lo and behold, according to the DVD’s production notes it turns out that the ENTIRE movie was filmed in Southern California.  Apparently, West Virginia was only used for a few brief set-up shots.  That’s the last time I ever listen to IMDB!  🙂

Once I discovered that significant piece of information, I immediately began searching for the small motel Tad stays at while visiting Rosalee in the film.  I don’t know why, but it has always been a dream of mine to stalk that hotel.  I know, I know – it’s kind of a silly stalking dream being that the motel is small, old, and fairly dingy.  But ever since I first watched Win A Date, I have vowed to someday make a special trip out to West Virginia to stalk the Bide-A-Way Motel, as it was called in the film.  Well it turns out I didn’t need to go clear across the country to do so.  Like Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, my “heart’s desire was right in my own backyard.”  🙂

While watching the movie I had noticed the address number 2413 on the front of the motel.  So I started googling “2413” and “Los Angeles motel” and almost immediately was directed to a small inn named La Crescenta, located in – you guessed it – La Crescenta.  And literally five seconds later I was in my car on my way out to stalk the place.  🙂  La Crescenta Motel, which was formerly known as the May-Lane Motel, was built in 1946 by an Indiana native named Glen Pine.  The Motel’s original name is a hybrid of Glen’s children’s names – Maynard and Alane.  The tiny motel was owned and operated by the Pine family for close to fifty-six years before being sold in 2002.  The current owner is currently courting plans to tear down the motel to make room for a two-story strip mall (just what L.A. needs – another strip mall!) and a 138-space parking structure.  Although many La Crescenta citizens are trying to stop the demolition of the historic inn, it looks like the hotel will most likely be leveled.  🙁  Such a bummer!!   

I am happy to report, though, that the La Crescenta Motel looks exactly the same in person as it appeared onscreen in Win A Date.  Although, I did notice some inconsistencies while I was there.  For one thing, La Crescenta’s office doesn’t have a little orange door located right next to it, as the office in Win A Date  did.   (Don’t ask – for some reason I remember odd little details like that.  LOL)  Turns out that the little orange door is actually located right next to Room number 8 at the motel (pictured above).  So, apparently, the interior of Room 8 was used as the interior of the Bide-A-Way Motel’s office during filming. I could not for the life of me figure out why the producers didn’t just use the real motel office for filming.  But then my boyfriend suggested that most likely the real La Crescenta Motel office didn’t look exactly how the filmmakers wanted their Bide-A-Way office to look.  So, instead of remodeling the real office and having to shut it down for a week or two, they just remodeled Room 8 to make it look like the office of a small town motel.  Which makes total sense!  My boyfriend is becoming quite the little stalker.   🙂 

What makes the fact that producers used Room 8 as the motel office even stranger is that Room 8 is supposedly the room Tad stayed in during his time at the Bide-A-Way.  LOL  But the exterior of the real Room 8 did not match up to the exterior of Tad’s room in the movie.   After looking around the motel it became apparent that the exterior of Room number 11 was used as Tad’s room.  You can compare Tad’s room to Room 11 in the above pictures.   

And one final inconsistency – yes, I have way too much time on my hands LOL – the window location and position of the door of the exterior of Room 11 don’t match up to the way Tad’s room appears onscreen. So I am guessing that filmmakers used another La Crescenta room altogether to film the interior motel room scenes for Win A Date.  Or there is also the possibility that the interior of Tad’s room was filmed on a soundstage and not in a La Crescenta Motel room at all.  LOL  Confused yet?  Cause I sure was.  🙂  Why do filmmakers do this to us?  Just pick a room and stick to it!  Geez!  LOL  What’s even more ironic, though, is that apparently people from all over the world come to stay at the La Crescenta Motel just because it’s been featured in movies.  The most requested room?  You guessed it – Tad’s room – number 8.  LOL  If those people only knew that filming didn’t actually take place there! 

La Crescenta Motel, which is a favorite of location scouts, was also featured in the Season 10 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “I Will Be Your Father Figure” where it was used as the Arizona motel Kelly, Matt, and Dylan stayed at while looking for Dylan’s father, Jack McKay (pictured above).  At that time it was still known as the May-Lane Motel.  La Crescenta Motel has also made an appearance in Heroes, The House of Sand and Fog, The Portal, and in quite a few episodes of fave show The X-Files.  I do love me some Fox Mulder!  🙂  Supposedly the motel was also featured in the 1946 Christmas Classic It’s A Wonderful Life, although I haven’t been able to confirm that.   You can read a good article on the history of the motel and the filming that has taken place there on this forum.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It:  The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  motel, aka La Crescenta Motel, is located at 2413 Foothill Boulevard in La Crescenta.  If you want to stalk the hotel, do it fast as it could be torn down in as little as two months.  🙁