Joyce’s House from “Little Black Book”

Last week, while doing research on locations from fave movie Little Black Book, I decided to watch the “Live & On-Air: The Making of Little Black Book” DVD special feature in which the filming of a deleted scene happened to be shown taking place in front of a house that I immediately recognized.  I had actually stalked – and blogged about – the home back in March 2010 thanks to its appearance in Father of the Bride Part II.  (You can read that post here.)  Because I had written the column so long ago, though, I decided the residence was most-definitely worthy of a redux and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it this past weekend while the two of us were in L.A.

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Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I first discovered the residence a couple of years back while strolling along Madison Avenue in Pasadena on our way to stalk the house Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder) supposedly lived in during her childhood years in Mr. Deeds.  Mike noticed the picturesque property – or “Thanksgiving home” as I like to call such idyllic dwellings that always seem to bring to mind images of family holidays – immediately and commented that it had to have been used in a movie at some point.  So when fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, happened to send me screen captures of the place a few weeks later while on a quest to track down some minor locales from Father of the Bride Part II, I recognized it right away.

The charming five-bedroom, three-bath, 4,466-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1905, sits on 0.46 acres and last sold in June 2009 for $2,580,000.  The residence, which looks like it was made to be in movies, features two game rooms, a garden room, a pool, a spa, a library, and a three-car garage.  You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

As you can see from the side-view images pictured below, the house is actually much larger than its façade would lead you to believe.  It’s absolutely ginormous!

In the “Live & On-Air: The Making of Little Black Book” special feature, the scene shown being filmed in front of the residence involved (I believe) Stacy (Brittany Murphy) leaving a note at the home of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, Joyce (Julianne Nicholson).  No dialogue could be heard in the segment, but as you can see below, an envelope with what I think is the name “Joyce” on it was visible on the front porch.  I am guessing that the scene was to be featured at the end of the movie and most likely entailed Stacy apologizing to Joyce for lying to her and humiliating her on national television.  Because it wound up on the cutting room floor, though, and because no deleted scenes were included on the DVD  (BOO!), I guess we will never know for sure.

Even though only a small portion of the home’s front porch was shown in “Live & On-Air,” I still recognized the place immediately.  Yes, I’m that good. 

Not surprisingly, thanks to its massive curb appeal, the house has been featured in numerous productions over the years.  In Father of the Bride Part II, which premiered in 1995, it was where father-to-be George Banks (Steve Martin) witnessed a stranger saying good-bye to his son before leaving for work.

In 1995’s Bye Bye Love, the residence was where Susan (Amy Brenneman) lived.  Both the interior and the exterior of the property were used in the flick.

In 2007, the home stood in for the supposed Medora, Wisconsin-area residence of the Tolchuck family – Justin (Dan Byrd), Claire (Lindsey Shaw), Franny (Amy Pietz), Gary (Scott Gordon-Patterson), and Pakistani foreign exchange student Raja (Adhir Kalyan)  –  in the pilot episode of Aliens in America.  Oddly enough, though, only the interior of the house;

a few close-up shots of the front porch;

and the backyard appeared in the episode.

For the establishing shots of the residence’s front exterior, a different house – located at 6337 Larch St in Vancouver (thank you to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for the address!) – was used.  This was due to the fact that Aliens in American’s pilot episode was shot in Southern California, but production moved to Canada once the series got picked up.  To avoid the confusion of using two different exteriors when the show started airing, producers just swapped in an image of the Canada house for all of the establishing shots shown in the pilot episode.

In “Live & On-Air: The Making of Little Black Book,” the residence directly across the street from Joyce’s was also briefly shown, which got me to thinking that it might have been the dwelling used as Stacy’s childhood home in the flick.  In real life, the Frederick L. Roehrig-designed abode, which was originally built in 1908, is known as the Lincoln Clark House and it is a City of Pasadena Designated Landmark Property.

Only a very limited portion of Stacy’s childhood home can actually be seen in Little Black Book.  In the beginning of the movie, there is a brief shot of a young Stacy (Katie Murphy) watching her father from a window as he leaves her mother.  In that scene, a unique, multi-limbed tree is visible on the side of the path that Stacy’s father walks down.  As you can see below, there is a very similar-looking tree located on the side of the walkway at the Lincoln Clark House, as well.  And the window that is located just beyond it resembles the window that Stacy looked through in the scene.

The porch area of the Lincoln Clark House (which you can see a close-up photograph of here) also closely resembles the porch that appeared in the montage clip showing Stacy’s boyfriends throughout the years.

The interior of Stacy’s childhood home was also featured in a few scenes at the beginning of Little Black Book.  As you can see below, the three-paneled window that appeared onscreen is a match to the Lincoln Clark House windows.  And the steep roofline is a match, as well.  Without seeing interior photographs of the Lincoln Clark House, though, there is no way for me to say with any certainty whether or not it was used in the filming.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Joyce’s house from a deleted scene in Little Black Book is located at 639 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena.  The Lincoln Clark House, which I think may have been used as Stacy’s childhood home in the flick, is located directly across the street at 646 South Madison Avenue.