Michael Jackson Locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

September 6, 2017February 20, 2018

The Southern Hotel from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” Music Video

The Grim Cheaper often accuses me of beating a dead horse. While I typically don’t agree with him, today’s post is pretty concrete evidence that he’s right, because here I am yet again with yet another article about the diner from Michael Jackson’s 1983 “Beat It” music video. Today actually marks the fourth time I’ve written about this particular locale, making it the most covered spot ever featured on IAMNOTASTALKER. (To be fair, I’ve also written about the Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210 – my very favorite filming site – on four occasions, though one of the posts was a mash-up of several places from the Fox series.) This location has also been the most puzzling I’ve ever covered. I am happy to report, though, that the mystery surrounding it has finally, finally been put to rest thanks to a reader named Dave, who sent me an email in early July that just about made me fall off my chair.

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For those who haven’t been following along since the beginning, my coverage of the “Beat It” café started back in March 2010 when I wrote about the Monte Carlo Restaurant located at 109 East Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles. I first came across the eatery via Google Street View while on a cyber-stalking mission to track down the locale and was struck by its resemblance to what had appeared onscreen. With its half-green/half-cream walls and curved counter, the Monte Carlo, which is still in operation today, looks like it was ripped straight out of the video. It is also located smack dab in the middle of Skid Row, where I knew “Beat It” had been lensed.

Despite those seeming connections, though, upon visiting the restaurant in person, I started to have doubts that it was the spot where MJ filmed. Not only is the Monte Carlo interior much smaller than that of the “Beat It” café, but an address number of 416 could also be seen in the video (it’s denoted with a pink circle below), which does not gibe with the Monte Carlo’s 109 address.

A sign reading “Special Café” was also visible in “Beat It,” as you can see via the pink arrows in both the screen capture and the photograph below, which was taken from Todd Gray’s book Michael Jackson: Before He Was King. (Please disregard the additional markings on the photo. They were added in reference to a since-solved mystery that my fellow stalkers were discussing in the comments section of my first Monte Carlo post). While it was entirely possibly the eatery’s name had been changed from “Special Café” to “Monte Carlo Restaurant” since filming took place, the discrepancy still gave me pause. So I opened the quest up to my fellow stalkers, asking for their opinions on the matter. Many chimed in, sharing their thoughts, but those thoughts didn’t lead to any sort of definitive conclusion. I re-stalked and re-blogged about the Monte Carlo later that same month in the hopes of clarifying things, but unfortunately, my second visit and post only provided more doubt and confusion – and more conversation amongst readers. Still though, no one was able to say with any sort of certainty whether or not we had found the right spot.

Cut to March 2013. An MJ fan named Justin, who had been following the hunt since the beginning, posted a comment on my original Monte Carlo post in which he shared a link to the 1955 photograph below. He came across the image via the USC Digital Library archives while searching for historic pictures of Skid Row and East Fifth Street and was floored to happen upon one of a restaurant with signage reading “Special Café,” located next door to a property with a 414 address number – all of which lined up with what was seen in “Beat It.” The windows and doorway of the eatery in the photograph were also a match to what appeared in the video.

Shortly thereafter, I learned how to search through old digitized Los Angeles phone records and found a listing for the Special Café at 416 East Fifth Street, which seemed to cement everything. Justin had solved the mystery! (Or so we thought – but more on that in a bit.)

As Justin informed me (incorrectly, as it turns out, but, again, more on that later), the café had been razed shortly after filming took place, much to my chagrin, and, after being utilized as a parking lot for close to three decades, a building was finally constructed on the site in 2013. I immediately ran out to stalk the locale and did a write-up on it, but, unfortunately, that post led to even more confusion thanks to the Historic Aerials website.

When I pulled up 1972 and 1980 views of the Special Café site while researching for the post, Historic Aerials showed that no building was located there during those years. Since I knew that the eatery was around from at least 1955 (the year the photograph Justin found was taken) to 1983 (the year “Beat It” was filmed), the building’s absence on Historic Aerials was absolutely mind-boggling! As my friend/fellow stalker David from Spain stated in the comments section of that post, “Oh my god, that’s a case for Mulder and Scully.”

Thankfully, Dave, an eagle-eyed fellow stalker from across the pond, figured things out. In his July email, he said, “Check out the attached image of the Southern Hotel, captured from the 1982 Charles Bronson movie Death Wish II. Compare it with your recent-ish photo of the site, paying particular attention to the red panels on the right hand side, i.e. the lower left of the Southern building. Everything should be clear! Do you see it?” Yes, I did see it – and just about fell out of my chair upon doing so!

As Dave’s email went on to explain, “The Special Café was never demolished as such – it’s still standing, and forms part of the main Southern building (which it always did). The storefront windows have been replaced with the red paneling and the door (or at least, a door) is still there, although it’s walled off with railings now.”

To say that I was in utter shock over Dave’s revelation would be an understatement. The Special Café site still stands? Say whaaa?

He broke things down further, pointing out, “As per the Death Wish II screencap: the doorway/entrance to the Southern Hotel was originally on the right-hand side of the building and classed as No. 412, the Café – on the left hand side of the building – was No. 416, the storefront in the middle – aka the ‘Church on Wheels Heartreach Mission’ – which has now been remodeled into the main entrance to the Southern, would have originally been No. 414.”

In researching the Southern Hotel, I learned that it had been completely gutted in 2000 – taken down to the studs, “its bones on display like a clanky skeleton,” according to a Los Angeles Times article – before being transformed into a 55-room apartment complex for homeless veterans. Despite that remodel, though, the building, which was originally constructed in 1920, is surprisingly still recognizable from Death Wish II.

In the movie, architect Paul Kersey (Bronson) books a room at the Southern while on the hunt for the five men who killed his daughter and housekeeper.

As Dave informed me, Death Wish II isn’t the first Charles Bronson movie to feature the hotel. Ten years earlier, the actor, playing the role of Arthur Bishop, walked on Fifth Street just west of the Southern in the 1972 thriller The Mechanic.

Dave also filled me in on, sent me links to, and provided screen captures of a myriad of the hotel’s other onscreen appearances and pop culture connections. As he informed me, photographer Sam Cherry snapped a picture of famed author Charles Bukowski on Skid Row standing across the street from the Southern in 1970. You can see the hotel, as well as the Special Café, on the right-hand side of the image below.

Chester (Harvey Gold) and Cooper (Jason Miller) walk by the Southern at the beginning of the 1974 drama The Nickel Ride. The Special Café exterior can even be seen in the second screen capture below.

In the Season 3 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “The Heroes,” which aired in 1977, Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) drive by the Special Café.

The eatery and hotel were also briefly seen in the Season 4 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “Starsky vs. Hutch,” which aired in 1979.

When Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Adrian (Talia Shire) arrive at the Hotel Lorane (which, as Dave pointed out, is still intact!) in 1982’s Rocky III, the Southern is visible in the background.

The hotel is seen, briefly once again, in the opening montage of the Season 1 episode of Miami Vice titled “Glades,” which aired in 1984.

And in 1984’s Repo Man, the Southern and the Special Café are just barely visible from the window of Otto’s (Emilio Estevez) car during a driving scene.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big, huge THANK YOU to fellow stalker Dave for finally putting an end to the “Beat It” café mystery, for doing all of the research for this post, and for providing the many screen captures! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Southern Hotel is located at 412 East Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles. Special Café, aka the diner from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” music video, was formerly situated in the eastern portion of the building’s ground floor, but is no longer there. This locale is not in the best of areas, so if you visit, please exercise caution.

August 22, 2013September 6, 2017

Special Café from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” Video

[UPDATE – The Special Café site still stands! You can read all about it here. Even though this post contains erroneous information, I am leaving it up as it chronicles an important part of the long, arduous journey my fellow stalkers and I embarked upon to track the locale down.]

Since we’re on the subject of Michael Jackson . . . in May of this past year, a fellow stalker/MJ aficionado named Justin published a comment on my post about the Monte Carlo café, which I had blogged about back in March 2010 as being the possible café that appeared in the King of Pop’s “Beat It” video. (You can read my second post on that same location here. I suggest reading both of my Monte Carlo write-ups, as well as all of the comments posted therein, as it will make this post easier to understand.) I was never entirely convinced about the location (even though it bears a remarkable resemblance to the diner in the video) due to many elements not matching what appeared onscreen, and opened it up to my readers to share their opinions. While Justin originally commented that he thought the Monte Carlo was the right spot, a full two years later he was able to figure out where filming actually had taken place – the Special Café located at 416 East 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles – which I was OVER THE MOON about! Thank you, Justin! Sadly, as he mentioned in his comment, the locale had been demolished shortly after “Beat It” was shot and remained a parking lot for almost three decades. (Today, a building is being constructed on the site, as you can see above.) I still ran right out to stalk it, though, just a few weeks later.

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One of the main doubts I had as to the Monte Carlo being the “Beat It” café was the fact that in the video an address number of 416 was visible, which did not mesh with the Monte Carlo’s 109 address number.

Further leading to doubt was the fact that the words “Special Café” were visible in the diner’s window (denoted with pink arrows below) in a behind-the-scenes photograph that was included in Todd Gray’s book Michael Jackson: Before He Was King, which fellow stalker David in Spain had taken a picture of and posted in the comments section of my first post on the Monte Carlo. (Please disregard the markings on the picture, which were in reference to a since-solved mystery that my fellow stalkers were discussing at the time.)

The issue that raised the most doubt, though, was the fact that the buildings visible across the street from the “Beat It” diner did not match the buildings located across the street from the Monte Carlo.

Because the interior of the “Beat It” diner so closely resembled that of the Monte Carlo, though, I was completely flummoxed.

Then, while searching for images of “East Fifth Street” (countless news articles stated that the café where filming took place was located on Fifth Street in L.A.’s Skid Row area), Justin happened to dig up the 1955 Los Angeles Examiner photograph below, in which a restaurant with the words “Special Café” written in the window was visible. Judging by the 414 address number posted on the storefront next door, the café most likely had an address of 416, which matched the address that was visible in “Beat It.”

A few weeks after Justin posted his comment, fellow stalker John, of the Silent Locations blog, taught me how to search through archived digital phone records of the Los Angeles area. I, of course, immediately did a search for “Special Café”, and, sure enough, in the 1973 listing, found it. (Only certain years of the phone directory are available digitally and, unfortunately, there is no directory for 1983, the year that “Beat It” was filmed.) The next directory that was available online was for the year 1987, by which time the Special Café had been demolished and its phone listing, therefore, removed.

Oddly enough, I also found a listing for the Monte Carlo Café in the 1973 phone book, which means that there were two almost identical diners located on the same street only four blocks apart from each other at that time! How incredibly weird is that?

As Justin pointed out in his comment on my original “Beat It” diner post, the buildings located across the street from the Special Café site are an exact match to the buildings that were visible in the background of the video, further proving that he had found the right spot.

Why the across-the-street image was different when Michael walked through the café doors remains a mystery. All I can figure is that some sort of screen – or maybe even a bus or large vehicle – was put up to block the view of the set from the many fans who were on location trying to get a peek at their hero. Who knows, though.

Unfortunately, while I thought that Justin’s find solved the mystery of the “Beat It” diner, it only appears to have deepened it. While researching the Special Café, I looked up its former address on the Historic Aerials website and, oddly enough, there is NO building located in that spot in the years 1972 and 1980 (pictured below, respectively). As you can see below, the site is a parking lot in both images. Since we know that the eatery was around from at least 1955 (the year that the photograph that Justin found was taken) to 1983 (the year that “Beat It” was filmed), the building’s absence on Historic Aerials is absolutely mind-boggling!

Further confusing things is the fact that a building is visible in that spot in the 1952 aerial view.

And what’s odder still is that the building next door, the Southern Hotel, which was originally built in 1912 and is currently registered as being historically significant (meaning that it most likely has not been altered very much from its original state), looks COMPLETELY different today than it did in 1980, as you can see below. Like I said – the mystery deepens. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this conundrum, my fellow stalkers.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Justin for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Special Café, from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video, was located at 416 East Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles. An apartment building now stands at that site. This location is smack dab in the middle of Skid Row, so please exercise caution.

August 21, 2013August 21, 2013

The Smokestacks from Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” Music Video

Back in July, while doing research on the seaside mansion where Beau Burroughs lived in Rumor Has It (which I blogged about here), I came across a website called 80s Film Locations (that I later learned is run by fellow stalker Marc, of the Washington State Film Locations website) and noticed that it had a tab for Michael Jackson’s 1991 “Black or White” music video. Immediately intrigued, I clicked on the link and was floored to discover that the address for the spot where the King of Pop danced in front of smokestacks – a site that I had always wondered about – was listed. And even though I was a bit uncertain about the locale, due to the fact that certain elements visible in the background of the video did not match up to what appeared on Google Street View, I was BEYOND excited to stalk it and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to do so that very weekend. Fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, later helped me verify that the location was indeed the right place.

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As so often happens whilst stalking, Marc found this location while searching for a different one and did not even realize that he had stumbled upon it until later. During a hunt for sites from the 1984 teen comedy The Wild Life, Marc tracked down Surplus City Jeep Parts – where Jim Conrad (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) attempted to purchase weapons – at 11796 Sheldon Street in Sun Valley.

While looking at the building on Google Street View, he happened to take note of a large set of distinct-looking smokestacks located directly across the street.

Later, while tracking down “Black or White” filming locations, he remembered those smokestacks and, sure enough, they were a match to the ones that Michael Jackson had danced in front of.

The scene that takes place in front of the smokestacks, in which MJ performs a 23-second traditional Indian Odissi dance, just so happens to be my favorite in the entire video.

What I could not figure out while stalking the smokestacks or from Google Street View was the exact spot where the King of Pop stood during the sequence. It was not until sitting down to write this post that I was finally able to pinpoint it. On his “Black or White” page, Marc had included a screen capture from “Black or White: Behind the Scenes” – a featurette about the making of the iconic video that was included on the Dangerous: The Short Films DVD. That screen cap, which shows the smokestack scene from the opposite angle from which it was shot, is pictured below. It was the structure visible in the top right of the capture that I was having trouble identifying. (In the screen capture, you can see that fake pyrotechnical smokestacks were installed directly behind MJ for the filming.)

Thankfully, Owen was able to identify the structure as the building located at 11800 Sheldon Street, just west of the Surplus City Jeep Parts site.

Still not entirely convinced, I sat down to watch “Black or White: Behind the Scenes” once again to see if I could spot any other background clues. And thankfully, I did! (You can watch “Black or White: Behind the Scenes” by clicking below. The sequence that takes place at the smokestacks begins at 0:44.)

After what seemed like hours of trying, I was finally able to pause the featurette at a point at which some sort of business sign was visible. Once I managed to do that and look more closely at the image, I immediately recognized the sign as the Surplus City sign that appeared in The Wild Life. As you can see below, the size and the shape of the sign match what appeared in the 1985 flick and the word “surplus” is also somewhat visible.

From there, I was able to pinpoint that Michael was standing in the spot denoted with a pink X below in the video.

As fate would have it, I had posed for a picture, in which I re-created MJ’s Odissi dance, in almost that exact spot while I was stalking the smokestacks. Talk about luck! Had I moved just slightly to the right, I would have been dead on.

While doing research on the smokestack location, I had come across a very poor-quality Channel 4 news special hosted by David Sheehan about the filming of “Black or White,” in which MJ was shown walking from his trailer to the set. I sent the video along to Owen and he used his magic to pinpoint where Michael walked in the segment, which turned out to be near the western side of the Surplus City building. Amazingly enough, despite the fact that the site is no longer home to Surplus City, it still looks very much the same today as it did in 1991 when “Black or White” was filmed! (For whatever reason, though, the address of the building has since been changed from 11796 to 11782, as is visible below.) As you can see, the door that MJ walked by, while no longer painted green, is still intact.

The building’s four-panel window, which has since been painted over, is also still intact.

Most amazing of all, though, is that, minus the addition of a mailbox, the telephone pole (denoted with a pink arrow), metal bar in front of it (denoted with a blue arrow), and two signs posted on it (denoted with purple and green arrows) all still look EXACTLY the same!

As does the red bar that sticks up out of the sidewalk. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Ironically enough, when Jim leaves Surplus City in The Wild Life, he walks by the exact same area that Michael Jackson walked by in the Channel 4 news special.

You can watch the Channel 4 news “Black or White” special by clicking below.

Marc also let me know that Surplus City was used in the 1985 classic Commando, as the spot John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) broke into to go “shopping” for weapons and supplies.

The structure was dressed quite significantly for the filming, though. Besides adding quite a bit of neon, it appears that producers also constructed a small annex on the side of the building for the shoot.

You can watch Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video by clicking below.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Marc, from the 80s Film Locations website, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for helping me to verify it! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The smokestack scene from Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” music video was shot on Sheldon Street in Sun Valley. I believe that the exact spot where the King of Pop stood in the video is just slightly east of the building at 11800 Sheldon Street, in the area denoted with a pink X below.

August 31, 2011August 31, 2011

Michael Jackson’s Childhood Home in Gary, Indiana

Today’s blog is a major, major fail on my part as I had originally intended to write about this location on Monday, August 29th – the day that would have been legendary singer Michael Jackson’s 53rd birthday. The suggestion to write about the King of Pop’s childhood home on the anniversary of his birth came from fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, who had stalked the Gary, Indiana-area property for me last August, after I had mentioned how badly I wanted to see it in person, and had then sent me photos of it as a surprise wedding gift. As is the case with most wedding presents, this one was most definitely geared towards the bride. Winking smile But I digress. Anyway, for whatever reason, I completely forgot about the house when Monday rolled around and instead wrote about Vitello’s Italian restaurant from The Deep End of the Ocean. Ugh! I am such a blonde sometimes! So, with the thought that all things are better late than never, I decided to blog about the location today, in belated honor of my beloved MJ.

As you can see in the photograph above, Michael Jackson’s childhood home, which was originally built in 1949, is miniscule. The tiny abode, which Joseph and Katherine purchased in 1950 for $8,500, consists of only 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 672 square feet of living space and measures about 100 feet deep by 50 feet wide. When you consider that at one point in time all eleven members of the Jackson family – Joe, Katherine, Michael, Maureen (aka Rebbie), Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, LaToya, Marlon, Janet, and Randy – lived there, it is almost unbelievable. According to J. Randy Taraborellli in his book Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, 1958-2009, of the house Michael once said, “You could take five steps from the front door and you’d be out the back. It was really no bigger than a garage.” Which, ironically enough, the property lacked. Taraborrelli explains the living arrangements as such: “Katherine and Joseph shared one bedroom with a double bed. The boys slept in the only other bedroom in a triple bunk bed; Tito and Jermaine sharing a bed on top, Marlon and Michael in the middle, and Jackie alone on the bottom. The three girls slept on a convertible sofa in the living room; when Randy was born, he slept on a second couch.” The whole thing is suffocating to even think about! In August of 1969 Motown Records moved Joe, Michael, and the rest of the Jackson 5 out to Los Angeles where they were put up in various hotels. In December of that year the rest of the family relocated to California whereupon they all settled into a Mediterranean-style house located at 1601 Queens Road in West Hollywood. According to Taraborrelli, the living room of their new abode was twice the size of their entire former home in Gary.

Amazingly enough, very little of Michael Jackson’s childhood home has changed in the 42-plus years since the family last lived there. The only major difference is that, shortly after his death, a large marble plaque honoring the fallen icon was placed in the northeast corner of the front yard (pictured above). Oddly enough, it seems that the Jackson family may still own or be involved with the dwelling somehow. Property records list the owner of the house as the Anthony Otis Whitehead Trust located at 14126 East Rosecrans Avenue in Santa Fe Springs, California. So I did some digging on Google and, as it turns out, 14126 East Rosecrans also just so happens to be the business address of Brian Oxman, one-time lawyer for MJ and current lawyer for Joe Jackson.

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On a side-note: About Me is currently hosting a contest to find the new “face” of their company, a person who will ultimately star in an advertisement that will be featured on a large billboard in Times Square. I would love to be that new face! Especially because the grand prize winner will also get a free trip to New York City and we all know how much I absolutely love me some NYC. Smile To vote, simply click on the “Vote for this profile!” tab in the upper right hand corner of my About Me page. For those who have not yet heard of About Me, it is an INCREDIBLY cool company that enables one to build a page with links to all of their various social networking sites, websites, blogs, email addresses, etc., compiling all of their information in one easy-to-find place. It is basically like a digital business card and I LOVE it. So please vote! Who knows, maybe this stalker will get lucky and wind up on a Times Square billboard! Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she? Winking smile

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for stalking this location for me.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Michael Jackson’s childhood home is located at 2300 Jackson Street, on the corner of Jackson Street and West 23rd Avenue, in Gary, Indiana. The property is apparently not located in a very safe area, so please exercise caution when stalking it.

December 9, 2010December 8, 2010

La Quinta Resort & Club

Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! As I mentioned yesterday, the Grim Cheaper and I spent this past weekend in Palm Springs and we came to do so thanks to an extremely serendipitous course of events. Last Wednesday night, I was curled up on my couch reading the December issue of fave publication Los Angeles Magazine when I came across an advertisement for La Quinta Resort & Club which stated that Frank Capra had written the screenplay for It’s A Wonderful Life while staying at the legendary hotel. In honor of the iconic movie, the resort was featuring an It’s a Wonderful Life-themed Christmas celebration each night throughout the month of December. I, of course, just about had a heart attack upon reading those words and immediately informed the GC that we would be making a trip out to the desert in the coming weeks. Well, not five minutes later, my mom called to inform me that she and my father were heading to Palm Springs for the weekend and that she had booked a room at . . . you guessed it – La Quinta Resort! Talk about the stars aligning! She asked if the GC and I would like to join them for the weekend and I started packing my bags pretty much right then and there. Smile

The resort, which was originally named Hotel La Quinta meaning “country retreat”, was first opened in 1926 by Walter H. Morgan, heir to the Morgan Oyster Company fortune. Morgan had moved from his native San Francisco to the Palm Springs area in 1921 after purchasing 1,400 acres of land in what was then known as “Happy Hollow”. He decided to use that land to build an intimate and exclusive hotel where his rich and famous friends could be pampered while escaping the hustle and bustle of the city. He enlisted Pasadena-area architect Gordon Kaufman, who is most famous for constructing the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia and the L.A. Times Building in Downtown Los Angeles, to design the hotel, which was to be modeled after a Spanish hacienda. The retreat, which consisted of 20 individual casitas, a restaurant, a lobby, and a nine-hole golf course (the Coachella Valley’s first golf course, in fact!) was constructed at a cost of a whopping $150,000. The resort officially opened to the public in January of 1927 – although Morgan had hosted a select group of his friends there in December of the previous year – and became enormously popular over the next decade and a half, mostly due to word of mouth among Los Angeles’ elite, and counted such stars as Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery, and Erroll Flynn as its guests. World War II sadly took its toll on the hotel, though, thanks to gas rationing which prevented people from traveling long distances. In 1942, the property closed its doors at which point the US Army took over and the Army Tank and Army Air Corps Division made use of the premises. After the war ended, the resort was sold and once again became a popular getaway for the rich and famous, as it remains to this day. A private airstrip even had to built on the property to accommodate those guests traveling by air. In 1982, the City of La Quinta was incorporated, becoming one of only two cities on the West Coast to be named in honor of a hotel. The other? Beverly Hills, which became incorporated in 1914 and was named after the Pink Palace, aka the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Today, La Quinta Resort & Club, which is a part of the Waldorf-Astoria Collection of hotels, is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL retreat consisting of 796 different rooms and suites, most of which are individual single-story dwellings or “casitas” situated around sprawling courtyards and pools. And even though the resort is staggeringly HUGE – besides having 796 rooms, it also currently boasts 23 tennis courts, 4 restaurants, a 23,000-square foot spa, 41 pools, 53 Jacuzzis, and 5 golf courses – somehow the property has managed to maintain an intimate, small hotel-feel. Because the rooms are spread across a vast 45 acres of land, the grounds are extremely quiet and private. So private, in fact, that it almost felt as if my parents, the GC, and I were the only people on the property the entire weekend. So love it!

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Upon check-in, we were given a booklet which not only detailed the hotel’s legendary history, but also listed many of the luminaries who have stayed there over the years. It was at that moment that I knew that La Quinta was my kind of place! Smile Just a few of the stars who have vacationed there at one time or another include Drew Barrymore, Danny DeVito, Jim Belushi, Annette Bening, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, Simon Cowell, Casey Kasem, Diane Keaton, Ben Kingsley, Ginger Rogers (who got married on the property in 1953), Harvey Keitel, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ray Charles, Harry Connick Jr., Neil Diamond, Cyndi Lauper, Justin Timberlake, Al Pacino, Matthew Perry, Tom Hanks, Katherine Hepburn, Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes, Gregory Hines, Shirley Temple, Mark Wahlberg, and Bruce Willis. I could literally go on and on and on! Several presidents have also checked into the hotel over the years, including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Calvin Coolidge. And numerous sports stars have also stayed there, including Andre Agassi, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Roger Clemens, Roger Federer, Wayne Gretzky, Ken Griffey Jr., Magic Johnson, Joe Montana, Bruce Jenner, Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer. I was most excited to find out, though, that the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, had once visited the hotel!

Well, let me tell you, once I heard that MJ had vacationed there, I became ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED with finding out exactly which room he had stayed in. So, I immediately sought out the resort’s concierge and ended up speaking with a woman who literally could NOT have been nicer. Truth be told, though, EVERYONE at the hotel was INCREDIBLY nice! Anyway, the concierge told me that she was fairly certain the hotel had a detailed list of what particular rooms various celebrities had stayed in over the years and that she would try to track it down for me. And track it down she did! And even though Michael Jackson was not named on the list, due to the fact that it hadn’t been updated in quite a few years, the concierge did some research and managed to find out exactly where he had stayed during his visit – Room 735, otherwise known as Hacienda Grande. YAY!

So, I, of course, immediately dragged my parents right on over to stalk it. According to the concierge, Hacienda Grande is the resort’s largest room and boasts its own living room with a fireplace, an entertainment center, a dining room, kitchen area, a separate master bedroom, a private pool, a private Jacuzzi, a carport, and a private walled patio. Oh, how I wish we could have seen the inside of it!

The concierge also told us that Britney Spears had stayed in Room 225 – El Presidente – while at the resort. El Presidente is the resort’s presidential suite and it consists of a one-bedroom casita AND a one-bedroom guest house, along with a parlor room, a dining room, a kitchen area, two bathrooms, a fireplace, and a private patio, pool, and spa. Actors Jerry Lewis and Cliff Robertson have also stayed in Room 225 in the past.

The concierge also told me that in each room where a celebrity has stayed, the hotel has put a replica of that celebrity’s star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame on display. How incredibly cool is that? (And yes, you can call up and ask to stay in the “Drew Barrymore” or “Mark Wahlberg” room, for example.) My mom happened to book Casita Number 936 for our stay and I just about died upon opening the front door and seeing the above-pictured star on the wall. As it turns out, Robert Wagner had once stayed in our room! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! Especially since my grandma had gifted me with his autobiography Pieces of my Heart: A Life last Christmas and I absolutely LOVED it.

Casita 936 was absolutely gorgeous and consisted of a king bed and a queen-sized sleeper sofa, a fireplace, a HUGE bathroom . . .

. . . and an absolutely ENOURMOUS private walled patio which boasted gorgeous pool and mountain views. I seriously did not want to leave!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Frank Capra wrote It’s A Wonderful Life while staying at the resort. The legendary director/screenwriter first came to La Quinta in the late 1920s while writing the screenplay for It Happened One Night. After the movie won a staggering five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay, Capra became superstitious, calling the hotel his “Shangri-La for script-writing”, and returned there to pen many of his subsequent screenplays, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and, of course, It’s A Wonderful Life. Frank, and his wife Lucille, always stayed in the same room while vacationing at the resort – Suite 136 in the San Anselmo Casita – and their room is now marked with both a memorial placard and a memorial bench. According to one of the staff members that I spoke with, the very typewriter that Frank used to write those famous scripts is still on display inside of the room! So incredibly cool! The staff member even offered to take me on a tour of Frank’s former casita and to show me the typewriter, but when he radioed to get a set of keys brought to him, was told it was occupied. Such a bummer!

As you can see in the above picture, the theme of the resort’s month-long winter celebration is apparent as soon as one sets foot on the property!

As you turn into the resort’s long, palm tree-lined driveway, you are immediately greeted with a large saying “You are now in Bedford Falls”, which looks EXACTLY like the sign that was featured in the movie It’s A Wonderful Life. So incredibly cool!

The resort’s Plaza area is awash with Christmas decorations . . .

. . . which, thanks to thousands of Tivoli lights, only gets more spectacular at night!

The pathway leading to the Plaza is decorated with hundreds of candle-lit luminarias, as you can see in the above photograph.

And there is also a HUGE, 43-foot white fir tree flanking the front of the property.

Best of all, though, is the fact that the hotel projects It’s A Wonderful Life onto the wall of the Plaza’s Salon de Fiesta each evening!

Oh, and the front of the resort is also rigged to “snow” each night, which you can kind of see in the above photograph. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Legend has it that Irving Berlin also penned the song “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” while staying at the historic hotel and, as fate would have it, we happened to walk to into the lobby on Saturday night while some carolers were singing that very song. I cannot tell you how cool it was to be sitting in front of the resort’s roaring fireplace, hearing Berlin’s famous words being sung while looking out at the very landscape that inspired them!

I am fairly certain this goes without saying, but I honestly cannot recommend stalking La Quinta Resort & Club enough! It is a truly magical, truly unique place and I loved every minute of being there!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: La Quinta Resort & Club is located at 49-499 Eisenhower Drive in La Quinta. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. Frank Capra stayed in Room 136 in the San Anselmo Casita, Robert Wagner stayed in Room 936, Britney Spears stayed in Room 225 – El Presidente – and Michael Jackson stayed in Room 735 – Hacienda Grande.

November 8, 2010November 8, 2010

Villa Sorriso – The Restaurant Where Michael Jackson’s “Celebration of Life” Reception Was Held

One location that I stalked quite a while back, but, for whatever reason, have yet to blog about is Villa Sorriso Ristorante – the Italian eatery where the Jackson family hosted the September 3, 2009 “Celebration of Life” reception for pop star Michael Jackson following his burial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. I dragged my good friend Nat, who was in town visiting from the San Francisco-area, and the Grim Cheaper out to the Old Town Pasadena restaurant this past June to celebrate my 33rd birthday after the place had been high up on my “To Stalk” list for close to a year. And I have to say that the restaurant was definitely worth the wait! I absolutely fell in love with the place immediately upon entering.

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Villa Sorriso is absolutely HUGE and is composed of two formerly separate spaces that originally housed the restaurants Clearwater Seafood and Old Town Bakery. The 12,000-square foot property currently consists of a central outdoor courtyard that encircles a large silver fountain, a side patio with private cabanas that are available for rent, a martini bar and lounge complete with a separate VIP section, a private upstairs lounge named Zebra, and several indoor dining areas. Sorriso, as it was originally known, first opened back in 1991 and at the time was located at 46 East Colorado Boulevard, across the street from its current location, and was, ironically enough, the very first Pasadena restaurant my family and I ate at upon moving to the City of Roses a little over a decade ago. The eatery moved to its current location in early 2004, whereupon “Villa” was added to its name. Ironically enough, the Italian restaurant is actually owned by a Taiwanese-born aerospace engineer/investment baker named Jack Huang. After working in the aerospace industry for over a decade, Huang had a short stint heading up the worker’s compensation department of the popular Panda Express Chinese food chain, during which he became interested in opening a restaurant of his own. In 1994, Jack, along with his wife, Karen, founded his first eatery, Wok ‘N’ Roll Sushi, which was also coincidentally Old Town Pasadena’s very first sushi bar. In 2000, he purchased the already established Sorriso Ristorante from its original owner, Varo Angeletti, and set about revamping and updating the property which, at the time, was floundering. The restaurant became a hit and a few years later he moved it to its current, larger home. Instead of subletting the lease on the former Sorriso space, Jack decided to open up a tapas bar named Bar Celona in its place. And in November of 2009, he bought out the owners of the now-defunct Fred’s Mexican Cafe and opened up ix-Tapa Cantina, a spot which just so happens to be my very favorite Mexican restaurant in Pasadena.

Villa Sorriso is an absolutely beautiful place that serves up some fabulous food and I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough. I ordered the crusted rosemary chicken entree while I was there and it was simply delicious!! My favorite part about the restaurant, though, had to be the fact that old black-and-white movies are projected onto the walls of the courtyard each night, as you can see in the above photograph. So incredibly cool!

For Michael Jackson’s “Celebration of Life”, the Jackson family rented out the entire restaurant to host 250 of the King of Pop’s closest family and friends. Guests included Macaulay Culkin, Mila Kunis, Corey Feldman, Al Sharpton, and Gladys Knight. The entire Jackson family – most notably Jermaine – has apparently been frequenting the restaurant since it first opened back in 1991, which is how they decided upon holding the gathering there. Quite a few industry parties have been held there over the years as well, including the January 2010 FOX Broadcasting Company’s UpFront after-party, at which Lisa Edelstein, Jesse Spencer, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Dianna Agron, Jane Lynch, Cory Monteith, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Jenna Ushkowitz, Emily Deschanel, Olivia Wilde, and Seth Green were all in attendance. You can see photographs of that party here. My girl Shannen Doherty has also been spotted at the restaurant in the past.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Villa Sorriso is located at 168 West Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

October 28, 2010September 29, 2017

The “Thriller” House

Today, in honor of Halloween, I thought I’d blog about what is arguably the most famous haunted house of all time – the Victorian-style residence that was featured in the 1983 music video “Michael Jackson’s Thriller”. Even though I’ve actually already blogged about this location once before (way back in December of 2007 when I first started my site!), because I mixed it in with a post about Halliwell Manor from Charmed which is located on the same street, I thought it was about time that the “Thriller” house was given proper recognition with its very own post. Especially since my dad recently transferred our VHS recording of “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” onto a DVD so that we could finally watch it again, being that neither of us has owned a working VCR in about five years time. I used to watch the “Making Of” special almost weekly as a child and was absolutely ENTRALLED with it. And I am very happy to report that over twenty-seven years later, the behind-the-scenes special is JUST as enthralling. 🙂 I wish the Jackson family would release it on DVD as I’d love to have a copy that wasn’t taped off of television.

In real life, the property is known as the Sanders House and it was originally built in 1887! Yes, you read that right – the residence is over 123 years old! It was commissioned by a man named Michael Sanders who ran a storage warehouse in Los Angeles at the time. The Queen Anne/Eastlake-style home boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 3,532 square feet of living space – which I was shocked to discover as the residence looks to be much smaller from the street. The property was originally a single family residence, but has since been converted into a duplex-type dwelling, and has been undergoing an extensive restoration project for the past decade. In 1971, the home was declared a cultural historic monument and the entire 1300 block of Carroll Avenue, where the “Thriller” house is located, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see some fabulous historic photographs of the “Thriller” house and its neighboring homes here. And you can read a more in-depth write-up on the history of the Sanders House on fave website Big Orange Landmarks here.

I was only at the “Thriller” house for about ten minutes yesterday and no less than three different groups of fellow stalkers showed up to take pictures of the place while I was there – and it was in the middle of the day no less! Simply amazing! I was really hoping that the “Thriller” homeowners would have decorated their abode for Halloween, but as it turns out they are not currently very thrilled about the publicity that their property’s famous history generates. According to a SUPER nice neighbor whom I spoke with while I was stalking the place yesterday, shortly after Michael Jackson passed away in June of last year, a deplorable fan stole the mailbox from the “Thriller” house and the homeowner is still pretty upset about it – especially being that the mailbox was the original one which was installed when the residence was first built over 123 years ago! I can’t even believe that a person would have the audacity to not only trespass on someone else’s property, but to then steal something from that property while doing so. It is people like that who give us harmless stalkers a bad name and it makes me madder and madder the more I think about it. Not only did that thief sour the residents on the magic of owning and living in the “Thriller” house, but they also destroyed part of a historic landmark in the process. UGH! Don’t even get me started!

The super nice neighbor also informed me that the 1300 block of Carroll Avenue is THE place to be on Halloween. One year he counted over 2,000 trick-or-treaters knocking on his front door alone! Halliwell Manor from Charmed (pictured above) is already decked out for the occasion, but the neighbor said that all of the houses on the block – not just the famous ones – typically have lines of about twenty to thirty people standing out in front of them all night long. Amazing! I would SO love to stalk the neighborhood on Halloween, but I already have plans to spend the holiday in Santa Barbara this year. Ah well, there’s always next year.

Only the exterior of the “Thriller” house was used in the filming of the music video.

All of the interior scenes were shot on a soundstage somewhere in Los Angeles.

You can watch the video “Michael Jackson’s Thriller” by clicking above.

The “Thriller” house was also used as the residence of Finn (aka Reynaldo Rosales) in the Season 4 episode of Charmed titled “Size Matters’”.

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And fellow stalker Angela from Florida alerted me to the fact that the dwelling was also used as the residence of Madam Serena (aka Zelda Rubinstein) in the 1989 movie Teen Witch. It is quite ironic that the house belonged to a woman named Serena in the flick, as the star of Teen Witch was none other than Robin Lively – real life sister of Blake Lively, who plays the famous Serena van der Woodsen on TV’s Gossip Girl.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house from “Michael Jackson’s Thriller” is located at 1345 Carroll Avenue in the Angelino Heights section of Los Angeles, just a few miles north of Downtown. The Halliwell sisters’ house from Charmed is located two doors east of the “Thriller” house at 1329 Carroll Avenue. And Holly’s Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 1347 Kellam Avenue. If you stalk any of these locations, please, please do not trespass and, for God’s sake, do NOT steal, touch, or destroy ANYTHING while there!

June 25, 2010June 24, 2010

Jim Henson Studios – Where “We Are The World” Was Recorded

One year ago today the world said good-bye to a man who was arguably the greatest music legend who ever lived – the irreplaceable King of Pop, Michael Jackson. In some ways, it feels as if more than a decade has passed since June 25th of last year when Michael passed way, yet in other ways it seems as if it all happened just yesterday. When I reminded my fiancé of today’s significance, he said, “Are you going to be O.K.?” And that right there is why I am marrying him – instead of making fun of me or treating my sadness as silly, he just simply gets it. 🙂 Anyway, in honor of today’s sad anniversary, I thought I would write about a location where Michael Jackson spent some happier times – the former Charlie Chaplin Studios in Hollywood, where the pop star, along with 46 of his famous friends, recorded the ground-breaking “We Are The World” single over two and a half decades ago. At the time, the lot was the headquarters for A&M Records, but its history actually began a few decades before that.

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Charlie Chaplin began construction on his independent movie studio in 1917 after purchasing a five-acre parcel of land at the corner of Sunset and La Brea Boulevards from a man named R.S. McClellan, who lived on the property at the time. And while there are varying reports as to when the Charlie Chaplin Studios officially opened for business, according to the Jim Henson Company Lot website that date was January 21, 1918. At the time of its inception, the former Charlie Chaplin Studios featured production offices, a screening room, a film laboratory, a large ten-room house where his brother sometimes lived, a backlot, a swimming pool, tennis courts, stables, and two soundstages. The perimeter of the lot was, and still is to this day, dotted with numerous Tudor-style cottages and the property looks more like a small English village than it does a Hollywood movie studio. It is quaint, whimsical, and charming and definitely gives off a Disneyland-ish kind of vibe. Ironically enough, the studio is also very reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s former residence at Neverland Ranch. During his tenure there, Chaplin filmed numerous hit movies including Gold Rush, City Lights, Limelight, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator. In 1953, he sold the property to a real estate investor from New York and it became known as Kling Studios. In the years following, the lot changed hands numerous times and several famous television shows, including The Adventures of Superman, Red Skelton, Soul Train, and Perry Mason, were filmed on the premises. Actor Raymond Burr even reportedly lived on the lot for a brief period of time. In 1966, the property was purchased by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss of A&M Records, who immediately set about transforming the lot’s two soundstages into recording studios. And it was in one of those studios that Michael Jackson and friends recorded “We Are The World” on January 28, 1985.

Forty-six fellow music icons of varying genres joined Michael for the recording, including Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner, and Ray Charles. According to several sources, Quincy Jones, who produced the song, reportedly posted a sign on the recording studio’s front door which stated, “Please check your egos at the door.” Love it! The session began at 10:30 p.m., immediately following that year’s American Music Awards ceremony, and lasted until 8 o’clock the following morning. Since its release on March 7, 1985, the song, which has the distinction of being the biggest-selling single in US history!!!, has raised over $63 million in aid for the U.S.A. for Africa foundation. And while Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie share an author credit for the song, it’s fairly common knowledge that MJ was responsible for penning the vast majority of it – and he supposedly did it all over the course of one night. And while “We Are The World” was largely a collaborative effort between the music greats of the day who all came together to benefit those less fortunate in a way that had never been done before and has yet to be done since, the truth is that none of it would have taken place if not for MJ. You can watch the official “We Are The World” video by clicking above. The re-recording of “We Are The World”, which took place on February 1, 2010 and benefitted the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, was also recorded at the former Charlie Chaplin Studios.

In November of 1999, Jim Henson’s five children purchased the studio as a new home for the Jim Henson Company and began an extensive remodel project before finally moving in on May 1, 2000. In honor of the lot’s historic first owner, the family made plans to erect a statue of Kermit the Frog, dressed up as Charlie Chaplin’s famed Tramp character, atop the studio’s front gates. And while I absolutely love the statue, it apparently drew quite a bit of criticism from historical conservationists who didn’t want the studio facade changed in any way. I swear, some people will complain about anything! I’ve mentioned in the past how much I abhor change, but, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, I find the statue to be a nostalgic nod to Charlie Chaplin and a charming reminder of the studio’s historic past, not an affront to it. Thankfully, city planners agreed with me and even though the lot was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1969 (such a designation prohibits any sort of change to the property), the Henson family was allowed to erect their Kermit-dressed-as-Chaplin statue. Love it!

And while the studio is closed to the public, quite a bit of it is visible through the front gate, including the schoolhouse;

the above-pictured barn-looking structure, which served as a carpenter’s shop in Charlie’s day and is now the Henson Studio’s “Creature Shop”;

a photograph of Charlie dressed as “The Tramp”;

and the “Jim Henson Company” sign. The security guard on duty could NOT have been nicer and not only answered all of my silly questions about the history of the lot, but also let us take all of the pictures of the place that we wanted. 🙂

The coolest aspect of the lot, though, can be found just south of its main gate.

Just to the right of the lot’s Historic-Cultural Monument sign is a door which is painted with Chaplin’s image.

And just below that door is a set of cement stairs where, on January 21, 1918, Chaplin not only signed his name,

but imprinted several sets of his footprints in wet cement. So darn cool! And while it is a shame that the studio does not currently offer tours of the premises, I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough. Just being able to look through the gates at the historic buildings which played host to such legendary events in music and cinematic history was an incredible experience for me.

Michael, you are missed.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jim Henson Studios, the former A & M Records headquarters where Michael Jackson recorded “We Are The World”, is located at 1416 North La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. You can visit the Jim Henson Company Lot website here. To read the PopWatch website’s guide to the many Michael Jackson tributes that will be airing today and throughout the weekend, click here.

April 19, 2010April 20, 2010

The Michael Jackson Auditorium at Gardner Street Elementary School

A few weeks ago, fellow stalker and mega-MJ-aficionado David from Spain told me about a King of Pop location that I wasn’t previously aware of – the Michael Jackson Auditorium at Gardner Street Elementary School. So, of course, I just had to run right out and stalk it! MJ attended the Hollywood area school for a few brief months in late 1969/early 1970, after the 11-year old singer and his four brothers first moved to Southern California from their hometown of Gary, Indiana to begin their new lives as performers. At the time, the Jackson 5, who had recently been signed to the Motown record label, were on the cusp of superstardom. Young Michael attended sixth grade classes at Gardner Street Elementary School during the day – you can view his class picture here – while the group recorded songs for their new label at night. But, in January of 1970, after only a few short months at the school, the Jackson 5 skyrocketed to fame, their single “I Want You Back” hit number one, and Michael’s popularity made it so that he could no longer be a part of a normal school environment. He withdrew from Gardner Street and from that point forward was homeschooled by a private tutor named Rose Fine. But the story doesn’t end there.

In 1989, almost two full decades after he attended classes there, Gardner Street Elementary School decided to honor its most famous alumnae by renaming its assembly room the “Michael Jackson Auditorium”. On October 11th, to the delight of the student body, the King of Pop himself showed up for the dedication ceremony, where he was presented with a plaque by his sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Laura Gerson. The pop star made a brief speech thanking the students, the faculty, and the PTA, donated a large sum of money to the school, planted rose bushes on the campus, and even signed the wall of Room 8 – his former sixth grade classroom. In the years following the dedication, Michael also personally paid the salary of the school’s music teacher out of his own pocket, an act which I find absolutely amazing!

You can watch a video of the Michael Jackson Auditorium dedication ceremony by clicking above.

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But, once again, the story doesn’t end there. Sadly, in November of 2003, following the singer’s arrest on molestation charges in the Gavin Arvizo case, Gardner Street School covered over the Michael Jackson portion of the auditorium’s sign with paint and a plywood box. According to a November 25, 2003 Los Angeles Times article written by Erika Hayasaki, school district spokeswoman Stephanie Brady stated that administrators chose to cover the sign due to complaints from angry parents. She said the sign “may” be uncovered following the trial, if the singer was found innocent. But, even though, Michael Jackson was indeed acquitted of all charges on June 13, 2005, the sign remained covered, and still does to this day, seven years after the fact. And while in America one is supposed to remain innocent until proven guilty, that certainly wasn’t the case here. It’s pretty unbelievable to me that after BOTH his acquittal and subsequent death this past June, the plywood box has yet to come down. You can see what the Michael Jackson Auditorium looked like before its sign was covered up here.

All that currently remains alerting anyone to the auditorium’s former name is a small plaque which reads “Michael Jackson Auditorium, Dedicated October 11, 1989”. The plaque is barely visible, though, and we had to use my fiancé’s telephoto lens to snap a picture of it. After telling me about this location, fellow stalker David said “I must admit, I am dying to stalk this place . . . but, at the same time, I am also dying to to go there and throw a bunch of eggs at their doors.” And that pretty much sums up how I felt while I was there, too. English may be his second language, but David sure has a way with words! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to David for telling me about this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Michael Jackson Auditorium can be found at Gardner Street Elementary School which is located at 7450 Hawthorn Avenue in Hollywood. The Auditorium can best be viewed from the corner of Hawthorne Avenue and North Gardner Street. Please remember that this location is a school and that schools do NOT take kindly to trespassing. I must caution you that there are, by no stretch of the imagination, at least ten signs out front warning that all uninvited visitors who trespass will be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Schools don’t really mess around when it comes to trespassing, so please be aware that if you set foot on the Gardner Street Elementary School campus you are breaking the law and will be subject to arrest. To sign a petition to restore Michael Jackson’s name to the Gardner Street Elementary School auditorium, please click here and to learn more about the cause, click here.

March 30, 2010September 6, 2017

The Probable “Beat It” Diner, Part II

[UPDATE – The Monte Carlo Restaurant is NOT where “Beat It” was filmed. The iconic video was actually shot at the Special Café, located just a few blocks away. You can read all about it here. Even though this post contains erroneous information, I am leaving it up as it chronicles an important part of the long, arduous journey my fellow stalkers and I embarked upon to track the locale down.]

This past Friday, after yet another doctor appointment in Downtown L.A., my dad and I stopped by the Monte Carlo Restaurant, aka the (probable) diner which appeared in Michael Jackson’s 1983 music video for his hit song “Beat It”. Our mission that day – and yes, we chose to accept it 😉 – was two-fold. First, I wanted to take more interior photographs of the place in the hopes that I would be able to find some small element which matched what appeared in the video so that I could finally confirm or deny once and for all whether or not “Beat It” had actually been filmed there. Second, I wanted to take a closer look at the restaurant’s “Open/Closed” sign to see if it was, in fact, the same exact one which was featured in the video, as fellow stalker John had speculated in a comment in my last post on the Monte Carlo. If it was, my plan was to ask the owner if we could swap it out with a new sign that my dad had purchased so that I could take the “Beat It” sign home as a souvenir. Upon closer inspection, though, the sign which is currently displayed in the window of the Monte Carlo Restaurant is brand, spanking new and is in far too good of shape and is far too clean to possibly be the same sign which hung there 27 years ago. But . . .

. . . as luck would have it, while we were dining my dad did happen to spot a loose linoleum floor tile that someone had propped up against the wall near where we were sitting, so he snagged it on our way out the door. I’m really not kidding – he actually walked out of the restaurant with a floor tile in his hand!!!! LOL And while I’m still not even sure if “Beat It” was actually filmed at the Monte Carlo or, if it was, if that particular floor tile was in place at the time, it’s still a pretty cool relic to have. But, while I did walk away with a nifty souvenir, sadly the first part of our mission was not achieved as we didn’t get any sort of confirmation about “Beat It” being filmed on the premises. In fact, if it’s possible, I am even MORE confused now than I was before! This was actually a particularly frustrating stalk for me. The woman who owns the Monte Carlo is Chinese and speaks very little English and I can’t tell you how difficult it is to know that she has all of the answers I am seeking, yet not be able to fully communicate with her. I am dying to bring someone into the restaurant who speaks Chinese fluently who could translate our conversation as I think it would finally put an end to all of our doubts and questions about the “Monte Carlo” being the “Beat It” cafe. Any volunteers??? Anyway, to aid in my conversation with the owner, I showed her some screen captures from “Beat It” that I had stored on my cell phone. Well, let me tell you, she just about had a heart attack right then and there! She was practically screaming over the pictures and kept saying “My restaurant! My restaurant! Oh my God, my restaurant!” She immediately grabbed my phone and proceeded to show the pictures on it to all of the people who were working the breakfast shift and all of the patrons who were dining at the time. She then came back over to me and, from what I could best understand, said that she had been made to leave the restaurant during the filming of “Beat It”, so she never got to meet or even see Michael. She also explained that she had never actually watched the video before – which I found very odd. If the biggest superstar in the world filmed a video in your cafe, wouldn’t you not only have seen said video, but also bought a copy of it? So, while it was extremely cute to see her get so excited over the pictures of Michael standing in her restaurant, it really gives me pause that she had never seen “Beat It’” before. Because of the communication barrier, though, I wasn’t able to ask her why that was. Like I said before, I really need to get a translator in there!

I did spot a few landmarks of sorts while my dad and I were at the Monte Carlo that match up with what appeared in the video – one of which was the conduit pipe which runs horizontally along the restaurant’s south wall. I am ashamed to admit that I actually never noticed the pipe in the video until fellow stalker David from Spain pointed it out to me a couple of weeks ago when I posted my first write-up on the “Beat It” cafe. So, this past Friday while stalking the restaurant I made sure to look to see if that pipe was there in real life, too, which it was! YAY! That’s a pretty big confirmation, at least in my eyes, that the Monte Carlo is, in fact, the same place that appeared in “Beat It”.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the lower portion of the wall next to the restaurant’s entrance also matches the lower portion of the wall that appeared in the video. It is apparent that the area of the wall closest to the floor was once painted a lighter shade of green, as was the case in “Beat It”. The flooring also appears to be worn in pretty much the exact same spots as it was in the video. But, again, I would expect that sort of wear and tear in an old restaurant.

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My dad took some photographs from close to the same angle from which “Beat It” was filmed so that I could try to match up certain aspects of the Monte Carlo to the “Beat It” cafe, but I am still unable to say whether or not it’s the same place. I’d love to hear the opinions of my fellow stalkers, though. 🙂

In a very ironic twist of fate, fellow stalker David from Spain was recently watching videos at a party and almost fell off his chair when he noticed a familiar site in the 2004 Hoobastank video for the song “The Reason”. That familiar site just so happened to be the Monte Carlo! Yes, “The Reason” was filmed on location outside of the probable “Beat It” diner!!!! Honestly, what are the odds of that? What amazed me most about the whole thing, though, was how much of the restaurant has changed in the six short years since the video was filmed. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the exterior is almost unrecognizable. In fact, if the “Monte Carlo” name hadn’t been displayed outside, I wouldn’t have believed it was the same place! Apparently, at the time “The Reason” was filmed the restaurant had a green metal roof, a green metal overhang/awing, and completely different exterior signage, all of which is now gone, which got me to thinking – if that much has changed in six short years, imagine the myriad of changes that have occurred in the twenty-seven years since “Beat It” was filmed. I mean, it’s no wonder the cafe looks so different today than it did in the video.

On a Michael Jackson side note – I recently became obsessed with tracking down and purchasing the SUPER CUTE rhinestone-encrusted MJ T-shirt that comedian Jo Koy wore last week on the Chelsea Lately show (pictured above). Thankfully, after the episode aired Jo twittered about where one could purchase said shirt and I immediately did. 🙂 The tee was created by a company named Broke2 and costs $40. Not a bad deal, at all! I had a feeling that some fellow MJ-obsessed stalkers might also be interested in the shirt. If so, you can pick one up here. They come in both women’s and men’s styles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The probable “Beat It” diner, aka the Monte Carlo Restaurant, is located at 109 East Fifth Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Please remember that the cafe is not located in the safest of areas, so exercise caution when stalking it.