Year: 2012

The Incorrectly Identified “Leave It to Beaver” House

Last week, the latest issue of Los Angeles Magazine arrived in my mailbox and I, of course, tore the thing right open and devoured it in one sitting, as I do pretty much every month. Particularly fascinating was a feature titled “Affairs of Estate” about three unique communities in L.A., one of which – Lafayette Square – piqued my interest. In a sidebar, author Ann Herold listed four of the neighborhood’s most famous houses, most notably “the dormered two-story at 1727 Buckingham” which, she stated, was “home base for the Cleavers in the Leave It to Beaver pilot”. Well, believe you me, I was extremely excited upon learning this news and not only added the address to my To-Stalk list, but dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there this past weekend. As I discovered after I returned home, though, the article’s information was actually incorrect and, from what I can tell, the Lafayette Square property has no connection whatsoever to the iconic 1957 television series.

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Lafayette Square, which, prior to the “Affairs of Estate” article, I had been unaware of, is comprised of 236 stately homes situated on ten small blocks and was originally developed by banker George L. Crenshaw in 1913. The community was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the famed military officer who served under George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Several of Los Angeles’ most-prominent citizens have lived in the upscale neighborhood, where the average home measures 3,600 square feet, including industrialist Norton Simon, boxer Joe Lewis and ill-fated actor Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. And while, as you can see below, portions of the place do indeed resemble a studio backlot, the area was not actually the site of the filming of the pilot episode of Leave It to Beaver.

Leave It to Beaver actually had two pilots. The first, titled “It’s a Small World”, aired on April 23rd, 1957 as a segment of the anthology show Heinz Studio 57, but was never shown as a part of the actual Leave It to Beaver series. “It’s a Small World” was aired once again in October 2007 during TV Land’s 50th anniversary celebration of LITB and was also released in 2005 on the Leave It to Beaver: The Complete First Season DVD set. The house featured as the Cleaver residence in that pilot is pictured below and, as you can see, it bears no resemblance to the property located at 1727 Buckingham Road, which is also pictured below. After doing a little digging online, I discovered (thanks to the RetroWeb website) that the LITB pilot house was actually a façade located on the Republic Studios (now CBS Studio Center) backlot. (You can see an aerial photograph of the façade if you scroll down to the “Flashback to the Cleavers’ Original ‘Neighborhood’” section of the RetroWeb post.)

No establishing shot of the Cleaver residence was shown in Leave It to Beaver’s actual pilot, which aired on October 4th, 1957 and was titled “Beaver Gets ‘Spelled’”. Interestingly enough, though, that episode was not intended to be the pilot, but was filmed as the third in the series. The intended pilot, titled “Captain Jack”, was held up by the censor’s office due to the fact that there was a scene featuring a toilet tank. How taboo! “Captain Jack” did eventually pass the censor’s office and wound up airing as the second episode of Season 1 on October 11th, 1957. In it (and all subsequent Season 1 and 2 episodes), the house below, which was said to be located at 485 Maple Drive in the fictional city of Mayfield, served as the Cleaver residence. According to The Studio Tour website (which provides a fabulous history of the Cleaver home), this property was also just a façade that was once located on the Republic Studios backlot. As you can see, though, it, too, bears no resemblance to the Buckingham Road house.

In between Seasons 2 and 3, filming of Leave It to Beaver moved from Republic Studios to Universal Studios and the Cleaver family, in turn, moved into a new house – the house pictured below, which was (and still is) a façade located on the Universal Studios backlot. On the series, the new residence was purported to be located at 211 Pine Street in Mayfield. And while some have speculated that the façade (which was originally constructed for the filming of the 1955 Humphrey Bogart thriller The Desperate Hours) was modeled after the real life Buckingham Road house, being that the resemblance between the two is rather fleeting, I doubt that to be the case. How the Lafayette Square home came to be connected to Leave It to Beaver is anyone’s guess, but the rumors apparently date all the way back to 1991. And in case anyone is wondering if the Buckingham Road home might possibly have been used in the subsequent Still the Beaver made-for-television movie, The New Leave It to Beaver TV series or the 1997 Leave It to Beaver movie, according to The Studio Tour website, all three productions used facades at Universal Studios.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The incorrectly identified Leave It To Beaver house is located at 1727 Buckingham Road in the Lafayette Square section of Los Angeles.

September 6, 2012
The LAPD/FBI Headquarters from “The Fast and the Furious”

One location that I am asked about constantly is the mid-century modern-style, circular-shaped home that served as the LAPD/FBI undercover headquarters in the 2001 flick The Fast and the Furious. And while fellow stalker Gary, of the Seeing Stars website, had briefly written about the Beverly Hills property a couple of years ago after learning that it had, sadly, been torn down (despite the best efforts of the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee), since I get asked about it frequently and since it was such an incredibly unique residence, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a blog post.

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In The Fast and the Furious, the circular home, which was said to have been confiscated by the LAPD, popped up quite frequently. The areas shown include the central courtyard and pool;

the front entrance . . .

. . . and the interior. As you can see, the place was pretty darn spectacular and extraordinary. My mind is absolutely boggled over the fact that someone would want to tear it down!

The same house was also featured in 2000’s Hanging Up as the residence where Lou Mozell (Walter Matthau) lived. In the movie, the property is referred to as being on Angelo Drive, which was its actual former location. Quite a lot of the house appeared in the flick, including the front exterior;

the interior;

and the pool and courtyard, which were shown in both a dilapidated . . .

. . . and normal state.

I absolutely love Meg Ryan’s hair cut in Hanging Up, by the way. So adorable! I might just have to get mine cut that way, too! But I digress.

In The Fast and the Furious, Sgt. Tanner (Ted Levine) says of the circular abode, “You know, Eddie Fisher built this house for Elizabeth Taylor in the ‘50s.” That anecdote is actually untrue, though. According to the Estately website, in real life, the home, which was designed by architect David Fowler for his mother, was built in 1963 and boasted 4 bedrooms, 6 baths, 5,444 square feet, and over six acres of land with unparalleled 180-degree views of the city. After the residence was sold in 2000 for $2.8 million, the entire thing was bulldozed to the ground in order to make room for a new – and absolutely gargantuan – mansion (which you can see below in an aerial view that I got from a 2012 Wall Street Journal video).

According to fave website Curbed LA, the new mansion, which belongs to Anthony Pritzker (heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune), boasts 53,000 total square feet (although the main house measures “only” 49,300 square feet), a two-level basement, a media library, a “hairdressing area” (whatever that is), a gym complete with changing rooms, an arts and crafts room, his-and-her offices, a floating pool, a game room, a two-lane bowling alley, an entertainment foyer with a bar, a detached guest house, and a rec room. The residence is, according to Property Shark, the second-largest house in all of Los Angeles. The only residence bigger? The Manor – aka the former Mapleton Drive home of Aaron and Candy Spelling.

Sadly though, as you can see below, other than the exterior gates, no part of the property is visible from the road.

I was able to track down the below historic aerial images of the house, though, on the Historic Aerials website. As you can see, the home was originally built in the shape of a perfect circle. So incredibly cool!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The house that was used as the LAPD/FBI headquarters in The Fast and the Furious was formerly located at 1261 Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills. A very different residence stands on that site today.

September 5, 2012
Molly Malone’s from “Patriot Games”

Way back in mid-June, while trying to track down the Irish pub that masquerades as Scully’s bar on fave show Parks and Recreation (a location that I still have, maddeningly, yet to find, by the way), I came across a website for a Fairfax District-area watering hole named Molly Malone’s. The website mentioned that the historic establishment had been featured in several movies over the years, including Patriot Games, Leaving Las Vegas and Life Without Dick. And even though I am not particularly a fan of any of the three flicks, I just about died of excitement upon reading the news and immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list. Why, oh why, do more bars and restaurants not post similar such information on their websites? It would make my job so much easier! And while I was not able to drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk Molly’s until two Saturdays ago, I have to say that the place was most-definitely well worth the wait.

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Molly Malone’s, which is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue, was originally founded sometime (I believe) during the 1960s. In 1970, the place was taken over by a Dublin-born homemaker named Angela Hanlon, who had come to Los Angeles via Baltimore with her entertainer husband. Finding herself homesick for her native land, Hanlon one day ventured in Molly’s and quickly became a regular. And although there are several differing reports as to how Hanlon came to own the watering hole, the story I like best, which was chronicled in a 1997 Los Angeles Times article, is that, on one very fateful day, Hanlon loaned Molly’s then-owner money and when he skipped town shortly thereafter, the place wound up in her hands. Molly Malone’s has been owned and operated by the Hanlon family ever since.

The space at 575 South Fairfax housed bars long before Molly Malone’s was ever founded, though. According to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article by Hillary Johnson, legend has it that the 575 Club, one of the many watering holes to precede Molly’s, was actually one of the first to be given an alcohol license after Prohibition.

Molly Malone’s dark walls are covered with over seventy original paintings – almost all of them renderings of the bar’s regular customers – created by legendary oil painter Neil Boyle, who was a loyal patron of the drinkery for decades until he passed away in 2006. Lorraine Devon Wilke writes in a 2011 Huffington Post article, “For an artist whose pieces command phenomenal fees, who was always in demand for murals and commissioned work, and whose work hangs in galleries and museums around the country, the prestige of showcasing such valuable art was undeniable to Molly’s. Some patrons came in simply to view Neil’s paintings. It was a draw. Literally.”

In the 1995 LA Times article that I mentioned above, author Hillary Johnson states, “A sign on the wall says, ‘Dublin, 40 km.’ Some would say it’s closer.” And I would have to agree with that sentiment. As soon as we walked through Molly Malone’s dark wooden front door, we were welcomed like old friends. And when I asked the bartender on duty about the various movies filmed on the premises, he came out from behind his post, grabbed me by the hand and proceeded to take me on a tour of the place. And he even introduced me to Molly’s former longtime manager, who just happened to be on site that day, to see if he could answer any more of my questions! Talk about hospitality! Love it!

Besides being a filming location, Molly Malone’s has also long been popular with the Hollywood set. According to the former manager that I spoke with, Lenny Kravitz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Mickey Rourke, and Ralph Fiennes have all been spotted there. The place is also a live music venue and boasts a large back room, complete with a stage, where many young musicians have gotten their start.

The band Flogging Molly not only cut their teeth at the bar, but named themselves in honor of it. Of the name, front-man Dave King said, “We used to play there every Monday night and we felt like we were flogging it to death, so we called the band Flogging Molly.” Love it!

In 1992’s Patriot Games, Molly Malone’s was the Irish pub where Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) threatened to destroy Paddy O’Neil (Richard Harris) after O’Neil refused to tell him the whereabouts of Sean Miller (Sean Bean) and Kevin O’Donnell (Patrick Bergin).

While numerous websites state that either Boardner’s of Hollywood (which I blogged about here) or Cock ‘N Bull British Pub in Santa Monica was the bar featured in the opening scene of 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas, that information is actually incorrect. The bar in question was actually Molly Malone’s and it popped up twice in the flick, first in the scene in which Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) rather aggressively purchases a random woman named Terri (Valeria Golino) a drink before inviting her home with him.

It next appeared in the scene in which the “L.A. Bartender” (Graham Beckel) urged Ben to stop drinking once and for all.

Molly Malone’s also popped up twice in 2002’s Life Without Dick. It first appeared in the scene in which hitman Daniel Gallagher (Harry Connick Jr.) asked his friend Rex (David Cross) to get rid of a gun. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were used in that scene.

Molly’s next popped up in the scene in which Daniel finally admitted to his new girlfriend, Colleen Gibson (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker), that he was a hitman.

The exterior of Molly’s also appeared in that scene, as well.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Molly Malone’s, from Patriot Games, is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. The bar is a 21-and-over establishment, so, if you are going to stalk it, you will have to leave the kiddies at home. You can visit Molly Malone’s official website here.

September 4, 2012
Happy Labor Day!

I will be taking today off in honor of Labor Day (not Memorial Day as I originally posted – I always get those two holidays confused :)), but will be back tomorrow with a whole new location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

September 3, 2012
Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center from “Parks and Recreation”

One location that had been lingering at the top of my To-Stalk for more than a few months was Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, which stands in for Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, where Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) works, on fave show Parks and Recreation. I found this locale thanks to Mike, from the always-fabulous Franklin Avenue blog, who recognized the site way back in 2010 when it popped up in the Season 2 finale of P&R titled “Freddy Spaghetti”. And while I did drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the place in early June, because I had failed to bring along any screen captures, I could not for the life of me figure out which angle of the building was used on the show and we ended up leaving after just a few minutes. I promptly added Providence to my Re-Stalk list, though, and, after doing some celebrity stalking in the area this past Monday afternoon with my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, I dragged her right on over there to properly stalk the place.

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Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, which was originally founded in 1943 by the Sisters of Providence Health System, is the largest hospital in the entire San Fernando Valley, boasting 431 beds. The location is also one of the largest employers in the SFV, with over 650 physicians and a staff of almost 2,500 on its payroll. The hospital is located directly across the street from The Walt Disney Studios and, in fact, has a very large Disney connection.

Walt Disney himself turned over the first official piece of sod during Providence’s groundbreaking ceremony, provided funding for its construction, commissioned his animators to create artwork for the interior décor, and even served on the hospital’s original Advisory Board (all of which you can see pictures of on the Started by a Mouse website here). And sadly, after collapsing in his home on November 30th, 1966, he was taken to Providence where he remained for the next two weeks before passing away on December 15th. According to the Started By a Mouse website, during his hospital stay, Walt “plotted out designs for his property in Florida [Walt Disney World] on [Providence’s} acoustical ceiling tiles.” Walt’s older brother, Roy O. Disney, also passed away at Providence, five years later – almost to the day – on December 19th, 1971. But the connection does not end there. Just recently, in 2010, the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center (named in honor of Roy O.’s son, Roy E. Disney, and his former wife), was founded. According to the Providence website, the state-of-the-art, four-floor, 55,000-square-foot facility provides cutting-edge care to “treat the body, mind and spirit of each patient” and utilizes both Western medical technologies, such as radiation and chemotherapy, as well as Eastern, including acupuncture, meditation, fitness, yoga, and herbal remedies.

Parks and Recreation and Walt Disney are hardly Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center’s only claims to fame. Due to its proximity to both The Walt Disney Studios and NBC Studios, the hospital has seen its fair share of celebrities come through its automatic doors. Pop star Justin Bieber was taken there in January 2011 after suffering from an allergic reaction while filming an episode of CSI; Lucy Lawless was rushed there in October 1996 after falling off a horse while filming a skit for The Tonight Show; and John Ritter tragically passed away there on September 11th, 2003, as did Corey Haim on March 10th, 2010. (As you can see in the photograph below, some filming was actually taking place while Pinky and I were stalking the hospital, but we did not see any crew members whom we could ask about it. All of the filming signs were marked “BOP” and for the life of me I cannot figure out what that acronym stands for. Any ideas? UPDATE – the Providence Found blog tweeted me to let me know that the television series Body of Proof was filming at the hospital the day we were there. Thanks, Providence Found!)

On Parks and Recreation, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center pops up pretty much weekly in establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, or Saint Joseph’s Medical Center as it is also sometimes referred to.

The interior of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, though, is, of course, just a set.

Oddly enough, though, while Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center is used for all establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, a different location – St. Vincent Medical Center, located at 2131 West 3rd Street, just north of MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles – stood in for the place in the Season 1 finale of Parks and Recreation, which was titled “Rock Show”.

Some actual filming of that episode also took place inside of St. Vincent Medical Center.

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was also featured in the Season 2 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians titled “Kris the Cheerleader”, as the place where Kris Jenner underwent emergency knee surgery, although a different side of the building was shown than what is regularly shown on Parks and Rec.

Filming of the “Kris the Cheerleader” episode also took place inside of the hospital. And I have to comment here that, wow, that show is bad! It was painful just scanning through a single episode to make screen captures for this post!

The Providence Found blog let me know that in 2010’s Due Date, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was “Pacific Mercy Hospital” where Sarah Highman (Michelle Monaghan) gave birth and the place that Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) spent the entire movie trying to get to.

The interior of the hospital also appeared in the movie.

Providence Found also informed me that Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center stood in for “Los Angeles Hospital” where Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) discovered that her boyfriend, Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey), was married. The catwalk over the hospital’s healing garden was used in the film.

As was the GI waiting area.

On a stalking side-note – My buddy E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, who is easily one of the best researchers and wittiest writers I know, recently penned a book about Old Hollywood titled Unscripted: Hollywood Back-Stories, Volume 1. I highly recommend checking it out! You can purchase an e-copy of the book (it is currently only available digitally) on Nook here and on Kindle here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, aka Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital from Parks and Recreation, is located at 501 South Buena Vista Street in Burbank. You can visit the hospital’s official website here. The area shown in establishing shots on Parks and Recreation is the exterior of Providence’s emergency room, which is located off Buena Vista Street, while the Alameda Street entrance was the entrance shown on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

August 31, 2012
Sorry To Do This Again . . .

Sorry to do this again, but I have to take another day off. I have been burning the candle at both ends this week and, unfortunately, have not had much time for blogging. I do promise to be back tomorrow, though (and this time I really mean it! ) with a whole new location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

August 30, 2012
Premiering It With Miss Pinky Lovejoy

I spent all morning yesterday taking care of some business on the West Side and then the afternoon stalking the premiere of The Possession with Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, so I, unfortunately, did not have time to write a new post for today. But I will be back tomorrow with a whole new location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

August 29, 2012
Earthbar – One of Kristin Cavallari’s Favorite Haunts

Way back in mid-April, I stumbled upon some recently-published photographs of my girl Kristin Cavallari grabbing a smoothie at the Earthbar health market/juice bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. After spending a few minutes oogling her ensemble, which was comprised of an amazing tangerine dress and Kate Middleton-esque nude heels, I came to the conclusion that The Hills star was quite easily the cutest, most stylish pregnant woman I had ever laid eyes on. I, of course, promptly added Earthbar to my To-Stalk list – and then ran right out to buy myself a similar pair of nude heels, much to the Grim Cheaper’s chagrin. And while the GC and I ended up stalking Earthbar later that same week – and even had a celebrity sighting while there! – for whatever reason it has taken me this long to blog about the place. So without further ado . . .

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The Earthbar in West Hollywood, which is the company’s flagship store and premiere location, was originally opened in 2007 and was the brainchild of Bernie Bubman, the registered pharmacist who also founded the highly-popular Great Earth vitamin store chain in the 1970s, and his son, Noah. Earthbar became an immediate success and the father-son team have since opened nine sister locations in and around the L.A. area. (And I apologize for the horrible exterior photograph below. The sun was in the worst possible spot for picture-taking when we showed up to stalk the place. Boo!)

According to its website, Earthbar’s mission is “to provide people with hand-crafted nutrient-rich drinks along with state-of-the-art supplements for optimum whole body health and wellness.” And I have to say that the place definitely delivers! When I ordered an iced green tea, the cashier asked me what kind of iced green tea I wanted as there were several different varieties to choose from, each infused with its own special mixture of vitamins and minerals. Um, LOVE IT! The green tea that I ended up ordering was absolutely fabulous, as was the GC’s. So it is no surprise that Earthbar has long been a draw for health-conscious celebs. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted at the WeHo location include Russell Brand, Penn Badgley, Mila Kunis, Jaime King, Kelly Osbourne, Justin Long, Selma Blair, and Dexter’s Desmond Harrington. And while doing research for this post, I came across some photographs taken of KCav there back in November 2009, so apparently she has been an Earthbar patron for quite some time. (I wish I looked that good in leggings and tennis shoes, by the way!)

While we were in line waiting to order our drink, I happened to spot actor Ben Savage standing just a few people ahead of us. And while the GC was absolutely adamant that I was mistaken and that the man I was pointing to was most-definitely not Ben Savage, as it turns out my “spot” was spot-on. After I finished ordering, I approached Ben to ask for a picture and I am happy to report that he could NOT have been sweeter. He spent quite a while talking to us and, of course, asked where we were visiting from. Due to my massive incapability to be anything other than completely star-struck, celebrities invariably think I am from Iowa or Ohio and are always shocked to learn that I live in L.A. If I had a nickel for every time a star asked where I was from, let me tell you, I would be one very rich stalker! When Ben inquired as to how I had wound up at the West Hollywood Earthbar when I live in Pasadena, I (embarrassedly) explained about my Kristin Cavallari fandom and was shocked when he told me that he and KCav are good friends! He then said, “I can tell you exactly what she orders when she comes here so that you can order it, too, if you want. Oh, wait, that would be a little weird, huh?” LOL Such a genuinely nice guy! It was also incredibly cool to be able to tell him that, to this day, I cannot drive by Topanga Canyon Boulevard without thinking of him and Boy Meets World.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Earthbar is located at 8365 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the store’s official website here.

August 28, 2012
Another Desert Weekend

The Grim Cheaper and I took off for the desert again this past weekend, so I, unfortunately, was not able to write a new post for today. But I do promise to be back tomorrow with a whole new location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

August 27, 2012
St. Vincent de Paul Church from “The Closer”

A couple of weeks ago, while watching the Season 7 episode of The Closer titled “Last Rites”, I received a text from my mom, who was also watching the show at the time. She was curious to know if I was aware of what church the episode had been filmed at. And, as fate would have it, I did! The “Last Rites” church was none other than St. Vincent de Paul Church in the West Adams District of Los Angeles. And while the locale has appeared in countless productions over the years, for whatever reason, I had yet to blog about it, or even stalk it for that matter. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to finally do just that this past weekend.

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St. Vincent de Paul Church first came to be thanks to a 1922 donation to the Catholic Church from oil tycoon Edward Doheny, who, at the time, lived directly behind where St. Vincent now stands. The structure, which seats 1,200, was designed by Albert C. Martin, the very same architect who also gave us the Million Dollar Theatre and Los Angeles City Hall, both in Downtown Los Angeles, and St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica (which I blogged about here). St. Vincent’s elaborate Churrigueresque-style exterior was inspired by the California Building from the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and Santa Prisca Temple in Mexico.

Construction on the massive structure began in 1923, was completed in 1925, and St. Vincent de Paul Church was officially dedicated on Easter Sunday, April 12th, of that same year.

As you can see, the church is absolutely stunning and its detailing is nothing short of awe-inspiring!

The property’s 44-foot tall concrete dome is a site to see, in and of itself.

If you thought the exterior of St. Vincent de Paul was special, though, the interior will absolutely knock your socks off! It literally almost took my breath away! The inside of the church was designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram and the ceiling decoration was by artist John B. Smeraldi, who also created the ceilings of the Biltmore Hotel (hence the name of the hotel’s main restaurant, Smeraldi’s).

The main church lights were off when we showed up to stalk the place, so it was extremely hard to take decent photographs, but, as you can see, it is pretty darn spectacular.

The detailing of St. Vincent’s interior is just as impressive as the exterior. I honestly cannot recommend stalking the church, which was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1971, enough!

In the “Last Rites” episode of The Closer, Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) and her Major Crimes team investigate the murder of a priest who was found dead outside of St. Vincent de Paul. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the church were featured in the episode.

The Closer is hardly the first production to film on the premises, though. In 1992, St. Vincent de Paul Church appeared in both of the videos for the Warrant song “The Bitter Pill” – the acoustic version featuring Jani Lane;

which you can watch by clicking below;

Warrant–The Bitter Pill video–filmed at St. Vincent de Paul Church

and the album version featuring the entire band (I apologize for the craptastic screen captures, which I got off of YouTube);

which you can also watch by clicking below.

Warrant–The Bitter Pill video–filmed at St. Vincent de Paul Church

In the Season 5 episode of the original Melrose Place titled “Great Sexpectations”, which aired in 1997, St. Vincent de Paul Church was where Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) took Dr. Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross) to pray about her illness, but the two end up accidentally walking into the tail end of a funeral.

In the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “When Bad Warlocks Turn Good”, which aired in 1999, St. Vincent de Paul was the church where Brendan Rowe (NCIS’ resident cutie, Michael Weatherly) was attacked by a warlock.

St. Vincent’s most well-known onscreen appearance was at the very end of the 1999 thriller End of Days, as the spot where Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) took on Satan (Gabriel Byrne). According to the Seeing Stars website, while some actual filming did take place on the premises, the destruction scenes were all shot on a large-scale miniature of the interior that was created especially for the movie.

As you can see below, a different church was used for the exterior, though.

In 2000’s Bedazzled, the church was where Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser), in a very funny scene, complained to a priest (played by Brian Doyle-Murray) that he had sold his soul to The Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) for seven wishes, but that she was trying to trick him out of one of them.

The Charmed crew returned to St. Vincent in 2001 to shoot the Season 4 episode titled “Charmed Again” for the scene in which Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) discovers she is able to move objects with the swipe of a hand.

In 2002’s The Salton Sea, St. Vincent was where Al Garcetti (Anthony LaPaglia) and Gus Morgan (Doug Hutchison) told Danny Parker (Val Kilmer) that he had to leave town and go into hiding.

In the Season 2 episode of Alias titled “Firebomb”, which aired in 2003, St. Vincent de Paul stood in for the supposed Mexico City-area Vatican Embassy where Alia Gizabi (Lina Patel) worked and where Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) escaped a weapon that was able to make humans spontaneously combust.

St. Vincent was used as two different locations in the 2005 movie Constantine. The interior first popped up as the church where Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) went to confession.

And the exterior was used as the exterior of the church where John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) talked to Gabriel (Tilda Swinton).

Although the interior of Gabriel’s church, as you can see below, was a different location entirely.

The Alias crew returned to St. Vincent de Paul Church in 2006 to film Nadia Santos’ (Mia Maestro) funeral in the Season 5 episode titled “I See Dead People”.

In 2007’s This Christmas, the exterior of St. Vincent was where the Whitfield family attended Christmas mass.

As you can see below, though, for the interior scenes, a different church was used.

In the Season 5 episode of Entourage titled “Gotta Look Up to Get Down”, which aired in 2008, St. Vincent de Paul was where the funeral of Alan Gray (Paul Ben-Victor) was held, during which Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) was offered Alan’s studio head job.

In the Season 1 episode of Dollhouse titled “Needs”, which aired in 2009, St. Vincent de Paul Church appeared as the site where November (Miracle Laurie) found Katie’s gravesite.

A fake cemetery was set up on the church grounds for the filming of that episode.

St. Vincent was also apparently used in Tom Clancy’s 1999 made-for-television movie NetForce, but I, unfortunately, could not find a copy of the flick with which to verify that information. And while it also supposedly appeared in the 2001 made-for-TV movie James Dean, I scanned through that production yesterday and did not see the church pop up anywhere.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: St. Vincent de Paul Church, from the “Last Rites” episode of The Closer, is located at 621 West Adams Boulevard in the West Adams District of Los Angeles. The Stimson House, from House II: The Second Story (which I blogged about here), is located next door at 2421 South Figueroa Street.

August 24, 2012