Year: 2014

Cordelia’s Apartment Building from “Angel”

In mid-January, fellow stalker Ashley, of The Drewseum, asked for some help in tracking down the Moorish-style apartment building where Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) lived on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff series Angel. She sent me a link to this image of the building and, even though I had never seen an episode of Angel, due to the place’s spectacularly unique architecture, I was immediately intrigued.

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I should mention here that while I never actually watched Angel, I was an extra on the series once back in 2000. And I just about died yesterday while scrolling through some random episodes to make screen captures for this post when I came across the very episode I was on – Season 1’s “To Shanshu in L.A.” That’s me below, with my natural hair color and style. The scene I was in was shot on the Paseo in front of the Redstone building at the Paramount Pictures lot, which had been set up to look like the Third Street Promenade. I hadn’t been in L.A. more than a couple of weeks at the time that the episode was shot and when the assistant director mentioned the Promenade, I remember thinking, “What in the heck is that?” LOL In the scene, we were supposed to be reacting to Cordelia suddenly screaming, dropping to the ground and writhing around, which is why I have such a strange look on my face in the second screen capture below.

Anyway, because Cordelia’s building was so architecturally unique, I figured it would be an easy find. I sent a picture of it to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and he had the same thought. We were wrong. The next few days were spent rather frustratingly searching through Google images and architectural guidebooks, to no avail. Mike eventually wound up coming across an old vacation rental listing for the building after doing a Google image search for “Spanish Fourplex Vacation Rental Hollywood.” My response after he texted me the news? “How in the heck did you come up with those search terms???” LOL What can I say, the guy has the magic touch. Unfortunately, the listing was no longer active, so we could not click on it to glean any further information, which was absolutely maddening! I finally somehow managed to open a cached version of the listing just long enough to launch the provided map link (I honestly have no idea how I did it being that it was about the hundredth time I had attempted the exact same procedure) and it, mercifully, led me right to the place.

As it turns out, Cordelia’s building is known as the Adams Apartments in real life – at least according to this Flickr account, which also states that the property was built in 1931 by architect Gil Chadwick. The 2000 Los Feliz Improvement Association Historical Survey provides some differing (and extremely vague) information, though. Because I could find no other data about the building anywhere, I am unsure of which report is correct.

Per Zillow, the four-unit building boasts a total of 8 bedrooms, 8 baths and 6,137 square feet.

In person, the structure does not disappoint! It is absolutely spectacular and I am extremely surprised that it has not been featured onscreen more often.

On Angel, the Adams Apartments were known as the Pearson Arms. Cordelia moved into the building, which turned out to be haunted, in the Season 1 episode titled “Rm w/a Vu.”

I am fairly certain that the interior of Cordelia’s apartment was just a set and not one of the Adams’ actual units, especially being that an entire wall was knocked down in the “Rm w/a Vu” episode as part of the storyline.

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

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, of The Drewseum website, for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me to do so.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Pearson Arms apartment building from Angel, aka the Adams Apartments, is located at 3488-3490 Rowena Avenue/4207-4209 Avocado Street in Los Feliz.

February 19, 2014
Happy Presidents’ Day!

This weekend was a whirlwind that included a spectacular Valentine’s Day with the Grim Cheaper, a (VERY crowded, but fun) trip to Disneyland with Miss Pinky Lovejoy of the Thinking Pink blog and her husband, Keith Coogan, and seeing Air Force One in person (can’t get more presidential than that!). I, unfortunately, did not have any time to write a post for today or tomorrow, but I will be back on Wednesday with a whole new location. I hope all of my fellow stalkers are enjoying a fabulous three-day weekend – and for those who are in the Palm Springs area, I HIGHLY recommend venturing out to the airport to catch a glimpse of Air Force One before it leaves this afternoon.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

February 17, 2014
Parisian Florist – The Flower Shop Joe DiMaggio Used to Send Roses to Marilyn Monroe’s Gravesite for 20 Years

As a child, I remember often hearing about the weekly delivery of roses that Joe DiMaggio sent to the grave of his former wife, Miss Marilyn Monroe, for two full decades. This was long before my obsession with the blonde bombshell had taken hold, but the gesture stuck with me as an extraordinary act of love, the ultimate valentine, if you will – especially considering that The Yankee Clipper was married to the starlet for less than a year. So when I recently came across the address of the florist that supplied those roses in the book Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here, I figured there was no better time to blog about the place than today, and ran right out to stalk it.

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Parisian Florist has been standing at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and North Sierra Bonita Avenue since it first opened in 1924 (yep, ninety years ago!). Brothers Louis and Max Alhanati purchased the business in 1960, becoming its third owners. It is still run by the Alhanati family to this day. Thanks to its location and plethora of luscious blooms, the shop became popular with the Hollywood set from the outset. Just a few of the luminaries who regularly ordered from Parisian Florist include Jackie Gleason, Clifton Webb, Raymond Burr, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Robert Mitchum, Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Janet Gaynor, Rock Hudson, Charles Laughton, and Telly Savalas. The site was also a favorite of Marilyn’s. So, on August 7th, 1962, Joe contacted Parisian Florist and asked Louis to design a casket blanket for the starlet’s funeral. He also ordered several floral wreaths, hearts, and crosses to be placed at her crypt. Louis’ designs were the only arrangements Joe allowed at the ceremony.

Shortly following the funeral, Joe again contacted Louis and asked that six roses be delivered to Marilyn’s final resting place thrice weekly. His original order stated, “Six fresh long-stemmed red roses, three times a week . . . forever.” For the next twenty years, a half dozen French Baccara blooms were placed each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Marilyn’s crypt at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, for which Joe was billed annually. (Amazingly, Louis never once raised the price on him.) According to this Ellensburg Daily Record article, for unknown reasons DiMaggio requested that the deliveries be reduced to twice weekly in early 1962 (every Tuesday and Saturday). Shortly thereafter, he cancelled the order altogether. Per this Lakeland Ledger article, the last six flowers were sent to Marilyn’s grave on August 31st, 1982. Of the halt, Louis said, “I really don’t know why it was 20 years. He gave me no reason.” More than 18,000 roses were delivered in all over the twenty-year period. As I said, it was the ultimate valentine.

Blonde that I am, when I walked into Parisian Florist I asked the woman working if I was indeed at the shop that had supplied Marilyn’s gravesite roses. She smiled and pointed upwards. While I typically consider myself to be an observant person, I must have been wearing a bag over my head that particular day because I somehow missed the huge display above the main desk commemorating DiMaggio’s weekly deliveries.

The people at Parisian Florist could NOT have been nicer and the woman I spoke with (whom I believe is Alhanati’s daughter) even brought out a baseball that Joe had signed for Louis. I literally just about passed out upon seeing it! The autograph reads, “To Louis, the Flower Man. Best Wishes, Joe DiMaggio.”

Parisian Florist had the most gorgeous hydrangeas on display when I was there (I am a sucker for hydrangeas and peonies). Sadly, because I was going to be out and about for several hours that day, I was not able to purchase any. If we still lived in the L.A. area, though, I sure know where my Valentine’s Day flowers would be coming from.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Parisian Florist, where Joe DiMaggio ordered weekly flowers for Marilyn Monroe’s gravesite for twenty years, is located at 7528 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the florist’s official website here.

February 14, 2014
My Latest “L.A.” Magazine Post

I was in L.A. all day yesterday taking care of some things and did not have time to write a new post for today, but you can check out my latest column for L.A. magazine – about Reed’s flower shop from Valentine’s Day – here.

February 13, 2014
The Colorado Street Bridge from “The Bachelor”

When Juan Pablo Galavis and Chelsie Webster went bungee jumping off of Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge in the recently-aired Season 18 episode of The Bachelor titled “Soccer Date,” I found myself wondering, “How did I miss the filming?” Although it has been over a year now, I still have to remind myself that the Crown City is no longer home. (The Grim Cheaper is convinced that all the blonde hair dye I use has finally started to affect my brain. ) I happened to drive under the famed bridge while visiting Pasadena last week and got to thinking that it would make for a good Valentine’s-themed post (even though, per Reality Steve, Juan Pablo and Chelsie do not wind up together), so I pulled over to snap some pics. (The GC also “loaned” me a bunch of photos he took of the structure years ago.)

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The Colorado Street Bridge was designed by the Kansas City, Missouri-based engineering firm Waddell & Harrington. Construction on the 1,467.5-foot-long, two-lane structure was completed in 1913. The bridge, which towers 148.5-feet above the Arroyo Seco, is an architectural marvel boasting 11 Beaux Arts arches, ornamental clustered light posts and an iron balustrade. Shockingly, the magnificent, curving span was almost demolished in 1953 following the completion of the adjacent Pioneer Bridge, which connects the 134 and 210 freeways. The site was saved thanks to a letter-writing campaign and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Due to structural deterioration, the Colorado Street Bridge was closed to traffic in 1989 and a $27-million restoration project subsequently begun. The site was re-opened on December 13th, 1993 – the 90-year anniversary of its original completion.

The span is often referred to as the “Suicide Bridge” because more than 100 people have jumped to their deaths from it over the years, most during the 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression. While a wrought-iron suicide-prevention fence was installed at the time of the 1989 renovation, it has not halted the most determined troubled souls – thirteen people have jumped from the bridge since 2006 alone.

In the “Soccer Date” episode of The Bachelor, Juan Pablo first takes Chelsie to sample Venezuelan delicacies at Amara Chocolate & Coffee (located at 55 South Raymond Avenue in Old Town).

The two then head over to the Colorado Street Bridge where, after a considerable amount of hemming and hawing on Chelsie’s part, they embark on a tandem bungee jump.

The Bachelor is hardly the first production to make use of the picturesque site. The bridge has appeared in countless productions over the years – far too many for me to ever chronicle here. But I’ve compiled a few of the highlights. Way back in 1921, Charlie Chaplin featured the structure in his movie The Kid (which starred Jackie Coogan, grandfather of Keith Coogan, my girl Pinky Lovejoy’s husband.)

The Colorado Street Bridge showed up very briefly at the beginning of the 2005 romantic comedy Rumor Has It, in the scene in which Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) and Jeff Daly (Mark Ruffalo) first arrived in Pasadena.

The bridge was where Carl (Jim Carrey) bungee jumped – and took a phone call – in 2008’s Yes Man.

Jim Carrey actually performed the stunt himself for the scene. You can watch a behind-the-scenes video of it being shot by clicking below.

In the Season 4 episode of The Closer titled “Fate Line,” which aired in 2009 (and which I got to watch being filmed – you can read my set report here), horror film producer Sean Thompson died in a car accident underneath the Colorado Street Bridge.

In the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist titled “The Scarlet Letter,” which also aired in 2009 (and which I also watched being filmed – you can read that set report here), the Colorado Street Bridge masqueraded as the Sacramento-area bridge where the body of Kristin Marley (Kristine Blackport) was found.

The structure was where two sisters killed themselves in another 2009 production – the Season 1 episode of Lie to Me (a series I absolutely loved) titled “Depraved Heart.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Colorado Street Bridge, where Juan Pablo and Chelsie bungee jumped on The Bachelor, is located on West Colorado Boulevard, in between South Orange Grove Boulevard and North San Rafael Avenue, adjacent to the 134 Freeway, in Pasadena.

February 12, 2014
Reed’s House from “Valentine’s Day”

Many moons ago (July 2012 to be exact), Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I ventured out to Venice for a day of stalking. Most of our time was spent at the Venice Canals (the history of which you can read here), one of my favorite spots in all of Los Angeles. As I mentioned in my previous posts about the area, while there, Mike continuously pointed out filming locations as we walked by (the site is chock full of them!). One locale he identified that I was particularly interested in was the residence where Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) lived in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day. So, since the holiday of love is fastly approaching, I figured what better time than now to finally blog about the place.

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Reed’s clapboard residence, which sits overlooking the Grand Canal, is absolutely idyllic, as you can see below. From what I’ve been able to discern from Zillow, the 0.06-acre plot of land where the home now stands was purchased in November 1975 for $10,000. Construction on the dwelling was completed in 1978 and it has not changed hands since – understandably! If I owned that place, I’d never sell it either!

The property looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Valentine’s Day – minus the wetsuits that were seen hanging from the balcony in the movie.

In real life, the two-story dwelling boasts three bedrooms, three baths, and 2,216 square feet of living space.

Because it was seen only briefly, I believe that the home’s actual interior was also used in the filming, but, unfortunately, I could not find any photographs of the inside of the place to verify that hunch.

The bridge that appeared throughout the film is located directly in front of Reed’s house and crosses over Grand Canal.

Because of what takes place there at the end of Valentine’s Day (I won’t spoil it for those of you who have yet to see the movie), I was actually more excited to pose for a picture on the bridge than I was in front of Reed’s house.

Thanks to the Simon and Simon website, I learned that Reed’s residence was also used as the home where A.J. Simon (Jameson Parker) lived on Simon & Simon. At the time that the series was filmed in the 1980s, the property looked quite a bit different than it does today and the lot next door to it was also vacant. (The yellow house seen in the photographs above was not built until 1988.)

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for showing me this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Reed’s house from Valentine’s Day is located at 2604 Grand Canal in Venice.

February 11, 2014
L.A. Days

I will be in L.A. for the next few days and won’t have time to write any new blog posts, but I promise to be back on Monday or Tuesday with a whole new location. In the meantime, you can read my latest interview for my alma mater’s quarterly magazine here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

February 5, 2014
Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from “License to Drive”

After reading my January 13th post about Mercedes’ friend’s house from fave movie License to Drive, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’s Filmed There blog, texted to let me know that he had managed to track down the Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from the 1988 flick. As fate would have it, the storefront next door to Shakey’s had appeared in 1976’s The Bad News Bears, a movie Chas had covered on his site. The bad news (pun intended) was that the shopping center where it was once located is no longer standing. The structure was torn down sometime in the ‘90s and a new center subsequently built in its place. Because I had been itching to find it for so long, though, I figured it was still blog-worthy.

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The location pops up once in License to Drive, in the scene in which Les Anderson (Corey Haim) accidentally drives off of an embankment before crash-landing in front of a random Shakey’s Pizza Parlor.

A sporting goods store was visible in the background of the scene and it was that shop that Chas recognized from The Bad News Bears. As you can see below, the sign, logo and roofline of the store from The Bad News Bears (second screen capture below) are an exact match to those of the storefront that appeared next door to Shakey’s in License to Drive (first screen capture below).

You can even make out the word “parlor” on the building next door to the sporting goods shop in The Bad News Bears scene.

While watching The Bad News Bears, Chas had spotted an address number of “19321” on the space next door to the sporting goods store. A quick Google search showed him that there was only shopping plaza in Los Angeles with shops boasting address numbers in 19300 range – The Village in Reseda. When he looked at aerial images of The Village, though, he realized that it was most-definitely not the same spot that had been featured in The Bad News Bears.

Enter the Historic Aerials website, from which we learned that there was once a different shopping center located on the property, one which had been demolished and rebuilt sometime prior to 2003. In the 1980 aerial view pictured below, Shakey’s former location is denoted with a pink arrow. Today, that area is partially comprised of a Chase bank and The Village’s parking lot

A current aerial view of The Village is pictured below with the former Shakey’s location denoted with a pink “X.”

According to this Valley News article, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Reseda Shakey’s took place in December 1964. Because the shopping center where it formerly stood was torn down sometime between 1988 and 2003, I am guessing that the demolition occurred due to damage resulting from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. That is just a guess, though.

Sick Sam’s Rent-a-Car, which played a role in the movie’s original ending, but is only visible briefly in the background of the final cut, has also since been torn down.

Its former location is denoted with a pink circle below.

Today, a large apartment building stands in that spot.

On a License to Drive side-note – I’ve been searching for photographs of the Cabriolet I drove as a teenager ever since I wrote my post about the License to Drive hospital. As I mentioned in the post, even though I was a mere 11 years old at the time, as soon as I first laid eyes on the white VW convertible Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham) drove at the end of the movie, I became completely obsessed with it. I made it known that it was the only car I wanted to drive upon turning 16 and my amazing parents gifted me one on my 16th birthday! I finally found photographs of it yesterday. That’s me (big hair, don’t care!) with one of my best friends Natalie just a few days after I received it. Seriously, Best. Car. Ever.

It should come as no surprise that my fellow celeb-obsessed friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, also drove a white VW Cabriolet in her teens, for the very same reason I did. I couldn’t believe it when I found out! We are so kindred spirits!

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

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’s Filmed There, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Shakey’s Pizza Parlor from License to Drive was formerly located at 19341 Saticoy Street in Reseda. It was torn down and no part of the structure currently remains.

February 4, 2014
Chuck E. Cheese’s from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

I have been on the hunt for the Chuck E. Cheese’s featured in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead for what seems like ages. Despite having an inside connection – my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, is married to none other than Kenny Crandell, aka Keith Coogan, himself – I had a tough time tracking the place down. All Keith could remember about the eatery was that it was located somewhere in the Valley near a large cement watershed. So, feeling inspired a couple of weeks back, I decided to look at aerial views of every San Fernando Valley-area Chuck E. Cheese’s to see if any matched the one that appeared in Don’t Tell Mom. Sure enough, the one in Sun Valley’s Canyon Plaza shopping center did. Well, sort of – but more on that later.

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The Sun Valley Chuck E. Cheese’s shows up towards the beginning of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, in the scene (which was one of Keith’s favorites) in which Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) takes her siblings – Kenny, Melissa (Danielle Harris), Zach (Christopher Pettiet) and Walter (Robert Hy Gorman) – out for dinner after landing an executive administrative assistant job at General Apparel West. Oddly enough, at some point after Don’t Tell Mom was filmed in 1991, Chuck E. Cheese’s moved from the storefront pictured below (which is currently vacant) to one a few doors north in the same center. Despite the move and some other alterations, though, the restaurant’s former site is still recognizable from its onscreen appearance.

As Sue Ellen and her siblings leave Chuck E. Cheese’s, they witness their dead babysitter’s Buick getting stolen by three drag queens dressed as Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli and Dolly Parton. The theft takes place in Canyon Plaza’s large parking lot in front of what was, at the time, a Mervyn’s, but today is a Kohl’s. While the shopping center has since been remodeled a bit, it is still very recognizable from the scene. I absolutely love that the space next to Kohl’s still houses a Subway after all these years!

The Sav-On Drugs that appeared in the movie is now a CVS Pharmacy (Southern California Sav-Ons were acquired by CVS Caremark in 2006), but, thankfully, looks much the same as it did onscreen in 1991. In fact, it was due to the structure’s jutted-out façade with decorative arched cut-outs that I was finally able to identify the Chuck E. Cheese’s location.

The space where Chuck E. Cheese’s moved to appears to have housed an AutoZone at the time that Don’t Tell Mom was filmed. You can just barely make out its red neon logo in the screen capture below.

I was most excited to see that the rounded sidewalk where the Crandell kids stood in the scene and the yellow speed bump next to it were still there in real life, looking EXACTLY the same as they did onscreen. LOVE IT! I cannot express how much fun it was to stalk such an iconic location from one of my favorite movies 23 years after it was filmed, especially since so little of it has been changed.

If only the pay phone that Sue Ellen used to call Bryan (Josh Charles) was still on the premises (if it was, in fact, real and not a prop)!

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

Big THANK YOU to Keith Coogan for helping me to find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Chuck E. Cheese’s from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead was formerly located at 8353 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Canyon Plaza shopping center in Sun Valley. It has since moved a few storefronts north to 8375 Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

February 3, 2014
Mr. Miyagi’s House from “The Karate Kid”

One of the greatest filming location mysteries to ever exist was that of the house where Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) lived in the 1984 classic The Karate Kid. It was common knowledge that the residence had been demolished in the late ‘80s, but no stalker had ever been able to track down its former whereabouts – until now that is. While I had long been aware of the enigma surrounding the locale, I had never actually seen The Karate Kid until two weeks ago. (Well, I saw it in the theatre when it first came out, but did not remember it at all.) The Grim Cheaper did not learn of this fact until two Saturdays ago and he was so upset when he did that I’m surprised he did not divorce me on the spot. He immediately purchased the flick on iTunes and forced me to watch it. Now that I have, I am in utter shock that the movie remained off my radar for so long. I absolutely LOVED it. And as soon as the credits started to roll, I became hell-bent on tracking down Mr. Miyagi’s house. I quickly sent out texts to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog and Chas, of It’sFilmedThere, asking them for any information they had. Those texts got everyone started on an intense search which led to the locale being found just a few days later! Woo to the hoo!

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Chas informed me that the best tip he had ever gotten regarding the location of Mr. Miyagi’s house was in June of last year when an anonymous commenter posted this on his site: “Mr. Miyagi’s house is torn down but was located on Gault St. between Independence Ave. and DeSoto in Canoga Park. My family has lived in the neighborhood forever and I remember as a kid being able to witness the filming of the movie.” While seemingly a great lead, because the area had changed so much in the ensuing years, Chas had a hard time verifying it. Then, the day after receiving my text, he managed to track down Karate Kid executive producer R.J. Lewis, who checked his files and reported back that Mr. Miyagi’s house was formerly located at 20924 Gault Street in Canoga Park. As it so happens, 20924 Gault lies smack dab between Independence and DeSoto Avenues, which fell in line with the comment on Chas’ site. Two unrelated people coming forward with the exact same information was enough to convince me, so since I was in L.A. at the time, I headed right on over there the following day.

Thankfully, the stalking gods were smiling down upon this particular venture because shortly after arriving at the location, I happened to spot a man pulling into a driveway down the street. Hoping he would be able to verify R.J.’s information, I asked how long he had lived on the premises and when he answered, “Since 1971,” I practically started salivating. Not wanting to alter or steer his memories in a certain direction, I decided to keep my questioning as vague as possible and asked if he happened to know if the movie The Karate Kid had been filmed in the area. He immediately pointed in the direction of 20924 Gault and said, “See that short palm tree there next to the three tall palm tress, that’s where Mr. Miyagi’s house used to be, but it was torn down a long time ago and a duplex has since been built in its place.” Upon hearing those words I almost passed out from excitement. The gentleman, who could NOT have been nicer, wound up speaking with me for a good twenty minutes or so filling me in on the filming. He told me that the railroad tracks and oil derricks seen in the movie were fake and that both the first and second Karate Kid movies had been shot on the premises.

With those three confirmations under our belt, Owen, Mike, Chas and I got to work in searching for any visual markers that might still be in existence at the site. According to The Karate Kid press kit, Mr. Miyagi’s house was “a rundown shack in a weedy yard until the construction crew descended upon it. When they were finished, the interior became a modest and beautifully austere Japanese dwelling with mats, screens and other authentic Oriental accoutrements. The yard itself was landscaped with miniature mountains, lanterns, decking, a pond complete with expensive koi (Japanese fish) and hundred-year old bonsai.” The section of the house shown most often in the film is pictured below. In real life, Mr. Miyagi’s property stretched from Gault to Vose Street. This portion of the house faced Vose Street. Knowing what I now know, I believe it was actually the rear of the residence, although it was made to look like the front in The Karate Kid.

The area shown as the backyard in the movie is pictured below. It faced Gault Street and was, I believe, the real life home’s front yard.

An unobstructed aerial view of the property circa 1980 from the Historic Aerials website is pictured below. Mr. Miyagi’s house is the residence surrounded by trees, located just south of Gault Street.

The home is circled in pink below.

In the first scene that features Mr. Miyagi’s house in The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio) are shown entering the property from Vose Street, not Gault. In the scene, they are initially heading east on Vose before turning north onto the vacant land located just southwest of the residence. The fake train tracks were set up in the spot denoted with two pink lines below. Daniel and Mr. Miyagi’s route is denoted with a blue arrow. The two make a right turn across the tracks, heading east, and then another left turn, heading north, towards the home. (Big THANK YOU to Chas for explaining this to me. I cannot read a map or figure out spatial directions for the life of me!)

The house seen in the background as Daniel and Miyagi first make the turn off of Vose is located at 20948 Vose Street. As you can see, it still looks much the same today as it did back in 1984 when The Karate Kid was filmed.

The garage with the pyramid-shaped roofline visible in the scene is located at 20941 Vose Street. A current aerial view of that garage as well as a 1980 aerial view are pictured below.

Mike happened to find videos of the entire movie being rehearsed on YouTube, which you can watch by clicking below. In the scene in which Miyagi and Daniel first arrive at the house, you can see that the fake railroad tracks have yet to be installed.

The Gault Street house was also used in a few scenes in the beginning of The Karate Kid, Part II.

In the movie, the house located across from Mr. Miyagi’s, at 20919 Gault Street, is visible. As you can see below, it looks much the same today as it did in 1986 when filming took place.

By the time that The Karate Kid, Part III was filmed in 1989, the Gault Street house had been torn down, so a replica of it was built for the shoot on the Warner Bros. Ranch backlot in Burbank. It was then demolished once filming was completed.

Thanks to a source Mike has at the Ranch, we now know that the house was built in the eastern portion of the lot, in the area denoted with a pink circle below. At the time, that space was vacant land. The building and parking structure visible in the current aerial view below were not constructed until later. The edifice that is visible in the upper right hand corner of the two screen captures above is denoted with a blue circle below.

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

Big, huge THANK YOU to R.J. Lewis for his information about this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from When Write Is Wrong, and Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, for all of their work in helping to verify it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Mr. Miyagi’s house from The Karate Kid was formerly located at 20924 Gault Street in Canoga Park. Sadly, it was demolished in the late ‘80s and no remnant of it remains.

January 30, 2014