Year: 2017

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country – Where the Cast of “Scream” Stayed During Filming

I typically begin compiling notes on a location and roughly outlining a post weeks before I hit publish. Today’s article, about the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, where the cast and crew of Scream stayed during the 1996 film’s 55-day shoot, is no different. Sadly though, devastation struck shortly after I penned that preliminary edit. I am extremely sorry to report that the Santa Rosa-area hotel was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire in the early morning hours of October 9th. When I learned the news last Friday morning, just as I was sitting down to write this post, I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I could not – and still cannot – believe the Scream hotel is gone. I am heartbroken. And yes, I do realize it is a bit silly to be heartbroken over the loss considering the fact that the property didn’t even appear in the movie, but, at the same time, it was such an important part of the production and has been talked about by the cast in so many interviews that it honestly feels as if a piece of history has been lost. I am so thankful that I was able to stalk the Hilton last October during a trip up north and, even though it is no longer, figured I should still continue on with the post and share the many images I took of it for posterity.

[ad]

I learned about the Hilton and its role in the production of Scream from my friend Ashley, of The Drewseum website, who (as I’ve mentioned previously) was kind enough to share with me some call sheets from the flick that she has managed to get her hands on over the years. Besides detailing scene, wardrobe, and prop information for a particular date, each sheet also notes both the pickup time and location of the various actors scheduled to work that day. As indicated in the sheets, Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard, and the rest of the cast were picked up in the lobby of the DoubleTree Hotel located at 3555 Round Barn Boulevard in Santa Rosa prior to each shoot.

At some point after Scream was filmed in 1996, the property was transitioned to a Hilton, though, according to my aunt who lives in the area, not much of it was altered during the changeover and, up until the fire, it still looked much the same as it did in the ‘90s.

Typically, a hotel where a cast and crew stayed during the filming of a movie wouldn’t have that much meaning to me, but, in this case, because of Santa Rosa’s small-town vibe, the Scream team spent much of their free time together on the property. Unlike New York or L.A. or any other metropolis, where actors can step outside of their lodging and find a wide array of nightlife and activities at their fingertips, Sonoma County is a rather sleepy area. So the group hung out together, entertaining themselves on the hotel grounds, which created a tight-knit family atmosphere that I doubt would have occurred (at least not to the same degree) had Scream been shot elsewhere.

The Hilton was actually the location I was most excited about seeing during my NorCal trip, mainly because of an interview with Matthew Lillard that I watched years prior. Unfortunately, I can’t find a clip of the interview anywhere online, but, in it, the actor talked about holing up with the rest of the cast in Neve Campbell’s hotel room after filming wrapped each day or night and watching horror flicks. I love any and all behind-the-scenes tidbits like that and the thought of the cast huddled up watching scary movies together, while in the midst of shooting what turned out to be one of the most influential scary movies of all time, is pretty incredible.

Matthew is hardly the only Scream cast member to have mentioned the hotel in interviews over the years. In fact, I’ve found that, more than any other location associated with the movie, the Hilton is the one talked about the most. In the 2011 documentary Still Screaming: The Ultimate Scary Movie Retrospective, Neve Campbell reminisces, “We were all staying in the hotel – in like a little motel – the whole crew and cast. And we were just having a great time. I think we kind of couldn’t believe we were getting paid to have fun like that.” (Though the Hilton was actually quite large, because of the way it was laid out, with outcroppings of two- and three-story buildings dotted around the premises, it did have the feel of a small motel.)

That same year, in an Entertainment Weekly article, Jamie Kennedy also reminisced about the property, saying “We’d go home at night to the DoubleTree Hotel, and it was the first hotel I ever went to that gave you a cookie at night.”

Neve spoke of the Hilton again in a 2016 Entertainment Tonight exclusive, stating, “The cast would hang out in the mornings because we would shoot all night. We would get in cars and go back to our hotel and we would be covered in blood and there would be people going to work at 6 or 7 a.m. and they’d see me covered in corn syrup. The look on those peoples’ faces was always humorous. We would close all the curtains and hang out and have a drink. We were sitting in one of our bedrooms and we were like, ‘Could you imagine if this was good enough that there might be a Halloween costume?’ And we were like, ‘No, that couldn’t possibly happen!’ And now it’s 20 years later and I still see the Halloween costume every year in all the shops. It’s pretty amazing.”

Just this past July, Skeet Ulrich, who played killer Billy Loomis, gave an interview to The AV Club in which he mentioned the Hilton. He said, “I was fortunate in that the hotel suite they gave me had two rooms, so I used one just to sleep, and the other one . . . I was 26, I think, when I made it, and I was playing a 17- or 18-year-old, so I went straight to the mall and bought every hard-rock poster and black lights and everything, and I turned the other room into Billy’s room. And I’d sit in there and just read about John Wayne Gacy and play the most satanic music I could find and just try and find him rather quickly in that environment.”

All the anecdotes and tidbits I had heard about the hotel over the years enveloped me as I walked around the property. I couldn’t help but wonder which room each cast member stayed in;

if they were all grouped in the same area or spread apart;

if they checked in themselves;

did they walk down this hall;

or that one;

if they swam in the pool during their off-time;

if they sat by the fire;

hung out in the lobby;

ate at the on-site restaurant – etc., etc., etc.

Needless to say, my mind was buzzing. And yes, I am fully aware that I have an unnatural obsession with anything and everything related to Scream.

You can see some photographs of what the property looks like post-fire here, here, and here. And you can read an interview with a man who was staying at the Hilton when the inferno struck here. The hotel was actually one of the first places hit by the Tubbs blaze and, because it broke out so quickly, guests had virtually no warning. Most were awakened by a knock on the door from security guards at around 3 a.m. on October 9th and told to evacuate immediately. The man in the interview did not even have time to put on shoes. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been.

In watching this drone footage of the Hilton site, it seems that the three buildings surrounding the pool, on the western edge of the property, remain intact. So at least a part of the location still stands. A word of warning – watching the video clip is extremely disheartening. The devastation that citizens of Sonoma County are facing is unfathomable. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Big THANK YOU to my friends Ashley, from the Drewseum, for telling me about this location and Katie, from Matthew Lillard Online, for trying to help me pinpoint the interview in which Matthew talked about the hotel !

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, where the cast of Scream stayed during filming, was formerly located at 3555 Round Barn Boulevard in Santa Rosa. Sadly, the property was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire and no longer stands.

October 23, 2017
High Tower from “Dead Again”

I did not see Dead Again when it was first released in 1991 (at 14, I was too young for such an intense thriller), but I vividly remember my parents coming home from the theatre raving about how great it was and how much I would have loved a particularly disturbing scene involving cigarettes. It was not until years later, after I met the Grim Cheaper, that I finally sat down for a viewing. The flick was worth the wait. Dead Again is honestly one of the most well-crafted crime dramas I have ever watched. And my parents were right – that cigarette scene is horrifyingly fabulous. The film also boasts one of the spookiest locations ever featured in a movie – High Tower, the striking Italianate campanile (a word I just learned today!) housing the elevator leading to Amanda Sharp’s (Emma Thompson) hillside home. I first stalked the site shortly after seeing Dead Again and have been back many times since. In fact, I used to take an acting class just down the road from it and would drive by on a weekly basis. Each time I would marvel at how lucky I was to be living in such a magical city, where passing by historic and iconic locales is natural happenstance. It randomly struck me recently that I had never blogged about High Tower, despite it being the perfect Haunted Hollywood spot. So I am amending that situation today.

[ad]

Though there are a few differing reports floating around online, according to the Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, High Tower was originally constructed in 1923.

At the time, the hillside it flanks looked quite a bit different, as you can see in photos of the structure from its early days here and here.

The elevator was originally installed to service the dotting of homes on the tiny street of Alta Loma Terrace, situated just northeast of the tower.

In 1935, over a decade after High Tower’s inception, architect Carl Kay began construction on a series of four Streamline Moderne duplexes cantilevered directly behind the campanile on Broadview Terrace.

The complex, which Kay modeled after Positano, Italy and dubbed “High Tower Court,” was not completed until 1956.

Today, the elevator solely services the four High Tower Court properties.

The garages for the complex are situated at the bottom of the hill, a good five stories below the homes, and, amazingly, none of the residences have direct street access (moving must seriously be a b*tch!), making the conveyance an absolute necessity.

Without it, residents would have to resort to climbing a haphazard tangle of staircases comprised of more than 200 steps in order to access their units.

Each High Tower Court unit pays $51 per month for use of the elevator, which, while costly, is well worth it in my book. (However, there is something to be said for the fact that anyone who decided to save money and forgo the perk would easily have the best legs in town!) Sadly though, the structure is off-limits to the rest of us. Without one of the coveted keys doled out to homeowners, the gated tower can’t be accessed.

While researching for this post, I was floored to learn via a 1993 Los Angeles Times article that, while the elevator is private, High Tower Court is publicly accessible – as long as you’re willing to hoof it those 200 steps.

I wish I had known that fact before my most recent stalk of the place. I so would have ventured up the hill! Can you even imagine the views? For those interested in journeying to the top, Secret Stairs-LA put together a fabulous itinerary of a 2.6-mile trek that will lead you there.

High Tower Court has attracted quite a few notable residents over the years, including illusionist David Copperfield, author Michael Connelly (several of his books are even set at High Tower), musician Michael Feinstein, and actress Adriana Caselotti (aka the voice of Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs).

Though some reports state that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love also lived at High Tower in the early ‘90s (during the time that In Utero was written and Frances Bean was born), that information is incorrect. The couple actually resided just behind the complex at 6881 Alta Loma Terrace.

High Tower appears a couple of times in Dead Again. In the movie, Amanda, an amnesiac, resides in the large white home situated directly east of the elevator.

As ‘Piccolo’ Pete Dugan (Wayne Knight) tells her after finally discovering her true identity, “You live at 1454 Hightower in the old Carl Kay house. You know, the one with the elevator?” In reality, the address of the pad used in the flick is 2182 Broadview Terrace.

According to William A. Gordon in The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, “The location was deliberately chosen (and even included in the original script), because the producers wanted to show that Emma Thompson was literally cut off from outside help.”

The inside of Amanda’s apartment appears to have been a set as it does match the actual interior of 2182 Broadview, which you can take a look at here. (While you’re at it, you can also check out the interiors of the other three High Tower Court duplexes – 2181 Broadview, 2185 Broadview, and 2189 Broadview.)

In real life, Amanda’s residence, which was built in 1936, boasts 2 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,067 square feet, and a 0.10-acre lot.

Dead Again is hardly the only production to feature High Tower.

In the Season 2 episode of Naked City titled “New York to L.A.,” which aired in 1961, Franklin Maquon (Frank Sutton) confronts and kills Caldwell Wyatt (Martin Balsam) just outside of the elevator.

Like Emma Thompson, Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) calls 2182 Broadview home in the 1973 noir The Long Goodbye.

Unlike Dead Again, though, it really does look as if the actual interior of the property was utilized in the shoot.

The kitchen seen in the movie, where Marlowe’s poor tabby refuses his attempts at feeding him some non-Courry-Brand cat food, is pretty much a direct match to the kitchen pictured in 2182’s MLS photos.

High Tower was also featured in a video adaptation of the first chapter of Michael Connelly’s 2006 book Echo Park.

And the site portrayed the apartment of murder victim Sandy Boudreau (Alexa Davalos), said to be at 121 Bendix Avenue, in the pilot episode of Raines, which aired in 2007.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: High Tower, from Dead Again, is located at 2178 High Tower Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Amanda’s house from the movie can be found just up the hill at 2182 Broadview Terrace. Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s former residence is located just around the corner at 6881 Alta Loma Terrace.

October 20, 2017
The Smith Estate from “Insidious: Chapter 2”

Considering I’ve been stalking full-time for close to a decade and annually covering Haunted Hollywood locales for just about as long, you’d think I’d have the market on spooky sites cornered by now. That is definitely not the case, though. I am continuously discovering new-to-me spots, scary and otherwise, which speaks more to the vast history and landscape of Los Angeles than anything else. There’s always somewhere fresh to be explored in this magical place we call LaLaLand. One frequent horror film star that I only just learned about is the Smith Estate, a historic Highland Park Victorian so sufficiently looming and mysterious I fell in love with it upon sight. The pad literally looks like it was ripped right off a scary movie screen – so much so that I couldn’t help but pretend to be screaming in my ubiquitous header photo.

[ad]

The Smith Estate was originally built in 1887 for David P. Hatch, a practicing judge who also wrote books on the occult (fitting, considering his home!). I first came across information about the striking Queen Anne-style residence, which can be found at 5905 El Mio Drive, while researching the Finis E. Yoakum House, another Highland Park horror film regular that I blogged about here.

In the 1890s, the 4,528-square-foot, 6-bedroom, 3-bath pad, which sits on a 0.53-acre lot, was sold to Charles Smith, who ran the Los Angeles Railway’s Yellow Car trolley system. The Smith family continued to live on the premises through the late 1950s, garnering the home the moniker it is still known by today. (The house is also sometimes referred to as “El Mio,” after the street it is located on.)

In 1988, after a succession of different occupants, then L.A. deputy mayor Michael Gage and his wife, Lacey, purchased the Smith Estate, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

The Gages sold the dwelling to its current owners in 1997 for $290,000. Zillow estimates the property’s worth at just over $2 million today!

Situated atop a towering butte, the Smith Estate seems to loom over the entire city. As I got out of the car and walked up to it, all I could think was, ‘This is a real life house on Haunted Hill!’

Because of its elevated layout, the property can be viewed from all sides, which made for an unusual stalk.

The Grim Cheaper and I had a blast venturing 360 degrees around the structure snapping pics of every angle.

I absolutely love the photo below! Spooktastic!

Toward the lower portion of the sloped lot, we came across what we believe to be the home’s original garage. Because of the way it is situated, I am guessing that there is, or at least was at one time, some sort of underground passage leading from the garage to the residence.

At the front of the house is an adorable in-law unit situated above the property’s detached three-car garage.

I would so live there!

Due to its aesthetic, it is not hard to see how the home came to be a favorite of horror movie directors.

The Smith Estate’s most famous onscreen appearance is in 2013’s Insidious: Chapter 2, in which it portrays the residence of Lorraine Lambert (Barbara Hershey), where Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson), his wife, Renai (Rose Byrne), and their children move after having to leave their own house due to the events of the first film.

According to the movie’s production notes, director James Wan said of the property, “This was an amazing location. It’s really cool because the house is situated on the top of a mountain and the surrounding neighborhood houses are literally underneath it, so it is an amazing vantage point for views around Los Angeles.” The pad’s hill top locale truly does give its such a fabulously imposing presence. It would have such a different feel to it if it was situated on flat land.

The Smith Estate looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. Not much set decoration is needed to give the place that chilling quality horror flicks require.

The real life interior of the home was used in Insidious: Chapter 2, as well. Shooting on the premises really helped Rose Byrne get into character. In the production notes, she is quoted as saying, “These places they find are very eerie and weird, and dark and low-ceilinged, and that for me is very scary. I just think, ‘How could you live in this house?’ It’s just my sensibility; I’m just way too sensitive for it. Even more than the ghosts and all those sequences, it’s the houses that get me.” Me, too, Rose. Me too!

You can check out a video of the Smith Estate’s interior here.

In 1967’s Spider Baby, aka The Maddest Story Ever Told, the Smith Estate plays the role of the Merrye (pronounced “Mary”) House, home of the Merrye family, history’s only sufferers of Merrye Syndrome – “a progressive age regression” causing victims to retreat “beyond the prenatal level, reverting to a pre-human condition of savagery and cannibalism.” Yeah, I know – sounds like a real winner of a movie.

The Smith Estate also portrays the mysterious residence that college student Scotty Parker (Rebecca Balding) moves into in 1979’s The Silent Scream, though the property is made to appear as if it is situated on the coast in the flick.

Unless the dwelling underwent a serious renovation after The Silent Scream was filmed, it seems that only its exterior was utilized in the flick. As you can see in the screen captures below as compared to the video I linked to earlier, not only is The Silent Scream home’s main stairwell in a completely different place than that of the Smith Estate, but the two interiors just don’t seem to match at all.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Smith Estate, from Insidious: Chapter 2, is located at 5905 El Mio Drive in Highland Park.

October 18, 2017
The Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

I am into some admittedly weird stuff – murders, hauntings, all things macabre. But a place I learned about while planning my 2016 trip to Pennsylvania seemed even a bit too morbid for me. As DK Eyewitness Travel Guide described, The Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia exhibits “curious and unusual items, including preserved specimens and wax anatomical and pathological models.” While the book’s photograph of The Mütter’s display of 139 real human skulls had me drooling, I feared the site might be a bit too disturbing. But I added it to my Philly To-Stalk List nonetheless. When I showed the Grim Cheaper info on the museum, he became pretty dead-set against visiting, though, and I did not attempt to sway him. Then fate stepped in during our first night in the City of Brotherly Love. While eating dinner at a fabulous sidewalk table at Devon Seafood Grill (another DK Eyewitness Travel suggestion), we happened to strike up a conversation with the couple next to us. Our new friends, Philadelphia natives both, were excited to share local recommendations and, as it turned out, one of their favorite places in the area was The Mütter Museum. They assured us we couldn’t leave town without a visit – which is how we found ourselves knee-deep in medical curiosities just a couple of days later.

[ad]

The Mütter Museum was originally established thanks to Jefferson Medical College professor of surgery Thomas Dent Mütter. In 1858, the doctor donated $30,000 as well as his vast collection of more than 1,700 specimens to The College of Physicians of Philadelphia with the request that they build a fireproof gallery to house the artifacts, which he hoped would be added to over the years, and hire a curator. The school obliged, constructing a two-story brick building at the northeast corner of Locust and South 13th Streets in 1863. The bottom level comprised the original Mütter Museum and the second floor served as The College’s headquarters. A third story was eventually added as more space was needed. (Sadly, the structure was torn down in 1930 and the spot where it once stood is now a parking lot.)

By the turn of the century, The College was in need of even more space and the Cope and Stewardson architecture firm was commissioned to design a larger headquarters at 19 South 22nd Street. The stately New Beaux Arts-style building was completed in 1909 and still houses the school, as well as The Mütter Museum, to this day.

The handsome structure has a haunting Midnight-in-the-Garden-of-Good-and-Evil-feel to it, which was made even stronger by the rain that started to fall as we arrived at the site.

The Mütter, which today houses more than 25,000 relics all related to medicine, health and disease, is considered one of the finest medical history museums in the world. Sadly, due to the fact that there are actual human bodies and body parts on display, none of the exhibits can be photographed. While I typically hate a no-photography rule, in this case, I completely understood the site’s use of discretion.

Only the main exhibit hall is off-limits to cameras, though. Photography is allowed in other areas, including Hutchinson Parlor, a space near The Mütter’s entrance which reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. I literally wanted to move right in, pour myself a glass of champagne, light a fire, and curl up with a good mystery novel in one of the cozy red armchairs.

Pictures are also allowed in the Thomson Gallery, the museum’s temporary exhibit space which was hosting Perfect Vessels: Works by David Orr at the time we visited.

The incredible installation consisted of massive round photographs of human skulls which had been digitally altered by artist David Orr to appear perfectly symmetrical.

As you can imagine, I was completely taken with the images.

I would LOVE to have each and every one on display at my house during Halloween. Heck, who am I kidding? I’d keep them up year-round if I could get my hands on them!

Sadly, Perfect Vessels ended its run in January, but you can read more about the exhibit here.

Situated just off the Thomson Gallery is the Sir John Templeton Veranda and Medicinal Herb Garden, another area open to photography.

And let me tell you, it is striking!

The Midnight-in-the-Garden-of-Good-and-Evil-feel of the property is continued out onto the terraced oasis . . .

. . . and made even more prominent thanks to the rather gothic-looking church that abuts it.

With its dramatic greenery and . . .

. . . and stunning brick façade . . .

. . . it is no wonder the garden has become an extremely popular wedding venue.

It literally looks like something out of a fairytale.

I think that’s Hansel and Gretel’s house right there!

The property’s interior is no less striking thanks to what Mütter’s official website describes as “a 19th-century cabinet museum setting.” Handsome wood cupboards housing all manner of artifacts are positioned in every corner of the dramatic space. Prior to my visit, I had never seen a museum laid out in such a way and loved exploring the myriad of displays, pulling out drawers and walking around 360-degree glass cases. The site feels more like the ornate private library of a wealthy eccentric scientist than a public museum. (The image below, which shows The Mütter’s main room, is a screen capture from an episode of the Anthony Bourdain series The Layover, but more on that in a bit.)

Just a few of the unique curios housed at The Mütter include the largest human colon on display in the world (the “Mega-Colon,” as the museum refers to it, which measures 8 feet, 4 inches when stretched, is pictured below with Anthony Bourdain), slides of Albert Einstein’s brain (his brain was 15% larger than the average brain!), the aforementioned collection of 139 skulls (which once belonged to Viennese anatomist Joseph Hyrtl), a death cast of the original “Siamese” twins Chang and Eng, a portion of John Wilkes Booth’s vertebra, actual shrunken heads, and the Soap Lady.

The Mütter is a somber place and the experience of visiting it quite sobering. But it is also utterly fascinating. I am typically not one for museums. At all. I find myself easily bored while wandering through exhibits, the display cards far too tedious and time-consuming to read. My best friend loves to recount the time we visited the Guggenheim in Manhattan. As he tells it (while making a circling motion with his finger), “While we were all still on the first floor looking at the artwork, here comes Lindsay, zipping down the ramp, heading for the exit.” Yep, I had already ventured up to the sixth floor and back down again while my best friend, his girlfriend, his mom, my parents, and the GC were all still perusing the lowest level. That’s typically my modus operandi at museums. At The Mütter, though, I looked at every single exhibit and read through every single information card. I was transfixed by each item on display. I honestly cannot more highly recommend a visit. Even the GC enjoyed himself and he had been so reluctant to go.

Bonus – The Mütter is also a filming location! The 2011 Quay Brothers documentary short Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting was not only shot on location at the museum, but details its many collections.

As I mentioned above, Anthony Bourdain shot an episode of The Layover at The Mütter, Season 2’s “Philadelphia,” which aired in 2012.

During his visit, Bourdain apparently declared The Mütter’s onsite gift shop “the best gift shop ever.” He’s not alone in that assertion. The store was named Best Museum Gift Shop by Philadelphia magazine in 2012. And I wholeheartedly agree. It’s like a Halloween wonderland! I purchased quite a few things there, including the coaster pictured below which is hands-down my favorite souvenir that I picked up while in town.

In the Season 1 episode of Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour titled “Iron Mountain Men,” which aired in 2016, Jack Osbourne took father Ozzy on a private, after-hours tour of The Mütter Museum as a surprise for the Prince of Darkness’ birthday.

While The Mütter also served as the inspiration for the American Morbidity Museum on American Horror Story: Freak Show, which aired in 2014, no filming actually took place there.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is located at 19 South 22nd Street in the city’s Rittenhouse-Fitler Historic District. You can visit the museum’s official website here. The property is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

October 17, 2017
Marie McDonald’s Former House

There are strange Hollywood crimes and then there are strange Hollywood crimes. Today’s locale fits into the latter category. Last week, my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me to let me know about a mystifying case concerning an actress that was detailed in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly (issue #1485, dated October 6th, 2017). In the article, titled “Hollywood’s Original Gone Girl” (you can check out the online version here), author Joe McGovern chronicles the 1957 kidnapping of starlet Marie McDonald, who was better known to movie audiences as “The Body,” the nickname bestowed upon her after her vivacious curves stole the spotlight in 1942’s Pardon My Sarong. Though the story does not involve death, murder or hauntings, and the whole episode is largely believed to have been a hoax executed by Marie herself, Owen thought it would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme and I wholeheartedly agree. I was immediately transfixed by his Cliffs Notes version of the scandal and ran right out to buy EW and stalk the house where the kidnapping was said to have occurred.

[ad]

From start to finish, Marie’s life was the stuff tabloid reporters’ dreams are made of. Born Cora Marie Frye in 1923 to a former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, McDonald spent her childhood in Kentucky before moving to the Big Apple during her teenage years. She entered the pageant circuit, worked on Broadway, and eventually headed to California where she secured a contact at Universal Pictures. It wasn’t long before the blonde bombshell found success in movies, appearing alongside such actors as Alan Ladd, Fred MacMurray, Gene Kelly and Cesar Romero (in Lucky Jordan, Standing Room Only, Living in a Big Way, and Once a Thief, respectively), to name a few. McDonald became much more well-known for her off-camera antics, though, which included a total of six marriages (she twice wedded – and twice divorced – shoe store magnate Harry Karl), an escape from an Australian psychiatric ward, a tryst with mobster Bugsy Siegel, an arrest for forging prescriptions, a DUI hit-and-run that culminated with the actress kicking one police officer and biting another, and, of course, her abduction, by far her most infamous escapade.

As the story goes, shortly before midnight on January 3rd, 1957, while in the bedroom of the Encino home she shared with her three children, housekeeper, chauffer and large dog (at the time she was estranged from Harry Karl, for the second time, awaiting a divorce), McDonald was startled by a noise outside. That noise, according to Marie, was caused by two men, one carrying a stick, the other a sawed-off shotgun. The men entered the residence, a sprawling one-story ranch house that Entertainment Weekly noted as being located at 17031 West Magnolia Boulevard (thanks, EW!), and told the starlet, “We want your rings, your money, and your body.” After ransacking the pad of valuables, the duo proceeded to spend quite a bit of time cutting mismatched letters out of newspapers to fashion a ransom note. (They must have gone to the JonBenét Ramsey school of ransom-note creation!) The abductors then inexplicably put the note in Marie’s mailbox. (I mean, that would be the first place I’d go looking for a ransom note if I discovered a loved one missing.) McDonald was subsequently blind-folded and forced into the men’s car.

After driving for about an hour, the threesome arrived at a small home where Marie was stashed away in a bedroom (one that strangely had a working telephone) and drugged. The men then made two calls, one to McDonald’s mother, Marie Tuboni (yes, both mother and daughter were named Marie), and one to Harry Karl, informing them of the kidnapping. Though told not to, Tuboni immediately contacted police, who headed to McDonald’s residence, where the gate and front door were found standing open. Detectives also discovered the ransom note in the mailbox (how they thought to look there is beyond me, but maybe mailing ransom notes back in the day was common practice), which oddly read “She won’t be hurt to get money.” A few hours later, back at the kidnappers’ den, Marie awoke and spotted the telephone. She proceeded to call, not the police, not her mother, but gossip columnist Harrison Carroll. (As one does when seeking rescue from a kidnapping.) It did not take long for the story of the actress’ abduction to catch fire with the media from that point. Marie’s second call was to her boyfriend, actor Michael Wilding, and the third, to her manager, Harold Plant. (Again, as one does.) It was at that time that the men discovered Marie had been using the phone (duh!) and roughed her up a bit before blind-folding her once again, leading her outside, and forcing her into their car. The duo then headed east to Coachella where they tossed McDonald down a dike near the side of the road and took off.

Slightly worse for wear, Marie managed to climb 25 feet back up to the road and flag down a passing motorist. It was 11:15 p.m. on January 4th, a little under 24 hours since she’d been taken. The starlet was quite a sight, bruised and bloodied, missing two teeth, and wearing a bathrobe and slippers. She was shuttled to the hospital where she doled out the chaotic tale to police. Though she was adamant in her tellings, the plethora of strange circumstances had detectives, reporters, and fans alike wondering if the whole thing was nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to revive Marie’s lackluster career. The many discrepancies discovered by law enforcement did nothing to help her case. One LAPD officer, Edward Walker, found the ransom note especially puzzling, saying, “It is far-fetched to believe that any kidnappers would take that much time and trouble to make up a note in the home.” (John and Patsy Ramsey apparently didn’t get that memo.) Most damaging of all, though, was the copy of The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown found at her residence. The 1956 novel (later turned into a movie starring Jane Russell), about the abduction of a pajama-clad movie star, bore striking similarities to Marie’s tale. McDonald was definitely the Sherri Papini of yesteryear. And then things got really strange.

On January 9th, five days after she was rescued, LAPD officers staged an elaborate reenactment of Marie’s kidnapping on location at her home, an event described by McGovern in EW as “one of the most spectacular charades in California law enforcement history.” Dozens of reporters were on-hand to witness the spectacle, during which McDonald was front and center- and in full costume (natch!). One reporter, James Bacon, later penned an article in which he said the exploit “had everything any Cecil B. DeMille epic ever had – except camels. There were four scenes requiring six takes; a bedroom shot and an outdoor location; a producer and director (both policemen)!” A photograph of the bizarre affair is pictured below. Owen included the image in his email to me along with the exciting news that the white brick gate posts pictured in it are miraculously still standing, more than 60 years after the fact!

Sadly, aside from said gate posts and the exterior fencing surrounding the property, not much of the 5-bedroom, 5-bath, 4,419-square-foot home is visible from the road. You can check out some images of the 1948 dwelling here, though. The pad, which last sold in 2014 for just over $2 million, also boasts a 3-car garage, a chef’s kitchen, a library, maids’ quarters, a whopping 4 fireplaces, parquet wood flooring, an indoor spa, a pool, a pool house, and a 0.93-acre lot.

Marie’s sordid tale doesn’t end there, though. The actress’ kidnappers were never found and a grand jury eventually determined there was not enough evidence to file John Doe indictments against them. Then, a little over a year after her rescue, McDonald contacted police to let them know that she had tracked down and met with her abductors. In exchange for $5,000, the men told her who was the mastermind behind the crime – her estranged husband, Harry Karl. Harry agreed to a polygraph, though, which he passed, and police cleared him of any involvement. The two finalized their divorce shortly thereafter and most who followed the case went back to believing the whole thing was a poorly-executed hoax. Marie’s career never recovered and on October 21st, 1965, husband number six, Donald Taylor, found her slumped over her dressing table at their home at 5337 Jed Smith Road in Hidden Hills. The actress was dead from a drug overdose at the age of 42. She went to her grave vehemently denying her kidnapping had been faked. Fifty people showed up to her funeral, where, according to my friend Scott Michaels, of the Find a Death website, three of Marie’s divorce attorneys served as pallbearers. There are still more oddities to come, though. Just nine weeks later, Taylor was also found dead. He had swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills and passed away a few feet from the spot where he had discovered his wife’s body. And in one final remarkable twist, after McDonald’s passing, her three children were taken in by their father, Harry, to be raised alongside Carrie Fisher and her brother, Todd. Harry, of course, was married to none other than movie star Debbie Reynolds at the time. Only in Hollywood!

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

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Marie McDonald’s former home is located at 17031 West Magnolia Boulevard in Encino.

October 16, 2017
Madeline and Ernest’s Mansion from “Death Becomes Her”

It’s Friday the 13th! Friday, October 13th! Could anything be better? This Haunted Hollywood season, the universe has really been pushing me to watch Death Becomes Her. I had never seen the 1992 flick and, while I knew it was about two longtime female rivals obsessed with aging, always assumed it fell into the comedy genre and, for whatever reason, never had much interest. But while researching Lacy Park recently in preparation for this post, I came across a 2016 Outlook Newspapers article that chronicled filming in San Marino. One of the area locales featured in the blurb was a mansion at 1125 Oak Grove Avenue, which author John Gregory mentioned had a cameo in Death Becomes Her. I jotted the address in my stalking notebook and didn’t give it much more thought. A short time later, while perusing Instagram, I happened to glimpse one of Hello Gorgeous blogger Angela Lanter’s stories and just about fell over when she stated that she and husband, Matt Lanter (my fave actor), had been engaging in a scary movie marathon to get into the Halloween spirit and that they were planning to watch Death Becomes Her, one of Matt’s favorites, that night. I was thrilled to learn the flick would fit in with my Haunted Hollywood theme, moved the mansion straight to the top of my To-Stalk List, and sat down with the Grim Cheaper for a Death Becomes Her viewing. The film did, indeed, turn out to be more funny than spooky (although, truth be told, what’s more frightening than getting old?!?), but I figured the estate was still worthy of a post.

[ad]

The mansion mentioned in the Outlook Newspapers article was actually the main home featured in Death Becomes Her. In the film, the massive Mediterranean-style estate masked as the supposed Beverly Hills residence of actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) and her plastic-surgeon-turned-reconstructive-mortician husband, Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis).

The palatial pad was featured numerous times throughout the movie.

Despite the passage of 25 years and aside from a change in paint color, the sprawling estate looks much the same today as it did onscreen.

While watching, I had a hunch that only the mansion’s exterior was utilized in Death Becomes Her and that the ornate interior of Madeline and Ernest’s home was a set.

With its towering staircase, colossally tall ceilings, and massive fireplaces, the interior just seemed a bit too grand to be real. Then I came across this Entertainment Tonight interview with Death Becomes Her production designer Rick Carter which confirmed my hunch. In it, Carter talks about his creations for the movie and his initial fear that the sets he designed might be too large and monumental for the shoot. He says, “I remember the first day Meryl Streep shot on that set and her first lines were ‘Ernest!’ and the whole place just filled with her ego. And there she was! The set had come alive. ‘Cause I was a little bit concerned, had I made it all too big? Could any personality fill that? And within the first nanosecond of the performance by Meryl Streep, there it was, filled.”

I would love to see what the inside of the San Marino mansion looks like in real life (I imagine it’s far more modest), but unfortunately, I could not find any interior images of it online.

Madeline and Ernest’s backyard was also just a set.

The home’s actual backyard, which you can see in the aerial views below, is quite a bit larger than its onscreen counterpart.

In real life, the 2-story mansion, which was built in 1921, features 9 bedrooms, 7 baths, a 0.98-acre lot, and a pool.

Per Zillow the pad boasts 6,334 square feet, though I would have guessed it to be much, much larger.

Thanks to Chas, from It’s Filmed There, I learned that the estate also appeared in another Bruce Willis movie, 1992’s The Last Boy Scout, in which it portrayed the residence of Sheldon Marcone (Noble Willingham).

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! And Happy Friday the 13th!

Stalk It: Madeline and Ernest’s mansion from Death Becomes Her is located at 1125 Oak Grove Avenue in San Marino.

October 13, 2017
The “Scream” Warehouse

There has been so much tragedy in the world as of late. I’ve always avoided watching the news, but recently I feel like not even turning on my TV at all. Between the heartbreaking massacre in Las Vegas, the multitude of hurricanes plummeting the Eastern seaboard, and the fires ravaging both Orange and Sonoma Counties, devastation seems to be everywhere. My mom and I were actually in Santa Rosa visiting my aunt and uncle last year at this exact time. Hearing reports of the blaze desolating the area has been particularly saddening as I can’t help but think of the incredibly happy time we spent there, traversing pretty much all of Wine Country to stalk film locations, mainly from my favorite scary movie Scream, which was shot in its entirety in the region. (Thankfully, my aunt and uncle are both safe, as is their house.) I have yet to blog about the vast majority of the locales we visited during that fabulous trip and thought covering one today would be especially poignant.

[ad]

Scream is a bit of an anomaly in the motion picture world being that it was lensed almost exclusively at actual locations. Very few sets were utilized in the shoot, which took place over the course of eight weeks beginning in April 1996. During my visit to Northern California, I dragged my mom, aunt and uncle (as well as another uncle, my longtime BFF, Nat, and her boyfriend, Tony – there was literally an entire squad of us!) to every single site featured in the flick – every. single. one. I was so fixated on being thorough that we even stalked the warehouse that served as a soundstage during the production. Though the building is completely non-descript with absolutely no recognizable elements tying it to the film – not to mention it was either largely remodeled or demolished with a new structure now standing in its place (I’ll extrapolate on that a bit later in the post) – I was thrilled to be seeing it in person.

As I detailed in last year’s post about the Sonoma Community Center, a portion of Scream was originally set to be shot at Santa Rosa High School. The school board wound up vetoing the plan at the very last minute, though, leaving director Wes Craven and the rest of the production team scrambling to find a suitable replacement to mask as Woodsboro High. Enter the Sonoma Community Center, whose then manager offered up the site for use. Though the center did serve as a school up until 1948, it lacked several spaces detailed in the Scream script. So a couple of sets were built at a Santa Rosa warehouse to accommodate for the missing spots.

I learned of the warehouse’s existence and location thanks to my friend/Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, who runs The Drewseum website. As I mentioned in my October 2016 post about the Shadow of a Doubt house (which also appeared in Scream), over the years Ashley has managed to get her hands on a few Scream call sheets and she was kind enough to share them with me. Let me tell you, reading through them is like a dream! I mean, the location information alone is enough to make my head spin! One of the coveted pages details Day 9 of production (April 25th, 1996), during which several scenes taking place in Woodsboro High’s school office were lensed. The sheet lists the location of the shoot as a “warehouse stage” at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue. Ashley also shared with me the image below (a screen capture from Scream: The Inside Story), which shows the office set as it existed inside of the warehouse.

The Woodsboro High office set – which consisted of Principal Arthur Himbry’s (Henry Winkler) office, a small hallway and an anteroom – as it appeared in Scream can be seen below.

I am fairly certain that the Woodsboro High School girls’ restroom, where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) encountered the Ghostface killer for the second time, was also a set built at the warehouse. Though I originally assumed the segment was shot at the Sonoma Community Center, when I stalked the building, I could not find a bathroom even remotely similar to the Scream bathroom anywhere. I showed the employee who took us on a tour of the place the screen captures below and he informed me that he was fairly certain a restroom of that size and shape had never existed on the premises. Upon arriving home, I contacted a Scream crew member who got back to me immediately saying that the bathroom was indeed a set. Since crew member recollections are not always reliable, though, I wanted more confirmation. So I reached out to Leonora Scelfo and Nancy Anne Ridder, the two actresses who appeared alongside Neve in the scene. They both could not have been nicer, but had different memories of where filming took place. Leonora recalled shooting the bathroom scene on location at “the school” (I’m assuming she means the community center), while Nancy informed me that the bit was lensed on a set. As I said, cast and crew recollections can’t always be trusted. I am fairly certain, though, that Nancy was correct and that the Woodsboro High girls’ restroom was a set that existed inside of the Santa Rosa warehouse.

Ashley also has a hunch that a very tiny portion of the infamous opening scene was lensed at the warehouse, as well, though she is not certain of that fact. Scream’s opening, which took place at the residence of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), was actually the first part of the movie to be shot. At the time, Craven had not yet secured the rights from Fun World for the use of their “Peanut-Eyed Ghost” mask, which executive producer Marianne Maddalena had spotted while scouting the home that was ultimately used as Tatum Riley’s (Rose McGowan) in the flick and which Wes wanted to utilize to shroud Ghostface. Time running out, Craven had KNB EFX Group re-create the mask with just enough subtle changes so as not to infringe upon Fun World’s copyrighted design. KNB’s re-creation was used in the first two segments of Scream that were shot – the opening and the scenes in the Woodsboro High School office. After those bits were lensed, the rights to the Fun World mask were secured and for the rest of the shoot, the Peanut-Eyed Ghost was used. Both masks are pictured below. As you’ll notice, the differences between them are rather inconspicuous. The KNB version has a much sharper triangular nose than its Fun World counterpart. The KNB mouth boasts an upside-down tear-drop shape, while the Fun World mouth is more of an oval. And the eyes of the KNB ghost are thinner and more symmetrical than that of Fun World. Other than those small differences, though, it is pretty hard to tell them apart.

At some point after the rights were secured, Wes decided to reshoot the brief portion of the opening in which Ghostface is seen through Casey’s back window using the Fun World mask. Ashley has an inkling that the reshoot (stills of which are pictured below) was done at the warehouse and I think she’s right. That is just a hunch, though. While it makes sense that filming of the short, tightly-shot segment would have taken place at the warehouse, it is also entirely possibly producers constructed a tiny window set to shoot the bit at one of the other locales utilized in the production.

If you watch the Scream opening carefully, the two different masks are apparent. The sharp nose of the KNB version (which is pictured in the caps below) is the most noticeable giveaway.

I also have a hunch that the window portion of Sidney’s bedroom may have been a set. Though Craven states in Scream’s DVD commentary that filming of the bedroom scenes took place at the actual Santa Rosa residence utilized as Sidney’s in the shoot, as you can see in the image of the warehouse below, some sort of set boasting three single-hung windows is visible to the right of the high school office set.

Those windows are a darn close match to Sidney’s. Even her white lace curtains seem to be visible. In Scream, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) climbs through Sidney’s window, located on the Prescott home’s second floor, on two different occasions. To quote Bruce Willis, it seems doubtful, due to liability issues, that Wes would have Skeet clambering onto a roof and through a second-story window not once, but twice during production. It is much more likely that a small portion of the bedroom with more accessible windows was re-created at the warehouse for the scenes. Who knows, though?

When I arrived at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue last October, I was shocked to find a strip mall that looked to be of rather new construction standing on the premises. Walking around the center, which is home to a flooring store, a La-Z-Boy outpost and a sports shop, among others, I started to have doubts that the Scream warehouse was still standing.

Upon arriving home, I looked into the matter further and was dismayed at what I found. In comparing the 1993 overhead view of the site to the 2009 view via Historic Aerials, it is clear that the warehouse was either razed and completely rebuilt at some point during the interim or remodeled and expanded extensively before being transformed into the strip mall it is now. My guess is the former, which would mean that the Scream warehouse is no longer. Try as I might, though, I could not find any confirmation of my hunch or any information on the warehouse or the strip mall whatsoever. Even searching Santa Rosa building permits provided no clarification. Regardless, to me the site will always be hallowed ground and I was thrilled that I got to stalk it.

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

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, from The Drewseum, for telling me about this location and for providing so much of the information included in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Scream warehouse is/was located at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue in Santa Rosa.

October 12, 2017
The “One Hour Photo” House

Today’s location is not spooky – at all, in fact. It’s actually quite exquisite. But it did figure rather heavily in the creepiest scene from one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen, so I thought it would only be fitting to include it in my Haunted Hollywood postings. I am talking about the contemporary residence where the Yorkin family – Will (Michael Vartan), Nina (Connie Nielsen) and Jakob (Dylan Smith) – lived in One Hour Photo. I first got interested in tracking down the ultra-modern pad after coming across this The Straight Dope message board while researching Lacy Park, another of the 2002 thriller’s locations. In the thread, user Ins&Outs&What-have-yous inquired if anyone had any information on the dwelling, though no one seemed to. Shortly thereafter, I found my way to this page on the FilmGrab site in which a commenter named Melissa also inquired about the Yorkin home. Her query did not garner any responses, either. So, since facts about the house seemed to be nil, I decided it was my duty to track the place down and blog about it come October.

[ad]

Finding this spot took quite a while, I am loathe to admit. I knew from the movie’s production notes that the Yorkin home was located somewhere in Brentwood. My first stab at tracking down its exact address was to do a Google search for “Brentwood” and “modern house,” which yielded a slew of links to a slew of gorgeous properties, but none of them were the Yorkins’. I then added “filming” to the mix and scoured countless more links and images – so many that I ultimately do not remember the exact details of how I was finally led to the right place. At some point, though, I came across the video below which showed the pad as it appeared in an episode of Californication. The clip’s caption proved especially forthcoming, providing not only the property’s name, Benton House, but its architect, Ray Kappe. From there, Google prompted me to 90210Locations’ Californication page which detailed the residence’s exact address –136 South Canyon View Drive. Thanks, 90210Locations! I ran right out to stalk the place shortly thereafter.

In 1989, psychologist/mom/architecture buff Dr. Esther Benton purchased a large home on a shaded plot of land in Brentwood with the intention of performing a vast remodel. She commissioned Kappe for the job, but the incredibly prolific architect wound up razing the structure and rebuilding in his signature style instead, generating magic out of glass, wood and concrete. His creation, which took three years to complete (from 1991 to 1994), was designed with the working mom in mind. The residence boasts three large rooms, or “suites” as a 1998 New York Times article described them – a master bedroom suite, a suite for Esther’s daughter, and an office suite, which Kappe fashioned with a swiveling wall so that the doctor could “watch over the house without interrupting her time at work.” The property is also fashioned with 20-foot ceilings, a large skylight, Douglas fir embellishments, multiple fireplaces, a sunken bathtub, a frameless glass shower, and a towering glass and steel staircase. Zillow estimates the pad is worth a whopping $8.9 million today! Though absolutely stunning, as you can see in photos here and here, sadly none of it is visible from the street.

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial views.

For those who have not seen One Hour Photo, the movie centers on Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams), aka Sy, a Sav-Mart photo developer who becomes obsessed with the Yorkins, a family whose film he regularly develops. Though things are definitely not perfect in Will, Nina and Jakob’s world, through Sy’s eyes, the family and their home is idyllic, arcadian and devoid of any typical everyday problems. As Williams is quoted as saying in the film’s production notes, “In the outside world Sy stands out, especially when you get near the Yorkins’ house, which is very warm and incredibly beautiful, almost painfully beautiful because it is his idealized home.” Production designer Tom Foden further describes the dwelling as “representing a place of dreams and ideals.”

In the movie’s creepiest scene, Sy ventures into the Yorkins’ residence while they are away and proceeds to look through their things, put on their clothes, use their bathroom, watch their TV, and generally just make himself at home. In the end, it turns out the experience was all just a fantasy taking place in Sy’s mind, but because Williams played the role to such creepy perfection, the segment is seriously disturbing. The real life interior of the Benton House was utilized in the scene . . .

. . . as well as throughout other portions of the film.

When I first started looking into the Yorkin home, I couldn’t help but think about how much it resembles the residence belonging to Sebastian Stark (James Woods) on the television series Shark. So I was not too surprised to discover during the course of my research that the Shark pad was designed by Ray Kappe’s son, Finn Kappe. That property, one of my favorite TV homes ever, can be found at 2315 Live Oaks Meadow Road in Malibu.

What I was absolutely bowled over to learn, though, was that the inside of the Benton House was utilized as the inside of Sebastian’s home in Shark’s pilot episode, which aired in 2006. I had always assumed the Live Oak Meadows residence had been used for both interiors and exteriors! You can check out photos of the inside of that property here. As you can see, it looks nothing like Sebastian’s pad.

The Benton House interior was later re-created on a soundstage for the filming of all of Shark’s subsequent episodes. That set re-creation is pictured below. (And yes, that’s a young Matt Lanter – my favorite actor – in the second screen capture! <3)

In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “Girls, Interrupted,” which aired in 2007, the Benton House plays itself. Well, sort of. In the episode, Hank Moody (David Duchovny) takes his ex-wife, architecture enthusiast Karen (Natascha McElhone), to see the home of director Todd Carr (Chris Williams). Though said to be in Bel Air and not Brentwood, the pad is described as a Ray Kappe house in the segment.

The residence’s interior also appeared in the episode.

Back in 1999, the Benton House popped up in Cruel Intentions as the supposed Long Island, New York-area home of Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson).

As Geoff from 90210Locations also informed me, the Benton House portrayed the residence of Samantha Winslow (Susan Sarandon) during the fifth season of Ray Donovan.

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

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, of 90210Locations, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Yorkin house from One Hour Photo is located at 136 South Canyon View Drive in Brentwood.

October 9, 2017
The Haunted House from “The Goldbergs”

There’s literally nothing better than being scared at Halloween! In my mind, at least. Terrifying movies? Yes! Spooky decorations? Yes! Haunted houses? Yaaaas! Especially haunted houses! Too bad Adam F. Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) doesn’t share my sentiment. In the Season 3 episode of The Goldbergs titled “Couples Costume,” the teen only begrudgingly visits a haunted house on All Hallows’ Eve in the hopes of impressing his girlfriend, Dana Caldwell (Natalie Alyn Lind), after his sister and brother, Erica (Hayley Orrantia) and Barry (Troy Gentile), tell him he is too old for trick-or-treating. Figuring the pad utilized in the show would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme, I, of course, became obsessed with tracking it down immediately upon seeing it. Fortunately, it was a snap to find.

[ad]

While watching “Couples Costume,” I noticed that an address number of 2822 was visible just to the right of the haunted house’s front door. I had a hunch the dwelling was likely located in the same Cheviot Hills neighborhood as the property that portrays that Goldberg family’s home on the series (you can read about that site here), so I started scouring Google Street View for residences in the area numbered 2822. Sure enough, I found the place just a few blocks away at 2822 Forrester Drive.

In the episode, things don’t go well for poor Adam while at the haunted house, which is said to be taking place at a local fraternity on the Villanova University campus in Pennsylvania. Upon entering the tricked-out residence, he gets seriously spooked and uses Dana as a human shield, causing her to drop the promise ring he gave her. Adam then ditches Dana and runs for his life. Later in the evening, he winds up having to return to the haunted house with his sister, brother and mother, Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and face his fears in order to retrieve the ring.

The Tudor-style home that portrayed the haunted house in the episode looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, minus a few spooky decorations and the Greek Omega Theta Rho lettering over the front door.

In real life, the stately 2-story residence, which was built in 1926, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,241 square feet, and a 0.20-acre lot.

I believe the actual inside of the home was also utilized in “Couples Costume,” but, unfortunately, I could not find any interior photos to verify that hunch.

Interestingly, the property is a virtual twin to the Baxter home from the television series Last Man Standing. I blogged about that pad, which is located at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square, earlier this year. You can read that post here.

In an odd twist, a different residence was used as the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the Season 1 episode of The Goldbergs titled “For Your Own Good.” Even more odd, that home is located at 2826 Forrester, right next door to the property that portrayed the haunted house!

You can see that home on the right-hand side of my images below.

Odder still – 2826 Forrester was even utilized in “Couples Costume!” It is outside of the dwelling that Beverly tries to take candy from local trick-or-treaters in order to find the “deadly razor candy bar” she made to teach Adam a lesson about safety that she thinks was accidentally given out. I have no idea why producers pulled the ol’ switcheroo like that, especially since, being that it appeared in the episode, 2826 Forrester was obviously available for filming. My only guess is that Tudor-style properties lend themselves to haunted houses better than more traditional homes, so location managers must have looked for one to appear in the episode and wound up finding a suitable candidate right next door to the original fraternity house.

The residence across the street at 2815 Forrrester was also utilized in “Couples Costume” as the spot where Adam and Dana went trick-or-treating after eventually making up.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The haunted house from the “Couples Costume” episode of The Goldbergs is located at 2822 Forrester Drive in Cheviot Hills. The residence that portrayed the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the “For Your Own Good” episode can be found next door at 2826 Forrester. The property that is used as the Goldberg family’s residence on the series is just a few blocks away at 3071 Earlmar Drive. And Dana’s home from the show is around the corner at 2885 Club Drive.

October 6, 2017
Myra Jones’ Former House

Though I love true crime and pretty much all of its facets, there are some cases that I find too sad and disturbing to read about, research, do any stalking of, or feature on my blog. Today’s locale, the site of the brutal rape and murder of a 71-year-old grandma, is not one I would typically cover. But the victim’s connection to what is arguably Hollywood’s most iconic thriller and the serious mistaken identity that resulted from her killing had me utterly fascinated. I figured my fellow stalkers would be intrigued, as well. I am talking about the 1988 slaying of actress Myra Davis, who worked under the stage name Myra Jones.

[ad]

The moniker is likely unfamiliar to most, which is not surprising being that Jones’ IMDB page lists a scant six credits. Her face is also likely unfamiliar. Again, not surprising being that she never actually appeared in the most famous production on which she worked. (That’s her below pictured via an image from the television show North Mission Road, which covered her murder in a 2005 episode.)Though Myra did find a bit of success later in life starring in commercials, it was not until after her death that her name and image found their way into the papers. A full decade after her death, actually, thanks to a bit of misreporting in an Associated Press article. But more on that in a bit. During her early days in Hollywood, Jones worked as a stand-in for Janet Leigh. From November 1959 to February 1960, she served as Leigh’s stand-in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho – even during the infamous shower scene. But you never saw her onscreen. For those not familiar with Hollywood terminology, a stand-in, which is not to be confused with a body double, literally “stands in” for an actor or actress anytime the camera is not rolling – typically during rehearsals to test camera set-ups, lighting, and blocking. While standing-in during the shower sequence, Myra wore a nude leotard, which mimicked flesh tones, so that various lighting schematics could be evaluated against it. But neither her face nor her body was featured in even one second of footage.

Flash forward to June 28th, 1988. After not hearing from her for several days, Myra’s granddaughter, Sherry Davis, headed to the actress’ West L.A. bungalow, located at 2917 South Beverly Drive in Palms, to check on her. Peering in the bedroom window, she discovered a horrifying site – Jones’ decomposing body splayed across the bed. She had been raped and murdered eight days prior. Though Sherry had suspicions that the crime might have been committed by next-door neighbor Joel Stein, who lived one door south at 2923 South Beverly, detectives zeroed in on Sherry’s brother, who was battling drug addiction at the time. The brother passed a polygraph, though, and police it seems didn’t look further. Myra’s case went cold.

Her 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,234-square-foot home, which Myra had lived in for 40 years, was subsequently sold.

Flash forward once again. This time to March 29th, 1998, almost a full decade later, when 60-year-old Jean Orloff was found raped and murdered inside her apartment located at 1810 South Bentley Avenue in West L.A. Though a fire alarm in her bedroom had been dismantled, her dust ruffle burned, and marks on her neck and back were visible, the police detective on the scene ruled that the death resulted from a heart attack. The burned bed skirt he explained away by saying Jean (pictured below via a Cold Case Files episode), who was a known smoker, might have dropped a cigarette during the attack, causing a small fire. No matter that no cigarette was found near her body or on the floor. Because of the ruling, Jean’s apartment was turned over to her family and they began to clean up the scene and pack her belongings. It was not until four days later that the truth was unveiled. While the funeral home was preparing Jean for cremation, a worker noticed that her death certificate had never been signed by the attending coroner. Orloff’s longtime doctor was contacted, but, because he had not seen Jean for over eight months, legally he could not endorse the document. So the coroner’s office sent out investigator Sherwood Dixson to re-examine the body and sign the paperwork. While inspecting her, Dixson noticed that there was significant bruising on Jean’s neck. In the days since her discovery, the ligature marks left by her killer had darkened significantly. Dixson ruled the death a homicide.

By the time of Dixson’s ruling, Jean’s family had already cleaned her apartment (pictured below from the Cold Case Files episode) and packed away most of her belongings, wiping away or tossing out any evidence in the process. The police were in a predicament. So they started reaching out to those close to Orloff in the hopes that someone might be able to shed some light on why she was killed. One of the people contacted was Jean’s longtime manicurist, Adrienne Rosenfeldt. Though Rosenfeldt did not have any relevant information to give police, when she returned home later that night she mentioned Jean’s murder to her son, Joel Stein. Yes, the same Joel Stein who lived next door to Myra Jones. The conversation got Joel thinking about his brother-in-law, Kenneth Dean Hunt, who also inhabited the home next door to Myra. Kenneth had been behaving strangely and binging on cocaine over the few days prior. Joel remembered that ten years earlier, immediately following Jones’ death, Kenneth had acted the exact same way. He called the police, who brought Hunt in for questioning and obtained his DNA. Sure enough, the results showed that he was the killer of both Jean and Myra. Sherry Davis had been right all along. Her grandmother had been murdered by the man next-door – just not the man she was thinking of. Kenneth was arrested, charged and ultimately convicted of both homicides. He was sentenced to life in prison. The story doesn’t end there, though.

When Hunt was arrested, the Associated Press published an article stating that one of his victims was Janet Leigh’s Psycho body double. The press subsequently ran with the story, tantalized by the eerie fact that a woman who appeared in one of the most famous murder scenes of all time wound up dying a brutal death at the hands of a deranged killer. The only trouble was the account wasn’t accurate. Can you say fake news?!? As I mentioned above, Myra was Leigh’s stand-in, not her body double. That job went to a former stripper and one-time Playboy cover model named Marli Renfro (pictured below). It is her body that appears in all portions of the shower scene in which Janet’s face is not visible in the frame. The press’ misreporting is somewhat understandable, I guess, being that the terms “body double” and “stand-in” are often used interchangeably, though they shouldn’t be. Further muddying the waters was the fact that both Leigh and Hitchcock categorically denied the use of a shower scene body double for years. Because Myra used a stage name, after the Associated Press released their initial article, some media sources, confused by Hitchcock and Leigh’s denials, simply assumed that Marli Renfro and Myra Jones were the same person. It was not long before news of the Psycho body double’s murder was everywhere, with some outlets even claiming that Myra had done the voice work of Norman Bates’ mother in the movie, another incorrect factoid.

It took years for the matter to be cleared up. Enter author Robert Graysmith, who had been obsessed with Renfro since his teens. While perusing a December 2007 news article about the murder, he was surprised to see Sherry Davis quoted as saying, “My grandmother would never have done any nude work.” Being that Marli had been featured on the cover of Playboy, the quote confused Graysmith and he began researching the matter further. As he shockingly soon discovered, not only were Marli Renfro and Myra Jones two different people, but Renfro was alive and well and living in the Mojave Desert. Even more shocking, Marli had no idea she had been proclaimed dead by the media or that there was so much confusion surrounding her role in Psycho until Robert contacted her and explained the situation. Graysmith wound up publishing a book on the subject titled “The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shower” in 2010.

I first learned about Myra’s killing from fellow stalker Alan who posted a comment on my Challenge Lindsay! page back in January alerting me to the addresses of several Haunted Hollywood locales, one of which was Jones’ home. Another fellow stalker named James responded to Alan’s comment, providing a link to a Wikipedia page about Marli Renfro. I was not familiar with either Jones or Renfro at the time, but once I started Googling, I pretty much couldn’t stop. The whole story is almost stranger than fiction!

Myra’s house, which was originally built in 1938, was featured in the Season 3 Cold Case Files episode that covered her murder titled “Before I Do/Hollywood Homicides.”

The residence also appeared in the North Mission Road episode about the case titled “Double Mystery.” You can watch that episode here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Alan for telling about this location and to fellow stalker James for providing the Wikipedia link that led me to reading more about the case.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Myra Jones’ former house is located at 2917 South Beverly Drive in Palms.

October 4, 2017