Year: 2017

Old Tony’s on the Pier from "The O.C."

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon has been in full effect lately when it comes to Old Tony’s on the Pier, a Redondo Beach restaurant I stalked way back in January 2012 with my good friend Mike (he provided many of the images in this post), but have yet to blog about. First, Alison Martino, founder of the fabulous Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page, posted some photos of the nautical-themed eatery on her Instagram in May. Then last week, a link to an L.A. magazine article titled “100 Places Where You Can Experience Retro Los Angeles,” which featured a blurb on Tony’s, landed in my inbox. So I figured the universe was trying to tell me it was high time I dedicate a post to the place.

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Old Tony’s on the Pier was originally founded in 1952 by a commercial fisherman/World War II veteran named Anthony Trutanich, who figured that running a restaurant had to be easier than angling for ocean life. Initially known simply as “Tony’s,” the eatery was established inside of a small shack-like space overlooking the Pacific on the Redondo Beach Pier. Though the restaurant business proved just as demanding as commercial fishing, Tony’s quickly became a success.

Even celebrities were clamoring to get a table.

Just a few of the luminaries who have dined on the premises include Ronald Reagan, Michael Rapaport, Bob Hope, Ann-Margret, Florence Henderson, Phyllis Diller, Frank Sinatra, Danny DeVito, Johnny Carson, Barbara Streisand, Dean Martin, Candice Bergen, Telly Savalas, and Jay Leno. Tony’s entrance is wallpapered with autographed headshots of the restaurant’s many famous fans.

Tony’s proved so popular that Trutanich expanded it twice. In 1961, he added a large patio to the site and then in 1963, he installed an octagonal-shaped second story that he designed himself. The crow’s-nest-like space houses a circular bar known as “op o’ Tony’s.”

In 1969, Trutanich opened a sister restaurant just across from his inaugural eatery and dubbed it “Tony’s Fish Market.” It was at that time that the original site was renamed “Old Tony’s” or “Tony’s on the Pier.”

Though a fire destroyed much of the Redondo Beach Pier in 1988, Old Tony’s remained intact. Trutanich became the driving force behind the structure’s rebuild, earning the nickname “Godfather of the Pier.” Sadly, Tony passed away in 2007 at the age of 84. His two sons, Tony Jr. and Michael, subsequently took over running the restaurants. While they closed Tony’s Fish Market in 2008, Old Tony’s remains intact and is still going strong today, 65 years after its inception.

Very little of Old Tony’s kitschy décor has been changed since it opened (though some renovations are planned for the near future, unfortunately), which is perhaps why it has proved popular with both patrons and location scouts.

In the Season 3 episode of The O.C. titled “The Pot Stirrer,” Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke) and Dr. Neil Roberts (Michael Nouri) met for a very brief lunch date at the eatery. Both the exterior . . .

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

According to the super nice servers we spoke with while stalking the place (that’s them below!), Old Tony’s has also appeared in the television shows House M.D. and Riptide, though I am unsure of which episodes specifically.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Old Tony’s on the Pier, from “The Pot Stirrer” episode of The O.C., is located at 210 Fisherman’s Wharf in Redondo Beach. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

June 7, 2017
St. Elizabeths Hospital from “A Few Good Men”

We all know the scene – a nervous Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) briskly walks across a grassy field toward the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, while, behind her, a large U.S. Marine band playing a rousing rendition of “Semper Fidelis” marches in formation and a Silent Drill Platoon performs an enthralling and precisely-timed exhibition drill. I am talking about the opening of A Few Good Men, easily one of the most famous segments in all of moviedom. So I, of course, wanted to stalk St. Elizabeths Hospital, the former mental health facility where the bit was shot, during my trip to Washington, D.C. last September. While the site proved a bit difficult to navigate, I did eventually get to see it – from afar. To cap off my recent A Few Good Men postings, I thought I’d write about it today.

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St. Elizabeths (no apostrophe) Hospital was originally established in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane on a 193-acre plot of farmland overlooking the Anacostia River. The institution was spearheaded by Dorothea Dix, an activist who tirelessly pioneered for the humane treatment of the mentally ill, and Dr. Charles Nichols, a physician’s assistant who became the site’s first superintendent.

Designed by both Dr. Nichols and architect Thomas Ustick Walter, the Gothic Revival-style hospital was built to showcase its bucolic setting, with the hope that the idyllic surroundings would bring peace to those who were institutionalized there.

The federally-run hospital, which was re-named St. Elizabeths in 1916, proved successful for many years and underwent several expansions, eventually coming to encompass a whopping 350 acres on which stood more than 100 buildings. The site grew so large, in fact, that it was divided into sections – the East Campus and the West Campus, with Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE bisecting the two. For various reasons, including decreased funding, the deinstitutionalization of health care and a cease on military admissions, St. Elizabeths began to see a decline in patient population in the 1940s. By 1987, operation of the East Campus had been transferred to the District of Columbia. Though admittance continued to decline, a new hospital was constructed in a small section of that site in 2010. It continues to operate today. In fact, up until late last year, John Hinckley Jr. was institutionalized there. (Hinckley actually spent 34 years at St. Elizabeths before being released into the care of his mother on September 10th, 2016.) While the remainder of the East Campus is currently vacant, it is set to be redeveloped as a mixed-use site.

St. Elizabeths’ West Campus continues to be federally owned and though it, too, was set to be redeveloped, the plans fell through. In 2004, the property was taken over by the General Services Administration and it is currently being transformed into the headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security.

Most websites detailing A Few Good Men filming locations state that the St. Elizabeths portions of the movie were lensed at 1100 Alabama Avenue SE, but that is incorrect. That address marks the entrance to the East Campus and when the Grim Cheaper and I pulled up, we knew right away were were in the wrong spot. Thankfully, I happened to find an extremely friendly security guard who counts AFGM as one of his favorite movies. He had no idea it had been filmed on the premises, nor did he recognize the building that masked as the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, which I thankfully had screen captures of. He was completely willing to help with the hunt, though, and called several of his co-workers for assistance. After much discussion, he was finally able to figure out that the building I was looking for was located on the West Campus, which, being that it is home to the Department of Homeland Security, is, obviously, off-limits to the public. The GC and I drove over there regardless, though, to see if anything was visible from the street.

Though the West Campus is heavily guarded, security there was friendly as well. The guard that we spoke with wouldn’t let us onto the property (for obvious reasons), but he did inform us that the structure that masked as the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in A Few Good Men still stands. He also told us exactly where to go to see portions of it from the street.

Known as the Administration Building in real life, the neoclassical-style structure was designed by the Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge architecture firm during a major expansion the hospital underwent in 1903.

The Administration Building popped up countless times throughout A Few Good Men. Along with the opening segment . . .

. . . and the scene in which JoAnne informed Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) that she got authorization to speak with his client from “Aunt Ginny” (in that bit, Kaffee’s car is parked just south of the building’s entrance) . . .

. . . it was also featured regularly in establishing shots of the movie’s many courtroom scenes.

A Few Good Men utilized the west side of the Administration Building, but, unfortunately, only the east side is visible from the street.

Though several websites report that the inside of an actual courthouse was used in A Few Good Men’s interior courtroom scenes, I have never believed that to be true. Shortly before writing this post, I got in touch with a friendly crew member who confirmed my hunch that the courtroom was a set built at The Culver Studios in Culver City.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: St. Elizabeths Hospital’s Administration Building, aka the Judge Advocate General’s Corps from A Few Good Men, is located on the site’s West Campus, the entrance to which can be found at 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Washington D.C. The campus is closed to the public, but the Administration Building is visible from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, about 1000 feet north of where it intersects with Milwaukee Place SE.

June 5, 2017
Sam’s Apartment from “A Few Good Men”

At the risk of saturating my blog with A Few Good Men locations, I’m back today with yet another spot from the 1992 courtroom drama. (And I still have an additional AFGM locale up my sleeve, which I will be writing about soon.) Last September, while in Washington, D.C. – where A Few Good Men was set and partially filmed – I dragged the Grim Cheaper, my good friend Nat, her boyfriend Tony, and her mom Marlys (yeah, there was a whole brood of us) out to Adams Morgan to stalk the apartment building where Lt. (j.g.) Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollack) lived.

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The building, which is known as Airy View in real life, only appeared once in A Few Good Men, in the scene in which Sam and his co-counsel, Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), discuss both Sam’s daughter’s first word and whether or not Daniel should encourage their clients to take a plea deal in the Pfc. William Santiago (Michael DeLorenzo) murder case.

Considering how brief the scene is, it is incredible how instantly recognizable Sam’s building is – but that could just be a testament to how many times I’ve seen the movie. Though, Nat and Tony easily recognized it, as well, and they aren’t nearly as obsessed with the flick as I am.

I found this spot thanks to my friend Owen (of the When Write Is Wrong blog), who provided me with quite an extensive list of D.C.-area filming sites prior to my East Coast trip. Owen, in turn, found it via the Movie Tourist website. I am guessing that Movie Tourist tracked it down thanks to the fact that both “Airy View” and an address number of “2415” are visible in the scene shot at Sam’s building.

In real life, the three-story Beaux Arts-style structure houses twenty condominium units.

Airy View was built from 1910 to 1911 and was designed by the L.E. Simpson & Co. architecture firm.

The gorgeous building features a recessed formal entrance with French Classical detailing and a landscaped central courtyard.

Airy View has a very Midnight-in-the-Garden-of-Good-and-Evil thing going for it, which I love. It’s almost hauntingly beautiful.

You can check out a photo of one of the building’s actual units here (those brick walls!) and here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Airy View, aka Sam Weinberg’s apartment from A Few Good Men, is located at 2415 20th Street NW in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

June 2, 2017
Danny’s Apartment from “A Few Good Men”

It is rare when a movie comes along and changes the course of your life. For me, one such movie was A Few Good Men. I walked out of the theatre after first seeing it in 1992 proclaiming that I was going to become a lawyer. I was 15 at the time – a sophomore in high school. I spent the next few years convinced that law was my calling, regularly and passionately professing my love of the film and its climatic “I want the truth!” moment to anyone who would listen. One day, a neighbor who happened to be on the listening end of my diatribe said something very profound to me. He said, “You don’t want to be a lawyer. You want to be a lawyer in a movie.” It was a valid assessment (I guess I did want the truth!) – one that got me thinking about acting. It wasn’t long before I tried out for – and landed a role in – my first play. My love of acting led to my move to L.A. shortly thereafter, which in turn led to the start of this blog. And the rest is history. Needless to say, A Few Good Men has always had a very special place in my heart. So when I learned that we were heading to Washington, D.C. last September, I informed the Grim Cheaper that I wasn’t leaving town without stalking Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s (Tom Cruise) apartment from the film.

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Daniel’s brownstone pops up regularly throughout A Few Good Men.

While blue at the time of the filming, the exterior of his Georgetown-area walk-up has since been painted yellow. Aside from the coloring, though, the place looks much the same today as it did when A Few Good Men was filmed 25 years ago.

According to Zillow, the property, which was originally built in 1900, houses condos in real life.

Because so many scenes took place there, I am 99.9% certain that the inside of Danny’s apartment was a set built on a soundstage at The Culver Studios in Culver City (where many of the movie’s interior scenes were lensed) and that the building’s actual interior was not used.

Cementing my belief is this November 1992 Los Angeles Times article which states that A Few Good Men “was shot almost entirely on a sound stage at Culver Studios in Culver City, with the exception of two weeks of location shooting exteriors in Washington.” Now we know that many scenes were, in fact, lensed on location in the L.A. area, so the article’s information isn’t exactly ironclad. (The column also asserts that because the Defense Department did not sanction AFGM, no filming was allowed to take place on any military bases – another falsehood. The flick utilized several military sites, including the US Coast Guard base in San Pedro, the Naval Air Station Point Mugu – which a later LA Times article does acknowledge – and Fort MacArthur.) Regardless of the erroneous reporting, I do believe that most of the movie’s interiors, including Danny’s apartment and his fridge full of Yoo-hoo, were sets. There’s just no way Tom Cruise was hanging out inside of someone’s actual apartment for the amount of time it would have taken to shoot the many segments. Nor would a studio utilize a real life interior – with no insulation to block out exterior noise and no control of the outside world – to such an extent.

What is interesting, though, and what had me doubting my hunch for a bit is the fact that countless scenes were shot from the outside of Danny’s apartment window looking in.

As unbelievable as it may seem (and it seems pretty unbelievable to me), I think that the production team built an exact replica of the building’s façade, as well as replicas of the neighboring façades, on a soundstage to shoot the window scenes.

While I initially thought that the segments were likely created using special effects, with footage of the actors superimposed behind actual shots of the building’s window, in scrutinizing the scenes further, I noticed that a line was visible in the brickwork running along both sides of the window fame that appeared the movie. As you can see in the photo below, that line is not there in real life, which led to my conclusion about the façades.

It is really too bad that the interior of Danny’s pad was not real. His place was so warm and inviting, though I have to admit I am a sucker for a fireplace and any sort of built-in bookcase.

On an A Few Good Men side-note – while researching this post, I was shocked to discover that the movie was based on a true story! In 1986, ten Marines stationed in Guantanamo Bay performed a code red on Pfc. William Alvarado, a fellow soldier who had been writing letters to his senator about the illegal discharge of another platoon member’s weapon. (Sounds familiar, right?) Though Alvarado did not die during the code red, his face turned blue and he passed out. The ten men informed the higher-ups and Alvarado was taken to Miami for treatment and survived. While seven of the Marines wound up being dishonorably discharged for the act, three decided to fight the charges in court. One of the lawyers assigned to the case was a man named Don Marcari, who defended Lance Corporal David Cox. It was Marcari’s very first trial. (Again, sound familiar? “So this is what a courtroom looks like!”) Another lawyer who worked on the case was A Few Good Men screenwriter’s Aaron Sorkin’s sister. She told Aaron about the proceedings via telephone one day. Sorkin was working as a bartender at the Palace Theatre in New York at the time and, inspired by what his sister told him, began writing a script based on the story on cocktail napkins during his downtime. That script went on to become a hit play and then a hit movie. But the tale doesn’t end there. Five of the marines involved in the real life case wound up suing Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994. And David Cox, who was planning to join the lawsuit, was murdered under extremely mysterious circumstances that same year. His killing has never been solved. You can read more about the story and Cox’s death here, here, here, and here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s apartment from A Few Good Men is located at 3017 Dent Place Northwest in Georgetown.

May 31, 2017
Happy Memorial Day!

I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a happy Memorial Day. I hope everyone takes a moment today to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect America’s freedoms. I know I will be. And I will return here on Wednesday with a new post.

May 29, 2017
Rose Towers from “CSI: Cyber”

Spanish-style courtyard apartment complexes are my jam (as evidenced here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). One that I became especially enamored of a little over a year ago was the pink-hued building where Tristan Jenkins (fave actor Matt Lanter) lived on the Season 2 episode of CSI: Cyber titled “Corrupted Memory.” While I don’t typically watch CSI: Cyber, when I learned that ML would be guest-starring I made sure to tune in – and was not disappointed. Not only did Matt do a fabulous job portraying an agoraphobe, but my jaw dropped during one of the opening shots when cameras swooped in to reveal the colorful terraced apartment complex his character called home. I immediately pulled out my laptop to try to figure out where filming had taken place, which my instinct told me was somewhere in West Hollywood. I came up completely empty-handed, though. I even tweeted Matt to ask about the locale, to no avail. It wasn’t until early this year that I was finally able to identify the place, via a rather circuitous route.

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A couple of months ago, the Grim Cheaper and I were watching an episode of Scorpion (our latest obsession) and I spotted what I thought was the exterior of the apartment building where Mia (Emma Stone) lived in La La Land. I did a quick Google search for “La La Land apartment building” and was shocked when photos of what I immediately recognized as Tristan’s complex from CSI: Cyber were kicked back! As it turns out, Tristan and Mia’s buildings are one and the same! (Though I was wrong on the whole Scorpion thing.) I was thrilled with the discovery and added the place’s address – 1728 East 3rd Street in Long Beach – to my To-Stalk List. Well, imagine my surprise when just a few days later, my friend Nat, who lives in San Francisco (you may remember her from Wednesday’s post), texted to let me know she was heading down to the LBC. While she was hoping we could meet up during her visit, I couldn’t make it out there. But I did ask if she’d be willing to stalk Tristan’s apartment on my behalf and she happily agreed. Thank you, Nat! (For those keeping track, this is the second locale that she has stalked for me over the past few months. I’ve taken to calling her my field correspondent and the GC has suggested I get her a press pass. )

In real life, Tristan’s apartment building from CSI: Cyber is known as Rose Towers. The complex was originally built in 1928 as El Cordova Apartments. Designed by George D. Riddle, the 20-unit Spanish Colonial Revival-style property boasts Moorish influences, wrought-iron balconies, lush landscaping, a terraced central courtyard with a tiled fountain, and arched entryways.

In 1955, El Cordova was transformed into an own-your-own apartment complex and then was transitioned once again in 1992, this time into condos.

In 2006, the homeowners association decided to re-stucco the building and, in doing so, discovered that there was also some water damage, wood rot, and minor structural issues that needed attention. The group banded together, performing much of the general contractor work themselves, to restore the property to its original glory. Their efforts, which took 4 months to complete at a cost of $150,000, earned them a preservation award from the Los Angeles Conservancy.

In “Corrupted Memory,” a woman is murdered at Rose Towers, which is said to be located at 1298 Horizon Court in Tampa, Florida, and the only witness is her agoraphobic neighbor Tristan, who is so traumatized by the event that his entire memory of it is blocked.

Quite a bit of the complex was shown in the episode.

I am fairly certain that the inside of two of the building’s actual condos were also utilized in the production. You can check out interior photos of a couple of the complex’s units here and here.

The exterior of Rose Towers was only shown once in La La Land, during the “Someone in the Crowd” musical number at the beginning of the movie. Very little of the structure was featured in the scene and none of the courtyard area, which is why I didn’t recognize it from CSI: Cyber.

While several websites report that Mia lived in Unit #16, her actual apartment exterior never appeared in the movie. Apparently, the portion of the “Someone in the Crowd” sequence shot at Rose Towers was originally supposed to be much longer -with Mia shown exiting her unit, dancing on the terrace, down the stairs, and past the fountain – but most of it wound up on the cutting room floor, leaving audiences with only a very brief view of the complex from the street.

You can watch a video put together by the Gazettes website about the filming of the “Someone in the Crowd” scene, in which host Jo Murray talks with homeowners about how the segment was shot and the cuts made, by clicking below.

The back alley behind Rose Towers was also shown briefly in a later La La Land scene in which Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) picks Mia up for a date.

Only the exterior of the complex was utilized in La La Land. Sadly, Mia’s brightly-colored apartment interior was just a studio-built set.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Rose Towers, aka the former El Cordova Apartments from the “Corrupted Memory” episode of CSI: Cyber, are located at 1728 East 3rd Street in Long Beach.

May 26, 2017
Descanso Beach Club from “NCIS”

My family has long had a love affair with Catalina, the idyllic island located about 22 miles southwest of Los Angeles. One of our favorite spots to grab lunch or an evening cocktail while there is Descanso Beach Club, a toes-in-the-sand restaurant situated along the shore of Descanso Bay. I have visited the site more times than I can count over the years, but had no idea it was a filming location. So I was thrilled when I spotted it while re-watching an early episode of NCIS recently. I sat down to do a post on Descanso the following morning and was shocked to discover that, despite my many visits there, I hardly had any photos of the place. So I had to hold off on writing about it. Flash forward to this past weekend. My good friend Nat, who lives in San Francisco, made an impromptu trip to Catalina while in SoCal and texted me to ask if I had any area recommendations. I told her about Descanso Beach Club and what a great lunch spot it is. I also expressed that I would love her forever if she headed over there to snap some photos for me, which she happily did. Thank you, Nat! (Most of the pictures featured in this post are Nat’s, but a couple are ones that I took during my last trip to the island in 2009.)

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Descanso Beach Club is situated on the former site of the famed Saint Catherine Hotel, or Hotel St. Catherine as it was also known, which was established in 1918 by the Banning Family, who owned Catalina at the time. After a November 1915 fire destroyed many of the island’s tourist areas and lodgings, the Bannings decided to build an upscale resort on the grounds of their former home (which was also wiped out by the blaze), an idyllic plot of land overlooking Descanso Bay. Designed by the Milwaukee Building Company, St. Catherine opened its doors on June 28th, 1918. When William Wrigley Jr. purchased Catalina Island from the Bannings the following year, he added on to the Spanish-style hotel, installing a second guest wing and a swimming pool, among other amenities. The luxurious lodging soon became the stomping ground of many of Hollywood’s elite including Charlie Chaplin, Richard Arlen, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Joe Schenck, Betty Grable, Norma Shearer, Humphrey Bogart, Irving Thalberg, and Johnny Weissmuller.

On December 23rd, 1941, just a little over two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Catalina Island was closed to the public and became a training ground for the military. The Saint Catherine Hotel was transformed into living quarters for the soldiers. Though the property was converted back into a resort in the years following World War II’s end, it never regained its original luster and was razed in 1966. You can see what the St. Catherine looked like while it was still in operation here, here, here, and here. Following the demolition, the hotel’s once lush grounds were left vacant and largely abandoned for more than two decades. Though there were plans to build another luxury resort on the site, they never came to fruition. Instead, Descanso Beach Club was established there in 1992.

The word “club” is something of a misnomer. Though the site (including the beach area) is privately owned, it is accessible to the public and offers a wide array of seaside activities for tourists and locals alike. Guests can sit on Descanso’s large deck and order a meal, grab a drink at the open-air bar situated just steps from the ocean, or rent a chaise lounge or cabana and sip a libation on the sand. It is hands-down the best spot for cocktails and eats in Catalina. Fun fact – Descanso is the only place in Southern California where cocktails can legally be served on the beach.

Beginning in 2010, Descanso Beach Club was expanded and renovated to the tune of $6 million. A large special events hall was added to the property, as well as additional retail space, an espresso bar (yaaaas!), and an ice cream shop.

As I mentioned above, the last time I visited Catalina was in 2009, so I have yet to see the club in its current state, but Nat’s photos attest to the fact that it is just as beautiful as ever.

In the Season 1 episode of NCIS titled “The Immortals,” Descanso Beach Club masked as the Puerto Rico bar where Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) grabbed a cocktail after busting a local Navy Exchange clerk for illegally selling officer’s swords.

Though I recognized the bar immediately while watching the episode, I had to do a double take as the scene that took place there was incredibly brief. It was hard to believe that cast and crew headed all the way out to Catalina just to shoot that one short segment. “The Immortals” did feature quite a few boat scenes, though, so I am thinking that the production team zeroed in on the calm, clear waters off the island’s coast to shoot those bits, making Descanso Beach Club a convenient spot to film the bar segment.

The Season 15 episode of The Bachelor titled “Week 4: Radio Show Date” also did some filming at Descanso. In the episode, Bachelor Brad Womack took contestant Chantal O’Brien on a one-on-one date to Catalina Island. After an ocean-floor walk, the two finished off their visit with a romantic night cap at the club.

Aside from the actual beach, very little of the club was shown in the episode outside of a small view of the bar area that was visible when Brad and Chantal first arrived.

The Real Housewives of Orange County’s Vicki Gunvalson and Brooks Ayers shot a scene at Descanso in September 2011, but I scanned through all of the Catalina-based episodes from around that time period and it appears that the segment wound up on the cutting room floor. And back in the Hotel St. Catherine days, the 1927 film A Hero for a Night and 1935’s Murder on a Honeymoon were shot on the premises. Unfortunately, I could not find a copy of either movie with which to make screen captures for this post.

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

Huge THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location on my behalf!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Descanso Beach Club, from “The Immortals” episode of NCIS, is located at 1 St. Catherine Way in Avalon on Catalina Island. You can visit the club’s official website here.

May 24, 2017
The “A Few Good Men” Softball Field

I don’t know – or care – much about sports. I do love me some Tom Cruise, though. So when my friend/fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, sent me his list of Washington, D.C./Philadelphia-area locales prior to my trip back east last September, I was thrilled to see the softball field from the 1992 drama A Few Good Men mentioned. As noted in his files (which were extensive!), filming of the AFGM softball scenes took place on the baseball fields at West Potomac Park, just south of the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. When I went to look at the fields on Google Maps, though, I noticed that they did not match to what was shown onscreen. So I started to do some digging on the subject and came across a comment on the Movie Tourist blog posted by “tahoekid” that cleared things up. Apparently, Movie Tourist had posted the Potomac Park fields information back in early 2013 and when tahoekid went to stalk the site a little over two years later, he noticed that things didn’t match. He investigated the matter further and discerned that filming had actually taken place in a since-dismantled field once situated just northwest of Independence Avenue SW and 17th Street SW in an area that is now part of the national World War II Memorial.

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I was still having a hard time matching things up, though (I am so not good at pinpointing park locations, let alone a since-dismantled park location from a movie over twenty years old!), so I sent my findings over to Owen to ask his thoughts. As it turns out, he had come across Movie Tourist’s A Few Good Men page when it was first posted and had jotted down the West Potomac Park fields information, along with the other addresses, in his Washington, D.C. stalking files, but because he had no trips to the nation’s capital planned at the time, had not done any further research. In looking at the screen captures I sent him in comparison with Street View imagery of the roads outside of the World War II Memorial, he was able to match several things, confirming once and for all that filming took place exactly where tahoekid said it did.

The softball field pops up twice in A Few Good Men. It first appears in the scene in which Lt. Dave Spradling (Matt Craven) threatens to not only charge Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s (Cruise) client with possession of marijuana, but to also hang him from a “f*cking yardarm.”

The field appears once again shortly thereafter in the scene in which Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) informs Kaffee that his new clients, Pfc. Louden Downey (James Marshall) and Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison), have just been imprisoned.

In that scene, the district’s statue of Revolutionary War naval commander John Paul Jones is visible behind JoAnne. It is that statue that helped tahoekid determine where the softball field was once situated.

I was interested in pinpointing the field’s exact former location – Where was first base? Where was home? I am nothing if not a stickler for details. – and Owen, along with an assist from Historic Aerials, was able to do so. As you can see in the 1988 image below (for which Owen provided the graphics), the field was located directly south and slightly west of the Rainbow Pool, which sits at the eastern end of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool.

An unmarked version of the 1988 image is pictured below. You may have noticed that the field is a bit hard to see. As Owen explained to this sports-challenged stalker, “What’s interesting — and I’m guessing you’re not familiar with this — is that most softball fields are completely dirt in the infield and completely grass in the outfield. A baseball/softball field with an all-dirt infield is pretty easy to spot in Historic Aerials. The field from A Few Good Men, however, is almost entirely grass. The only dirt portions are narrow strips between the bases, a small patch for the pitcher’s mound and a larger section near home plate. That is why the field is difficult to spot on Historic Aerials … but it’s there.”

A more current aerial from Bing is pictured below. As you can see, though the Rainbow Pool is intact and looks much the same as it did in 1988, it has since been integrated into the World War II Memorial, which was built from 2001 to 2004. It was during those years that the A Few Good Men softball field was removed. You can see an image of what the area looked like prior to the memorial’s construction here (though, due to the angle from which the photo was taken, the softball field is not really visible).

The World War II Memorial’s information booth is the best marker as to the field’s former location. It sits pretty much directly on top of where home plate used to be.

Though Owen noted that “The field is long gone, of course, and almost nothing will be recognizable from the movie,” he did manage to pinpoint some things that remain intact (along with the John Paul Jones statue, which was mentioned earlier). The line of trees visible in the background of the first softball scene, which borders the southern edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, is still there today. (Because of the information booth and the many buses and cars typically parked in front of the site, the view of the trees from the vantage point from which AFGM was shot is currently a bit obstructed, as you can see below.)

Owen also noted that four fenced notches visible throughout the softballs scenes on the concrete wall that runs along Independence Avenue are still identifiable from their onscreen appearance.

As is the small portion of the Kutz Bridge that appeared in the background of the scene with JoAnne.

A map of all of those landmarks is pictured below.

I am hoping all of my sports-minded fellow stalkers had some fun with this locale. As Owen said after helping me out with it, “I enjoyed looking at this because how often do I get to combine filming locations and softball fields?!”

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and to tahoekid for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The A Few Good Men softball field was formerly located just southwest of where the World War II Memorial is currently situated today, near the spot where the information booth now stands.

May 22, 2017
East Miami Police Department from “Rosewood”

I was saddened to learn of the cancellation of Rosewood last week. Yes, I said in recent posts (here and here) that the show had jumped the shark, but I was holding out hope that it would return strong for a third season. Unfortunately, as Fox announced last Tuesday, that is not to be. Even worse, because the series was given the ax after the Season 2 finale had already aired, there will not be closure to any of the main storylines, namely the will-they-or-won’t-they relationship of the two leads, Dr. Beaumont “Rosie” Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) and Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz). My fingers are crossed that the procedural will be rescued à la Timeless (which I am SO thrilled about it), but I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime, I thought I’d blog about one of the main locations used on the now defunct series – the Huntington Beach Civic Center, which stands, ahem, stood in for the East Miami Police Department where Rosie and Villa work, ahem, worked.

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The Huntington Beach Civic Center was constructed between 1972 and 1974 to replace the city’s former civic center, which was built in the early 1920s.

The 187,000-square-foot modernist complex, which sits on a 14.28-acre plot of land, was designed by both Meyer & Allen Associates and the Honnold, Reibsamen & Rex architecture firm.

The Meyer & Allen website states that the site was “designed for service to citizens, rather than a monument to government” with “a flexible, open-end plan that can adjust to and grow with the requirements of an expanding local government.”

The center, constructed mainly out of concrete, is comprised of 5 main areas – a 5-story Administration Building, which houses City Hall, a 1-story Development Building, a 1,000-seat amphitheatre, a Police/Public Safety Building, and Council Chambers.

It is the Administration Building that is used on Rosewood.

For those who are not familiar with the series, Rosewood is set in Miami, Florida. While almost all filming took place in Los Angeles, the pilot was actually shot on location in The Magic City. In the episode, Miami City Hall, located at 3500 Pan American Drive, masked as East Miami PD.

Beginning with episode 2, titled “Fireflies and Fidelity,” filming moved to the L.A. area (namely Orange County) and the Huntington Beach Civic Center made its first appearance as East Miami PD.

Both the west side of the Administration Building (pictured above) and the east side (below) are utilized on the series.

I was most excited to see the east side, which is where Rosie got his car back in Season 2’s “Mummies & Meltdowns.”

The spot where the gang waited for him, posed in front of his beloved canary yellow 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible, can be found at the bottom of the steps leading to the Civic Center’s east parking lot.

In person, the center looks much the same as it does onscreen, minus a few East Miami Police signs.

While I was posing for my obligatory photo in front of the location, a couple walked by and said, “Yep, you’ve found it! East Miami PD!” The friendly duo then told us that Rosewood had also done some filming at the Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center just up the street, so the Grim Cheaper and I headed right on over there. I so love receiving unexpected filming tips from locals! (If you missed my post on the library, you can read it here.)

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 Huntington Beach Civic Center, aka East Miami Police Department from Rosewood, is located at 2000 Main Street in Huntington Beach.

May 19, 2017
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from “Veep”

I don’t do museums, as many of my longtime readers well know. One that I did partake of and thoroughly enjoy, though, was The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, which I visited with my parents and the Grim Cheaper waaaay back in 2005 (so long ago that when I went looking for my photos of it to post here, I wasn’t sure if they were film or digital!). Surprisingly (to me, at least), I was thoroughly fascinated and engaged while venturing through the many unique exhibits chronicling the life of our nation’s 40th president, especially those dedicated to his Hollywood years. But, being that the site was not a filming location at the time, I didn’t deem it blog-worthy. So I was thrilled when I spotted the place pop up on the recently-aired Season 6 episode of Veep titled “Library,” as it meant I could finally devote a column to it.

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The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was initially established in 1991, 2 years after The Gipper left office. The dedication ceremony, which took place on November 4th, was attended by a wide array of important figures from our nation’s history, including George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, then President George W. Bush, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Barbara Bush, Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter, John F. Kennedy Jr., and Caroline Kennedy. The legion of notable attendees led Ronald Reagan Foundation chairman Lodwrick Cook to proclaim the event as “the largest gathering of American Presidents and Presidential families ever assembled.”

The $60-million library (the most expensive presidential library to be built at the time) originally sat on 100 acres and boasted 22,000 square feet of exhibit space. Thanks to a large expansion and land purchase, the acreage now totals 300 and the library now encompasses a whopping 125,000 square feet of exhibits.

The Spanish-style museum, which was renovated in 2011, is chock full of slices of Americana, as well as artifacts and mementos honoring Reagan’s life, including a 9-foot-tall section of the Berlin Wall, a steal beam retrieved from the World Trade Center site, the actual Chasen’s booth where Ronald proposed to wife Nancy, two restaurants, countless photographs, a presidential limousine, a multitude of the president’s handwritten love letters to Nancy (which were my favorite part of the entire museum – I teared up reading nearly each and every one), and re-creations of the Oval Office, East Wing, White House Rose Garden, and White House West Lawn.

The library is also home to the Air Force One Pavilion, a massive exhibit hall housing a former Air Force One aircraft that was utilized by seven U.S. presidents, including Nixon, Carter, Ford, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The plane, known as “SAM 27000” or the “Spirit of ‘76,” was installed at the site in 2004, its nose mounted upward to appear as if it is just taking flight, as it did so many times throughout the course of Reagan’s presidency (during which it flew him over 660,000 miles, to 26 foreign countries and 46 different states).

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library also serves as the final resting place of both the former president and Nancy. (Nancy passed away on March 6th, 2106, long after we visited the site in 2005.)

On Veep, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library masked as the Stuart Hughes Presidential Library, the opening of which former president Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her staff attend, despite Selina’s assertion that “I don’t understand how a guy who never cracked a book can open up a library.” Filming of the “Library” episode took place in the Air Force One Pavilion, where Selina is miffed to learn that all of the former presidents in attendance have gathered for an “impromptu” photo shoot in front of Air Force One without her. As she says, “Former f*ckers! This is as ‘impromptu’ as a colonoscopy, except with quadruple the a**holes.”

You can check out some photos of the filming, which took place on October 10th, 2016, here.

Filming also included some shots of the library’s President Johnson-era Marine One helicopter, which I somehow failed to take photos of while I was there. (The choppers utilized during Reagan’s presidency have not yet been decommissioned and are still in use today as Navy VIP transports, which is why one of Johnson’s is on display instead).

Per Veep executive producer David Mandel’s Instagram, Hoyt Steptoe’s (Bo Foxworth) press conference from the episode was also shot on the grounds of the library.

And while I would have bet money on the Reagan Library’s Oval Office re-creation being used in the scene in which Selina sits behind the presidential desk – and then gets stuck climbing back over the barricade – upon closer inspection, that does not appear to have been the case.

Though the Reagan Library Oval Office does have a barricade that bars visitors from sitting behind the mock-up of the Resolute desk, it runs along the outer edge of the room, not down the middle as was portrayed on Veep – which was my first clue that a set may have been utilized in the scene. A window frame provided the second clue. As you can see in images here, here and here in comparison to the caps below, the window frame visible behind Selina in the segment is much more ornate than that of the actual library. (On a side-note – Selina’s hilarious “flipturn” over the barricade apparently caused Louis-Dreyfus a bit of bruising. And on another side-note – Barstool Sports wrote-up a hilarious blurb on said bruise that Seinfeld fans will likely appreciate.)

According to this Lansing State Journal article, Veep is the only scripted show to have done any filming at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, though the site has been utilized for a few documentaries and televised events. Politically-minded fellow stalkers may remember that on September 16th, 2015, the second Republican presidential debate took place in the Air Force One Pavilion.

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 Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, from the “Library” episode of Veep, is located at 40 Presidential Drive in Simi Valley. You can visit the museum’s official website here.

May 15, 2017