Year: 2019

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish my fellow stalkers a very merry Christmas. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday with family and friends. I will be taking some time off to celebrate with my loved ones, but will be back in January. I also apologize for not having a new post up for a few days – my computer hit the fritz recently and is completely unusable. I type this from the Grim Cheaper’s laptop, which is a Mac, something I am definitely not accustomed to. Here’s hoping Santa brings me a new one so I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging! In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

December 24, 2019
The Tire House from “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday”

Today’s locale is becoming quite the prolific film star! I’ve blogged about the residence at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena previously – twice, in fact. It first came on my radar thanks to its appearance in the 2008 comedy Bedtime Stories, as I chronicled here. Then, in 2015, I noticed it pop up in the pilot episode of the short-lived Fox series Grandfathered and dedicated another post to the place. Pretty thorough coverage, I know. But when I learned that it also cameoed in not one, but two Christmas-themed productions recently, I decided that yet another write-up was in order!

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The picturesque English Revival holds a pretty special place in my heart. I have it to thank for meeting and becoming friends with fellow stalker Owen. Way back on May 20th, 2009, I received an email from him asking for some assistance in tracking down the home belonging to Wendy (Courteney Cox) in Bedtime Stories. That email kicked off the first of many location hunts the two of us have embarked upon. Owen’s comment on my initial post about the place was quite prophetic. He wrote, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Did I say ‘Louis’? I mean ‘Lindsay.’” Oh, how right he was! The two of us became fast friends and remain so today, more than a decade later! The house has fared pretty well, too, cameo-wise.

As mentioned above, it was also featured in the Grandfathered pilot in which it portrayed the home of Jimmy Martino’s (John Stamos) ex, Sara (Paget Brewster). It only appeared in the one episode, though. Once the series got picked up, filming of Sara’s house scenes shifted to a different pad at 12660 Kling Street in Studio City.

Then, last week, while writing my post on the residence where Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) lived in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, I scanned through the 1988 sequel Big Top Pee-wee and the 2016 Netflix film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday to see if the same property was utilized in either. It wasn’t, but I was thrilled to see the Bedtime Stories house in the latter! Though it only popped up briefly, I recognized it immediately as the spot where Pee-wee released a tire from a trailer as part of his extensive morning routine at the beginning of the flick.

Coming full circle, a few days before that discovery, I received a text from Owen informing me that he had attempted to write a comment on my original Bedtime Stories house post, but that my site wasn’t allowing it. (That’s an ongoing issue with old posts that the Grim Cheaper is trying to fix.) Because I knew he had been binging Christmas movies, I figured he was likely wanting to apprise me of the home’s Pee-wee’s Big Holiday cameo. But once the GC finally got comments on the post up and running, I was shocked that Owen was actually clueing me in on a different Yuletide-themed appearance! He wrote, “When I think of this house, I think of you, because our friendship had its genesis in the search for this location. For that reason, I thought I’d let you know that the house recently updated its filming location curriculum vitae, if you will. I saw it pop up again on the “Christmas Spirit” episode of 9-1-1, which aired on Dec. 2. They give the address as 2749 Elmer Ave. in North Hollywood in the episode . . . and then proceed to allow the ‘800’ house number near the front door to be visible five minutes later. You have to do better than that to fool a stalker!” Yeah, especially when it comes to such a well-known locale! In the “Christmas Spirit” episode, the pad is where a mom (Chrystee Pharris) collapses and 9-1-1 operator Maddie Kendall (Jennifer Love Hewitt) talks her young son, Leo (Seth Carr), through performing CPR until the paramedics arrive.

The residence is so idyllic and charming, it is not at all hard to see how it wound up onscreen in so many productions. Built in 1925, the pad has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,165 square feet, a 0.23-acre lot, and a detached garage. It last sold in January 2004 for $652,500, but Zillow puts its worth at $1,555,821 today! So not only does the property have the ability to foster friendships, but it’s lucrative to boot!

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

Big THANK YOU to Owen for asking me to find this house back in 2009, informing me of its recent 9-1-1 appearance, and, most of all, ten years of friendship.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The “tire house” from Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is located at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena.

December 20, 2019
The Federal from “Four Christmases”

I tracked down today’s locale thanks to some very insider information. Back on December 19th, 2012, I wrote about the San Francisco pad that portrayed Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate’s (Reese Witherspoon) residence in Four Christmases. Just a few hours after hitting “publish,” I received an email from the production designer of the 2008 holiday romcom, Shepherd Frankel, who had this to say, “Wow – I loved reading your blog and seeing your detective work unfold. Truly amazing. So interesting to read for me and I actually designed the film!” His kind words just about made me fall over with excitement! Though I often contact crew members to inquire about locations, a production designer getting in touch with me was a first! Once I regained my composure, I wrote him back and, of course, asked for some help in IDing a few additional locations from the film, namely the restaurant where Brad’s firm’s holiday party was held. And Shepherd was happy to help! Though he did not remember the name of the eatery, he informed me that it was a former-bank-turned-restaurant in Long Beach. Using those search parameters, I quickly figured out that filming had taken place at The Madison at 102 Pine Avenue. Sadly, I also quickly figured out that the gastropub had recently closed. I added it to my To-Stalk List regardless, hoping it would reopen at some point, which, thankfully, it did as “The Federal” just months later, at which point I ran out to stalk it. Though I’ve briefly covered the place a couple of times before – first in my post about sister restaurant The Federal Bar in North Hollywood, then in My Guide to L.A. – Bars, and finally in a Scene it Before column for Los Angeles magazine – I figured this holiday season was the perfect time for a full-blown write-up.

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The 13-story, 146,000-square-foot building that houses The Federal was initially built in 1925 as the Long Beach headquarters of the Security Trust and Savings Bank of Los Angeles. The stately site was designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style by architects Aleck Curlett and Claud Beelman. (The latter also gave us The Mayfair Hotel from The Office, The Standard, Downtown L.A. from Fracture, and the California Bank Building from Girls Just Want to Have Fun.)

The towering structure, known today as the “Security Trust and Savings Bank Building” as well as “Security Pacific National Bank,” was originally comprised of offices on its upper levels and a grand 3-story, 8,925-square-foot bank space complete with a basement vault on its lower floors.

When Security Trust and Savings, which had been renamed Security Pacific Bank, moved out in 1991, the bank space sat vacant for a time before catching the eye of Terry Antonelli and Enzo DeMuro, the famed restauranteurs who in 1990 founded Long Beach staple L’Opera in another former bank building located right across the street. The duo decided to lease the site and worked their magic transforming it into upscale eatery The Madison, which opened its doors in May 1999. During the conversion, the room’s gorgeous beamed ceilings, which had incredibly been covered over to make way for an air conditioning system at some point, were once again unveiled.

Shortly after its debut, Los Angeles Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila wrote, “I’ve been to The Madison Restaurant & Bar, a posh new steakhouse, three times, and each time I’ve walked through the door, I’ve had to catch my breath because the size and grandeur of the rooms are overwhelming. Built in the days before ATMs, when banks functioned as secular cathedrals and women donned hat and gloves to do their banking, the former Security Bank is one of Long Beach’s stateliest historic buildings.” As you can see below, her words were not hyperbole. The space is nothing if not breathtaking!

The Madison enjoyed a nice long run, remaining in operation until September 2012, just a few months before I learned about it.

Shortly after its closure, Morgan Margolis, the nightlife impresario behind The Federal Bar in North Hollywood (and son of Mark Margolis, aka Mr. Shickadance, the landlord from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective), toured the space and decided to open a sister Federal location on the premises. The Federal Long Beach opened just a few months later. Thankfully, not much of the interior was altered in the changeover.

Still as grand as ever, the gorgeous eatery features 2 full bars, seating for 300 patrons, rich wood paneling, towering columns, an extensive menu of healthy and not-so-healthy comfort foods, and a speakeasy situated in the basement vault! Quite the unique atmosphere to grab a bite!

My photos truly don’t do the space justice. Unfortunately, the natural light beaming in through the windows wreaked havoc on most of the images I snapped while there, but at least they give you the gist of The Federal’s beauty.

It is at The Madison that the Rohlich and Tweel LLC 8th annual Christmas party is held in Four Christmases, during which Brad and Kate explain to Brad’s co-workers how they get out of spending the holidays with their families each year. (Their advice? Just lie and tell everyone you’re doing charity work. “You know, something like building houses in third world countries. Teaching English as a second language in Puerto Rico. Delousing orphans in Somalia. Helping Chinese kids capture lobsters – boil them, gut them, clean the weird stuff out of the middle. We find that the more details you give, kinda throws them off the scent.” After all, “You really can’t spell families without ‘lies.’”)

Though Shepherd and his team decked the restaurant out in Yuletide finery for the shoot, not much of the place was shown onscreen. But what was visible remains very recognizable.

We get a much better view of the restaurant via Dinner for Schmucks. In the 2010 comedy (and I use that term loosely), Tim (Paul Rudd) meets with some clients at The Madison and chaos quickly ensues thanks to the misguided efforts of uninvited guest Barry (Steve Carell). In looking at the screen capture as compared to my photograph below, you can see the changes made to the site before it re-opened as The Federal. For some inexplicable reason, a beam running across the vast dining area was installed which really cuts off the room in my opinion.

The main bar (on the left-hand side below) was also partially closed off and the beige upholstered booths swapped out for black leather versions. You can check out some more images of the interior of The Madison here. Oh, how I wish I could have seen it before it closed! Despite the unfortunate changes, The Federal is still a stunning place to grab a bite or cocktail when in Long Beach!

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 Federal, aka the former The Madison from Four Christmases, is located at 102 Pine Avenue in Long Beach. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. L’Opera Restaurant, from Charmed, can be found right across the street at 101 Pine Avenue. You can visit that establishment’s website here.

December 18, 2019
Bridges Auditorium from “The West Wing”

I am one of the few people in the world who did not watch The West Wing when it was on the air. And boy was I missing out! The Grim Cheaper and I started binging the series on a whim this past January and now can’t get enough! The show is so good, I could cry! It’s literally one of the best productions to ever grace television screens! Early in our binging, I, of course, went on a deep dive to unearth some of its locations and was thrilled to come across a 2012 Architectural Digest article that spelled out one locale in particular, stating “Because The West Wing had not yet acquired an East Room set in time, the series’ second-season Christmas episode, ‘Noël,’ featuring the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, was filmed in the lobby of Pomona College’s Bridges Auditorium, in Claremont, California.” Well, believe you me, the venue went straight to the top of my To-Stalk List and I headed out there way back in February, but I’ve held off on blogging about it as I figured it would make for an excellent holiday post.

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The Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium, as it is formally known, was commissioned by Appleton and Amelia Shaw Bridges in honor of their daughter, Mabel, who passed away while attending Pomona College in 1907.

Designed by San Diego-based architect William Templeton Johnson in the Northern Italian Renaissance style, the venue was constructed from 1930 to 1931 at a cost of $650,000.

Bridges Auditorium was dedicated on September 18th, 1931 and its inaugural concert season officially kicked off the following month, on October 27th, with a performance by Artur Rodziński and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, it has gone on to host a slew of celebrated personalities. Just a few of the luminaries who have set foot on its stage include Steve Martin, Muhammad Ali, Amelia Earhart, Benny Goodman, James Earl Jones, and Bono.

Sadly, the hall was closed when I visited, so I did not get to see the interior.

The exterior is pretty darn spectacular, though, with a towering arched overhang lined with grand columns and topped by a cathedral ceiling.

The auditorium itself, which you can see photos of here, boasts rich red carpeting, seating for 2,494 guests, and a magical ceiling mural spanning 22,000 square feet that was hand-painted by Giovanni Smeraldi, the famed artist who also adorned the ceilings of Doheny Memorial Library’s Los Angeles Times Reference Room, the Pasadena Main Branch of the Bank of the West, St. Vincent de Paul Church, and the Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s South Galleria. (The latter, coincidentally, is also a West Wing locale!)

It is Bridges Auditorium’s lobby that is its real claim to fame, though. Featuring a coffered ceiling, marble columns, and a grand staircase, the versatile space has appeared onscreen as everything from a courthouse to a college admissions office to the White House (twice!). You can take a look at the beautiful room here.

In The West Wing’s “Noël” episode, which aired in 2000, President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his senior staff attend a congressional Christmas party during which Yo-Yo Ma performs – and yes, the actual Yo-Yo Ma guest-starred! As mentioned above, the production team transformed Bridges’ lobby into the White House’s East Room for the shoot. Architectural Digest notes, “Although smaller than the actual East Room—the largest room in the White House, primarily used for entertaining—the space, says [production designer Kenneth] Hardy, had the right feeling. He and his production crew hung replica chandeliers and added chairs, flowers, and presidential portraits.” It was a lot of preparation for what essentially amounted to about two minutes of screen time, much of which was interspersed with flashbacks of Josh Lyman’s (Bradley Whitford) shooting from Season 1. Nevertheless, the space did look beautiful in the scene.

The Bridges Auditorium foyer also masked as the courthouse lobby where Hillary Whitney Essex (Barbara Hershey) collapsed in the 1988 drama Beaches.

It again portrayed the White House – this time its grand entry hall – in the 1993 comedy Dave.

And in the Season 3 episode of Gilmore Girls titled “Let the Games Begin,” which aired in 2002, the foyer masqueraded as the main administration building at Yale University, where Richard (Edward Herrmann) forced Rory (Alexis Bledel) into an impromptu interview with the Dean of Admissions.

The exterior of Bridges Auditorium also appeared briefly in the episode.

The theatre itself is where the body of a murdered ballerina is found in the Season 3 episode of Lucifer titled “Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better,” which aired in 2018.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bridges Auditorium, from the “Noël” episode of The West Wing, is located at 450 North College Way, on the Pomona College campus, in Claremont.

December 13, 2019
Pee-wee’s House from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

The internet lit up this week with news that actor Paul Reubens is embarking upon a 20-city 35th Anniversary Tour celebrating Pee-wee’s Big Adventure starting next February. Coincidentally, the house where Reubens’ titular character, Pee-wee Herman, lived in the 1985 comedy has long been on my list of To-Blog Christmas locales. And no, I haven’t completely lost it – I am well aware that the film is in no way holiday-related. But a few years ago, my friend Lavonna suggested I include the abode in my Yuletide postings since it is completely decked out with all sorts of seasonal décor in the movie, including multi-colored lights strung along the roofline, Santa in his sleigh with all eight reindeer perched atop the rafters, a light-up Frosty the Snowman in the backyard, and another large Santa positioned along the picket fence. I ran out to stalk the place shortly after Lavonna’s suggestion (way back in 2014!), but somehow never got around to writing about it. Then when I heard about the tour yesterday, I figured it was the perfect spot to kick off my holiday postings for 2019! So here goes!

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Like so many famous movie houses, Pee-wee’s pad is located on a leafy street in South Pasadena. In person, the dwelling is much plainer than it appeared onscreen, for obvious reasons.

Even without all of Pee-wee’s eccentric accoutrements and yard art, though, and despite the passage of almost 35 years, the place is still incredibly recognizable!

Pee-wee’s rickety detached garage, located at the end of his driveway, remains completely unchanged from its cameo, aside from a missing sconce. And I was thrilled that a white picket fence still lines the property, even though it is slightly different today, boasting a curvature that its movie counterpart did not. The mailbox, though much less colorful than what appeared onscreen, remains in the exact same positioning along the fence, as well!

The residence’s actual backyard also appears briefly in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, though again with a myriad of embellishments.

The Herman pad’s chaotically whimsical interior was, obviously, just a set. While I was unable to track down any photos showing what the inside of the home actually looks like, I can pretty much guarantee there is no fireman’s pole to be found!

In real life, the property, which was built in 1922, boasts 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,298 square feet of living space, a fireplace, and 0.15 acres of land.

Incredibly, per Redfin, the house, which was not used for any of the Pee-wee Herman sequels, last sold on September 13th, 1974 for $15,500! The website measures its current value at $1,005,925! Not a bad ROI!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Lavonna for suggesting I stalk this locale and include it in my Christmas postings!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Pee-wee Herman’s house from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is located at 1848 Oxley Street in South Pasadena. Many famous movie locations can be found on Oxley, including Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) home from Halloween at 1115 Oxley, the Cooper residence from Forever Young at 1724 Oxley, and South Pasadena Public Library from Say Anything . . . at 1100 Oxley. Kaldi Coffee and Tea, another frequent film star, is right around the corner from the library at 1019 El Centro Street.

December 11, 2019
611 Place from “The Morning Show”

I hope y’all aren’t sick of The Morning Show locations yet, cause I’ve got a few more up my sleeve, namely the site that portrays UBA Studios, where the titular show-within-the-show is filmed on the new Apple TV+ series. At first blush, I thought the locale was most likely in New York, where the program is set and partially filmed. But once I identified the Starbucks at 6th and Grand in downtown L.A. as the spot where Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) is invited to a birthday party in episode 4, “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” I quickly realized that the UBA scenes were lensed right across the street at a towering structure known as 611 Place. Fortunately, I happened to be in DTLA just a few days after my discovery, so I popped by to check it out.

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Constructed as the headquarters for Crocker-Citizens Bank in 1969, the building originally went by the name Crocker-Citizens Plaza.

The formidable modernist structure was designed by architect William Pereira, who also gave us Fox Plaza (aka Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard), Farralone (aka the former Frank Sinatra estate), and the Disneyland Hotel.

The 42-story cross-shaped tower, which sits atop a four-level block base, boasts vertical steel beaming, 715,000 square feet of office and retail space, a marble-clad lobby, and a ground-floor bank complete with a vault.

At 620 feet, Crocker-Citizens Plaza was the tallest building in Los Angeles at the time of its completion (and only the second to surpass the height of City Hall), a record it held briefly until ARCO Plaza (now City National Plaza) was constructed in 1972.

When Crocker-Citizens Bank vacated the locale in 1983, it was purchased by AT&T and renamed AT&T Center, though many referred to it (and still refer to it, in fact) as the AT&T Building.

AT&T’s tenure ended in 1999, at which point the Chetrit Group, a New York-based development firm, acquired the building and it was re-named once again, this time to 611 Place, in honor of its 611 West 6th Street address.

Per the Urbanize Los Angeles website, the upper floors have been mostly vacant for a decade and, while Chetrit is said to have obtained entitlements way back in 2007 to transform the office spaces into condos, those plans have yet to come to fruition. When I was stalking the place, though, I saw plenty of people coming and going from the elevators, making their way through the large lobby, so I am not sure how empty the building actually is. Regardless, filming is definitely one way the site is bringing in revenue.

611 Place repeatedly pops up as UBA Studios on The Morning Show.

The series makes use of the building’s Grand Avenue side.

Unfortunately, a UPS truck was parked right in front of the Grand Avenue entrance when I attempted to take a matching shot of the screen capture below, so Google Street View imagery will have to do.

It is not hard to see how 611 Place wound up on The Morning Show as it does very much have the look and feel of a New York building, especially with its brass revolving door which Bradley, Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) are regularly seen entering and exiting.

Some CGI trickery was employed to add to the building’s NYC feel in episode 4, “That Woman.” As you can see, imagery of the iconic Cartier Mansion on Fifth Avenue was superimposed in the background of a scene taking place outside of 611 Place.

The special effects team wasn’t very thorough, though, because seconds later, the Edwards & Wildey Building, the actual structure located in that spot, is clearly visible where Cartier stood just moments before.

The lobby of 611 Place also regularly appears on The Morning Show.

The friendly security guard on duty during my stalk was nice enough to allow me to snap interior photos of the lobby and even pointed out which areas of it were used! As you can see below, some turnstiles were added to the premises for the shoot, as were sconces above the elevator.

The interior of the actual studio where the show-within-the-show is shot was nothing more than a set built inside of a soundstage on the Sony lot in Culver City.

611 Place is actually a longtime screen star.

Way back in 1973, William Dorn (Chuck Connors) set off a bomb outside of the building, killing himself in the process, at the end of The Police Connection, aka The Mad Bomber.

611 Place served as the headquarters of MacGregor Oil in the 1983 drama Uncommon Valor.

That same year, it popped up as the office building where Caroline Butler (Teri Garr) worked in the comedy Mr. Mom.

Pinball’s (Dave Chappelle) body is tossed from a plane and lands on a car in front of 611 Place in the 1997 thriller Con Air.

It is seen briefly as the casualty of an earthquake in the 2000 disaster flick Epicenter.

The now vacant bank space on the building’s lower level is where Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) heads to empty his safety deposit box in 2003’s Matchstick Men.

Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown) base jumps off the neighboring KPMG Center at 550 South Hope Street in the 2004 romcom Along Came Polly, giving audiences a brief view of 611 Place during his descent.

And it recently popped up as the FBI office Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) and Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) visited in the Season 6 episode of Bosch titled “Good People on Both Sides.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: 611 Place, aka UBA Studios from The Morning Show, is located at 611 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The Starbucks featured in the series’ fifth episode, “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” is right across the street at 523 West 6th Street.

December 9, 2019
The Wolves from “The Morning Show”

My obsession with The Morning Show is no secret. I’ve blogged about its locations four times already (here, here, here, and here) and it isn’t even on its eighth episode! Readers have obviously taken note because I recently received an email from one who works in downtown Los Angeles informing me that some filming of the new Apple TV+ series had taken place at an area bar named The Wolves. One look at images of the watering hole had me absolutely drooling. Dark, old-timey and full of stained glass and rich woods, it was like no other spot I had ever seen. So to the top of my To-Stalk List it went and my mom and I headed out there just a few days later while in town for a doctor appointment for my dad. It wasn’t long after that The Wolves popped up on the series, appearing in the episodes titled “Open Waters” and “The Interview.”

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The spot that now houses The Wolves was previously home to the rather austere F Square Printing, which, per its signage, served as a copy/business center, art gallery, and karaoke venue all in one. The odd combo shop shuttered in 2013 and sat vacant for a time before being snapped up by restaurateurs Al Almeida, Daniel Salin, and Isaac Mejia, who saw potential in the stark storefront and spent the next two and a half years building it out to create an incredible Belle Époque-inspired bar. The two-story lounge opened its doors last September. Though the stunning exterior feels like a façade straight out of Paris, France, or perhaps Disneyland . . .

. . . the interior is the real sight to behold!

Knowing nothing of the site’s past prior to entering, I was convinced that the magical space, which is situated on the ground floor of the Alexandria Hotel, was some sort of historic ballroom. Owner Almeida, an incredibly friendly Jeremy Renner lookalike whom we had the great pleasure of chatting with, set me straight, though, regaling us with the complete lowdown on the design and background of the unique watering hole. It is incredible to think that just a few years ago it looked like this!

Though the Batchelder tiles that cover the floor are, amazingly, original to the space (you can even see them in this image of F Square Printing), the rest of The Wolves is the result of an incredible collation of antiques.

Inspired by turn-of-the-century Paris, Almeida, Salin, and Mejia sourced pieces from all over the globe to furnish the bar.

The mahogany booths that line the drinkery, authentic 1920s seating formerly situated in a restaurant in Seneca, New York, were a Craigslist find.

The mirrors situated at the back of each booth were also vintage discoveries.

The carved wooden doors are from Argentina circa 1890.

And the pièce de résistance, the dramatic domed ceiling, was an eBay score delivered in panels via flatbed truck that was procured from Paris, Illinois where it formerly canopied a train station.

Initially spanning 22 feet, to fit The Wolves’ 11-foot ceiling, the piece was split in half and the two sections installed adjacent to each other, forming a double arch atop the lounge’s main room.

The Wolves even boasts a secondary bar situated in the rear known as Le Neant (French for “the nothingness”), an intimate room cloaked in deep reds that is utilized for special events, as well as the many tastings and dinners hosted onsite.

Nothing about the bar is typical, not even the name, which is a nod to Martin Scorsese’s 2002 period drama Gangs of New York. Salin, a huge fan of the film, initially wanted to dub the watering hole in honor of one of the gangs portrayed in the story (my memory is failing me now – I’m going to blame the bubbly I consumed while speaking with Almeida – but I believe it was either the “Dead Rabbits” or the “Gopher Gang”), however the moniker just didn’t work for a saloon. So the owners brainstormed other animal names, eventually landing on “The Wolves.”

It is absolutely no surprise that the gorgeous bar found its way to the screen.

In the “Open Waters” episode of The Morning Show, Audra (Mindy Kaling) tries to poach Daniel Henderson (Desean Terry) for her own series over lunch at The Wolves.

The two journalists sit in one of the lounge’s antique booths in the scene.

And in the series season finale, Yanko Flores (Nestor Carbonell) drinks his troubles away at The Wolves after being dumped.

The Wolves was also featured in another recent Reese Witherspoon production! It is at the bar that a young Elena Richardson (AnnaSophia Robb) parties with her boyfriend Jamie Caplan (Luke Bracey) on their last night in Paris in 1976 in the Season 1 episode of Little Fires Everywhere titled “Duo.”

Per Almeida, a couple of photo shoots have also taken place at The Wolves and I have no doubt the bar will be popping up in many more productions in the near future.

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 Wolves, from the “Open Waters” episode of The Morning Show, is located at 519 South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. It is open from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily. You can visit the bar’s official website here.

December 6, 2019
The CalEdison from “The Morning Show”

L.A. never ceases to amaze! Case in point – the CalEdison. Built in 1931, the Art Deco masterpiece is not only a sight to behold, but its grand lobby is open to the public! Somehow though, I never knew about the place until last week when I was researching locations from The Morning Show.

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During my viewing of the new Apple TV+ series’ premiere episode, “In the Dark Night of the Soul It’s Always 3:30 in the Morning,” I became a bit mesmerized with what was said to be the Archer Gray Hotel in New York. With towering marble columns, ornate tile flooring, and intricate wrought-iron windows, the space was striking to say the least. Shocked I had never come across it in all my years of stalking, I immediately set out to track it down. Because The Morning Show is largely filmed in L.A., with only a few exteriors shot in NYC, I knew the Archer Gray had to be somewhere in SoCal. Its seemingly historic architecture led me to look first in the downtown area. But Google searches for “historic building,” “grand lobby,” and “marble columns” did not bring up images that even remotely resembled the place.

It was not until episode 5, “No One’s Going to Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” aired that I was able to pinpoint it. In a scene at the close of the episode, Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) attempts to secure the room number of her boss Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) from an uncooperative Archer Gray front desk clerk, during which a massive mural is visible behind her, as well as what appeared to be a coffee bar of some sort. Adding those elements to my search terms led me straight to The CalEdison, a historic office building in the heart of downtown. I was elated to discover upon researching the place further that it is open to the public! My parents just happened to be heading into L.A. a few days after my discovery and had booked a room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, located right across the street from The CalEdison. So I, of course, tagged along and ran right over to stalk the building immediately upon check-in.

The 14-story structure originally served as the headquarters of Southern California Edison and was known, appropriately, as the Southern California Edison Building.

Designed by the Allison & Allison architecture firm (who also gave us the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles and UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall), the property’s gorgeous exterior features a limestone and terracotta façade, bas-reliefs sculpted by artist Merrell Gage, and a towering two-story entry portico.

It is the interior that is the real stunner, though!

The expansive lobby boasts over 17 varieties of marble, 30-foot coffered ceilings, a mural painted by Hugo Ballin, and stunning friezes above each elevator.

Even the trash cans are elegant! And those building directories!

The CalEdison is more than just a pretty face, though. As the first seismically-retrofitted building in L.A., as well as the first to be electrically heated and cooled, it was incredibly technologically advanced.

Boasting 250,000 square feet of office space, The CalEdison cost a whopping $2.5 million to construct.

When SoCal Edison sold the place in 1972 in order to relocate to Rosemead, it was renamed One Bunker Hill. Its stellar architecture was mutilated in the decade that followed – its ceilings dropped, walls removed, and large fourth-floor patios enclosed with glass casings. I actually really like the look of the latter, which have been described as “greenhouse-like structures.” You can see what they looked like here. Thankfully, the lobby was left untouched during the renovations.

In October 2015, the grand building was bought by Hermes Investment Management of London, Limestone Investments and Rising Realty Partners for $92 million. The group renamed it The CalEdison and set about bringing the site back to its original glory, as well as renovating the many upstairs office spaces into creative work sites. The patio casings were also removed as part of the project. Though I wish those casings had been left intact, the rest of the work performed can only be described as perfection.

GreekOak Real Estate bought out both Hermes and Limestone earlier this year for $140 million, though Rising Realty continues to hold on to its share of the property.

While walking around the vast lobby, I couldn’t help but think how fabulous is it that this masterpiece exists and that it is open to the public for Angelinos and tourists alike to enjoy.

On The Morning Show, the Archer Gray Hotel is where network exec Cory checks in upon arriving in New York to deal with the fallout from the firing of Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell). Bradley also moves there in episode 5 after being relocated from The Standard, where she was initially put up. Only the lobby of the building is featured on the series. (My photo below is a little off on the angling, but shows the same area of The CalEdison as is pictured in the screen capture.)

Bradley’s room . . .

. . . as well as Corey’s are both just studio-built sets.

And the exterior of the Archer Gray Hotel is a building in New York that I have yet to identify.

The Morning Show is not CalEdison’s only claim to fame!

The building is also seen briefly in the 1953 noir The Bigamist in the scene in which Mr. Jordan (Edmund Gwenn) first arrives in L.A.

The property was used for interior shots of the office building Davey Osbourne (Henry Thomas) and Kim Gardener (Christina Nigra) try to infiltrate in 1984’s Cloak & Dagger.

Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) gets arrested for robbing a bank at The CalEdison before being rescued by Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) in the 2001 thriller Ocean’s Eleven.

Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) almost gets arrested there in the Season 8 episode of 24 titled “11:00am-12:00pm,” which aired in 2010.

That same year, the building served as the office of Victor Racine (Michael Ironside) in the Season 2 episode of Castle titled “Den of Thieves.”

Narcy (Paz Vega) heads to the bank on The CalEdison’s lower level to empty her dead husband’s safety deposit box in the 2015 Lifetime television movie Beautiful & Twisted.

During the second season of Big Little Lies, which aired in 2019, the offices of Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, located on CalEdison’s 12th floor, portrayed the office of lawyer Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare), as I detailed in this post. (I learned this tidbit thanks to a reader, but because only the 12th floor appeared in the episodes, I never took a look at images of the lobby or the rest of the building, which is why I was unfamiliar with it prior to trying to track down the Archer Gray.)

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 CalEdison, aka the Archer Gray Hotel from The Morning Show, is located at 601 West 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The building’s lobby is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

December 2, 2019
Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish my fellow stalkers the happiest of Thanksgivings! I hope you all are enjoying the day with many loved ones. I am spending the rest of the week celebrating with my family, but will be back on Monday with a new post! Until then, Happy Stalking!

November 28, 2019
The Starbucks from “The Morning Show”

I love a good Starbucks location! I mean, what’s better than stalking and being able to pick up a great cup of coffee at the same time? So I was thrilled to recognize an outpost of the java giant while watching the fifth episode of The Morning Show, titled “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around,” recently. As it turns out, the café is a place I’ve visited countless times over the years and even blogged about once back in 2013. Situated on the corner of West 6th Street and Grand Avenue in downtown L.A., the coffee shop is just steps from the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, where the Grim Cheaper and I regularly used to check in when seeking a staycation while living in Los Angeles. As fate would have it, my parents booked a room at the property just last week, so I, of course, tagged along in order to do a little Starbucks re-stalk.

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The Starbucks at 6th and Grand has been a staple of the neighborhood for more than a decade.

Before that, the space, situated in the southwest corner of the ground floor of the picturesque PacMutual building, housed a Grand Central Coffee outpost and then a Tully’s Coffee.

The Starbucks looks quite a bit different today than when I originally stalked it six years ago thanks to an extensive remodel that took place in late 2017 during which the interior was gutted, the front doors moved from the store’s south to west side, and the café expanded into the unit next door which formerly housed a deli.

The result is a massive, modern space with plenty of seating, a huge front counter, and wraparound windows.

I love the muted green color scheme and concrete design elements which give it a bit of a different feel than a typical Starbucks.

It is at the coffee shop that Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) runs into her co-workers Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Claire Conway (Bel Powley), who invite her out to celebrate Claire’s birthday, in “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around.”

By only showing one small corner of the café in the scene and none of the familiar Starbucks signage, it seems that producers went out of their way to make the place appear to be a random coffee house and not an outpost of the retail giant. Had it not been for the green umbrellas visible outside the window, as well as the view of the Edwards & Wildey Building (now known as Milano Lofts) across the street, I might not have recognized the location. It’s a good thing I know my Starbucks!

The 6th and Grand outpost is actually a frequent film star.

It appeared very briefly in the background of the 1999 drama Fight Club in the scene in which The Narrator (Edward Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) blew up an electronics store.

Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and Amy Gardner (Mary-Louise Parker) discussed welfare reform at the site back when it was a Tully’s Coffee in the Season 3 episode of The West Wing titled “Posse Comitatus,” which aired in 2002.

Though the Tully’s signage was left intact on the front doors, the space was utilized to portray the fictional “Phil’s Bar” in the 2004 romcom Little Black Book. In another odd move, the imagery of the bar’s exterior was also flipped in the scene, as I detailed in my 2013 post.

The 6th and Grand Starbucks is also where Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) tried to talk to Walter King (Robert Patrick Benedict) in the Season 1 episode of Touch titled “Safety in Numbers,” which aired in 2012.

Recently, Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector), Brad Coniff (David Marciano), and Detective Julie Espinosa (Jacqueline Pinol) grabbed coffee there and discussed a case in the Season 6 episode of Bosch titled “Good People on Both Sides.”

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 Starbucks from the “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around” episode of The Morning Show is located at 523 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

November 27, 2019