Month: October 2019

The “Scream” Grocery Store

I love a good grocery store locale (as evidenced here, here, here and here)! My dad worked in markets throughout my childhood and I spent a lot of time with him at “the office,” which is where my affinity stems from. So even though I had already blogged about Pacific Market, the Santa Rosa bodega that cameoed in horror favorite Scream (which my aunt and uncle, who live in the area, stalked on my behalf back in 2008), I still had to hit the place up when I traveled to Sonoma County in October 2016. Going through my photos from that trip in preparation for this post made me a bit misty-eyed. While in town, I dragged my mom, aunt, two uncles, longtime BFF, and her boyfriend to every.single.locale. featured in the 1996 flick. Oh, how I wish I could do it all over again – especially the visit to Pacific Market, where my stalking resulted in a free bottle of champagne! But more on that in a bit.

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Per newspaper ads, the property that currently houses Pacific Market has been a grocery store since at least as far back as 1950, at which time it was known as Pohley’s Market.

It has gone through several different grocer iterations in the years since – as well as a few renovations, I’m sure. When the Scream cast and crew descended upon the area in the spring of 1996, the shop was known as Town and Country Market.

The upscale store was known for its fine wines, gourmet foods, and other specialty items. A former ad for the place I found on Newspapers.com touted Town and Country as a spot “Where old-fashioned courtesy and relaxed shopping are yours at supermarket prices.”

Town and Country became the third store in the Pacific Market chain when it was acquired by the Mohar family in 1997, a year after Scream was filmed on the premises. Initially established in 1948 by Stan and Mary Mohar, the grocery company was light years ahead of its time as far as healthful eating was concerned, dedicating an entire section of each outpost to organic produce from the start! Unfortunately, with the purchase came some renovations, which I’ll cover further down.

The Santa Rosa outpost was subsequently sold on two more occasions (first in 2012 and then again in 2016), each time retaining the Pacific Market name. The latter sale occurred just prior to my visit, during which I had the good fortune of meeting the new owner, who could not have been nicer! Turns out, he had no idea of his store’s cinematic history and was thrilled to learn about it! As I filled him in on Pacific Market’s role in Scream and where filming had taken place, I couldn’t help but relish in his enthusiasm over the cameo and had to throw out a few suggestions to honor it, such as stationing a Ghostface mask in the freezer aisle so that its reflection could forever be visible in the glass doors. I am unsure if he implemented the idea, but it’s genius, right? As our chat wound down, he asked me what I like to drink. I told him champagne (of course) and he promptly grabbed a very nice bottle off the shelf and gifted it to me – which was the first time any of my stalkings ever resulted in free bubbly!

In Scream, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) head to what was then Town and Country Market to buy party supplies for the soiree Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) is hosting to celebrate classes being canceled due to the murder of two fellow Woodsboro High students. Sadly, the part of the store the girls walk by at the top of the scene was extensively remolded after filming took place, with the side window and wooden patio railing removed, as you can see below.

This was done to allow for a new entrance (pictured below) to be built at the corner of the market, one that would be more accessible to the surrounding wraparound parking lot.

As such, the southeast tip of the building was essentially blown out and diagonally-situated doors installed in its place. (The support beam visible below marks exactly where the demolished corner used to come out to.)

The store’s original main entrance, which was situated on the south side of the market and which Sidney and Tatum walked through in Scream, is just a set of windows today.

Completely framed in, the windows are situated behind seasonal displays and grocery cart storage and semi-obscured from view.

The bulk of the Scream scene takes place inside Pacific Market, in aisle 5 to be precise – the freezer aisle (dun dun dun!) – which Tatum and Sidney walk the length of.

It, too, has been remodeled, unfortunately. The freezer aisle used to be zigzag in shape. It was in the shorter section, where the aisle zagged off toward the front of the store, that Sidney grabbed popsicles and ice cream and announced she was “sexually anorexic.”

Today, the freezer section is one straight line with an open refrigerated display case situated in the spot where Sidney and Tatum perused frozen desserts. Though I don’t have a photo taken from the same angle shown in Scream, the area where the girls were positioned is pretty much right where the woman in blue is standing below. Because the freezer aisle pretty much ends where the new front doors stand, I believe the alteration was made to accommodate for their construction.

It is as the girls leave the aisle that Ghostface’s reflection becomes visible in a freezer case door – as I said, dun dun dun! (I accidentally took the photo below from the wrong angle, but as you can see the freezer doors have also since been swapped out for new ones.)

It is not at all hard to see why Wes Craven and the rest of the production team landed on the store as a location for Scream. Pacific Market is the perfect little neighborhood grocer. And while the segment shot there is short, it is significant as it not only encapsulates the idyllic small town nature of Woodsboro, but the naivete of the teens at the center of the story who are out buying ice cream and Tostitos for a party celebrating school being cancelled due to the murder spree ravaging their town! Talk about a juxtaposition! (The song that plays at the top of the scene is also perfection, btw.)

I really could not have timed my visit to Pacific Market better as the fall decorations adorning the store only added to its homey feel. I mean, if that’s not the perfect slice of Americana pictured below, I don’t know what is!

And yeah, had to do it!

Even my aunt got in on the fun!

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

Big THANK YOU to my aunt and uncle for originally stalking this location for me back in 2008, taking me to stalk it myself in 2016, and then re-stalking it for me again this past weekend. When I sat down to edit my photos for this post, I realized I hadn’t taken any that matched what was shown in Scream, so I asked if they might head out there to snap better comparison shots. They happily obliged and sent me all that appear in this post. (For those counting, that’s their third stalk of the place – and no, they’re not fans of the movie in the slightest.) I honestly can’t thank them enough!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Pacific Market, aka the former Town and Country Market from Scream, is located at 1465 Town and Country Drive in Santa Rosa. You can visit the store’s official website here.

October 7, 2019
The “Scream” Video Store

Extremely nostalgic by nature, I was recently thinking about the demise of video stores and how many movies would suffer if made today because of it – movies like The Holiday, Clerks and, of course, Scream. Without the scene set at Woodsboro’s local VHS rental spot in the latter, in which Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) schools buddy Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) on the “very specific formula” followed by slasher flicks, much of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the storyline would have been tragically lost. I blogged about Santa Rosa’s Bradley Video, where the segment was shot, back in 2008, though I had never actually stalked it myself, instead sending my aunt Lea, who lives in the area, to do so on my behalf. By the time I next made it up to Sonoma County in 2016, the shop had long since shut down, but I still included it in my Scream stalking itinerary, which encompassed every.single.location featured in the 1996 horror classic down to the hotel where the cast and crew stayed during the 55-day shoot, as well as the warehouse that served as the production’s soundstage. The vast majority of those sites remain on my To-Blog List and I figured today was the perfect time to get to posting about them, starting with Bradley Video.

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When Lea stalked Bradley Video for me in 2008, the store was still in operation. In fact, it was her local rental place and she and her husband would visit it regularly. Sadly, it went the way of most VHS leasing establishments, initially closing its doors in 2005 after its owner, William Bradley, filed for bankruptcy. There were 11 shops in the chain at the time, all of which shuttered that same year. In a fitting twist, the majority of the company’s outposts, including the one from Scream (located on Marlow Road) were curtained on October 31st! As The Press Democrat reported a few days later, calls to the Sebastopol outlet were met with a message stating, “Bradley Video is closing its stores for good, and this store is closed. Happy Halloween.” Though I am sad it is no longer open, if a horror movie location has to shutter, I can think of no better day to do it than Halloween!

That wasn’t the end of the Marlow Road store, though. In January 2006, the shop was was re-opened by West Coast Video, along with 6 others in the Bradley chain.

The rebirth was short-lived, however, and the Marlow Road BV closed once again in early 2009, shortly after my aunt’s stalk of it.

Amazingly, the space has remained vacant ever since, which is great news for us Scream aficionados as it has resulted in very few changes to the exterior.

The same goes for the interior, which I was thrilled to discover as I peeked through the windows! Despite the passage of 23 years, two separate closures, an ownership change, and an almost-decade long vacancy, the Bradley Video site still looks exactly as it did onscreen!

I cannot express how thrilled I was to see the very same muted fuchsia carpeting that Stu and Randy walked upon still lining the floor of the space! Also visible? Faded markings surrounding the areas where the shelving used to stand!

The rectangular pillar stationed behind Randy throughout the scene also remains intact, though today it is mirrored.

Per Scream’s production notes, Sonoma County was chosen as a backdrop for the lurid tale thanks to its “innocent, familiar” locales which provided the perfect setting for the movie’s more macabre sequences. And no site is more innocent or familiar than a local video store! It is at Bradley Video that Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), Stu, and several other Woodsboro High students head to rent movies after classes are cancelled due to the murder spree taking place in town. While there, we get these choice words from video store employee/resident slasher flick expert Randy, “See, the police are always off track with this sh*t. If they watched Prom Night, they’d save time. There’s a formula to it – a very simple formula! EVERYBODY’S A SUSPECT!” As I was not able to venture inside the former Bradley Video space, my photographs were, obviously, not taken from an angle matching that of the movie, but I believe the image below shows basically the same vantage point, minus the anteroom visible in the foreground.

As for the detritus strewn about, per a commenter named Rich Brasil on the Bloody Disgusting website, the location is currently used to house supplies for a neighboring Chinese restaurant.

Filming of the Bradley Video scene took place on Monday, May 6th, 1996 (the 16th day of production) according to the Scream call sheets, which my friend Ashley of The Drewseum was kind enough to give me copies of. Actors were required to report to the locale at 9:15 a.m. and the weather was “sunny and cloudy, dry, breezy at times” with highs in the mid-60s. There were a total of 40 extras on set (including “2 babes for Billy”) and the shoot was scheduled to wrap at 6 p.m.

And while I am thrilled the Bradley Video space remains so unchanged from that 1996 cameo, at the same time it is a bit disheartening that the site of such a famous cinematic moment exists in such a sad state. I would love to see the place re-open, but with the interior left intact, of course. Scream video store pop-up, anyone?

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

Big THANK YOU to my aunt Lea for initially stalking Bradley Video for me and taking the images dated 2008 that appear in this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bradley Video, from Scream, was formerly located in the Rosewood Village shopping center at 3080 Marlow Road in Santa Rosa. Its former storefront, Unit A19, is denoted with an orange arrow below and its onetime frontage marked by orange lines.

October 4, 2019
Mountain View Mausoleum from “Lucifer”

Given my proclivity for graveyards and extensive knowledge of Los Angeles (especially the Pasadena area), it is shocking that I only learned of Altadena’s Mountain View Mausoleum a few months ago. Sure I’ve visited the neighboring Mountain View Cemetery numerous times and even dedicated a post to it, but somehow I never knew about its mausoleum, situated directly across the street on Marengo Avenue. It was only while watching the latest season of Lucifer, which Netflix dropped in May, that I discovered the place. More beautiful than scary, I figure it’s still a perfect spot to include in my Haunted Hollywood blogs. (How fitting is that orb in the photo above, by the way?)

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In the Season 4 episode of Lucifer titled “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno,” Mountain View Mausoleum masks as the church library in Italy where Los Angeles police detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) researches biblical stories about the devil in an attempt to gain clarity on the disturbing things she has recently learned about her partner, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis).

Producers went to great lengths to transform Mountain View into a library for the shoot, sparing what seems to be no expense on set décor including tables, chairs, desk lamps, red curtains, and large bookshelves filled with tomes to cover the crypts. The result was extremely convincing. While initially viewing the episode, I was sure filming had taken place at an actual area athenaeum. Being that I am something of an aficionado of such spaces (as evidenced here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), I was shocked I had never come across the place in all of my stalkings. It wasn’t until taking a closer look at the scenery while scanning through “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno” the following day that I realized the site where Chloe researched was actually a mausoleum.

From there, it was not very hard to pinpoint the exact spot used. A simple Google search for the terms “ornate mausoleum,” “arched ceilings,” “stained glass,” and “Los Angeles,” led me straight to Mountain View. I finally ran out to stalk it this past weekend.

Though I do intend on penning another post about Mountain View Cemetery (since my previous one was published way back in 2010!), I will only be covering the mausoleum itself in this column.

Designed in 1925 by architects Clarence L. Jay and Cecil E. Bryan (the latter was a one-time student of Frank Lloyd Wright!), Mountain View Mausoleum is a sight to behold!

While certainly compelling from the outside . . .

. . . it is the interior of the Neo-Mediterranean-style structure that is truly special.

Though Bryan designed more than eighty mausoleums throughout his lifetime, he considered Mountain View his pièce de résistance. So much so that when he passed away in 1951, it was there that he chose to be interred. And it’s not very hard to see why.

Unsurpassed beauty is found around every turn.

The mausoleum’s focal point is easily its 180-foot-long Great Gallery featuring an ornate vaulted ceiling hand-painted by artist Martin Syvertsen. The massive mural, depicting a frescoed version of the story of Christianity, took four years to complete and is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The Mausoleum also boasts stained glass windows created by Judson Studios, surfaces fashioned from more than 64 varieties of Italian marble, and intricate tile work.

It is, hands down, one of the most beautiful spaces in Los Angeles.

I mean!

Sorrow coexists with lightness seamlessly here . . .

. . . and there are plenty of eerie tucked-away corners to explore for those who are so inclined.

At one point, while perusing the mausoleum, I found myself separated from the Grim Cheaper, on a lower floor by myself, sans cell signal and surrounded by a quiet permeating the space so strongly it was almost deafening! In my haste to get back to civilization, I wound up lost and wandered through the basement level for what felt like hours, though I’m sure it was only minutes. Needless to say, I was sufficiently spooked. Those looking for a scary experience can definitely find it here.

Not initially associated with the cemetery, the mausoleum was acquired by Mountain View in 1971 and adopted its name at the same time.

Of the building, Altadena Historical Society President Jane Backman said, “This is Altadena’s own Sistine Chapel. Most Altadenans, even those who have lived here all their lives, have driven past the mausoleum on Marengo but have never gone inside.” It is such a shame that most locals (myself included, until just recently) don’t even know it’s there! Mountain View is a true hidden gem.

There seems to be quite a bit of misinformation floating around concerning the mausoleum’s cinematic history, so I’ve decided to rectify that.

Sebastian Stark (James Woods) gives Jennifer Randolph (Elizabeth Lackey) a stern talking to at the mausoleum in the Season 2 episode of Shark titled “Partners in Crime,” which aired in 2008.

In 2011, D.B. Russell (Ted Danson) and Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) encountered a distraught Joanna Sapphire (Frances Fisher) there in the Season 12 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Maid Man.”

James Woods returned to the mausoleum in 2013, this time playing Sully Sullivan in the Season 1 episode of Ray Donovan titled “New Birthday,” which I learned about thanks to Geoff, of 90210Locations. He also provided the screen captures that appear below. Thank you, Geoff!

That same year, the mausoleum appeared in Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” music video.

Geoff also informed me that Rick Stevens (Nat Wolff) went to confession there in the 2014 comedy Behaving Badly.

Elizabeth (Lady Gaga) visits the tomb of Rudolph Valentino (Finn Rittrock) at Mountain View Mausoleum – and learns that he’s not actually dead – in the episode of American Horror Story: Hotel titled “Flicker,” which aired in 2015.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) head to the mausoleum to investigate the murder of a Navy lieutenant in the Season 15 episode of NCIS titled “Twofer,” which aired in 2017.

In the finale of the new Netflix series Hollywood, Avis Amberg (Patti LuPone) gives Henry Wilson (Jim Parsons) the green light for his new movie at the mausoleum.

And (spoiler alert!) the funeral for Dick Samuels (Joe Mantello) also takes place in the mausoleum’s onsite chapel, The Chapel of the Gardens.

The mausoleum also appears as the funeral home that Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin) and Della Street (Juliet Rylance) visit in the second episode of the new HBO series Perry Mason titled “Chapter 2.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Mountain View Mausoleum, from the “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno” episode of Lucifer, is located at 2300 North Marengo Avenue in Altadena. The property is open to the public daily and photos are not only allowed, but encouraged!

October 3, 2019
The “Waxwork” House

It’s finally that time again, folks – time for my annual Haunted Hollywood stalkings! I intended to commence this year’s postings with a real doozy of a murder case, but got held up a bit in my research. I am currently awaiting some documents from the County of Riverside that should provide more clarity as to the precise location where the killing took place and will write about it just as soon as they arrive. In the meantime, I thought I would instead kick things off with a locale from a horror classic. Now, as I’ve mentioned many times, a fan of slasher flicks I am not. But this past July, my friend Owen tipped me off to a spot that he thought would figure in nicely to an October post – the Hancock Park home that masked as a waxwork, aka a wax museum, in the 1988 horror film of the same name. As he informed me in his email, the “cool-looking” brick pad boasts “great windows and a turret!” Interest piqued, I added the address to my To-Stalk List and headed right on out there this past weekend.

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Finally watching Waxwork last night did little to turn me into a horror fan. In fact, I have to say the movie was pretty darn terrible (though star Zach Galligan sure is a cutie!). The premise? A morose old man named David Lincoln (David Warner) attempts to set off the “voodoo end of the world” by bringing eighteen of the most evil people who ever lived back to life. How does he do this, you ask? By creating wax effigies of each person and feeding them the souls of the various patrons who visit the waxwork he has built inside of his private home in the middle of suburbia. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for two meddling high schoolers, Mark (Galligan) and Sarah (Deborah Foreman), who thwart his plan. Like I said, Waxwork isn’t good.

But Owen was right – the house is fabulous . . . and fabulously creepy!

Though burned to the ground by Mark and Sarah at the end of Waxwork, in real life the pad still stands proudly at 255 South Rossmore Avenue. (In actuality, a miniature was used in the filming of the fire scene.)

While it looks much the same as it did onscreen in 1988, sadly views of it from the street are largely eclipsed by a massive hedge that now lines the front of the property.

Only the exterior of the residence appeared in Waxwork. The interior of Lincoln’s eerie home was just a set, as evidenced by the double doors that opened from the living room into his onsite wax museum.

Originally built in 1924 for L. Milton Wolf, in real life the dwelling boasts 7 bedrooms (!), 3 baths, 3,878 square feet of living space, a pool, a detached garage with what looks to be an upstairs in-law unit, and a 0.43-acre plot of land.

The house is somewhat historically significant, too! As Owen informed me, its longtime owner Loretta Lindholm was responsible for the installation of the many ornamental lights that now dot the streets of Hancock Park. For her efforts, she received a Los Angeles City Council Commendation!

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Waxwork house from Waxwork is located at 255 South Rossmore Avenue in Hancock Park.

October 2, 2019