A “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” Halloween

I usually start planning my and the Grim Cheaper’s Halloween costumes on November 1st each year.  Out with the old, in with the new, as they say.  This year I was a bit late to the game because by the time mid-summer came around, I still found myself with no ideas.  And then, on July 28th, I saw Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  One look at Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) donning a red kimono, a blender full of margaritas in hand, and I knew there was no one else the GC could be!  I was unsure of my costume, at first, as there was no real female counterpart to Rick in the movie.  Then my mom said, “Why not dress up as up as Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt)?” – duh! – and, voila, our costumes for Halloween 2019 were born!

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I opted to wear Cliff’s Hawaiian shirt/Champion tee ensemble featured on the movie’s poster.

It turned out to be an easy costume to put together.  I found the Hawaiian shirt first, at Walmart of all places – a pretty accurate facsimile of Cliff’s for $25!  The Champion tee came from Red Bubble (I ordered the slim fit version), the Levi’s (men’s 511s) from a local thrift store, the belt from Etsy, the watch was my grandfather’s, and the leather bracelet and sunglasses I already had in my closet.  I was most excited to find Cliff’s suede booties, though!  The iconic Minnetonka Two Button Softsole Boot was first released in 1969 and recently reissued thanks to the popularity of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – (I got the women’s version, men’s are here).  To complete the look, I pinned up my hair (my neighbor actually thought I cut it!) and there he was, Cliff Booth in the flesh!

The GC’s costume was easy, as well.  I found the house slippers on Amazon (they run large, so size down), the kimono on Ali Express (we ordered “red black”), and the vintage blender was an eBay score (and pretty much the most expensive part of the ensemble, interestingly).

Though we both loved walking around in our costumes, the highlight of our Halloween came when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood costume designer extraordinaire Arianne Phillips, whom I had contacted a while back to inquire about the kind of slippers Rick wore in the movie, shared a photo I sent her, along with pics of a few others dressed in OUATIH garb, on Instagram!  Say whaaa?  Pretty darn cool, if you ask me!

In honor of our costumes, I thought it only appropriate to blog about Rick Dalton’s fabulous mid-century ranch-style pad today.  Because the film has yet to come out on DVD (December 10th can’t come soon enough!), I was only able to forage the trailer for screen captures.  As soon as I do get my hands on a copy of the movie, I will add more imagery and information (thank you, special features!) to the post.

I found the address of Rick’s house thanks to this CurbedLA article about OUATIH filming locations and ran out to stalk it while in the area a few weeks back.  In real life, the 1964 pad boasts 3 bedrooms plus a den, 3 baths, 2,630 square feet, terrazzo and hardwood flooring, a pool, a 0.42-acre lot, and striking 180-degree views of the city.  The residence was recently offered for lease at a whopping $9,000 per month.  The listing even touts its Once Upon a Time in Hollywood cameo!

According to a 2019 Architectural Digest article about the movie’s set design, Rick’s supposed Cielo Drive property proved quite evasive to pin down.  Author Cathy Whitlock says, “For Rick Dalton’s house, the design crew searched for the perfect ranch house only to encounter one obstacle after another.  The goal of a one-story ranch-style midcentury with a sloped ceiling, soffits, and a pool with a great view meant shooting three separate locations instead of one.”  (The “three separate locations” thing surprised and confused me, but more on that in a bit.)

Adding to the elusiveness of the locale was the fact that the production required a home with a gate and long winding driveway be situated next to Rick’s to stand in for the leased residence of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha).  Assistant location manager Scott Fitzgerald told the Location Managers Guild International (LGMI) website, “The whole idea was that Rick Dalton and Sharon Tate lived in the same neighborhood.  So we had to find two houses that would work.  Quentin had these little pieces in his mind.  Rick was a movie star, so his house had to be the house of a movie star.  But movie star homes back then were not weird and wild like they are today.  Some were modest ranch houses in a nice neighborhood.  It was a sign of wealth.”  Contributing even more difficulty to the hunt was a shot director Quentin Tarantino had in mind from the beginning.  As production designer Barbara Ling told LGMI, “The real albatross was finding Rick Dalton’s house.  We wanted to try to capture the Benedict Canyon of that time.  The house needed to be very close to another house.  Quentin is so visual as a director.  He had this shot written into the script.  ‘We’ve got to have Rick in the swimming pool, and we’ve got to be able to have a camera that moves over so you can see the other house.’  We looked everywhere.  It was such a tricky combo of driveways and was very specific to the shot he needed.”  In the same article, location scout Lori Balton furthers, “Tarantino was super specific about his needs.  The exact geography was important.  For instance, the camera is on Rick’s pool, then cranes up and over the hedges to Sharon and Roman in their car leaving the driveway.”  The production team finally found exactly what they were seeking for the Dalton and Tate/Polanski residences at 10969 and 10974 Alta View Drive, respectively, in the hills above Studio City.  (The MLS image of the pool below comes from 10969’s recent rental listing.)

Both properties are pictured below, though only the gate of 10974 is visible from the street.

Though the exterior of Rick’s pad wasn’t featured in the trailer, from my recollection it looks very much as it did onscreen – as does the carport area (which did make the trailer), minus the large movie poster bearing his face, of course.

Per the LGMI article, the shoot on Alta View Drive required 14 nights of filming!  And it was all exterior work.

The interior of Rick’s house was nothing more than a set built on a soundstage at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.  You can check out what the actual inside of 10969 Alta View looks like here.  It bears little resemblance to what appeared onscreen, as you can see below.  Of Dalton’s décor, Ling told Architectural Digest, “Rick is somebody who bought a house at the height of his career and hasn’t renovated since he was a bachelor.  He was not into the pop culture of the moment.  The development of the character was about a TV star in his era, and everything was given to him from a [studio] set, such as the saddle of a horse from a TV show or a movie poster.”

As referenced earlier, Architectural Digest contends that three different locations masked as Rick’s residence.  The magazine stipulates, “For Dalton’s Cielo Drive house, the production team used the exterior of two ranch-style homes and created the interiors on a soundstage.”  I think that info may be erroneous, though, as we know that both the façade and backyard of 10969 Alta View were featured as Rick’s.  I don’t recall any other outside areas of his house ever appearing onscreen and cannot fathom what the secondary ranch exterior mentioned could possibly have been used for.   I think the article may actually be alluding to the fact that two different homes were used to portray the Tate residence (more on that below), though neither of them is a ranch.  But that is just a guess.  Once I get my hands on the DVD, I will hopefully be able to piece things together.

So far, what I have been able to discern is that the production team meshed two different exteriors to play Sharon’s pad.  The gate and driveway are, of course, at 10974 Alta View Drive.

Though aerial views make it hard to tell, I believe front exterior shots of the Tate/Polanski rental were also likely lensed there.

According to the LGMI piece, backyard scenes were shot at a different location entirely – the former residence of Western actor Lee Van Cleef.  While initially scouting that property, Balton says, “ . . . just my luck, a guy was pulling down the driveway wondering what I was up to.  After I explained myself, he got a funny look on his face at the mention of Quentin Tarantino.  He explained it was Lee Van Cleef’s home — a ’60s time capsule — and filled to the brim with Hollywood memorabilia that he thought would interest Quentin.  Quentin is a rabid Sergio Leone fan; Van Cleef was in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and For a Few Dollars More.  Van Cleef died in 1989, but his wife still lives there with her brother.  We ended up shooting in their backyard.”  Key assistant location manager Kirk Worley furthers, “It stood in for the backyard of the Tate/Polanski home.”  Per property records and my friend E.J.’s Movieland Directory website, Van Cleef’s former pad is at 19471 Rosita Street in Tarzana.  The backyard has a pool smack dab in the middle of it, which doesn’t much jibe with the layout of the actual Cielo Drive house Sharon and Roman rented, but I guess the production team was able to make it work.

On an interesting side-note – until researching for this post, I had no idea that there was at one time a “twin residence” to the real Tate/Polanski rental.  Both pads were designed by architect Robert Byrd in 1941.  The twin, situated below Sharon and Roman’s place on Cielo Drive, had an almost identical façade and footprint, as you can see here.  Both properties have since been remodeled past recognition, sadly.  What is odd, though, is that, despite being owned by different parties and renovated at different times, the two homes once again are almost identical!  It is a bit eerie to see.  For those interested in the history of the actual Tate rental, I direct you to this fabulous Curbed LA article.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Rick Dalton’s house from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is located at 10969 Alta View Drive in Studio City.  Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski’s gate from the movie can be found next door at 10974 Alta View.