Author: Lindsay

The L.A. Confidential Liquor Store

Got an email a few weeks back from fellow stalker Tracey who gave me the address of a film location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I had been trying to find for months – the liquor store from the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential!   Mike and I had known from doing some online research that the liquor store featured in the movie was not actually real. Instead, producers had built a fake liquor store inside of a real storefront somewhere in the L.A. area.    According to this film locations book, that storefront was located somewhere on Larchmont Avenue, but as so often happens with location books, that information was not correct. Mike and I had actually driven up and down Larchmont Avenue several times one day looking for the storefront without any luck. We even stopped in and spoke with the editor of the Larchmont Chronicle to see if she knew where the filming of the liquor shop scenes had taken place. LOL It wasn’t long before we figured out that the L.A. Confidential liquor store was not actually located on Larchmont Avenue and for a while the two of us put the liquor store quest on the back burner.

So you can imagine how excited I was to receive an email from one of my readers named Tracey, who, after several years of being on the prowl for the elusive liquor store, had finally located it!   Turns out she had taken a surface street to work one morning hoping to avoid freeway traffic and, lo and behold, drove right past the liquor store and recognized it immediately! Yay! It’s amazing how often that actually happens. You spend hours upon hours seaching high and low for a location, only to randomly drive by it one day. In this city, you’ve just gotta keep your eyes open! 🙂 In real life the L.A. Confidential liquor store is a furniture repair store named Ramon’s Cane Shop. And it looks like it has been around forever. (In the above photo I am actually standing in front of the wrong storefront. I’m such a blond! Although in real life both storefronts are occupied by Ramon’s Cane Shop, in L.A. Confidential only the middle storefront was used.)

The liquor store shows up twice in L.A. Confidential.   It is first featured in the scene when Bud White, while picking up some liquor for a Christmas party, first lays eyes on Veronica Lake lookalike Lynn Bracken.

After leaving the liquor store, Bud spots Pierce Patchett’s car with what appears to be a very beat up Susan Lefferts inside.  A brief fight ensues before Lynn Bracken walks outside and explains that all is not as it seems. In the scene, Pierce’s car was parked in the driveway of a parking lot located just to the left of Ramon’s Cane Shop.

The liquor store pops up once again a bit later on in the movie, when Bud White stops by to try to dig up some information on Lynn Bracken.

I must say it was VERY cool to be stalking the L.A. Confidential liquor store, especially since – aside from the fact that it’s not really a liquor store – it looks pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen. Sadly, though, the shop was closed when we were stalking it, and since the windows were completely covered, I didn’t get to peek inside. Looks like I’ll have to take another stalking trip out there!! Big, big THANK YOU to Tracey for tipping me off to this location. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The L.A. Confidential liquor store, aka Ramon’s Cane Shop, is located at 1279 South Cochran Avenue in Los Angeles. The area where Pierce Patchett’s car was parked when Bud White confronts him is located just to the left of the cane shop.

April 13, 2009
Spencer and Heidi’s Wedding!

UPDATE: They actually did it (again)! Check out pictures from Saturday’s wedding here.

My favorite reality TV duo, better known as Heidi and Spencer, have caused a media shitstorm yet again by announcing that they will be tying the knot – for real this time – in two short weeks right in my hometown of Pasadena. 🙂 Early in the week, I actually got a tip that Speidi would be at the Westminster Presbyterian Church (which I’ve blogged about in the past) this past Wednesday and, of course, went right out to stalk the place. But unfortunately the normally camera friendly duo stayed inside the church the whole time they were there and I didn’t get to see them. I did get to chat with quite a few paparazzi on the scene, though, one of whom actually gave me his phone number as he said it seemed I had more information than he did. He actually told me to call him next time I had a tip! 🙂 LOL Anyway, I had a feeling that Speidi might be visiting the church for reasons relating to their wedding and now it sounds like my hunch might just be correct. (I took the above photos of Westminster Presbyterian back in June when the movie Valkyrie was being filmed there.)

Earlier this evening E! News reported that my two favorite douchebags will be marrying on Saturday, April 25th, in a “sunset” ceremony at an “undisclosed Pasadena location”. Now I am not sure if Speidi’s wedding will actually take place at Westminster Presbyterian, but I do know that the church is going to figure in the ceremony in some form or another. Quite possibly, a pastor from the church will be officiating the nuptials, but they will take place elsewhere. Either way, I’ll give you one guess as to where I’m going to be on April 25th right around sunset. 🙂

According to E!, the reception is taking place on a rooftop somewhere in Pasadena. Well, the only wedding locale with a rooftop in the Pasadena area that I know of is the Pasadena Museum of California Art. So that’s my best guess as to where the reception is going to take place. Now, don’t quote me on any of this, as I am simply going on quite a few large hunches. Only time will tell whether those hunches prove to be correct, but my fingers are sure crossed. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Westminster Presbyterian Church is located at 1757 North Lake Avenue in Pasadena. The Pasadena Museum of California Art is located at 490 East Union Street, also in Pasadena.

April 10, 2009
My Day on the Set of Weeds!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I absolutely LOVE living in L.A. You just never know what surprises lay around each corner here!  Yesterday, as I drove up to the Hollywood & Highland Center to meet my good friend Blaze for some coffee, I noticed quite a few of those yellow filming signs that I love so much. Come to find out, the Showtime series Weeds was filming on location at the outdoor mall. I can’t say that I am a huge fan of the show, but my boyfriend absolutely loves it, so I have seen quite a few episodes.  Needless to say, even though I don’t really watch the show, I was floored to be there. I’m pretty sure I could stumble upon an episode of Sesame Street being filmed, though, and still be pretty darn excited. 🙂 LOL

I pretty much couldn’t have picked a better time to arrive at H&H, since the filming of a large dance sequence was just about to begin right as I was walking up to the complex. The dance number was being filmed in the mall’s central courtyard area and there were cameras set up all over the top level of the complex. There was even a camera crew filming from the top of a ladder (pictured above).

The area where the scene was being filmed was not closed off to the public – much the same as when I watched the filming of The Mentalist a few weeks back – and normal people were walking in and out of the scene not realizing what was going on. In this case, though, I think that was exactly the producers’ intention. I believe they wanted to capture the real life reactions of tourists watching the dance sequence take place. The Weeds crew was extremely friendly and let people take all the photographs they wanted, so I was in heaven. 🙂

Being that I am a sucker for any sort of musical, I really couldn’t have picked a better film shoot to stumble upon. I can’t tell you how much fun the dance sequence was to watch!  🙂  The scene being filmed actually seemed to be an imitation of the awesome T-Mobile “Life’s For Sharing” commercial that was filmed at the Liverpool Street Train Station in London.   Not only was the set-up of the Weeds scene pretty much identical to the T-Mobile ad, but the extras were all pretending to be taking photographs of the dancers with their cell phones, just like in the commercial. Basically the scene consisted of Mary-Louise Parker sitting in Hollywood & Highland’s central courtyard drinking a fruit smoothie, when all of a sudden loud music starts pouring out of the loudspeakers and one by one a large crowd breaks out into a spontaneous dance routine. It was really very cool to see in person! I so wanted to get out there and dance myself! LOL   Amazingly enough, according to one of the extras I talked to, the dancers had only learned the dance a few hours earlier.

The only series regular acting in the scene was Mary-Louise Parker. I was hoping to see her cutie son on the show, actor Hunter Parish, but sadly he was not there. Ironically, before Mary-Louise came onto the set, her stand-in walked out and I started immediately snapping photos as I thought it was MLP! LOL She looks JUST like her! It was uncanny! You can see her stand-in wearing the purple shirt in the above photograph.

The above are photographs of the real MLP during the filming of the scene. 🙂  Mary-Louise is very pretty in person and a lot taller than I expected, but extremely thin. Disgustingly thin, really. Her arm looked like a bone with skin covering it.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen arms that skinny in my entire life.

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During the filming breaks, Mary-Louise actually had a “personal umbrella holder” who followed her around with an umbrella to shield her from the sun (pictured above).   For those of you who don’t read US Magazine regularly, some celebrities actually employ what is known as a “personal umbrella holder” – or a P.U.H. – who basically holds an umbrella over their heads for them when it rains.  I’m not kidding! I guess celebs are just far too important to be holding their own umbrellas. LOL I mean, how lazy can someone actually be??? I honestly don’t think I could ever in good conscience allow another person to hold an umbrella for me, no matter how big of a star I was. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but something about that just doesn’t seem right.   LOL

P.U.H. aside, I had an absolute blast being on the Weeds set today and cannot wait to watch the episode on TV!!! It should air on Showtime in about two months.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Weeds was filmed in the Hollywood & Highland Center’s central courtyard, which is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Some filming also took place at Dlush Deluxe Beverage Joint in the Hollywood & Highland Center.

April 10, 2009
The W Hotel

This weekend while out doing some stalking of L.A.’s Westside, I dragged my boyfriend to the W Hotel, which was featured in both fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the new 90210. I have wanted to stalk the W ever since I first watched Win A Date over four years ago, but somehow never got around to it until this past Sunday. I actually can’t believe that I waited so long to stalk the modern style hotel, but, as I’ve said before, in L.A. there’s just so much to stalk and so little time! 🙂

The W Hotel is actually featured quite a few times in Win A Date. The poolside restaurant, named “The Backyard”, shows up in the very beginning of the movie as the location where Tad and his agents (who are both named Richard Levy) do lunch. It is during this luncheon that Tad is told he must clean up his public image and thus the “Win A Date With Tad Hamilton” contest is born.

The W also shows up a bit later on in the movie as the hotel where contest winner Rosalee Futch (aka Kate Bosworth) stays while she is in L.A. The front entrance of the hotel is shown when she first checks in, as well as when she is picked up and dropped off for her dream date with Tad.

The lobby area of the hotel and the stairway leading up to the pool are also both featured in the movie.

On the new 90210, Naomi Clark, following in the footsteps of Dylan McKay from the original series, forgoes living with her parents to permanently check in to the ultra-trendy W. In the episode entitled “By Accident”, Naomi moves out of her cheating father’s house and into Room 723 of the hotel. The W has been featured on the series several times since then, most prominently in the Valentine’s Day episode entitled “Of Heartbreaks and Hotels”.

Many areas of the hotel were shown in that episode including the front entrance;

the lobby;

the hotel’s NineThirty Restaurant where Silver and Dixon share a Valentine’s Day dinner;

the hotel’s coffee bar where Naomi first meets cutie bartender Liam (in real life the coffee bar is set up daily between 6 and10am just outside of the NineThirty Restaurant, but sadly it had already been removed by the time we got there, so I didn’t get to snap a photo of it);

the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar where Silver and Naomi grab some tea;

and, just like in Win A Date, the hotel’s Backyard restaurant where Naomi gets stood up by Liam.

I HIGHLY recommend stalking the W! The hotel somehow manages to be ultra-trendy and ultra-modern, yet extremely welcoming at the same time. The staff truly could not have been nicer to me and answered all of my silly questions about the filming of 90210 and Win A Date. 🙂 Since we were stalking the place in the middle of the day, though, we weren’t able to grab a drink in the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar. But you can bet that is something I am going to do in the very near future. I also must book a room and drag my boyfriend there for the weekend sometime! Even though ultra modern hotels are usually not my thing, I really fell in love with this one. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The W Hotel is located at 930 Hilgard Avenue in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

April 9, 2009
Joe’s Pizza

Last week, on April Fools’ Day, CBS aired a television special entitled I Get That A Lot in which celebrities posed as normal, everyday people working in normal, everyday jobs.   Hidden cameras captured customers’ reactions as stars like Jessica Simpson, Ice-T, LeAnn Rimes, and Jeff Probst waited on them and told them that they were not, in fact, famous, but that they “get that a lot.” 🙂 While the show was a bit on the silly side, I, of course, LOVED it! I so wish I could have been one of those customers! But since I wasn’t, I figured I’d at least stalk one of the locations where I Get That A Lot was filmed. 🙂

My favorite segment from I Get That A Lot involved supermodel Heidi Klum whose assignment on the show was to spend a few hours serving pizzas at a small pizza place in Santa Monica named Joe’s.  Heidi was absolutely adorable in the segment and since I happened to be in Santa Monica this weekend, I just had to drag my boyfriend out to stalk the place.   🙂

Joe’s Pizza is a very cute, but super tiny shop located just off the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. In fact, it is so tiny I am surprised they were able to film inside of it at all.  Joe’s was also extremely crowded – during the brief twenty minutes that we were there no less than fifteen people stopped in for a bite to eat – which is, I’m sure, why it was chosen for the hidden camera special.  I am guessing that the producers wanted Heidi waiting on as many people as possible. The staff at Joe’s was extremely nice and answered all of my questions about the filming of I Get That A Lot,which took place almost a year ago.   They told me that Heidi Klum was very down to earth and a lot of fun to work with. 🙂

While stalking Joe’s, my boyfriend and I just had to sample a few slices of their pizza. And let me tell you, it is some of the best pizza I’ve ever had!   The Joe’s Pizza chain originated in New York in 1975 and has continuously been credited as New York’s best pizza. In fact, New York Magazine stated that “the quintessential New York slice is at Joe’s”. The Santa Monica branch, which opened in 2007, is just as good as its New York counterpart and I am sure I will be frequenting it quite often. Being that I am diabetic, a big ol’ slice of cheese pizza is probably the last thing I should be eating, but, hey, life’s short – sometimes you’ve gotta live it up. 🙂

Other famous fans of the restaurant, besides Heidi Klum, include Brooke Shields, Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, and Everybody Loves Raymond’s Doris Roberts.  Pictured above are photographs of Joe’s celebrity fans which line the walls of the small restaurant. Love it! Think someday they’ll put my photo on the wall? 🙂

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The original Joe’s Pizza, which is located in Manhattan, has long been a favorite of location scouts. It has appeared in Spiderman 2 (Peter Parker worked as a Joe’s pizza delivery boy), Sex and the City, Along Came Polly, and a Nike Commercial. You can bet that Joe’s is at the top of my list of places to stalk on my next trip to NYC. 🙂

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Joe’s Pizza! It’s a really fun place to grab a bite to eat and the pizza is to die for! It’s truly like having a little piece of New York right here in L.A. 🙂  You can watch some clips from the I Get That A Lot special, including Heidi Klum’s stint as a Joe’s Pizza girl, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Joe’s Pizza is located at 111 Broadway in Santa Monica. The original New York location can be found at 7 Carmine Street in Manhattan. You can visit the Joe’s Pizza website here.

April 8, 2009
The “If U Seek Amy” House

A few weeks ago, Miss Britney Spears debuted her new video for the third single off her Circus album, the controversially titled “If U Seek Amy”. So, of course, I just had to watch! I was actually pretty excited about this video, as many critics were proclaiming that the old Britney was finally back. I was hoping for something along the lines of the Britney videos of old featuring adorable outfits, cute hairdos, and choreographed pop dances that high school girls everywhere (and – who am I kidding – I) would be copying.   But, alas, that was not to be. I guess I just have to face the cold, hard truth – the old Britney will never be back. 🙁 The “If U Seek Amy” video is downright terrible. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more lame music video in my life. But, since I was in the area this weekend, I figured I may as well stalk the house where it was filmed. 🙂

The “If U Seek Amy” house was incredibly easy to find thanks to this article which stated that the video was filmed in Pacific Palisades and several paparazzi photos taken the day of the filming which clearly showed an address number of 14966 (pictured above).

Interestingly enough, though, the final “6” of the house number doesn’t appear in the actual music video (pictured above). It must have been removed in the editing room after filming was completed to ward off stalkers like me. LOL Nice try, Britney, but don’t you know the paparazzi document your every move? 🙂

It appears that both the interior and the exterior of the colonial style home were used in the filming of Britney’s new video.  The interiors were used for the wild party scenes where a scantily clad Britney (wearing a pair of super cute pink high heels) dances with a group of friends. The exterior of the home is featured at the end of the video, where BritBrit – this time dressed up like a 50’s housewife – walks out of her white-picket fenced house with her husband and two children to serve the paparazzi some apple pie.

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It’s easy to see why producers chose to use the Pacific Palisades home, as it looks like the typical American dream house, complete with a white picket fence and gabled windows. It’s just the type of place you’d expect to find Britney’s 50’s housewife character living. You can watch the (incredibly lame) “If You Seek Amy” video here.

On a side note I have one more thing to say about the “If U Seek Amy” video – Holy roots, Batman!   I think Britney really should have visited the salon to get her roots did before filming this thing!! I mean, I don’t let mine get even half that bad, and unlike BritBrit, I don’t have a stylist on the payroll!!   Her roots were so distracting in the video that I pretty much couldn’t focus on anything else – which actually might have been a good thing! LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house from Britney’s “If U Seek Amy” video is located at 14966 La Cumbre Drive in Pacific Palisades.

April 7, 2009
The El Royale Motel

A couple of weeks ago while doing some Valley stalking,  my boyfriend and I happened to drive by a small motel named the El Royale and I immediately recognized it from this page on the Seeing Stars website.   I didn’t watch the Fourth Season of The O.C. (even though I do love me some Benjamin McKenzie!), but apparently the El Royale Motel was used in the second episode of that season. In the episode, entitled “The Gringos”, Ryan and Seth follow Volchok down to Ensenada, Mexico to try to avenge Marissa’s death. While there they check into the El Royale.

Interestingly enough, though, it appears that the El Royale was used only for establishing shots of their motel and that no actual filming took place there. You can see in the above screen captures that the interiors of Ryan and Seth’s room don’t match the exteriors of the El Royale. For example, when Ryan and Seth enter the motel room, you can see an interior hallway behind them. The El Royale does not actually have any interior hallways. Ryan and Seth’s motel room window is also small and flat and does not match the popped out picture windows that exist at the real El Royale. My best guess is that the interior of their room was a set that existed only on a soundstage.

The El Royale also made an appearance in the 1997 Marky-Mark film Boogie Nights (pictured above). It was used as the location where Duke and Reed plan the drug scam they are going to pull on Rahad. In Boogie Nights, as with The O.C., it appears that only the exteriors of the motel were used, as once again, the interior shots don’t match up to what the motel really looks like.

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The El Royale was also featured in the movies Angel and  Fool For Love. But since I have not seen either of them, I am not sure whether only the El Royale exteriors were used or if some interior filming took place there, as well.

One of the few productions that did actually film inside of an El Royale Motel room, is the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In a Season 9 episode of the show entitled “Kill Me If You Can”, a woman is found dead inside of one of the El Royale bungalows, leaving behind a desert tortoise named Gareth as the only witness to the crime (pictured above).

The El Royale is a very unusual little motel, with about 15 tiny bungalows situated around an empty cement lot. Each bungalow has its own entrance and carport.    It is easy to see why the El Royale has been used so often in film and television productions as it definitely gives off a seedy motel vibe.   I do recommend stalking it, though, as it is such a unique spot and seeing it in person will make you feel as if you’ve stepped back in time to a different era.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The El Royale Motel is located at 11117 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

April 6, 2009
The Mama’s Family House

Last week I got a challenge to find the house used in the 1980’s television series Mama’s Family. I had heard a while back that Mama’s house was in Pasadena, but had no idea of its exact location.   After doing a simple Google search, though, I quickly found the address. Or so I thought. 🙂 According to IMDB, Mama’s house is located at 1019 Montrose Avenue in South Pasadena. But as I have mentioned before, IMDB has been known to post incorrect information. And this time was no different. Oh, Internet Movie Database, why do you so often lead me astray?? 🙂

After thinking I had found the correct location, I grabbed my camera and immediately drove out to South Pasadena to snap some photos of Mama’s house. But when I arrived at 1019 Montrose Avenue, it quite obviously wasn’t the home where the Harper Family had lived on the show. Feeling defeated, I got in my car to drive home. And that’s when I noticed a house just a few doors down from number 1019 that looked a whole lot like Mama’s.   So, I snapped some pics and drove home to compare them to the screen captures I had from the show. Sure enough, it was the place!

The house in South Pasadena was used each week for establishing shots of the Harper home. The interiors existed only on a soundstage located about 15 miles away on the former KTTV/Fox Television Center lot on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sadly, that studio has since been torn down. The home was also shown each week in the Mama’s Family opening credits, in which Mama would march to the end of her walkway, pick up the morning newspaper, and then proceed to dust it off . LOL  You can watch the Mama’s Family intro here. This same house was also used very briefly as Lynda’s home in the original Halloween movie.

Even though I haven’t seen an episode of Mama’s Family in years, I was very excited to be stalking the home, as I have such fond memories of watching the show with my grandma when I was a little girl. I still remember not being able to wrap my six year old brain around the fact that, in real life, Mama wasn’t truly an old lady. 🙂 It is unbelievable to me that Mama’s house still looks almost EXACTLY the same as it appeared onscreen 26 years ago!   Besides the white picket enclosure, which has since been removed from the porch area, and a blue trim which has been added, the house is pretty much identical to how it appeared on television back in 1983. And I highly recommend stalking it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mama’s Family house is located at 1027 Montrose Avenue in South Pasadena.

April 3, 2009
Vibiana

A couple of weeks ago, while spending the weekend at the Hilton Checkers Hotel, I stumbled upon a filming location I had been meaning to stalk for quite some time – a former cathedral named Vibiana located in Downtown Los Angeles.   While walking back to the hotel after grabbing a Starbucks :), I saw what looked like a wedding being set up outside of a church.  And I just about fell over when a woman stopped me and said “Are you here for Vibiana?”   It was at that point that I realized I wasn’t standing outside of a church at all, but a filming location that had appeared on my fave show The Hills.   I had actually found Vibiana’s location a few weeks back, but had yet to stalk it for some odd reason.   So, I was pretty much jumping up and down with excitement when I realized what I had stumbled upon.  The woman who had stopped me was extremely amused at my thrill over seeing Vibiana in person and was nice enough to let me step inside to take a peek at the former church and snap some photos.

The Cathedral of Saint Vibiana was built in 1876 by Ezra F. Kyson, the very same architect who designed the Pico House.   The Baroque style church could seat 1200 parishioners, which at the time was one tenth of the city’s population. For many years St. Vibiana’s enjoyed the prestige of being the mother church cathedral parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Sadly, the building was badly damaged during 1994’s Northridge Earthquake, and since the archdiocese had since outgrown the structure, they set their sights on demolishing it to build something bigger.   Thankfully, preservationists stepped in and literally stopped the wrecking ball mid-swing. After a time consuming and much heated debate between the city, the archdiocese, and preservationists, the city decided to give the archdiocese a larger piece of land in exchange for the damaged church. In 1999, the city sold the property to real estate developer Tom Gilmore, who spent the next seven years and over $8 million restoring the building to its former grandeur. Today, the former cathedral is used as an events venue, hosting everything from weddings to corporate parties. In February of 2008, former American Idol Katharine McPhee held her wedding reception at Vibiana.

And, of course, there’s also the filming! 🙂  Vibiana’s showed up in two Season 3 episodes of The Hills. In the first episode, entitled “Stress and the City”, Teen Vogue intern Whitney Port is delegated the task of choosing a venue for the upcoming Young Hollywood Party.   Whitney chooses the former cathedral and suggests running a long carpet down the aisle to be used as the fashion show runway and setting up photo booths in the confessionals. The following episode, entitled “Young Hollywood”, centers around Lauren and Whitney setting up for and running the Young Hollywood Party. Since the name of the church was written right across the screen in both episodes, finding this location was a snap. 🙂

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The former church also showed up very briefly in a controversial scene in the pilot episode of the David Duchovny series Californication. Only the interiors of Vibiana were used for that scene, though. The exteriors were filmed about ten miles away at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

I highly recommend stalking Vibiana as it is absolutely gorgeous inside! I would so love to have a wedding there! Although the property is not currently open to the public, you can stalk the exterior and maybe someone will be nice enough to let you take a peek inside. You can also cyberstalk the building here. If you are interested in hosting an event at the former church, you can contact the events coordinator here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vibiana is located at 210 South Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

April 2, 2009
The Bradbury Building

While serving on jury duty a few years back, I had the opportunity to visit one of the most incredible buildings I’ve ever seen in my life.  Since jurors are oftentimes given incredibly long lunches (sometimes lasting over two and a half hours!!), the jury orientation paperwork includes a list of some “Things To Do” in the area. On that list was the Bradbury Building, which is located just a few short blocks away from the L.A. courthouse.  Thanks to its prominent appearance in the 1982 science fiction flick Blade Runner, the Bradbury is quite famous among film location buffs – it’s listed in pretty much every book ever written on the subject. But surprisingly, I had never visited the building myself. I am not into the science fiction genre and have never seen Blade Runner, so I wasn’t ever really interested in visiting the building in person. But since I was only a few blocks away during my three day stint as a juror, I figured I may as well take a gander.

And I am so thankful I did! While the building is fairly non-descript on the outside, its interior is nothing short of AMAZING. The Bradbury was built in 1893 by millionaire real estate developer Lewis Bradbury. Mr. Bradbury was in poor health at the time and wanted to create a building that would be a sort of monument to himself before he passed away. He first enlisted architect Sumner Hunt to design a suitable building, but when none of Sumner’s designs were exceptional enough, Bradbury looked to one of Sumner’s young assistants. That assistant, George Wyman, was only 32 years old at the time and possessed virtually no architectural or design experience to speak of. Perhaps realizing this, Wyman at first turned Bradbury down. Thankfully, his dead brother Mark stepped in, eventually changing his mind.  Yes, you read that right. George and his wife “consulted” with Mark via a planchette board (aka a spirit board) upon which Mark wrote “Take Bradbury Building. It will make you famous.” And the rest is architectural history.

Wyman’s inspiration for the design of the legendary building actually came from a science fiction book written in 1887 named Looking Backward From 2000 to 1887. In the book, author Edward Bellamy wrote that the typical office building in the year 2000 was a “vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of which was a hundred feet above . . . The walls were frescoed in mallow tints, to soften without absorbing the light which flooded the interior.”   It’s amazing to me that a building built 116 years ago, inspired by a book written 122 years ago, remains awe-inspiring to this day.

And awe-inspiring it truly is! Pictures honestly don’t do the amazing architecture of this building justice. It has to be seen in person to be truly appreciated. The building’s central courtyard is covered by a five story high peaked glass roof, which “Arts and Architecture Magazine” called “a fairytale of mathematics”. The roof bathes the entire interior of the building in a soft natural light.   Lewis spared absolutely no expense in the making of his monument – the Bradbury’s walls are made of a glazed brick, the floors are covered in Mexican tile, and the stairs are carved out of Belgium marble. But by far, the building’s most gorgeous element is the lavish wrought iron detailing that is located throughout.

The building’s two open cage elevators are also housed by beautiful wrought iron detailing. The Bradbury definitely turned out to be the extraordinary monument that Lewis Bradbury set out to build. Unfortunately, he passed away three months before seeing its completion. All in all the Bradbury cost $500,000 to construct.

The building’s unique architecture and abundance of natural light have long made it a favorite of location scouts. The Bradbury Building was featured most prominently in the 1982 movie Blade Runner, where it was used as the apartment building of J.F. Sebastian.  In the movie, the real name of the building is used, but the exterior looks nothing like it does in real life (pictured above). It is quite ironic to me that the Bradbury was chosen to be used in Blade Runner, as producers made the interior, which is so famous for its light, look so incredibly dark.

The historic building was also featured in Chinatown, Good Neighbor Sam (as Jack Lemmon’s hotel), Double Indemnity, D.O.A., Mr. Wrong (as Dean Stockwell’s office), Pushing Daisies (as Ned and Chuck’s apartment building), Quantum Leap, Pay It Forward, Wolf (as Jack Nicholson’s office), Disclosure, Lethal Weapon 4 (as Joe Pesci’s dentist’s office – pictured above), Murder in the First (as Christian Slater’s law office), the television series Pasadena (as the Los Angeles Sun’s newspaper office), as well as countless others. The ground floor of the building is home to Ross Cutlery – the knife store where O.J. Simpson allegedly purchased a 12-inch stilleto knife three weeks before the murders of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Simpson.

The Bradbury is also used quite often for photography shoots. While out stalking in Downtown L.A. last weekend, I dragged my boyfriend and my parents to the building, where we stumbled upon the band Shattered Atom  posing for photographs for their new album cover (pictured above).

A statue of Charlie Chaplin, on loan from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, is currently on display just inside the Bradbury Building’s side entrance.

I HIGHLY recommend stalking the Bradbury Building. In fact, it should be a “must see” location for both natives and tourists of Los Angeles alike. It is a truly amazing, literally breathtaking structure, like nothing I have ever seen anywhere else in my life. Even if you are not a filming locations buff, I can pretty much guarantee you will be a fan of this building and its awe-inspiring architecture.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bradbury Building is located at 304 South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. The building’s first floor and courtyard area are open to the public daily.

April 1, 2009