Lindsay

June 24, 2020June 23, 2020

Michelle’s House from “Dead to Me”

The TV gods have blessed audiences the past few months with a plethora of stellar new shows! Hollywood, Home Before Dark, Upload, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector – the list goes on and on. The timing has been rather fortuitous considering the quarantine. Several sophomore series have also come back strong, namely Dirty John and Dead to Me. I was thrilled to recognize a few locations from the latter that I already stalked and blogged about, including Cindy’s Restaurant, where Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) made a pit stop on the way home from Angeles National Forest in “Between You and Me,” and the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, which portrayed the Antelope Valley lodging the ladies checked into in the same episode. One spot that I wasn’t familiar with, but promptly set out to find was the house where Judy’s new girlfriend, Michelle Gutierrez (Natalie Morales), lived with her ex, Detective Ana Perez (Diana Maria Riva).

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Though Michelle’s residence pops up several times on Dead to Me, the first – and only – full shot of the exterior shown is in episode 8, “It Had to Be You.” Thankfully, an address number of “13113” was also visible in the scene. (Aren’t the number placards gorgeous? I love the Art Deco-themed font!) The unique cupola pitched atop Michelle’s roof, a common decorative feature of San Fernando Valley homes, told me that it could most likely be found in the Sherman Oaks or Van Nuys area. I hit up Sherman Oaks first, doing a Google search for properties with 13113 address numbers, and the top result kicked back was for 13113 Weddington Street. I was thrilled when I headed over to Street View and saw that it was, indeed, the right spot!

In real life, the dwelling, which was built in 1951 and is located in Sherman Oaks’ North Hidden Woods neighborhood, boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,900 square feet, an open floor plan, a living room with vaulted ceilings, crown moldings and hardwood flooring throughout, a barn door, a laundry room, a 0.15-acre lot, a large deck, a pool, a spa, and a carport.

Oh, and a swing in the front yard, which I found absolutely idyllic!

Completely remodeled in 2016, the abode is stunning inside, as these MLS images attest to. You can check out what the home looked like pre-remodel here. Quite a difference! Though the place was put on the market in August 2018, it did not sell and was delisted three months later.

As I learned from the real estate listing, Michelle’s house is Mellenthin Traditional, a style I’d never heard of before. It denotes what Antonio Pacheco in The Architect’s Newspaper describes as the “birdhouse ranch” properties built by William Mellenthin throughout the San Fernando Valley in the mid-20th Century, many featuring dovecotes or cupolas atop their peaked roofs. Though I may not have been familiar with Mellenthin’s name, nor did I know what a dovecote was (turns out it’s a structure that houses doves), I was highly familiar with his homes and their most prominent decorative element. I’ve even blogged about a couple of Mellenthin-style residences, including the pad where Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) lived on The Office. In my 2010 post on that locale, I characterized the cupola feature as an “extra little roof gable above the garage.”

Though Mellenthin was responsible for over 3,000 homes in the SFV, the roof adornments can be found on countless more area properties thanks to the many architects who copied his style.

Calling the dovecotes in the region “ubiquitous,” Pacheco states, “Today there are hundreds of ‘Birdhouse’ homes throughout the Valley—many by builders who borrowed the cupola style. But there is only one original, and that is William Mellenthin.” Upon reading those words, I headed over to the City of Los Angeles Building and Safety website to look up the building permits for Michelle’s house. It turns out it is no imitator – the pad was, indeed, designed by Mellenthin!

As I mentioned earlier, we only get one full view of the outside of the residence on Dead to Me, though we do see the front door/carport in a scene that continues over from “It’s Not You, It’s Me” to “Where Do We Go From Here” in which Jen confesses to Detective Perez that she killed Steve Wood (James Marsden).

While the exterior shots are limited, the inside of Michelle’s home pops up several times. As you can see in the screen capture below as compared to the 2018 MLS image, the actual interior of 13113 Weddington was utilized on the series.

I am not sure if the tilework in the kitchen was redone after the MLS photos were taken or if the swap from white to blue was a change made specifically for the Dead to Me shoot. Otherwise though, the house looks much the same in the images as it did onscreen.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Michelle’s house from Dead to Me is located at 13113 Weddington Street in Sherman Oaks.

June 22, 2020June 20, 2020

Forty’s House from “You”

Season 2 of You was pretty much a steady stream of stunning location after stunning location. Anavrin grocery store . . . the party house . . . Candace Stone’s (Ambyr Childers) Victorian rental – talk about real estate envy! One spot that eluded me for a while was the mid-century pad where Forty Quinn (James Scully) lived. The stunning residence only showed up in one episode, “P.I. Joe,” and the view of the exterior was brief at best. But one look at its sleek lines, wood façade, and decorative concrete screening, and I was completely taken! I knew at first glance the residence had to be located somewhere in the Hollywood Hills. Recalling that the Nichols Canyon neighborhood, specifically Nichols Canyon Road, boasts a plethora of handsome mid-century pads, I headed over there on Google Street View, plonked the little yellow man down at the top of the road, walked him south, and almost immediately found the right place at 3122 Nichols Canyon! I ran out to stalk it just a few days later.

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The spectacular dwelling was designed by Edward H. Fickett, F.A.I.A. for building contractor Jack M. Weisskopf in 1959. The architect constructed several homes for Weisskopf in the Hollywood Hills area.

The sleek property boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,510 square feet, a central atrium with cement pavers dotting a pond, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass walls, a master bath with a standalone tub (my dream amenity!), a double-sided rock fireplace, a 0.19-acre lot with a large deck, a pool, a spa, a fire pit, a bonus side yard, and a carport.

The residence has been remodeled a couple of times over the years, including in 1966 by architect Val Powelson. The result is a mid-century home that retains a slew of original detailing, but with a thoroughly updated kitchen and baths. You can check out some interior photos here. The place is an architectural masterpiece – a perfectly preserved 1950s time capsule. I half expected to see Frank Sinatra sipping a martini by the pool in the images!

The pad last sold in November 2018 for a whopping $3,180,000. Per Dwell, the seller was none other than Jamie Dornan, of 50 Shades fame! The real estate listing asserts, “Four bedrooms will accommodate all your envious friends who arrive but refuse to take the hint when it’s time for them to hit the road and leave you in peace in your amazing oasis,” which I think sums up the property perfectly!

In “P.I. Joe,” Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) heads to the house in order to ask Forty to help him piece together what happened during their drug-infused evening the night before.

The property’s actual interior also appeared in the scene . . .

. . . as did the backyard, as you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS images above and below.

Candance shows up at the house later in the episode to praise Forty on his recently-penned script. It is at this time that she opens his eyes to the possibility that Joe is a killer.

I would be surprised to learn that You is the only time the impressive home has appeared on the screen, but I was unable to dig up any other appearances.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Forty’s house from You is located at 3122 Nichols Canyon Road in Hollywood Hills West.

June 19, 2020December 3, 2020

The Best Buy Parking Lot Where Jim Proposed to Pam on “The Office”

Like much of the world, I have been re-watching The Office while quarantining. There’s nothing quite like the silly shenanigans of the Dunder Mifflin gang to provide laughs during a trying time. And it’s even inspired me to do some stalking! In viewing Season 5’s “Weight Loss: Part 2,” I realized I had never stalked the roadside service station where Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) finally proposed to Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer). As most fans know, the station was not real, but a set built specifically for the shoot in the rear parking lot of a Los Angeles Best Buy. Though several sources note the Best Buy as being in Los Feliz, I quickly discerned it was actually the outpost at 2909 Los Feliz Boulevard in Atwater Village. I headed out to stalk the lot shortly thereafter (donning a mask and gloves, of course!) and took photos of practically every square inch of it. Per co-executive producer Gene Stupinsky, even the hills in the background were digitally replaced with trees indigenous to the East Coast for the scene, so I did not have high hopes for being able to pinpoint exactly where the set stood. But then I received The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene for my birthday last week and my prayers were answered! There in the image section of the book was a photo of the proposal set with a backdrop of mountains visible, allowing me to ID the spot where Jim got down on one knee! Though I only took one selfie during my stalk, it turned out to be in the perfect position! Talk about fortuitous!

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In “Weight Loss: Part 2,” Jim spontaneously IMs Pam, telling her to meet him “halfway” for lunch (Pam was attending art school in New York at the time) at “the rest stop where that soda exploded on me.” As soon as he arrives, he drops to one knee and proposes, saying he can’t wait any longer. Series creator Greg Daniels chose to shoot the romantic segment at such a mundane setting because, as noted in Greene’s book, “Momentous events can happen to us in a place that we least expect it.” Daniels was actually inspired by a real service station he patronized. In the book, producer Randy Cordray explains,“ What he had in mind was an actual rest stop that he and his family visit when they visit his in-laws in Connecticut. They would fly into LaGuardia and hop in their rental van and they would always stop at this one ExxonMobil station along the Merritt Parkway to use the bathroom and get a bite to eat and grab a drink.” 9/11, of all things, thwarted the show making use of the actual station thanks to a moratorium on filming the oil company implemented following the attacks. When a similar location could not be found anywhere on the West Coast, Daniels and Cordray sent production designer Michael Gallenberg on a mission to photograph and measure the Merritt Parkway site and then subsequently re-create it back in L.A.

I’m sure you can guess what’s coming next! As soon as I read that the famous gas station set was based upon a real locale, I, of course, set out to find it! It proved a bit tough being that all six Merritt Parkway rest stops bear a similar aesthetic and all were remodeled in 2012/2013. In doing some detective work via historic Google Street View imagery, though, I am fairly certain that the rest stop in question is the one located in Fairfield on the southbound side of the parkway.

Though it boasts a side wing that the set station did not have, the roofline, octagonal windows and front door positioning all match what appeared onscreen. Not to mention The Office station was named “Fairview”, which is very similar to Fairfield. Again, this is just a hunch, though. I reached out to Michael Gallenberg for confirmation, but unfortunately he does not have access to his office or his files right now due to COVID-19. He is going to get back to me as soon as that changes, though.

Once Gallenberg had his measurements in hand, the production team looked to where the set replica would be constructed. Building it on an actual highway was given a quick veto by the California Highway Patrol, so Michael instead zeroed in on the Best Buy parking lot. In The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History, Cordray says, “There’s five acres of black asphalt behind a Best Buy store in Glendale, California. It is completely barren, unstripped and unpainted.” And it is well-known to location managers, having appeared in the Shibuya Square race segment of 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Using the below photo from Andy Greene’s book, I lined up the hills in the background and was able to determine that the gas station was constructed in the middle of the lot’s western edge.

The set was extensive! The mini-mart portion of it was actually just a façade with a scant eight-foot depth, the fridges and coolers visible behind Jim and Pam merely hi-res photographs. In front of the mart was an overhang canopying four pumps.

And in front of the pumps, a faux freeway was created! In Greene’s book Cordray says, “We built a four-lane freeway out in front and we used colored tape to mark the lanes. And we built a median strip with Astroturf and guardrail. This was designed in a giant dog bone shape so that cars and trucks could pass through the shot at fifty-five miles an hour, and then go way out into the distance, arc in a big circle and come back through the shot the other direction. I had thirty-five precision drivers.” The set also boasted extensive rigging to supply the rain the segment required. (That rigging is visible in the photo of the set from Andy Green’s book above.) Of it, Cordray states, “The nearest water was a fire department hydrant in front of Best Buy, which was several hundred yards away, so we had giant construction cranes holding up water tankers over the whole set so that we could rain [on] four lanes of freeway and the whole top of the gas station.” (As it turns out, my friend’s company, Underwood Water Trucks, was responsible for the rigging, which I was so thrilled to learn!) While it may sound like far too large an undertaking to take place in an electronics store parking lot, the Los Feliz Best Buy lot is quite possibly the biggest I have ever encountered!

Aerial views truly do not do it justice.

Neither do my photographs!

It.is.huge.

While the lot is situated behind Best Buy, I learned from Nick Carr, of Scouting New York, that it is actually owned by the adjacent New Life Vision Church.

A portion of it, though, appears to be utilized as parking for employees of the nearby Costco, so I am guessing it is partially leased out to the wholesale company. But, as my pictures attest, it was almost completely vacant when I stalked it mid-day on a weekday.

Amazingly, The Office gas station segment was pulled off in only nine days! It seems like a ridiculously short amount of time, but as Gallenberg told Andy Greene, “We had nine days to scout, design, build and shoot a rest stop with a four-lane parkway.” It’s pretty incredible – and was so well-executed that here I am, twelve years later, stalking and blogging about the vacant, wholly unrecognizable parking lot where it all occurred! Magic definitely happened on this site!

If you want to learn more about “Weight Loss: Part 2,” as well as other Office episodes, be sure to pick up a copy of Andy Greene’s book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History! It is fabulous!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Best Buy parking lot where Jim proposed to Pam on the “Weight Loss: Part 2” episode of The Office is located at 2909 Los Feliz Boulevard in Atwater Village. The lot is situated directly behind and to the north of Best Buy. The exact spot where the rest stop set stood is denoted with a pink box below.

June 17, 2020June 17, 2020

Dan’s House from “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story”

The first season of the true crime anthology series Dirty John had the feel of a really cheesy Lifetime movie. I couldn’t even get through one episode! Season 2, though, titled Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, which covers the 1989 murders of prominent San Diego attorney Dan Broderick (Christian Slater) and his mistress-turned-wife, Linda Kolkena (Rachel Keller), at the hands of his first wife, Betty (Amanda Peet), is absolutely scintillating! It doesn’t hurt that I’ve long been obsessed with the case and have read countless books and articles on the subject. I’ve, of course, been obsessively seeking out locations from the show, including the home where Dan and Betty lived during their marriage, which I blogged about here. Also on my list was the stately residence Dan bought post-separation, which Betty rammed her car into in episode one. Thankfully, it was a snap to find!

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It became obvious while watching Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story’s premiere episode, titled “No Fault,” that Dan’s house was situated on a corner.

One look at its handsome detailing . . .

. . . and sleepy, leafy surroundings, and I figured it was most likely located in Toluca Lake.

So I started searching aerial views of the area for large brick homes on a corner lot and came across the right pad at 10355 Woodbridge Street.

I headed out to see it in person shortly thereafter.

In real life, the Colonial-style home, which was built in 1967, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,973 square feet, a formal entry, multiple fireplaces including one in the master suite, a 0.28-acre lot, a pool, and a built-in BBQ.

You can check out some interior photos of it here.

The property is eerily reminiscent of Dan’s actual former home, which is located at 1041 Cypress Avenue in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood. One of my dearest friends, Kylee, happens to live nearby, so I enlisted her to stalk the residence for me. That’s it in the top photo below as compared to its television counterpart just beneath it.

The TV home is a virtual carbon copy of the real thing, right down to its white columns, dark shutters, front door framing, circular driveway, brick fence pillars, and large trees.

Once again, the Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story location managers absolutely nailed it!

Dan purchased the idyllic pad in late 1985 shortly after leaving Betty. It was not long before Linda moved in with him. They eventually married in the home’s front yard on April 22, 1989. You can see a photo of them standing by the front door on their wedding day here.

None of that has played out yet on Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. So far we’ve only seen the house once, in “No Fault.” In the episode, Betty drives to Dan’s new residence to confront him about their La Jolla home, which he has just sold out from under her.

She gets so angry over the property’s sale that she winds up hopping into her car, kicking it into gear and ramming it straight into Dan’s front door. As she later explains to friends in the episode, “God, I loved that house. I loved it so much that when I found out it was gone I crashed my car into Dan’s new one!” Of the incident, Betty told the San Diego Reader in 1989, “I’d do it again, only I’d do it better. I was mad! He had just stolen everything from me. Up until that point, he had stolen my furniture and my kids and my dogs and my jewelry and my clothes, but I still knew I owned half that [La Jolla] house. My name was on that house, and I didn’t really understand how it could be taken from me.” Dan had her committed to the San Diego County Mental Health Hospital for three days following the attack.

When Dan’s actual former home was up for sale in 2014, a friend of the then owner spoke to ABC News and showed off the exact spot Betty damaged in the crash. The discolored brick where the façade had to be replaced is clearly apparent in the segment, which you can watch here.

You can also see remnants of the repair in the image below, which was featured in this video tour of the property.

Though Dan’s home has only so far appeared in “No Fault,” considering it is where the murders took place, it will definitely pop up in upcoming episodes.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Dan’s house from Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story is located at 10355 Woodbridge Street in Toluca Lake. His real life former residence can be found at 1041 Cypress Avenue in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood.

June 15, 2020June 14, 2020

The Howard Motor Company Building from “The Mentalist”

I always play tourist in my own town. Never was that more the case then when I resided in Pasadena. The area is so chock-full of notable locales, though, that sometimes it takes a newcomer to point them out. My friend Kim recently embarked upon her first visit to Crown City (it was socially-distanced, of course!) and in poring through the Facebook photos she posted that day, I was pleasantly surprised to see pics of the Howard Motor Company Building! Though Kim took note of the gorgeous structure immediately upon passing it, I drove by daily while living in Pasadena and even once witnessed The Mentalist filming on the premises, but somehow never dedicated a post to the place! So to the top of my To-Stalk List it went and I headed over there shortly thereafter.

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The Howard Motor Company Building was designed in 1927 by the Austin Company of California architecture firm.

The Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure served as an automobile showroom for the dealership through 1938, at which time the Busch-Morgan Motor Company moved in.

The stunning building continued to operate as a car gallery through at least 1996.

The ornate edifice, with its spectacular California Churrigueresque detailing, was intended to attract passersby traveling along the popular Route 66, get them to stop, and hopefully buy a new car. The concept certainly worked on my friend Kim who immediately pulled over to get a better look at the place.

The Howard Motor Company Building is easily one of Pasadena’s most beautiful structures.

The interior is just as incredible as the exterior!

Sadly, the property, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has been tenantless for pretty much as long as I remember, though it sometimes houses a Spirit Halloween store in the Fall.

The long-term vacancy left it open for the filming of The Mentalist in November 2009. My dad and I happened to be driving by when the shoot was being set up and, of course, stopped to watch.

Though I don’t have any photos from that day, we were invited inside to take a peek at the space with all of its glorious set dressing and, let me tell you, the Howard Motor Company Building was definitely ready for its close-up!

In the episode, Season 2’s “Redline,” which aired in February 2010, the site portrayed the supposed Marin County Zenith Motors showroom, where Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and the CBI team investigated the murder of a woman found stuffed inside the trunk of a car. The program showcased both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the space to spectacular effect!

With the red carpeting, extensive foliage and up-lighting, the episode really gives us an idea of what the building must have looked like back in its heyday.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for reminding me of this location! 🙂

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Howard Motor Company Building, from the “Redline” episode of The Mentalist, is located at 1285 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

June 12, 2020June 13, 2020

Mother Moo Creamery from “Big Little Lies”

Though Big Little Lies’ second season was an all-around disappointment, the biggest letdown of all was Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon’s infamous ice-cream-throwing scene – captured by paparazzi and splayed all over the internet – which never actually made it to the screen. The cut didn’t go unnoticed. Calling the lost segment “the biggest lie so far,” the Eater website opined, “The biggest mystery of season two revolves around a food fight that never happened.” Thanks to some signage visible on neighboring buildings in the paparazzi pics, I tracked down and stalked Mother Moo Creamery, the adorable Sierra Madre ice cream shop where the cone-tossing scene took place, long before the sophomore season premiered. So the disappointment over its non-airing was particularly stinging for me. Though Streep assured fans the footage would be included in the Season 2 DVD extras, that did not come to pass. Oh, BLL producers, why are you holding out on us? Regardless, I figured Mother Moo was still worthy of a post and, since restaurants are just starting to reopen, decided now was the perfect time to pen it!

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Bright, colorful, and cheery, Mother Moo Creamery is the cutest little ice cream shop you ever did see!

Pinwheels in the planter box? Come on! So adorable!

It’s like the ice cream parlor of your dreams!

And it’s even more charming inside!

The ice cream offerings at Mother Moo are plentiful. The Grim Cheaper and I opted for a scoop of the salty chocolate and it was literally the best cone of my life!

Besides the divine scoops, Mother Moo also sells gifts, candy, and other sundries.

It is not at all hard to see how the darling shop wound up onscreen, especially on a series as picturesque as Big Little Lies.

While the cone-throwing footage never made it to to the airwaves, Mother Moo Creamery – or at least the exterior of it – did! In the episode titled “Kill Me,” Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Witherspoon) and her daughter, Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton), have a terse interaction with Mary Louise Wright (Streep) outside of the parlor.

We get a better look at the jeweler next door than we do Mother Moo in the segment, though.

Fortunately, we have those paparazzi photos which largely went viral thanks to a fan named Matt who posted one on Twitter with the caption, “I am praying Reese pelts Meryl with that ice cream,” to which Reese responded, “Oh Matt! No need to pray. I got her!”

Of course, I had to do it!

Shortly before Big Little Lies’ Season 2 premiere, Reese posted an Instagram photo posing with her television daughter at the shop, so I had to emulate that, as well!

Long before Mother Moo Creamery moved in, the storefront that houses it appeared briefly as an electronics shop in the 1982 horror film Halloween III: The Season of the Witch. It is amazing how little of the space has changed in the almost forty years since the segment was lensed!

I am fairly certain the site was an electronics store in real life during that time because, thanks to fellow stalker Walter, I learned that in 1986 it also popped up in the Season 2 episode of Highway to Heaven titled “Close Encounters of the Heavenly Kind” as Jack’s Video Repair, where Harvey Milsap (Harold J. Stone) attempted to get a job.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mother Moo Creamery, from the “Kill Me” episode of Big Little Lies, is located at 17 Kersting Court in Sierra Madre. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

June 10, 2020June 8, 2020

The Deco Building from “Hollywood”

Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix series, Hollywood, is worth a watch for a slew of reasons, not the least of which is its locations. The Los Angeles featured in the 1940s-set show is nothing short of jaw-dropping! Even the seemingly mundane spots like the bank Jack Costello (David Corenswet) and his wife, Henrietta (Maude Apatow), briefly visit in episode 1 are drool-inducing! So I, of course, set out to ID it! Countless Zigzag Moderne elements were visible dotted around the striking space, leading me to do a Google search for “Art Deco,” “bank,” and “Los Angeles.” One of the first results kicked back was this L.A. Conservancy page detailing The Deco Building at 5209 Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park. I had never heard of the place, but headed right over to Google Images and was floored at what I saw – a pristine Art Deco time capsule hidden away on a busy L.A. street. Despite its stunning exterior, I had driven by countless times without even realizing it was there! I decided to promptly amend that by doing some socially-distant stalking of it just a few days later.

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The Deco Building was originally constructed as the Security-First National Bank in 1929. You can check out a photo of it from its early days here.

Designed by the Morgan, Walls and Clements architecture firm, the exterior is clad in stunning black and gold terracotta tile.

Sadly, it is one of the only black and gold Art Deco structures still standing in the city.

The Deco Building operated as a bank until 1970 and subsequently went through several different incarnations including a gold and silver wholesale dealership, a Persian rug showroom, and a cabaret/private club known as Zephyr. Following a restoration in 1999, the site was transformed into upscale office space.

Though the exterior is spectacular, it is the inside that is the real stunner.

The two-story space, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, features high ceilings, a mezzanine, gilded skylights, and intricate chandeliers. The vault, visible at the back of my photos above and below, even remains intact!

Considering its gorgeously preserved architecture, it is no surprise that the property wound up in a production like the historically-set Hollywood.

In the premiere episode, titled “Hooray for Hollywood,” Jack and Henrietta head to the bank building hoping to secure a $20,000 loan to buy a home, but they are unsuccessful.

Though brief, the scene is pivotal as the loan denial pushes Jack to agree to work as an escort at Golden Tip Gasoline, thereby setting off the series’ main storyline.

The short segment also gives us fabulous glimpses of The Deco Building’s interior and all of its grand detailing.

Hollywood is not the site’s only small-screen foray.

The Deco Building portrays the headquarters for Governor Charles Brooks’ (Richard Burgi) re-election campaign in the Season 2 episode of Lie to Me titled “Bullet Bump,” which aired in 2010.

And J (Issa Rae) has a job interview there in the Season 2 episode of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl titled “The Call,” which aired in 2013.

The Deco Building also boasts a Disney connection! A portion of the Mickey’s of Hollywood store at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios was modeled after the structure. You can check out an image of it here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Deco Building, aka the bank from the “Hooray for Hollywood” episode of Hollywood, is located at 5209 Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park.

June 8, 2020June 7, 2020

Alicia Kent’s House from “Bosch”

I’m just gonna say it – Bosch is straight-up real estate porn! There isn’t one residence that has been featured on the long-running Amazon police procedural that I wouldn’t want to live in! The striking cantilevered cliffside abode belonging to Harry (Titus Welliver), Chief Irving’s (Lance Reddick) charming Spanish dwelling, and, in the latest season, the sleek mid-century modern home of (spoiler!) victim-turned-suspect Alicia Kent (Lynn Collins). They are all perfection! One look at the latter’s massive wooden double front doors, tiered front steps, and cement siding, and I was smitten! So I set out to find it.

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A “2647” address number was visible on the curb in front of the house in the Season 6 premiere, titled “The Overlook.”

And thanks to a view of the backyard shown in episode 4, “Part of the Deal,” I knew the pad was situated in the Hollywood Hills just below the Hollywood Sign. So I started searching 2600 blocks in that area and quickly came across Alicia’s home at 2641 Lake Hollywood Drive. As it turns out, the last digit of the address was changed from a “1 “to a “7” for the Bosch shoot. Nice try, producers, but you have to wake up pretty early in the morning to fool me!

In real life, the striking property boasts 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,997 square feet of living space, an entrance atrium, floor-to-ceiling glass sliders, a media room, a fireplace, a maid’s room with a bath, a 0.43-acre lot, a large pool, a spa, and sweeping views of the Lake Hollywood Reservoir, Palos Verdes and downtown L.A. You can check out some MLS photos of the interior from when it last sold in 2010 here.

Per building permits, both the interior and exterior of the 1965 pad were extensively remodeled in 2012.

The property’s original façade is pictured in the top Google Street View image below.

Though dated, the place was pretty spectacular even then!

But today it is downright stunning!

Harry initially visits the house in “The Overlook” while performing an emergency welfare check on Alicia, the wife of a medical physicist whose murdered body has just been discovered.

The pad goes on to appear in several additional episodes of Season 6.

Bosch captured the home and all of its mid-century glory beautifully.

The place’s actual interior is also utilized on the show. As you can see in the images below as compared to the 2010 MLS photos, the inside looks quite a bit different today than it did when the property last sold.

The incredible backyard is featured on Bosch, as well, and is, in my opinion, the showpiece of the entire house.

On a stalking side-note – My friend Shaun recently started a filming locations/pop culture landmarks/historical sites blog named All About Los Angeles. I’ve long been a fan of his Instagram account and his photogenic way of showcasing the city’s many highlights. Thanks to his unique interests, he has even managed to introduce me to countless new-to-me spots, which is saying a lot considering I’ve been at this crazy hobby a long time. You can check out his new site here!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Alicia Kent’s house from Bosch is located at 2641 Lake Hollywood Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

June 5, 2020June 26, 2020

Dan and Betty’s House from “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story”

No true crime case has fascinated me quite as deeply as the murder of prominent La Jolla attorney Dan Broderick and his wife/former mistress, Linda Kolkena. The intrigue is odd considering we know who the killer is (Dan’s first wife, Betty, confessed immediately following the slayings), we know the why (she could not get over the affair, the divorce settlement or the fact that Dan had moved on), and we know the how (on numerous occasions Betty has detailed sneaking into Dan and Linda’s Hillcrest home on November 5th, 1989 and shooting the couple dead). There’s really no mystery here. Yet, I.am.engrossed. So is much of the world. There have been myriad books and articles written on the subject, television interviews broadcast (including several with Betty conducted from prison), and a two-part made-for-TV movie starring Meredith Baxter that aired in 1992. But the public can’t seem to get enough. So it is no surprise that the USA Network decided to dedicate the second season of its Dirty John series to the case, with Amanda Peet and Christian Slater at the helm. Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story hit the small screen this past Tuesday. My interest was piqued long before that, though. In fact, I started tracking down the show’s locations as soon as the first trailer was released! The spot that most interested me, of course, was the home where Dan and Betty lived before their relationship went bad, which turned out to be a snap to find.

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In the first Sneak Peek of the series, which was released in early May, a young Dan and Betty are shown removing a “For Sale” sign from the yard of their new house. An address number of “19854” was clearly visible on the front of the property in the scene and, thanks to its early-80s tract look, I figured it could most likely be found in the San Fernando Valley. So, armed with that information, I headed over to Google and fairly quickly IDed the place as 19854 Dina Place in Chatsworth.

I ran out to stalk it – from an appropriate social distance, of course – shortly thereafter. I call the picture below “Stalking in the time of the Coronavirus.” Winking smile

Betty Broderick’s story is a tale as old as time. Wife works to put husband through school (in Dan’s case, medical and law school) while managing the household and caring for the children. Husband finally starts making money, opens up own practice, buys a house, and a new sports car. Not long after, husband begins affair with young secretary (in Dan’s case, his 21-year-old legal assistant, whom he hired even though she couldn’t type). Husband leaves wife for secretary, files for divorce, and things get ugly. Extremely ugly. At the center of Dan and Betty’s divorce proceedings was their longtime family home, which they both referred to as the “Coral Reef house.”

The actual Coral Reef house (pictured in the top Google Street View image below) is located at 5555 Coral Reef Avenue in La Jolla. Dan and Betty purchased the 5-bedroom, 3-bath, 3,000-square-foot pad, which you can see interior photos of here, in 1976 after their rental in nearby Clairemont was damaged in a fire. Per a 1989 San Diego Reader article, Dan was just on the cusp of hitting it big financially. Author Jeannette DeWyze states, “Betty said they moved there with virtually no furniture, and even after her third child, a son, was born in 1976, she continued to work nights as a cashier and hostess at the Black Angus restaurant in Kearny Mesa. According to her, the family only became ‘solvent’ around 1979. ‘I can remember because we built a swimming pool in the back yard. And that’s a luxury, right? We financed it onto the house, so it wasn’t like we paid cash for it or anything, but we were able to increase the house payment a little. So, in my mind, that’s when he had some money.'” When a cracked slab was discovered at the property in the fall of 1984, the family moved out and into a rental nearby so that repairs could be performed. Dan left Betty the following spring, moving back in Coral Reef alone for a time and then into a handsome dwelling in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood. On February 4th, 1986, he sold their longtime home out from under Betty via a legal loophole (granted she had been trying to stall and hamper the process for months), and when she found out, she was so furious she proceeded to drive a car into his Hillcrest residence! Like I said, things got extremely ugly. As you can see below, Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story location managers really strove to find a house for the series that closely resembled the real thing, which I couldn’t appreciate more.

The peaked red-tile roof, three-car garage, double front doors, stepped front walkway, and Spanish style of Dan and Betty’s actual former home are all a direct match to those of its TV counterpart, as you can see in the MLS photo of Coral Reef as compared to the image of the house used on the series below!

Not only that, but the TV pad still has a very ‘80s feel, despite being 2020, so producers must have been elated to find it!

In real life, the 1976 home boasts 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, 3,989 square feet, a 0.41-acre lot, a pool, a jacuzzi, and a tennis court.

I had to laugh at the Ferrari parked out front being that Dan bought the same kind of sports car shortly before leaving Betty – both on the series and in real life. His was red, but still. Life imitating art imitating life, I guess.

The property’s backyard is also being featured on the series.

The inside of Dan and Betty’s residence was, I believe, just a set – one closely based upon that of 19854 Dina Place. And though I could not find interior photos of the home with which to verify that hunch . . .

. . . an Instagram follower named mz._royale informed me that the very same property appeared in another true crime anthology series based in San Diego! In 2018, it popped up as the supposed Rancho Bernardo home where Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) grew up in the “Creator/Destroyer” episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.

I was thrilled to discover while watching that the home’s actual interior also appeared in the episode!

Though it is similar in layout and design to the inside of Dan and Betty’s house, as you can see above and below, the two are not one and the same, making me all the more certain that filming of Dirty John took place on a set.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Dan and Betty Broderick’s house from Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story is located at 19854 Dina Place in Chatsworth. The couple’s real-life former residence can be found at 5555 Coral Reef Avenue in La Jolla.

June 3, 2020June 4, 2020

Jack’s Apartment from “Hollywood”

I’ve always considered myself extremely knowledgeable when it comes to historic Los Angeles locales. But Ryan Murphy’s latest series, Hollywood, absolutely schooled me on the subject, introducing me to countless architectural marvels and notable spots from decades past. The site that fixated me most was the stunning apartment building where show-biz hopeful Jack Castello (David Corenswet) lived with his wife, Henrietta (Maude Apatow). One look at the coffered ceilings, carved columns, and elaborate stuccowork had me wondering aloud, “Is that place real?” I promptly set out to find the answer to that query and am happy to report back that it is!

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An address number of “1737” was visible on the exterior of Jack’s building in the first episode, “Hurray for Hollywood.” I had a strong hunch the property could be found in Tinseltown, so I did a Google search for “1737,” “apartment building,” and “Hollywood,” and the first result kicked back was for La Leyenda, a historic complex situated at 1737 Whitley Avenue. One look at Street View imagery of the property told me it was the right spot. (As you can see below, a neon sign was also visible in the episode, but, for the life of me, I could not make out what it said, which turned out to be a good thing as the piece was just set dressing put in place solely for the shoot.)

La Leyenda, Spanish for “The Legend,” was designed in 1927 by Leland A. Bryant, the prolific architect who also gifted Los Angeles with the Sunset Tower Hotel, Granville Towers, Harper House, Romanesque Villa Apartments, and Afton Arms.

Initially boasting 59 units, the 6-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure is chock-full of ornate detailing including Churrigueresque carvings, wrought iron doors, and the prettiest fire escape I ever did see!

It is stunning!

Those lampposts!

La Leyenda even seems to make rainbows spontaneously appear!

The locale’s carved stucco exterior reminds me quite a bit of The Shelley, aka the Seinfeld apartment building.

During the heyday of Hollywood, such stars as Mary Astor, Bing Crosby, El Brendel, Marie Prevost, Johnny Weissmuller, and Hal LeSueur resided on the premises. In more recent years, Flea and Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers called the place home.

Today, the building, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #817, boasts 66 apartments, a gym, a laundry room, a large garden complete with a fountain, what one listing describes as “movie star closets” (I don’t know what a movie star closet is, but it definitely sounds like something I want!), and the most gorgeous lobby I’ve ever seen!

As soon as I saw Jack walk across the grand space in Hollywood’s first episode, I was smitten! What I wouldn’t give to see that lobby in person! I seriously need to befriend someone who lives there!

Thankfully, the building’s exterior is just as stunning! Surprisingly, it is only shown once on the series, when Henrietta returns home from a day at work to find Jack cooking her dinner in Hollywood’s premiere episode.

Jack and Henrietta’s apartment interior was, I believe, just a set, though one modeled closely upon actual La Leyenda units, one of which you can see photos of here. I am obsessed with all of the vintage tile and built-ins!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: La Leyenda, aka Jack’s apartment from Hollywood, is located at 1737 Whitley Avenue in Hollywood.