Category: Movie Locations

Falken’s Cabin from "WarGames"

So I realize I am like one of maybe ten holdouts left in the world, but I still have an AOL account. I know, I know – 1995 called, it wants its email address back. I think I’m finally ready to give it up, though, because the search function straight. up. SUCKS. Formerly, it was great – I could type in a key word I knew had been written in a particular correspondence and up would pop the exact email I was looking for. I used to utilize it regularly when writing my posts. I can’t always remember the exact process behind every location search (how I came to start looking for a place, how I figured out a certain detail, etc.), so in the past I would look back through old emails sent to various sources (like Mike, from MovieShotsLA, or Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog) to refresh my memory. And AOL always came through! Now that is no longer the case. Upon waking up last Sunday, the Grim Cheaper announced that he wanted to go to Big Bear Lake for a couple of days to play in the snow. So we literally tossed a few items of clothing into a bag and headed right up the mountain. It was such a last minute trip that I didn’t even remember to bring my good camera – or my stalking notebook. It wasn’t until we checked into our hotel that I remembered WarGames had been filmed in the area. Early last year, Owen and I tracked down the cabin where Falken (John Wood) lived in the 1983 movie, but unfortunately I did not have my notes on hand to check the address. Countless emails had gone back and forth between us during our search, though, so I promptly logged into AOL and started looking for those messages. I never found a one! By hour two of the fruitless hunt, I was ready to throw the GC’s laptop right out the window. Fortunately, Owen had his notes handy and texted me the location so that I could stalk the place while I was in town. Big thanks to you, buddy, for saving the day!

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Falken’s cabin was only featured briefly towards the end of WarGames, in the scene in which teenage hacker David (Matthew Broderick) and his friend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) met with the reclusive scientist to ask for help in stopping a dangerous computer simulation that David unwittingly started.

I got the itch to track down the cabin last March while writing my Top 10 Totally Awesome 80s Movie Locations in Los Angeles article for Discover L.A., in which I wrote about the Hancock Park residence that stood in for David’s home in the flick. In WarGames, Falken is said to live on an island in Oregon, but it has long been common knowledge amongst stalkers that the scenes involving his wood-shingled house were lensed at Big Bear Lake, a mountain town located about one hundred miles east of L.A. Outside of that, though, information on the locale was pretty scant. I decided to do some digging and stumbled upon this 2005 message board thread in which a commenter named “jb4lcm” stated that the cabin could be found in the Pleasure Point neighborhood. So I started searching the area via aerial views and eventually came across a spot that I was 99% certain was the right place. Upon further scouring, I dug up this image titled “WarGames Cabin Big Bear,” as well as this one, this one and this one, which showed different angles of the home. In comparing them to the aerial view, I became 100% certain I had found the right spot.

When I switched to Google Street View, though, the imagery of that area showed an empty plot of land – and my stomach sank. Could it be that the WarGames cabin had been torn down? Oh, say it ain’t so! I started digging further and found a message board from 2009 in which commenter “Around the Lake” stated that he had heard there were plans to demolish the home, which had originally been built in 1924, in order to make way for a new, massive 17,000-square-foot residence. As you can see in the aerial view below, there is a large house situated next door to the WarGames cabin. According to Zillow, that residence was built in 2009 and boasts 6 bedrooms, 6 baths and 5,107 square feet of living space. Not quite 17,000 square feet, but I believe it is the place that Around the Lake was referring to.

The timing of the tear down strikes me as odd. Per Historic Aerials, the WarGames cabin was not demolished until 2010, after the 2009 property had been completed. Yet, according to eppraisal.com, the cabin and its land were last sold in April 2007, well before the larger house was built.   The two residences also do not appear to be situated on the same plot, so why the cabin had to be razed is unclear. My best guess is that the owners of the 2009 property purchased two adjoining plots of land and originally planned on keeping the cabin intact, but when construction on the new house was completed, it was decided that the cabin sat too close to it, so they eventually tore it down. That is just wild speculation on my part, though.

The 2009 house is pictured below. You can also check out some interior photographs of it on Zillow.   The dwelling is inarguably pretty, but if you ask me, I’d take the WarGames cabin over it any day. That property was just simply the quintessential mountain cabin. As Owen said to me recently, “It was like something out of central casting.” It is a shame it is gone.

According to eppraisal.com, when it stood, the WarGames cabin boasted 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,992 square feet of living space, and a 1.63-acre plot of land. Today, all that remains is a tree-dotted expanse of terrain.

Oh, how I wish I could have seen it in person!

The WarGames cabin also boasted a large garage situated next to the road, which is still visible on Google Street View if you toggle back to the imagery from November 2007.

Street View imagery of that same spot circa April 2014 is pictured below.

And here’s a matching photo that I took of that same area last week. Again, what a shame!

Unfortunately, the Google Street View imagery from November 2007 does not provide very good views of the actual cabin.

According to the WarGames DVD commentary with director John Badham and screenwriters Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, no filming took place inside of the Big Bear cabin. The interior of Falken’s home was a set built at M-G-M Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) – one that utilized props and set pieces from the television series Little House on the Prairie.

UPDATE – Fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout website, recently alerted me to several other movies in which Falken’s cabin made an appearance. In the 1998 comedy The Opposite of Sex, it masked as the Canadian lodge where Dede Truitt (Christina Ricci) hid out with Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei) and Jason Bock (Johnny Galecki).

I believe the real life interior of the cabin was also used in The Opposite of Sex, but that is just a guess, so don’t quote me on that.

In the 1999 movie Rites of Passage, it portrayed the cabin belonging to the Farraday family. Please pardon the craptastic screen grabs, but I could not find the movie available for streaming anywhere online and had to make captures from a preview on YouTube.

The lodge was also featured prominently in the movie American Weapon, which, per this Big Bear Grizzly article, was filmed in 2009, but, for whatever reason, was not released until 2014. Now having seen all of the filming that took place at the home, I am even more shocked that it was torn down! If nothing else, the dwelling was a great income property and it is surprising that its owners wouldn’t have left it standing for that reason alone. As I said above, what a shame!

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for not only helping me to find this location, but for coming to my rescue by texting me the address while I was in Big Bear! And a big THANK YOU to fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout website, for informing me of the home’s many other onscreen appearances.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Falken’s cabin from WarGames was formerly located at 39224 Waterview Drive in Big Bear Lake, just southwest of the home at 39248 Waterview Drive. It has since been torn down and the site is currently vacant land.

February 8, 2016
The “Say Anything . . . ” Amphitheatre

Sorry to have been MIA the past couple of days. The Grim Cheaper surprised me on Sunday morning with a two-night trip to Big Bear to play in the snow. We had an absolute blast scurrying around in the frost and even managed to get some stalking in! I will be blogging about those locations soon, but in the meantime, on with today’s post! My recent Say Anything . . . kick is showing no signs of waning. As of late, I have been working with an awesome guy named Greg, who runs The Uncool, Cameron Crowe’s official website, to try to track down some of the 1989 movie’s unknown locales. He has proved invaluable and recently figured out that the graduation scene was lensed at Santa Monica College’s amphitheatre. I had been on the hunt for that darn amphitheatre for what seemed like eons! It was one location (of many) that constantly lingered at the back of my mind, always begging me to find it. I cannot tell you how many Google searches I did for “amphitheatre” and “Los Angeles.” I even thought I had found the right spot a few years back when I happened to walk by Blair High School in Pasadena and spotted its large outdoor theatre. Upon arriving home later that day and comparing photos I snapped to screen caps from Say Anything . . . , I realized it was not the right place. So when Greg informed me that he had found it, I was ecstatic! That happiness didn’t last long, though.

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Late last year, I recruited fellow stalker Michael, of The Golden Spoon Café and Downtown Christmas Shopping District from The Brady Bunch fame, to assist in the search for missing Say Anything . . . locations, so when I received the fabulous news from Greg regarding the amphitheatre, I immediately let Michael know. He quickly shot me an email back, though, that quelled my excitement. While doing some preliminary research on the amphitheatre, Michael discovered that the venue had been torn down. More heartbreaking still was the fact that it was only just razed in 2009! Had I only found it a few years earlier, I could have seen it in person. Despite my dismay over the demolition, I decided it was still a blog-worthy locale and recently set out to stalk where it once stood.

Thanks to a 2007 aerial view of Santa Monica College provided by Michael, I knew that the amphitheatre was formerly situated in the northeast section of the campus . . .

. . . just beyond the wall pictured below.

That area is currently a construction zone (hence the wall surrounding it), but will eventually be the site of a new student services building.

Michael also tracked down the photograph of the amphitheatre that appears below (he seriously did all of my legwork for me – thank you, Michael!), which was featured in a study of the college’s renovation performed by Christopher A. Joseph & Associates.

In Say Anything . . . , the Santa Monica College amphitheatre masked as the outdoor theatre where the supposed Seattle-area Lakewood High School graduation ceremony took place. As you can see, the venue that appeared in the scene is a direct match to the amphitheatre pictured in the image above. Oh, how I wish I had gotten to see it in person!

The amphitheatre was only featured briefly in the graduation scene and was the site of Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) famous “I’ve glimpsed our future and all I can say is ‘Go back!’” valedictorian speech.

The scene that takes place immediately following the graduation ceremony was filmed elsewhere, at a park-like location that I am as yet unsure of.

Santa Monica College was originally established in 1929 and at the time was known as Santa Monica Junior College. It was renamed Santa Monica City College in 1945 and then, in 1970, it underwent yet another name change when “City” was dropped from its title. Today, it is known simply as Santa Monica College.

The campus’ 1,500-seat amphitheatre, which was funded by the Associated Students, was built in 1967.

Besides its appearance in Say Anything . . ., the school has another show biz connection – it boasts many famous alumni, including Dustin Hoffman, James Dean, Hilary Swank, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nia Long, Laila Ali, Penn Badgley, Cam Gigandet, David Geffen, Alison Lohman, Sean Penn, Ryan Seacrest, Gloria Stuart, Buzz Aldrin, and Kristine Sutherland.

Santa Monica College is quite beautiful and, while I figured that it had to have been featured in other productions over the years, try as I might I could not find any information verifying that.

Big THANK YOU to Greg, of The Uncool website, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Michael for his instrumental help in researching it!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Santa Monica College is located at 1900 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica. The amphitheatre that appeared in Say Anything . . . was formerly located in the northeast corner of the campus, just north of the Art Complex and northeast of the Theatre Arts building, in the area denoted with a pink arrow below.

February 3, 2016
The Old Towne Orange Starbucks from “Surviving Christmas”

There’s nothing this stalker loves more than a filming location that serves coffee. When that filming location is a Starbucks? Well, I’m in hog heaven! So when I spotted an Old Towne Orange outpost of the java giant pop up in the 2004 holiday comedy Surviving Christmas, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk Iist – and was especially excited because it meant another visit to the adorable town. I have never been shy about my adoration of Old Towne Orange. I first visited the historic city back in October 2013 and it was pretty much love at first sight. The quaint district is situated around a manicured circular park and boasts dozens of adorable boutiques and restaurants housed inside of charmingly aged facades. Being there is like stepping back to a simpler time and it is not hard to see why countless movies and television shows have been filmed in the area. You can read a few of my previous Old Towne Orange posts here, here and here.

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In Surviving Christmas, millionaire advertising executive Drew Latham (Ben Affleck) faces the prospect of spending the holidays alone. In the hopes of avoiding that isolation, he returns to his hometown of Arlington Heights, Illinois and proceeds to pay the Valco family – Tom (James Gandolfini), Christine (Catherine O’Hara), Alicia (Christina Applegate), and Brian (Josh Zuckerman) – who now live in his childhood house, a cool $250,000 to spend Christmas with them. The Grim Cheaper and I only just watched the flick for the first time two years ago, but really enjoyed it and have since added it to our regular holiday movie rotation. I especially enjoyed the fact that although set in Illinois, much of it was lensed in L.A. Old Towne Orange was featured in the scene in which Drew takes his rented family Christmas shopping in what is supposedly downtown Arlington Heights.

Upon arriving in town, Tom parks the family station wagon in front of a Diedrich Coffee shop situated in the southwest corner of Old Towne’s Plaza Square. Now you’re probably saying, “Wait a minute, I thought this post was about a Starbucks!” Well, at the time that Surviving Christmas was filmed, a Diedrich outpost was housed in that spot (you can check out a photo of what it looked like here), but in late 2006 the company sold many of its stores to Starbucks. The Old Towne Orange location was one of the casualties of that sale.

Thanks to the café’s unusual exterior, I recognized it immediately from our previous visits to Orange, despite the change in ownership.

The Old Towne Orange Starbucks is housed inside of the former Orange Daily News building, a Mediterranean-style structure that was originally built around 1920. There’s actually another unique Starbucks located right across the street that is also a filming location, but I’ll save that information for a future post.

Surviving Christmas utilized the entire southwest corner of Plaza Square.

The area was dressed considerably for the shoot with manufactured snow, prop awnings and embellished façades, and therefore looks a bit different in real life than it did onscreen.

Later in the scene, Drew spots Alicia and Brian walking across the street from him and he enthusiastically rushes through traffic to greet them.

That sequence was shot just a bit north of Starbucks, in front of Laurenly Boutique, which is located at 142 North Glassell Street. Though Laurenly is one of my favorite shops in the area (I purchased an adorable thumb ring there that I wear virtually everyday), I do not have any photographs of it, so you’ll have to make due with Google Street View images for comparison.

The Old Towne Orange Diedrich Coffee also masked as Village Java in the pilot episode of Ghost Whisperer.

The real life interior of the café was also featured in the episode.

You can read a really interesting article about the filming of Surviving Christmas here written by a man who lived in the Chicago, Illinois neighborhood where the Valco house scenes were shot. He does not paint a very good picture of Ben Affleck, saying “By almost every account, he was arrogant and scornful of his adoring fans.” I was surprised by the description. I’ve met Affleck twice, once around the time that Surviving Christmas was filmed, and found him to be exceptionally affable and courteous on both occasions. (He does not look particularly happy in the below photo, but I assure you, he was friendly and kind and happily posed for pictures with all of the fans who happened to be nearby.) If the stuff about the nanny is true, then the guy is obviously a cad in his personal life, but as far as his interactions with fans go, I’ve never heard of him being anything other than vastly accommodating. (Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, has like ten photos with Ben – no joke! – and only has good things to say about him.) While researching this post, I also came across a link to a book written by Affleck’s Surviving Christmas stand-in, John Wight. The author doesn’t seem to be a very positive person (he calls Orange “a suburban shithole of a small town”) and the tome paints a very sad picture of the behind-the-scenes goings-on (apparently, the director of photography was a nightmare to work with), but I am dying to read it nonetheless, especially since the movie’s locations are talked about throughout.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Surviving Christmas shopping scene was shot in the southwest corner of Plaza Square in Old Towne Orange. Tom parks in front of the Starbucks located at 44 Plaza Square in the scene. Drew later spots Alicia and Brian while standing in front of Laurenly Boutique, located at 142 North Glassell Street.

December 18, 2015
Diane’s House from “Say Anything . . . “

I have been on a major Say Anything . . . kick lately thanks to a soon-to-be published post I recently wrote for Discover Los Angeles. While doing research for the article, I became a bit fixated on tracking down an unknown location from the 1989 romcom (one that I still have yet to find, darn it!) and in the process watched countless behind-the-scenes vignettes. Thanks to those viewings, not only did I learn an interesting fact about the movie, but I also wound up finally finding the house where Diane Court (Ione Skye) lived with her dad, James Court (John Mahoney), in the flick.

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Oddly, while Diane’s home was featured several times in Say Anything . . ., a full exterior view of it was never shown – nor were any background clues that could help aid in locating it. No street signs, no address numbers, no nothing.

But thanks to the steps leading up from the street to the front doors of the neighboring homes and the extensive amount of trees, I had a hunch that the residence was most likely located in or around the Hancock Park/Windsor Square area. Other than that small inkling, though, with this one I was at a loss. Until a couple of weeks ago, that is.

The most famous scene from Say Anything . . . is easily the iconic boom box scene in which lovelorn Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) stands outside of Diane’s window with a large boom box playing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” held high atop his head. Oddly, the segment was not lensed near Diane’s house, or any house at all, but on a tree-lined stretch of North Hollywood Park, which I blogged about back in August 2012. I had never heard any sort of explanation for the weird location choice until watching “An Iconic Film Revisited: Say Anything . . . 20 Years Later,” a special feature included on the Say Anything . . . (20th Anniversary Edition) Blu-ray DVD. In it, director Cameron Crowe mentions that the boom box segment had actually been shot several different ways in the street in front of Diane’s house, but that none of the takes had really worked for him. Then, on the last day of filming, while shooting the movie’s other iconic scene, in which Lloyd brushes glass out of Diane’s path at a 7-Eleven, cinematographer László Kovács noticed that there was a park across the street that might be perfect for the boom box segment. With only a few minutes of daylight remaining, cast and crew rushed over to the spot that Kovács had selected and re-shot the scene. Cameron loved the way it turned out and that was the footage that made it into the final cut. So there you have it – the reasoning behind the boom box scene’s unconventional locale.

While Crowe was talking about the scene in “An Iconic Film Revisited,” some footage of the original takes were shown.

I was absolutely floored when I noticed that a “135” address number was visible on the curb in front of the house located across the street from Diane’s in the footage. So with that address number in hand, I began searching all of the 100 blocks of Hancock Park using Google Street View and, sure enough, found the place almost immediately.

In real life, the residence, which was built in 1913, features 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,867 square feet of living space, 3 fire places, leaded glass windows, countless built-ins, a separate in-law unit, and 0.23 acres of land.

Though said to be located in Seattle, Washington in Say Anything . . . , in actuality the home can be found right where I thought it would be, on a tree-lined street in Windsor Square.

The residence’s front walkway is the only real portion of the exterior that made it onto the screen in Say Anything . . .

The walkway was featured in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Lloyd drops Diane off after attending the graduation party together.

The home’s front porch was originally intended to appear in a scene, as well, but it wound up on the cutting room floor. In the scene, which is included along with several other deleted/alternate/extended scenes on the Say Anything . . . (20th Anniversary Edition) Blu-ray DVD, Lloyd goes outside to smoke while at a dinner party at Diane’s house.

While doing research for this post, I came across a real estate listing for the home and was floored to see that the real life interior of it was also used in Say Anything . . .

Though there have been some changes (which is to be expected, being that filming took place 26 years ago), much of the abode still looks the same today as it did onscreen! As you can see below, the dining room is a direct match to what was shown in Say Anything . . .

As is the kitchen . . .

. . . living room . . .

. . . and stairs.

I absolutely love that little details, like the ceiling trim, have also remained unchanged.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Diane’s house from Say Anything . . . is located at 140 South Norton Avenue in Windsor Square.

December 11, 2015
Westfield Culver City from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”

Some filming locations are maddeningly elusive. One that remained a thorn in my side for ages was the mall where Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Lynne Stone (Helen Hunt) shopped in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which, for those who haven’t been paying attention over the years, is one of my all-time favorite movies. Thanks to some help from my friends Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Michael, of The Brady Bunch’s Golden Spoon fame, I was finally able to stalk the place this past August. As it turns out, the Girls Just Want to Have Fun Mall is none other than Westfield Culver City, aka the former Fox Hills Mall. The road to finding it was quite a long one, though.

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Westfield Culver City was originally established as the Fox Hills Mall in 1975. The complex, which was designed by the Gruen Associates architecture firm, was Los Angeles’ first tri-level indoor shopping center. The site has undergone several name changes and remodels over the years and currently looks a bit different than it did during the Girls Just Want to Have Fun days, though some recognizable elements still exist. Besides its many appearances on the silver screen, the mall boasts another claim to fame – it was at Fox Hills that Gary Coleman famously worked as a security guard in the ‘90s.

In Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Janey and Lynne are shown hanging out in what is a supposed Chicago-area shopping mall. While there, they happen upon the DTV cast doing an autograph signing;

they act goofy by riding an escalator the wrong way;

and they run into Maggie Malene (Shannen Doherty) and Drew Boreman (Jonathan Silverman), who is getting fitted for a tux.

Maggie happens to mention that Drew is renting the tux for Natalie Sands’ (Holly Gagnier) debutante ball which is taking place later that evening. (I blogged about the ball scene location here.) Since Janey and Lynne are seeking revenge on Natalie for numerous past wrongs, they decide to steal Drew’s invitation and make copies of it at the mall’s Big Red Q Quickprint Centers, which they then proceed to pass out to various miscreants on Melrose Avenue.

Back in April, I sent some screen captures of the Girls Just Want to Have Fun mall scene to Owen to see if the complex looked familiar to him. It didn’t, but he kindly decided to help with my quest. He scoured Google images of Los Angeles-area shopping centers and while looking at photos of Westfield Culver City, spotted some elements that matched what appeared in my screen grabs, most notably the escalators. He then did a search to see if anything had been filmed at the mall during the same time period as GJWTHF and saw on Chas’ It’sFilmedThere site that The Boys Next Door had been shot on the premises the very same year! In one of the screen caps featured on Chas’ site (pictured below), he noticed the same diagonal red-striped flooring that was visible in GJWTHF and was pretty sure he had nailed the right spot. As always, we wanted further proof, though. (The huge red staircase visible in the screen capture below was a focal point of Fox Hills’ original design. The shiny glass-and-steel structure rose from the mall’s bottom level to the top. Sadly, it was removed during Westfield’s latest remodel in 2009.)

At around that same time, Michael had tracked down a mall that appeared in an episode of The Brady Bunch. He mentioned his hunt to me and how he had utilized a Shopping Mall Directory from the ‘70s that he found in his local library during his search. While watching the GJWTHF scene, I had identified the signage of three stores in the background – Advance Cutlery, Contempo Casuals and Thom McAn. I asked Michael if he wouldn’t mind looking at an ‘80s version of the directory to see which L.A.-area malls housed those three stores. A couple of days later, he came back to me with an answer – Fox Hills was the only mall with a listing for all three! Eureka! (Though Big Red Q Quickprint Centers is, in fact, a real company, Michael could not find a listing for one at any L.A. mall, so we believe that its appearance in GJWTHF was a matter of product placement.)

Not only did Michael search the directory for me, though, but he also went above and beyond in further determining that Fox Hills was the correct spot. Because The Boys Next Door was lensed the same year as Girls Just Want to Have Fun, he thought a viewing of it might provide further ratification. And it did! Michael rented the flick via Amazon and was able to confirm with 100% certainty that Fox Hills was indeed the GJWTHF mall. At the end of The Boys Next Door, Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield) and Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen) are chased into Fox Hills by the police. During the chase, they pass by a Gingiss store. Anyone who lived through the ‘80s and ‘90s is familiar with Gingiss. Growing up, it was THE place to rent tuxes come prom season. It has since been sold to May Department Stores and is no longer a mall staple, though. Michael recognized the Gingiss storefront from The Boys Next Door as being the same formalwear shop featured in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. As he explained, “The weird floor stripe runs into the shop in the same part of the entrance as GJWHF. The store carpet is the same color, and there’s a similar riser in the window. And, there’s even the same(!) bright red tuxedo jacket in the corner of the window and metal light on the other corner of the riser.”

Michael then did a Google search for “Gingiss Formalwear” and came across the company’s logo and made another connection. As he said, “You’ll recognize their stylized ‘I’ from the back wall in GJWHF.” You can check out an old image of a Gingiss store in Florida here in which that same large man-shaped-like-an-I placard is visible on the back wall.

As if that wasn’t enough, Michael kept digging and found further proof! In another email, he stated, ”Since that just about confirms it, it’s probably not necessary to point out the other similarities: the structural poles, shiny metal mirror-like paneling all over the mall (as seen in the first few seconds of the GJWHF clip). And I think you might even be able to see a little bit of the huge red staircase in the GJWHF clip as they’re running into the Quickprint.”

Because I desperately wanted a photo in front of the escalators that SJP and Helen Hunt rode in the movie, Michael did some further investigating. Like I said, he went above and beyond! While watching The Boys Next Door, he was able to determine that a Round Table Pizza . . .

. . . and Regal Shoes were located near Gingiss. More on them in a minute.

Through my own investigations, I discovered that the movie Nightmares had also done some filming at Fox Hills. The 1983 flick is actually an anthology of four different horror stories. The segment shot at Fox Hills is named “Bishop of Battle” and stars Emilio Estevez as video game-obsessed teen J.J. Cooney.

Most of “Bishop of Battle” takes place at the SEGA Center (later renamed Time-Out), an actual arcade that used to be located inside of Fox Hills Mall. Though Nightmares is not available to stream online or for purchase anywhere, segments of it pop up on YouTube regularly. While they are taken down almost just as quickly as they appear, Michael was able to watch several clips of it and piece together where the arcade was formerly located.

Thanks to its diagonal layout and proximity to a ramp leading to a parking area, Michael determined that the storefront now houses Fast Fix Jewelry and Watch Repairs.

Fast Fix is located on the mall’s second level, next door to JCPenny.

I am unsure if the interior of the Nightmares arcade was a set or if scenes were actually filmed inside of the SEGA Center.

In some other (much less clear) Nightmares clips, Michael spotted the same area from GJWHF pop up. He then compared the layout of storefronts shown in Nightmares to a current map of Westfield Culver City and was able to figure out not only where the escalator from GJWTHF is, but also the Gingiss store! As he pointed out in an email, “It looks like Regal Shoes was on a corner.”

He explained further, “It’s hard to say looking at the current-day mall map because it’s hard to visualize the escalator placement, but it seems like Gingiss may have been down near JCPenney. With Regal Shoes being where Zales Jewelers is now (with the distinctive corner), and Gingiss where Love D is. And Qdoba having been Round Table Pizza. You’ll probably be able to figure things out better in person, but at least it’s something to start with.” As it turned out, it was not just something to start with, but was actually spot on!

The Gingiss storefront from Girls Just Want to Have Fun does indeed currently house Love D.

The shop sells affordable shoes, handbags and other accessories.

I honestly could NOT have been more excited to be there!

In The Boys Next Door, a back corridor entrance was visible just to the right of Gingiss. That entrance, now closed off with a door, is still there to this day! You can just barely see it on the very right-hand side of my photo below.

And, as Michael pointed out, the chain of round ceiling lights visible in the corridor outside of Gingiss in GJWTHF are a direct match to the lights that are there now.

The escalators from GJWTHF are located just outside of Love D and lead up to the second level entrance to JCPenney.

I tried to get a matching shot of the escalators from the angle that appeared in the movie, but the kiosk that is now situated outside of Love D blocked my view.

As you can see, though, the shape of the bottom of the escalators and the raised circular markings that run down the center connector match what appeared onscreen.

While it appears that some sort of sunken sitting area was situated behind the escalators in 1985, that is no longer the case.

Today, there is now an indoor playground in that area.

As I mentioned above, Fox Hills/Westfield Culver City has appeared onscreen countless times over the years. In 1977, Carrie Fisher did a promotional interview for Star Wars at the SEGA Center, though very little of the arcade was shown.

You can watch a clip of the interview by clicking below.

Fox Hills was also featured in a fabulously cheesy 1978 commercial for Kinney Shoes starring Ken Berry.

You can watch that ad by clicking below.

In 1983, Fox Hills popped up in the Season 1 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “The ACM Kid” as the mall where Mrs. Amanda King (Kate Jackson) takes Aleksei Kalnikov (Meeno Peluce).

Though Aleksei plays in an arcade in the episode, that arcade does not appear to be the SEGA Center. I have a hunch that Fox Hills was used in establishing shots in “The ACM Kid,” but that all actual filming took place on a set.

Thanks to the 80s Film Locations site, I learned that the 1986 movie Thrashin’ was shot in the Fox Hills parking garage.

The round ramp that the kids skate down in the flick is located in the south east section of the mall property, just southwest of where Fox Hills Drive intersects with Hannum Avenue.

In 1991’s Point Break, the Ex-Presidents lead Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) and Pappas (Gary Busey) on a car chase through the Fox Hills parking lot.

In the scene, the cars enter the mall property via Slauson Avenue, just east of where it intersects with Sepulveda Boulevard.

In the Season 2 episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia titled “Charlie Gets Crippled,” Westfield Culver City is where Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton) pretend to have polio.

As you can see below, at the time that the episode was shot in 2006, the diagonal brickwork flooring that was visible in Girls Just Want to Have Fun was still intact.

The final scene of the 2007 comedy Superbad was also lensed at Westfield Culver City.

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) meet up with Becca (Martha MacIsaac) and Jules (Emma Stone) on the mall’s second floor, in front of the escalators near Foreign Exchange and AT&T Spring Mobile.

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

Big, HUGE THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Michael for tracking down this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Westfield Culver City, aka the former Fox Hills Mall from Girls Just Want to Have Fun, is located at 6000 Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City. You can visit the mall’s official website here.

November 24, 2015
The Sadr City Date Factory from “American Sniper”

As I sat down to figure out what to write about for today’s post, I started getting worried that my location backlog was running low. That worry was quickly amended as soon as I began perusing my inventory of stalking photographs and saw that was not the case at all. I have so many locales stock-piled, in fact, that it is almost ridiculous! One such spot that I visited last February, but somehow failed to do a post on is the abandoned El Centro warehouse that masked as an Iraqi factory in the 2014 drama American Sniper.

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The warehouse was featured towards the end of American Sniper, during Chris Kyle’s (Bradley Cooper) fourth tour of duty in Sadr City. I became fascinated by the location due to both the fact that it is abandoned (obviously!) and because cast and crew ventured all the way out to El Centro, an Imperial Valley city situated about 110 miles east of San Diego and a good 200 miles outside of the Thirty Mile Zone, to shoot there. Most of the American Sniper war sequences were lensed on location in Morocco and on outdoor sets at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in Santa Clarita. But I guess, for the “Tour Four” scenes, nothing matched the war-torn landscape of Sadr City better than a sleepy stretch of El Centro. (The screen capture pictured below shows the northern side of the warehouse, an area that is, unfortunately, not accessible to the public. My photograph is of the building’s eastern and southern sides.)

I could find virtually no information online about the warehouse’s history, but according to the American Sniper production notes, the structure is a former milk processing plant that set designers transformed into an abandoned date factory for the shoot.

As you can see below, the building looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, though the surrounding area was changed significantly via CGI.

I found it fascinating to compare the aerial view of the warehouse shown in the movie to a real life aerial view.

It is on the rooftop of the warehouse that Kyle makes his “impossible” 2,100-yard shot that takes out an enemy sniper in the movie.

I believe the real life interior of the warehouse was also utilized in the filming.

With its dilapidated exterior and surrounding dirt roads, it is not hard to see how the building came to be used in American Sniper.

I found the structure to be eerily beautiful.

I literally could have spent the entire day taking photos of it.

The cracked, rusted detailing was mesmerizing.

The building located immediately northwest of the warehouse also made an appearance in American Sniper.

That property is fabulously dilapidated, as well.

And, thanks to Dr. Andreas Stavridis, the Asst. Professor of Engineering at the University of Buffalo, the site is actually even more run-down today than it was when American Sniper was shot.

The two-story brick and concrete building was originally constructed in the 1920s and, over time, served as both a grocery warehouse and a cabinet store. The property suffered severe damaged during the Mexicali earthquake in 2010 and was subsequently set to be demolished, until Stavridis stepped in. Shortly after the earthquake, the engineer, who was then in the process of getting both his Masters and PhD at UC San Diego (my alma mater), approached the building’s owner and asked if he could conduct an experiment there. The undertaking took four years to set in motion, but finally, in late 2014, several months after American Sniper had shot on the premises, Stavridis and team staged a fake earthquake on the structure’s second floor using a tool called a “shaker.” The effects were then studied to determine the best way to retrofit similar concrete and brick properties in order to make them more quake resistant. You can watch a fascinating video about the experiment here.

It was Stavridis’ testing that caused most of the building’s large gaping holes. According to the article, the experiment only damaged the second floor, which the owner is planning to remove before restoring the bottom level and re-opening it as a business.

I must say, though, that the building fits in with the neighborhood in its current state. The entire area looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland – and I mean that in the best way possible.

There is even a graffitied train car, seemingly frozen in time, situated on the tracks that run adjacent to the buildings.

The rooftop of the building located immediately south of the warehouse was also featured in American Sniper. Although very little of the structure is visible in the movie, the triangular crenellation on the corners of the roofline are very recognizable from their onscreen appearance.

You can watch some behind-the-scenes footage of the American Sniper scene being shot below.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The American Sniper Sadr City date factory is located at the western end of the 300 block of Broadway Street in El Centro.

November 18, 2015
The “Ghost Dad” House

Long before I ever moved to Southern California, I purchased the Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book and was absolutely mesmerized by what I found inside. One whole chapter of the tome is dedicated to filming locations in Pasadena and its environs and when my family and I did relocate to the Crown City in 2000, my mom and I spent many of our first days there driving around visiting locales mentioned in the book. We had such a blast doing so and found that stalking was a great way to explore our new hometown. One of those early stalks was of the home belonging to the Hopper family – dad Elliot (Bill Cosby) and his children, Diane (Kimberly Russell), Danny (Salim Grant), and Amanda (Brooke Fontaine) – in the 1990 comedy Ghost Dad. The photos I took of the place were of the old school, 35mm variety, though, so figuring that the residence would be perfect for my Haunted Hollywood postings, I recently added it to my re-stalk list. As fate would have it, I had to drive my mom out to a doctor appointment in Pasadena last week, so we swung by the Ghost Dad house afterwards and also did some other stalking in the area. It was just like old times.

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In Ghost Dad, which was directed by Sidney Poitier (!), the Hoppers supposedly live in Seattle, Washington. Aside from a few establishing shots of the city skyline, though, the movie was shot in its entirety in Los Angeles. It is not very hard to see how the home pictured below came to be used in the film, as it does have a very Pacific Northwest feel to it.

In real life, the house, which was built in 1908, boasts four bedrooms, two baths, 2,306 square feet of living space, and a 0.18-acre lot.

The picturesque residence looks very much the same today as it did when Ghost Dad was shot 25 years ago.

The home, which was pretty much the main location used in Ghost Dad, was featured countless times throughout the movie.

I originally thought that the actual interior of the dwelling was utilized in the movie, but now I am not so sure.

From the way the scene below was shot, it would seem that the real interior was used.

But the shaping and placement of the windows shown in some interior scenes does not seem to match the windows at the actual home. And unfortunately, I could not find any photos of the inside of the house, so I cannot say for certain either way.

As was depicted onscreen, the dwelling belonging to Joan (Denise Nicholas) in Ghost Dad can be found directly next door.

That property also has a very Pacific Northwest feel to it and reminds me quite a bit of the house where Jessica (Gaby Hoffman) lived in Sleepless in Seattle.

The Ghost Dad houses are located on Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena, one of L.A.’s most oft-filmed streets.

Several other residences on Bushnell have been featured prominently onscreen in productions such as thirtysomething, Back to the Future, Old School and Teen Wolf. The addresses of those homes are listed in the “Stalk It” section below.

I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a fabulously spooky holiday!

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

Big THANK YOU to my mom, my original stalking partner-in-crime, for stalking this one with me!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Hopper family home from Ghost Dad is located at 1621 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Joan’s house from the movie is located next door at 1615 Bushnell. The Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School can be found just a few doors down at 1803 Bushnell. The property located at 1727 Bushnell was used as both Scott Howard’s (Michael J. Fox) house in Teen Wolf and Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) 1955 home in Back to the Future. George McFly’s (Crispin Glover) 1955 home from Back to the Future is located at 1711 Bushnell, while Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809. And at 1710 Bushnell is the property that was featured as the Steadman house in the television series thirtysomething.

October 30, 2015
Chateau Bradbury Estate from “The Craft”

I am devastated that the month of October is almost over! It seemed to come and go so fast this year! But I do have to say that I am really excited for Halloween (T minus two days and counting!), even though the end of October is always bittersweet for me. Especially since I have so many Haunted Hollywood locales left over in my stalking backlog. I always tend to overdo things when it comes to those particular posts. I currently have a “stalkpile” of over fifty (!) spooky locations and only two days left to blog about them. Yet I know that won’t stop me from over-stalking Haunted Hollywood locales again next year. It’s a habit I can’t shake. One spot that I stalked last October, but never got around to blogging about is a massive residence known as the Chateau Bradbury Estate that has appeared in countless productions over the years, many of them of the horror variety. Last week, while watching The Craft prior to writing my post about the El Adobe Studio Building, I was shocked to see the Chateau make an appearance. So I knew I couldn’t postpone covering it any longer.

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The Chateau Bradbury Estate was originally designed in 1912 by architect Robert David Farquhar for Minerva Polk. Minerva was the daughter of Colonel Lewis Leonard Bradbury, who established what is now the city of Bradbury when he acquired 2,750 acres of the Rancho Azusa de Duarte land grant in 1881. I had actually never heard of Bradbury, which sits nestled between Monrovia and Duarte, prior to researching this post. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. While the municipality is continually ranked one of the wealthiest in the entire nation, it is also one of the tiniest. The city (and yes, it is a city – it was incorporated in 1957) boasts only 900 residents and measures a scant two square miles. And while it does have a city hall, it lacks a post office, library, school, gas station and coffee shop. (No Starbucks? Egads!) Ironically enough (and I am guessing due to some sort of subdivision or annexation of land that occurred at some point), the Chateau Bradbury Estate is not actually situated in Bradbury, but in its neighbor to the south, Duarte.

According to Zillow, the French Normandy-style manse boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 5,625 square feet of living space, and a 2.06-acre plot of land.

The Chateau Bradbury Estate has gone through several owners over the years and for a time grew dilapidated and run-down. According to this website, local kids used to refer to the place as a haunted house. Love it! The property was purchased by a new owner in the ‘90s, who rehabilitated it and leased it out regularly as a wedding venue/special events location. Today, the site is some sort of religious space known as the Hon Los Temple. Unfortunately, virtually none of it can be seen from the street.

Not even through the front gate.

In The Craft, which premiered in 1996, Chateau Bradbury was where Nancy Downs (Fairuza Balk) got revenge on Chris Hooker (Skeet Ulrich) by hurling him out of a window while at a party.

The home’s interior was also used in the filming. You can check out some photographs of that interior here. It is pretty spectacular.

I first found out about the Chateau Bradbury Estate thanks to The Location Scout website, on which the residence’s many horror movie appearances are chronicled. Much of the filming information below I learned from The Location Scout, so a big thank you goes out to them! In the Season 1 episode of Tales from the Crypt titled “Lover Come Hack to Me,” which aired in 1989, the manse stood in for the abandoned house where Peggy (Amanda Plummer) and Charles (Stephen Shellen) took shelter after being stranded in the rain on their honeymoon.

The interior of the manse also appeared in the episode, though all of the scenes were rather darkly lit.

In the 1994 made-for-television movie Confessions of Sorority Girls, Chateau Bradbury was the home of Mrs. Masterson (Natalija Nogulich).

The property masked as Hochstatter Mental Hospital that same year in the straight-to-video Ghoulies IV.

The residence’s interior was also utilized in the flick.

In 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank, the Chateau Bradbury Estate served as the home of Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver). It is featured several times throughout the movie, most notably in the ending scene in which Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack) saves Debi’s father’s life.

The property’s interior was also utilized in the film.

In the 2000 thriller The Stray, the mansion belonged to Kate Grayson (Angie Everhart).

The interior was used in that movie, as well.

In the Season 3 episode of Bones titled “Death in the Saddle,” which aired in 2007, the mansion stood in for the Ambassadora, a country inn in Virginia that caters to people interested in “pony play fantasy.” Oddly enough, while the exterior was used in the filming . . .

. . . the establishing shot shown was of a different residence. That property, which was where Reed Standish (Christopher McDonald) lived in Dutch, can be found at 20181 Northridge Road in Chatsworth.

The interior of the Chateau Bradbury Estate also appeared in “Death in the Saddle.”

The residence masked as Cherrymount Academy for Girls in 2003’s Scream Bloody Murder.

In the 2005 television series South of Nowhere, Ashley Davies (Mandy Musgrave) lived at Chateau Bradbury.

The pad appeared as two different locations in the Season 7 episode of 24 titled “Day 7: 9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.” The front exterior . . .

. . . and the interior first popped up as the home belonging to Senator Blaine Mayer (Kurtwood Smith).

And the back of the property later appeared as a café in the episode.

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

Big THANK YOU to The Location Scout website for much of the filming information that appears in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chateau Bradbury Estate, aka the party house from The Craft, is located at 2232 California Avenue in Duarte.

October 28, 2015
The Occult Store from “The Craft”

I often receive emails from fellow stalkers who are planning trips to Los Angeles and want some help in tracking down a favorite film or television location. The emails always give me a pang of recognition. I was that stalker once upon a time. During one of my first trips to L.A., I was absolutely desperate to see the Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210. I had forgotten my trusty tour book at home, though. This was long before the days of filming location blogs and websites, so without the book I was pretty much out of luck. I knew the house was somewhere in Altadena, so my mom and I headed that way and I asked literally everyone I encountered if they could point me in the right direction. No one could, but I did finally make it to Casa Walsh that day and finally seeing it in person was worth all the work it took to get me there. Assisting fellow stalkers in similar quests is one of the reasons I started this site. So when I received an email back in May from a reader named Nathan who was desperate to track down the occult store from the 1996 horror/fantasy flick The Craft before an upcoming trip to L.A., I promised him I would help. I was having a little trouble finding the place, though, so I called upon expert stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and he wound up tracking it down within minutes. Thank you, Mike! Nathan was floored over Mike’s find and ventured over there while in town this past July. I loved hearing about his visit and how meaningful it was for him to be there. Figuring the place would be perfect for my Haunted Hollywood posts, I, too, ran out to stalk it recently.

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The occult shop from The Craft is located in Hollywood’s El Adobe Studio Building. The small Spanish-style strip mall was originally built in 1928 and, according to the You Are Here website, was designed by architects Arthur Kelly and Joe Estep.

In the book The Story of Hollywood, author Gregory Paul Williams contends that the site was the “world’s first mini-mall,” constructed on farmland owned by D.P. Baldwin. Of the evolution of the property, Williams says, “The original farmer’s stalls later became a grocery store. Baldwin created the L-shaped building around it as rental spaces for artists who worked in the movies.” That grocery store, El Adobe Market, still operates on the premises today. You can check out a 1935 image of the El Adobe Studio Building here and one from 1970 here. As you can see, not much of the complex has changed over the years.

Along with the El Adobe Market, today the center houses a pharmacy, a furniture store, and several live-work studio office spaces. You can check out some interior photos of an El Adobe office that is currently for rent here. What an incredibly cool place to work!

The occult store makes a few appearances in The Craft. It first pops up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Nancy Downs (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell), and Rochelle (Rachel True) take Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney), the new girl in school, shopping. The women return to the store several times throughout the flick.

Though the whole El Adobe Studio Building is featured in the movie, the actual storefront that served as the occult shop is located in the northwest corner of the complex.

I originally thought that the storefront was a part of the Adobe Pharmacy, which stands at the southwest corner of the El Adobe Studio Building, but Nathan ventured inside the drugstore while he was there and that does not appear to be the case. The Craft occult store seems to be a separate space. (Big THANK YOU to Nathan for the photos below!)

I am unsure if the interior of that space was used in the filming of The Craft or if the inside of the occult shop was just a set.

From the way things were shot, though, I would guess interiors were lensed in the actual space.

Unfortunately, that particular unit sits behind a locked fence which bars the interior from view, so I was unable to catch a glimpse of it. I am also unsure of what the space currently houses, but I believe it is some sort of office.

I am fairly certain, though, that if the actual interior was used that it was dressed considerably for the filming and looks quite a bit different in person. I would also guess that the stained glass window shown at the top of the stairs in the movie was a fake.

I am also fairly certain that the occult store from The Craft was based upon Panpipes Magical Marketplace located at 1641 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. The site, which was originally founded in 1961, has the distinction of being the oldest occult shop in the U.S. And it is also a filming location! Panpipes has appeared in such productions as Unsolved Mysteries, Witchboard 2, Dream On, The Rockford Files, Hardball and North Mission Road. The owners also regularly serve as consultants for television shows and movies that deal with metaphysical themes. Interestingly, Fairuza Balk spent quite a bit of time at Panpipes while researching her role for The Craft and wound up buying the place in 1995. The actress owned it through 2001, before selling it to its current owners.

The mural that Sarah and the girls walk by on their way to the occult shop in The Craft is real, though it has been changed since the movie was shot in 1996.

The mural actually appears to change regularly. As you can see below, it looked completely different when Nathan stalked the El Adobe Studio Building in July . . .

. . . than it did when I was there earlier this month.

The cast of The Craft also posed for a promotional still in front of the mural during the filming, which I was pretty floored to come across while researching this post.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Nathan for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for tracking it down!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: El Adobe Studio Building, aka the occult shop from The Craft, is located at 5201-5209 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Feliz.

October 26, 2015
The Rindge House from “The Brasher Doubloon”

There are few things the Grim Cheaper loves more than historic sites. So when we came across a massive dwelling that appeared to have a past while on our way to stalk the Beckett Residence in September 2012, we stopped to take a closer look. Figuring the place had appeared onscreen at some point, I also snapped some photos of it. I didn’t end up doing much research on the home until recently, though. As it turns out, the property is known as the Rindge House and it was built at the turn of the 20th Century for one of L.A.’s most prominent citizens.

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The Rindge House was originally constructed in 1903 for wealthy businessman Frederick Hastings Rindge. Frederick not only co-established the Union Oil Company and the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company, but his family was largely responsible for developing Malibu. (I blogged about Frederick’s daughter’s home, the Adamson House, here.)

The property was designed by Frederick L. Roehrig, the same architect who also gave us the Stimson House from House II: The Second Story, the Andrew McNally House from Kingdom Come, the Lincoln Clark House from Little Black Book, and Castle Green in Pasadena (an oft-filmed locale that I have yet to blog about).

Sadly, Frederick Rindge passed away in 1905, just two years after the manse was completed. His wife, May, continued living on the premises until she, too, passed away in 1941. After May’s death, the property was utilized for a time as both a convent and a home for women. At some point, it was reverted back to a private residence and it remains so today. You can read a more detailed history of the Rindge House on the Big Orange Landmarks blog here.

According to Zillow, the Chateauesque-style pad, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1972, boasts 15 bedrooms, 9 baths, 11,704 square feet of living space, and 1.73 acres of land.

The GC and I had a blast walking around the perimeter of the property and looking at all of its unique detailing, like the mailbox and light post pictured below.

Because of its massive size and its age, the Rindge House definitely gives off an ominous aura. The huge spider we spotted hanging out on the fence outside didn’t help to combat that image.

A man named Mike had commented on the Big Orange Landmarks post that he used to live at the Rindge House and that many productions had been shot there. I got in touch with him in the hopes that he might remember some of the productions lensed on the premises and not only did he get back to me right away, but he proved to be a vast wealth of information! As it turns out, the property has a film resume that dates back to 1947! That year, it masked as the Murdock mansion, which is said to be located “all the way out” in Pasadena, in the noir The Brasher Doubloon.

The eastern portion of the residence, as well as the front porch and doorway were featured in the film.

I am fairly certain that the interior of the Murdock mansion was a set. You can check out what the real life interior of the Rindge House looks like here.

In the Season 3 episode of Wonder Woman titled “The Man Who Could Not Die,” which aired in 1979, the Rindge House served as the residence of evil scientist Joseph Reichman (Brian Davies).

Ironically enough, though the home was said to be in Topanga Canyon in the episode, a sign with its real life name and address was shown pretty prominently in a scene. (Love the special effects below!)

The interior of the Rindge House was featured quite prominently in “The Man Who Could Not Die.”

As you can see, it is absolutely stunning inside!

The property’s large guest house was also visible in the episode.

In the 1980 CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Haunting of Harrington House,” the home masked as Harrington House, an old hotel that Polly Ames (Dominique Dunne) investigates for paranormal activity during a break from boarding school. For whatever reason, an establishing shot of the residence is never shown in the episode. Only close-ups of the porte-cochère . . .

. . . and the interior appeared onscreen.

That same year, the Rindge House was featured in another CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” In the episode, the property masqueraded as the Winterborn Public Library. Sadly, as Mike informed me, during the filming a 40-year-old stuntwoman named Odile Astie was killed while performing a stunt in which she was supposed to fall off the roof of the home onto airbags situated twenty-five feet below. Some plastic padding that Astie was wearing caught on the gutter during the sequence, though, causing her to land on the ground instead of the airbags. You can read more about the tragedy here.

The inside of the Rindge House masked as two different places in “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” It first appeared as the interior of the Winterborn Public Library.

And it was also featured as the interior of Alpheus Winterborn’s former house.

I was shocked to discover while watching that the exterior of the Winterborn home was none other than the Weller Residence, which I blogged about on Wednesday.

And I was further shocked to discover that the episode starred Keith Coogan, who is married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog!

In the 1982 comedy (and I use that term loosely) Slapstick (of Another Kind), the Rindge House was where twins Wilbur (Jerry Lewis) and Eliza Swain (Madeline Kahn) lived.

The interior of the home was also featured in the movie.

For Pat Benatar’s 1982 “Shadows of the Night” music video, both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the Rindge House were turned into a Nazi compound.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

In 1983’s Private School, the interior of the Rindge House stood in for the interior of Cherryvale Academy for Girls.

Oddly enough, two different exteriors were shown as the outside of Cherryvale Academy in the movie, neither of which was the Rindge House. The first exterior shown was that of the “Batman mansion” in Pasadena, which I blogged about here.

The other exterior shown was that of a house located at 4839 Louise Avenue in Encino. That same residence was also where Roger Azarian (Matthew Perry) lived in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “April Is the Cruelest Month.” You can read a post I wrote about it here.

The close-ups of the exterior of Cherryvale Academy were shot at the Rindge House, however.

Mike also informed me that the Rindge House appeared in another episode of CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre, but he could not remember which episode, and in the 1980 made-for-television movie Scout’s Honor, which I, unfortunately, could not find a copy of to make screen captures for this post.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike for all of the help he provided with this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Rindge House, from The Brasher Doubloon, is located at 2263 South Harvard Boulevard in the Adams-Normandie area of Los Angeles.

October 23, 2015