Category: Movie Locations

The Phillips Mansion

The Grim Cheaper always tells me that it is not about the destination, but the journey. He’s right. Getting lost can have its perks. While driving around looking for Spadra Cemetery (which I blogged about on Friday) a couple of weeks ago, we happened upon a seemingly abandoned mansion set back from the road behind a chain link fence. The site appeared to be beckoning to me, so we pulled over for a closer look.

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As it turns out, the property is known as Phillip’s Mansion and it is one of Pomona’s oldest residences. The pad was originally constructed in 1875 by a wealthy rancher named Louis Phillips, who I wrote about in my Spadra Cemetery post.

According to the The Historical Society of Pomona Valley, the three-story, eight-room estate was built in the Second Empire or “Classic Haunted Mansion” style of architecture (I didn’t even know there was such a thing, but LOVE it) at a cost of $20,000. The exterior was fashioned out fired bricks that were hand-made on the premises, while the ornate interior featured gas lighting, sixteen-foot tall ceilings, a whopping six fireplaces (!!!!), and cherry and maple woodwork. Phillips, who in 1892 the Los Angeles Times named the “richest man in Los Angeles County” with an estimated net worth of around $3 million, lived there until his death in 1900. His wife continued to reside at the mansion until she passed away in 1918. Both are buried at Spadra Cemetery. Their tombstone was, sadly, upended by vandals a few years back, the sight of which only adds to the spookiness of the graveyard.

After it was sold, Phillips Mansion was used for a variety of purposes. At one point in time, the site was turned into apartments and then it later served as a dorm for Cal Poly Pomona foreign exchange students. Over the years, the property fell into disrepair and in the ‘60s was bought by an industrialist who planned to demolish it in order to build a factory. Thankfully, the Historical Society stepped in and purchased it in 1966, rescuing it from the wrecking ball. The organization immediately set about renovating the structure with the hopes of turning it into a museum. The project took years and the museum finally opened to the public in 1978. Sadly, it has not had much luck since that point. Phillips Mansion, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, suffered severe damage in both the Upland earthquake of 1990 and the Sierra Madre earthquake of 1991. The Historical Society began to restore the wreckage in 2002 and was even hosting special theatrical productions titled “A Premature Burial” on the premises each Halloween, but then tragedy struck in July 2008 when the property was damaged yet again in the Chino Hills earthquake. The group is still currently working to repair the manse and return to its original glory.

While stalking it, I felt like I was standing in front of the Bates’ house from Psycho. The two properties look so much alike!

Supposedly, two movies, one starring Buster Keaton and the other starring Tom Mix, were shot at a barn located on the Phillips Mansion property in the 1930s. I am unsure of the names of the films, though, and, unfortunately, the barn is no longer standing.

Fellow stalker Darnell let me know that the mansion itself appeared in the 2005 horror movie Mortuary as the home where Liz (Alexandra Adi) lived.

While researching the mansion for this post, I was floored to discover that there is a dilapidated residence located directly behind it. I had not noticed the second property while I was there, which is unfortunate being that not only is it fabulously run-down, but it was also featured prominently in Mortuary. The dwelling is known as the Currier House and it was designed by architect Ferdinand Davis for local politician/philanthropist Alvin Tyler Currier in 1907. The home, which cost $12,000 to construct, was originally located about 15 miles west in the City of Industry. In 2004, after standing vacant for over a decade, the City of Industry gave the house to the Historical Society of Pomona Valley and paid to transport it to the grounds of the Phillips Mansion.

In Mortuary, the Currier House masked as the abandoned Fowler Brothers Mortuary.

I am unsure if the real life interior of the Currier House was used in the filming. Being that the interiors shown in the movie do not appear nearly as run down as the exterior of the home, I am guessing that a set was used for all inside filming. That is just a hunch, though.

Update – my friend Scott Michaels, of the FindaDeath website and Dearly Departed Tours, recently got a chance to visit both the Phillips Mansion and the Currier House and was kind enough to share the photos he took with me to add to this post.

During his tour, Scott got to see the interior of both residences. The inside of the Phillips Mansion is pictured below.

The Currier House could not be more fabulously dilapidated!

I am in love with the photo below! Scott thinks the happy face might have been left over from a filming of some sort, but he isn’t sure. Either way, it’s spectacular! Thank you, Scott, for the great pictures!

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 Phillips Mansion is located at 2640 Pomona Boulevard in Pomona. The Currier House is located directly behind it.

October 19, 2015
The Evers’ House from “The Haunted Mansion”

My Los Angeles magazine editor is on vacation this week, so I will not have a post on LAmag.com today. To make up for it, though, I’ve got a Haunted Hollywood locale for you right here! One of my favorite parts about the Halloween season is watching scary movies. (And of course stalking their locations and blogging about them.) It always shocks me how many horror flicks and thrillers there are out there that I have yet to see. One of my more recent screenings was of The Haunted Mansion, the 2003 Disney flick based on Disneyland’s popular ride of the same name. I didn’t have very high hopes for the movie, but it turned out to be really cute – and a perfect watch for this time of year. The best part? Years ago, my buddy Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me about the location of the home where the Evers family – Jim (Eddie Murphy), Sara (Marsha Thomason), Michael (Marc John Jefferies), and Megan (Aree Davis) – lived in the flick. He had tracked it down via this 2006 Pasadena Weekly article. As it turns out, not only is the pad an extremely popular filming location, but it is located very close to where I used to live. For whatever reason, I had never stalked it, though. So I finally amended that by running right on over there while I was in the area a few weeks back.

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In real life, the Colonial-Revival-style residence, which was originally built in 1925 and sits on a 0.26-acre plot of land, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and 3,234 square feet.

As you can see below, the dwelling is extremely picturesque. For some odd reason, though, the exterior rarely makes it onto the silver screen.

Such was the case with The Haunted Mansion – only the interior of the property was used in the filming. The exterior of the Evers’ house was never shown, not even in an establishing shot, which I found a bit weird. You can check out some photographs of the inside of the home here and here.

According to the Pasadena Weekly article, to accommodate the filming, the home’s then owners had to move out for two and a half weeks (the longest they had ever been displaced for a shoot), which is surprising being that the residence was only shown in a couple of brief scenes.

The haunted mansion that appeared in the movie, which was referred to as the Gracey Estate, was unfortunately just a façade that was built at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita. Only the lower part of the manse was constructed for the shoot – the top portion was added via CGI in post-production – and was subsequently torn down after filming wrapped. You can check out some photographs of the façade here and here. What I wouldn’t give to have been able to have seen it in person! (Side note – I was floored to discover while researching this post that the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland was modeled after a real home, the Shipley-Lydecker House in Baltimore, Maryland. Sadly, it no longer stands, but you can see an image of what it used to look like here. It is the spitting image of the Disneyland mansion. SO incredibly cool!)

I actually think the mansion looks quite fake in the faraway shots that appeared in the movie.

But the close-up views of it are amazing! Personally, I think they should have forgone the CGI and utilized the façade as it was.

The interior of the Gracey Estate was an elaborate set constructed at Barwick Studios where The Haunted Mansion was lensed. You can read a fabulous blog post written by a few lucky souls who were able to visit the set on the DoomBuggies website here.

According to DoomBuggies, the couch that appeared in the library scene was also used in the 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

And, according to internet lore, after filming wrapped a chair from the mansion’s dining room set was placed inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. It is said to be the chair that Jack Sparrow is sitting in at the very end of the attraction. Upon closer inspection, though, I do not believe that to be correct.

You can check out a picture of the Pirates chair here. While the two chairs are strikingly similar, there are some differences. Most notably, the movie chairs have an elevated carving of some sort located at the top, while the Pirates chair does not. Internet lore further states that one of the same chairs is also pictured in a portrait of a bride in the attic area of the Haunted Mansion ride. You can see an image of it here.

The Evers’ house was also where Michael Feller (Ken Howard) and Sydelle Feller (Candice Azzara) lived in the 2005 dramedy In Her Shoes. That movie was one of the few instances in which the exterior of the dwelling was shown.

The interior of the home made an appearance in the film, as well.

In the 2009 drama State of Play, the residence belonged to Anne Collins (Robin Wright).

And while 2007’s Spiderman 3 also did some filming on the premises, those scenes wound up on the cutting room floor.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Evers’ house from The Haunted Mansion is located at 1480 North Michigan Avenue in Pasadena.

October 15, 2015
Gramma-Jess’ House from “Poltergeist II: The Other Side”

I have never seen Poltergeist, which, considering my love of the ‘80s and all things spooky, is rather shocking. I tried to remedy the situation this past weekend, but the Grim Cheaper was having none of it, unfortunately. I did recently stalk a location from the sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, though. I had come across a post on the Then & Now Movie Locations blog about the residence used as Gramma-Jess’ (Geraldine Fitzgerald) house in the flick and became quite intrigued. Not only is the dwelling gorgeous, but it is located in Altadena, in close proximity to my old home. So I ran right out to see it in person.

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Their house having imploded in Poltergeist, the Freeling family – Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams), Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) – moves in with Diane’s mom, Gramma-Jess (Geraldine Fitzgerald), in Poltergeist II: The Other Side. Virtually all of the movie takes place at the large Craftsman-style residence, which is said to be located in Phoenix, Arizona.

Amazingly, the house looks very much the same today as it did onscreen in 1986.

Love the images below!

And LOVE that the driveway is exactly the same as it appeared onscreen!

A few areas of the home were used in the filming, including the front exterior . . .

. . . the backyard . . .

. . .and the front porch.

Interiors were filmed on a soundstage at MGM Studios in Culver City (which is now Sony Pictures Studios). According to the Poltergeist II production notes, “Preceded by months of intensive preparatory work, the production fully occupied two of the largest soundstages at MGM’s famed Culver City studio lot. On Stage 30, [production designer Ted] Haworth and his crew constructed a full-scale house, duplicating in exacting detail the real-life house selected to represent Gramma Jess’ home in the film –– inside and out.”

Because it is obvious that most of the exteriors were shot at the actual home in Altadena, I am guessing that the replica exteriors mentioned in the notes were only used for more close-up, tight shots of the outside of the residence, such as in the scene below. UPDATE – I recently spoke to David, who runs the amazing Poltergeist Fan Website, and it turns out that my hunch was correct. David informed me that the residence’s backyard and garage were re-created on a soundstage for use in a few night scenes, including the scene in which the Freelings ran out the back door of the house, through the backyard and into the garage, where they found Carol Anne hiding in the station wagon.

In real life, Gramma-Jess’ house, which was built in 1913, boasts three bedrooms, two baths, 2,766 square feet of living space, and a 0.53-acre plot of land. The property was last sold in 1973 for $18,500, which cracks me up being that Zillow now estimates its worth at around $1.5 million.

The home is absolutely gorgeous in person and I am quite surprised that it is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

While researching this post, I was floored to discover that the Poltergeist franchise is laced with behind-the-scenes mystery and intrigue. According the the television special Real Fear: The Truth Behind the Movies, the original 1982 film is said to be loosely based on supposed real life events that took place at a one-story ranch-style house belonging to the Hermann family in the Long Island suburb of Seaford. In early 1958, the Hermanns began experiencing many odd occurrences at the home. James and Lucille and their two children witnessed random objects flying across the room and furniture toppling over for no apparent reason. The disturbances only lasted about five weeks and the family attributed them to an Indian burial ground located nearby. You can read a more in-depth article about the Hermann hauntings here, though there is some contention about their connection to Poltergeist. There is also quite a bit of contention over who actually directed the first installment. While Tobe Hooper is listed on the credits, many believe that Steven Spielberg was actually at the helm. Mystery also shrouds the re-shot ending of the third movie, which no one involved in the production seems to want to discuss. And, of course, there is the so-called “Poltergeist curse,” which I talked about in my post about the house from the original film. For those who want to delve deeper into the intrigue surrounding the movies, I highly recommend checking out the Poltergeist Fan Website.

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

Big THANK YOU to the Then & Now Movie Locations blog for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Gramma- Jess’ house from Poltergeist II: The Other Side is located 1589 Homewood Drive in Altadena.

October 12, 2015
Groman Eden Mortuary from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

Never in a million years did I think that the 1991 comedy Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, one of my all-time favorite movies, would provide me with a Haunted Hollywood posting, but it did! In July 2014, a reader named Frank Vollhardt wrote a comment on my post about the DTMTBD house alerting me to the location of the mortuary featured in the flick. Because the morgue scene was rather brief, until reading his comment, I had completely forgotten about it. So thank you, Frank! I immediately added the place, Groman Eden Mortuary in Mission Hills, to my To-Stalk list, but somehow did not make it out there until just recently.

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Groman Eden Mortuary, or Eden Memorial Park as it is also known, was originally established in 1954. The 67-acre site is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the U.S.

Though the setting is quite beautiful (as far as cemeteries go), Groman Eden has reportedly been the site of some very dark deeds.

Quite a few famous souls are buried or entombed at Eden Memorial Park, including comedian Lenny Bruce, The Three Stooges’ Phil Arnold, Laverne & Shirley’s Phil Foster, Howard Caine and Jon Cedar from Hogan’s Heroes, The Knack’s Bruce Gary, and musician Fred Katz.

Legendary funnyman Groucho Marx has been entombed there since his death in 1977 – well, sort of. In a rather chilling (and absolutely bizarre) turn of events, the comedian’s ashes were stolen from the cemetery on May 12th, 1982 and then found later that same night about twelve miles away on the steps of the administration building of Mount Sinai Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. The ashes were quickly returned to Eden Memorial, where they remain today, but the culprit was never found. According to lore, scrape marks from the screw driver used to remove the ashes are still visible on the exterior of Groucho’s niche, which you can see a photograph of here. While there are noticeable marks in the lower portion of the placard bearing his name, whether they are actually from the 1982 robbery is anyone’s guess.

The columbarium where Groucho is entombed, which is pictured below, is located in the southern portion of the cemetery. You can find more precise information on where to find his niche here.

When Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate), Kenny Crandell (Keith Coogan), and their siblings discover that their babysitter, Mrs. Sturak (Eda Reiss Merin), has passed away in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, they decide to place her in a chest and drop her off at a local mortuary with a note saying, “Nice old lady inside. Died of natural causes.” As you can see below, Groman Eden Mortuary’s real name was shown in the scene.

Aside from the entrance changing from a double to a single door, the building featured in the scene looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Don’t Tell Mom was shot over 24 years ago.

The gate shown in the movie is not the cemetery’s main gate on Rinaldi Street, but the side gate located on Sepulveda Boulevard, which is pictured below.

I failed to snap a photo of the gate taken from the same angle that appeared in Don’t Tell Mom, but you can see a matching Google Street View image below.

While I would have guessed that Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’s closing scene, in which the mortuary workers (played by Robert F. Newmyer and Brian Reilly, both of whom served as producers on the movie and both of whom have, sadly, since passed away) pay their respects to the “Nice Old Lady,” also took place at Eden Memorial Park, I have it on good authority that that is not the case. According to Keith Coogan, who just so happens to be married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, that segment was shot at a park on Temescal Canyon Road, in between Sunset Boulevard and the Pacific Coast Highway, in Pacific Palisades. I have not tried to pinpoint the exact spot where the scene was lensed yet, but will do so in the near future.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Frank Vollhardt for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Groman Eden Mortuary, from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, is located at 11500 Sepulveda Boulevard in Mission Hills. The gate and building used in the filming are denoted with orange arrows in the aerial view pictured below.

October 9, 2015
Julian Café & Bakery from “Phantasm”

I am not at all a fan of the 1979 movie Phantasm, though you’d never guess it judging by the amount of posts I’ve done on its locations (you can read them here, here, here, here and here). What can I say? Crappy film, fabulous locales! Ever since I first saw the flick last year, I had been itching to visit Julian, a small census designated place located about thirty miles east of Escondido in San Diego County. Several areas of the town, namely Julian Café & Bakery, were featured in the horror classic. I had fallen in love with the charming images of the region I found online while researching Phantasm’s filming locations and was dying to see it in person. When I found out that Julian would be hosting its annual Apple Days Festival at the end of September, I knew there would be no better way to kick of the fall season than by attending – and doing a little Haunted Hollywood stalking at the same time.

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Gold was discovered in what is now Julian in the winter of 1870. A mining camp quickly grew in the region following the discovery, established on farmland belonging to a former Confederate soldier named Drury D. Bailey, and in less than a month the area boasted several tented stores and watering holes and a population numbering in the hundreds. Bailey named the site in honor of his cousin, Michael S. Julian. By 1872, the burg had become a boom town and several wooden edifices had popped up on either side of the main drag.

Those wooden structures are still there to this day and make up downtown Julian.

One such building houses Julian Café & Bakery. The edifice was originally constructed as a general store in 1872 and continued to operate as such for over fifty years.

It was transformed into a pool hall in the 1920s and then later operated as a photography studio, until 1957 when the café next door caught fire and half of the structure burned to the ground. The following year, Joe and Emma Edwards, a Julian couple, purchased the property, re-constructed it to its original form and opened it as a restaurant named The Ranchero.

In the 1970s, The Ranchero was sold to a religious restaurateur named Ron Stock who did a massive renovation of the building’s interior and re-opened it as a high-end steakhouse named His Boarding House. A stained glass window with the word “HIS” is still situated above the restaurant’s front door. You can see it in the second image below (it is meant to be read from the inside of the restaurant and is therefore backwards in my picture). His Boarding House did not last long, though, and, after closing its doors, Stock left the site vacant and moved to Montana. The property did not see life again until the early ‘80s when Mr. and Mrs. Kjell Kristiansen, who were looking for a venue change for their popular Julian Café & Bakery which was located across the street, purchased the space. Though the eatery has since been sold twice, it is still going strong today and is known for its award-winning apple pie. Sadly, the place was jam-packed when we showed up to stalk it so we did not end up eating there. I am really regretting not braving the wait now that I have seen the menu, though. Gold Rush Chicken? Yes, please!

The Grim Cheaper and I absolutely fell in love with Julian. Being there is like stepping back in time to the early 1900s. With its quaint wood-frame buildings and small-town feel, the area reminds me a lot of Reno’s Virginia City, which I blogged about here and here.

Though extremely small, there is plenty to do in Julian. The town boasts working gold mines that visitors can tour, countless wineries, apple farms galore (all of which are famous for their U-Pick orchards where guests can pluck their own apples), a myriad of annual festivals, boutiques, restaurants, galleries, a fishing lake, and hiking trails.

Julian also lays claim to Southern California’s oldest continuously operating hotel, the Julian Gold Rush Hotel Bed & Breakfast, which was originally established in the 1890s.

The town also boasts a really spooky-looking historic cemetery . . .

. . . and its original 1914 jail.

Julian is absolutely adorable and the four or five hours we spent there did not provide nearly enough time to really explore it. I am itching to go back for a full weekend. The nearby town of Wynola also looks like it begs a visit.

In Phantasm, Julian was featured as the small town where Jody (Bill Thornbury) and Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) lived. The exterior of Julian Café & Bakery masked as the exterior of Reggie’s Ice Cream, the soda shop owned by Jody’s friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister), in the film.

The building now boasts a covered overhang which obscures the front of it from view, but it is still very recognizable from its appearance in Phantasm over 35 years ago.

For the interior of Reggie’s Ice Cream, which was only seen in a deleted scene, producers used Fosselman’s Ice Cream in Alhambra, which I blogged about here.

Other areas of Julian made appearances in the film, as well. In one particularly infamous scene, Jody is shown wandering around the downtown area, in front of what is now Jack’s Grocery at 2117 Main Street, which I unfortunately did not snap any photos of.

During his meandering, he spots The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) walking across the street from him in front of two shops – the Julian Trading Company at 2104 Main Street. . .

. . . and Julian Imports at 2106 Main Street.

As The Tall Man passes in front of Reggie’s Ice Cream, he stops and, very oddly, smells the fumes coming from Reggie’s ice cream truck.

Had to do it!

In a different deleted scene, Jody is shown driving southeast on Main Street on his way to work.

He then heads into the building located at 2033 Main Street. That spot, which I also failed to take photos of, is the former site of Rabobank, Julian’s only bank, which closed its doors in May 2015.

I would have bet money on Dunes Cantina, the bar where Jody hung out in Phantasm, also being located in Julian, but that does not appear to be the case. While some online sources say that the watering hole could formerly be found at 16232 Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, I am unsure if that information is correct. Today, a stuccoed building that looks nothing like the structure featured in Phantasm stands at that site. And while I learned via some online research that an eatery named Dunes Café was formerly located at that address, the only photograph I could find of the site was taken in the 1930s and, at that time at least, it did not resemble the bar from the movie.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Julian Café & Bakery, aka the exterior of Reggie’s Ice Cream from Phantasm, is located at 2112 Main Street in Julian. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Fosselman’s Ice Cream, which was used as the interior of Reggie’s Ice Cream, can be found at 1824 West Main Street in Alhambra. You can visit the parlor’s official website here. The other Julian buildings that appeared in Phantasm are located at 2033 Main Street, 2104 Main Street, 2106 Main Street and 2117 Main Street.

October 6, 2015
The “Teen Witch” “Top That” Street Rap

There is no more iconic moment in the 1989 classic Teen Witch than the epic “Top That” street rap scene. Stalking the location where it was filmed was pretty high up on my list of things to do while I was in L.A. recently (after stalking the main house featured in the movie first, of course!), so I was floored to find the address listed on the 80s Film Locations and The Location Scout websites.

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Those who have yet to see Teen Witch (and what’s stopping you, it’s SO good), will not be familiar with the “Top That” rap off, so I highly suggest that you watch the clip below before continuing on with this post. Heck, even those who have seen Teen Witch should watch it. It’s that epic. “I’m king! And they know it! When I snap my fingers, everybody says ‘show it.’ I’m hot. And you’re not. But if you want to hang with me, I’ll give it one shot. Top that!”

In the scene, Polly (Mandy Ingber) informs her best friend, teen witch Louise Miller (Robyn Lively), that she has a crush on school clown/wannabe rapper Rhet (Noah Blake, who I just figured out played Frank “The Stank” Stanavukovic in my favorite episode of The Wonders Years, Season 5’s “Frank and Denise.”), but that she will never be hip enough to date him. Polly and Louise then randomly happen upon Rhet standing in the street rapping with two friends, causing Polly to say, “Look at how funky he is!” What’s a teen witch to do in a situation like this? Why, use her newly found magic powers to turn her BFF hip, of course, which Louise does. Polly then walks right up to Rhet and proceeds to have a legendary rap off with him.

The “Top That” scene was lensed on a tree-lined block of Virginia Avenue in Glendale. In the segment, Rhet and his friends dance in front of a car that is parked in front of the driveway of the home at 1404 Virginia Ave. As you can see in the below image as compared to the screen capture, the brick walkway of the 1404 house, as well as its windows and the windows of the neighboring property all match what appeared onscreen.

The house that Polly and Louise stop in front of to watch Rhet in the scene is located at 1400 Virginia Avenue. My photograph below was taken from the opposite angle that the camera faced in Teen Witch, but you can see that the walkway still looks very much the same today as it did 26 years ago when the movie was filmed.

Of the scene, Robyn Lively said in a 2014 BuzzFeed Entertainment interview, “I do remember that Mandy and Noah were dreading the infamous “Top That” song. They thought it was the stupidest thing ever. They hated it. In the end, they just decided to have fun with it, and, in retrospect, it’s awesome. But they were not into it, which is so funny because it turned out to be one of the most amazing and popular scenes in the whole movie.”

Had to do it!

Herbert Hoover High School, which was featured quite extensively as Louise and Polly’s high school in Teen Witch, is located just a few blocks away. We ventured by there while we were in the area, but school was getting out at the time and the place was an absolute madhouse so we didn’t stop to take any photos.

For those who missed the segment I taped about Beverly Hills, 90210 filming locations for The Daily Share on HLN yesterday, you can watch it online here.

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

Big THANK YOU to the 80s Film Locations and The Location Scout websites for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Teen Witch “Top That” street rap took place in front of the house at 1404 Virginia Avenue in Glendale. Herbert Hoover High School from the movie is located just a few blocks away at 651 Glenwood Road.

October 5, 2015
Louise’s House from “Teen Witch”

It is finally that time of year again, my favorite time of year – October! And you know what that means – it is the start of my annual Haunted Hollywood postings! What better way to kick things off than with a location from the much-loved movie Teen Witch? Somehow I only just discovered the 1989 flick, which is shocking being that I am nothing if not an ‘80s child. I wound up absolutely LOVING it, though. I mean, what’s not to love? Teen Witch, which centers around teenager Louise Miller (Robyn Lively, older sister of Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively) who finds out she has magical powers on her 16th birthday, has all of the elements that make ‘80s movies so great – just the right amount of cheesiness, a love story in which the underdog lands the cute guy, epically loud clothing, and several kickin’ musical montages. It also boasts some rad (see what I did there?) locations. After finally watching it for the first time last month, I became a bit obsessed with tracking down the large colonial-style house where Louise lived and was floored to discover the address on the the 80s Film Locations website.

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Louise’s picturesque house was used extensively throughout Teen Witch.

As you can see below, though the shutters and front door have since been painted a different color and a fence has been added to the perimeter, the residence still looks very much the same today as it did in when the movie was filmed 26 years ago.

In real life, the 1921 pad boasts 3,821 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and a 0.23-acre plot of land. You can check out some interior photographs of the place from a 2011 real estate listing here. According to the description that runs along with the images, the home has appeared in several movies, though I am unsure of which movies in particular.

I was floored to discover upon looking at the real estate photographs that the interior of the property had been used in Teen Witch. As you can see in the screen capture as compared to the MLS image below, though the kitchen has since been updated, it is still laid out in the exact same way that it was in the movie.

Another view of the kitchen.

And another.

The ornate stone fireplace in Louise’s living room also matches the home’s real life fireplace.

The built-in bookcases visible in the background of the screen capture below match the family room’s actual built-ins.

And the stairs, though now lacking paint, also match what appeared onscreen.

Popular girl Randa (Lisa Fuller) lived directly across the street from Louise in the movie, though very little of her house was ever shown.

I absolutely love that the “244” address number painted on the steps leading up to Randa’s house is still in the same spot today!

Interesting tidbit about Lisa Fuller – she wound up marrying Dan Gauthier, who played her onscreen boyfriend, Brad Powell, in Teen Witch. They met during the filming of the movie, tied the knot shortly thereafter and remain married to this day. Robyn Lively talks about the couple in an interview she did with BuzzFeed Entertainment in honor of the film’s 25th anniversary last year.

Don’t forget to tune into The Daily Share on HLN today between 10 and 10:30 a.m. PST to watch the segment I recently taped about Beverly Hills, 90210 filming locations. For those who don’t get HLN, you can also watch it here.

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

Big THANK YOU to the 80s Film Locations website for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Louise’s house from Teen Witch is located at 245 South Irving Boulevard in Windsor Square. Randa’s house is located across the street at 244 South Irving Boulevard.

October 2, 2015
The Convenience Store from “Can’t Hardly Wait”

My buddy, fellow stalker Owen of the When Write Is Wrong blog, is a huge Jennifer Love Hewitt fan. Like huge. He is also a fan of filming locations and, over the years, has managed to track down the vast majority of locales featured in his fave JLH movie, 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait. One that had eluded him for some time, though, was the convenience store where Kenny Fisher (Seth Green) shopped at the beginning of the flick. He recently got a tip from a crew member that the market was in Altadena and, after some Google Street View sleuthing, surmised that it was most likely the Ezzz Stop Food Store on Lake Avenue. He asked me to confirm his hunch by doing some recognizance of the shop’s interior the next time I was in town. I was able to stop by shortly thereafter and, sure enough, he was right!

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As luck would have it, the owner of the Ezzz Stop Food Store happened to be onsite while we were stalking the place and could not have been nicer.

Not only did he confirm that Can’t Hardly Wait had been filmed on the premises, but he also let us take all of the photographs of the place that we wanted.

In Can’t Hardly Wait, Ezzz Stop Food Store is where Kenny unveils his “love kit” to his friends, Homeboy #1 (Branden Williams) and Homeboy #2 (Robert Jayne). The owner told us that he had a blast during the filming and that all of the actors were hilarious, especially Seth Green. He loved watching them ad-lib and goof off between takes.

Most of the scene was shot on the eastern side of the store, opposite from where the cash registers are, in the area pictured below.

Though some changes have been made to the Ezzz Stop Food Store’s interior, portions of it still look exactly the same as they did onscreen, including the yellow and blue “ICE” signage pictured below.

The wood paneling that used to run above the refrigerators is also still intact . . .

. . . but has since been painted white, as you can kind of see in the photographs above and below.

The fridges themselves haven’t changed at all and even have the same white-stickered lettering pasted on them.

The super-nice owner also informed us that the shop next door, Lindsey’s Liquors, belonged to him, as well, and that it had been featured in an episode of Weeds.

I was pretty stoked upon hearing the name of the liquor store (for obvious reasons) and quickly posted a pic of it to Instagram with the caption, “I’ll consider it a personal affront if they don’t sell champagne.” Thankfully, they do.

Lindsey’s Liquors was featured in the series finale of Weeds, Season 8’s “In Time: Part I,” in the scene in which Silas (Hunter Parrish) and his wife shopped for goats milk, among other things, before heading to visit his mom, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker).

On a JLH side-note – Jerry Ferrara, one of my faves, shared a pretty amazing story about the actress recently on his Bad 4 Business podcast. It is definitely worth a listen. You can do so here.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Ezzz Food Stop, from Can’t Hardly Wait, is located at 2427 Lake Avenue in Altadena. Lindsey’s Liquors, from Weeds, is located next door at 878 East Mariposa Street.

September 21, 2015
Bob Hope Patriotic Hall from “Flashdance”

Anyone who has ever driven on the I-10 Freeway east of downtown Los Angeles has most likely noticed the A-line, red-roofed building that towers over the skyline to the south. That building is Bob Hope Patriotic Hall. I have passed by it hundreds of times and have always wanted to venture inside. A couple of weeks ago, while on our way back to the desert, the Grim Cheaper and I finally did. Though the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall website says that the property is open to the public, that is actually no longer the case. When the security guard manning the door saw my disappointment upon hearing this news, he took pity on us and allowed us to tour the lobby area. I am so thankful that he did because the space is nothing short of spectacular.

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Construction on the 85,000-square-foot building, which was originally named “Patriotic Hall,” began in 1925 and was completed in 1926. The ten-story Italian Renaissance/Romanesque-style site was designed by the Allied Architects Association and was the tallest building in Los Angeles at the time of its inception.

In late 2004, the structure, which is comprised of offices, a gymnasium, locker rooms, dining rooms, meeting spaces, ballrooms and an auditorium, was renamed Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in honor of the legendary comedian.

The property went through an extensive, $45-million, 7-year restoration process beginning in 2006 and the result is pretty darn amazing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the ornate plaster ceiling.

Sadly, we were not able to venture upstairs to the upper levels of the building, but you can check out photographs of some of those areas here.

Bob Hope Patriotic Hall has been used in hundreds of productions over the years. Most famously, it was in the building’s Nimitz Room that Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) auditioned for the Pittsburgh Dance and Repertory Company in 1983’s Flashdance.

That same room stood in for the Basil St. Mosley School of Dance in The Wedding Planner.

In 1986’s Back to School, Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) took his oral exams in another of the Patriotic Hall’s ballrooms.

The property’s lobby and a meeting room appeared in 1988’s Stand and Deliver, in the scene in which Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos) confronts the Educational Testing Service about his students’ AP Calculus test scores.

Bob Hope Patriotic Hall’s tenth-floor gym appeared in Patches O’Houlihan’s (Hank Azaria) informational video about dodgeball in the 2004 comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

And while many sources say that the iconic opening scene from Patton, in which General George S. Patton Jr. (George C. Scott) delivered his famous Speech to the Third Army, was shot in the hall’s auditorium, I do not believe that information to be correct. Because only a large American flag and portions of a curtain were shown in the background of the scene, I was fairly certain upon watching that it was shot on a set. Then while researching this post, I came across an article titled The Photography of PATTON by George J. Mitchel that states that the scene was lensed at Sevilla Studios in Spain. Because there is so little to go on with this one, I cannot say for certain either way, but my best guess is that Mitchel is correct.

We did get to tour the auditorium while visiting the Hall and, though my pictures don’t do it justice, the space is absolutely gorgeous.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bob Hope Patriotic Hall, from Flashdance, is located at 1816 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. The building is currently only open to veterans.

September 15, 2015
New “L.A.” Mag Post – About “Tangerine”

Be sure to read today’s post for L.A.mag.com, about the new movie Tangerine. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

July 16, 2015