Category: Movie Locations

Heather’s House from “New Nightmare”

Way back in April, after stalking the talking road condition sign location from L.A. Story (which I blogged about here) and Malibu Hindu Temple from Beverly Hills Ninja (which I blogged about here), Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me to the Tarzana-area house where Heather Langenkamp (who played herself) lived with her husband, Chase Porter (David Newsom), and son, Dylan (Miko Hughes), in the 1994 horror flick Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. And while I had not yet seen New Nightmare at the time, Mike thought the residence would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme – and he was right. I’m not typically a huge fan of sci-fi-style horror flicks (I much prefer the Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer/more realistic brand of scary movies), but I just watched New Nightmare and have to say that I actually enjoyed it. That most likely has to do with the fact that the flick centers around the filming of a new installment of the Nightmare series, during which a grown-up Heather Langenkamp, the actress who starred as Nancy Thompson in the first and third A Nightmare on Elm Streets, has to deal with the fact that the character of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has come to life and is stalking her son. Y’all know me – anything having to do with the production of a movie and I’m in!

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Heather’s house was one of the main locations used in New Nightmare and the property shows up repeatedly throughout the movie – usually in nighttime scenes.

Despite the fact that almost twenty years have passed since filming took place (How can that be, by the way??? That means that it’s practically time for my twenty-year high school reunion!!!), the residence still looks almost exactly the same today as it did then.

Even the mailbox has been left unchanged!

Had to do it!

In real life, the five-bedroom, five-bath residence, which was originally built in 1952, measures 4,512 square feet and sits on a 0.43-acre plot of land. It last sold in November 1996 for $741,000.

As you can see, the dwelling is really quite idyllic and picturesque and not the type of place where one would expect a horror film to be shot, but perhaps that was the point – that nightmares can happen anywhere.

The real life interior of the home . . .

. . . as well as the backyard, both of which you can see photographs of here, were also used in the filming.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Heather’s house from Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is located at 5132 Calvin Avenue in Tarzana.

October 23, 2013
Evergreen Memorial Park & Crematory

A couple of months ago, while doing research on locations for my Haunted Hollywood postings, I came across some online images of Evergreen Memorial Park & Crematory in Boyle Heights and practically started drooling over the place’s fabulously haunting chapel. Then when I learned that the cemetery had been featured in the 1980 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, I decided that I just had to stalk it and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there.

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Evergreen Memorial Park was originally established on August 23rd, 1877. It was Los Angeles’ first private cemetery and is one of the oldest surviving and largest graveyards in the city. During its early years, the property was a beautiful site and boasted meandering pathways, sprawling lawns and over 2,000 trees, with varieties including palm, wisteria, willow, and pine.

The 67-acre cemetery is home to over 300,000 departed souls, many of whom figured prominently in the City of Angels’ founding. Just a few of the notables buried at Evergreen include oil baron Charles Canfield, Ralphs founder George Ralph, Our Gang’s Matthew Beard, Church of Christ founder Charles Price Jones, former slave-turned-entrepreneur Bridget “Biddy” Mason, Robinsons-May department store founder Joe Winchester Robinson, the Penguin’s Jesse Belvin (who co-wrote the song “Earth Angel”), the Coasters’ Bobby Nunn, and Isaac Lankershim and his son-in-law, Isaac Newton Van Nuys, who together founded both the cities of Van Nuys and North Hollywood. The gravesite of Susanna Lankershim, Isaac’s wife, is pictured below.

Evergreen Memorial Park is also notable for never having banned African Americans from being buried there.

As you can see below, the site is, unfortunately, in a rather sad state today, marred by acres of dead grass;

churned-up dirt;

and toppled headstones. According to this website, several grave markers have even gone missing over the years.

The place does boast some pretty nice views of downtown Los Angeles, though.

And the Gothic-style chapel, which was originally constructed by architects Declez and Gilbert in 1882, is still eerily enchanting.

Especially with those vines creeping up the side of the entrance.

Evergreen Memorial Park & Crematory has been used in several productions over the years, but its most notable appearance was in A Nightmare on Elm Street, in which it was the funeral site for Rod Lane (Jsu Garcia).

Rod’s gravesite in the movie was situated in Section I of Evergreen, behind the real life graves of Louise Minier and Belle Kuster.

In the 1985 drama Mask, Evergreen was both where Red (Harry Carey Jr.) was buried (with his motorcycle!) . . .

. . . and where Roy L. ‘Rocky’ Dennis (Eric Stoltz) was laid to rest.

In the Season 4 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Brothers in Arms,” Evergreen was where Officer Mark Cunningham (Shane Conrad) was buried.

Some websites have claimed that Evergreen Memorial Park was where Hector Lopez (Wilfredo Hernandez) lived in the 1986 flick 8 Million Ways to Die, but I believe that to be incorrect. Not much of the cemetery is shown in the flick, but what is shown does not resemble Evergreen.

According to IMDB, Evergreen appeared in the Season 2 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Sex, Birth, Death,” but I scanned through the episode and did not see the cemetery pop up anywhere. IMDB also states that the graveyard was featured in the Season 3 episode of Baretta titled “The Ninja,” 1983’s Mausoleum, 1992’s Samurai Vampire Bikes from Hell (and yes, that is a real movie!), and 1993’s Blood In, Blood Out, but I was unfortunately not able to find copies of those productions with which to verify that.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Evergreen Memorial Park & Crematory is located at 204 North Evergreen Avenue in Boyle Heights. The gravesite that was used in A Nightmare on Elm Street can be found in Section I behind the real life graves of Louise Minier and Belle Kuster, and is denoted with an orange X in the aerial view below.

October 17, 2013
Dean’s House from “License to Drive”

For no particular reason and seemingly out of the blue, I got on a License to Drive kick a couple of weeks ago and was absolutely floored to come across a page on fellow stalker Geoff’s 90210Locations website that detailed almost all of the locales featured in the movie. The only spot missing was the Shakey’s Pizza Parlor where Les Anderson (Corey Haim), Dean (Corey Feldman), Charles (Michael Manasseri), and Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham) wound up after almost getting into a car accident in the middle of the 1988 flick – a location that I am now bound and determined to track down! Anyway, the place that I was most elated to see on Geoff’s site was the barn-like house where Dean lived in the film as it was a locale that I had always wondered about. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it while the two of us were in Los Angeles three weekends ago.

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Dean’s house popped up three times in License to Drive. It first appeared in the scene in which Dean and Charles called Les to congratulate him on getting his driver’s license. I am not sure what room of the house this scene was supposed to have taken place in. While I originally assumed that it was Dean’s room, the fact that there is a water heater and washing machine/dryer visible in the background (LOL!) gives me pause. And while the space looks like it could be a garage, it does not match the garage that is shown later in the movie.

The house next popped up towards the middle of the flick, in the scene in which Les enlisted Dean’s help in removing some dents that Mercedes had made in the hood of his grandfather’s Cadillac. It is during that scene that Dean convinces Les to go to Archie’s Atomic Drive-In (which I blogged about here), where “there’s five girls for every guy – and we’re not talking dogs. We’re talking bunnies!” LOL

And finally, the residence was featured at the very end of the movie in the scene in which Les dropped Dean and Charles off at home early in the morning following their wild night out. In that scene, the property’s real life 6313 address number was visible on both the front curb and light post. Love it!

While quite a bit has been changed in the twenty-five years since License to Drive was filmed, the dwelling is still very recognizable from its onscreen appearance.

As is the garage area.

In real life, the four-bedroom, four-bath, 3,591-square-foot house, which sits on 0.38 acres, was originally built in 1953 and last sold in July 1998 for $715,000.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dean’s house from License to Drive is located at 6313 Riggs Place in the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles.

September 27, 2013
Joyce’s House from “Little Black Book”

Last week, while doing research on locations from fave movie Little Black Book, I decided to watch the “Live & On-Air: The Making of Little Black Book” DVD special feature in which the filming of a deleted scene happened to be shown taking place in front of a house that I immediately recognized. I had actually stalked – and blogged about – the home back in March 2010 thanks to its appearance in Father of the Bride Part II. (You can read that post here.) Because I had written the column so long ago, though, I decided the residence was most-definitely worthy of a redux and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it this past weekend while the two of us were in L.A.

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Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I first discovered the residence a couple of years back while strolling along Madison Avenue in Pasadena on our way to stalk the house Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder) supposedly lived in during her childhood years in Mr. Deeds. Mike noticed the picturesque property – or “Thanksgiving home” as I like to call such idyllic dwellings that always seem to bring to mind images of family holidays – immediately and commented that it had to have been used in a movie at some point. So when fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, happened to send me screen captures of the place a few weeks later while on a quest to track down some minor locales from Father of the Bride Part II, I recognized it right away.

The charming five-bedroom, three-bath, 4,466-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1905, sits on 0.46 acres and last sold in June 2009 for $2,580,000. The residence, which looks like it was made to be in movies, features two game rooms, a garden room, a pool, a spa, a library, and a three-car garage. You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

As you can see from the side-view images pictured below, the house is actually much larger than its façade would lead you to believe. It’s absolutely ginormous!

In the “Live & On-Air: The Making of Little Black Book” special feature, the scene shown being filmed in front of the residence involved (I believe) Stacy (Brittany Murphy) leaving a note at the home of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, Joyce (Julianne Nicholson). No dialogue could be heard in the segment, but as you can see below, an envelope with what I think is the name “Joyce” on it was visible on the front porch. I am guessing that the scene was to be featured at the end of the movie and most likely entailed Stacy apologizing to Joyce for lying to her and humiliating her on national television. Because it wound up on the cutting room floor, though, and because no deleted scenes were included on the DVD (BOO!), I guess we will never know for sure.

Even though only a small portion of the home’s front porch was shown in “Live & On-Air,” I still recognized the place immediately. Yes, I’m that good.

Not surprisingly, thanks to its massive curb appeal, the house has been featured in numerous productions over the years. In Father of the Bride Part II, which premiered in 1995, it was where father-to-be George Banks (Steve Martin) witnessed a stranger saying good-bye to his son before leaving for work.

In 1995’s Bye Bye Love, the residence was where Susan (Amy Brenneman) lived. Both the interior and the exterior of the property were used in the flick.

In 2007, the home stood in for the supposed Medora, Wisconsin-area residence of the Tolchuck family – Justin (Dan Byrd), Claire (Lindsey Shaw), Franny (Amy Pietz), Gary (Scott Gordon-Patterson), and Pakistani foreign exchange student Raja (Adhir Kalyan) – in the pilot episode of Aliens in America. Oddly enough, though, only the interior of the house;

a few close-up shots of the front porch;

and the backyard appeared in the episode.

For the establishing shots of the residence’s front exterior, a different house – located at 6337 Larch St in Vancouver (thank you to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for the address!) – was used. This was due to the fact that Aliens in American’s pilot episode was shot in Southern California, but production moved to Canada once the series got picked up. To avoid the confusion of using two different exteriors when the show started airing, producers just swapped in an image of the Canada house for all of the establishing shots shown in the pilot episode.

In “Live & On-Air: The Making of Little Black Book,” the residence directly across the street from Joyce’s was also briefly shown, which got me to thinking that it might have been the dwelling used as Stacy’s childhood home in the flick. In real life, the Frederick L. Roehrig-designed abode, which was originally built in 1908, is known as the Lincoln Clark House and it is a City of Pasadena Designated Landmark Property.

Only a very limited portion of Stacy’s childhood home can actually be seen in Little Black Book. In the beginning of the movie, there is a brief shot of a young Stacy (Katie Murphy) watching her father from a window as he leaves her mother. In that scene, a unique, multi-limbed tree is visible on the side of the path that Stacy’s father walks down. As you can see below, there is a very similar-looking tree located on the side of the walkway at the Lincoln Clark House, as well. And the window that is located just beyond it resembles the window that Stacy looked through in the scene.

The porch area of the Lincoln Clark House (which you can see a close-up photograph of here) also closely resembles the porch that appeared in the montage clip showing Stacy’s boyfriends throughout the years.

The interior of Stacy’s childhood home was also featured in a few scenes at the beginning of Little Black Book. As you can see below, the three-paneled window that appeared onscreen is a match to the Lincoln Clark House windows. And the steep roofline is a match, as well. Without seeing interior photographs of the Lincoln Clark House, though, there is no way for me to say with any certainty whether or not it was used in the filming.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Joyce’s house from a deleted scene in Little Black Book is located at 639 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena. The Lincoln Clark House, which I think may have been used as Stacy’s childhood home in the flick, is located directly across the street at 646 South Madison Avenue.

September 26, 2013
Liberace’s Valley House from “Behind the Candelabra”

As I mentioned last month in my post about Sherman Way Adult Books from Behind the Candelabra (which you can read here), back in May fellow stalker E.J., of the Movieland Directory website, challenged me to find several locales from the HBO biopic including the L.A.-area home belonging to Liberace (Michael Douglas). It was never made entirely clear where exactly in Los Angeles the house was meant to be located in the flick, but I believe that it was supposed to the pianist’s San Fernando Valley-area residence in Sherman Oaks. (I blogged about Liberace’s real life former Valley dwelling, with the piano-shaped pool, in 2010. You can read that post here).

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Fortunately, this location turned out to be a very easy find thanks to an address number of “4238” that was visible on the home’s mailbox in the scene in which Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) lamented to his friend Bob Black (Scott Bakula) that Liberace wanted him to have plastic surgery. I had an inkling that the number was not faked for the movie (despite its gold coloring), so I started searching 4200 blocks in various Los Angeles neighborhoods for the one-story, 70s-style ranch house. I fairly quickly came across an area known as View Park-Windsor Hills that had a plethora of ranch-style properties, one of which – at 4238 Olympiad Drive – turned out to be the right place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk it two weekends ago while the two of us were in L.A.

I was absolutely FLOORED to discover, while driving there, that the home was located right off of Stocker Street. Um, LOVE IT!

And I was even more floored to see that the mailbox and address placard that appeared in the movie were also there in real life.

Liberace’s L.A. house showed up several times in Behind the Candelabra.

As you can see below, the residence looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

The home’s backyard and pool were also utilized in the filming.

As you can see in the Google aerial view pictured below, the slide that appeared in Behind the Candelabra is also there in real life. So incredibly cool!

I am 99.9% certain that several areas of the residence’s actual interior, including the dining room, kitchen, living room, and den, were also used in the movie, but I could not find any photographs of the inside of the home with which to verify that hunch.

In real life, the 1957 house features three bedrooms, three baths, 2,824 square feet of living space, and a 0.23-acre plot of land.

Before tracking down the dwelling, I had been completely unaware of the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood, but once I arrived there, it was easy to see why the residence and area were chosen to be used in Behind the Candelabra. The suburb looks like it has not been touched since the 1970s. Walking among the homes made me feel as if I had stepped into an episode of The Brady Bunch – but in a good way.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Liberace’s Valley house from Behind the Candelabra is located at 4238 Olympiad Drive in the View Park-Windsor Hills area of Los Angeles. Supposedly, Ike and Tina Turner once lived just down the road at 4263 Olympiad Drive.

September 18, 2013
Derek’s Apartment from “Little Black Book”

The Little Black Book location that I was most interested in tracking down was the supposed New Jersey-area apartment building where Derek (Ron Livingston) lived and where his girlfriend, Stacy (Brittany Murphy), spent most of her time. I fell in love with the adorably charming building upon sight when first watching Little Black Book and while it continually lingered on my mind as a must-find spot, because I thought it was located somewhere on the East Coast, I never put much effort into it finding it. Then, a couple of weeks ago, while on my Little Black Book kick, I emailed some screen captures of the building to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and he wound up tracking it down – right here in Southern California. Sadly though, the place is no longer standing. As it turns out, Derek’s apartment was located on New England Street at the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot and was, unfortunately, one of the structures that was destroyed during the fire that took place there on June 1, 2008. Because I spent so long wondering about the locale, though, I figured it was still worthy of a blog post.

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As you can see below, in Little Black Book Derek’s building was extremely picturesque and idyllic – so picturesque and idyllic that I really should have realized it would be found on a backlot. In my defense, though, the CGI-ed backdrop of New York City that appeared behind it was pretty darn convincing!

Fortunately, Owen wasn’t so easily tricked. Thanks to the apartment’s backlot-y feel, he realized immediately that it was most likely located at a studio and, since I know both Paramount and Warner Bros. like the back of my hand, decided to start his search at Universal. After scouring countless Flickr images of the backlot, he wound up coming across this picture of Universal’s New York Street area in which a small section of Ron’s building was visible on the left-hand side. Heartbreakingly, it was that area that was destroyed in the 2008 fire. I cannot tell you how devastated I was to learn that I would never be able to stalk this particular locale.

After Owen told me the bad news, I did some Flickr scouring of my own and happened upon the below image on Kevin Garrett’s fabulous photostream in which the front of Ron’s building can be seen on the right. Kevin was even nice enough to allow me to post the picture here. Thank you, Kevin! I also came across this side view image of the façade. As you can see, Ron’s building was very thin in real life and producers added a side section – either via CGI or actual bricks and mortar – to the structure for the Little Black Book shoot.

The interior of Derek’s apartment was also, of course, just a set, built inside of a soundstage at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Owen also clued me in to the fact that the scene in Little Black Book in which Stacy walked Derek’s dog, Bob, at night – and wound up at the home of Derek’s ex-girlfriend, Dr. Rachel Keyes (Rashida Jones) – took place in the New York area of the Universal backlot, as well.

That scene was shot on Brownstone Street, which also, sadly, was burned in the 2008 fire. The area has since been rebuilt, but, unfortunately, does not look anything like it did prior to 2008. You can check out some great photographs of Brownstone Street before the fire and also what it looks like now on the fabulous The Studio Tour website here.

I was floored to discover that the brownstone where Rachel lived in Little Black Book was located right next door to the brownstone where Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) battled Harry Lime (Joe Pesci) and Marv Merchants (Daniel Stern) in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The stills pictured below are from Little Black Book . . .

. . . while the ones below are from Home Alone 2.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location and to Kevin Garrett, with the fabulous Flickr photostream, for sharing his photograph of it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Derek’s apartment building from Little Black Book was formerly located on New England Street on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot. The site was sadly destroyed in a fire on June 1st, 2008 and no longer exists. Brownstone Street, where Dr. Rachel Keyes lived in the movie, was also destroyed in the fire. While the area has been rebuilt, it no longer resembles the neighborhood that appeared onscreen. Universal Studios is located at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal City. You can visit the theme park’s official website here.

September 16, 2013
Mission Street from “Little Black Book”

Back in November 2010, a fellow stalker named Clayton wrote a comment on my post about Fair Oaks Pharmacy from Mr. Deeds (which you can read here) alerting me that fave movie Little Black Book and the 1985 classic Back to the Future had also done some filming at the 50s-style soda fountain. And while he was actually wrong on both counts, his comment led me to the discovery that part of the opening sequence from Little Black Book had been filmed just down the road from Fair Oaks Pharmacy, at three different locations along South Pasadena’s picturesque Mission Street. So I ran right out to stalk them. For whatever reason, though, I completely forgot about writing the spots up for a blog post until a couple of weeks ago when I got on my kick of tracking down the remainder of the locales from the flick. Better late than never, though, right?

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Mission Street first popped up in Little Black Book’s opening scene (which was also featured at the end of the movie), in which Stacy (Brittany Murphy) is shown crying, while listening to Carly Simon and blocking what is supposed to be New Jersey city traffic, in her bright yellow Volkswagen bug.

That scene actually took place in front of Ellen’s Silkscreening on the corner of Mission Street and Mound Avenue. As you can see below, a few fake street signs were added for the shoot, but otherwise the location looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

Mission Street pops up again just a few minutes later in Little Black Book’s opening montage in which Stacy is shown falling in love with her new boyfriend, Derek (Ron Livingston). In one of the montage scenes, the couple goofs around in a store window, making it appear as if they can fly.

That sequence took place in the doorway of Space Arts Center, just a few storefronts east of Ellen’s Silkscreening. I absolutely LOVE that the little bulletin board visible behind Stacy and Derek in the scene is there in real life, albeit in a different color.

Had to do it.

Later in the montage, Stacy and Derek are shown walking Derek’s dog, Bob, in front of a large brick building, also supposedly located in New Jersey.

In reality, that building is the former Mission Arroyo Hotel, located about four blocks west of Space Arts Center. The 1923 structure no longer serves as a hotel, but is a commercial space comprised of offices and shops.

That same building masqueraded as the supposed Haddonfield, Illinois-area Nicol’s Hardware store, where Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis) ran into Annie’s father, Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers), while he was investigating the robbery of “some Halloween mask, a rope and a couple of knives” in the 1978 classic horror film Halloween.

As you can see below, the building hasn’t changed much over the years.

The former Mission Arroyo Hotel can also be seen in the background of the 2008 comedy Step Brothers, in the scene in which Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly), after a failed job interview, realize that their destiny is to start an entertainment company.

And although the camera was facing the opposite direction and the Mission Arroyo Hotel can’t actually be seen, it was at that same intersection that an adult Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) dissed her childhood crush, Chris Grandy (Jim Gaffigan), in all-time favorite movie 13 Going on 30. You can read my November 2007 post about that location here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Clayton whose comment led me to find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: In the beginning and end of Little Black Book, Stacy’s car is parked in front of Ellen’s Silkscreening, which is located at 1500 Mission Street in South Pasadena. The “flying” window from the movie’s opening montage is the doorway to Space Arts Center at 1506 Mission Street. Later in the montage, Stacy and Derek walk past what is now WOD Gear Clothing Company at the former Mission Arroyo Hotel, which is located at 956 Mission Street. Nicol’s Hardware from Halloween is now Radhika Modern Indian restaurant at 966 Mission Street, also a part of the former Mission Arroyo Hotel. The Mr. Deeds soda fountain, aka Fair Oaks Pharmacy, is located at 1526 Mission Street. And the hardware store from Teen Wolf can be found at 1518 Mission Street, but I have yet to blog about that particular locale.

September 13, 2013
Phil’s Bar from “Little Black Book”

A couple of weeks ago, I got on a kick of tracking down locations from fave movie Little Black Book. Now I should mention here, before I go any further, that the 2004 romantic comedy really isn’t all that good. I can’t explain why I love it as much as I do, but I think my adoration stems from the fabulous soundtrack and the lead character, Stacy’s (Brittany Murphy), propensity to break out in song. For whatever reason, I find myself watching and re-watching the flick on a fairly regular basis – I just cannot get enough of it! So I was floored when I learned that, while set in New York, the vast majority of the movie was lensed right here in Southern California. One of the locales that I was most interested in finding was the fictional Phil’s Bar, which, as luck would have it, turned out to be a Starbucks – one that I had visited countless times in the past. It just took me a while to realize it.

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In Little Black Book (the storyline of which focuses on how past relationships can come back to haunt us), Stacy is shown walking with her new friend Joyce (Julianne Nicholson) by a place called Phil’s Bar, where they see Stacy’s current boyfriend, Derek (Ron Livingston), through the window. Derek also just so happens to be Joyce’s ex-boyfriend and he is at Phil’s to meet Joyce, not Stacy, for a drink. (Like I said, it’s really not that great of a movie. ) While the two women are observing Derek, they walk by a large building that looked to me like it might be a bank. I sent some screen captures of said building to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and he recognized the place immediately as The Crocker Club in downtown L.A.

How in the heck Mike managed to recognize a building from a screen capture in which very little was visible is beyond me! My hat is definitely off to him!

Several things were added to the site for the filming, including some foliage, a fake street sign with what I believe says “Washington St” and a building sign that reads “Hoboken Savings and Loan.” Otherwise though, The Crocker Club looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. Even the yellow fire hydrant and electrical box flanking the sides of the building are there in real life! Love it!

And here’s where things start to get weird. In Little Black Book, Phil’s Bar is shown to be located in a fairly ornate building directly across the street from where Stacy and Joyce are standing. But I could find no such building across the street from The Crocker Club.

I was at a complete loss, until I looked more closely at the scene and spotted the back of a logo on the window behind Derek – a logo that looked a lot like that of Tully’s Coffee. (What can I say? This stalker knows her coffee!) Once the logo resemblance dawned on me, a light switch went off in my head and I realized that I had been to Phil’s Bar before – many, many times.

As it turns out, Phil’s Bar is the Starbucks located at West 6th Street and South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. (It occupies the corner space of an oft-filmed at building that I will be blogging about soon.) That particular Starbucks happens to be just steps away from the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, where the Grim Cheaper and I have stayed on many occasions, so, I, of course, have patronized it often. The storefront looks quite a bit different today than it did when Little Black Book was filmed, though, which is why I failed to recognize it.

What I did not realize until later (and what most-definitely added to my failure to recognize the location) was the fact that the image of the building that appeared onscreen was, for whatever reason, flipped. (Yes, producers will sometimes flip their film in post-production to achieve a certain orientation. Only one half of the Titanic was built for the filming of Titanic for instance. For the scenes involving the portion of the ship that had not been constructed, James Cameron simply flipped the film during the editing process and, voila, it appeared to be a full vessel. He even went so far as to print any sort of signage seen in those particular scenes backwards, so that when the image was flipped, the signs would appear in their correct orientation.) As you can see below, when I tried to photograph the angle of Phil’s Bar that was shown in Little Black Book, things did not quite match up. The lower portion of the bar exterior in the movie had a carved lip reaching from the sidewalk up to the bottom of the window, while the front of Starbucks did not. The front doors of Phil’s Bar were also on the opposite side of the building from where Starbuck’s front doors are located.

When I ventured around to the other side of Starbucks, though, things did match up. (And darn that scaffolding that ruined all of my photographs!)

Thanks to a little Pic Monkey magic, I was able to flip one of my photographs (check out the backwards watermark! ) and, as you can see below, the result matches perfectly to what appeared onscreen.

The location pops up again in one of the final scenes of Little Black Book, in which Stacy is shown driving through what is supposedly downtown New York. In an odd twist, the space was a Grand Central Coffee store during the time of that shoot, as you can see below. When I first spotted the Grand Central Coffee sign, I thought that my initial identification of the Tully’s logo had been wrong, but then I came across this online listing for a Tully’s Coffee at that location. I also came across a listing for a Grand Central Coffee at the same location, though. So what I believe happened is this – either the driving-through-New-York scene or the Phil’s-Bar scene were pick-up shots, filmed months after Little Black Book had wrapped. In the interim, either Grand Central or Tully’s (whichever was there first) closed down and the other café opened in its place. That is just a guess, though.

The very same storefront was also visible in the background of the 1999 hit Fight Club, in the scene in which The Narrator (Edward Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) blew up a computer store. And while the café looks to have had a name beginning with a “G” at that time, I was unable to make out any of the other letters on the sign in the front window.

In 2002, Tully’s appeared in the Season 3 episode of The West Wing titled “Posse Comitatus” as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area coffee shop where Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) discussed the president’s welfare reform bill with girlfriend, Amy Gardner (Mary-Louise Parker).

The Tully’s logos visible behind Derek in Little Black Book can clearly be seen in the episode.

In 2012, the Starbucks popped up in the Season 1 episode of Touch titled “Safety in Numbers,” in the scene in which Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) tried to talk to a homeless man named Walter King (Robert Patrick Benedict).

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Phil’s Bar from Little Black Book is actually the Starbucks located at 523 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The building that Stacy and Joyce walked by in the scene, which is supposedly located across the street from Phil’s Bar, is The Crocker Club, which can be found five blocks away at 453 South Spring Street. You can visit The Crocker Club’s official website here.

September 12, 2013
The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Little Miss Sunshine”

A couple of months ago, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to re-watch fave 2006 dramedy Little Miss Sunshine and I just about fell out of my chair when I spotted the Hyatt Regency Valencia pop up in a brief scene. I had actually stalked and blogged about the Santa Clarita-area hotel way back in November 2009 (you can read that post here) due to its appearance in Twilight. Because the post was fairly brief, though, and had been published during the early days of my site, I figured it was most-definitely worthy of a redo. So the GC and I headed right on over there last month while the two of us were in L.A. for a visit.

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The Hyatt Regency Valencia, which has actually been featured in countless productions thanks to its Anywhere, U.S.A. look and feel, boasts 244 guest rooms, 11 of which are suites, a pool, a gym, a business center, an outdoor fireplace lounge, a lobby lounge, three gardens, 12,000 square feet of meeting space, a day spa, and access to three different local golf courses.

The hotel’s onsite eatery, Vines Restaurant & Bar, has become one of my and the GC’s favorite pit stops over the years; we often find ourselves dropping in for lunch or a cocktail whenever we are in the area.

In Little Miss Sunshine, the Hyatt Regency Valencia stood in for the Scottsdale, Arizona-area Desert Courtyard Suites where Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) tracked down Stan Grossman (Bryan Cranston) to confront him about his defunct “Nine Steps” deal. Several areas of the hotel were utilized in the short scene including the front entrance;

the lobby;

the lobby lounge, which was changed a bit for the filming;

and the pool. (I somehow failed to snap any pictures of the pool while I was stalking the Hyatt, so I snagged the one that appears below off of the hotel’s official website.)

In the Season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Fur and Loathing,” which aired in 2003, the Hyatt Valencia stood in for the Las Vegas-area King’s River Hotel where PAF CON ( the Plushies and Furries Convention – yes, plushies and furries) took place.

In the 2008 tween hit Twilight, the Valencia Hyatt masqueraded as the Phoenix-area hotel where Bella (Kristen Stewart), Alice (Ashley Greene), and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run towards the end of the movie. And while the exterior of the property . . .

. . . and the lobby were featured in the filming;

the interior of Bella, Alice and Jasper’s suite was filmed elsewhere. As you can see in these photographs as compared to the screen captures below, what appeared onscreen does not match the Hyatt’s actual rooms.

In 2010, the Hyatt again popped up as the site of a convention on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, this time for vampire- and werewolf-wannabes in the Season 11 episode titled “Blood Moon.” And while one of the hotel’s hallways;

outdoor fireplace lounge;

and a ballroom were used in the filming;

the interior of the room where Michael Wilson (Thad Luckinbill) was attacked was just a set. As you can see below, it looks nothing like the Hyatt’s actual rooms.

In the Christmas-themed Season 9 episode of NCIS titled “Newborn King,” which aired in 2011, the Hyatt Regency Valencia masqueraded as The Freemont Inn, where Navy Captain Jake Marsden (Marc Aden Gray) was killed.

One of the hotel’s suites (I think Room 334) also appeared in the episode.

As I mentioned in my March 2012 post about the Florida-area house where Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) lived during two Season 8 episodes of The Office, the Hyatt Regency Valencia masqueraded as the Palmetto Suites Tallahassee, the supposed Sunshine State hotel where the Dunder Mifflin gang stayed for a few weeks while setting up a chain of Sabre retail stores in the Season 8 episodes titled “Tallahassee” and “After Hours.” Quite a few areas of the Hyatt were utilized in the filming, including the front exterior;

the lobby;

the lobby lounge, where a fake gift shop was set up for the shoot;

several rooms, including Room 243 where Cathy (Lindsay Broad) stayed, Room 244 where Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) stayed, Room 248 where Erin stayed, and Room 249 where Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) stayed;

two hallways;

and Vines Restaurant & Bar.

According to the Visit Santa Clarita website, episodes of Parenthood, CSI:New York, Make It or Break It, Las Vegas, Big Love, and The Unit have also been filmed at the Hyatt Valencia, but, unfortunately, I am unsure of which episodes in particular.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia from Little Miss Sunshine is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

September 5, 2013
Echo Park

One location that I have wanted to stalk ever since June 2012, when I wrote my post about MacArthur Park from New Girl (which you can read here), was the similar-looking Echo Park in L.A.’s Echo Park neighborhood. Sadly though, my efforts were thwarted for over a year due to an extensive restoration project that was taking place on the premises. The property eventually reopened two months ago and I was absolutely chomping at the bit to stalk it, and finally managed to do just that a couple of weekends ago when the Grim Cheaper and I were in Los Angeles for a brief stay. I can honestly say that the place was worth the wait, though, because it is easily one of the most beautiful locales that I have ever visited.

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The 29-acre parcel of land now known as Echo Park was originally a natural ravine created from the flow of the Arroyo de Los Reyes stream. A 20-foot dam was built on the site in 1868 that turned the ravine into Reservoir Number 4, which provided drinking water to nearby residents. In 1892, the city decided to turn the reservoir and its neighboring land into a public park and landscape architect/Superintendent of the Department of Parks Joseph Henry Tomlinson was commissioned to design it. Legend has it that the site got its name due to the fact that Tomlinson heard an echo as he shouted across the property one day while developing the space. Echo Park, which was declared a City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument in 2006, is one of the oldest public parks in L.A.

Today, the 26-million-gallon, 13-acre Echo Park Lake serves as a detention basin for the City’s storm drain system. As stated in the “Land o’ Lake” article that was featured in the June 2013 issue of Los Angeles magazine, “Runoff from streets and storm drains pauses here before heading into the Los Angeles River and, ultimately, the ocean. In dry weather about 110,000 gallons pass through the lake each day.”

The lake is perhaps best known for its iconic three-geyser fountain, which was installed as part of a Los Angeles beautification project just prior to the 1984 Olympic Games.

In 2011, a two-year, $45-million restoration/water quality project was begun, during which 40,000 cubic yards of sediment was removed from the bottom of the lake – as was trash, debris and random discarded items including a skateboard, a Frisbee and a toilet (LOL!). Four acres of wetland were also added to the premises . . .

. . . as well as two observation decks, a café and a large jogging path.

The site’s vast lotus bed (once the largest lotus bed in the western United States), which had disappeared by 2008, was also restored thanks to a fortuitous bit of thievery.

In 2005, a horticulturalist named Randy McDonald pilfered a lotus from the lake, violating a municipal code which states that removing plants from city parks is illegal. He cultivated the small stem and began selling its offshoots to unsuspecting customers. A few years later, when the restoration project first got underway, landscape architect Josh Segal heard buzzings that McDonald had a spawn of the iconic Echo Park lotus plant and contacted him. He wound up purchasing 376 plants from the thief – at a cost of $30,000! – to stock the new and improved lake. As journalist Marisa Gerber wrote in a June 2013 Los Angeles Times article, “Finding McDonald gave the restoration ‘a special story that involves theft,’ Segal said, breaking into a laugh. ‘It’s L.A.’”

The netting that currently covers the lotus bed, as well as most of the other vegetation in the park, will be in place for about a year and serves to protect the greenery from hungry birds.

The newly restored Echo Park was reopened to the public on June 15th, 2013.

The result is easily one of the most picturesque places I have ever visited in my life.

Shortly after the reopening, the lake’s infamous pedal boats were also brought back. And, as you can see below, business was booming when we showed up – the wait time to rent a boat was about two hours!

A café named Square One at the Boathouse was also launched in the park’s iconic 1932 boathouse shortly after the reopening.

Due to its immense picturesqueness, Echo Park has been featured in countless productions over the years – so many that it would be virtually impossible for me to list them all. What follows are some of the property’s onscreen highlights.

The park’s most famous appearance was arguably in the 1974 classic Chinatown, in which it was the spot where JJ Gittes (Jack Nicholson) secretly photographed Commissioner Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), who was boating with a woman who was not his wife.

In 1991, Echo Park masqueraded as the Stationary Bike Riding Park, where running was not allowed, for the opening scene of fave movie L.A. Story.

In the 1991 thriller Dead Again, Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) took Grace (Emma Thompson) on a date to Echo Park, where they ate at the boathouse and then walked around the lake.

Despite several websites claiming that the scene took place in MacArthur Park, Echo Park was actually where Dr. Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross) and Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) plotted to kill Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) in the 1994 Season 2 finale of Melrose Place, which was titled “Till Death Do Us Part.”

As you can see below, the view of the U.S. Bank Tower and Citigroup Center that was shown in the episode matches perfectly to the view of those buildings from Echo Park.

Echo Park was used again in the 1996 Season 4 episode of Melrose Place titled “Melrose Unglued,” as the place where Jo Reynolds (Daphne Zuniga) and Dr. Dominick O’Malley (Brad Johnson) confronted Laurie (Justine Priestley – Jason Priestley’s twin!) about their suspicion that her son was being abused.

In the 1992 flick Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Echo Park was where Sgt. Joe Bomowski (Sylvester Stallone) picnicked with him mom, Tutti Bomowski (Estelle Getty).

Echo Park was turned into the supposed San Francisco-area cemetery where the the funeral for Mark Chao (John Cho) was held in the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “Dead Man Dating.”

The park also popped up in the 2003 Season 5 episode of Charmed titled “House Call,” as the spot where Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) reunited with Glen Belland (Jesse Woodrow).

In 2001’s Training Day, Det. Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) and Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) drove by Echo Park shortly after Harris forced Hoyt to smoke PCP.

In the 2003 comedy National Security, Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence) almost got arrested by police officer Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) for “breaking into” his own car while at Echo Park.

Emily (Amanda Peet) tells Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) about her new fiancé at Echo Park in a deleted scene from the 2005 romcom A Lot Like Love.

Echo Park was where Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) met with Pete Lukins (Gregg Henry) to talk about an upcoming fight in the beginning of the 2006 film The Black Dahlia.

Southland filmed at Echo Park no less than three times during its five-season run. It first popped up in the 2010 Season 2 episode titled “U-Boat,” as the place where Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Chickie Brown (Arija Bareikis) pulled over a car after seeing dope being thrown out of the window.

In the Season 2 episode titled “What Makes Sammy Run?,” which also aired in 2010, Echo Park was where Tammi Bryant (Emily Bergl) was confronted by thugs while taking photographs.

And in the Season 3 episode titled “Fixing a Hole,” which aired in 2011, Officer Cooper and Officer Ben Sherman (my man Benjamin McKenzie) interviewed park-goers outside of the Echo Park boathouse about a boy who had just been found.

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For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Echo Park is located at 751 Echo Park Avenue in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

August 29, 2013