Category: Movie Locations

Sherman Way Adult Books from “Behind the Candelabra”

Today’s location is a bit of a risqué one, so brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers! Back in May, after Behind the Candelabra first premiered, I received an email from my buddy E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, listing a few of the locales that he had tracked down from the HBO biopic. He ended the email with, “You only need to find the adult film store, the condo penthouse in L.A., Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) and Liberace’s (Michael Douglas’) Valley-area house, and the Thorson family’s ranch which is somewhere in Santa Clarita.” Challenge accepted, E.J.! Thankfully, with a little help from Mike, from MovieShotsLA, I was able to find the four locales. The condo penthouse is at 7461 Beverly Boulevard in the Fairfax District (which I blogged about here); the Valley house is at 4238 Olympiad Drive in View Park-Windsor Hills (I have yet to stalk it, though); the Thorson family’s ranch is the Main Ranch House at Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch in Newhall (a property that is, sadly, closed to the public); and the adult bookstore is Sherman Way Adult Books at 11841 Sherman Way in North Hollywood. Booyah!

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This location was a simple find thanks to the 11841 address number that was visible when Liberace and Scott first arrived at the bookstore. I just popped “11841” and “adult book store” into Google and, voila, the first result that came back was for Sherman Way Adult Books. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it a few weekends ago while the two of us were in L.A. (And yes, I actually stalked an adult bookstore for this post. )

The 2,742-square-foot store, which was originally built in 1950, was recently on the market for $800,000. And, apparently, the place next door buys pallets.

In Behind the Candelabra, a tipsy Liberace dragged his very reluctant and drugged-out then boyfriend Scott into a supposed Las Vegas-area adult bookstore, where Scott proceeded to then get sick. Sherman Way Adult Books was only shown very briefly in the short scene.

Because the store was supposed to be located in Las Vegas in the movie, its name was changed from “Sherman Way Adult Books” to “XXX Adult Books.” You can see the alteration made to the signage in the below screen capture and photograph. Aside from the signage, though, the site looks exactly the same in person as it did on screen – and just as colorful!

And while I am fairly certain that the real life interior of Sherman Way Adult Books was used in the filming, I opted not to step inside to verify that hunch. For anyone looking to frequent the store, it actually has a very favorable Yelp review, though. Yes, someone actually filled out a Yelp review for the place, which I could not stop laughing about when I came across it.

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 E.J., from The Movieland Directory website, for challenging me to find this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Sherman Way Adult Books, from Behind the Candelabra, is located at 11841 Sherman Way in North Hollywood.

August 19, 2013
The Derby Restaurant from “Step Brothers”

During a recent visit to Los Angeles, the Grim Cheaper and I stayed at an Arcadia hotel that just so happened to be located right across the street from a nine-decades old eatery that I had always wanted to stalk – The Derby Restaurant, which was featured in the 2008 comedy Step Brothers. As y’all know, this stalker absolutely loves herself any location with a history! So I dragged the GC right on over there to partake of what turned out to be a fabulous happy hour. (And correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t stepbrothers one word? Why, oh, why was it separated into two for the movie’s title? This is most-definitely a case for fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog!)

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The Derby Restaurant was originally founded by Arcadia Rotary Club charter member Hudson M. Proctor in 1922 at a location on Foothill Boulevard near the Santa Anita Park racetrack (which I blogged about here). At the time it was known as Proctor’s Tavern. Nine years later, when the main thoroughfare in Arcadia shifted from Foothill Boulevard to Huntington Drive, Hudson decided to move his eatery to its current home at 233 East Huntington. The new site featured two dining rooms, two fireplaces and a second-floor apartment where Hudson lived with his wife.

In December 1938, the steakhouse was purchased by Canadian-born jockey legend George “The Iceman” Woolf, who is best known for riding Seabiscuit to several victories, and his partner Bill Peterson. The duo renamed the site “The Derby Restaurant” in honor of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the U.S. Triple Crown. Woolf decorated the property with memorabilia and photographs from his racing career, most of which are still displayed on the premises to this day.

When Woolf was tragically killed during a race on January 3, 1946, his wife, Genevieve, took over daily operation of the restaurant. In 1951, she sold the property to Dominic and Lorene Sturniolo, who continued to run the eatery, along with their son, for the next fifty-plus years. Today, The Derby, which has the distinction of being one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles County, is owned by Dustin Nicolarsen and Michael Thomas. On August 11th, 2011, the Arcadia Historical Society presented a historical marker (one of only eight) to the Zagat-rated site commemorating its significance to the city that it has called home for over 90 years.

While The Derby’s menu is on the pricier side, fortunately the happy hour offerings are very reasonable (which is the only reason the GC agreed to eat there ). And I can honestly say that the food is delicious! The place is extremely popular, though, and the bar area was absolutely jam-packed when we arrived, so be prepared for a wait if you happen to venture out there on a Friday night.

In Step Brothers, The Derby Restaurant masqueraded as RJ Posner’s steakhouse, where the birthday party for Derek Doback (Adam Scott) was held. It is during the party that Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) unveil their new music video, which alerts their father/stepfather, Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins), to the fact that his beloved boat has been destroyed.

The birthday party scene was shot in The Derby’s main dining room, which is located just east of the front entrance.

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 Derby Restaurant, from Step Brothers, is located at 233 East Huntington Drive in Arcadia. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

August 16, 2013
Liberace’s Penthouse from “Behind the Candelabra”

Back on May 27th, the day after the HBO biopic Behind the Candelabra first aired, fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, emailed me to let me know that he had tracked down the penthouse belonging to Liberace (Michael Douglas) in the flick. He also informed me that, in a very cool twist, the penthouse used in the movie was actually owned by the legendary pianist for almost a decade in real life. Love it! And while I immediately added the site to my To-Stalk list, for whatever reason, I did not make it out there until this past Saturday morning, when the Grim Cheaper and I were in L.A. for a weekend visit.

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Liberace did not just own the penthouse suite, but the entire 24,586-square-foot building which houses it. The five-story structure was designed in 1958 by renowned Netherlands-born theatre muralist Anthony Heinsbergen and cost $650,000 to complete. “Lee”, as he was called, purchased the property for just under $1 million in 1978 and continued to own it until his death in February 1987. It was then sold by the pianist’s estate in December of that same year for $2.55 million (in an all-cash deal!) to developer Larry Taylor.

The building, which sits on a 0.37-acre plot of land, consists of three floors of office space (there are 18 separate offices in total), a bottom-level retail site, and a 5,000-square-foot penthouse that boasts a 14-foot by 28-foot rooftop swimming pool, a gourmet kitchen, several fireplaces (which were not original to the unit, but were added by Liberace during his tenure), and, of course, mirrors galore.

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the Grecian statue that flanks the building’s entrance was also Liberace’s doing.

The penthouse showed up numerous times in Behind the Candelabra, most notably as the place where Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) moved to after being dumped by Liberace. The interior of the pad hosted most of the filming, with scenes shot in the living room, master bedroom, hallway, and by the rooftop pool. For the shoot, the property, which currently serves as an event space, was painstakingly restored to look as it did in Liberace’s day – right down to the furniture. A July 2013 The Hollywood Reporter article says, “The current owner had photographed the entire apartment before Liberace’s furnishings were removed, allowing the production to re-create the black lacquer, animal print and chrome decor to the last detail.” So incredibly cool!

The same article goes on to state that the mirrored piano on display in the living room in the flick had to actually be hoisted up to the penthouse via the exterior of the building for the shoot due to the fact that the elevator on the premises was too small to transport it! Man, I would have loved to have been there to watch that! And while the Behind the Candelabra production slideshow claims that said piano belongs to Deborah Gibson in real life, the instrument that appeared in the movie does not match the one pictured in these photographs of Deborah’s house, so I am fairly certain that information is incorrect.

You can catch a great aerial glimpse of Liberace’s former pool area via Google Maps. According to the production slideshow, the fiber optic tree wall sculpture with “hand painted clay birds that spouted water” that appeared in the movie is original to the unit.

The exterior of the building showed up only once in Behind the Candelabra, in the scene in which Scott returned to the property after being kicked out to pick up his belongings – which Liberace’s manager, Seymour Heller (Dan Aykroyd), had gathered together in large plastic garbage bags. LOL That scene took place in the rear parking lot.

The building’s back entrance . . .

. . . and lobby area were also shown once in Behind the Candelabra, in the scene in which Seymour arrived at the penthouse to inform Scott that he had to vacate the premises.

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 finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Liberace’s former penthouse, which was used in Behind the Candelabra, is located at 7461 Beverly Boulevard in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. The parking lot where Scott picked up his belongings in the film is located in the back of the building and can be reached via North Vista Street.

August 14, 2013
The “L.A. Story” Brunch Restaurant

One L.A. Story location that I never in a million years thought I would be able to stalk was the exterior of the fictional Dr. Dalmar’s eatery (said to be located on the corner of Sunset and Crescent), where Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) and his girlfriend Trudi (Marilu Henner) brunched with some friends towards the very beginning of the 1991 flick. I had long known that a patio at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel had been used as the actual brunch site and consequently assumed that some other portion of the property had been featured as the restaurant’s entrance. Because the Ambassador was demolished in early 2006, though, this was one locale that I just did not put a whole lot of thought into.

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It was not until I was scanning through L.A. Story to make screen captures for my post on the apartment building where Trudi lived in the movie, that I came across the brunch scene and spotted two street signs – one reading “4th St” and the other reading “3rd St” – visible in the background. Because the Ambassador Hotel was located near 7th and 8th Streets, I realized that the entrance to Dalmar’s had to be elsewhere. I also realized, due to the placement of said street signs, that the Dalmar’s exterior was in between 4th and 5th Street.

I also noticed that the Dalmar’s entrance was situated near the end of a T-shaped intersection, as you can see below. So I started searching for a T-shaped intersection on 5th Street in the vicinity of the Ambassador Hotel and, voila, I found the right spot after just a few minutes of searching.

As it turns out, the exterior of the L.A. Story brunch restaurant is actually the entrance to a mid-Wilshire area apartment complex named Regent Place.

In the beginning of the L.A. Story brunch scene, Harris and Trudy are shown walking on a brown trellised deck.

Well, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited to see that deck in person, especially being that I had for so long been under the incorrect assumption that it was no longer standing.

Harris and Trudi are also shown walking on that deck after finishing brunch . . .

. . . and then out to the valet stand in front of Dalmar’s, where Harris accidentally drives off, leaving Trudi standing on the curb alone. “Yeah, I know what you were concentrating on!” I LOVE that line. (For those who have no idea what I am referring to, you need to rent the movie immediately! )

In 2005, L.A. Story production designer Lawrence Miller filmed a featurette titled “The L.A. of L.A. Story” that detailed several of the locations used in the movie for the 15th Anniversary Edition DVD. One of the places that he chronicled was the brunch site and he actually ventured out to then soon-to-be demolished Ambassador Hotel for the segment. During the spot, he mentioned that the featurette was the very last production that would be shot on the premises prior to the demolition, which took place on January 16, 2006. (I am still bitter that the hotel was torn down. Such an incredible shame!) Lawrence also spoke about the fact that Dr. Dalmar’s was modeled after the Hotel Bel-Air’s Terrace restaurant. Producers had actually originally wanted to film the brunch scene at the Bel-Air, but, for whatever reason, the hotel would not allow it. Lawrence did a fabulous job with the set design, though, because Dalmar’s did end up looking very much look like the Terrace (or at least what the eatery used to look like prior to the Bel-Air’s 2011 remodel).

The spot that was used as the brunch site was located on the south side of the Ambassador Hotel near the swimming pool. Pictured below is what that area looked like in 2005 when Lawrence returned to film “The L.A. of L.A. Story.” You can check out a picture of that portion of the hotel during the Ambassador’s heyday here.

For the shoot, Lawrence built a large trellis overhang that matched one of the Ambassador’s actual trellises (that actual trellis is pictured below) and he also brought in hundreds of trees.

Pictured below are some behind-the-scenes images of the brunch scene shoot, in which you can get a better look at the set-up.

The Ambassador Hotel was also featured in two other scenes in L.A. Story. The infamous Embassy Ballroom (where Bobby Kennedy spoke just prior to being assassinated on June 5, 1968) was used as a soundstage during the filming and was where the two El Pollo Del Mar hotel rooms were constructed. According to Lawrence, “The window wall was used in both hotel rooms and was moved back and forth depending on which part of the scene we were shooting.” He goes on to say, “The large furniture in the suite was used in both hotel suites. That was our little trick to make it appear a little more glamorous than it was.”

The ballroom in its 2005 state when Lawrence filmed “The L.A. of L.A. Story” is pictured below.

And finally, the scenes that took place at the fictional hot spot L’Idiot, where Harris dined with his new love interest, Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant), and her ex-husband, Roland Mackey (Richard E. Grant), were filmed at the Ambassador Hotel’s coffee shop. Both the exterior of the coffee shop . . .

. . . and the interior were used in the shoot.

According to Lawrence, the coffee shop’s walls and columns were covered over with white corrugated fiber glass during the filming and neon lights were also installed to make the site appear less “tropical.”

As you can see below, though, the booths were left intact during the filming. Man, how I wish that place was still around!

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 exterior of Dr. Dalmar’s, the L.A. Story brunch restaurant, is actually the entrance to the Regent Place apartment complex, which is located at 426 South Norton Avenue, just south of Hancock Park, in Los Angeles. The interior of the brunch scene was filmed at the former Ambassador Hotel, which used to stand at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard in the Wilshire District of Los Angeles.

August 6, 2013
The “Little Miss Sunshine” Motel

Another Little Miss Sunshine locale that I desperately wanted to stalk was the supposed Arizona motel where the Hoover family – Olive (Abigail Breslin), Richard (Greg Kinnear), Sheryl (Toni Collette), Dwayne (Paul Dano), Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin), and Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carell) – stayed mid-way through their road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach in the 2006 flick. Thankfully, smbstressfest had visited the site during the filming of his fabulous YouTube video, which chronicles most of the locations that appeared in LMS, so I posted a comment on his page asking for the address. I was not sure if he would get back to me, though, so I also sent screen captures of the motel to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, in case he recognized it. And, amazingly enough, he did! At the very same time that I received an email notification alerting me that smbstressfest had replied to my comment with an address, I was also sent an email from Mike letting me know that the Little Miss Sunshine motel was actually the Budget Inn of North Hills located at 9151 Sepulveda Boulevard. As it turns out, Mike drives by the place almost daily on his way to work. So I ran right out to stalk it while the Grim Cheaper and I were in L.A. two weekends ago.

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As you can see below, the Budget Inn of North Hills has, unfortunately, been remodeled slightly since filming took place in the summer of 2005. The motel was still in its Little Miss Sunshine state back in May 2007 when smbstressfest stalked it (as you can see in his video), but it seems that I, sadly, missed the boat on this one. Boo! At least the basic structure of the property remains unchanged.

Despite the alterations being fairly minor, I had an extremely hard time getting my bearings while I was stalking the motel and could not get a grasp on what part of the property appeared in Little Miss Sunshine. I am directionally-challenged anyway (my mom likes to say that I could not find my way out of a paper bag), and because of the way the Budget Inn of North Hills is set up with four practically identical corners, I just could not figure which area had been used in the filming. So, unfortunately, my photographs of this particular locale are not the greatest.

Add to that the fact that the motel is kind of an odd place and, even though I had talked to the management prior to taking photographs, I did not feel entirely comfortable being there and therefore did not do much exploring.

Had I stuck around, I would have loved to have ventured upstairs to take photographs of Room 208, where Olive and Grandpa Edwin spent the night in Little Miss Sunshine. (Dwayne and Frank and Sheryl and Richard stayed in the two rooms located just east of 208.)

And while I am 99.9% certain that the real life interior of three of the Budget Inn’s rooms were used during the filming, unfortunately, due to the remodel, the rooms (which you can see photographs of here) no longer look anything like they did onscreen. Again, boo!

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 stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and smbstressfest for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Budget Inn of North Hills, aka the Little Miss Sunshine motel, is located at 9151 Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills. You can visit the Booking.com page for the hotel here. The Hometown Inn from the 2002 Britney Spears’ movie Crossroads is located just down the street at 9401 Sepulveda Boulevard.

August 5, 2013
The “Little Miss Sunshine” Restaurant

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, while doing research on the former Abiquiu eatery (now Wokcano) from Get Shorty (which I blogged about here), I came across a Chowhound message board on which a commenter named Kevin stated that Pann’s restaurant in Ladera Heights was the spot where the Hoover clan – Olive (Abigail Breslin), Richard (Greg Kinnear), Dwayne (Paul Dano), Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin), Sheryl (Toni Collette), and Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carell) – stopped for a mid-road-trip breakfast in fave movie Little Miss Sunshine. Because the breakfast scene was one of my favorites in the entire flick, I was extremely excited to learn this information. Unfortunately though, as is so often the case with locales that are posted online, this one turned out to be wrong.

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While Pann’s menus were visible in the scene, as you can see below, one look at online images of the interior of the restaurant and I knew that it was not the right place. Convincing me further was the fact that Pann’s is not located directly below a freeway overpass, as the Little Miss Sunshine café was shown to be (which you can also see below).

So I got to cyberstalking and fairly quickly came across an absolutely amazing YouTube video (that you can watch by clicking below) in which a fellow stalker named smbstressfest chronicled pretty much every single locale that appeared in the movie. And while he did not state the addresses of any of the places, in response to a commenter named starbucksmunkey (love it!), he did give the Google Earth coordinates of the restaurant. Woot woot! And even though smbstressfest had mentioned that the eatery was no longer in operation, I was still chomping at the bit to stalk it and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there this past weekend while the two of us were in L.A.

The Little Miss Sunshine production notes state that the flick was lensed over a thirty-day period during the “hot” summer of 2005, at which time, according to the mmm-yoso!!! website, the space housed an eatery named Rutt’s Hawaiian Café. Rutt’s was shuttered by the time smbstressfest stalked it in 2007 (the chain still boasts an outpost in Culver City, though) and at some point thereafter a Mexican steakhouse named Don Carlos was opened on the site, but it, too, has since been closed. According the property’s LoopNet listing, the 5,130-square-foot building also once housed a Denny’s.

Which makes sense because the property does look very much like a Denny’s location – to me, at least.

And while a sign in the window states that Maly’s Pizza Buffet is “coming soon”, I do not know how accurate that is.

In Little Miss Sunshine, the Hoover family stops at the café towards the beginning of their road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach. It is there that Olive orders waffles “alamodie” and is lambasted by her father for choosing to eat something so high in fat.

The interior of Rutt’s was used quite extensively in the filming. Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to have been able to go inside that restaurant!

Thankfully, I was able to snap a few photographs of the interior through the front window, although they are not of the section of the restaurant that appeared in the movie. In Little Miss Sunshine, Olive and her family dined in the southeast portion of the building, but the only area in which the blinds were not drawn was the northern part, unfortunately. Boo!

The exterior of Rutt’s was also shown in the scene.

You can watch the Little Miss Sunshine restaurant scene by clicking below.

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 smbstressfest for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The supposed Pann’s restaurant from Little Miss Sunshine is actually the former Rutt’s Hawaiian Café located at 17371 East Valley Boulevard in La Puente. Unfortunately, the eatery is currently closed.

August 2, 2013
The “Little Miss Sunshine” Gas Station

A few months back, while doing research on Wokcano from Get Shorty (which I blogged about here), I came across a Chowhound message board titled “Restaurants Seen in the Movies.” One of the eateries mentioned on the page was Pann’s restaurant at 6710 La Tijera Boulevard in Ladera Heights, which a commenter named Kevin said was used in 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine – a film that I absolutely LOVED. (That information actually turned out to be incorrect – Pann’s did not appear in Little Miss Sunshine, but that’s a different story for a different post.) Prior to visiting the message board, I had no idea whatsoever that LMS had done any filming in the L.A. area (outside of a very brief driving scene near Vasquez Rocks). So that night I popped in our Little Miss Sunshine DVD to re-watch it and hopefully track down some of its locales. And track some down, I did, the first of which was the supposed HartCo gas station that the Hoover family – Richard (Greg Kinnear), Sheryl (Toni Collette), Dwayne (Paul Dano), Olive (Abigail Breslin), Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin), and Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carell) – stopped at during their road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach.

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This location was actually quite an easy find. While watching the movie, I spotted the back of an address number through the gas station’s front window that I was fairly certain read “24518”.

Thanks to the station’s red, blue and gray color scheme (which you can see below), I was fairly certain that it was a Chevron. So I did a Google search for “Chevron”, “Los Angeles” and “24518” and, sure enough, the first result returned was for a station located at 24518 Lyons Avenue in Newhall, which turned out to be the right place. Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk it this past weekend while we were in L.A.

The gas station pit stop is a bad (but absolutely hilarious) experience for the Hoover family in Little Miss Sunshine. While there, Frank, who has just recently been released from the hospital after trying to kill himself, runs into his ex-boyfriend, Josh (Justin Shilton), and Josh’s new uber-successful boyfriend, Larry Sugarman (Gordon Thomson); Richard learns via a phone call that his new business venture has fallen through; and Olive, who has been practicing a dance routine on the side of the property, gets accidentally left behind when her distracted family later drives away.

Because the clutch on the Hoover’s Volkswagen bus is broken, when they return to the station to retrieve Olive a few minutes later, they are unable to stop and Olive has to run alongside the car and hop inside while it is still moving! I swear, the scene never fails to make me laugh (like hysterically laugh!), even though I have seen it about 25 times!

While this location is technically “just a gas station”, I could NOT have been more excited to stalk it. I was literally jumping up and down when we arrived. Looking back, though, I really think the GC and I should have rented a yellow VW bus for the occasion.

Adding to my excitement was the fact that the station looks pretty much EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen in Little Miss Sunshine!

The payphone that Richard used in the scene was just a prop, though, that was brought in for the filming and is not actually there in real life.

Which is odd because the property does have two working payphones that could have been utilized in the scene.

The interior of the Chevron station also appeared in the movie and the manager who was on duty when we stalked the place was nice enough to let me snap a picture of it. As you can see, it was altered significantly for the filming, with the cigarette and chewing tobacco racks taken out to make room for the pornographic magazine display that played a significant role in the scene.

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 HartCo gas station from Little Miss Sunshine is actually the Chevron station located at 24518 Lyons Avenue in Newhall.

August 1, 2013
The “Pretty Woman” Opera House

Today’s locale is one that I have been trying to track down for over a year and a half now – ever since discovering that pretty much every other location website out there had gotten it wrong. I am talking about the exterior of the supposed San Francisco opera house featured in the 1990 classic romantic comedy Pretty Woman. Last January, while on a Pretty Woman kick, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, where filming of the opera scene is said by several websites to have taken place. And while the interior of the museum did, in fact, appear in the movie, I took one look at the exterior and knew without a doubt that it was not the exterior shown in Pretty Woman.

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As you can see below, the Pretty Woman opera house and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, while somewhat similar, are most definitely NOT one and the same. Which begs the question – how does erroneous information like this get published? Yet again, the answer is shoddy research and lazy reporting. Once upon a time, someone made the claim that the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles was used as the exterior of the Pretty Woman opera house and everyone else just jumped on the bandwagon without doing any of their own investigating. I call that “spaghetti-style stalking” – let’s just throw some locations out there and see what sticks – and it is maddening! Anyway, while I knew that the Natural History Museum did not stand in for the exterior of the Pretty Woman opera house, I had no idea what location actually was used and spent the next year and a half trying to figure it out. Then on Monday afternoon, I got a text from my good friend Nat letting me know that she had found the site – in Pittsburgh of all places! (I should mention here that Nat is not AT ALL into stalking, so this truly was a feat!)

I originally got Nat, who is a native San Franciscan, involved in the hunt because I had assumed that the building used in Pretty Woman was located somewhere in the City by the Bay. In a bad twist of fate, while the scene was originally set to be lensed at S.F.’s iconic War Memorial Opera House, a few days before the shoot date, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, rendering the city, and War Memorial, unfilmable. So director Garry Marshall and his team had to scramble to find a different last-minute location at which to film. They wound up using three different locales to stand in for the opera house. The Natural History of Museum of Los Angeles was used as the interior of the concert hall’s lobby area.

In the scene, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) and Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) walk through the main entrance of the Natural History Museum and head to the right.

I am fairly certain that the curved wall panel pictured below was a set piece that was added for the filming, as the actual walls of the museum are not rounded.

As you can see in the screen capture below, the tiled floor pattern also seems to be cut off by that rounded panel, further leading me to believe that it was a set piece.

Edward and Vivian then walk past an usher handing out programs . . .

. . . and up a flight of stairs.

Had the camera panned just slightly farther to the right in the scene, the museum’s famous dinosaurs would have been visible.

For the interior of the actual theatre, production designer Albert Brenner constructed a set at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where Pretty Woman was lensed. In Garry Marshall’s DVD commentary featured on the Pretty Woman (15th Anniversary Special Edition) DVD, he states that the set was built against a soundstage wall and that the cast and crew had to climb a ladder to gain access to the balcony area.

While the lobby and theatre areas were easy finds, it was the exterior of the opera house that had me in the dark. Because the building shown in Pretty Woman did bear a striking resemblance to the War Memorial Opera House (which you can see a picture of here), I figured that it was also most likely located somewhere in San Francisco. So after asking fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and John, from the Silent Locations blog, for their help in tracking the place down, I emailed a screen capture of the building to Nat to see if she recognized it at all. She did not, but kept the picture on hand in case she ever came across it in her daily travels. Then yesterday, Nat’s boyfriend headed out to the San Francisco Natural History Museum, which reminded her of my quest, so she started doing some cyber-stalking and, lo and behold, found the place! As it turns out, the Pretty Woman opera house is actually Carnegie Music Hall (which is a part of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, oddly enough!) at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. My hat is DEFINITELY off to her being that she did what we “professional” stalkers could not. And had she not found the locale, it would have remained a mystery because never in a million years would I have EVER thought to search for it in Pennsylvania! (Please pardon the rather poor-quality Google Street View image pictured below.)

Nat also informed me that Carnegie Music Hall was used in the 1983 classic Flashdance, where it masqueraded as the prestigious Pittsburgh Dance and Repertory Company that welder Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) dreamed of attending. The building shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably in the scene in which Alex chickened out of auditioning for the school’s ballet program.

The interior of Carnegie Music Hall and Carnegie Museum of Natural History were also utilized in the filming.

In a very ironic twist, I was SHOCKED to discover that the establishing shot shown in Pretty Woman was actually a still from Flashdance! Towards the middle of Flashdance, Alex attended a black-tie dance recital with her mentor, Hanna Long (Lilia Skala), at the Pittsburgh Dance and Repertory Company. The exterior of Carnegie Music Hall was shown several times throughout that scene, with tuxedo-clad men and cocktail gown-clad women milling about on the stairs outside. Garry Marshall simply used a shot from that scene for Pretty Woman.

The first screen capture pictured below is from Flashdance, while the second is from Pretty Woman. As you can see, the gala sign pictured on the bottom left-hand side of both of the images is a perfect match, as are the man and woman standing just to the right of it. Several of the other people in the screen captures match up, as well, including the man standing with his back against the wall of the middle archway and the white-haired woman in the bottom right-hand corner. Too bad I have never seen Flashdance, otherwise this would have been a much easier find!

The interior of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History was also used in The Silence of the Lambs, as the spot where Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) met up with an entomologist.

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, HUGE THANK YOU to my good friend Nat for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Carnegie Music Hall, aka the exterior of the opera house from Pretty Woman, can be found at the Carnegie Institute, which is located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The area used in the scene is denoted with a pink arrow below. You can visit the Carnegie Institute’s official website here. The interior of the Pretty Woman opera house is the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, which is located at 900 Exposition Boulevard in the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles. You can visit the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’ official website here.

July 31, 2013
Cabo Cantina from “Annie Hall”

The May 2013 issue of Los Angeles magazine featured a short column about a new documentary called The Source Family which detailed the life of a World War II vet turned spiritual guru named Jim Baker (not to be confused with televangelist Jim Bakker), who became most famous for founding both The Source Family cult and a Sunset Strip vegetarian restaurant named simply The Source. The half-page article piqued my interest because, while I had long been aware of The Source (now Cabo Cantina) thanks to its appearance in the 1977 movie Annie Hall, I had never before heard about the inauspicious background of its founder. Upon reading the column, I, of course, immediately added the site to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there while in L.A. a few weeks back. The two of us also watched The Source Family this past weekend, or I should say we tried to. While interesting, the documentary was just a tad too odd for my taste and we turned it off halfway through.

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The Cincinnati-born Baker migrated to Southern California shortly after World War II, during which he earned a Silver Star, to try his hand at acting. While in La La Land, he became inspired by a health-obsessed group named the Nature Boys and a kundalini yoga guru named Yogi Bhajan. In 1957, Jim opened his first organic health food eatery, the Aware Inn. A second Aware Inn and additional establishments named the Old World Restaurant and The Discovery Inn quickly followed. And while all of the endeavors were extremely successful, Jim started to develop a heavy drug problem and his investors wound up absolving him of his duties. Hoping to turn his life around, Baker founded The Source on April 1st, 1969. For his new venture, he chose a 1946-era building at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and North Sweetzer Avenue that had previously housed a hamburger stand.

The Source, which was way ahead of its time, became an immediate hit, attracting such celebrities as Goldie Hawn, John Lennon, Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, Joni Mitchell, and Julie Christie.

About three years after The Source opened its doors, Jim adopted the name of “Father Yod” and began leading a small spiritual commune that he named The Source Family. The group would eventually boast about 140 members, 13 of whom became Yod’s spiritual wives. Most of the Family lived together in Hillhurst, a Los Feliz-area mansion that had once belonged to Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler. The Source, which some articles state brought in about $10,000 per day, provided the group’s income. Money was also generated thanks to the Family’s art gallery, Source Arts, and their popular psychedelic band, YaHoWa13.

In 1974, Father Yod began to fear that the apocalypse was upon him, so he sold The Source and, along with the Family, fled to Hawaii. The guru passed away shortly thereafter, on August 25th, 1975, in a hang gliding accident. The restaurant continued to operate as The Source for a couple of years, whereupon it was purchased by new owners who transformed it into an eatery called The Cajun Bistro. It was during that time that the front patio was enclosed.

Otherwise though, the restaurant still looks very much the same as it did during The Source days.

Today, the site houses Cabo Cantina. The photographs below show what was once The Source’s patio area, but is now the interior of the Mexican eatery. The brick walls seen in the background of the pictures are the former exterior walls of The Source. I absolutely LOVE that they are still visible!

Cabo Cantina is also fairly popular with the Hollywood set. Such stars as Brittany Snow, Ryan Rottman, Jessica Simpson, Cacee Cobb, and Donald Faison have all been spotted there in recent years.

In Annie Hall, The Source was where Alvy (Woody Allen) proposed to his longtime on-again/off-again girlfriend Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) over a plate of alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast. Yum!

In the scene, the former Golden Crest Retirement Home is visible behind Alvy. That site is now the iconic Standard Hotel.

When Annie turns down Alvy’s proposal, he gets so upset that he winds up hitting three cars while trying to exit The Source’s parking lot and is later arrested.

The restaurant was also featured in the 1970 flick Alex in Wonderland.

The Source also appeared at the beginning of the 1975 flick Just the Two of Us.

The eatery also popped up in the Season 1 episode of the reality series Saddle Ranch (yeah, I’d never heard of it, either) titled “Rachel’s Hair Trigger”. In the episode, the gang goes to Cabo Cantina to grab some after-work cocktails and Rachel winds up drinking too much and causing a huge bar brawl. And while the restaurant was also apparently featured in an episode of Bad Girls Club, I am unsure of which episode.

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: Cabo Cantina, from “Annie Hall”, is located at 8301 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

July 23, 2013
Wokcano from “Get Shorty”

A couple of months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called to let me know that he had just discovered that the iconic scene from Get Shorty in which loan-shark-turned-movie-producer Chili Palmer (John Travolta) threw a henchman named Bear (James Gandolfini) down a flight of stairs had been lensed at a restaurant named Abiquiu (now Wokcano) in Santa Monica. And even though I had not seen the 1995 gangster comedy in years, I was beyond thrilled to learn this information and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there for happy hour just a few days later.

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Abiquiu was opened at 1413 5th Street in Santa Monica on July 28th, 1994 by John Sedlar. The restaurateur had originally founded a more upscale, special occasion-type eatery named Bikini at the site in 1991. After Bikini folded in early 1994, due to a combination of the recession and the aftereffects of the the Northridge earthquake, the two-story space sat vacant for the about six months.

Sedlar then opened the more casual Abiquiu, named for the Santa Fe town where his grandparents once lived, in its place. He kept the interior, which in an August 1994 Los Angeles Times article journalist S. Irene Virbila described as “one of the most beautiful in L.A.”, largely the same. At some point in 2002, Abiquiu closed. Following in its place were several eateries, including Union, then Akwa, and then, most-recently, in July 2008, the Wokcano chain opened its fifth Los Angeles-area outpost at the site. Amazingly enough, despite the many changes in ownership over the 18 years since Get Shorty was filmed, the restaurant is still very recognizable from its onscreen appearance. But more on that later.

The GC was floored to discover Wokcano’s stellar happy hour, which he quickly dubbed “the best in L.A.” And I have to say that I agree with him. The food was excellent, the servings huge and the prices extremely inexpensive. I highly recommend the Garlic Brussels Sprouts ($5) and the Crispy Pepper Calamari ($7), both of which are to die for!

Happy hour is offered in Wokcano’s upstairs bar area, off of which is located a huge outdoor patio, complete with couches and cabanas. Love it!

In Get Shorty, Abiquiu was the restaurant where Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo) tried to sabotage Karen Flores (Rene Russo) and Chili’s lunch meeting with movie producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman).

When Bo’s “muscle”, Bear, tried to intimidate Chili, Chili responded by throwing him down a flight of stairs.

Amazingly, that now-famous staircase still looks exactly the same as it did when Get Shorty was filmed! (Unfortunately, Wokcano is housed in an extremely bright space, which wreaked havoc on my photographs.)

The downstairs decor has changed quite a bit since filming took place, however. Gone are the brightly-colored walls and booths, and a sushi bar has since been installed. Otherwise, though, the restaurant still looks very much the same as it did onscreen.

At one point while I was taking pictures, the hostess came up to ask why I had such an interest in the staircase. When I told her of its famous onscreen appearance, she was shocked. Apparently, she had not known that bit of trivia prior to speaking with me, which was shocking! I mean, doesn’t information of that importance deserve a mention in the employee handbook? 😉

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 finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Get Shorty staircase can be found at Wokcano, aka the site of the former Abiquiu restaurant, which is located at 1413 5th Street in Santa Monica. You can visit the eatery’s website here.

July 22, 2013