Category: Movie Locations

Henry’s Tacos from “People Like Us”

Last weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I finally decided to check out People Like Us. And while I can’t say that I loved it (I am not big on depressing movies), it was an enjoyable watch and Chris Pine was, as always, oh-so-yummy. And the flick was filmed in its entirety in Los Angeles, so there’s that. Anyway, while watching, I became a wee-bit intrigued with Henry’s Tacos – a walk-up taqueria where several scenes were filmed. In one of the scenes that took place there, I noticed a sign in the background that, on first glance, I thought read “Silver Lake” and immediately assumed that Henry’s was located in that area. And while I made a mental note to do some further research on the place, for whatever reason (probably too much champagne ), I promptly forgot about it.

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So imagine my surprise when I spotted the place on the corner of Moorpark Street and Tujunga Avenue in Studio City last Monday morning while heading to one of my favorite stores, Swag Antiques, for a little retail therapy. As it turns out, the sign behind Henry’s is actually for a bar named the Starlite Room. Yes, I am that blonde! Anyway, I could not believe my good fortune in stumbling upon the restaurant and immediately pulled over to snap some pics.

Henry’s Tacos was originally founded on December 13th, 1961 by an Assembly of God minister from Nebraska named Henry Comstock. The Googie-style walk-up eatery was designed by architect John B. Ferguson and, at the time of its opening, tacos were priced at 35 cents. When Henry retired in 1968, his daughter, LeVonne Eloff, took over the business and ran it for more than four decades until she passed away in 2009, at which point her daughter, Janis Hood, stepped in. Amazingly, Janis still employs the exact same recipes that her grandfather did over fifty years ago. The corner building that houses Henry’s has also been left unaltered during all of that time and still looks exactly the same today as it did when it first opened. As Janis said in a NoHo Arts District article, “When you have something that works . . . don’t change it. If it works it doesn’t need to be fixed. People like good homemade food at affordable prices . . . no matter what decade it is.” Couldn’t agree with you more, Janis! I wish the owner of Vitello’s (which is located down the street from Henry’s and used to be one of my very favorite restaurants) had heeded the same advice. Sadly, the place was recently gutted and remodeled, its menu completely revamped, and currently is a sad shadow of its former self. Sigh. But I am happy to report that Henry’s is still going strong!

Unfortunately it was 10:30 in the morning when I stalked Henry’s – a bit too early for tacos (I was only on my second Starbucks of the day at the time ) – so I did not get to sample any of the fare. But I do plan on dragging the GC back there as soon as possible for some lunch.

In People Like Us, long-lost siblings Sam (Chris Pine) and Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) head to Henry’s Tacos for a bite to eat after attending an AA meeting.

Sam and Frankie are later shown eating at the taqueria once again during a montage sequence in which the two are getting to know each other. The idea to use Henry’s Tacos in the flick was actually Chris Pine’s. According to a June 2012 Los Angeles Daily News article, the actor, who grew up in the Studio City area, used to grab a bite to eat at Henry’s regularly during his childhood years. Other celebrity fans of the eatery include Larry King, Brad Pitt, Sarah Hyland, Michelle Branch, James Marsden, Adam Levine, Marla Sokoloff, Jason Reitman, Tony Danza, Adam Carolla, Tom Hanks, Andy Griffith, George Lopez, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Mary-Kate even told Oprah Winfrey in a special “favorite foods” segment that Henry’s has “the most incredible hard shell tacos I’ve ever had”.

People Like Us is not the first production to film at Henry’s. The taqueria also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Adam –12 titled “Log 91: You’re Not the First Guy’s Had the Problem”, in the scene in which Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Officer Jim Reed (Kent McCord) discuss the difficulties of being a married police officer.

It is amazing to me that the restaurant still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1968 when the episode was shot. So incredibly cool!

Henry’s also appeared very briefly in the background of the 1978 Cheech and Chong flick Up in Smoke, in the scene in which “Stoned Motorcycle Cop” (Otto Felix) pulled over Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) and Anthony ‘Man’ Stoner (Tommy Chong).

And, according to fave website OnLocationVacations, the yet-to-air Alyssa Milano series Mistresses also filmed at Henry’s this past August.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Henry’s Tacos from People Like Us is located at 11401 Moorpark Street in Studio City.

November 9, 2012
Jimmie’s House from “Pulp Fiction” – the Correct One!

Last week, a location photographer named Cris emailed me to ask for some stalking help. Turns out he had just scouted a house located at 4507 Kraft Avenue in Studio City and the owner (who bought the abode in 2009) had informed him that the residence had been used as Jimmie Dimmick’s (Quentin Tarantino’s) house in Pulp Fiction. Cris was a bit confused, though, as the place looked nothing at all like what he remembered of Jimmie’s pad in the 1994 thriller. So he did some online digging later that day and discovered that several websites confirmed what the homeowner had told him. Still not convinced, though, Cris contacted me to see if I might be willing to either verify or discount the rumors. And because I quite simply HATE, HATE, HATE erroneous location information being out there, I happily obliged! Thankfully it did not take me long to find the answer to this conundrum.

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One look at the residence located at 4507 Kraft Avenue via Google Street View and I knew it was not the right place. Jimmie’s house in the movie did not have a curved front door, nor did I remember it being L-shaped. So I popped in my Pulp Fiction DVD, scanned ahead to to the portion of the movie that took place at Jimmy’s house and immediately noticed an address number of “4149” on the curb in the background of the scene. Knowing that the simplest answer is most often the correct one, I decided to begin my hunt on Kraft Avenue, the street where most websites said the abode was located. I did a quick Google search of “4149 Kraft Avenue” and, sure enough, the Street View of that address matched perfectly to what had appeared onscreen – which absolutely shocked me! If the location was that easy to find, why on earth is there erroneous information about it out there?? The answer – shoddy research, which irks me to no end. One person says that Jimmie’s house is located at 4507 Kraft Avenue and everyone else just takes it at face value. There are so many blogs out there on which locations from other sites are merely copied in their entirety with no verification or new research done – which in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion is both lazy and unoriginal. As I stated recently in my post on the correct A Nightmare on Elm Street bridge, if one is going to take the time to write a blog or publish a book, then they should also take the time to make sure their information is valid. I just finished reading O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It in which author William C. Dear repeatedly states the mantra, “Never assume, always verify.” LOVE IT! (The book is PHENOMENAL by the way! I went in thinking Dear was a total fruitcake for believing O.J. is innocent, but am now completely convinced of that fact! If you are interested, you can visit his website here.)

As you can see below, the two sculpted hedges and streetlight in front of 4149 Kraft Avenue match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen in Pulp Fiction in the scene in which Winston “The Wolf” Wolfe (Harvey Keitel) arrived at Jimmie’s house.

From there, finding Jimmie’s house via aerial views was a snap. As it turns out, Jimmie’s pad is located at 4145 Kraft Avenue.

While the front exterior of the residence was never actually shown in Pulp Fiction, the backyard area was used extensively in the scene in which The Wolf hosed down Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson). As you can see in the below screen capture as compared to the aerial view, the unique roofline (blue arrow), porch overhang (pink arrow), diagonally-angled chimney (red arrow), and placement of the garage (green arrow) are exact matches.

As is the wooden fence that was visible behind Jules in the scene.

You can see a partial view of that fence in real life in the photograph below.

The only portion of the home’s exterior that appeared in Pulp Fiction was the front door.

As you can see below, the placement of the front door (at the southern edge of the house, next to a room that pops out), is also a match, although the actual door, and house color, have since been changed.

And thanks to Bing aerial views, you can also see that the house was, in fact, painted pink at one point in real life, just as it was in Pulp Fiction.

Because I also come from the “never assume, always verify” school of thought, I did a bit more research and happened to find a July 2007 Los Angeles Times article about Michael Glenn Mullen which stated that the soon-to-be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff happened to grow up in the Kraft Avenue house that was used as Jimmie’s residence in Pulp Fiction. The blurb also mentioned that Michael’s brother, Kevin, still owned the place. So I did a quick search of property records and found that 4145 Kraft Avenue is, indeed, owned by a Kevin Mullen. Voila! During his lifetime, Michael and Kevin’s father, Jack Mullen, was a press agent for countless Hollywood stars including Dyan Cannon, Peter Graves, Ann-Margret, Anthony Quinn, Julie Andrews, Steve McQueen, and Jock Mahoney, some of whom would even stop by the residence from time to time. So incredibly cool!

And while I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,702-square-foot house, which was originally built in 1936, was also used in the filming, I could not find any real life photographs of the interior with which to verify that hunch.

March 29th, 2018 UPDATE – As I just learned via Curbed Los Angeles, Jimmie’s house is currently for sale! If you have an extra $1.4 million laying around, it can be yours! For the rest of us, MLS photos of the property are aplenty, thankfully, and I can now say with certainty that the real life interior of the home was utilized in Pulp Fiction. As you can see below, the kitchen still looks almost exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed 24 years ago.

As does the living room;

bedroom;

and backyard.

Sadly, the listing does not include any pictures of the infamous hand-washing bathroom.

Sadder still, the residence is being marketed as a “development opportunity,” which means it will likely be gutted or torn down completely. Not cool! I do love the fact that the homeowners have a Pulp Fiction poster prominently on display, though!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Cris for asking me to find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jimmie’s house from Pulp Fiction (the correct one) is located at 4145 Kraft Avenue in Studio City. In the movie, The Wolf pulled up in front of the house located next door, at 4149 Kraft Avenue. The “Smallest Park” from the “Smallest Park” episode of Parks and Recreation (which I blogged about here) can be found just up the street, in the parking lot located next to 4378 Kraft Avenue. Vitello’s Italian Restaurant from The Deep End of the Ocean and Robert Blake-fame (which I blogged about here) is located just around the corner at 4349 Tujunga Avenue, as is Robert Blake’s former house (which I blogged about here) at 11604 Dilling Street; The Brady Bunch house (which I blogged about here) at 11222 Dilling Street; and the house where Kevin Federline and Britney Spears got married (which I blogged about here) at 4053 Farmdale Avenue. Henry’s Tacos from People Like Us (which I have yet to blog about) is also located up the street at 11401 Moorpark Street.

November 6, 2012
Sidney’s House from “Scream 3”

One location that I was absolutely desperate to find in time for this year’s Haunted Hollywood posts was the isolated house where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) lived in Scream 3. I knew from the flick’s Wikipedia page that the residence was located somewhere in the Topanga area, but other than that, I had very little to go on. Then, last week, on a whim, I decided to peruse through Malibu Locations, my favorite filming location database, to see if the property was featured on it and, as luck would have it, it was! From there I enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who is much better at tracking down locales than I am, and, thanks to some good, old-fashioned elbow grease, he was able to find the abode in just a few short hours! Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place just a few days later.

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Sadly though, when we arrived, we discovered that Sidney’s house is located on a private road and, aside from a few signs warning that trespassers will be prosecuted and a set of five mailboxes (apparently not even mail carriers are allowed on that street!), is not at all visible to the public. I was so hoping to at least be able to see and pose in front of the large wooden gate that was shown in the movie, but, alas, that was not to be. Boo! So even though this stalk was a bit of a let-down, because the location is one that many people seem to be looking for, I figured it was definitely still worthy of a blog post.

According to the Reel Scout website, in real life, Sidney’s abode, which sits on three parcels of land and boasts three separate dwellings, is known as Windwalk Ranch and it consists of forty private acres, a water tank, a corral, a barn, and a ranch house (which I believe is the building that appeared in Scream 3). And I just about fell over when I discovered, thanks to the Berg Properties website, that the residence has belonged to none other than actor Rick Schroder – my girl Pinky Lovejoy’s first Hollywood crush – since 2005.

Because Windwalk Ranch contains so many different structures on such a vast piece of land, I was unable to discern from aerial views exactly which dwelling was used in Scream 3. I am fairly certain, though, that it is the barely-visible building denoted with an orange arrow below, although the roof line appears to be a bit different than the roof line that is shown in the Malibu Locations images.

Sidney’s house shows up quite a few times in Scream 3, most prominently towards the beginning of the flick. And while I was not able to take a photograph of the residence for comparison purposes, you can check one out here. As you can see, the structure still looks pretty much exactly the same in real life as it did onscreen over a decade ago.

The jury is still out on whether the actual interior of the property was used in the filming, though. While some of the interior of the real life house matches up to what appeared onscreen, some definitely does not. Areas of the house that do match up include the barn-like interior doors (which you can see real life pictures of here and here;

the positioning of the kitchen window (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

the positioning, shape and size of the living room window (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

and the brick wall behind the fireplace (which, as you can see in this picture, is painted white in real life).

The areas that do not match up include the hallway behind the kitchen. As you can see in the screen captures below and this real life photograph of the house, Sidney’s house had a stairway and small window behind the kitchen, while the actual house features a glass-paneled door.

Sidney’s front door is in a different place, as well, as you can see in this real life photograph of the house as compared to the screen capture below. In the movie, the front door is flush with the wall that runs perpendicular to the kitchen, but in real life the front door is situated on the wall that faces the kitchen.

What really does not make sense, though, is that in the scene in which Dewey Riley (David Arquette) proposed to Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), the exterior of the front door is shown and it also does not match up to the positioning of the home’s real life front door, which you can see photographs of here and here. Color me so confused! Either a set very closely resembling the actual home was used for all interior (and, quite possibly, front porch) filming or the residence has been quite drastically remodeled since Scream 3 was filmed in 1999. I would lean toward the set option, except for the fact that only a few scenes took place inside of Sidney’s home and I cannot imagine producers building a set for so few scenes. Not to mention that the real life interior of both Runyon Ranch (which I blogged about here) and the Canfield-Moreno Estate (which I blogged about here) were used in the flick. So I really am torn. What are your thoughts, my fellow stalkers?

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Sidney’s house from Scream 3 is located at 21914 Goldstone Road in Topanga. The residence is located on a private street and is not at all visible or accessible to the public.

October 29, 2012
Rebecca’s House from “The Roommate”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for over a year now is the mansion where Rebecca Evans (Leighton Meester) lived in the 2011 flick The Roommate. And I should mention here that while I did not particularly like the Single White Female-esque thriller, because my main man, cutie Matt Lanter, had a role in it (albeit an extremely small one), I purchased it as soon as it came out on DVD and became just a wee bit obsessed with tracking down its locales. The location I was most interested in finding, of course, was the ginormous mansion where Rebecca grew up. Because Kaldi Coffee & Tea in South Pasadena (which I blogged about way back in February 2012) was featured in the flick, I figured that Rebecca’s residence would most likely be located in the same vicinity. Try as I might, though, I just could not seem to find it. Then, last week, while driving to the Rose Bowl Flea Market, the Grim Cheaper and I passed by a house that I thought might be the right one (as it turns out, it wasn’t). It was not until I popped in my The Roommate DVD later that afternoon to check, though, that I realized what a complete and total blonde I am!

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Somehow, the first time I watched The Roommate, I missed the glaringly obvious address placard reading “1234 S Oak Knoll Ave” that was visible on the front gate of Rebecca’s house. So, upon noticing it while watching the flick last weekend (and after a few minutes of feeling like an absolute dolt!), I did a Google search for “1234 South Oak Knoll Avenue” and “Pasadena” and, lo and behold, it was the right spot! How in the heck I missed that sign the first time around, I will never know! Anyway, once I had the address, I dragged the GC right on out to stalk the place.

In real life, the property is known as Le Petit Trianon, after Marie Antoinette’s onetime Palace of Versailles residence of the same name, on which the design was based. The estate was originally constructed in 1916 by architect Louis du Puget Millar. It boasts 6 bedrooms, 7 baths, a whopping 13,000 square feet of living space, a recording studio (with its own pub!), a gym, a guest house, a gardener/tool room, a 0.98-acre plot of land, a carport, and a five-car garage. One of the residence’s early owners was Robert Woolsey, of the Wheeler & Woolsey comedy team, who reportedly threw lavish Hollywood parties on the premises. Sadly though, as you can see below, not much of the mansion is visible from the street.

The abode appears a few times in The Roommate, during the portion of the movie in which Rebecca takes her new college roommate, Sara Matthews (Minka Kelly), to her childhood home for Thanksgiving weekend. The film’s production notes state, “One of the most striking locations used in the film is a historic house in Pasadena, which served as Rebecca’s parents’ home. Built in 1916, the house is an exact replica of Marie Antoinette’s Versailles getaway, Le Petit Trianon. Everything in the house is original from the doorknobs to the chandeliers. Its ballroom, a popular setting for fundraisers, is decked out with moldings of 14- and 17-karat gold. Over the decades, guests have ranged from silent film legend Charlie Chaplin to the Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles. Now owned by Letty Isberra, the house has become a local landmark. The Isberra family is so proud of their home’s unusual provenance, they travelled to Versailles to visit its inspiration and had themselves photographed in front of the original. ‘Then we came home and took a picture in front of our house with the same clothes,’ says Isberra. ‘We had both pictures framed and we display them side by side. You can’t tell the difference.’” SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

And while I was bummed at the fact that virtually none of the residence was visible from the street, I was pretty floored to see that address placard in person.

The real life interior of the mansion, which you can check out some pictures of here, was also used in the filming. The areas of the house which appeared in the flick include the entryway (which you can see an actual photograph of here);

a bedroom (which you can see a photograph of here)

the stairway (which you can see a photograph of here);

the living room (which you can see a photograph of here and which stood in for a dining room in the flick);

and the kitchen (which you can see a photograph of here).

Thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations, I learned that the same mansion was also featured in the Season 1 episode of GCB titled “Sex is Divine” as the residence that Burl Lourd (Bruce Boxleitner) considered buying for Gigi Stopper (Annie Potts).

Only the interior was used though. As you can see below, for the exterior of the house, a different property was featured.

Also thanks to OnLocationVacations, I learned that the pilot episode of Devious Maids, which is not set to air until 2013, was filmed at the residence. (I got the screen captures below from a promo for the show.)

And, fellow stalker Ashley, of The Drewseum website, informed me that the interior of the property was used as the wedding venue in the Season 6 episode of CSI titled “Rashomama”. Interestingly enough, the exterior of the mansion that appeared in that episode was the mansion from The Beverly Hillbillies movie, which I blogged about back in January.

Ironically enough, just two doors down from The Roommate mansion is a house that I am very familiar with. In fact, I make a point of stalking the place each and every October.

As you can see below, the house is an absolute Halloween masterpiece! I so wish I was still young enough to go trick-or-treating as I would love to knock on that door on Halloween! Anyone have a couple of kids I can borrow on the 31st?

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Rebecca’s house from The Roommate is located at 1234 South Oak Knoll Avenue in Pasadena. The mansion with the fabulous Halloween decorations is located just two doors south at 1254 South Oak Knoll Avenue.

October 26, 2012
The Correct “A Nightmare on Elm Street” Bridge

While stalking the Venice Canals (the history of which you can read about on yesterday’s post about Lana Clarkson’s former home) with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, last July, he mentioned that there was some misinformation floating around online about the Venice Canal bridge that appeared in the 1984 horror flick A Nightmare on Elm Street. Mike explained that every filming location website and book seemed to have a differing opinion as to which of the area’s nine bridges were used in the production and that he had long wanted to clear up the confusion once and for all. And that right there is why I love Mike – the guy is meticulous in his reporting. It seriously irks me when people post erroneous location information online or in books. I am of the opinion that if you are going to take the time to write a blog or publish a book, you should also take the time to make sure the information you are putting forth is valid. So Mike and I decided right then and there to finally set the record straight about the locale, even though I had never actually seen A Nightmare on Elm Street.

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In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp) and Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) discuss the “Balinese way of dreaming” while standing on a white-trellised bridge overlooking the Venice Canals. Thankfully, Mike was fairly certain that he knew which bridge had been featured in the movie prior to the start of our hunt. So, iPad in hand, we headed right on over to it.

We quickly scanned through A Nightmare on Elm Street (thank you iTunes!) to the bridge scene and tried to compare the homes visible in the background to the homes near the bridge where Mike thought filming had taken place. Sure enough, he almost immediately spotted a unique house with a corner balcony and rounded windows that matched up perfectly to what had appeared onscreen. Eureka!

While the trees surrounding the house (which is pictured below from the opposite direction that it was pictured in the movie) have grown considerably over the past 28 years (how in the heck has Johnny Depp not aged in all that time, by the way?!?!), it still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1984 when A Nightmare on Elm Street was filmed, as you can see below. Unfortunately, there was too much foliage covering the side of the house that appeared in Nightmare, so I was not able to take a photograph of it from the same direction.

But you can see in the aerial view pictured below that the house’s two arched windows and corner balcony match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen.

On an Elm Street side note – A fascinating article about Heather Langenkamp, the actress who portrayed “Nancy Thompson” in three of the horror series’ installments, was published in the July 29, 2011 issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine. You can check it out here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding the CORRECT A Nightmare on Elm Street bridge!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The correct A Nightmare on Elm Street bridge connects Linnie Avenue to Court C, crossing over the Eastern Canal, at the Venice Canals in Venice. It is denoted with an orange arrow in the above aerial view. The camera was facing southeast, toward Washington Boulevard, in the movie.

October 23, 2012
Runyon Ranch from “Scream 3”

Another Scream 3 filming location that I had long wanted to stalk was Runyon Ranch – the large hilltop home where actress Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey) lived in the 2000 thriller. I first found out about the locale from fave stalking book Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, but I was not sure how much, if any, of the residence was visible from the street. So, while I added the address to my To-Stalk list, I never ventured out there. Then, a couple of weeks back, I was reminded of Runyon Ranch while stalking the Canfield-Moreno Estate (which also appeared in Scream 3 and which I blogged about yesterday), and decided that, being that it was almost Halloween, it was about time I stalked the place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there.

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As we discovered when we arrived (and contrary to what my GPS was reporting), Runyon Ranch is actually located on a private road inside of Runyon Canyon Park (which I blogged about here) and it cannot be reached by car. Despite this, though, the house is still, thankfully, completely accessible to the public. To catch a glimpse of it, you will have to throw on some tennies and take a brief hike up Runyon Canyon Road. The abode is located about 800 feet east of the gate pictured below. (I was a bit unprepared for a hike, as you can see above, hence the flip-flops.)

I just about had a heart attack as we neared the front of Runyon Ranch as it still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when Scream 3 was filmed over twelve years ago! LOVE IT!

Runyon Ranch, which was originally built in 1951, boasts 2 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,493 square feet of living space, and a 0.66-acre plot of hilltop land.

The residence also features a large horse corral (as you can see below, several adorable animals – including a horse and a goat – were wandering the grounds while we were there) . . .

. . . and some pretty stellar views!

I was floored to discover that a fabulous glimpse of the ranch is visible if you venture up the trail that runs just west of it.

As you can see below, the place is pretty darn ginormous – and so incredibly recognizable from Scream 3!

Runyon Ranch was featured several times in Scream 3, most notably in the scene in which several Stab 3 actors gather together to discuss the recent killings of their fellow cast members.

Pretty much every section of the property was used in the filming, including the interior (which you can see pictures of here) . . .

. . . and the backyard and pool area (which you can also see pictures of here).

Dwight ‘Dewey’ Riley (David Arquette) lived in the ranch’s real life converted Silverstream trailer (which I somehow did not take any photographs of) in the flick, which angered his ex-girlfriend, Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), to no end.

The trailer’s actual interior was also used in the filming. You can check out some photos of it here.

Runyon Ranch was actually blown up in Scream 3 and for that scene an incredibly realistic miniature of the residence was built. You can see a photograph of that miniature on the official Runyon Ranch website here.

Scream 3 was hardly the first production to make use of Runyon Ranch. In the 1986 movie Ruthless People, Dewey’s Silverstream was used as the trailer where Earl Mott (Bill Pullman) lived, although it was moved to the Mountain View Mobile Inn trailer park, located at 1930 Stewart Street in Santa Monica, for the shoot.

As you can see below, virtually none of the trailer’s interior was changed between the filming of Ruthless People and Scream 3. Love it!

In the Season 7 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Mate for Life”, which aired in 1996, David Silver (Brian Austin Green) moved in with his friend Mark Reese (Dalton James), who lived at Runyon Ranch.

During the season, the ranch’s backyard and pool area were used several times.

I am fairly certain that the interior that was shown was just a set, though, and not the actual house.

In the 1996 drama It’s My Party, Runyon Ranch was where Nick Stark (Eric Roberts) and Brandon Theis (Gregory Harrison) lived.

The real life interior of the house was used throughout the flick.

As was the backyard area.

In the 1999 flick Crazy in Alabama, Lucille Vinson (Melanie Griffith) and Harry Hall (Robert Wagner) attended a Hollywood party at Runyon Ranch.

The interior of the residence, dressed to appear like a 1960’s abode, was also used in the filming.

As was the backyard and pool.

Runyon Ranch was also featured in the closing scene of the 2003 comedy Hollywood Homicide, in which Sgt. Joe Gavilan (Harrison Ford) and Det. K.C. Calden (John Hartnett) investigate a murder scene consisting of “a body and a half with some pieces missing”.

According to the official Runyon Ranch website, the property was also used in the 2001 movie Circuit, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the flick anywhere with which to make screen captures for this post.

Several photoshoots have been held on the premises, as well, including a Tobey Maguire shoot for the July 25th, 2003 issue of Entertainment Weekly, a Jim Carrey shoot for the November 2000 issue of Details Magazine, an Oliver Martinez shoot for the May 2002 issue of Interview Magazine, and a James Houston shoot with actor Stephen Dorff.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Runyon Ranch from Scream 3 is located at 3050 Runyon Canyon Road, inside of Runyon Canyon Park, in the Hollywood Hills. To access the property, you will have to park your car outside of Runyon Canyon Park and then walk about 800 feet east on Runyon Canyon Road. You can visit the official Runyon Ranch website here.

October 18, 2012
The Canfield-Moreno Estate from “Scream 3”

One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like ages now is the Canfield-Moreno Estate – an absolutely humongous Italianate-style villa that was featured extensively in the 2000 thriller Scream 3. I first found out about the locale thanks to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who had stalked it a few years back and, as fate would have it, had been invited onto the property and INSIDE OF THE MANSION by a caretaker to snap some pictures. For whatever reason, though, I had just never made it out there. Then, a few weeks ago, Mike reminded me of the site and suggested that I blog about it during my Haunted Hollywood month. Because it is not at all visible from the street, he also kindly agreed to provide the photographs for the post. “All you need is a pic of yourself in front of the gate,” he said, “and I’ll take care of the rest!” So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there just a few days later.

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A production of some sort was actually being filmed when the GC and I showed up to stalk the estate and the main gates were standing wide open. Unfortunately though, as you can see below, even with the gates open, not much was visible. So I honestly cannot thank Mike enough! Without his pictures, this would have made for a very boring blog post. (I ended up having to pose for a photograph in front of the mansion’s back gate as too many cars were driving in and out of the front one, making it impossible for me to stand by it.)

The 22,000-square-foot Canfield-Moreno Estate, which is also known as The Paramour Mansion and The Crestmont, was originally constructed in 1923. It was designed in the Mediterranean Revival-style by Robert D. Farquhar, the same architect who also designed the California Club in downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, and the William Andrews Clark Jr. Mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The 22-room villa was commissioned by silent film star Antonio Moreno and his wife, oil heiress Daisy Canfield Danziger, after whom the residence is now known.

During the time that Antonio and Daisy lived there, the mansion was the site of regular Sunday night soirees with many of Hollywood’s elite in attendance.

When the couple decided to separate in 1928, they deeded the estate to the Chloe P. Canfield Memorial Home, a finishing school for girls that was founded according to Daisy’s father’s will. Sadly, a few years later, on February 23rd, 1933, Daisy lost control of her car while on Mulholland Drive and plunged off a 300-foot cliff. She died instantly. Since that time, it has been rumored that her ghost haunts the mansion.

In the 1950s, the Chloe P. Canfield Memorial Home Foundation was dissolved and the estate sold to Franciscan nuns, who turned the site into a boarding house for troubled girls. After the residence was damaged during the Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987, the nuns vacated the property and put it up for sale. Sadly, the once-grand mansion was left to deteriorate over the decade that followed.

The Canfield-Moreno estate was finally purchased in 1998 by a developer named Dana Hollister for $2.25 million. Hollister, who has an affinity for historic sites, set about restoring the mansion to its original grandeur. She also added a recording studio to the premises and countless musicians have since recorded there, including Gwen Stefani, Papa Roach, Fiona Apple, and Sarah McLachlan. And while Hollister’s original intention was to turn the four-and-a-half-acre site into a luxury hotel, opposition from neighbors halted that plan and it is currently being used as her primary residence.

The ginormous Canfield-Moreno estate is comprised of a 15,388-square foot, U-shaped main house, which boasts 8 bedrooms and 8 baths, as well as several detached cottages and stables that dot the sprawling hilltop land.

As you can see in the aerial views pictured below, the estate is absolutely gargantuan and more of a compound than a residence.

And, as you can also see below, the place also exhibits some pretty amazing views.

The estate’s interior boasts a Moroccan flair and, though remodeled recently, looks like it came straight out of Old Hollywood.

Thanks to the unique look and gargantuan size of the estate, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, it has appeared in more than a few productions over the years.

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In Scream 3, the Canfield-Moreno Estate stood in for the home of Stab 3 producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior appeared in the flick.

In 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, the estate stood in for Hillcrest Academy High School, where Keri Tate (Jamie Lee Curtis) worked. Both the interior . . .

. . . and the exterior were used in the filming. The estate’s pool was covered over for the shoot, as you can see below.

A different location – one that I have yet to find – was used for Hillcrest Academy High School’s front gate.

Also in 1998, the interior of the estate appeared in the music video for the R.E.M. song “At My Most Beautiful”.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

R.E.M.’s “At My Most Beautiful” Video–Filmed at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

In the Season 2 episode of Alias titled “Truth Takes Time”, which aired in 2003, the Canfield-Moreno Estate stood in for the Tuscan villa where Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) hid out with his wife, Emily Sloane (Amy Irving).

The interior of the property was also used in the episode.

Oddly enough, though, at one point during “Truth Takes Time”, the exterior of a different home was shown as an establishing shot of Arvin’s villa.

In the season 3 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk and the Panic Room”, which aired in 2004, the Canfield-Moreno estate was the mansion where record producer Ian Blackburn (Stewart Finlay-McLennan) lived and was murdered – presumably by his pet chimpanzee.

The interior of the house also appeared in the episode.

The estate also appeared in Britney Spears’ 2004 “My Prerogative” music video, in which she crashed her Porsche into the residence’s pool.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

Britney Spears “My Prerogative” Music Video–Filmed at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

In 2009, the mansion appeared in the Season 4 episode of Brothers & Sisters titled “From France with Love” as a prospective wedding venue for Rebecca Harper (Emily VanCamp) and Justin Walker (Dave Annable). While Rebecca is scouting the location with her mom, Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig), and Justin’s mom, Nora Walker (Sally Field), she realizes that a pornographic film is being shot on the premises and therefore decides to go with another venue. LOL

The villa was also used in the music video for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ 2011 song “If I Had a Gun”.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ “If I Had a Gun” Video–Shot at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

According to Wikipedia, the estate was also used in Rock Star: INXS, Rock Star: Supernova, Scream Queens, From G’s to Gents, Rock of Love: Charm School, Charm School with Ricki Lake, Mad Mad House, and MTV’s The X Effect, but I was, unfortunately, not able to find copies of any of the productions with which to verify that information.

On a side-note – The photograph of the Canfield-Moreno Estate that is pictured below, which Mike took, was actually chosen to be featured in the 2012 issue of Locations Magazine!! How incredibly cool is that?

The magazine . . .

. . . and printed photograph are pictured below. Um, LOVE IT!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location and for allowing me to post his FABULOUS pictures of it here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Canfield -Moreno Estate from Scream 3 is located at 1923 Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake.

October 17, 2012
The Meiks’s House from “Frailty”

One of my absolute, hands-down, favorite movies of all time is the 2001 thriller Frailty, which just so happens to be actor Bill Paxton’s directorial debut. And I am apparently in good company with that opinion – according to the Contact Music website, James Cameron, Sam Raimi and Stephen King are also huge fans of the flick, calling it “electrifying”, “the most frightening horror picture I’ve seen since The Shining”, and “edge-of-the-seat entertainment”, respectively. If you have not yet seen Frailty, I cannot more highly recommend doing so! In fact, stop what you are doing right now and go rent it! Do not pass Go, do not collect $200 – just head straight to your nearest video store and get your hands on a copy of the DVD! Anyway, when fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, tracked down the supposed Thurman, Texas-area house where the Meiks family – Dad (Bill Paxton), Young Fenton (Matt O’Leary – the phenomenal actor who also played Marcus in Matthew Lillard’s directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules the World) and Young Adam (the equally phenomenal Jeremy Sumpter) – lived in the movie’s flashback scenes, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to Sun Valley to stalk the place. Because I thought the location would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood postings, though, I had to wait a good four months to blog about it. So here goes!

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In real life, the Frailty bungalow, which was originally built in 1924, shares its 0.98-acre plot of land with another, larger abode. And while Zillow states that the dwelling boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 1,825 square feet of living space, I believe that to be the combined measurements of both houses on the property.

While we were stalking the Frailty house, the owner happened to come outside and she honestly could NOT have been nicer! When I explained that Frailty was one of my favorite movies, she invited us ONTO THE PROPERTY to take a closer look and to check out the backyard area, which was used extensively in the flick. (Yes, I was pinching myself!) She also spent a good thirty minutes chatting with us about the residence and the filming. LOVE IT! The Frailty house actually has quite an interesting history – it was originally constructed in Watts and then moved to Sun Valley at some point thereafter. The abode is also rumored to be haunted, which is one of the reasons Bill Paxton chose to use it in the flick.

The residence is actually located on the grounds of the Rockin’ Horse Academy and I cannot tell you how much fun I had playing with the horses while we were there. So cute!

The Meiks home is one of the main locations used in Frailty and it shows up repeatedly throughout the flick. In the movie, adult Fenton (Matthew McConaughey) says, “We live right behind the Thurman Public Rose Garden [which was actually the Huntington Library rose garden, which I blogged about here], in the house where they used to keep the gardener back in the ‘50s. Dad had gotten a good deal on it back when he and mom got married.” Thankfully, the residence’s exterior looks almost exactly the same in person as it did onscreen, as you can see below.

The backyard area still looks much the same today as it did during the filming, as well.

Amazingly enough, the owner told us that the “cellar” that was used as a kill room in the movie was NOT a set. The Frailty production crew actually dug a huge hole in the home’s backyard, constructed a basement in the space, and filming took place inside of it. So incredibly cool!

After filming wrapped, the crew deconstructed the basement and tried to fill in the hole, but could not find the same type of dirt that covered the rest of the backyard. Because a different type of dirt eventually had to be used, you can still kind of see where the cellar was situated during the filming. Love it, love it, LOVE IT!

Because the real life interior of the home did not look dated enough to stand in for a 1970’s-era house, a set was constructed for the interior scenes. According to the movie’s production notes, of the set design, Bill Paxton said, “I wanted a stark, clean look, like an Edward Hopper painting.” Of the Hitchcockian-style flick, which took 37 days to shoot, he also said, “My vision of this story has always been the idea that it is a very edgy script that pushes a lot of buttons, especially because children are involved. But I thought that’s exactly the reason to give it a real, old Hollywood approach, where all of the darkness is implied instead of being explicit. We hear a chop or a scream, but we never see a drop of blood.” And that, in essence, is the movie’s magic. Without showing an ounce of gore, Frailty manages to grab you right from the very beginning and it does not let go until the credits roll. Did I mention how much I love this movie?

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Meiks’ house from Frailty is located at 10641 Tuxford Street in Sun Valley.

October 16, 2012
The Thomas W. Phillips Residence from “The People Under the Stairs”

In his comment on my Milbank Mansion post, fellow stalker David, from The Location Scout blog, also informed me that directly across the street from the Beckett house (which I blogged about yesterday) was another famous movie location – the Thomas W. Phillips residence, which was featured extensively in The People Under the Stairs. And even though I had never seen the 1991 horror flick, since we were right there and since I was gearing up for my annual Haunted Hollywood postings, I figured I might as well stalk the place. And I am so glad that I did, because its façade is seriously sinister. The residence looks like a real life haunted house and it is not hard to see why Wes Craven chose to feature it in The People Under the Stairs.

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The Thomas W. Phillips residence was constructed in 1905 by the architecture team of Sumner B. Hunt & Abraham Wesley Eager. Hunt was also responsible for designing The Ebell of Los Angeles (an oft-filmed at locale that I have yet to blog about) and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Mt. Washington. Thomas W. Phillips, who had commissioned the construction of the three-story Craftsman-style abode, was one of the original founding residents of L.A. You can check out a photograph of the dwelling from its early days here. As you can see, not much has changed in the 107 years since it was built. Love it!

In real life, the massive abode, which was deemed a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1991, boasts 8 bedrooms, 4 baths, a whopping 7,707 square feet of living space, and a 0.40-acre plot of land. Besides being a filming location, according to a February 1999 Los Angeles Times article, the residence also belonged to actress Butterfly McQueen (aka Scarlett O’Hara’s maid in Gone with the Wind) at one point in time.

The Thomas W. Phillips residence was used quite extensively in The People Under the Stairs as the home where Man (Everett McGill), Woman (Wendy Robie) and Alice (A.J. Langer) – and, of course, the people under the stairs – lived.

In the movie, the residence was said to be the Robeson Funeral Home, which was established in 1896.

All of the interior house scenes were filmed on a studio lot, though, and not inside of the actual Thomas W. Phillips residence, which you can see some photographs of here. And yes, the dwelling does have a very large – and very spooky – basement in real life, much like its onscreen counterpart.

Thanks to The Official Halloween Message Board, I learned that the kitchen of the Thomas W. Phillips residence stood in for the Myers’ kitchen in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween re-boot. Unfortunately, I could not find any great photographs of the real life kitchen online, but you can sort of see it here and here.

The Thomas W. Phillips residence also appeared in the background of both the Season 2 episode of Lie to Me titled “Darkness and Light” . . .

. . . and the Season 3 episode of Brothers and Sisters titled “Going Once . . . Going Twice.”

The abode also popped up in 1989’s The Immortalizer and 2000’s The Convent. And while I could not find copies of either of those movies with which to make screen captures for this post, you can see some on The Location Scout blog here. And while IMDB states that the house was also used in the 1998 video Witchcraft, I could not find a copy of the production with which to verify that information.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post, about one of the best salads I’ve ever had in my life, on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to David, from The Location Scout blog, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Thomas W. Phillips residence, aka The People Under the Stairs house, is located at 2215 South Harvard Boulevard in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.

October 11, 2012
Katie’s House from “The Ring”

While doing research on the Malibou Lake residence that stood in for the office of Doctor Grasnik (Jane Alexander) in the thriller The Ring, I came across a page on fave website Washington State Film Locations which stated that the supposed Seattle-area house where Katie (Amber Tamblyn) lived – and died – in the 2002 flick was actually located in Hancock Park. Well, believe you me, I just about fell off my chair upon learning the information as I had always thought that particular abode was located in the Pacific Northwest, where the majority of The Ring was lensed. So I immediately added the residence to my Haunted-Hollywood-To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there just a few days later.

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Sadly, thanks to some very dense foliage, not much of Katie’s house is visible from the street, as you can see below. In real life, the Tudor-style abode, which was originally built in 1924, boasts 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,610 square feet of living space, and a 0.28-acre plot of land.

The exterior of the stately residence was featured several times in The Ring. It first popped up in the movie’s opening scene in which Katie was tormented and then killed by Samara (Daveigh Chase), seven days after viewing a cursed video tape. As you can see below, while recognizable, the house looks quite a bit different today than it did in 2002 when The Ring was filmed, mostly due to the addition of a front gate, walkway and massive amounts of foliage.

The property next popped up in the scene in which Katie’s friends and family gather for her memorial. In that scene, the driveway area of the home is visible and, as you can see below, at the time of the filming, the hedges surrounding the front yard were much lower than they are now. Boo!

The house lastly shows up – through a rainy windshield – in the scene in which Rachel (Naomi Watts) drops her son, Aidan (David Dorfman), off at her sister’s place for the week.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also used in the flick, but I was unable to find any interior photographs of the residence with which to verify that hunch.

Thanks to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, I learned that the very same residence was also used as the home where Buster (Bernie Mac) lived, with his cheating wife, Robin (Beverly Johnson), in 1997’s How to Be a Player, although very little of the house can actually be seen in the flick.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Charles, from the In Twin Peaks website, for finding this location and to Marc, from the Washington State Film Locations website, for posting it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Katie’s house from The Ring is located at 413 South McCadden Place in Hancock Park.

October 9, 2012