Movie Locations – Page 4

August 30, 2019August 29, 2019

Mayfield Senior School from “All About Steve”

Stalkings can come about from the most random of situations. Many, many moons ago, I joined a grief group (long story) where I met a woman who worked at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena. During one of our sessions, she happened to mention that filming took place on the campus regularly and my ears immediately perked up. After the meeting, I, of course, approached her to pick her brain about the school’s cinematic history and she wound up inviting me for a tour. Though I never took her up on her offer, I did pop by for an impromptu visit one Saturday afternoon several years later. My friend happened to be on site at the time and welcomed me to poke around. Because it was the weekend, all of the buildings were locked up, but I did get to see the exteriors – and they were fabulous! The place somehow went straight to the back of my mind afterwards, though, and stayed there until earlier this summer when I spotted it while scanning through All About Steve making screen captures for this post. Thrilled over the discovery, I dug up my old photos of the school and decided to finally sit down and write about it.

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Mayfield School, as it was initially known, was founded in 1931 by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus on a small campus located at 405 South Euclid Avenue in Pasadena. It was the city’s first private Catholic learning institution, serving students in grades Pre-K through 12 (though boys were only accepted at the primary levels).

By 1950, Mayfield’s enrollment had grown such that more space was needed and it was decided that the facility would split into an upper school and a lower school. The lower, comprising grades K-8, would remain at the Euclid site. For the upper levels, 9-12, a new location was secured thanks to Dr. Charles and Vera Strub who gifted the Society of the Holy Child Jesus with a 1917 mansion situated about two miles away.

Originally known as the Marshall-Eagle House, the striking Italianate Beaux Arts estate was designed by Frederick L. Roehrig (who also gave us the Stimson House from House II: The Second Story, the Andrew McNally House from Kingdom Come, the Lincoln Clark House from Little Black Book, and the Rindge House from The Brasher Doubloon) for oil tycoon E.J. Marshall. Today, it goes by the moniker “Strub Hall” in honor of its generous benefactors. Though transformed from private residence into a campus building, much of the original detailing miraculously remains intact, with the ground floor living spaces repurposed into a chapel, conference room and student activities area. You can check out some photos of the interior here.

The sprawling eight-acre campus boasts five additional buildings, including a gym and a music studio, as well as a courtyard, a meditation garden and a grotto.

It is not at all hard to see how the gorgeous site wound up onscreen.

In All About Steve, Mayfield poses as the supposed Sacramento-area The Youngstrum School, where Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) attends a career day event and speaks about her job as a cruciverbalist. The exterior of Strub Hall . . .

. . . as well as the interior of the school’s auditorium appeared in the movie.

All About Steve is hardly the only production to feature Mayfield. In fact, the property is one of Pasadena’s most popular filming locations – and that’s saying a lot considering the city’s prominence onscreen. There are far too many cameos to chronicle fully here, but what follows are some of the highlights.

Mayfield portrays Valley View Sanitorium, where Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) becomes an unwitting patient, in the Season 2 episode of The Incredible Hulk titled “The Quiet Room,” which aired in 1979.

In one brief scene from the 1992 favorite The Cutting Edge, Strub Hall stands in for the Albertville, France chateau where Kate Moseley (Moira Kelly) and Doug Dorsey (DB Sweeney) stay while in town for the Olympics. It is in the foyer of the building that Kate tells Doug she is retiring from skating. From what I’ve gleaned, virtually all of the movie was shot in Toronto, so I am unsure how this short bit came to be lensed in Pasadena. I am guessing it must have been a pick-up shot captured after principal photography wrapped.

Bishop (Robert Redford) tracks down Liz (Mary McDonnell) teaching music at Strub Hall in 1992’s Sneakers.

Mayfield pops up as the T. Carter Foundation, where Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) goes “all the way to the top” by visiting the richest man in town, Todd Carter (Terry Kinney), in the 1995 drama Devil in a Blue Dress.

In the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor, Strub Hall serves as the office of Dean Richmond (Larry Miller).

That same year, it portrayed the hospital where Matilda (Mara Wilson) was born in Matilda.

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) lives there in the 1997 action flick The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Strub Hall was used for interior scenes involving the Potsdam Conference in the 2006 drama The Good German.

It plays Paris’ Chateau Parc des Chanteraines, where Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) attends an Interpol anti-terrorist seminar, in the Season 4 episode of NCIS titled “Trojan Horse” which aired in 2007.

Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is summoned there to discuss his affair in the 2008 thriller State of Play.

On the series Switched at Birth, which started airing in 2011, Mayfield masquerades as the supposed Kansas City-area Buckner Hall, where Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) attends school.

Mayfield pops up as Bridget Donovan’s (Kerris Dorsey) high school during the third season of Ray Donovan, which kicked off in 2015.

And currently, Mayfield stands in for Atlas Academy on Marvel’s Runaways.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mayfield Senior School, from All About Steve, is located at 500 Bellefontaine Street in Pasadena. Please remember that it is a working school and not open to the public.

August 28, 2019August 27, 2019

The Sharper Image from “When Harry Met Sally”

Movies don’t typically surprise me, as far as locations go. But When Harry Met Sally has me absolutely shocked as of late! Ever since first seeing the romcom when it debuted back in 1989, I had been under the impression that it was lensed entirely in New York. The city is so woven into the fabric of the film – it is practically a character in the story! – that I couldn’t imagine even one frame of it being shot elsewhere. That all changed in 2016, though, when I contacted a crew member regarding a locale from a different production – the crab restaurant from A Few Good Men. As I chronicled in this post, said crew member not only informed me that the eatery I was looking for was in the San Pedro area, but that it had also appeared in When Harry Met Sally! Gobsmacked, I immediately started researching the matter further and discovered several more WHMS sites in Los Angeles, one of which being The Sharper Image where Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) karaoked with Harry Burns (Billy Crystal). Sadly, it’s no longer in business, but I figured it was still blog-worthy nonetheless.

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As has long been documented online, the exterior of The Sharper Image store at 4 West 57th Street in New York (which today houses an Ermenegildo Zegna boutique) was shown in an establishing shot at the top of the When Harry Met Sally karaoke scene. I had always assumed interior footage had been shot there, as well.

During my deep dive into the film’s L.A. locations, though, I was stopped in my tracks by a comment from a man named Colin Stone on the On the Set of New York’s When Harry Met Sally page who stated, “The interior scene of The Sharper Image was actually filmed at the Los Angeles (Wilshire and Grand) store.” A quick Google search for further information on the shop yielded absolutely nothing, which told me it was long since out of business. So I hopped over to Newspapers.com in the hopes of pinpointing its exact former address and found several ads (like the one below from 1986) noting its location as 601 Wilshire Boulevard, right on the corner of Wilshire and Grand, as Colin had said. (Also noted? The fact that it was a non-smoking store! Were people honestly allowed to smoke in retail shops back then??? I certainly don’t remember that as a kid!)

I ran out to stalk it shortly thereafter. At the time (July 2018), the site housed a print shop named LA Grafix.

Per Google Street View, it sits vacant today.

But back in the ‘80s, it was home to the mecca of all-things-yuppie, The Sharper Image. It was there that Harry and Sally headed to find a housewarming gift for their respective BFFs, Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher). While shopping, the two test out a “singing machine” with a duet of “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and, in the process, run into Harry’s ex-wife, Helen Hillson (Harley Jane Kozak), and her new boyfriend, Ira Stone (Kevin Rooney), thereby setting Harry on a downward spiral. Quite a lot of the interior is shown in the scene (which you can watch here). Sadly though, other than the store seeming quite large (which goes against it being located in New York City), there really aren’t any identifying factors like doors or windows visible which would have helped me verify its use in the film. So I, of course, went straight to the source and tracked down Colin! As it turns out, he couldn’t have been nicer or more informative! Currently, he is a professional relaxation therapist and composer, but during The Sharper Image’s early days, he worked in the DTLA store creating health and fitness products, which is how he knew of its big-screen cameo.

I am absolutely kicking myself now for not having ventured inside LA Grafix during my stalk. I (wrongly) assumed that due to the passage of thirty years and the change in occupancy, the space would no longer look anything like it did onscreen. But as Colin wrote in his email, “I popped over to the location maybe 4 years ago and saw that it was a printing place (it was a Saturday and it was closed, but still in business then) and I was totally surprised and amazed to look in the windows and see they still had all the grey and burgundy fixtures, counters, displays, slatwall, everything, still intact from the TSI days!” Talk about a fail on my part!

I did manage to dig up some interior images of the place from a past real estate listing which corroborate Colin’s observations. As you can see, some of The Sharper Image’s grey slatwall, visible in When Harry Met Sally, was held over when the store closed.

There’s some more of it pictured below, though it is no longer grey.

The Sharper Image’s decorative triangular ceiling lining was retained by LA Grafix, as well.

You can also make some of it out here.

The Wilshire & Grand Sharper Image, which was the fifth of the company’s brick and mortar stores, opened its doors on November 12th, 1984. Founder Richard Thalheimer chose the location in a rather unconventional way. As he told the Los Angeles Times, “I just stand on street corners and count the number of people who walk by wearing suits and ties.” Though he looked at spots in Westwood, Beverly Hills and Century City, the corner of Wilshire and Grand fit the bill for his SoCal venture. As the article states, “There among the skyscrapers, he figured, were throngs of young professionals with a potential soft spot for gold-plated dumbbells, sculptured pillows designed to look like Porsche and BMW cars, guns that fire pulses of infrared light and even tummy exercisers, among other things.” Colin said the methodology was backed by the “San Franciscan logic that people shop where they work,” which turned out not to be the case in L.A. At least, not at the time. Today, DTLA is a bustling live/work community, but in the ‘80s, ‘90s, and even the early 2000s, the city virtually cleared out as soon as offices closed. And on weekends, it was practically a ghost town. Not exactly a fertile environment for retail. The downtown Sharper Image was apparently the lowest-performing in the entire chain. Per Colin’s recollection, the store closed in late 1992/early 1993, though the other outposts in Sherman Oaks and Beverly Hills remained open for a time. The company filed for bankruptcy in February 2008 and by the end of that same year, all of its retail stores had, sadly, closed, truly marking the end of an era.

Huge THANK YOU to Colin Stone for identifying this location and providing so much of the intel that appears in this post.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Sharper Image from When Harry Met Sally was formerly located at 601 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. The space is currently vacant, but was home to the print shop LA Grafix when I stalked it last year.

August 2, 2019July 31, 2019

Mawby’s Bar from “Flashdance” – An Update

Typically, when a vacant space is built out for a production, it is dismantled as soon as filming wraps – though sometimes stranger things, ahem, do happen. Take Gwinnett Place, for instance. A wing of the largely deserted Duluth, Georgia shopping center was transformed (with breathtaking attention to detail, I might add) into Hawkins, Indiana’s Starcourt Mall for the third season of Stranger Things. It is one of my favorite locations ever to be brought to life onscreen and, incredibly, was left completely dressed in its destroyed ‘80s state up until earlier this month – almost a year after filming took place! Atypical as that is, the same scenario appears to be true for Mawby’s Bar from Flashdance! As I chronicled in an August 2017 post, the supposed Pittsburgh nightclub was not a real place, but a set created especially for the 1983 movie at a vacant warehouse located at 229 Boyd Street in downtown L.A. While I assumed said set was disassembled following the shoot, fellow stalker Dave (you may remember his amazing research from this post) recently informed me that it popped up again two years later as Coyle’s Club & Cuff in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment! Why producers (not to mention the building owner) chose to leave the bar space intact is beyond me, but I am so grateful they did! Due to the many changes the warehouse incurred in the three-plus decades since Flashdance was shot, it is not at all recognizable, so prior to writing my 2017 post I attempted to dig up additional footage of it from other productions lensed around the same time to further verify its use in the movie. I was unsuccessful, but, thankfully, Dave has now done the legwork for me! So I figure an update is in order!

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It is at Coyle’s Club & Cuff that the officers of the 16th Precinct regularly hang out in Police Academy 2. As Dave explained to me, the small octagonal windows flanking the bar’s front door, the larger one situated on the wall beside it, and the glass block framing perfectly match Mawby’s exterior from Flashdance, giving away its location as 229 Boyd Street, despite looking completely different today.

Dave went on to explain that in one scene, Tackleberry (David Graf) is shown walking inside Coyle’s and, as he enters, it becomes obvious from the octagonal window visible behind him (denoted with a blue arrow below) as well as the glass block framing above the doorway (denoted with a pink arrow) that the warehouse was used for both interiors and exteriors.

Those exact same elements are also apparent in Flashdance, which cements the fact that the inside of the building was utilized in that film, as well – something I hypothesized about in my 2017 post, but could not prove at the time.

As Dave scrutinized the two movies further, he discovered even more matching details! He called my attention to the two shots below, taken from practically the same angle, noting that although framing was built atop the bar for Police Academy 2 changing the look of it, the countertop was left untouched as were the doorway and hatch visible beyond it!

Seeing that doorway and hatch (denoted with pink and blue arrows below) gave me goosebumps! I could hardly believe my eyes, but, sure enough, right before me was proof that the Mawby’s set was left intact long after Flashdance wrapped.

A clearer view of the octagonal hatch is pictured below. (To quote Jake Peralta, “Literal goosebumps!”)

Thrilled at the new development, I excitedly began dissecting Flashdance and Police Academy 2 myself and dug up a few additional elements visible in both, including a vestibule with decorative wood paneling (shown from opposing angles below) situated just inside the front door of the two spaces.

A partition with seating that runs the length of the interiors is also apparent in both flicks.

The counter attached to said partition (shown from opposite angles below) boasts red siding in both productions, as well.

The lip of the bar and the tan and red paneling below it are also direct matches. Oh, how I wish that interior was still intact today!

During his research, Dave unearthed an even more unusual twist! Toward the middle of Police Academy 2, the outside of 229 Boyd appears in an undressed state in the scene in which Doug Fackler (Bruce Mahler) heads to a gas station looking for a public restroom. As Dave wrote to me, “So at some point during production, either before or after Fackler drives past the building, the set designers will have given it quite a makeover!” Though definitely odd, the segment provides a fabulous full view of what the property looked like in 1985 – which is pretty darn close to how it appeared in Flashdance (minus the Mawby’s accoutrements, of course)! Dave notes, “Even the HOTEL lettering is still intact!” Sadly, the location in its current state does not resemble its ‘80s self in the slightest.

As chronicled in my 2017 post, the warehouse pops up in a few other productions, as well, including 1984’s Night of the Comet. In the screen captures below, the Mawby’s site, located just beyond the stop sign, is denoted with a yellow arrow.

Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) and Wilson (Mykelti Williamson) drive by the building in 1988’s Miracle Mile.

And a reused shot of it from Flashdance appeared as an establishing shot in the 1990 made-for-television movie Perry Mason: The Case of the Poisoned Pen, though no actual filming took place there.

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

HUGE thank you to fellow stalker Dave for figuring out this location’s Police Academy 2 connection.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The building that portrayed both Mawby’s Bar in Flashdance and Coyle’s Club and Cuff in Police Academy 2 can be found at 229 Boyd Street in downtown Los Angeles. The neighborhood where it is located is not the greatest, so please exercise caution when visiting.

July 22, 2019July 21, 2019

The Philadelphia Museum of Art from “Rocky”

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has been called the world’s second most famous filming location, falling only behind Grand Central Station in New York. While the latter has been captured on celluloid copious times, the former is known mainly for one significant appearance. It was there that Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) embodied triumph by scaling the site’s massive east entrance stairs, fists pumping in the air, in what is arguably one of cinema’s most iconic moments from the 1976 boxing classic Rocky. Even though I have never seen the movie (I know, I know!), I was very familiar with the archetypal segment (which you can watch here), so there was no way I was going to miss stalking the museum to re-create it while vacationing in the City of Brotherly Love in 2016!

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The Philadelphia Museum of Art as we know it today opened to the public on March 26th, 1928, though its roots date all the way back to 1876 when the city hosted the Centennial Exhibition, the first official World’s Fair to take place in the United States. One of the event’s most popular exhibits was the Art Gallery, situated inside the gorgeous Memorial Hall which still stands today at 4231 Avenue of the Republic. It proved so beloved in fact, that following the fair’s closure, it continued to function, becoming a permanent part of Philadelphia’s cultural landscape. By the 1890s, the need for a bigger space to house the museum’s growing collection had developed and city leaders began making plans to erect a larger gallery, though ground would not be broken on the new site until 1919 and construction would not be completed for another nine years after that.

Towering atop Fairmount Hill, the city’s highest point, the grand structure was designed by the Zantzinger, Borie and Medary and the Horace Trumbauer architecture firms.

The massive facility houses more than 220,000 works in 200 different galleries and features large-scale installations including a ceremonial Japanese teahouse, a pillared hallway fashioned from the ruins of 3 Indian temples and the former main entrance to France’s Abbey Church of Saint-Laurent, as well as pieces by Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hicks, Thomas Eakins, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse.

Though the views of the city it boasts are just as picturesque as the art which hangs on its walls.

Today, PMOA is one of the largest, most visited art museums in the country. And thanks to Rocky, its east staircase is just as big a draw as the museum itself.

The “Rocky Steps,” as they are colloquially known, pop up twice in the flick – first mid-film, in the scene in which the fledgling boxer, while training for a big fight, unsuccessfully attempts to scale them during a nighttime jog.

Later in the movie, he finally makes it to the top and we see the museum . . .

. . . and its views in all of their glory. Rocky’s legendary run is actually immortalized with a set of footprints at the top of the stairs, but I was, unfortunately, unaware of that fact when I stalked the place, so I failed to get a photo of them. You can see what they look like here, though.

Several of the movie’s sequels have also made use of PMOA, including 1979’s Rocky II in which the Italian Stallion once again trains for a big fight by running up to the museum’s 72nd step.

In 1982’s Rocky III, the now famous boxer is honored with a bronze statue of himself that is displayed atop the museum’s east staircase. During the dedication ceremony early in the film, he is heckled by Clubber Lang (Mr. T).

Later in the movie, Rocky goes to see the statue during a nighttime motorcycle ride.

The A. Thomas Schomberg-designed piece, which stands 8’6” tall, was commissioned by Stallone for Rocky III and then left in place at the top of the steps when filming wrapped, a gift from the actor to the museum. While City Commerce Director Dick Doran embraced the move, proclaiming that Sylvester had done “more for Philadelphia’s image than anyone since Ben Franklin,” not all locals were as enthused, especially PMOA executives who felt that the sculpture was nothing more than a movie prop. In a rather contentious move, the work was eventually moved to the Wachovia Spectrum in South Philadelphia.

Though it was temporarily brought back to the museum in 1990 for a brief scene in Rocky V, as soon as the shoot wrapped it was relegated to the Spectrum once again.

Finally in 2006, the statue was given a new home just east of the base of the Rocky Steps where it still stands today.

That same year, the museum was featured in the closing credits of Rocky Balboa in a montage showing fans running up the staircase, re-creating the famous moment from the first movie . . .

. . . before flashing to an image of Rocky standing on the steps alone while snow falls around him.

And at the end of the 2015 sequel Creed, Rocky takes Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) to the staircase.

The Rocky franchise is hardly the only production to showcase the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Lisa Brandt (Janet Margolin) runs away to the museum in the 1962 drama David & Lisa.

The interior masks as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) meets Warren Lockman (Ken Baker), in the 1980 thriller Dressed to Kill.

Will Smith (Will Smith), imitating Rocky, runs up the staircase while training for a fight in the Season 4 episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air titled “The Philadelphia Story,” which aired in 1994.

Rose (Toni Collette) also pays homage to Rocky by running up the museum steps a couple of times in the 2005 drama In Her Shoes.

Kate (Tina Fey) and Rob (Greg Kinnear) kiss in front of the museum in the 2008 comedy Baby Mama.

Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) is briefly seen looking at Paul Cézanne’s The Bathers there in the 2016 thriller Split.

Shazam (Zachary Levi) heads to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) shortly after discovering his superhero alter ego in 2019’s Shazam!

He also perfects his laser abilities on the museum steps (with “Eye of the Tiger” from Rocky III playing in the background) later in the movie.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, from Rocky, is located at 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. The steps featured in the movie can be found on the eastern side of the property. You can visit the museum’s official website here.

July 19, 2019July 18, 2019

LOVE Park from “Shazam!”

I am a complete and total girly-girl, especially when it comes to anything having to do with love, hearts or romance. So when I headed to Philadelphia in September 2016, John F. Kennedy Plaza, aka LOVE Park, was at the top of my To-Stalk List – or rather the iconic LOVE statute that serves as its focal point was. Unbeknownst to me, the space was actually undergoing a two-year renovation at the time of our visit and closed to the public. I did get to see the sculpture, though, at a temporary display site in Dilworth Park in front of City Hall, a literal stone’s throw away from its usual home. The two spots are in such close proximity, in fact (they sit kitty-corner from each other across 15th Street), that it was not until perusing my photographs in preparation for this post that I realized I never actually set foot in LOVE Park during my trip! Regardless, after learning of the site’s fascinating history (and its connection to a certain Hollywood star), as well as of its recent cameo in the 2019 superhero film Shazam! (available on DVD and streaming now), I figured a blog about it was in order.

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LOVE Park was originally conceived of in 1932 by Cornell University architecture student Edmund Bacon, then 22, while working on his thesis, though it would not come to fruition for several decades. After graduating, Bacon spent time traveling around the world and eventually secured an architecture job in Shanghai. He then served in World War II before finally returning to his hometown of Philadelphia where he founded and then became the Executive Director of the City Planning Commission, a position he held from 1949 through 1970. During his tenure, Bacon spearheaded many projects to beautify the area, including finally enacting his college thesis idea of developing a municipal park to cover an underground parking garage that neighbored City Hall.

Bacon brought in his former Cornell University classmate Vincent George Kling to design the park, which opened to the public in 1965. Two years later, it was dedicated as “John F. Kennedy Plaza,” though it is more commonly referred to as “LOVE Park” thanks to the large Robert Indiana-designed LOVE sculpture that sits at its center. Measuring 6 feet by 6 feet by 3 feet, the shiny red, purple and green installation was first displayed on the premises, on temporary loan from the artist, in 1976 as part of the United States bicentennial celebration. Its return to Indiana in 1978 was met with much woe, so Philadelphia Art Commission president (and owner of the 76ers) Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr. rectified the situation, personally purchasing the piece to exhibit permanently in the Plaza.

In February 2016, John F. Kennedy Plaza was shuttered for the aforementioned renovation project which cost $26 million and took 2 years to complete. During the interim, the LOVE statue was moved to Dilworth Park, just south of the Philadelphia Municipal Services Building, as pictured below.

It was finally reinstated in February 2018 and the park re-opened to the public in May of that same year. The new design, which features two gardens, a great lawn, a fountain, and regular events including weekday food truck offerings, has been widely lamented by area denizens. An apparent shadow of its former self, The Philadelphia Citizen described the bleak space as “an enormous sidewalk,” while The Philadelphia Inquirer dubbed it a “granite Sahara,” and the Street Dept. blog went so far as to plead with locals to close their accounts with Bank of America, as the company funded a portion of the revamp. You can check out some images of LOVE Park pre- and post-overhaul here and here, respectively.

Aside from the LOVE statue, John F. Kennedy Plaza is perhaps best known for being a huge skateboarding mecca during the ‘80s and ‘90s, which brought the park worldwide attention, but also drew ire from some locals resulting in a long battle that caused the city to ban skating there in 1994. Many welcomed the activity, though, so the law was not strictly enforced and teens continued to shred it up on the premises until 2002 when the site underwent a renovation under the order of Mayor John F. Street which essentially made skating at the park obsolete. That project was met with much disdain, too, from countless Philadelphians including Edmund Bacon himself who, on October 28th of that year, hosted a protest of sorts by riding a skateboard through the Plaza – at the age of 92! As he stated to media outlets that day, “And now I, Edmund N. Bacon, in total defiance of Mayor Street and the council of the city of Philadelphia, hereby exercise my rights as a citizen of the United States and I deliberately skate in my beloved LOVE Park.” After his brief glide, he joyously proclaimed, “Oh God, thank you, thank you, thank you! My whole damn life has been worth it just for this moment!” You can check out a great video of the event here. Though Bacon is often referred to as “The Father of Modern Philadelphia” thanks to the huge mark he left on the City of Brotherly Love, I was thrilled to discover that his actual lineage is pretty darn noteworthy, too. Edmund, you see, is dad to none other than actor Kevin Bacon! And the LOVE Park’s Hollywood connection doesn’t end there.

In Shazam!, Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong) and Shazam (Zachary Levi) face off in a battle in the sky above LOVE Park.

During the fight, Sivana attempts to shoot Shazam with a laser, but misses and accidentally hits the William Penn statue atop City Hall instead, causing it to crash down to John F. Kennedy Plaza below.

LOVE Park also popped up in the 2009 comedy Baby Mama as the spot where Rob (Greg Kinnear) pretends to propose to Kate (Tina Fey) during a musical montage.

It is shown very briefly in an establishing shot of Philadelphia towards the end of the film, as well.

Noble Fox’s 2015 “What You Want” music video, which you can watch here, was also lensed at LOVE Park.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: John F. Kennedy Plaza, aka LOVE Park from Shazam!, is located at Arch and 16th Streets in Philadelphia’s Center City neighborhood.

July 12, 2019July 11, 2019

Grand Hope Park from “All About Steve”

The Hills are alive and well once again thanks to the recent MTV reboot The Hills: New Beginnings which debuted late last month. I actually did not have high hopes for the show, despite loving the original, but I have to say that the Grim Cheaper and I are really enjoying it. More mature and realistic than its predecessor, though no doubt just as engineered and produced, watching it feels like coming home again. There’s nothing quite like a revisit to the highly-stylized world of Audrina, Spencer, and Heidi! And thanks to a recap special the GC and I viewed prior to the premiere episode, I was reminded of Grand Hope Park, an oft-used site from the OG series that was also featured in the 2009 romcom All About Steve. Though I peripherally covered the picturesque spot in blogs about the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) and the Renaissance Tower in 2008 and 2011 respectively, I thought it was time the place got its due with a full-fledged post of its own.

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Situated on land that formerly housed a parking lot, Grand Hope Park was completed in 1993.

Designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, the 2.5-acre site was commissioned by the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency as part of the city’s Open Space Network, a collection of lush public areas dotted along downtown’s Hope Street.

Grand Hope Park, the first major park built in Los Angeles since Pershing Square in 1870, boasts large grassy expanses, a children’s playground, vine-draped pergolas, meandering pathways, numerous terraces, a plethora of trees, and a collection of art installations that includes sculptures, fountains, and a mosaic clock tower.

My favorite area of the property, though, is easily the unique sunken water court featuring a startling blue pool and geometric-shaped elements.

A protected serene little space in the heart of the city, Grand Hope Park is flanked by FIDM to the east and the Renaissance Tower apartment complex to the South, all of which have appeared onscreen.

One look at the bucolic site and it is not very hard to see why location managers have continually flocked there.

Grand Hope Park pops up twice at the beginning of All About Steve in establishing scenes that show Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) on her way to and from her job as a cruciverbalist at what is supposedly The Sacramento Bee newspaper. Both the park . . .

. . . and its unique water court appear in the segments.

As I mentioned earlier, thanks to the fact that several cast members attended FIDM, Grand Hope Park regularly cameoed on The Hills. In a myriad of episodes, including Season 3’s “A Date with the Past” which aired in 2008, Lauren Conrad and friends were seen gossiping over coffee at the picturesque site.

Numerous other productions have made use of the place, as well.

Renaissance Tower regularly appeared as Buckland Auction House where Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty) worked during Seasons 1 and 2 of Charmed.

Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) and her ex-boyfriend Clay (Victor Browne) also walk in the park in Charmed’s Season 1 episode titled “Feats of Clay,” which aired in 1999.

FIDM and Grand Hope Park popped up regularly as the exterior of the supposed Santa Monica-area St. Ambrose Hospital on the television series Private Practice.

In 2009, the park masked as the entrance to an FBI field office in the Season 7 episode of 24 titled “Day 7: 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.”

Thanks to the Castle Wiki website, I learned that Grand Hope Park was featured on the ABC series no less than nine times (“Nine times?” “Nine times!” “I don’t remember him being sick nine times.” Ferris Bueller reference – anyone, anyone?). In Season 1’s “Nanny McDead,” which aired in 2009, Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) interview a nanny named Chloe Richardson (Sarah Drew) at the park.

In 2011, it popped up in Season 3’s “Poof, You’re Dead,” as the spot where Beckett and Castle tracked down magician Chuck Russell (Chadwick Boseman).

That same year, Beckett told Castle about her recent break-up at Grand Hope Park in Season 4’s “Rise.”

In the Season 5 episode “Cloudy with a Chance of Murder,” which aired in 2012, Beckett and Castle investigate the killing of weathergirl Mandy Michaels (Candice Mann) at the park.

Later that season, a heavily dressed Grand Hope Park masked as the snowy New York plaza where a man wearing a St. Nick costume plummeted to his death in the episode titled “Secret Santa.”

It is at Grand Hope Park that Castle proposes to Beckett in the Season 5 finale titled “Watershed” . . .

. . . in a scene that continued over into the Season 6 premiere, “Valkyrie.”

Beckett and Castle covertly meet up at the park later that same season in the episode titled “Veritas.”

And in Season 7’s “Hollander’s Woods,” which aired in 2015, Beckett tells Castle about her tentative plan to become a state senator while at the site. Phew! Castle sure does love itself some Grand Hope Park!

Grand Hope Park is also where Carl Creel (Brian Patrick Wade) meets with Sunil Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) and almost gets shot in the Season 2 episode of Marvel’s AGENTS of S.H.I.E.L.D. titled “Heavy is the Head,” which aired in 2014.

And in the Season 1 episode of Supergirl titled “World’s Finest,” which aired in 2016, Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) is kidnapped and taken to Grand Hope Park where a huge battle ensues.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Grand Hope Park, from All About Steve, is located at 919 South Grand Avenue in downtown L.A.

June 24, 2019June 23, 2019

Dottie’s House from “A League of Their Own”

I am pretty sure Penny Marshall had some sort of direct line of sight into my soul. The late director was behind several of my most beloved films. And not just movies I enjoy, but ones I find incredibly poignant, moving and enduring – productions that left a mark on my heart and invariably bring me to tears no matter how many times I watch. Renaissance Man, Big, A League of Their Own, and Jumpin’ Jack Flash all fit that bill. Unfortunately, most of Marshall’s films were lensed outside of the L.A. area, the latter notwithstanding (you can read about a few of JJF’s SoCal locales here, here and here). Consequently, I haven’t put much time into researching spots from them. So I was absolutely shocked to recently come across a mention on The Movie District website that the house where C Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) lived in A League of Their Own is in Studio City! Up until that point, I had been convinced that the 1992 dramady was shot entirely in the Midwest, namely Indiana and Illinois. One look at Google Street View showed me that The Movie District was right, though – Dottie’s home can be found at 4222 Agnes Avenue in Studio City. Armed with the newfound information, I could hardly wait to head out to L.A. to stalk the place, which I did just a few weeks later.

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The property only actually shows up once in A League of Their Own, in the opening scene in which present day Dottie packs for her trip to the grand opening of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

As you can see, not much of the residence has been changed in the 27 years since filming took place. It’s really quite incredible!

The actual interior of the home also appeared in the film, which I was able to glean thanks to the MLS photos available online from when it was last sold in 2014. Areas used include the master bedroom;

the living room;

and the stairs.

In real life, Dottie’s picturesque 2-story Cape Cod home boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,764 square feet of living space, multiple fireplaces, a chef’s kitchen with Miele and Viking appliances, a playroom, hardwood flooring and French doors throughout, a master bath with a standalone tub, a detached 2-car garage, a 0.34-acre lot, a large pool, a pebble garden, and a koi pond.

Chock full of curb appeal, the residence possesses an insanely idyllic Anywhere, U.S.A. aesthetic.

It’s like a perfect little slice of Americana.

I mean, throw on some bunting and you’ve got the quintessential spot to celebrate the 4th of July!

Considering that halcyon atmosphere, it is no surprise that location scouts have pegged it for numerous roles besides Dottie’s house in A League of Their Own.

In the 1988 comedy My Stepmother Is an Alien, the property serves as the Mills residence.

In 1992, it popped up as the supposed Moses Lake, Indiana pad where Clara (Marianna Elliott) babysat – and got killed – in the horror film Candyman.

The residence appeared as Debbie Jellinsky’s (Joan Cusack) childhood home – which she burnt down – in a slideshow shown at the end of 1993’s Addams Family Values.

Andy (Justin Kirk) and Silas Botwin (Hunter Parrish) stop by the dwelling to get some fake IDs in the Season 6 episode of Weeds titled “Felling and Swamping,” which aired in 2010.

And it masked as the Moody family residence in the 2011 film Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer. Only the exterior of the house appeared in the movie, though. Per a commenter named Mari, interiors were filmed on a set built at Sunset Bronson Studios and backyard scenes were lensed at a property in Pasadena.

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

Big THANK YOU to The Movie District website for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Dottie Hinson’s house from A League of Their Own is located at 4222 Agnes Avenue in Studio City.

June 14, 2019June 13, 2019

Mary’s House from “All About Steve”

If you listened to critics, you probably think All About Steve has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. You’d be wrong, though. While the 2009 comedy (and I use the term “comedy” loosely) is not remotely funny, boasts an odd storyline, and fails to properly showcase the talents of its fabulous cast, which includes Bradley Cooper, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong and DJ Qualls, it does feature some pretty stellar locations. The delightfully retro residence where Mary Horowitz (Bullock) lives with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Horowitz (Howard Hesseman and Beth Grant, respectively), in the flick especially had me drooling. I, of course, set out to track it down shortly after first viewing All About Steve ten years ago, but was unsuccessful. And though I subsequently revisited the hunt several times over the years following, I always came up empty. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to call in the big guns (aka my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog), to see if he might be able to provide some assistance and in less than 24 hours he had an address for me. Thanks to a helpful crew member, we learned that the Horowitz home is located at 1704 Wellington Road in Mid-City’s Lafayette Square neighborhood. So I immediately ran out to stalk it.

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In real life, the All About Steve house is known as the J. Phyromn Taylor Residence. The two-story pad was designed in 1953 by prolific architect Paul Revere Williams (you can read a few of my posts on his many famous properties here, here, here, here, here, here and here) for his good friend, wealthy doctor Jackson Phyromn Taylor.

Built in a style known as Los Angeles Contemporary, the home also boasts prairie, international, and midcentury design elements, as well as a lot of geometric detailing. Per The Paul Revere Williams Project website, “The motif was used in a floating staircase flanked by a dramatic two-story sandblasted glass wall, metal work, etched room dividers, light fixtures and other midcentury-style custom furnishings designed for the space.”

Williams also incorporated Lafayette Square’s strict design regulations into the architecture of the residence, which included a second-floor balcony, deep setbacks, clean lines and a horizonal layout, with the long end fronting the street.

Sadly, Dr. Taylor passed away just a few short years after his home was completed, but the extraordinary residence remains in his family today. It is currently owned by Lauren Smith, his granddaughter, who told the Larchmont Ledger, “They [Jackson Phyromn Taylor and his wife, Pearl] surrounded themselves with art, music their entire lives. My uncle Phyromn was an accomplished jazz saxophonist so music was definitely a part of our lives. My mom was a music major in college as well. Very social, Paul Williams designed their house with their desire to entertain in mind. My grandparents were proud to have an African American man, their friend, design their unique house.”

The home features 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a whopping 5,062 square feet of living space, a 2-car garage, and a 0.27-acre lot.

Unfortunately, the property looks quite a bit different today than it did onscreen in All About Steve. Not only is it now significantly covered over with foliage, but it has undergone a drastic paint change. The result is a residence that is much darker and less aesthetically pleasing, at least in my opinion. In fact, if it had boasted its current color scheme in the movie, I probably wouldn’t have been nearly as enamored of it.

Due to the pad’s rectangular orientation and decidedly midcentury feel, I had been convinced that it was an apartment building, not a single-family home, in real life.

And because of the mansion-like properties situated next door . . .

. . . and across the street, I knew it had to be located in an upscale neighborhood. Accordingly, I spent copious hours searching Hancock Park and West Hollywood for a midcentury apartment complex, so it’s no surprise that I couldn’t find the place. Somehow I had completely forgotten about Lafayette Square, an area I’ve been to a few times and even written about – twice! Thank goodness for the helpful crew member who provided Owen with the address!

The J. Phyromn Taylor Residence popped up several times in All About Steve.

The movie did a fabulous job of showcasing the dwelling . . .

. . . and all of its unique architectural details.

As fabulous as those details are, it was the interior of the Horowitz home that really stole my heart, namely the floating staircase. The openness of the steps, the paned glass panel behind them, and the stone walls on either side practically had me drooling.

I am torn as to whether what was shown onscreen was the real interior of the J. Phyromn Taylor Residence or a set modeled after it, though I’m leaning toward the former. As you can see below, the glass panel pictured behind the stairs in All About Steve is a perfect match to that of the actual home.

And the geometric elements visible in several scenes, like the open metal wall in the foreground below . . .

. . . and the silver sculpture to the left of the pool table, mesh with the interior detailing described on The Paul Revere Williams Project website.

I am fairly certain, though, that Mary’s colorful bedroom . . .

. . . and bathroom were just sets.

Either way, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The J. Phyromn Taylor Residence, aka the Horowitz home from All About Steve, is located at 1704 Wellington Road in Lafayette Square. The McGinley Residence, where Robert F. Kennedy is reported to have spent his last night, is right around the corner at 1821 South Victoria Avenue. And the incorrectly identified Leave It to Beaver house is two blocks west at 1727 Buckingham Road.

May 24, 2019May 24, 2019

Lorraine’s House from “Back to the Future”

Back to the Future fans are undoubtedly looking at the photo above thinking, ‘That’s not Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) house!’ But the Craftsman I am standing in front of, located at 1705 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena, did actually serve as her 1955 pad in the movie. Before the die hards get all up in arms, I am well aware that it’s not the property widely recognized as her teenage home, which is just a few doors down at 1727 Bushnell. As I just discovered, though, the Baines’ residence was actually a mash-up of two different dwellings situated within a few hundred feet of each other. Let me explain. For years now, my friend Owen, from When Write Is Wrong, has been begging me to blog about sites from BTTF, his all-time favorite movie. Because its locations have been copiously chronicled both online and in books for decades, I’ve avoided the subject. As longtime readers know, I don’t like to write about places that have been covered elsewhere (especially feverishly so) unless I have something new to say. Well folks, I finally have something new to say! Owen’s birthday was a couple of weeks back, so I consider this post a belated present to him! HBD, friend!

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Many moons ago, one of my dad’s Los Angeles doctors mentioned during an appointment that he lived in “the Back to the Future house.” My ears immediately perked up (obvs!) and when I pressed for more details, he explained that he owned Lorraine’s 1955 pad and then said, “It’s bizarre to watch the movie and see Michael J. Fox sitting in my dining room.” I had long been aware of 1727 Bushnell’s (that’s it below) cameo as Lorraine’s home in the film and, assuming it had been used for both interiors and exteriors, figured that was the spot he was referring to and did not think much further on the subject (though I was thisclose to inviting myself over for a tour).

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. Shortly before Owen’s birthday, I toyed with the idea of writing about the place. My first move was to check if my dad’s doctor still lived on the premises, in the hopes that he might send me some interior photos. In looking at property records, though, I was shocked to see that not only did he not reside at 1727 Bushnell anymore, but that he never had! His former house, which was sold in 2017, is three doors up the street at 1705 Bushnell (it’s pictured below). Thoroughly confused, I almost brushed the whole thing off as misinformation. But then a lightbulb went off in my head – what if 1705 had been used for interiors? Thankfully, MLS pictures from the 2017 sale are still widely available online so my newfound hunch was easily verifiable. I could hardly hold my fingers steady as I slipped in my Back to the Future DVD and just about hyperventilated when I saw that I was correct! While 1727 Bushnell appeared as the exterior of Lorraine’s house, interior filming took place just up the street at 1705! As far as I can tell, this information has never been reported elsewhere, which has me giddy with excitement – for Owen, for myself, and for the leagues of BTTF fans out there!

But first, let’s get back to 1727 Bushnell. Not much of the 1909 Craftsman’s exterior is actually shown in Back to the Future. We really only catch a glimpse of the second floor windows when George McFly (Crispin Glover) tries to peep on Lorraine in an early scene.

As you can see, thanks to a completely new color scheme, the home looks quite a bit different today.

We do get a full view of the property’s exterior in a different Michael J. Fox movie, though! Interestingly enough, 1727 Bushnell also served as the Howard family residence in the 1985 comedy Teen Wolf.

In a Q&A Fox shot for Back to the Future’s Special Edition DVD, he even mentions encountering the movie’s location scouts while shooting Teen Wolf on the premises.

I am unsure if the actual inside of 1727 Bushnell was used in Teen Wolf, but I think it might have been.

If so, considering the decidedly 60s/70s look of the place, it goes a long way toward explaining why Back to the Future producers headed elsewhere to stage the inside of Lorraine’s 1955 home. And they found exactly what they were looking for right up the street.

As you can see in the screen shot as compared to the MLS image below, the inside of 1705 Bushnell is classic, timeless, and simple in design – perfect for a storyline set in the 1950s. (You can check out another matching shot of the home’s front entry area here.)

As you can also see in the screen captures below as compared to images here and here, not much of the property has changed in the years since Back to the Future was filmed (though it appears that producers did cover over the dining room’s stained glass window for the shoot – either that or the window was a later addition).

Along with the front entry and dining room, areas of 1705 visible in Back to the Future include the living room (you can check out an additional matching image of it here and a close-up view of the fireplace, which has been altered a bit but is still recognizable, here);

and the stairs . . .

. . . which you can see additional imagery of here.

I believe that Lorraine’s bedroom was just a set, though, and not one of 1705’s actual rooms.

In real life, 1705 Bushnell, which was built in 1912, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,772 square feet of living space, formal living and dining rooms, hardwood flooring, wainscoting, a fireplace, stained glass windows, an eat-in kitchen, a den, a partially-finished basement, an upstairs laundry room, a 0.18-acre lot, a pool, a built-in BBQ, and a detached garage that has been converted into a family room/pool house. You can check out some more interior photos of the place here and here.

How incredible – and thrilling – it is that new location information can still be unearthed from a decades-old movie, one that has been feverishly studied and documented ad nauseam over the years, no less! Imagine all of the other filming sites just waiting to be discovered! The possibilities are endlessly exciting! The future of stalking is bright, my friends!

A (belated) happy birthday to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The home used for exterior shots of Lorraine Baines’ 1955 residence in Back to the Future is located at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Interiors were filmed just up the road at 1705 Bushnell. George McFly’s 1955 pad from the film can be found next door at 1711 Bushnell. And Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) property from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809 Bushnell. Several other famous, but non-BTTF-related houses are on the same street including Hope and Michael Steadman’s residence from thirtysomething at 1710 Bushnell; the Hopper family home as well as Joan’s pad from Ghost Dad at 1621 and 1615, respectively, and the Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School at 1803.

May 20, 2019May 19, 2019

Monrovia High School from “A Cinderella Story”

My taste in movies is about as mature and refined as my palate, which favors chicken strips and ranch dressing above all else. Case in point – I am obsessed with the 2004 tween romance A Cinderella Story. Chad Michael Murray? Hilary Duff on roller skates? A high school love story? A pink ‘50s diner? Yes, yes, yes and yes! I’ve written posts on several of the film’s locations over the years (you can read them here, here and here), but somehow forgot to dedicate one to Monrovia High School, which portrayed North Valley High (home of the Fighting Frogs!) and which I visited way back in 2013. I figure the time to rectify that is now!

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Designed by architect Austin Whittlesey, working under John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley, construction on Monrovia High School began in January 1928.

Completed early the following year, the Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, which features Palladian elements, cost $600,000 to erect.

Numerous expansions have taken place in the years since, the most recent from 2009 to 2011.

That project, which totaled a whopping $60 million, included the addition of a 2-story science building, a 30,000-square-foot gym complete with a weight room, and a new football stadium and surrounding track.

Thankfully, all of the additions were designed with the school’s original architecture in mind, ultimately creating a cohesive, striking and picturesque property.

Not only is the school itself beautiful, but the grounds are absolutely bucolic. I was just a wee bit obsessed with the massive tree pictured below.

I mean, just look at it!

Considering its handsome façade, it is no surprise that the place wound up onscreen. In A Cinderella Story, Monrovia High was used extensively. Areas of the school featured include the front exterior;

interior hallways;

the baseball field;

the pool;

the football field (which was, sadly, redone during the 2009 expansion);

and the main quad (it also looks a bit different post-expansion) . . .

. . . where the pep rally took place.

The quad is the spot I was most interested in seeing during my stalk, namely the “Friendship Circle” planter where Sam and Austin regularly sat throughout the movie.

Unfortunately, we stopped by on a Saturday, when Monrovia High was closed, so I wasn’t able to poke around. I was thrilled to see, though, that the quad area is visible through the front gates.

The gates even afford a small glimpse of the planter!

A Cinderella Story is hardly the only production to feature Monrovia High.

Skip Lewis (Chad Lowe) and Ken (Charlie Sheen) go to school there in the 1984 made-for-television movie Silence of the Heart.

In 1985, Monrovia High played itself in another made-for-TV film, Between the Darkness and the Dawn.

The production, which journalist John J. O’Connor deemed “a candidate for the worst television movie of the year,” gave audiences a glimpse at what the interior of the school looked like at the time.

Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz) enrolls in Monrovia High at the end of the 1985 drama Mask.

Monrovia High (along with Walter Reed Middle School from License to Drive) appears as Garden City High in the 1988 horror film 976-EVIL.

Brad Kimble (Will Friedle), Leah Jones (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Brooke Kingsley (Marley Shelton) attend Monrovia High School in the 1997 comedy Trojan War.

The school (along with several others, including Torrance High) was also used to portray John Hughes High School in 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Monrovia High School, aka North Valley High from A Cinderella Story, is located at 845 West Colorado Boulevard in Monrovia.