Category: Movie Locations

The “Doppelganger” Mansion

Another location from the 1993 thriller Doppelganger that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk this past weekend was the mansion where Holly Gooding (aka Drew Barrymore) grew up in the flick. I found this locale, once again, thanks to Tony, my friend and fellow stalker who has the amazing Flickr photostream which I mentioned yesterday. Incredibly enough, Tony has somehow managed to track down almost every single location featured in Doppelganger and he was kind enough to share them all with me so that I could blog about them during my Haunted Hollywood month – well, every location that is except for the supposed-Arcadia-area Our Lady of Mercy Psychiatric Institute which I have now become just a wee bit obsessed with finding. But I digress. Anyway, last weekend, after stopping by the apartment building featured in the movie, the GC and I headed a short two miles north to Los Feliz to do some stalking of the mansion.

[ad]

The Doppelganger mansion is featured twice in the flick. It first pops up in the scene in which Holly and her new roommate, struggling mystery writer Patrick Highsmith (aka George Newbern), meet with Holly’s family lawyer, Mike Wallace (aka George Maharis), in order to get the keys to her former home which has been locked up and sealed since her father’s murder four years prior. While there, Patrick says that the abode is “right out of a Bette Davis movie” – a line which I, of course, loved.

The large, English-country-style abode later pops up in the movie’s climactic, rather odd, and definitely spooky final scene in which Holly returns to her childhood home in the middle of the night to confront her evil doppelganger and finally end the nightmare in which she has been living.

Patrick, of course, follows Holly and, carrying a baseball bat, climbs up the side of the house and through a second story window in the hopes that he can save her.

I believe that the interior of the mansion that was shown in the movie was just a set and not the home’s real life interior.

According to fave website Zillow, the Doppelganger mansion, which was originally built in 1923, boasts 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 3,500 square feet of living space, although I would have guessed it to be much, much larger. And amazingly, the property still looks almost exactly the same today as it did 18 years ago when Doppelganger was filmed. Even the three large circular trees which flank the home’s front door and front window still look exactly the same. Love it!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Tony for finding this location! You can check out Tony’s FANTASTIC Flickr photostream, which features countless filming locations, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Doppelganger mansion is located at 2421 Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. Donna Martin’s house from the B.Y.O.B. episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located just two doors south of the Doppelganger mansion at 2405 Glendower Avenue. And the so-called “Los Feliz Murder House”, which I blogged about back in January, is located just around the corner at 2475 Glendower Place.

October 7, 2011
The “Doppelganger” Apartment Building

Last week, while perusing through my friend and fellow stalker Tony’s Flickr photostream – which is comprised of an absolutely AMAZING collection of pictures of hundreds upon hundreds of filming locations – I came across his photographs of the apartment building that was used in the thriller Doppelganger. And while I had absolutely loved me some Doppelganger when it first came out way back in 1993, I had not seen the movie in such a long time that I had somehow forgotten Drew Barrymore was even in it! So I decided it was most definitely time for a re-watch and ran right out to rent the flick that very night. Unfortunately, it was not nearly as good as I had remembered it to be, especially the ending which I did not understand at all. But I, nevertheless, still had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the apartment building that very same weekend – especially since it fit in so perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme!

[ad]

In Doppelganger, Holly Gooding (aka Drew Barrymore) migrates from New York to Los Angeles after being cleared of a murder charge, whereupon she moves into an apartment building with a struggling mystery writer named Patrick Highsmith (aka Father of the Bride’s George Newbern).

In the movie, the idyllic little building, which has a central courtyard, a two-tiered fountain, and a communal birdcage, is named “Angel’s Court” and it is supposedly located at 1167 North Orange Grove Avenue in the Hollywood area.

In reality, the building is located just east of Hollywood and south of Thai Town and is, sadly, not nearly as inviting or picturesque in person as it appeared to be in Doppelganger. Don’t get me wrong, the building is by no means unattractive, but the neighborhood where it is located is, unfortunately, a bit on the iffy side and the courtyard that seemed so charming onscreen is rather bare in real life. I am guessing that the fountain and birdcage that appeared in the movie, along with the archway that was situated over the front gate, were just props that were brought in solely for the filming as they are no longer there.

In Doppelganger, Patrick and Holly lived in Apartment #2 and I am guessing that the real life interior of that particular unit was also used in the filming.

And, according to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, the building, which was originally constructed in 1922, was once also home to a few celebrities – cinematographer Harry Zech lived there during the 1920s and silent film actress Frances Deamer lived there in the 30s.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Tony for finding this location! You can check out Tony’s FANTASTIC Flickr photostream, which features countless filming locations, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Doppelganger apartment building is located at 1165 North Hobart Boulevard in Los Angeles. In the movie, Patrick and Holly lived in Apartment 2 and FBI Agent Stanley White (aka Dan Shor) lived in Apartment 6.

October 6, 2011
The Stimson House from “House II: The Second Story”

After stalking Mills View, the Monrovia-area residence that appeared in the 1986 movie House, I started doing some online research on the flick’s 1987 sequel, House II: The Second Story, and came across information about the Stimson House, an incredibly unique, castle-like property located in Los Angeles’ West Adams District. I was immediately intrigued by the home and, because it has been featured in several spooky productions over the years, figured it would fit right in with my Haunted Hollywood theme and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place a short time later. Incredibly though, thanks to the abode’s unusual beauty and prominent history, this was one location that he actually did not mind being dragged to!

The 3 1/2-story Stimson House was originally built in 1891 as a retirement home for Chicago lumberman/financier Thomas Douglas Stimson. The 12,800-square-foot, 30-room property was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by architect Carroll H. Brown and featured an Arizona red sandstone façade, a 4-story octagonal corner tower, stained glass windows, gabled Gothic arches, Palladian windows, and brick chimneys. The interior, which was dubbed “a shrine to lumber” by Jake Doherty in a January 1994 Los Angeles Times article, consisted of oak flooring, hand-carved wood-paneled walls, beamed ceilings, custom-built china cabinets, and made use of over 8 different kinds of wood, including ash, sycamore, walnut, gumwood, birch, mahogany, oak, and monkeypod. Construction on the residence was completed in 1893 and cost approximately $130,000, making it, at the time, the most expensive home in all of Los Angeles. After Stimson passed away in February 1898, his widow, Achsah, continued to live at the residence until her death in 1904. The property was then sold and underwent several ownership changes until 1940, at which time it was purchased by the USC chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity for $20,000. For the next 8 years, the Stimson House became the site of boisterous parties, elaborate pranks, and late-night frolicking.

At the time, Carrie Estelle Doheny, the widow of oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, lived in the mansion located directly behind the Stimson House and was not at all happy with her rowdy neighbors. After filing countless complaints with the USC president, she decided to take matters into her own hands and offered the Pi Kappa Alphas $70,000 for the residence. They agreed, moved out, and Carrie promptly deeded the home to a much quieter set of neighbors, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. The Sisters transformed the abode into a convent where they lived until 1969, at which point they allowed the neighboring Mount St. Mary’s College to use the property as student housing. In 1993, the Sisters returned to the house and set about an extensive $1 million restoration of the property. They continue to live there to this day and often rent the place out for filming in order to offset the mansion’s expensive upkeep and to finance their retirement fund. The Stimson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1978 and became Los Angeles’ 212th Historic-Cultural Monument on May 16, 1979.

[ad]

In House II: The Second Story, the Stimson house was the haunted residence inherited by Jesse (aka Arye Gross) and his girlfriend, Kate (aka Lar Park-Lincoln).

The Aztec-inspired interior appears to have been a set, though, as it does not match up with these interior photographs of the actual home.

In the Season 2 episode of The Bionic Woman titled “Black Magic”, the Stimson mansion was used as the island home of wealthy inventor Cyrus Carstairs (aka Vincent Price). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were featured in the episode. And, according to the aforementioned Los Angeles Times article, Vincent Price became so enamored of the house’s echo-y acoustics during filming that he returned there later to tape a few productions of his own.

In the 1989 horror movie After Midnight, the Stimson house appeared in the segment titled “The Old Dark House” as the spot where Joan (aka Nadine Van der Velde) and Kevin (aka Marc McClure) sought help after getting two flat tires while driving late at night. Ironically enough, though, only the front porch and the interior of the Stimson house appeared in the flick.

As you can see above, for the wide angle shots of the mansion’s exterior another location altogether was used.

In the Season 1 episode of Pushing Daisies titled “The Fun in Funeral”, the Stimson House stood in for the Schatz Brothers Funeral Home in Couer d’Couers, where grave-robbing twins Lawrence and Louis Schatz (who were both played by Brad Grunberg) worked and also died.

The home’s real life interior was also used in the episode.

Two television mini-series, 1976’s Captains and the Kings, and 1977’s Testimony of Two Men, were also filmed at the mansion, but unfortunately I could not find copies of either of them to make screen captures for this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Stimson house, from House II, is located at 2421 South Figueroa Street in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.

October 4, 2011
The Mills View House from “Picket Fences”

Well, my fellow stalkers, it is finally that time of year again, the month I look forward to all year long – October! With it comes fall leaves, cooler temperatures, and my favorite holiday of them all, Halloween. And you know what that means – I will once again be devoting the entire month of blog posts to locations having to do with Haunted Hollywood! First up is the Mills View house, a Monrovia-area property that I learned about way back in March from a journalist named Toni Momberger who interviewed me for an Inland Valley Daily Bulletin newspaper article she was writing about famous movie homes. Toni told me that she had toured the huge, Victorian-style abode as part of her research for the article and she was shocked to discover that I had never before heard of the place. As fate would have it, the house had been featured prominently in not one, but two spooky productions over the years, so I figured it would be the perfect start to my Haunted Hollywood theme and I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it a few weeks back.

The 5-bedroom, 2-bath, 3,140-square-foot Mills View house, which was built in 1887 by architects Luther Reed Blair and Uriah Zimmerman, was originally situated on a 5-acre plot of land on what was then the corner of Banana Avenue (now Hillcrest Boulevard) and Melrose Avenue. The Eastlake-Victorian-style home was commissioned by William N. Monroe, the founder of Monrovia, as a wedding gift for his son, Milton Monroe, and his new bride, Mary Nevada. Construction on the property began in May of 1887, shortly after Milton and his wife were married, and was completed a mere seven months later. Sadly, the Monroes divorced a short time after tying the knot and ended up selling their wedding home to Colonel John H. Mills and his wife, Elizabeth Cook Mills, in 1893. The Mills dubbed their new residence “Mills View” because on a clear day the island of Catalina was supposedly visible from one of the third floor windows. Unfortunately, Colonel Mills passed away only three months after moving into the home and it went through several ownership changes after Elizabeth subsequently died in 1905. Mills View, which boasts numerous stained glass windows, a third floor attic, hardwood flooring throughout, and five fireplaces with original tilework, became a Monrovia City Landmark on June 4, 1996.

According to this Monrovia Patch article, Mills View has appeared in over 20 productions since 1980 alone. Sadly though, I know of only two – both of which, as I mentioned above, fit the thriller genre. And the property definitely does give off a spooky vibe in person – I think primarily due to its gargantuan size – so it is not very hard to see why location scouts have flocked to it over the years.

[ad]

In the Season 1 Halloween-themed episode of fave show Picket Fences titled “Remembering Rosemary”, Mills View was where Rosemary Bauer committed suicide ten years prior by jumping out of a third-floor window, and where Sheriff Jimmy Brock (aka Tom Skerritt) and his deputies Maxine Stewart (aka Lauren Holly) and Kenny Lacos (aka Costas Mandylor) returned to investigate the case after deciding to re-open it a few days before Halloween.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the house, which you can see some photographs of here, was used in the episode.

Mills View was also the primary location used in the 1986 horror flick House. In the movie, it was the haunted property that mystery-writer Roger Cobb (aka William Katt) inherited from his Aunt Elizabeth (aka Susan French). According to the House production notes, for the onsite filming, which lasted two weeks, production designer Gregg Fonseca repainted the exterior of the property and added Victorian gingerbread detailing, a few spires, a wrought-iron fence, and a sidewalk. At the rear of the residence, he covered up the home’s real life clapboard siding with a fake brick edifice and added some much-needed landscaping.

No filming took place inside of the actual home, though. For all of the interior scenes, a replica of the house, which included two full stories, a living room, a den, a staircase, and three upstairs bedrooms, was built on a soundstage at Ren Mar Studios in Hollywood.

And I am fairly certain that the pool shown in the movie was either a fake built on the property solely for the filming or that a second location was used, as Mills View does not currently appear to have a pool.

Two very lucky British House fans were given a personalized tour of Mills View last year and wrote a great blog post about it which you can check out here.

On a Halloween side note – I was finally able to dig up a photograph of me dressed up as Agent Dana Scully for Halloween one year during college, which I had mentioned in the blog post I wrote about meeting David Duchovny back in June. The only picture I could find, though, was not a very good one as my eyes are closed in it. Ah well. That is my good friend Alex, who was dressed up a Parrothead, posing with me.

While going through boxes at my parents’ new house looking for the Dana Scully picture, I also stumbled upon my Fox Mulder doll, which I could NOT have been more excited about! I am so going to have to stalk DD again and get him to sign the doll for me. How incredibly cool would that be??

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Mills View, from the movie House and the “Remembering Rosemary” episode of Picket Fences, is located at 329 Melrose Avenue in Monrovia.

October 3, 2011
The “Beaches” Mansion vs. The “Starsky & Hutch” Mansion

Two weeks ago, fellow stalker Jenny left a comment on my post about the long-sought-after Beaches mansion in which she mentioned that the very same residence had also been used in both 1983’s Mr. Mom and 1987’s Who’s That Girl. Ironically enough, I had received virtually that same exact comment from a fellow stalker named Sarah on the post I wrote about the Starsky & Hutch mansion (pictured above) way back in May of 2009. So yesterday I decided to do some digging to see which mansion, if either, had been used in the two 80s flicks – a task which proved to be easier said than done.

Both the Beaches mansion and the Starsky & Hutch mansion are extremely large, Tudor-style residences situated on absolutely huge pieces of land in Pasadena, so it is easy to see how they have been mistaken as being one in the same over the years. The Beaches mansion, which is pictured above although sadly not much of it can be seen from the street, was originally built in 1916 and boasts 8 bedrooms, 4 baths, and a whopping 7,479 square feet of living space.

The gargantuan home sits on just under two acres of land.

In Beaches, the mansion was where Hillary Whitney Essex (aka Barbara Hershey) lived with her daughter, Victoria Cecilia Essex (aka Grace Johnston).

The Starsky & Hutch mansion, which was built in 1912, boasts 13 bedrooms (and no that is not a typo!), 8 baths, and 11,573 square feet of living space.

The monstrous residence sits on a 2.2 acre plot of land.

In 2004’s Starsky & Hutch, the mansion was where Reese Feldman (aka Vince Vaughn) lived with his wife, Mrs. Feldman (aka Molly Sims), and was where David Starsky (aka Ben Stiller) accidentally shot a pony while at a bar mitzvah party.

As it turns out and as you can see above, Mr. Mom was filmed at the Starsky & Hutch mansion and not at the Beaches mansion. In the movie, the property stood in for the residence belonging to Caroline’s (aka Teri Garr’s) millionaire boss, Ron Richardson (aka Martin Mull).

And here’s where things get confusing. As you can see above, the Starsky & Hutch mansion was also used as the home of Simon Worthington (aka John McMartin) in Who’s That Girl. Well, the front of the house was, at least.

The backyard, though, where the wedding of Louden Trott (aka Griffin Dunne) and Wendy Worthington (aka Sixteen Candles’ Haviland Morris) was supposed to take place, was actually the backyard of the Beaches mansion!

The interior scenes from Who’s That Girl were also filmed at the Beaches mansion. The screen captures in the top row pictured above were taken from Who’s That Girl, while the ones in the bottom row were taken from Beaches, and, as you can see, the interiors match perfectly.

The Starsky & Hutch mansion was also used numerous times in the television series Falcon Crest as the home belonging to Carlo Agretti (aka Carlos Romero) and his daughter, Melissa (aka Ana Alicia). It first showed up in the Season 1 episode titled “House of Cards” and then popped up repeatedly throughout the next few seasons. According to IMDB, the Starsky & Hutch mansion was also used in the Season 2 episode of Fantasy Island titled “The Last Whodunit” and in the Season 4 episode of Murder She Wrote titled “Witness for the Defense”, neither of which I could find a copy of to make screen captures for this post. And according to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory, the property also appeared in an episode of the short-lived television series Pepper Dennis.

As I mentioned in my post two weeks ago, the Beaches mansion has also been used in countless productions over the years. It stood in for Roger Sterling’s (aka John Slattery’s) country club in the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “My Old Kentucky Home”.

And in the Season 2 episode of Parks & Recreation titled “94 Meetings” it appeared as the Turnbill Mansion, which Leslie Knope (aka Amy Poehler) fought to save.

Fellow stalker Tamara in Australia also let me know that the Beaches mansion was used as the residence where the eponymous Alice (aka Natalie Gregory) lived in 1985’s FABULOUS Irwin-Allen-produced television movie Alice in Wonderland, which featured an all-star cast and which I used to watch repeatedly with my grandma when I was a child. The same property also appeared in the Season 7 episode of Columbo titled “Try and Catch Me”, which I was unfortunately unable to find a copy of to make screen captures for this post.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Jenny, Sarah, and Tamara for helping me to clear up the filming location confusion with these particular properties.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Beaches mansion is located at 880 La Loma Road in Pasadena. The Starsky & Hutch mansion is located just about two miles east at 1050 Arden Road in Pasadena.

September 29, 2011
Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant on Wilshire

Because I encountered so much filming location misinformation while researching my post on Bob’s Big Boy Broiler in Downey last week, I decided that I just had to write a blog about the place’s sister eatery, the now-defunct Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, which has also appeared in countless productions over the years. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place this past Saturday afternoon.

Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant, which was originally named Romeo’s Time Square, was built in 1955 by Louis Armet and Eldon Davis, the Googie-style architecture firm that was once deemed the “Frank Lloyd Wright of ‘50s coffee shops” by author Merrill Shindler in a 2009 Daily Breeze article that is sadly no longer available online. The Armet and Davis duo was also responsible for creating the Norm’s Restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard, the iconic Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset Boulevard, the now-demolished Holiday Bowl bowling alley on Crenshaw Boulevard, and Twain’s Restaurant in Studio City, which was featured in fave movie A Lot Like Love. The sleek, bright, space-age construction of Romeo’s was designed to catch the attention of passing motorists and lure them – and their wallets – in for a bite to eat.

Romeo’s Time Square went through several changes in ownership and name in the ensuing years, becoming “Ram’s Restaurant” in the 1960s and then, finally, Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant shortly thereafter. In 1994, the property was purchased by the Gold family, owners of the 99 Cents Only Store chain, who sadly shuttered the eatery in 2000. The building has thankfully remained intact, though, and its parking lot is now being used by a 99 Cents Only Store located nearby. As you can see above, the store even made use of one of the original Johnie’s signs, which I think is so incredibly cool.

In 2003, the Gold family made a few restorations to the shuttered restaurant, including repainting the exterior, fixing the cantilevered roof, and repairing the many burnt-out lights on the exterior neon signage. According to this July 15th, 2004 article which appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Eric Schiffer, president of the 99 Cents Only Stores, would like to see the place re-open as a restaurant someday. He said, “This needs to be done in a special way. We’re open to hearing creative uses. We just don’t have time to go out and market the building.” Here’s hoping that a savior steps in soon, much like Bob’s Big Boy did with Johnie’s Broiler in Downey, and restores the historic eatery to its former 1950’s glory. Surprisingly, despite being closed for more than a decade, the restaurant appears to be in pretty good shape. I was able to snap the above photographs of Johnie’s interior through the many windows, on which the shades were, thankfully, not drawn.

[ad]

Thanks to its futuristic and streamlined design, Johnie’s has long been a location scout favorite. In a very prominent scene from 1988’s Miracle Mile, the eatery was where Harry Washello (aka Anthony Edwards) learned that the world was about to end.

In 1992’s Reservoir Dogs, Johnie’s was where Mr. Orange (aka Tim Roth) met up with his superior.

In the 1997 disaster flick Volcano, Johnie’s pops up very briefly in the scene in which the firefighters of Los Angeles stand off against the lava from a nearby volcano.

In 1998’s Very Bad Things, Johnie’s was where Michael Berkow (aka Jeremy Piven) announced to a roomful of confused diners that he had just killed his brother.

In 1998’s The Big Lebowski, Johnie’s was where The Dude (aka Jeff Bridges) and Walter Sobchak (aka John Goodman) discussed severed toes, victimless crime, and First Amendment rights.

Johnie’s popped up in 1998’s City of Angels as the spot where Nathaniel Messinger (aka Dennis Franz) told Seth (aka Nicolas Cage) how to become a human.

The diner was featured at the end of 1998’s American History X as the place where Derek Vinyard (aka Edward Norton) and his younger brother Danny Vinyard (aka Edward Furlong) stop to grab a bite to eat before heading over to Venice High School.

Johnie’s also appeared in the 1999 music video for the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ song “Swingin’”, which starred The Mentalist’s Robin Tunney and which you can watch by clicking here.

And the restaurant showed up in 2004 in Reba McEntire’s music video for her song “Somebody”.

Reba McEntire – Somebody Video Filmed at Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant

You can watch that video by clicking above.

The diner was featured prominently in the 2007 music video for Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls”, which is SUCH a great song, by the way! I literally cannot stop listening to it!

Sean Kingston–Beautiful Girls Video filmed at Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant

You can watch that video by clicking above. But be forewarned – it is HIGHLY addictive!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant is located at 6101 Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles.

September 28, 2011
The Emser Tile Building from “Lethal Weapon”

Located just up the street from the original Barney’s Beanery restaurant in West Hollywood, which I blogged about last Friday, is the Emser Tile Building which appeared in a very memorable scene in the first Lethal Weapon movie. And even though I have never actually seen any of the four Lethal Weapon flicks (I know, I know – that has to be tantamount to stalker sacrilege or something!), because I was right there stalking Barney’s, I figured I might as well head on over to the Emser Building to snap some quick pics.

Surprisingly enough, even though the 7-story Emser building is quite unique and appears to be historical, I could find virtually no information about the structure online. All that I was able to discover was that, as you can see in this 1928 picture from The Bruce Torrence Photograph Collection, the building originally belonged to the Bekins moving and storage company. And thanks to the YouAreHere website, I also learned that it was constructed in 1925 by the architecture firm of Niebecker & Jeffers. The property now serves as the corporate offices of Emser Tile, a company that supplies natural stone and tile to commercial builders and contractors.

[ad]

In one of the most famous scenes in 1987’s Lethal Weapon, Martin Riggs (aka Mel Gibson) is sent by his new partner, Roger Murtaugh (aka Danny Glover), to the top of the Emser Tile Building in order to talk down a potential jumper.

Instead of talking him out of committing suicide, though, Riggs winds up handcuffing himself to the man and jumping off of the building with him, tandem-style, right into the safety of a police airbag. Sadly, Dar Robinson, the stuntman who stood in for the suicidal man and performed the actual jump in the scene (and yes, he really did jump off of the 7-story Emser Building for the filming!), was tragically killed a few weeks after principal photography on Lethal Weapon had wrapped. Dar, who was the holder of 21 different stunt records and was listed as the highest paid stuntman in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Records, had never so much as broken a bone in his 19-plus year career. But on November 21, 1996, while performing a routine motorcycle stunt in Page, Arizona for the movie Million Dollar Mystery, he accidentally lost control of his bike and careened off of a cliff at the tender age of 39. You can read a more detailed history of the legendary Dar, who was dubbed “King of the Stuntmen”, on the People Magazine website here.

And you can watch a short video in which Mel Gibson talks about Dar and the Emser Building jump by clicking above.

After Riggs jumps off of the Emser Building, Murtaugh pulls him into a vacant storefront where he chastises him for his dangerous behavior and suicidal tendencies. It is there that Murtaugh realizes that Riggs is not acting crazy in order to “draw a psycho pension”, but that he just simply is crazy.

Ironically enough, that storefront was actually vacant when I stalked it back in July, just as it was portrayed to be in the movie. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Emser Tile Building from Lethal Weapon is located at 8431 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. The storefront where Riggs and Murtaugh discuss the fact that Riggs might actually be crazy is located at 8441/8445 Santa Monica Boulevard. The original Barney’s Beanery restaurant is located just half a block west of the Emser Tile Building at 8447 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

September 26, 2011
Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood

Another location that has long been stockpiled (or should I say stalk-piled?) in my ever-growing stalking backlog is the original Barney’s Beanery restaurant in West Hollywood, which has been featured in numerous productions over the years and which I visited with fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, this past July. For whatever reason, even though the eatery is a major celebrity hot spot and a veritable Los Angeles institution, in my ten-plus years of living in Southern California I had yet to stalk the place.

Barney’s, which dubs itself as being the third oldest restaurant in Los Angeles, was originally founded by John “Barney’” Anthony, a Los Angeles native who got his culinary start by serving chili burgers and onion soup to his fellow soldiers during World War I. He opened his first men’s-only Beanery in Berkeley, California in 1920, but moved it to its present location on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood in 1927, after deciding that he wanted to live in a warmer climate. The eatery started out as little more than a one-room wooden shack with a small bar, but thanks to its location, which at the time was in the middle of nowhere, on Route 66, it attracted hundreds of travelers who were making their way from the East Coast to California. It became common practice for those patrons to leave their license plates behind at the bar in a symbol of saying goodbye to their previous life. The Barney’s of today is literally wallpapered with hundreds upon hundreds of old out-of-state license plates. When Anthony passed away on November 25th, 1968, a man name Erwin Held purchased the restaurant and promised to keep it in its original form. And despite a few expansions and another change in ownership (today the restaurant belongs to David Houston and Avi Fattal), the ramshackle little roadhouse-style Barney’s Beanery still looks much the same today as it did when it originally opened in 1927. In recent years, David and Avi have opened up four sister eateries and now have Barney’s locations in Old Town Pasadena, Santa Monica, Burbank, and Westwood.

The restaurant’s long-time popularity is largely due to its down-home food. Unbelievably, the menu features over 1,000 items (and no, that is a not a typo!), including 45 different varieties of chili, 20 different burgers with 24 different toppings, 13 types of hot dogs, and 200 varieties of beer. As they say at Barney’s, “If we don’t have it, you don’t want it!” The menu is so large in fact, containing everything from Mexican fare to pizza and calzones, that it is printed in newspaper format and boasts a whopping 12 pages! And while I did not eat at the original location with Chas that day, the Grim Cheaper and I used to frequent the Santa Monica outpost almost weekly when he lived on the West Side and I have to say that the fare is INCREDIBLE! The place serves up comfort food at its finest, including delectable chicken strips (my fave!) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (SO COOL!). As owner David Houston is quoted as saying on the inmag website, “We’re not concerned about dieting, carb counting and all that because this is where you go to get away from it all.” LOVE IT!

[ad]

As I mentioned above, several productions have been filmed at Barney’s. The restaurant appeared almost weekly on the television series Columbo, as the regular hang-out of the show’s eponymous chili-loving Lieutenant Columbo (aka Peter Faulk). It first showed up in 1971 in the the Season 1 episode titled “Ransom for a Dead Man”, in which filming took place at the actual eatery. It next popped up in the Season 1 episode titled “It’s All In The Game” and in numerous later episodes as well, but only the exterior of the restaurant was actually used. The interior was just a set that had been based on the real Barney’s interior.

In 1984’s Body Double, Jake Scully (aka Craig Wasson) grabs a drink at Barney’s Beanery after discovering his girlfriend in bed with another man.

in 1985’s Real Genius, Barney’s stood in for Purgatory, the burger joint where Chris Knight (aka Val Kilmer) and his friends met up with Lazlo Hollyfeld (aka Jon Gries).

Val Kilmer returned to Barney’s in 1991 to shoot a rather disgusting scene for The Doors, in which Jim Morrison relieves himself on the bar. What is odd is that while Barney’s today still looks much the same as it did in Body Double, it does not look the way it did in The Doors, which was filmed some seven years later. I am guessing that producers had the bar dressed for the filming of The Doors to make the place appear as it did back in the days when Jim Morrison actually did hang out there.

In 2003’s Stuck on You, Barney’s Beanery was where conjoined twins Bob Tenor (aka Matt Damon) and Walt Tenor (aka Greg Kinnear) discuss undergoing surgery to separate themselves. The restaurant was also featured in the 1986 flick Out of Bounds, which unfortunately I could not find a copy of anywhere. Fail!

As I mentioned above, Barney’s has long been a celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the stars who have dined there over the years include Clara Bow (Hollywood’s first “It Girl”), Jim Morrison, John Barrymore, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, Lou Costello, Charles Bukowski, Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Jack Nicholson, Elliot Gould, Bette Midler, Mel Gibson, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Drew Carey, Rob Lowe, Keefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, John Cusack, Andrew McCarthy, Liza Minnelli, Matthew McConaughey, David Arquette, Chace Crawford, Lauren Conrad, my girl Jen Aniston, my other girl Marilyn Monroe, Ashton Kutcher, Courteney Cox, Josh Stewart, Wilmer Valderrama, Ed Westwick, Jessica Szohr, Adam Sandler, Billy Idol, James Dean, Ronald Regan, and Jean Harlow. Supposedly Quentin Tarantino wrote much of Pulp Fiction while sitting in his favorite booth at Barney’s. And Janis Joplin famously ate her last meal at the restaurant shortly before midnight on October 3rd, 1970. Janis apparently carved her name into the tabletop pictured above which is currently affixed to Barney’s ceiling. Unfortunately though, we could not find that carving anywhere, but the FindaDeath website has a great picture of it, which you can take a look at here.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for taking me to this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Barney’s Beanery, from Body Double, is located at 8447 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

September 23, 2011
Bob’s Big Boy Broiler in Downey from “License to Drive”

Hold onto your hats, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! Another Bob’s Big Boy location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked recently was the legendary Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, aka Johnie’s Broiler, located on Firestone Boulevard in Downey. I had been longing to stalk the historic restaurant ever since 1988 when it stood in for Archie’s Atomic Drive-In in fave movie License to Drive. Sadly though, shortly after I moved to Southern California ten years ago, the eatery shuttered it doors and was then later partially – and illegally – demolished. It was not until this past year that the place re-opened and I was finally, finally able to drag the GC out there to see it in person.

Johnie’s Broiler was first founded in 1958 by former Clock-Broiler-restaurant-chain-partner Harvey Ortner and his wife, Minnie. In 1950, the couple purchased a poultry farm located at the corner of Firestone Boulevard and Old River School Road in Downtown Downey and hired architect Paul B. Clayton to design a Googie-style coffee shop on the 2-acre site. According to Clayton’s 2005 obituary in the Los Angeles Times, the architect later called the restaurant “the most important commercial design of his entire career”. Harvey’s Broiler, as it was then-named, was an immediate success, sometimes attracting over 5,000 patrons in a single weekend. Much as it was depicted in License to Drive, the spot was a popular high school hang-out where teens would come to grab a bite to eat and show off their cars. In 1965, the Ortners retired and sold their restaurant to a man with the last name of Johnson. He changed the eatery’s moniker to Johnie’s Broiler. Shortly thereafter, a former Harvey’s chef named Christos Smyrniotis purchased the property. He still owns the restaurant to this day. And while it continued to be successful, especially as a filming location, for whatever reason Johnie’s closed its doors in February of 2002. It was then transformed into a used car dealership and the interior was heavily remodeled to suit the needs of its new tenant.

When the car dealership’s lease expired a few years later, a new tenant named Aras Yanik moved in. Yanik immediately filed demolition permits with the City of Downey, but those permits were rejected. Local residents and area preservations were horrified at Yanik’s plans to level the historic site and quickly took action, having the property declared eligible for the California Register of Historical Places, which protected it, in theory at least, from any alterations. But despite the historical status and the city’s rejection of the demolition permits, at approximately 3 p.m. on the afternoon of Sunday, January 7th, 2007, Yanik illegally began to demolish the restaurant. Police were called in and Yanik was slapped with three misdemeanor charges and his lease on the property was revoked. Sadly though, the damage was done. The beloved coffee shop had been almost entirely destroyed.

You can watch a video which features numerous photographs of the destruction by clicking above.

In April 2008, Bob’s Big Boy franchise owner Jim Louder signed a lease with Smyrniotis and, along with help from Downey’s Redevelopment Agency and the Downey Historical Society, set about salvaging materials from the wreckage site and rebuilt the eatery in its entirety, using the original Harvey’s blueprints. The restoration project won the Los Angeles Conservancy’s prestigious President’s Award and the new Bob’s Big Boy Broiler opened to much fanfare on October 19, 2009.

[ad]

Johnie’s Broiler has been featured in countless productions over the years, many more so than I could ever dream of chronicling here. But I will do my best to try. In License to Drive, Les Anderson (aka Corey Haim) and his buddies, Dean (aka Corey Feldman) and Charles (aka Michael Manasseri), get into a scuffle with some punks while dining at the fictional high school hangout “Archie’s Atomic Drive-In”.

In 1988’s My Stepmother Is an Alien, Johnie’s is where Celeste Martin (aka Kim Basinger) goes to find breakfast recipes.

In 1989’s She’s Out of Control, Doug Simpson (aka Tony Danza) takes his daughter Katie (aka Ami Dolenz) and her boyfriend Joey (aka Dana Ashbrook) to Johnie’s for a bite to eat.

In 1989’s Earth Girls Are Easy, Valerie (aka Geena Davis), Candy (aka Julie Brown) and their new alien friends, Mac (aka Jeff Goldblum), Wiploc (aka Jim Carrey), and Zeebo (aka Damon Wayans), drive by Johnie’s Broiler in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene.

In 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do with It, Johnie’s is where Ike Turner (aka Laurence Fishburne) and Tina Turner (aka Angela Bassett) get into a fist-fight.

In 1993’s Short Cuts, Johnie’s is the restaurant where Doreen Piggot (aka Lily Tomlin) works.

Johnie’s shows up twice in the 1994 comedy Reality Bites. It first appears as the spot where Lelaina Pierce (aka Winona Ryder) runs into Troy Dyer (aka Ethan Hawke) after her disastrous job interview during which she is unable to define the word “irony”.

It later pops up in my very favorite scene in the entire movie as the restaurant where Lelaina and Vickie Miner (aka Janeane Garogalo) discuss the television series Melrose Place.

In 1995’s Heat, Johnie’s Broiler is where Neil McCauley (aka Robert De Niro) tries to kill one of his crew members, Waingro (aka Kevin Gage).

In 1997’s The Game, a destitute Nicholas Van Orton (aka Michael Douglas) stumbles into Johnie’s to ask patrons for a ride to San Francisco.

In 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait, Johnie’s is where Preston Meyers (aka Ethan Embry) meets The Angel (aka Jenna Elfman) while trying to call Barry Manilow on a payphone.

In the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “Orison”, which aired in 1999, Johnie’s stood in for a supposed-bus stop/coffee shop in Harrisburg, Illinois where Fox Mulder (aka David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (aka Gillian Anderson) search for a murder suspect.

In the 1999 movie Jawbreaker, Johnie’s is where Courtney (aka Rose McGowan), Julie (aka Rebecca Gayheart), and Marcie (aka a pre-Dexter Julie Benz) discover that they have accidentally killed their friend.

In my favorite scene from 2000’s Bounce, the diner was where Abby Janello (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) removed toilet paper off of the shoe of an unknowing woman.

Supposedly the restaurant also appeared in Mission: Impossible II, but I scanned through the movie earlier today and did not see it anywhere. It did however appear in Limp Bizkit’s 2000 video for the song “Take A Look Around”, which was featured on the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Johnie’s was also used in the 2000 music video for the Bob Dylan song “Things Have Changed”.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Johnie’s was also used extensively in the music video for the 2001 Staind song “For You”.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

It also popped up in the 2001 Kurupt “It’s Over” music video.

A cartoon rendering of the restaurant was even made for that video . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

The diner was featured in the 2001 music video for Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For a Girl”.

Which you can watch by clicking above.

It was also used in Knoc-turn’al’s “The Knoc” music video in 2002.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

In the ultra-creepy 2002 movie One Hour Photo, Johnie’s is the coffee shop where Seymour Parrish (aka Robin Williams) ate a late-night dinner after getting off work at the local photo lab.

Most recently, Bob’s Big Boy Broiler appeared in the Season 4 episode of Mad Men titled “Tomorrowland”, in the scene in which Sally Draper (aka Kiernan Shipka) spills a milkshake and her father, Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm), is shocked to discover that his girlfriend, Megan Calvet (aka Jessica Pare), is not upset by it.

That scene was shot in a booth located in Johnie’s side room, which was the same room that appeared in the Melrose Place scene in Reality Bites.

There is quite a bit of erroneous information out there about Johnie’s Broiler’s filming history. For instance, the 2003 flick Matchstick Men was not filmed at Johnie’s, but at KJ’s Diner & Restaurant near LAX; 1998’s American History X was not filmed at Johnie’s in Downey, but at the Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile District of L.A.; 1980’s Midnight Madness was also shot at Johnie’s Wilshire, not at the Broiler; as was the Sean Kingston video for the song “Beautiful Girls”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the face of About Me! Today is the VERY LAST day to vote, so please get those votes in!

Stalk It: Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, aka Johnie’s Broiler, aka Archie’s Atomic Drive-In from License to Drive, is located at 7447 Firestone Boulevard in Downey. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

September 20, 2011
Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank from “Heat”

While doing some stalking in the Burbank area way back in November of last year, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Bob’s Big Boy restaurant on Riverside Drive to grab a bite to eat. And even though the eatery has quite a vast Hollywood history, is a filming location, serves fried food (my favorite!), and is currently the oldest remaining Bob’s in the entire restaurant chain, for whatever reason in my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles I had yet to dine there. But, let me tell you, the place was well worth the wait! Both the GC and I absolutely LOVED it!

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank was originally built in 1949 by franchise owners Scott MacDonald and Ward Albert, and was designed by Wayne McAllister, the legendary Googie-style architect who also designed the Biltmore Hotel’s Biltmore Bowl ballroom, the Sands Hotel and Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Cinegrill nightclub. In 1993, after several changes in ownership and a few dining room remodels, the property was purchased by the MacDonald family, who immediately set about an extensive renovation in order to restore the Streamline-Moderne-style eatery to its original glory. The MacDonald’s also added a front patio to the premises, re-fabbed the famous exterior signage, and, best of all, re-instated car-hop service from 5 to 10 p.m. each Friday and Saturday night. So incredibly cool! In 1993, the restaurant was also deemed a California Point of Historical Interest.

Visiting Bob’s Big Boy, one is immediately transported back in time, thanks largely to its curved counter and open kitchen ;

cantilevered roof and petal-like umbrellas,

and commanding 50s-style signage –

the most impressive of which is the 70-foot-tall free-standing display sign pictured above.

And the food! Oh, the food! I ordered the chicken strips and they were absolutely out-of-this-world! And don’t even get me started on the ranch dressing! I was almost ready to start eating it by itself, soup-style, it was so good! The GC opted for the famous “Big Boy” double-decker hamburger, which he loved. The “Big Boy” was originally invented by Bob’s Big Boy founder Bob Wian in 1937 and was the precursor to the now-legendary McDonald’s Big Mac. He created the sandwich as a joke one night when one of his regular customers asked for a “different” kind of burger. And the rest, as they say, is hamburger history. Amazingly, Bob was also one of the very first restaurant owners to offer his employees a profit-sharing plan and medical insurance.

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank has been a celebrity hangout since the very beginning. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there over the years include Bob Hope (who was a regular), James Dean, Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Jonathan Winters, Alexis Smith, Debbie Reynolds, Craig Stevens, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Taylor Lautner, Tiffany Thornton, Tori Spelling, Melissa Joan Hart, David Henrie, Taylor Swift, Joey Lawrence, Cheech Marin, Selena Gomez, Jay Leno, David Lynch, Dennis Haskins, and Freddie Prinze Jr. During the summer of 1965, all four members of The Beatles famously dined at one of the eatery’s back booths, which is pictured above.

That occasion was marked with the gold plaque pictured above, which one employee told me has been stolen countless times over the years. I cannot tell you how much I hate hearing things like that! Apparently, the owners were sick of constantly having to replace the sign, so for a time they left the wall in that area blank. Thankfully though, the plaque was back in its proper place when I stalked the restaurant last year.

[ad]

And, as I mentioned above, Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank is also a filming location! The diner was featured twice in the 1995 heist movie Heat. It first popped us as the restaurant where a fresh-out-of-prison Donald Breedan (aka Dennis Haysbert) got hired as a janitor/cook.

Towards the end of the movie, it shows up once again in the scene in which Neil McCauley (aka Robert De Niro), Michael Cheritto (aka Tom Sizemore), and Chris Shiherlis (aka Val Kilmer) convince Donald to be the driver for their upcoming bank heist. Apparently there was once a plaque displayed in the booth where that scene took place commemorating the occasion, but it was stolen countless times as well and had yet to be replaced in November.

In the Season 8 episode of Dancing with the Stars, Derek Hough took Lil’ Kim to Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank to get her into character for their upcoming 50s jive performance. You can watch a clip of that segment being filmed here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the face of About Me! There are only five voting days left – you can vote once every 24 hours now through Tuesday, September 20th.

Stalk It: Bob’s Big Boy, from Heat, is located at 4211 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Priscilla’s Coffee Tea & Gifts, from Desperate Housewives, which I blogged about back in December of 2009, is located just across the street from Bob’s at 4150 Riverside Drive in Burbank.

September 16, 2011