Category: Movie Locations

Pamela’s House from “Teen Wolf”

A little over two weeks ago, fellow stalker Owen went on a mission to try to track down all of the locations used in the 1985 comedy Teen Wolf, which starred his favorite actor Michael J. Fox. And the locale that he was most interested in finding was the house belonging to Pamela Wells (aka Lorie Griffin), Scott Howard’s (aka MJF’s) love interest in the flick. Because Scott’s house in the movie was located in South Pasadena – ironically enough, it was the very same residence where the teenaged Lorraine Baines (aka Lea Thompson) lived in the Back to the Future movies – Owen had a feeling that Pamela’s house was most likely also located somewhere in that same vicinity. So, without so much as even an address number or a street name to guide him, but armed with a pretty great hunch, he started using Google Street View to search through the properties situated near the Howard residence and happened upon Pamela’s house rather quickly. Amazingly enough, it is located right around the corner and just a scant .2 miles away from the Howard home! Yay! So, this past Friday afternoon, I set out to stalk the place, even though it has been YEARS since I have watched Teen Wolf!

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Pamela’s house only actually shows up once in Teen Wolf, in the scene in which Scott walks Pamela home after a date at the local bowling alley – a locale which I blogged about back in June of 2009. It is while walking her home that Pamela breaks Scott’s heart by telling him that she will not go to the school dance with him because she already has a boyfriend.

Amazingly enough, Pamela’s house looks VERY much the same today as it did when the filming of Teen Wolf took place back in 1985. Aside from a change in paint color and the removal of the front window shutters, the residence is virtually indistinguishable from its onscreen counterpart, which I find so incredibly cool. Although I do have to admit that I much prefer the way the house looked in 1985 than to how it appears now.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Pamela’s house from Teen Wolf is located at 1980 Oak Street in South Pasadena. Scott Howard’s house from Teen Wolf, which was also Lorraine Baines’ house in Back to the Future, is located just around the corner at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena.

January 31, 2011
The “Crossroads” Gas Station

One location that I was absolutely dying to stalk while visiting Palmdale last week was the supposed Texas-area gas station where Lucy Wagner (aka Miss Britney Spears) stole the keys to Ben’s (aka Anson Mount’s) Buick Skylark convertible in the 2002 movie Crossroads. I had known from watching the flick’s DVD commentary with director Tamra Davis and writer Shonda Rhimes that the gas station scene was filmed somewhere in the Palmdale/Lancaster area, but unfortunately its exact location was not specified. So, the night before my dad and I were set to head out that way, I got to work looking at aerial views of what I thought was every single gas station located within the Palmdale/Lancaster city limits. Unfortunately though, I came up completely empty-handed. So, imagine my surprise the following morning when I spotted what I was fairly certain was the Crossroads station while driving to the famed Four Aces movie set. I just about had a heart attack, slammed on my brakes, did a U-turn in the middle of the street, and headed right on back to the station to get a closer look.

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And, as it turns out, my instincts were right! The Super Store 6, as it is called in real life, was in fact the gas station from Crossroads! So, I immediately headed right on inside to speak with the owner who truly could NOT have been nicer. She told me that Britney had been very friendly and down-to-earth during the filming and that it had been a fairly low-key shoot. The owner also informed me that her station had appeared in both ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video and the final scene from the original Terminator movie. Unfortunately though, the gas station has been completely remodeled since that time and looks quite a bit different today than it did in the early 1980’s when those productions were filmed.

Thankfully though, Crossroads was filmed after the remodel took place, so it still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. In what turned out to be one of my very favorite scenes from the movie, Lucy, Ben, and their friends Mimi (aka Taryn Manning) and Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), stop by the station to fill up their car with gas while making their way from Louisiana to California. After grabbing a snack in the station’s mini-mart, Lucy, Mimi, and Kit discover that Ben has fallen asleep in the backseat of his car and, even though they have been warned that they are not allowed to touch the car under any circumstances, they decide to steal his keys and drive to their next destination themselves.

Mimi nominates Lucy to steal the car keys from Ben’s pocket because, as she says, “Well, Kit and I voted and you lost!” (LOVE IT!) So, Lucy snatches the keys and the girls drive off into the sunset.

But not before snapping the above photograph of themselves which I think is just about the cutest thing ever. I love, love, love that famous cross-eyed, tongue-out Britney face . . .

. . . which she later duplicated in her Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi Cola, but I digress.

In Crossroads, Ben’s Buick is parked at the station’s southeastern-most pump, in the spot where I am standing in the above photograph. Because there was a large truck parked right near the pump, though, my dad had to take the picture from the opposite direction from which the camera was facing in the movie.

In the very final scene of The Terminator, Sarah Connor (aka Linda Hamilton) stops by the Super Store 6 to fill her tank with gas and winds up having her photograph taken by a young boy. I am fairly certain that the station was never actually colored pink and green in real life, but that producers had it painted solely for the filming of the movie and then painted it back to its original color when the production was wrapped. Because the gas station is supposed to be located somewhere in the Mexican desert in the flick, producers also added quite a bit of set dressing, including Spanish signs, piñatas, and souvenirs, making the place look quite a bit different than it actually appeared at the time.



ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video takes place almost in its entirety at the Crossroads/Terminator gas station.



In the video, the woman in red parks her car in the exact same spot that Sarah Connor parked her Jeep in The Terminator, but the camera is facing in the opposite direction in the video than it was in the movie so the view is a bit different.

But, as you can see in the above screen captures, the square-shaped bars that cover the mini-mart’s windows . . .

. . . and the roofline and roof shape from the “Gimme All Your Lovin’” video exactly match that which appeared in The Terminator.

“Gimme All Your Lovin’” Music Video at Palmdale Gas Station

You can watch the “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Super Store 6, aka the gas station from Crossroads, the final scene in the first Terminator movie, and ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video, is located at 37202 90th Street East, at the corner of 90th Street East and Avenue S, in Palmdale. Some maps also list the gas station as being located in the town of Littlerock. In Crossroads, Ben’s car was parked at the pump located in the northeast corner of the station, in the area denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view. At the end of The Terminator, Sarah Connor was parked in front of the station’s western-most pump, in the area denoted with a blue “X” in the above aerial view. ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video was filmed in the exact same spot that was used in The Terminator.

January 28, 2011
The “Kill Bill” Church

One location that my dad and I visited while stalking in the Lancaster and Palmdale areas last week was the Sanctuary Adventist Church which was used prominently in the 2003 and 2004 Quentin Tarantino movies Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2. And although I have never actually seen either of the Kill Bill flicks, I was dying to stalk the church because, thanks to fave book Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, I found out that it also had a very small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in the 2002 Britney Spears movie Crossroads, in which I was an extra. I should mention here that if you are planning to spend a day stalking in Palmdale – and I do HIGHLY recommend doing so – I suggest you print out maps of each and every location that you are wanting to visit before heading out the door. I failed to do so and had planned on using my navigation system to lead me to each locale, but, let me tell you, that did NOT pan out very well. At most points during our journey, my navigator had no idea where on earth we were – more than once it told me I was driving on a road that didn’t exist! LOL – and a few times it even took us on routes through dirt roads that wound up at dead ends. And while Palmdale and Lancaster are not exactly desolate – there’s even a Starbucks there! – most of the filming locations in that area are pretty far removed from civilization. I suggest that you not make a stalking journey out there alone and that you arrive with a full tank of gas and a car that is in good working order.

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The Sanctuary Adventist Church, which up until recently was known as the Calvary Baptist Church, is an actual working religious facility that, sadly, does not appear to currently be in the best of shape. The tiny Spanish-style chapel definitely has a Southwestern feel to it and it is not very hard to see why Quentin Tarantino chose to use it as the site of the wedding day massacre in his two-part action flick. Especially with that lone Joshua tree that stands in front of it and gives the church a very picturesque, very cinematic feel.

As you can see in the above photograph, the church is also located on a very desolate and very remote stretch of desert road, which gives it a very non-L.A., non-California feel. In fact it is hard to believe that the place is located just a scant sixty miles away from the hustle and bustle that is Los Angeles.

In Crossroads, the church stood in for the supposed Arizona-area Native American souvenir stand that Lucy (aka Britney Spears), Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), Mimi (aka Taryn Manning), and Ben (aka Anson Mount) stop at during their journey from Louisiana to California. It is while at the stand that Lucy asks her friends for advice on whether she should show up at her estranged mother’s house unannounced or call her beforehand.

Ironically enough, even though the church is supposed to be a roadside souvenir stand in the movie, for whatever reason producers decided to leave the Calvary Baptist Church sign up during the filming.

In Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2, the Sanctuary Adventist Church stood in for the supposed El Paso, Texas-area Two Pines Wedding Chapel where the Deadly Viper Assassination Team (aka Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, and David Carradine) attempt to kill “the Bride” (aka Uma Thurman).

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the church, which you can see a photograph of here, was also used in the production of both films.

The church has also been featured in numerous other productions, as well. In fact, the intersection of 198th Street East and East Avenue G, where the church is located, is quite a famous little stretch of land. In the 1981 movie True Confessions, the Sanctuary Adventist Church is where Detective Tom Spellacy (aka Robert Duvall) visits his brother Father Des Spellacy (aka Robert DeNiro).

The 1999 Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick Dessert Heat (which, for some reason, is also named Inferno), was filmed almost in its entirety in both the former High Vista Diner and the sundries store located directly across the street from the Sanctuary Adventist Church. The church is visible in the background throughout the vast majority of the movie.

Jubal Early (aka Pat Morita) is also shown ringing the church bell at one point in the movie, although that bell is no longer there in real life.

In Desert Heat, the High Vista Diner is where both Rhonda Reynolds (aka Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) and Dottie Matthews (aka Jaime Pressly) worked. In real life, the place was not a real working restaurant, but, much like Four Aces and Club Ed, was solely built for use as a filming location. Sadly though, the structure was torn down back in early 2008 and is now nothing more than a dirt lot. You can see a photograph of what it used to look like here and here.

Right next to the former High Vista Diner location is another vacant building which stood in for the Elis Emporium Sundries and Surplus store in Desert Heat. And while that structure is still currently standing, I am not sure for how long that will be the case.

As you can in the above photographs, the building does not look to be in the best of shape, although it is apparently still available for filming.

The Elis Emporium structure was also visible in the background of the opening scene of True Confessions and I do believe that it was a real working grocery store at one point in time.

The little motel that Henry Howard (aka Robert Symonds) and his wife (aka Priscilla Pointer) owned in Desert Heat used to be located directly behind the Elis Emporium building, but it has also since been torn down.

In Nurse Betty, the High Vista Café stood in for the supposed Williams, Arizona-area Canyon Ranch Bar where Betty (aka Renee Zellweger), and later Wesley (aka Chris Rock) and Charlie (aka Morgan Freeman), stop while making their way towards California.

I am fairly certain that the interior of the Canyon Ranch Bar was filmed elsewhere though, as it looks nothing like the interior of the diner from Desert Heat and also appears to be quite a bit larger than the former High Vista Diner building. My guess is that the interior Canyon Ranch Bar scenes were filmed on a soundstage somewhere in Hollywood.

The Kill Bill church is also just barely visible in the background of Nurse Betty in the scene in which Charlie and Wesley arrive at the Canyon Ranch Bar.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Sanctuary Adventist Church, aka the Kill Bill church, is located at the intersection of 198th Street East and East Avenue G in Lancaster. The High Vista Diner was formerly located directly across the street from the church at the southeast corner of 198th Street East and East Avenue G. The Elis Emporium Sundries and Surplus Store from Desert Heat is located at the southwest corner of 198th Street East and East Avenue G.

January 27, 2011
The “Swingers” Apartment Building

One location that I stalked quite a few months back, but for whatever reason have yet to blog about is the Los Feliz apartment building where Mike (aka Jon Favreau) lived in the 1996 comedy Swingers. I had actually been wanting to stalk this location for quite some time, ever since reading on the IMDB trivia page for Swingers that Jon Favreau had lived there while writing the screenplay for the movie and during the actual filming. IMDB even had the address of the building – 5874 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz – listed on its Swingers filming locations page, but when my husband and I showed up to stalk the place we discovered that such an address did not actually exist. At first I thought that the Swingers building had quite possibly been torn down, but, as it turns out, the information posted on IMDB was actually incorrect. While looking for the apartment numbered 5874, I noticed the building located at 5870 Franklin Avenue and thought it looked very similar to where Mike had lived in Swingers, so my husband and I ventured over there for a closer look. And amazingly enough we found our answer in a very cool way while doing so!

As it turns out, and as you can see in the above photograph, there is a Swingers poster hanging on the wall of the building’s lobby, which we spotted while peeking in through the front windows. Once I saw that poster, I knew we had to be in the right place! So incredibly cool! I am not sure why there is also a Batman poster displayed in the lobby, being that Batman was filmed in its entirety in England, but I am guessing that maybe someone involved in the production had lived in the building at one time or another.



In real life, the Swingers apartment building is named Chateau Marcella and it was originally built in 1928. Due to the building’s detailing and character, I assumed it was mostly likely a historic structure of some sort, but sadly I could find absolutely no information about it online. Like nothing, nada, zip. Not even a single Yelp report stating whether or not it was a nice place to live!



But I am happy to report that the building looks very much the same today as it did back in 1996 when Swingers was filmed.

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Not only did Jon Favreau live at the Chateau Marcella while Swingers was being filmed, but his real life apartment even stood in for Mike’s apartment in the flick! Which makes sense because according to some of the behind-the-scenes information that I have found about the movie online, the Swingers’ shoot was a very low budget one. So, I am guessing that to cut down on costs, Jon decided to use his own apartment for the filming instead of paying to rent out a location for days on end.

I believe that the filming of Swingers took place inside of apartment 382, as in the scene in which Mike comes home after first meeting Lorraine (aka Heather Graham), he opens his front door and a number is just barely visible. I believe that number is 382, but don’t quote me on that as it is very hard to make out. According to IMDB’s trivia page for Swingers, actor Adam Scott also lived at Chateau Marcella during the time that Swingers was being filmed.

The apartment also boasts a fabulous view of the Hollywood sign.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chateau Marcella, aka the Swingers apartment building and actor Jon Favreau’s former home, is located at 5870 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz. The 101 Coffee Shop, where Mike and his friends hung out in the movie, is located just a few blocks west of the apartment building at 6145 Franklin Avenue.

January 19, 2011
The Electric Fountain from “Clueless”

Two weekends ago while doing some stalking in the Beverly Hills area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards to finally, finally stalk the fountain where Cher Horowitz (aka Alicia Silverstone) realized her true feelings for her former stepbrother Josh (aka Paul Rudd) in fave movie Clueless. I was clued in – pun intended 🙂 – to this location two years ago by a fellow stalker who had visited the fountain while vacationing in Southern California and had later sent me pictures of it. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me remember who this particular tipster was, nor can I find the emails she sent to me in any of my saved email folders. UGH! So, whoever it was that informed me of the location of the Clueless fountain, I sincerely thank you! Anyway, even though I was tipped off about this locale quite a while back and even though Clueless is one of my all time favorite movies, for whatever reason I had yet to stalk the place until last Saturday afternoon.

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In real life the Clueless fountain is named the Electric Fountain and it was built in 1931 at a cost of $21,000 by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, who also designed the Beverly Hills Post Office. The 50-foot in diameter fountain, which was constructed out of concrete, cast stone, and terra cotta tile, boasts a large central basin detailed with relief carvings that represent various events in California history. Anchored at the top of the basin is a sculpture of a Native American woman praying for rain that was molded by Robert Merrell Gage, the same artist who sculpted the facade of the Los Angeles Times Building in Downtown L.A. The fountain got its unusual name thanks to the fact that it was the first electric fountain to be built in the United States. The structure is perhaps best known for its nightly water and lights show, which is vaguely reminiscent of the Fountains of the Bellagio show in Las Vegas, albeit on a much smaller scale.

My favorite aspect of the fountain, though, is the fact that it is located directly across the street from a Starbucks. 🙂



In Clueless, Cher arrives at the Electric Fountain while walking around the City of Beverly Hills in an attempt to clear her “totally buggin’” head after failing her driver’s license test and getting into a huge fight with Tai (aka Brittany Murphy). It is while she is at the fountain that she has an epiphany and realizes that she is in love with Josh.

And I,of course, just had to reenact the scene while there. 🙂



The rock group The Go-Go’s danced in the Electric Fountain (in a scene that must have been a precursor to the opening credits of fave television series Friends) in the music video for their 1981 hit song “Our Lips Are Sealed”.

You can watch the “Our Lips Are Sealed” music video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Clueless fountain is located on the northwest corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards, in Beverly Gardens Park, in Beverly Hills. The Witch’s House, which also appeared in Clueless, is located just around the corner from the fountain at 516 North Walden Drive, also in Beverly Hills.

January 10, 2011
UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center from “The American President”

Before heading to Lake Arrowhead, where the Grim Cheaper, my parents, and I spent Thanksgiving weekend this past November, I did some research on filming in the area and just about fell off my chair when I discovered, thanks to the official Lake Arrowhead website, that part of the 1992 romantic comedy The American President had been shot on location there. Unfortunately, the website did not specify which scene in particular had been shot in the area nor did it say where exactly filming had taken place. So, I immediately called upon fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who put me in touch with the movie’s location manager, Richard Davis Jr., whom he happens to know, and Richard was kind enough to write me back that very same day! Yay! Richard informed me that filming had taken place at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, which stood in for the president’s country retreat, Camp David, in the flick. So, I dragged my parents and the GC right on out to stalk the place pretty much immediately upon arriving in the lakeside city.





The UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, which was originally known as the North Shore Tavern, was first constructed in 1921 and at the time was Lake Arrowhead’s most exclusive resort. The property changed hands a few times over the years and was transformed into everything from a yacht club to a grammar school. In 1957, the Los Angeles Turf Club, the property’s then-owner, sold off the vast majority of the grounds, including the lake, to several different buyers, but they decided to donate the main lodge to a school. The lodge was first offered to USC, who declined it. The L.A.T.C. next approached the Regents of the University of California, who accepted the gift and still own the property to this day. The state of the art facility is currently comprised of over forty acres of land and features a large swimming pool, an indoor Jacuzzi, a ropes course, three dining rooms with first class catering service, an amphitheater, a rock wall, a zip-lining course, volleyball and tennis courts, hiking and biking trails, 12 conference rooms incorporating 9,000 square feet of meeting space, and 105 guest rooms, including 81 “condolets” – two-story villa-type dwellings.

In The American President, the conference center’s main lodge stood in for Camp David, where President Andrew Shepherd (aka Michael Douglas) took Sydney Ellen Wade (aka Annette Bening) for a weekend getaway. The lodge is only shown for a very brief six seconds in the scene in which Marine One, the presidential helicopter, lands on the conference center’s expansive front lawn. Of filming the scene, which took place on March 29, 1995, Richard Davis Jr. said, “The snow had melted before we could land the helicopter so we crushed about 4 tractor trailer loads of block ice and spread it around like snow. The chopper landed on that and VFX painted in the rest. The shots looking down from the helicopter were shot in Tahoe and cut in. Winter ended early that year. Another couple of weeks and we probably would have had to go to Alaska.” So incredibly cool!

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Richard also informed me that the interior and exterior of the actual cabin where Andrew and Sydney stayed in the scene were just sets that were built inside of a studio soundstage.



The real life interior of the main lodge is pictured above.

Thanks to fave stalking guide Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors (which also had The American President information listed, but for whatever reason I failed to see it), I found out that the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center was also used as Cascade, the supposed Vermont-area sanitarium where “ugly duckling” Charlotte Vail (aka Bette Davis) was sent in the 1942 film Now, Voyager. I cannot tell you how incredibly cool I think it is that the property still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed over 68 years ago! Love it! Love it! Love it!

The center’s tennis courts were also used extensively in Now, Voyager and they, too, still look very much the same today as they did in the movie.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Stalk It: UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center from The American President is located at 850 Willow Creek Road in Lake Arrowhead. You can visit the center’s official website here.

December 31, 2010
Caffe’ Opera – aka Dog Years Diner from “American Pie”

Shortly after selling their house a few months back, my parents moved into an apartment building in Old Town Monrovia. Since that time, they have become regular patrons of their new favorite restaurant, Caffe’ Opera – the very spot that stood in for Dog Years Diner, the supposed Grand Rapids, Michigan-area hangout of Jim Levenstein (aka Jason Biggs), Chris Ostreicher (aka Chris Klein), Kevin Myers (aka Thomas Ian Nicholas), and Paul Finch (aka Eddie Kaye Thomas), in the 1999 gross-out comedy American Pie. So, when my parents suggested that we dine at the eatery on my dad’s recent birthday, I jumped at the chance as, even though I wasn’t a big fan of the flick, I had always wanted to stalk the restaurant due to the fact that both the interior and the exterior of it had been used in the movie. The building where filming took place is actually the historic Monrovia Savings Bank Building which was originally constructed back in 1923. The bank operated at the site until 1934, at which point it consolidated with a sister branch located just up the street. Different businesses subsequently moved into the space, until 2003 when it was taken over by Varo Angeletti, the original owner of Pasadena’s Sorriso Ristorante which I blogged about back in November, who used it as the site of his new Italian bistro, Caffe’ Opera.

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Caffe’ Opera is a FABULOUS restaurant that serves up some absolutely HUGE portions! I opted for the Crusted Rosemary Chicken entrée and it was A-MA-ZING! The GC and I have actually been back there with my parents twice now since my father’s birthday and the place has been spectacular each time. Honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough. I would suggest splitting an entrée with your date, though, as the servings are literally HUMONGOUS!

At the time that American Pie was filmed, the Caffe’ Opera space was actually a vacant storefront inside of which producers built the interior of the Dog Years set. The set was actually based on a real life restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan named Yesterdog Diner where Adam Herz, the movie’s screenwriter, hung out during his high school years. You can see some photographs of the actual Yesterdog restaurant here.

Sadly, the interior of the Monrovia Savings Bank Building was completely renovated in 2000, two years after American Pie was filmed, and looks completely different today than it did onscreen.

Sadder still is the fact that the exterior of the building was also remodeled at the time and looks quite a bit different today than it did when filming took place, although, unlike the interior, it is still vaguely recognizable. The changes to the exterior include the awning being swapped out, the front doors being moved to the opposite side of the building, and the large tree out front being chopped down.

The “6 Blocks From Downtown See Great Falls” mural is, of course, not there in real life.

But you can see the building’s then-real life “402” address plaque in the movie’s closing scene. So cool!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Caffe’ Opera, aka Dog Years Diner from the first American Pie movie, is located at 402 South Myrtle Avenue in Old Town Monrovia. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. Caffe’ Opera is located just a few doors down from the since-demolished building that stood in for the Tiki Post in fave movie Never Been Kissed (its former location was at 408 South Myrtle Avenue) and across the street from the Monrovia Coffee Company (which can be found at 425 South Myrtle Avenue), which also appeared in the flick. Yesterdog Diner, the restaurant upon which Dog Years was based, is located at 1505 Wealthy Street SE in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

December 28, 2010
Dirty Dancing: The Limited Keepsake Edition DVD

Well, I unfortunately do not have a new blog to post for today and it is all the Grim Cheaper’s fault! You see, on Christmas Eve morning he gifted me with an early Christmas present – the Blu-ray DVD of Dirty Dancing: The Limited Keepsake Edition, which contains hours upon hours of extras including a feature devoted to all of the locations used in the film. As you can probably imagine, I just about died upon opening it and spent that entire day watching the special features and therefore did not have time to write a new post for today. I did find out a huge amount of Dirty Dancing location information from it, though, and now know where pretty much every single scene in the movie was filmed. And you know what that means! Oh yes, the Grim Cheaper and I will be taking a trip to Pembroke, Virginia and Lake Lure, North Carolina to stalk all of the DD locales in the very near future! For those who are wondering, the majority of the Kellerman hotel scenes – including Baby’s cabin, the dining hall where the family eats, the gazebo where she takes her first dance lesson and gets partnered up with Mrs. Shumaker, and the kitchen where Penny was found crying – can all be found at the Mountain Lodge Hotel in Pembroke, West Virginia. The hotel even offers a Dirty Dancing tour in which guests stalk each and every location featured in the movie and also get to reenact scenes while there! So incredibly cool! All of the staff-type scenes – including the dance hall segments, the rehearsal scenes, and the staff cabin scenes – were filmed at the now-defunct Chimney Rock Boys Camp in Lake Lure, North Carolina. Sadly, most of the Lake Lure locations were either demolished shortly after the movie was filmed or destroyed in a fire a few years later, but Baby’s steps remain and it is those steps that I am longing to see more than anything else! But, until I actually get out there, I offer this AMAZING link of photographs taken by a woman and her husband who somehow managed to pinpoint the exact spots where filming at Lake Lure took place. I seriously think that woman might just be my new best friend!

If you are at all a fan of Dirty Dancing, I honestly cannot recommend enough picking up your own copy of the Limited Keepsake Edition DVD! Other special features include two commentaries, some original screen tests, numerous cast interviews, deleted scenes, extended scenes, alternate scenes, a trivia reel, a making-of featurette, and an outtakes reel (which is actually the only disappointing extra on the entire DVD as the segment only lasts about 30 seconds). The edition also includes a keepsake book about the movie AND, best of all, a $50 coupon to stay at the Mountain Lake Hotel. LOVE IT!

Anyway, I promise to be back tomorrow with a whole new post, so, until that time, Happy Stalking!

December 27, 2010
The “It’s A Wonderful Life” Train Station

If there is anything I have learned over the past ten-plus years that I have lived in Southern California, it is that stalking tips often come from the most unlikely of places. Take for instance this past weekend. The Grim Cheaper’s father has long been a collector of model trains, so last Sunday afternoon the GC headed over to the Whistle Stop train store in Pasadena to do some Christmas shopping for his dad. While there he stumbled upon some vintage locomotive photographs taken by photographer Stan Kistler. Amazingly enough, one of those photographs happened to be a May 1946 image of the former Santa Fe Lamanda Park Train Station in Pasadena which at the time was dressed to appear as the Bedford Falls Train Station for the filming of It’s A Wonderful Life! And while the GC did not actually purchase the photograph for me (he didn’t earn that nickname for nothin’!), when he got home he immediately told me about it and, let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair! I could not believe that one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time had been filmed right in my own backyard and that I had not previously known about it! Because the GC had failed to write down – or remember – exactly which station had been used in the filming (men!), I immediately ran right over to the Whistle Stop to find out. I also purchased the photograph (which is pictured above), not for myself, but for fellow stalker David in Seattle, as It’s A Wonderful Life is one of his all time favorite movies.

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Written on the back of the photograph was the information that I was seeking. The It’s A Wonderful Life train station was actually the now-defunct Santa Fe Lamanda Park Station located at the intersection of East Walnut Street and North San Gabriel Boulevard in Pasadena. Sadly, the station was torn down in 1953.

And even though the station is no longer in existence, I just had to stalk its former site. The above photograph is what the intersection of North San Gabriel Boulevard and East Walnut Street looks like circa 2010. As you can see, there is no sign of the former station anywhere, which I had expected. What I had not expected, though, was the fact that there was also no sign of the former railroad tracks. Before arriving at the intersection, I had been convinced I would be able to find some small remnant of the tracks somewhere in the vicinity.

What I did spot while I was there, though, was an elevated section of the road that looked to be just about the same size as a set of train tracks. That area is marked with the pink lines in the above photograph.

Another view of that elevated portion of land is pictured above. I am guessing that the former railroad tracks are located just beneath that area of land and that instead of actually removing the tracks when the Santa Fe Railroad Line was dismantled in the 1950s, workers simply just poured cement over them leaving what you see above.

So, if my hunch is correct and that bit of land is in fact the former home to a set of train tracks, then I am fairly certain the patch of grass pictured above is where the Lamanda Park Train Station used to be located. But again, that is just a guess.

The station was featured towards the beginning of It’s A Wonderful Life in the scene in which George Bailey (aka James Stewart) and Uncle Billy (aka Thomas Mitchell) wait to pick up Harry Bailey (aka Todd Karns), who has just returned home after graduating from college, at the Bedford Falls train station.

Pictured above is a close-up view of the vintage photograph I purchased for David. The “Bedford Falls” prop signs are denoted with the pink arrows and one of the production’s lighting rigs is denoted with a blue arrow. So incredibly cool! You can see a photograph of what the Lamanda Park station looked like back in 1936 on the Palomar Skies blog here and here.

A very MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my fellow stalkers! I hope you all have a fabulous holiday with your loved ones.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The former Lamanda Park station, aka the Bedford Falls train station from It’s A Wonderful Life, was located at the intersection of East Walnut Street and North San Gabriel Boulevard in Pasadena. My best guess as to the station’s exact location is denoted with the pink arrows in the above aerial view.

December 24, 2010
Our Movie Locations-Themed Scavenger Hunt

My good friend/party planner extraordinaire Natalie Drees has become famous in our circle over the past few years for creating absolutely amazing customized scavenger hunts. She plans one for pretty much every event she hosts and not only are they insanely fun, but they also provide a fabulous way for people to get to know each other. So, once it was decided that our rehearsal dinner would take place at POP Champagne & Dessert Bar in Old Town Pasadena and that all of our family and friends would be invited, I asked Nat if she wouldn’t mind creating a movie locations-themed hunt to cap off our evening. And, thankfully, she said yes! Because Nat lives in San Francisco and therefore does not know the Pasadena area all that well, though – nor is she particularly into this thing that we call stalking – she enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen to carry out the endeavor. And I have to say that the two pulled it off beautifully!

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Natalie figured that most of our guests wouldn’t be quite as into filming locations as I am, so she based the scavenger hunt not around finding where a specific production was filmed, but around finding particular restaurants and bars in Pasadena that also happened to be filming locations. If teams could subsequently figure out what was filmed at each particular restaurant or bar – by talking to their servers or using their iPhones – extra points would be awarded, but filming location knowledge was not in any way required to participate. Besides figuring out which location each clue referred to, teams would also be required to obtain specific items from each location in order to complete the hunt. As always, each team was given a set of pens, a bag to collect all of our scavenger hunt items, and a book detailing our assignment, the rules of the game, and the clues.

The booklets were handed out at the end of the rehearsal dinner at POP Champagne Bar and my best friend Kylee, who was managing the hunt, gave all of the teams five minutes to read them over, before yelling out “On your mark . . . get set . . . go!”. At that point our entire group of fifty literally RAN out of the restaurant! It was like a mass exodus and I can only imagine what our fellow diners were thinking! LOL The scavenger hunt clues read as follows:

Clue Number 1 –

It’s been said “men want

a lady on the street . . .”

Perhaps women want

An “uomo” who can take the heat.

Once they find him,

They’ll take some “pane”.

Bring it back to the judge

And you’ll “vincere”.

The solution to Clue Number 1 was the restaurant Il Fornaio, which was featured in the 2000 movie What Women Want and was actually the very first movie I ever saw being filmed upon moving to Los Angeles. Before purchasing a house, my parents and I lived in an apartment in Old Town Pasadena and we would walk down to Il Fornaio to grab a bite to eat at least once a week. We got to know quite a few people who worked at the eatery and one night one of the servers let us know that Mel Gibson was going to be filming a movie at the restaurant the very next day. So, my mom and I, of course, headed back there bright and early the following morning to watch! It was an extremely cool experience for both of us and while we did not get to meet Mel Gibson, he did wave to us and say ‘hi’ several times while on his various cigarette breaks. Anyway, Nat came up with the brilliant idea of using foreign words in each clue which correlated to the type of food served at the restaurants we were supposed to visit. In the case of Il Fornaio, which is Italian, she used several Italian words – “uomo” translates to “man”, “pane” to “bread”, and “vincere” to “win”. Well, once I read the words “women want”, I knew exactly which restaurant the clue was referring to and my team (which consisted of me and the GC, my best friend Robin and his girlfriend Steffi, and Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and his fiancé Ame) immediately headed on over there. Unfortunately though, my mom, of course, also immediately figured out the answer to the clue and was right on our heels! In the movie, Il Fornaio appeared in the scene in which Nick Marshall (aka Mel Gibson) has lunch with his daughter Alex Marshall (aka Ashley Johnson) after buying her a prom dress.

One of the rules of the game was that all teams would have to purchase a round of drinks at each and every bar, so as not to anger the various managements by having large groups of people running in and out of the restaurants, causing a disruption. When we arrived at Il Fornaio, Mike suggested that we each get a shot as we could drink them quickly and then be on to our next location. Well, I am a complete and total lightweight and typically do not drink anything other than champagne and I really did not want to be doing shots at each and every bar we went into the night before my wedding, so I quickly ixnayed that idea. But the next thing I knew, my friend Steffi had six full shot glasses lined up in front of her. I immediately said, “No, I can’t drink a shot!” to which she replied, “These are champagne shots!” I had no idea what on earth a champagne shot was, but she informed me that she had asked the bartender to pour a bit of champagne into six shot glasses. The bartender at first balked at the idea, but when Steffi explained that I was a soon-to-be bride who only drank champagne, she agreed and poured us our “champagne shots”. We are holding them in the above photograph and I can honestly say that that particular moment was one of my favorites of the entire wedding. So incredibly cute!!!!!!

Clue Number 2 –

Don may ride a white horse

To get to this filmed bar.

If he were in gay Paris

This would be more on par.

Once he arrived

A “serviette” he’d obtain.

In Pasadena it’s this,

Hopefully without a stain.

The solution to Clue Number 2 was Cheval Blanc Bistro, which I blogged about back in December of last year and which was used in the original Father of the Bride movie as the spot where George Banks (aka Steve Martin) takes Bryan MacKenzie (aka George Newbern) for a drink. Because there are not many French restaurants in Old Town Pasadena, this was an easy one. Also tipping me off to the clue’s answer was the fact that Don is my dad’s name, aka the name of the “father of the bride”. Amazingly enough, my mom and her team were hot on our tail upon arriving at this particular bar, as well! My aunt Lea, who was on my mom’s team, had asked the bartender at Il Fornaio if she knew of any French restaurants in the area and the bartender told her that the only place she could think of was Cheval Blanc. My mom’s best friend, who speaks fluent French, immediately said “Cheval Blanc means white horse! That’s the place!” and they took off for the restaurant. At Cheval Blanc we were required to obtain a “serviette”, aka a “napkin”.

Both my team and my mom’s team spent quite a bit of time at this restaurant and ordered a round of drinks and relaxed since we were so far ahead of all of the other groups. And amazingly enough, my mom’s team happened to meet an actor while at Cheval Blanc and they got his autograph for an extra 50 points! He wasn’t anyone famous, but he did have his own IMDB page, so he counted as a “star”.

Clue Number 3 –

You can get a roll

In California’s 91105.

This filming location

You may not recognize.

You won’t need a fork,

But two pieces of wood

To experience

Lindsay’s favorite hood.

The answer to Clue Number 3 was, of course, Maikobe Japanese Restaurant – aka the former Ruby’s Diner which stood in for the Peach Pit on my favorite show of all time Beverly Hills, 90210. For anyone who knew anything about me or anything about the city of Pasadena for that matter, this clue was a no-brainer. In an unfortunate twist of bad luck, though, Maikobe had unexpectedly closed its doors just a few days before our rehearsal dinner, so when we showed up there for the scavenger hunt, we could not go inside to obtain our “two pieces of wood”, aka a set of chop sticks. Mike immediately started looking around for other sushi restaurants in the area and noticed one directly across the street from Maikobe (perhaps this is why the place went out of business! ) and ran right on over to grab some chopsticks. BUT, amazingly enough, my mom’s team had happened to grab a set of chop sticks at Sushi Roku near Il Fornaio earlier during the hunt (they had gone in to collect matchbooks for extra points and the hostess had, for whatever reason, also given them chopsticks!), so as soon as her team realized Maikobe was closed, they immediately started running to the last stop on the hunt and ended up coming in first place! So, yes, even though Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were on the same team, we LOST the scavenger hunt!!!!! Unbelievable!!!! But at least now you can see where I get my stalking skills from! In our family, the apple definitely does not fall far from the tree! On a side note – you can see a great picture of what Maikobe looked like back when it was Ruby’s Diner here.

Clue Number 4 –

At this Latin lounge with a fitting name

Their life together they can star living

Before their honeymoon, as husband and dame.

Ask for this in your drink-o.

Tie it in a knot with your tongue

To get an extra cinco.

The solution to Clue Number 4 was Vive Lounge, where fave movie A Lot Like Love was filmed. At the time the movie was filmed, the place was a Chinese-Malaysian fusion restaurant named Nonya, but that eatery closed down back in 2006 whereupon Vive moved in. Amazingly enough, very little of the décor was changed upon the transition and the restaurant still looked almost exactly the same as it did in the movie. Because there is only one Latin-themed lounge in Pasadena, my mom and her team were easily able to figure out what location the final clue was referring to. Especially once they realized that “vive” translates to “live” in Spanish. For winning the hunt, each member of my mom’s team was awarded with a bag of microwave popcorn and a pass for a free movie at any AMC Theatre. So incredibly cool! All in the all, the scavenger hunt turned out FABULOUS and all of our guests, even those who seriously lagged behind, absolutely LOVED it. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening. On a sad side note, though – the GC and I walked by Vive this past Friday night and discovered that it had closed it doors! I can only hope that the new owners also choose to keep the original Nonya’s décor so that all of us stalkers can still appreciate it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Natalie Drees can create customized scavenger hunts for parties and corporate events based upon any and all sorts of themes. You can contact her via her event planning website Pop Planning. Il Fornaio, from What Women Want, is located at 24 West Union Street in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit Il Fornaio’s website here. Cheval Blanc Bistro, from Father of the Bride, is located at 41 South De Lacey Avenue, also in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit the Cheval Blanc website here. The former Maikobe restaurant, aka the Peach Pit from Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 45 South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, but is currently vacant. Vive Lounge, the former Nonya restaurant from A Lot Like Love, is located at 61 North Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, but is also currently vacant. You can visit the former Vive Lounge website here.

December 13, 2010