Category: Movie Locations

The Martini House from “It’s A Wonderful Life”

As difficult as it may be to believe, even though I absolutely love Christmas and even though I am a huge film buff, up until this past weekend I had never in my life watched the 1946 holiday classic It’s A Wonderful Life. I know, I know, for a person like me, not having seen that movie borders on sacrilege! But when fellow stalker David contacted me a few months back and let me know that he had tracked down a location used in the film, I just HAD to stalk the place – and, of course, include it in my Christmas posts. I also just HAD to sit down and finally watch It’s A Wonderful Life, which my fiancé and I did this past Saturday night. I have to admit that I didn’t actually have high hopes for the flick, as I pretty much expected it to be right on par with Citizen Kane, a movie I could hardly sit through despite the fact that it is generally regarded as the greatest film of all time. So, I was absolutely shocked when I ended up LOVING It’s A Wonderful Life. The movie was funny, heart-warming, and poignant. Most shocking of all, though, was how prevalent and timeless it actually was, despite the fact that it was filmed over 63 years ago. I literally almost fell off the couch laughing in the scene in which the Bailey’s housekeeper, Annie, eavesdrops on George and his father’s dinner conversation, causing George to say, “Well, Annie, why don’t you draw up a chair, then you’d be more comfortable and you could hear everything that’s going on.” LOL LOL LOL For those of you hold-outs out there who have yet to watch It’s A Wonderful Life, the movie truly is a must-see – especially in these days leading up to Christmas. 🙂

Unlike me, fellow stalker David has long been a fan of It’s A Wonderful Life.   In the late ‘80s, he even got to stalk the inside of the Beverly Hills High School gym, where the infamous Charleston dance contest scene took place. And, yes, the floor of the BHHS gym really does open up to reveal a 25-yard swimming pool which is housed beneath. You can see a photograph of the pool here. So cool! Anyway, flash forward to about twenty years later when David’s wife bought him a book about the making of It’s A Wonderful Life for Christmas. The book stated that the house belonging to the Martini Family in the movie was located somewhere in La Canada Flintridge, a small city situated just outside of Pasadena. So, of course, David got to cyber-stalking, but, sadly, couldn’t seem to locate the residence. A short while later, though, he discovered a little website called Zillow, which he used to search the La Canada Flintridge area, and voila, it wasn’t long before he stumbled upon the correct house! YAY!   David immediately posted the newfound address on Wikipedia’s It’s A Wonderful Life page, but – surprise, surprise – that information was quickly removed due to the fact that no source had been cited. Why legitimate information on Wikipedia is continuously removed while incongruous information is allowed to stay posted is BEYOND me. Not that I am bitter about it or anything. 😉 Anyway, David got into a bit of a Wiki-war with the administrators of the encyclopedia website, re-posting the information each and every time it was taken down LOL, which finally resulted in his posting about the house being deleted from the site for good. But, ironically enough, in the midst of the Wikipedia battle, numerous filming location websites and It’s A Wonderful Life fansites picked up David’s information and posted it online, ultimately resulting in Wikipedia re-posting the address and deeming it “reliable” years later. LOVE IT! 🙂





The Martini House is featured very briefly in It’s A Wonderful Life, in the scene in which George (aka James Stewart) welcomes the Martini Family to their new home in Bailey Park and his wife Mary (aka Donna Reed) presents them with bread, so “that this house will never known hunger”, salt, so “that life will always have flavor”, and wine, so “that joy and prosperity may reign forever”. 🙂 I am very happy to report that the house looks EXACTLY the same today – over 63 years later!!!!!! – as it did when the movie was filmed! 🙂 Even the position of the address number, the doorbell, and the mail slot are EXACTLY the same!   LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! 🙂

The Martini’s neighbor’s home, which flashes by quickly in the scene, also looks very much the same as it did back in 1946.

A few of the other homes on the street were also featured briefly in the Martini house scene, but as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, those residences look much different today.

And try as I might, I have not been able to determine the exact house in front of which Sam Wainwright was parked during that scene, but I am pretty sure it is the property pictured above, which as you can see, has also changed significantly. Don’t quote me on that one, though. 🙂

The shot showing the Bailey Park entrance sign was filmed just down the street from the Martini House, at the corner of Viro Road and Lamour Drive, but as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, that corner looks much different today. The curved tree where the sign once hung is now gone and new foliage has popped up all along Viro Road blocking the view of most of the houses.



In real life, the Martini neighborhood was completed in 1946, just prior to the filming of It’s A Wonderful Life. With the picturesque mountains in the background and the obviously new construction, it’s not hard to see why producers chose the community to stand in for the newly built Bailey Park neighborhood in the flick. As you can see, though, the area has grown quite significantly since the ‘40s.

I highly recommend stalking the Martini house to all fans of It’s A Wonderful Life. It truly is remarkable to see a location look exactly the same in person as it did in a movie which was filmed over six decades ago!

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Big THANK YOU to David for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Martini house from It’s A Wonderful Life is located at 4587 Viro Road in La Canada Flintridge. The neighbor’s house is located at 4581 Viro Road. The entrance to the Bailey Park community can be found at the Southwest corner of Viro Road and Lamour Drive. In the shot showing the Bailey Park sign, the camera was looking north. In the scene, George’s car turns west off of Viro Road onto East Lamour Drive, but, in reality, he should have just continued straight on Viro Road to head to the Martini House. The houses George and Mary walk in front of at the end of the scene are located at 4588 and 4592 Viro Road. And, finally, I believe that the house where Sam’s car was parked is located at 4582 Viro Road.

December 22, 2009
Bullocks Wilshire – The Department Store from “Christmas Vacation”

One location that I have been dying to stalk for months now is the former Bullocks Wilshire department store located just outside of Downtown Los Angeles – a spot which has been featured in countless productions since its grand opening way back in 1929. And, even though I am usually a big fan of immediate gratification, I waited to stalk this location until just recently as I wanted to blog about it in December, along with my other Christmas movie posts. So, what holiday movie was the building featured in, you ask? One of my very favorite Christmas flicks of all time – the 1989 holiday classic Christmas Vacation.   In the movie, Bullocks Wilshire stood in for the Chicago area department store where Clark Griswold (aka Chevy Chase), accompanied by his son, Rusty (aka The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki), shopped for lingerie. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who, as luck would have it, just happened to be driving right by the department store on the day filming took place way back in 1989. Once Mike noticed the production trucks, he, of course, immediately pulled over to inquire about what was being filmed and to watch some of the action. And, let me tell you, when Mike told me about the location a few months back, I just about passed out from excitement as I had always wanted to know where that scene had taken place! Thank you, Mike! 🙂

The Bullocks Wilshire building was originally built in 1929 by the father and son architecture firm of John and Donald Parkinson, a team who was also responsible for designing the Continental Building, which is better known as Los Angeles’ first skyscraper, Union Station, L.A.’s City Hall and the Memorial Coliseum. Department store magnate John G. Bullock commissioned the building in the hopes of creating the most luxurious and upscale shopping experience Angelinos had ever seen. The interior, which was designed by Eleanor Lemaire and Jock Peters, was the utmost in splendor, featuring travertine flooring, marble walls, ornate elevators, and rosewood display cases.

For the design of the relief located above the department store’s Wilshire Boulevard entrance, which reads, “To build a business that will never known completion”, Bullock looked to MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, who is best known for designing the first ever Oscar statue.

Because Bullock wanted to cater to the growing number of motorists in the L.A. area, the department store was the first in Los Angeles ever to feature a porte cochere, aka a covered driveway under which shoppers could hand over their vehicles to waiting valets.

The building’s most remarkable feature – in my mind, at least – has to be the highly elaborate mural painted on the ceiling of the porte cochere. Romanian painter Herman Sachs designed the brightly colored fresco secco as a tribute to Mercury, the god of travel. The painting features renderings of different forms of modern-day transportation, including airplanes, trains, and ships.

Upon its opening on September 26, 1929, the 241 foot tall Bullocks Wilshire encompassed over 230,000 square feet of retail space which included a perfume hall, a penthouse tea room, a “doggery” which sold trinkets for shoppers’ furry companions, a saddle shop, a Louis XVI room, a furrier, live mannequins, a salon, and a private suite where the truly elite could shop in complete privacy, all the while sipping martinis and snacking on the finest hors d’oeuvres. Years later, Bullock added a Chanel Room, a photography studio operated by celebrity photographer Neil Gittings, and a Ladies Custom Salon, run by future Hollywood costume designer Irene Lentz. Thanks to Bullock’s incredible attention to detail, the department store quickly became the place to see and be seen in Los Angeles. Such stars as Mae West, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock, John Wayne, and Marlene Dietrich all visited Bullocks Wilshire at one time or another. And actresses June Lockhart and Angela Lansbury and former First Lady Patricia Nixon even worked there in their early years. Thanks to the building’s architectural detail and rich history, Bullocks Wilshire was added to the National Registry of Historic Places on May 25, 1978. Sadly, in the late 80s, the store began a precipitous decline, eventually being sold to the Macy’s chain. A few years later, the historic building was heavily vandalized both inside and out during the riots of 1992, with looters destroying display cases, prized artifacts, and even setting fire to the property. Bullocks Wilshire ended up closing its doors for the last time in 1993. But its story doesn’t end there.    About a year later, the property was purchased by Southwestern Law School, which had long occupied a neighboring building. The school then set out on a ten year, $29 million restoration project which completely restored the historic building back to its original state. For this endeavor, Southwestern Law School received a National Preservation Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.   Today, Bullocks Wilshire is used as a part of the Southwestern Law School campus, where, coincidentally, actor Jerry O’Connell (husband of Rebecca Romijn) is currently a student. 🙂

And, while the building is not actually opened to the public, while stalking the place, I ventured inside and asked the security guard on duty if I might be allowed to take a quick peek. The guard truly could NOT have been nicer and allowed my fiancé and me to walk around the school. Unfortunately, though, photography is not allowed indoors, so I couldn’t take any pictures, other than the two pictured above, which I snapped through the building’s front window. But, take my word for it, the interior – which you can see photographs of here – is nothing short of magnificent. Walking into Bullocks Wilshire is like stepping back in time to a more glamorous era. The cafe, the lounge area, even the bathrooms have all been restored to their original state and I couldn’t have been more excited to be seeing it all with my own two eyes. And, even though the building is now technically a college campus, the interior still looks much as it did when it operated as an upscale department store. I was so mesmerized with the place, in fact, that I am just dying to get my hands on a copy of this book to learn more about the building’s rich history!



Bullocks Wilshire shows up just briefly in Christmas Vacation in the very memorable scene in which, while out shopping with his son Rusty, Clark Griswold meets and flirts with a lingerie saleswoman named Mary and utters that famous line, “It’s a bit nipply out”. LOL LOL LOL When I was a Senior in high school – and I should mention here that I went to a Catholic high school – one of my classmates, Marcus, came up with the inspired idea of reading a surf report to the entire school each morning during our daily announcements. Marcus’ little experiment was going well, too, until one particularly cold morning, when he announced to the student body that the ocean “was a bit nipply” that day. Needless to say, that was the end of that morning’s announcements – and our daily surf report. But, ever since that fateful day, even all these years later, I can’t help but think of Marcus and laugh every time I watch the Christmas Vacation shopping scene. 🙂



Bullocks Wilshire was also the store where Benjamin Siegel shopped at the beginning of the movie Bugsy;

its La Directoire room was the site of the ”Romantic Dinner” Taco Bell commercial featuring Gidget, the talking Chihuahua;

it was where Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes) shopped with her mother Patty (aka Bess Armstrong) in the Season 1 episode of My So-Called Life titled “The Zit”;

and the Louis XVI Room was where the Mother/Daughter Fashion Show was filmed in that same episode.

it was the location of the eponymous elevator in Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator” music video;

the exterior was featured briefly in Public Enemy’s “By The Time I Get to Arizona” music video;



and in The Aviator, it stood in for the nightclub where Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner got attacked by Hughes’ former girlfriend.



Supposedly, the final scene in Ghostbusters was filmed on the roof of Bullocks Wilshire, but as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the Ghostbusters roof and the Bullocks Wilshire roof look nothing alike. And, while it’s entirely possible that some close-up filming for that scene did take place on top of the Bullocks Wilshire tower, my best guess is that the entire scene was filmed on a studio soundstage somewhere in Hollywood. Bullocks Wilshire has also been featured in the movies Topper (where it stood in for the luxurious Connecticut area Seabreeze Hotel), Tarzan’s New York Adventure (where it was used as a New York hotel), Dunston Checks In (where it again stood in for a New York hotel), Fist of the North Star, On Deadly Ground, Family Plot, The Tie That Binds, Rough Magic, and in episodes of Murder, She Wrote, Judging Amy, and The Agency.

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Big THANK YOU to Mike for finding this location! 🙂

On a very sad side note – My thoughts and prayers go out to Brittany Murphy’s friends and loved ones today. I can’t even imagine losing someone so young, especially this close to the holidays. 🙁    Rest in peace, Brittany.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bullocks Wilshire is located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can visit the building’s official website and see interior photographs of it here. Because Bullocks Wilshire is part of the Southwestern Law School campus, it is not open to the public. Once a year, though, tours of the property are given. You can check the Southwestern Law School website for further tour information.

December 21, 2009
Nakatomi Plaza from “Die Hard”

Because we are currently knee deep in the middle of the Christmas Season – which just so happens to be my favorite season 🙂 – I decided to focus my next few blog posts on locations featured in holiday movies.   And what better way to start off those Christmas posts than to blog about Nakatomi Plaza, the main building featured in the 1988 movie Die Hard. OK OK, so yes, it can be argued that Die Hard is not your traditional holiday flick, but because the entire movie takes place on the night of Christmas Eve and because Christmas music is played throughout, I deemed the production to be holiday-blog-worthy. 🙂 As surprising as it may sound, I had actually never seen Die Hard until just this past October, when my friend Robin came to visit and pretty much forced me to sit through the movie in its entirety. And, let me tell you, after it was over, I was just itching to stalk the Fox Plaza building in Century City, which stood in for Nakatomi Plaza in the flick. Fox Plaza, which measures 492 feet tall and houses a whopping 900,000 square feet of office space!!!, is the current headquarters for the 20th Century Fox film corporation. The Plaza was designed in 1987 by architects William L. Pereira, Scott Johnson, and Bill Fain. Pereira was also responsible for designing such landmarks as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim (LOVE IT!), and the Geisel Library – named after Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss – on the campus of UC San Diego, which just so happens to be my alma mater! 🙂 Geisel Library has actually been featured in several productions, including the movie Killer Tomatoes Strike Back, but I’ll save that information for a future post 🙂

Die Hard takes place, pretty much in its entirety, on location at Fox Plaza. For the movie, both the interiors and the exteriors of the building were used. I am fairly certain, though, that the interiors of the actual Nakatomi offices, where the holiday party scenes took place, were sets that were built on a studio soundstage on the 20th Century Fox lot.

Unfortunately, most areas of the building that were featured in Die Hard are not accessible to the public. In the second aerial image of Fox Plaza pictured above, the pink arrow depicts the entrance to the building that can be viewed from the street and from where I took the photographs featured in this post, while the purple arrow denotes where most of the filming of Die Hard took place. As you can see, they are on opposite sides of the property.

The areas of Fox Plaza used in Die Hard include the building’s porte-cochere,

the revolving front doors of the main entrance;

the front desk;

the elevator bay;

and the main lobby, which we were able to snap a few photographs of through the building’s front windows. While taking said photographs, my fiancé and I were confronted by a VERY angry security guard who was obviously wearing his underpants too tight that day, because he literally came running after us to inform us, not so politely I might add, that if we did not vacate the premises immediately, we would be escorted off the property and our camera confiscated!!! I’ll never understand why people like that get so bent out of shape at us stalkers! If you’re going to put your building in a movie – in what is arguably the most famous action flick of all time, no less! – then you’ve gotta expect that people are going to want to stalk the place! It’s only natural. Geez! 😉

And, while the roof of Nakatomi Plaza was completely blown off at the end of Die Hard, that, of course, did not take place in real life. A scale model was used during the filming of the explosion scene and I am happy to report that the real Fox Plaza roof is one hundred percent intact. 😉

According to Wikipedia, the lobby of the Fox Plaza building was also used in the beginning elevator scene from the movie Speed, but that information is actually incorrect. After recently re-watching Speed, it is clear that both the interior and exterior of the Gas Company Building in Downtown Los Angeles were used for that scene. If you compare the above pictured screen captures to these photographs of the Gas Company Building, you can see that they are a perfect match. I must say that I was more than just slightly peeved to discover this erroneous information on Wikipedia, being that the encyclopedia website has apparently banned my blog from being cited as a source, deeming me  “unreliable”! LOL So let me get this straight – I’m considered unreliable, but the douche bag who put up the Speed information is completely credible! Nice job, Wikipedia! Way to sift through your sources! 😉 Also according to Wikipedia (so who knows if this information is correct), Fox Plaza was featured in the 1994 movie Airheads and a cartoon rendering of it was shown in the Season 7 episode of Family Guy entitled “Fox-y Lady”. The building was also used as the law firm where Anthony LaPaglia worked in the television series Murder One. And, in real life, Ronald Reagan set up his main offices in the 34th floor penthouse of Fox Plaza following his presidency.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Fox Plaza, aka Nakatomi Plaza, is located at 2121 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. Please remember that Fox Plaza is private property, so if you decide to stalk this location, DO NOT trespass, or you will be escorted off the premises and your camera confiscated.   Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! 🙂 The Gas Company Tower from the beginning of Speed is located at 555 West 5th Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

December 18, 2009
Clown Dog Restaurant from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

UPDATE – I just drove by this location last week and was shocked to discover that the entire thing had been completely torn down. The only part of it left standing is the All American Burger sign pictured below. 🙁 A Chipotle restaurant is currently being built in its place. So incredibly sad!  I will leave this post up, though, for those stalkers who are interested in seeing photographs of how it used to look.

A few weeks ago, I dragged my boyfriend out to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to stalk a restaurant named All American Burger – a location which has been on my list of places to stalk ever since fellow stalker Owen informed me that it stood in for the Clown Dog diner where Bryan (aka Josh Charles) worked in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. In a random twist of fate, Owen happened upon this information during his search for the main house used in Don’t Tell Mom back in September. While trying to track down that location, Owen came across an interview with actor Keith Coogan, who played Christina Applegate’s younger brother Kenny in the flick, who had this to say, “The film was shot entirely in Southern California. Mostly in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley areas. The house is really close to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Some locations were in the heart of Hollywood, like the roof of the Holiday Inn, and the Clown Dog is actually an ‘All American Burger’ located on Sunset Blvd. Some scenes were shot in Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as some interiors which were filmed in Simi Valley/Sherman Oaks.”   (Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find the source of that interview online, otherwise I would post a link to it here.) An actor who not only remembers where scenes from his movies were filmed, but actually references them in an interview??? SO LOVE IT!!!!! Thank you, Keith!!! So, once I heard where Clown Dog was located, I immediately added the address to my long “to stalk” list and finally made it out there to see the place in person just a few weeks back. YAY!

And, let me tell you, this was one stalk that was DEFINITELY worth the wait. As fate would have it, the owner of the restaurant, an INCREDIBLY nice man named Lang, was working behind the counter when we arrived. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, “Was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filmed here?” Lang laughed and told me that yes, indeed, the movie had been filmed on the premises. I then asked him if everyone who came in inquired about the very same thing, to which he replied “You’re only the second person in the twenty-plus years I’ve worked here who has ever asked me that!” LOL It’s nice to know I’m unique!   Lang seemed truly amused at my excitement over stalking his restaurant and really could NOT have been nicer about it. Not only did he tell me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted . . .

. . . BUT HE ALSO LET ME DON ONE ONE OF THE ALL AMERICAN BURGER UNIFORMS AND STEP BEHIND THE COUNTER TO POSE FOR A PIC! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I also so love it that the real All American Burger hat is almost exactly the same as the Clown Dog hat that Christina Applegate wore in the movie! 🙂

Because my fiancé and I were both starving at the time, we just had to grab a bite to eat during our stalk. And, let me tell you, we were not disappointed! While All American Burger is by no means fancy, their food is simply A-MA-ZING! The menu features your typical all-American fare, such as burgers, hot dogs, and French fries, all of which happen to be right up my alley. 🙂 My fiancé and I ended up splitting a cheeseburger and fries – both of which were excellent! And the Grim Cheaper was very excited about the fact that the entire meal cost us $4!   Even more exciting to him, though, had to be the restaurant’s working pinball machine, which he played quite a few games on. So cool! (Please pardon the above picture, I was in a goofy mood that day. 🙂 )

All American Burger pops up twice in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. It first shows up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Sue Ellen (aka Swell), gets a job working behind the counter of the fast food restaurant.

Fed up with Mr. Egg, her perennially happy boss, Swell quits her new job after only one day of work, but not before making a romantic connection with fellow Clown Dog employee Bryan.

The restaurant next shows up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Swell, upset over her recent fight with Bryan, drives by Clown Dog and sadly watches him working through the window.

I am very happy to report that although over 18 years have passed since Don’t Tell Mom was filmed, All American Burger still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. Missing in real life, of course, is the circus themed decor that was used to dress the restaurant during the filming. Besides Don’t Tell Mom, All American Burger has also been featured in a recent episode of Southland and in an album cover for one of musician Howie Day’s CD’s. And because the restaurant is something of a Hollywood institution, celebs have been known to stop in there from time to time, including The O.C.’s Adam Brody, who is a regular. 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: All American Burger, aka Clown Dog from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

December 14, 2009
The “Father of the Bride” Bar

A few weeks ago, while wandering around Old Town Pasadena, my fiancé and I found ourselves in the familiar predicament of having to decide whether to go out to eat or cook dinner at home. Being that the only thing I like to make for dinner is reservations, I voted to eat out and started looking around at nearby restaurants. And, let me tell you, I just about fell over when I realized we were standing only steps away from an eatery where a scene from fave movie Father of the Bride took place. At the time the movie was filmed, the restaurant was known as Delacey’s Club 41 and it was something of a Pasadena institution, but for some odd reason, in my almost ten years of living in the area, I had yet to dine there. So, you can imagine my disappointment when the placed closed down in 2007, after 25 long years of serving Pasadena patrons. 🙁 A little pub called Spitfire Saloon soon opened up in its place, but it wasn’t long before that restaurant was also shuttered and the space’s current inhabitant – a French bistro named Cheval Blanc – set up shop. So, not wanting to take the chance that the new eatery would also close, I grabbed my fiancé and headed right in!



And I am so glad I did because even though it has been over 18 years since Father of the Bride was filmed and even though the place has gone through a succession of different owners since Delacey’s Club 41 closed its doors more than two years ago, both the interior and the exterior of the restaurant still look EXACTLY the same as they did in the movie. YAY! I mean, even the black and white tiled floor is still intact. LOVE IT!

Only a very brief scene from Father of the Bride took place at Cheval Blanc. In the scene, a fight has just erupted between Bryan Mackenzie (aka George Newbern) and his fiancé Annie Banks (aka Kimberly Williams) over his decision to give her a blender as a pre-wedding present. To calm the situation, Annie’s father, George Banks (aka Steve Martin), decides to take Bryan out for a cocktail and a little heart-to-heart at, you guessed it, Cheval Blanc. 🙂 It is in that scene that George says one of my very favorite lines from the movie, “You know, Brian, Annie’s a very passionate person and passionate people tend to overreact at times. Annie comes from a long line of major overreactors. Me – I can definitely lose it. My mother – a nut. My grandfather – stories about him were legendary. The good news however is that this overreacting tends to get proportionately less by generation. So, your kids could be normal. But on the upside, with this passion comes great spirit and individuality, which is probably one of the reasons you love Annie. ” Ah, George, I can so relate! I, too, am a very, ahem, passionate person, and have done my fair share of overreacting over the years. And I just so happen to also hail from a long line of major overreactors – both of my parents would actually fit into that category. 🙂 As fate would have it, I just recently learned a pretty good lesson about overreacting. Those of you who read my blog regularly know that the guy who I paid to make my wedding dress skipped town a few months back – with my money. Well, as it turns out, even though the guy did close up his shop, disconnect his phone, and was M.I.A. for over two months time, the whole thing was actually just a big misunderstanding. But, let me tell you, during those two months, there was quite a bit of overreacting going on!! LOL So, when the guy called me out of the blue two weeks ago to let me know that my dress was finished and ready to be picked up – at his new shop LOL – I felt like a complete fool! What a waste all that anger and worry was. The next time something like that happens I just need to let go, relax, and let things take their natural course. That’ll never happen, of course, but it’s a nice sentiment, nonetheless. 🙂 But I digress. Besides being featured in Father of the Bride, Cheval Blanc also showed up in I Love Trouble, Judging Amy, and in ten different episodes of Equal Justice.

I honestly cannot say enough good things about Cheval Blanc! My fiancé and I had an absolute blast dining there! The manager, who knew quite a bit about the restaurant’s filming history, truly could not have been nicer to us and told me I could take as many interior photographs of the place as I wanted. LOVE IT!   The service was also spectacular and don’t even get me started on the food! The macaroni and cheese is to die for! 🙂 And even though Cheval Blanc’s menu is French, the decor is very Old New York, with dim lighting, dark paneled walls, and an incredibly ornate Mahogany bar. The place is absolutely gorgeous inside, which should come as no surprise being that it is owned by the hugely successful restaurateur team of Bob and Gregg Smith, aka the Smith Brothers, who also started  the Arroyo Chophouse, the Crocodile Cafe chain, Smitty’s Grill, and the hugely popular Parkway Grill.



On a side note – Cheval Blanc also showed up in the movie Father of the Bride Part II. Well, sort of. In the flick, Steve Martin’s Side Kicks shoe factory is located directly across the street from the restaurant and the exterior of it can be seen very briefly in the background of the scene pictured above. I’m not sure what occupied the Side Kicks space at the time Father of the Bride Part II was filmed, but I am guessing it was simply a vacant warehouse that producers dressed for the movie. Today, Steve Martin’s shoe warehouse space houses a restaurant named Brix 42.   It is the restaurant’s side door, which looks much different today, that Steve Martin enters in the above scene.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Father of the Bride bar, aka Cheval Blanc , is located at 41 South De Lacey Avenue in Pasadena. Steve Martin’s shoe factory from Father of the Bride Part II is really the side entrance to Brix 42 Restaurant, which is located at 42 South De Lacey Avenue, just across the street from Cheval Blanc.

December 10, 2009
JMJ Ranch from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked during our day in the the Valley together a few months back was the Fraziers Bottom farm that movie star Tad Hamilton purchased in fave film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. In real life, Tad’s property is named JMJ Ranch and it is not located anywhere near Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia, but about two thousand miles West in Thousand Oaks, California. As so often happens when searching for filming sites, I actually came across this one while looking for another location entirely. After seeing the Season One episode of The Mentalist entitled “Carnelian Inc.” earlier this year, I became absolutely obsessed with finding the ranch that was featured in it. And it was while searching for that locale that I came across the website for JMJ Ranch and immediately recognized it as the one from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. YAY! So, since Mike and I were in the area a few weeks back, we decided to drive by the property to see if it was at all accessible to the public. And amazingly enough, it was! Or so we thought. LOL

When we first pulled up to JMJ Ranch, the main gates were wide open, several people were horseback riding in the central ring, and there was no posted sign saying the area was private property. Because I had read online that JMJ is an actual working ranch, I turned to Mike and said “OH MY GOD, I think it’s actually open to the public!” So, of course, the two of us drove right in. And, let me tell you, I almost had a heart attack I was so excited! 🙂

I spotted Tad’s little white ranch house pretty much immediately upon entering the property and just about hyperventilated as we pulled up to it! The fact that Josh Duhamel (aka the love of my life) had once been in the very spot I now found myself was almost too much for me to bear. 🙂 Now, I know that rumors of JD’s infidelity are currently flying around Hollywood, but I honestly have to say that I just don’t believe all the hype. If the rumors do turn out to be true, though, and Josh really did cheat on his wife, then all bets are off – he’ll be dead to me, just like that little homewrecker Angelina Jolie! But in the meantime, I have to say, my heart still belongs to JD. 🙂

I so love the above screen capture, by the way!! Sigh. 🙂 But I digress!

Only one brief scene from Win A Date took place at JMJ Ranch. After announcing that he has purchased a house, or as he says “it’s actually a farm, with a house, and a silo for my wheat” LOL, Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Pete (aka Topher Grace) show up to tour the property. While there, know-it-all Pete attempts to give Tad some lessons in certain farming skills like milking a cow and chopping wood, but as it turns out, thanks to his training for various movie roles, not only does Tad know how to do said activities, but he can actually do them better than Pete. LOL

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JMJ Ranch is actually an oft-used filming location. Besides Win a Date, the property has also been featured in Dynasty, Dallas, Knots Landing, Cracker, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Fall Guy, Picket Fences, Hot Shots Part Deux, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Route 9, and Private School.

The 300 acre ranch truly is a beautiful spot, with large open fields, towering oak trees, winding roads, and rustic barns, and as we drove through the property I got to thinking that it would be the perfect spot to host a wedding. 🙂 Being that filming locations often double as wedding venues, I thought there was a pretty good chance that the ranch might also be available for special events and made a mental note to find out. Well, after driving around for about five minutes, a very angry woman on a tractor drove up to Mike and I and informed us that we were on private property. WHOOPSY! We apologized profusely and explained that we had been driving by, saw the open gate, and thought the area was open to the public. I also told the woman I was currently in the market for a wedding venue and asked if the ranch was available for such occasions. My question was met with an emphatic “NO!” – LOL – at which point, Mike and I thanked the lady for her time and quickly left. So, unfortunately, I can’t recommend stalking JMJ Ranch as it is definitely NOT open to the public. 🙁 But at least you can live vicariously through the photographs I was able to take before being kicked off the property. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: JMJ Ranch from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is located at 930 West Portrero Road in Thousand Oaks. The property is not actually open to the public, so please do not trespass. You can visit the JMJ Ranch website here.

December 4, 2009
The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Twilight”

The other Los Angeles area filming location from Twilight that I mentioned in last Wednesday’s post is the Hyatt Regency Valencia Hotel. In Twilight, the Hyatt stood in for the Phoenix area hostelry where Bella (aka Kristen Stewart), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), and Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run from the evil vampire James (Cam Gigandet) towards the end of the movie. In reality, the hotel is, of course, not located anywhere near Arizona, but instead can be found just about four miles away from the home that was used as Bella’s mom’s house in the flick. So, of course, since I was already in the area last week, I just had to stalk the place. 🙂 I found this location thanks again to the link that fellow stalker Kerry sent me last April while the first Twilight movie was still in production. Thank you, Kerry! 🙂

The Hyatt is, sadly, featured only briefly in Twilight, but I am happy to report that it looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen.   In the scene featuring the Hyatt, Bella, Jasper, and Alice are first shown hanging out in a hotel room discussing their current predicament. And while the exterior set up shots for that scene were indeed filmed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, after looking at photographs of the hotel’s rooms online, I am fairly certain that the interior filming took place elsewhere. My best guess is that the hotel room scene was either filmed on a soundstage or at a real hotel located somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, where the rest of the movie was filmed.

We next see Jasper and Alice in the hotel’s lobby area waiting to check out. And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, that particular scene was actually shot on location at the Hyatt Regency Valencia and the lobby area still looks pretty much the same in person as it did in Twilight. Even the red flower paintings hanging behind the reception desk are there in real life. 🙂 Love it!

In a subsequent scene, Bella is shown rushing out of the Hyatt Regency Valencia’s main entrance and into a waiting taxi cab.    And that pretty much covers the entire Twilight segment that took place at the Hyatt! LOL All told, the scenes probably last a little under 45 seconds. As I said in the previous Wednesday’s post, though, it’s better than nothing! 🙂

While stalking the hotel, I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the bellhops who truly could NOT have been nicer to me. He even took the photograph of me featured at the top of this post. 🙂 According to the bellhop, the Hyatt is actually an oft-used filming location and has been featured in such series as CSI: Las Vegas, NCIS, and the reality show Make It Or Break It. The bellhop said that a scene from Twilight was also filmed in the hotel’s parking garage, but he wasn’t sure which scene. He also informed me that Robert Pattinson actually stayed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia for a few days during the filming of Twilight. LOVE IT!   The Hyatt Regency Valencia is a really beautiful hotel, with a large swimming pool, picturesque gardens, and a beautiful wedding courtyard (pictured above). I highly recommend stalking the place or even staying there while visiting the L.A. area. Who knows – you may even wind up in RP’s former room! 🙂

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On a very random side note: Earlier today, while reading the fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook, I learned that the scene pictured above, in which Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, was actually filmed in Pasadena! Apparently, the scene was originally filmed on location in Oregon, but director Catherine Hardwicke never ended up getting the exact shot she wanted. So, a few months later, when the cast and crew was back in California, some reshoots were done, one of which was the Bella/Edward kiss scene. For the re-shoot, a replica of Bella’s bedroom was built at the Elk’s Lodge in Pasadena. 🙂 So, as it turns out, there are actually three L.A. area locations that were featured in Twilight. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia, where Bella, Jasper, and Alice hid out in Twilight, is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit their website here. The Elks Lodge in Pasadena, where Bella and Edward first kissed, is located at 400 West Colorado Boulevard. You can visit their website here.

November 30, 2009
Bella’s Mom’s House from “Twilight”

Well, it took me long enough, but on Monday afternoon I finally decided to crawl out from that rock I’ve been living under for the past year by sitting down to watch the movie that the rest of the world has long been obsessed with – Twilight.    Yes, it’s true – while it seems that pretty much every other human being on the planet has gone Bella and Edward crazy, until earlier this week I had yet to watch – or even read – the saga’s first installment. I’m not exactly sure why I avoided the movie for as long as I did, being that I am usually right in line with the masses when it comes to the latest pop culture obsessions, especially the teeny-bopper ones. For some reason, though, Twilight never piqued my interest. But then, this past Friday night, I met up with fellow stalkers Lavonna, Beth, Kim, and Melissa, who were in town from Cincinnati, and they were all quite disappointed to learn that a stalker like myself had yet to see the movie. So, on Monday afternoon, I decided to bite the bullet and finally sat down – Starbucks iced latte in hand – to watch Twilight in its two hour entirety. And I am shocked to report that I didn’t hate it. I didn’t exactly love it, either, but I definitely didn’t hate it. It was actually pretty enjoyable. The cinematography was nothing short of breathtaking and Robert Pattinson wasn’t so bad to look at, either. Don’t hate me ladies, but before seeing the movie, I thought RB was absolutely hiddy. Now I can understand what all the fuss is about, though. There’s definitely just something about him. And I am happy to report that while most of Twilight was filmed on location in the Pacific Northwest, the movie did feature two locations in the Los Angeles area, most notably Bella’s mom’s house. So, of course, I just had to stalk it! 🙂

Thanks to my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry who sent me this Twilight link well over a year ago, I knew that Bella’s mom’s house was located somewhere in the Valencia area. I just wasn’t sure exactly where. So, yesterday, after watching the movie, I got to cyber-stalking and came across this page on Wikipedia, which stated that the home was located near Highlands Elementary School.   And even though Wikipedia isn’t always the most reliable of sources, I decided to begin my search in the neighborhood surrounding the school. And sure enough, just about ten minutes later, I came across the house! YAY!   So, early this morning, I made the journey out to Santa Clarita to do some Twilight stalking! Because Bella’s mom’s house is supposed to be located in Arizona in the movie, quite a bit of it was changed for the filming, including the paint color, the landscaping, and the exterior decor. Numerous fake cactus plants were also added to the surrounding area. You can see photographs of the house all decked out for the filming on this fansite, which details the experience of two stalkers who made a trek from Arizona to California – in the middle of the night, no less – just to watch Twilight being filmed! Two women after my own heart, I swear!   (The photographs of the house are featured on the website under the heading “More Pictures on the Set 4/29 and 4/30”. You have to scroll down a ways to see them.).



Bella’s mom’s house is actually only featured very briefly in the movie. I’m talking like 30 seconds brief. LOL But since it is one of the only Twilight sites located in the state of California, I figured stalking it was better than nothing. 🙂 The abode first shows up in the very beginning of the movie, when Bella and her mom and step-dad are shown moving out of the property.

The spot where Bella digs up a cactus plant to take with her to her dad’s house is located in the field situated directly next to the home.

The house shows up once again towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Bella is led to believe that the evil vampire James has kidnapped her mother.

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Even though the house looks a bit different in person than it appeared onscreen, to all of those L.A. area Twilight fans, I still highly recommend stalking it! It’s a whole lot cheaper than traveling all the way to Oregon and Washington where the rest of the movie was filmed. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bella’s mom’s house from Twilight is located at 22301 Cataro Drive in Santa Clarita.

November 25, 2009
The “Big” Paddleball Court

Another day, another Big location. And, sadly, this is actually the last Big location that I have to blog about. 🙁 Well, from this year’s New York trip, anyway. Being that fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down both the MacMillan Toys headquarters and Tom Hank’s loft from the movie, it looks like I’ll have a few more Big locations to stalk during next year’s New York vacation. 🙂 But for now, the last and final Big locale that Owen, my fiancé, and I visited during our stalking day in Manhattan last month was the court where Josh (aka Tom Hanks) played a little game of paddleball against his MacMillan Toys co-worker Paul (aka John Heard) in the movie. In real life, that paddleball court, which Owen found thanks to fave stalking book The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, is named Vesuvio Playground and it encompasses not only a paddleball court, but basketball courts, bocce ball courts, a sandbox, a mini pool, and a shower area, as well. When the park originally opened in 1929 it was called Thompson Playground and it consisted solely of a wading pool and a swing set and existed on a much smaller parcel of land than today’s .64 acres. In 1957, the City purchased an additional piece of land in order to expand the playground into what it is today. The park was then renamed Vesuvio Playground in honor of the nearby Vesuvio Bakery, which is owned and operated by longtime SoHo community leader Anthony Dapolito and his family.

In Big, Vesuvio Playground is the site of a very brief, but very memorable, scene in which the newly-adult Josh gets challenged to a paddleball duel by his douchebag of a co-worker, Paul. Because Paul is extremely jealous of his girlfriend Susan’s growing affection for Josh, he brings him to the paddleball court thinking he’ll teach him a lesson.

But Josh, who is a paddleball novice, ends up calling Paul out for cheating during the game which leads to a very juvenile – and absolutely hilarious – playground fist fight between the two. LOL LOL LOL



Unfortunately, even though it was mid-day, the paddleball court was absolutely JAM PACKED with children while we were stalking it, so we weren’t able to venture inside to take photographs. I mean, hello, shouldn’t kids be attending school during the middle of the day??? 😉 LOL I am happy to report, though, that the same pizza place which was visible in the background of the Big paddleball scene is still in business to this day, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs. 🙂 So cool!!

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According to fave stalking book Manhattan on Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, Frankie (aka Nick Scotti) and Joey (aka Domenick Lombardozzi) play handball on the very same paddleball court in the 1997 movie Kiss Me Guido.   And the playground was also featured in an episode of the NBC series Third Watch.

On a very sad side – During our stalking day, Owen, my fiancé, and I also tried to stalk Asti, the Italian eatery where Billy takes Josh for his birthday in Big. Unfortunately, though, that restaurant closed its doors on New Year’s Eve 1999, after 75 long years in operation. 🙁 Such a bummer! Asti, which was named after a town in Italy famous for its sparkling wine (LOVE IT!), was a New York institution ever since it first opened in 1925. Apparently, not only did such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Luciano Pavarotti, and Noel Coward frequent the restaurant during its heyday, but there was even an autographed photograph of Tom Hanks from the filming of Big displayed in the front window.   Also LOVE IT! 🙂 Even the building which once housed Asti is famous – former President Chester A. Arthur once lived there! I can’t even begin to tell you how sad I am that this landmark restaurant is now gone. 🙁 Currently, in its place is another eatery – a steak restaurant named Strip House (pictured above). You can read more about Asti and its history here.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for loaning me his Big paddleball court pics to post here, as, for some reason, I did not take that many photographs of it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vesuvio Playground, aka the Big paddleball court, is located at 95 Thompson Street in New York’s SoHo area. The former Asti restaurant (now Strip House) was located at 13 East 12th Street in Greenwich Village.

November 6, 2009
The Hotel St. James

The one location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me I could absolutely NOT come home from New York without stalking was the seedy hotel where Josh Baskin (aka Tom Hanks) stayed after first becoming “big” in the 1988 movie of the same name.   Mike had found the location of the Hotel St. James thanks to fave website The 80s Movies Rewind shortly before I left on my Big Apple vacation. So, since Owen, my fiancé, and I had already stalked several other Big filming locations during our NYC stalking day, we decided to keep the theme going by also making a stop at the Hotel St. James.   The twelve story St. James, which first opened up in 1972 and is no longer the mangy place it was when Big was filmed, is considered to be one of the city’s most affordable hotels. Located just a block away from Times Square, a room at the St. James will run you anywhere from $159 to $269 per night depending on the time of year. Let me tell you, rates that low in Manhattan are almost unheard of! And thankfully, in real life, the hotel looks NOTHING like it did in the movie – otherwise I might never have ventured inside! LOL

The Hotel St. James first shows up in the very beginning of Big, as the seedy little place that Josh and Billy stumble upon while wandering the streets of Manhattan looking for an affordable hotel. Thanks to the shady characters hanging around out front, Josh refuses to even walk inside the place, prompting Billy to say “St. James, Josh! It’s religious!” LOL LOL LOL Josh and Billy end up booking a room at the hotel, which costs them $17.50 a night, plus a ten dollar deposit for the sheets. LOL LOL LOL Apparently, at the time Big was filmed during the late 80s, the St. James really was a decrepit little spot in a very shady part of town. But thanks to Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to clean up Times Square, Disney’s restoration of the New Amsterdam Theatre, and a renovation of the actual St. James itself, the hotel is really quite beautiful – and quite safe – now. 🙂

Several areas of the St. James were featured in Big, including the exterior (On a side note, the sign in the entrance door pictured in the screen capture above reads, “Firearms Kept On Premises”. LOL LOL LOL Really shows what a classy joint the hotel used to be!) ;

the lobby entrance;

and the check-in desk, which as you can see in the above photographs and screen captures is still positioned in the exact same place as it was in Big. The plastic partition and the toothless concierge are long since gone, though. 🙂



According to the EXTREMELY friendly concierge that I talked to, while the filming of Big did take place in the lobby area of the St. James, the hallway and hotel room scenes were actually all filmed on a studio soundstage. However, I’m not entirely convinced that information is correct. After recently re-watching the movie, it seems to me that a real St. James’ hotel room and the real St. James hallways were used in the filming. Thankfully, though, as you can see in these photographs, both the rooms and the hallways have undergone significant remodeling since that time! LOL

It is in Josh’s St. James hotel room that the very famous Big silly string scene took place. 🙂

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I highly recommend stalking the Hotel St. James! Even though it has undergone some drastic changes in the years since the filming of Big took place, the hotel is still set up very similarly to how it was portrayed in the movie and is therefore still very recognizable. 🙂 The Hotel St. James also looks like a very nice, very affordable place to spend a few nights when visiting the Big Apple! And while the newly renovated St. James is not luxurious or upscale by any means, it prides itself on having roomy, comfortable, clean accommodations. If the lobby is any indication of what the rooms look like, they must be be pretty darn nice!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hotel St. James is located at 109 West 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan. You can visit their website here.

November 5, 2009