Category: Movie Locations

Montrose Bowl

A few weeks ago, while out stalking the city of Montrose with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the two of us happened to stumble upon a little bowling alley named Montrose Bowl, which has been featured in countless movie and television productions. Even though the bowling alley is currently closed to the public – it is only available as a venue for private parties – we just had to step inside for a little looksie. 🙂 The owner truly could NOT have been nicer to the two of us and gave us a complete run-down on the bowling alley’s filming history. He even let us poke around to snap a few pictures. 🙂

Montrose Bowl, which opened up back in 1936, has been a family owned and operated business for the past twenty-five years. The 1950’s style, eight lane bowling alley is one of the smallest alleys in all of Los Angeles. It is definitely a unique little place and it’s not hard to see why it has been featured in so many productions. Walking through the doors of Montrose Bowl is truly like stepping back in time.

The first production ever to film at the alley was the 1985 Michael J. Fox movie Teen Wolf. Montrose Bowl shows up twice in the movie as the basketball team’s post-game hang-out spot.

In 1991, Montrose Bowl stood in for the New York bowling alley where Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino hung out in the romantic comedy Frankie and Johnny. One of Montrose Bowl’s bathrooms was also featured in a scene from the movie.

Montrose Bowl’s interior was changed significantly for the filming of the movie Pleasantville, where it portrayed the bowling alley frequented by William H. Macy and J.T. Walsh. Much of the decor from the filming of Pleasantville has been left up, so the alley currently looks very similar to how it appeared onscreen in the 1998 comedy about a 1950s television family.

The exterior of the Pleasantville bowling alley was built on a studio backlot, but as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, quite closely resembles the real life exterior of Montrose Bowl.

Montrose Bowl has also been the site of countless celebrity parties. Back in his heyday, Phil Spector hosted an annual party at the bowling alley, with guests like Stevie Nicks, Van Halen, Gene Simmons and KISS in attendance. Bruce Willis, Dustin Hoffman, and the L.A. Kings hockey team have also hosted parties there. Once I heard that Montrose Bowl was somewhat of a celebrity hotspot, I just had to ask if my girl Jen Aniston had ever bowled there – and I was absolutely FLOORED to find out that indeed she had! 🙂 Apparently Ms. Aniston was a guest at a birthday party that Vince Vaughn threw for his sister at the alley a few years back. 🙂 Love it!

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Montrose Bowl is a VERY cool place and I highly recommend stalking it if you get the chance. It also seems like a GREAT place to throw a party!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Montrose Bowl is located at 2334 Honolulu Avenue in Montrose. You can visit their website here. The bowling alley is currently closed to the public and only open for private events. But if you’re lucky, you may be able to stick your head in the door for a quick peek. 🙂

June 30, 2009
The Nightmare on Elm Street Houses

While all of my friends and family are, for the most part, very supportive of my stalking endeavors, I still quite often get asked the question, “Do people really care about this stuff?” and “Can you explain your website to me, because I just don’t get it.” LOL One of the people who “just doesn’t get it” the most is my good friend, and fellow actor, Blaze. So, the other day, while the two of us were out and about in Hollywood, I decided to show him what my website is all about. 🙂 Blaze has long been a huge fan of the horror movie genre, and when I say a huge fan, I mean a HUGE fan. So, since we were in the area, I asked him if he wanted to see the two main houses from his very favorite horror movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Blaze was absolutely shocked – and appeared somewhat skeptical – that a) the Nightmare on Elm Street houses were located in the L.A. area, and that b) I actually knew where to find them.   Oh ye of little faith!

As I drove up to the home which stood in for Nancy’s in the movie – with a very smug smile on my face, I might add! – Blaze started SCREAMING his head off saying “OH MY GOD!   OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! IT’S THE NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET HOUSE!!” LOL He  hopped out of my car before I had even come to a complete stop and ran right up to the home’s front door to take a picture. He truly could not have been more excited!!! It’s stalking moments like this that I absolutely love – showing someone a location from a favorite movie and having it resonate with them just as much as it does with me. It’s the whole reason I started my blog.  🙂 And I’m pretty sure that Blaze now “gets it”.

I am very happy to report that Nancy (aka Heather Langenkamp’s) house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when A Nightmare on Elm Street was filmed there back in 1984. Blaze kept saying “Even the colors of the house are still the same!” 🙂 Nancy’s house also showed up in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, as the residence of Jesse Walsh.

Located directly across the street from Nancy’s house is the house that was used as Glen (aka Johnny Depp’s) in the movie. And I am happy to report that Glen’s house also looks pretty much EXACTLY the same as it did in A Nightmare on Elm Street. I find it amazing – and refreshing – that both Nightmare On Elm Street houses look the same today as they did in a movie which filmed over twenty-five years ago!

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On a sidenote, it turns out that A Nightmare on Elm Street was Johnny Depp’s very first acting role.   According to IMDB, Johnny was accompaning his good friend, actor Jackie Earle Haley, on an audition for the movie. While there, he was spotted by director Wes Craven, who took one look at him, liked what he saw, and asked him to audition for the part of Glen.  Johnny won the role and the rest, as they say, is cinematic history! 🙂 Check out Johnny’s crop top in the above pic. LOL LOL LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Nancy’s house from A Nightmare on Elm Street is located at 1428 North Genesee Avenue in Hollywood. Glen’s house is located right across the street at 1419 North Genesee.

June 29, 2009
The National Lampoon’s Vacation House

And speaking of National Lampoon’s Vacation, last week fellow stalker Owen made it his mission to locate the Griswold home from the 1983 comedy flick. Amazingly enough, he ended up finding the house pretty much right away! For this particular movie location expenditure, Owen decided to “stalk outside the box”, so to speak, and started looking through Vacation’s IMDB message boards to see if they provided any clues as to the home’s locale. He ran across a thread entitled “Griswold House 2008″ where, lo and behold, someone had actually posted recent pics of the home. Owen ended up contacting the owner of those photos who told him that one evening, while stuck in traffic after attending a concert in Los Feliz, he happened to gaze to his left where he saw, and immediately recognized, the Griswold Family home. How this guy recognized the house from a movie filmed way back in 1983 while not actively looking for it, is beyond me. My hat is definitely off to him!!!! 🙂

So, Owen did a little bit of digging and ended up finding the house, exactly where the man told him it would be – in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. In reality, the home is a long way off from Chicago, Illinois, where the Grisworlds supposedly lived in Vacation. 🙂 I am happy to report that the house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1983 when the movie was filmed there. Hallelujah! 🙂 It is absolutely AMAZING to me that in twenty-six years virtually nothing about the house has been changed.

Well, except for one thing. For some incredibly odd reason, the owners did make one major addition to the Griswold home. Since the filming, a large fence which surrounds the perimeter of the property and blocks the view of the house from the street, has been added. I wonder if the fence was installed to ward of potential stalkers, like myself. 😉 Either way, even with the addition of the fence, the home is still largely recognizable from the film.

Even the street out in front of the house, where we see Clark pull up in the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, seems to be exactly the same as it appeared in Vacation.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The National Lampoon’s Vacation house is located at 2310 North Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.

June 25, 2009
Rosie’s Pink House from The Wedding Singer

A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Owen contacted me to see if Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I could help him track down Rosie, aka the rappin’ granny’s, pink house from the 1998 movie The Wedding Singer. Owen had been trying for quite a while to locate the home, but just couldn’t make out the house number that appeared above Rosie’s front door. So, Mike and I got to work in trying to nail down the home’s location, or at least its correct address number.

And, while neither Mike nor I could figure out that address number, Mike did notice a house number painted on the curb across the street from Rosie’s home (pictured above). We were fairly certain that address number was 1428, so I immediately emailed Owen to let him know. And, with that bit of information, he set off to locate the house. I’m happy to report that it wasn’t long before he found it! 🙂

After searching every single 1400 block in the Pasadena area – which is where we were assuming the house was located – Owen ended up contacting the movie’s location manager, who got back to him pretty much immediately. Amazingly enough, the location manager remembered the general vicinity of where the home was located, which ended up to be a long way from Pasadena. It turns out that Rosie’s house is located in West Hollywood, just down the street from both Lauren Conrad’s former Hills home and the two houses that appeared in the original Halloween movie. I am happy to report that, despite its color, Rosie’s house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1998 when The Wedding Singer was filmed. According to the location manager that Owen talked to, Rosie’s house was painted pink solely for the filming of the movie, much like the home featured at the end of 13 Going On 30. In real life, the house is painted a light shade of grey. Also missing in real life is the white picket fence surrounding Rosie’s house, which I am assuming was also installed solely for filming purposes.

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The house located across the street from Rosie’s also looks pretty much exactly the same as it did in The Wedding Singer. Even the address number painted on the curb is still there. 🙂 Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!!! Very nicely done!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rosie’s house from The Wedding Singer is located at 1425 North Orange Grove Avenue in Los Angeles.

June 23, 2009
The Step Brothers House

Got a challenge last week from my good friend Chelsea who wanted me to find the home used in the 2008 movie Step Brothers. Lucky for me, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had already found this location a few months back and told me where it was located. 🙂   So, today – after stalking about a million wedding locations 🙂 – I ran right out to stalk the Step Brothers house. Thanks, Mike!!!!

My friend Chelsea had a hunch that the Step Brothers home was located in the Pasadena area and she actually wasn’t too far off!  Am I a good stalking teacher, or what?? 🙂 The Step Brothers home is located just a few miles north of Pasadena proper, in the city of Altadena. And although the coloring is now a bit different, for the most part the home looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in the movie. The Step Brothers house is absolutely ginormous in real life, which I found to be slightly ironic, being that in the movie John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell are forced to share a room because John won’t give up the third bedroom which houses his “sound laboratory”.   LOL According to Zillow, the home actually has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and measures 3,502 square feet.   In the movie, John C. Reilly tells Will Ferrell that the home was built in 1825 by General Custor (LOL LOL LOL), but in reality it was built in 1935.

The home is featured several times in the movie, most notably as the location where John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell get into their massive front yard brawl. LOL

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On an interesting side note, in real life, Step Brothers star John C. Reilly is a long time Altadena resident. My mom and I actually saw him a few years back attending a movie at Laemmle Playhouse in Pasadena. He was in line waiting to buy popcorn at the concession stand when a woman walked up to him and very loudly said “Are you from Philadelphia? I think we went to high school together.” John was very gracious and explained that he actually grew up in Chicago. And just as he opened up his mouth to say what I’m assuming was something along the lines of “I’m an actor, maybe you recognize me from one of my movies,” the woman interrupted him and said, “No, I’m POSITIVE we know each other!!!! Are you sure you’re not from Philadelphia?” LOL John’s wife was standing next to him the whole time, head down, completely CRACKING UP! John quickly paid for his popcorn and started walking down the hall toward the theatre, but the douchebag lady ran – yes, ran!! – after him, saying things like “Maybe you know my sister in Des Moines.” LOL LOL LOL When John finally entered the theatre and the doors closed behind him, my mom tapped the lady on the shoulder and said “You recognize that man because he is John C. Reilly, the actor.” The woman got a look on her face like she absolutely wanted to just crawl into a hole and die!!! LOL To quote Chelsea Lately once again, “What . . . a douchebag!”  The whole thing was absolutely HILARIOUS and one of my very favorite “only in L.A.” moments.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Step Brothers house is located at 1987 Midwick Drive in Altadena.

June 19, 2009
Robbie Hart’s House

Thanks to fellow stalker Owen, last week Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were able to stalk Robbie Hart’s house from the 1998 romantic comedy The Wedding Singer.  I had actually been wanting to find The Wedding Singer house for quite a while now, so when Owen told me that he knew where it was located, I just about died!!! And Mike and I literally ran right out to stalk it. 🙂

I am very happy to report that Robbie’s house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when The Wedding Singer was filmed there over eleven years ago. I mean, even the paint colors are still the same!! LOVE IT!  The home was originally built in 1908 by one of Pasadena’s first major landowners and prominent citizens, David MacPherson, who was a design engineer for the Mt. Lowe Railway.

In The Wedding Singer, the home actually belongs to Robbie’s sister and her husband. Robbie lives in the basement area, which, as you can see in the above screen captures, is reached through a little side door marked 1075 1/2. LOL In reality, though, that door and basement area do not exist – they were built solely for the filming of the movie.

Robbie’s house, especially the front porch area, is featured numerous times throughout The Wedding Singer.  It is a very cute and very unique, almost barnlike, structure and I highly recommend stalking it!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Robbie Hart’s house from The Wedding Singer is located at 1075 East Topeka Street in Pasadena.

June 12, 2009
The Bedtime Stories School

Last week, while searching for the Bedtime Stories house, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to also try to find the school featured in the movie. We started our search by looking at street views of different elementary schools in the Los Angeles area, but pretty much came up empty-handed. So, I decided to once again ask my friend who had worked on the movie if she happened to remember where the school was located. She, of course, did not, but what she did remember was that the school from the movie wasn’t actually a school at all, but a public library. She said that the exterior of the library had been changed quite extensively for the filming and made to look a lot bigger than it actually is. Two whole wings were actually added to one side of the building to make it look more like an elementary school. So, armed with that little bit of information, off I went to search local libraries. And, sure enough, it wasn’t long before I found the right one! 🙂

In real life, Daniel Webster Elementary School is, in fact, the Los Angeles Memorial Branch Library which was constructed in 1930. It was built to honor twenty alumni of Los Angeles High School, which is located directly across the street, who had lost their lives in the first World War. Students had originally purchased a small parcel of land across the street from the high school in 1922 and turned it over to the Park Commission with the decree that a memorial park, in honor of all alumni who had fought in the war, would be built on the premises. Today, that park is known as L.A. High Memorial Park. The following year, students and alumni purchased an additional parcel of land adjacent to the park. In 1929, the City of Los Angeles decided to build a library on that adjacent piece of land and commissioned the architecture firm Austin and Ashley, who had also designed the high school, to build it. The library was designed to match the English Tudor style architecture of the high school, which had been built twelve years beforehand.    A stained glass window, designed by Judson Art Studio, with the names of the twenty alumni who had lost their lives, was installed in the adult reading room. The library officially opened to the public on April 29, 1930.

Sadly, the original Los Angeles High School building was badly damaged in the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and was quickly condemned by the City of Los Angeles. Preservationists tried to stop the demolition of the beautiful building, but a mysterious fire gutted the school, thereby sealing its fate. The building was completely demolished later that same year and a huge blue and gold cement monstrosity was built in its place (pictured above).   That monstrosity even pops up in Bedtime Stories, in the scene when Adam Sandler picks his niece and nephew up from school. You can see pictures of what Los Angeles High School used to look and pictures of its demolition here  and here.   So sad!!!!

Ironically enough, the original Los Angeles High School building was a frequent filming location, showing up in A Kiss Before Dying (1956), Compulsion, and the television series Room 222. You can watch the intro to Room 222, in which the school is featured prominently, here.

As you can see in the above screen capture and photographs, the Los Angeles Memorial Branch Library looks much different and much smaller in person than how it appeared onscreen.   You can also see the wing that was added to the right side of the building.

The front door of the library is very recognizable from the film, though. 🙂

Because the real interior of the library looks nothing like an elementary school, the interior scenes were shot about 20 miles away at McKinley School in Pasadena. And, according to the  librarian who I talked to while stalking the place, the interior of the Memorial Branch Library, but not the exterior, was featured in the 1987 movie Baby Boom. Go figure. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bedtime Stories school is really the Memorial Branch Library located at 4625 West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles. The interior school scenes were filmed at McKinley School located at 325 South Oak Knoll Avenue in Pasadena.

June 11, 2009
The Pantages Theatre

As promised earlier in the week, I thought I would dedicate today’s post to the historic Pantages Theatre in Hollywood where I saw Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage last Tuesday night . And let me tell you, the Pantages Theatre is a site to see, in and of itself! The Art Deco landmark was built in 1930 by vaudeville theatre mogul Alexander Pantages for a whopping $1.25 million – and we’re talking 1930’s money!!!! It was designed by architect B. Marcus Priteca, who conceived most of the theatres in the Pantages chain. But, in an ironic twist of events, when the theatre first opened to the public on June 4, 1930, it was not opened as a Pantages, but instead under the Fox Theatre name. In 1929, while the Pantages was being built, Alexander was knee-deep in a scandal involving another of his many theatres. It seems Alexander, who was in his sixties at the time, was accused and found guilty of raping one of his sixteen year old female ushers at his theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. After being sent to jail, he was forced to open his new Hollywood theatre under a different name. In 1931, Pantages appealed the case and was awarded a new trial. His defense in the second trial maintained that rival theatre company RKO along with Joseph Kennedy (yes, that Joseph Kennedy) had framed him in order to purchase his theatre chain at a low price. Since the broom closet where the rape had supposedly occured was too small a space for two people to fit in, the jury acquitted him and Alexander was released from prison. But Pantages never regained his luxor in Hollywood. Alexander Pantages passed away only two months after his release from prison, broke and broken.

The Pantages has gone through a succession of owners during its almost eighty year history. In 1949, Howard Hughes purchased the theatre and renamed it RKO Pantages. His offices were located above the theatre on the building’s second floor. During the RKO years, from 1949 to 1959 , the Pantages hosted ten Academy Awards ceremonies. It was also home to the Emmy Awards through 1977. In 1967, the Pantages was taken over by Pacific Theatres, who in 1977 joined forces with the Nederlander Theatre Organization to refurbish the property and turn it into a live theatre venue. In October of 2000, Disney opened its hit show The Lion King at the Pantages, which ran for over two years and almost 900 performances. Just prior to The Lion King’s opening, the Pantages underwent a painstaking $10 million renovation process, bringing the theatre back to her original splendor. Since that time, the theatre has been home to over 45 live stage productions including Mama Mia, Annie, Rent, Cats, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

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The Pantages is an absolutely beautiful theatre and a stunning example of Art Deco architecture.

From its sweeping staircases . . .

. . . to its sparkling Art Deco chandeliers, I was absolutely mesmerized by the architectural detail throughout. The Pantages is truly a wonder and I HIGHLY recommend stalking it, if you get the chance!

The Pantages is no stranger to the silver screen, either. It was featured in The Bodyguard, as the site of the Academy Awards ceremony where Whitney Houston was a presenter;

the exterior of it shows up very briefly in The Black Dhalia, as Josh Hartnett makes his way into the Frolic Room which is located right next door;

and in L.A. Confidential, as Kevin Spacey does the very same thing;

and its stage was featured in Michael Jackson’s music video for the song “You Are Not Alone”. The Pantages also showed up in Season Two of Ugly Betty (it’s the “New York” theatre where Henry takes Betty to see the musical Wicked), Paparazzi (it’s the site of Cole’s movie premiere at the very end), Ed Wood, The Jazz Singer, Money Talks, and Batman Forever.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Pantages Theatre is located at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit their website here. Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story On Stage is currently running at the Pantages now through June 28th. Upcoming shows include Legally Blonde: The Musical and How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

June 10, 2009
The Bedtime Stories House

Got a challenge last week from fellow stalker Owen who wanted me to find Courteney Cox’s house from the 2008 movie Bedtime Stories.   And even though I had yet to see the movie, I was actually in luck with this challenge as one of my acting classmates had worked as a production assistant on the Adam Sandler flick.   So, I immediately called her up to ask her where the house was located. But, sadly, as is often the case with this sort of thing, she could not for the life of her remember. UGH! But she did tell me that she thought the home might be in Pasadena. So, I got Mike from MovieShotsLA in on the hunt and we started our search there. And, as usual, it wasn’t long before Mike had found the house! He’s so the man!! 🙂 The Bedtime Stories house is actually located on a quiet, tree-lined street in South Pasadena, a few miles south of Pasadena proper.   And yesterday, I ran right out to stalk it. 🙂

The Bedtime Stories house is absolutely adorable and looks much the same in person as it did in the movie. And, while I was there stalking the place, I was lucky enough to get to chat with the owner, who gave me some scoop on the filming! 🙂

She told me that some filming actually took place inside of the house, too.   Filmed inside of her home were the living room scenes;

the kitchen scenes;

and the backyard party scene.

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The children’s room where Adam Sandler tells his bedtime stories, however, was built on a soundstage at Universal Studios. The owner said that producers changed the interior of her home quite a bit for the filming and that in real life it looks much different than how it appeared on screen.  All in all, filming at her house took just about two weeks to complete.

A few months after the filming had been completed, producers returned to the home yet again to film one more exterior set-up shot. Apparently, long after filming had wrapped, it was decided that a shot of the home in the rain at night was needed. So, they brought in a huge rain machine and set it up behind the house. So cool!

What I found most interesting, though, was that for the scene when Keri Russell and Adam Sandler meet, producers actually painted fake parking spaces up and down the entire street in front of the house! Apparently, they so loved the idea of Adam taking up two parking spaces and Keri giving him a hard time about it, that they created fake parking spaces along an entire city block!! LOL When I watched that scene while trying to locate the house the other day, I remember thinking how odd it looked for a cute little house in a cute little neighborhood to have vertical parking spaces in front of it. LOL Ah, the magic of the movies! 🙂

Amazingly enough, the lines from the fake parking spaces are still visible in front of the house!   So cool!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bedtime Stories house is located at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena.

June 5, 2009
The Cellular House

Back in September of last year, while stalking the house from fave 80s movie License to Drive, I just happened to stumble upon another famous movie home – Kim Basinger’s residence from the 2004 flick Cellular. Well, truth be told, “stumble upon” isn’t exactly the terminology I should be using here. 🙂 The real story is that while taking pictures in front of the License to Drive house, the owner came outside and struck up a conversation with me. And while he had no idea that he was living in a famous home, he did tell me that the movie Cellular had been filmed on the street directly behind his! So, of course, off I went to stalk that house! But somehow, in all this time, I never got around to blogging about it. So, here goes. 🙂

In the very beginning of Cellular, Kim Basinger, aka Jessica Martin, is kidnapped out of the large, traditional style home pictured above.   Her only hope for rescue lies in reluctant hero – and total cutie – Chris Evans, whose cell phone accidentally intercepts a 911 call Jessica is trying to make.

In the movie, we are told that Jessica’s home is located at 3270 Bonhill Road in Brentwood.   And, while a Bonhill Road in Brentwood does actually exist, the street numbers there don’t go higher than 800. In actuality, the home where filming took place is located about three miles east of Brentwood.

And, as you can see in the above screen capture, producers even went so far as to paint the number 3270 on the curb in front of the home! Which would have made locating this house extremely difficult for stalkers!!!!! So, I definitely owe a big THANK YOU to the owner of the License to Drive house. 😉 If you haven’t seen the movie Cellular yet, I highly recommend doing so! While the campy thriller has to be one of the cheesiest movies ever made, I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it!    🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Cellular house is located at 527 Loring Avenue in Los Angeles.

June 4, 2009