Category: Movie Locations

Jerry’s Condo from “Jerry Maguire”

Location hunts can take some strange, circuitous paths. Case in point – during my laborious, years-long search for the condo where Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) lived in the 1996 classic of the same name, I headed down a fairly deep rabbit hole in an attempt to identify the onetime beach home of actress Suzanne Somers and her husband, Alan Hamel. What in the heck do Somers, Hamel and their former beach house have to do with Jerry Maguire? Let me explain.

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My quest to find Jerry’s condo actually began many moons ago, around the time I first met Mike, from MovieShotsLA. During one of our initial stalking outings, Mike mentioned that he had worked in Marina Del Rey for years and would often walk by a house on the Strand that had a unique rock sculpture displayed on its beach side. Upon seeing Jerry Maguire years later, he noticed a rock sculpture visible outside of Jerry’s windows and knew it was the same one he had regularly passed. Unfortunately though, other than it being on the Strand in MDR, he could not remember exactly where it was located. As soon as I got home that day, I spent more than a few hours searching the area’s coastline. Being that the exterior of Jerry’s place was never actually shown in the film, I had my work cut out for me and came up empty. Figuring the rock statue had long since been removed, I abandoned any hope of ever pinpointing the site. Then, in 2016, while on a Jerry Maguire kick, I sat down to watch the video commentary featured on the film’s Special Edition DVD and just about fell over when Renée Zellweger mentioned that Suzanne Somers lived next door to the location used as Jerry condo’s. Hope restored, I began hunting for the Somers/Hamel residence, which both Zellweger and Cuba Gooding Jr. said was in Manhattan Beach and which I figured would be a snap to find.

A Google search led me to a 1999 Los Angeles Times article chronicling the sale of the Three’s Company actress’ longtime Marina Del Rey home, which was described as a “beachfront townhouse” with three levels, three bedrooms, a rooftop sundeck, and 3,500 square feet. According to the blurb, Somers and Hamel had owned the pad since 1977. While the Marina Del Rey part did not gibe with Renée and Cuba’s recollections, it did gibe with Mike’s, so I figured I was on the right track. Hope was soon dashed, though, when I came across a 1982 People feature that catalogued all of the Hamel/Somers’ homes, noting that their coastal property was “a seven-level beach-fronter” in the “expensive section of Venice.” Though I knew that one of the articles had to be incorrect in its reporting, I couldn’t find an address for the couple in either MDR or Venice, nor could I find a seven-level property anywhere along the Speedway! The hunt for their pad was proving just as difficult as the search for Jerry’s! So I reversed course and sat down to scour the entire coastline from Venice down to Manhattan Beach. Using Google Street View (which amazingly chronicles the beach side of the Strand!) and some serious elbow grease, I finally came across the infamous rock sculpture outside of the property located at 3811 Ocean Front Walk in Marina Del Rey. Eureka!

I promptly did an internet search of the address to see what else I could dig up on the locale and was flummoxed when the first result kicked back was a 2015 real estate listing with this sentence in the description, “Residence offers Hollywood pedigree, as it was the home of Jerry Maguire in the popular movie of the same name.” Face palm! Had I just simply Googled “Jerry Maguire” and “Marina Del Rey” upon revisiting my quest for the house, I would have saved myself a lot of time! Ah, well. I ran out to stalk the place just a few days later and was saddened to see that the rock statue that had figured so much in the hunt was no longer in place.

I’m assuming the sculpture was removed when the place sold in 2015 (for a cool $2,754,000, mind you!) because it was still on display in the MLS photos.

As was depicted in Jerry Maguire, 3811 Ocean Front Walk houses condos in real life – two condos to be exact. Unit 1, a one-story space, is situated on the lower level and Unit 2, a two-story spread, comprises the second and third floors. It was the lower level unit that was utilized in the film.

The site pops up several times in the movie. Though the master bedroom was not utilized (Jerry’s bedroom was a set built on Stage 21 at Sony Pictures Studio), the rest of the condo’s interior was used prominently in the film.

Areas of the pad that appeared onscreen include the kitchen;

the living room;

the dining room, which served as Jerry’s home office;

and the media room. (Notice that the shutters and shelving visible behind Kelly Preston below are identical to those pictured in the listing photo! I think the couch might actually be the same, too!)

One room in the condo was also apparently utilized as the office of Cardinals General Manager Dennis Wilburn (Glenn Frey) in the movie, but I was unable to find anything that resembled it in the listing photos.

In real life, Unit 1 features 2 en-suite bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,368 square feet, a private beachfront terrace, a fireplace, an open kitchen, a media room, flagstone flooring throughout, and granite countertops. Or, at least, it did.

Sadly, as you can see in recent Google Street Views and in this image, the second and third floors appear to be undergoing massive renovations.

It is heartbreaking that the locale remained virtually frozen in time from its onscreen stint all the way up until its recent sale, only to then be completely gutted. What a shame.

For those wondering, I did end up finding Suzanne Somers’ home, but not until I sat down to write this post. Once I finally pinpointed Jerry’s condo, I was so excited, I completely forgot to see if the Hamel/Somers residence was actually located next door. As Zellweger noted, though, it does indeed neighbor Jerry’s place at 3819 Ocean Front Walk! I wound up identifying it thanks to a set of photos published on Alamy of a fire that took place at the property in 2009 which ran with captions stating the locale was once owned by Somers.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jerry’s condo from Jerry Maguire is located at 3811 Ocean Front Walk #1 in Marina Del Rey. Suzanne Somers and Alan Hamel’s longtime former home is right next door at 3819 Ocean Front Walk.

January 18, 2019
Kabuki Japanese Restaurant from “Clueless”

OK so I’m totally buggin’! I just found out that Paramount Pictures is in talks to reboot Clueless! This may be way harsh, but all I have to say regarding the news is ‘Whatever!’ The 1995 classic is absolute perfection AS IS and should NOT be touched! Hearing about the project did remind me of several locales from the flick that I stalked long ago, but have yet to blog about, namely Kabuki Japanese Restaurant in Burbank, aka the former Crocodile Cafe, where Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) lunched with her Beverly Hills besties Dionne (Stacey Dash) and Tai (Brittany Murphy). I had been on the lookout for the eatery for ages – pretty much since starting my blog back in 2007. It was not until 8 years later, on June 4th, 2015, that a reader named Jasmine finally solved the mystery when, in response to another reader asking about the restaurant in the comments section of my post on the Horowitz house from the movie, said, “It used to be Crocodile Cafe in Burbank on San Fernando and Orange Grove. But now it’s a Kabuki. I have no idea how I figured this out but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly where it was. The booth they sat at is right behind the hostess/cashier. I sound so stalkerish right now it’s ridiculous.” Jasmine’s comment was quite stalkerish, but in the best way possible! One look at images of the place online told me she was right. I could not have been more thrilled and ran out to stalk Kabuki just a few days later with my friend Kate who was in town visiting from Kentucky. Very shortly after that, author Jen Chaney released her fabulous book As If!: The Oral History of Clueless as told by Amy Heckerling and the Cast and Crew which confirmed Crocodile Cafe’s appearance in the film on page 126.

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The former Crocodile Cafe actually pops up twice in Clueless – first very briefly in the opening “So, OK, you’re probably going ‘Is this, like, a Noxzema commercial or what?’” montage.

It then later appears in the scene in which Cher and Dionne take Tai out for a “calorie fest” to cheer her up after she finds out that snob-and-a-half Elton (Jeremy Sisto) isn’t into her.

Upon walking into the restaurant, I was thrilled to see that despite the changeover from Crocodile Cafe to Kabuki, it was entirely recognizable from its big screen cameo. Unfortunately, someone happened to be sitting in the exact booth utilized during filming, so I couldn’t snap any photos of it, but as you can see in the image below as compared to the screen capture, the booths remain very much the same today as they appeared in Clueless. The cushioning has been swapped out and glass partitions have since been added, but other than that, they are untouched.

The front door and hostess area also largely look the same.

Crocodile Cafe’s bar, which was visible in both Clueless scenes, was apparently gutted when Kabuki took over.

The area where it used to be located is pictured below. Thankfully, the frosted glass blocks formerly situated behind the bar are still intact, as are the wood columns that frame them.

It is not hard to see why the restaurant was chosen for the movie. With its bright pink and green color scheme and 90s-modern vibe, the place fit in perfectly with the splashy, over-the-top visual aesthetic that made up Cher’s world. Interestingly, Crocodile Cafe was not producers’ first choice, though. Per As If!, “Originally the Clueless crew was hoping to shoot the restaurant sequences at California Pizza Kitchen. But once the CPK people saw the final script, and saw how much breadstick-penis talk goes on between Cher, Dionne and Tai, they said no. Says producer Adam Schroeder: ‘I think the whole idea of talking about boy parts in CPK, that made them uncomfortable.” The default location turned out to be ideal, though.

Of Crocodile Cafe’s unique décor, Los Angeles Times writer Max Jacobson had this to say in a 1997 article, “It’s a breezy place with an open kitchen tiled in a pattern that looks like a multicolored snake. The dining room–all brick walls, high ceiling and a gallery’s worth of modern art–is narrow and noisy.” I believe the open kitchen Jacobson mentions (or at least a portion of it), which was not shown in Clueless, serves as the restaurant’s sushi counter today.

The Burbank Crocodile Cafe outpost opened its doors in July 1994, so it was new when Clueless filmed on the premises. (Though I am unsure of the exact day the scenes were lensed, the movie was shot from November 21st, 1994 through February 7th, 1995.) The eatery was the fifth in the CC chain, which was founded in Pasadena in 1987 by restauranteur Gregg Smith as a sort of casual version of his upscale and highly popular bistro Parkway Grill. I was unable to dig up the year the eatery closed, but, per a newspaper ad I came across, the shuttering took place between May 2002 and July 2005, at which time Kabuki Japanese Restaurant was already in operation. Oh, how I wish I could have seen the Croc when it was still open in all of its bright green and pink glory!

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, aka the former Crocodile Cafe from Clueless, is located at 201 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. The Downtown Christmas Shopping District from “The Voice of Christmas” episode of The Brady Bunch is located a little over a block away at 100 South San Fernando.

January 16, 2019
The John Ferraro Building

I was recently interviewed for an exciting new project (more details to come) and in my talks with producers beforehand was asked if I had any ideas about where the interview could take place. They were hoping to meet up at a filming location that I felt best represented the spirt of L.A. I didn’t hesitate in my answer – the John Ferraro Building. The strikingly gorgeous structure is not only an onscreen stalwart and an icon of Los Angeles architecture, but it uniquely serves as both a notable part of the city skyline and one of the best places to view it. I have covered the place countless times on my site – in a 2010 post, on My Must-Stalk List, in the “See” section of my 2015 Guide to L.A., to name a few – as well as for other entities, including my article on the Top 10 Science Fiction Locations for Discover Los Angeles and a blurb about must-see locales for the September 2018 issue of Los Angeles magazine. My love for the John Ferraro Building is prolific. While walking the perimeter of the property prior to my interview last week, I realized that in all my chronicling of it, I had yet to do a deep dive into its vast filming history, so I thought it only appropriate to amend that.

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Designed in 1965 by A.C. Martin & Associates, the Modernist/Corporate International-style structure was “green” before being green was even a thing. Built to house the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the architecture firm innovatively incorporated both elements into the design in the most unique way.

The building, which features concrete slabs cantilevered between towering glass walls, boasts specially-built ceilings on each of its 17 floors that absorb heat from the lighting system, helping to keep the property warm during cooler temperatures (yes, L.A. does get some of those) and at night.

As for water, the dramatic structure sits atop a 625 x 350-foot moat-like reflecting pool containing 2-million gallons of the stuff, portions of which are pumped through the HVAC system to cool the interior, essentially carrying 1/3 of the entire air conditioning load.

The pool and its eight fountains also make for some incredible views, the likes of which can’t be found anywhere else in the city.

I mean, come on!

I challenge you to find a prettier spot in all of L.A.

Last one, I promise.

Originally known as the DWP’s General Office Building (GOB), the property was renamed the John Ferraro Building in 2000 in honor of L.A.’s longest-serving city councilman.

The distinctive 287-foot-tall site is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1022.

Most of my photos in this post come from past visits to the LADWP. While we were there last week, the site was undergoing some sort of maintenance and the typically stunning reflecting pool was dry and the plentiful fountains shut off, as you can see below.

Despite this fact, the building was still dazzling to look at.

Considering LADWP’s beauty, it is no surprise that the place is a frequent film star. What is surprising is all of the misinformation about its various cameos floating around online. But more on that in a bit.

Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) jogs around the building in the 1971 Sci-Fi classic The Omega Man.

Jerry Landers (John Denver) gets interviewed by God (George Burns) at the LADWP, which is said to be located at 1600 Hope Street, in the 1977 comedy Oh, God!, though not much of the building is shown in the scene.

The property portrays a courthouse, where the two young winners of a traffic safety essay contest are interviewed – and mistakenly kidnapped – in the Season 3 episode of CHiPs titled “Kidnap,” which aired in 1980.

Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) explains to Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) what a Terminator is in the building’s parking garage in 1984’s The Terminator. It is the rear side of the parking lot, on 1st Street, that Reese drives in and out of in the scene.

In the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “All Things,” which aired in 2000, the John Ferraro Building masks as the exterior of Washington National Hospital, where Dana Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) former professor is being treated.

John Hancock (Will Smith) holds a news conference at the LADWP to announce that he is heading to prison in the 2008 action flick Hancock.

The site appeared regularly as FBI Headquarters on the short-lived television series FlashForward, which debuted in 2009.

During the first season of Pretty Little Liars, which started airing in 2010, Hannah Marin (Ashley Benson) gets a job at her ex-boyfriend’s mother’s dental office, shown in establishing shots to be located at the LADWP, in order to work off the damage she caused by crashing his car.

That same year, the site popped up very briefly as the exterior of a CIA building in the Season 3 episode of Chuck titled “Chuck Versus the Subway.”

Also in 2010, the LADWP served as a dream world in Inception. It is in the building’s reflecting pool that Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), conceived reconstructions of homes from their past, which were, of course, just CGI creations.

The interior of the property also appears briefly in the film. As Cobb leads Ariadne (Ellen Page) inside, he says, “We both wanted to live in a house, but we loved this type of building. In the real world, we’d have to choose, but not here.” He then takes her upstairs to his “residence,” which is supposedly located a short elevator ride away, but can actually be found about ten miles north at 215 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.

Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) randomly run in to each other at a farmers’ market taking place at the LADWP in the 2011 romcom No Strings Attached.

In 2012, Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King) told Terrell (Michael Jace) that she was expecting his baby at the John Ferraro Building in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Thursday.”

The locale pops up briefly in some establishing imagery of what is supposedly the Department of Justice in 2016’s The Nice Guys.

Melinda’s (Punam Patel) “fountain unveiling” in the Season 2 episode of Adam Ruins Everything titled “Adam Ruins the Future,” which aired in 2017, takes place at the LADWP.

In The Rookie, which began airing in 2018, the LADWP portrays the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mid-Wilshire Station.

Now that we’ve covered a plethora of the productions that LADWP has been in, let’s debunk some of that erroneous info I mentioned earlier. There is so much of it swirling around the internet that writing this post felt more like a disproving of the false reporting of the building’s film history than a chronicling of its many appearances.

Though several websites claim that the LADWP masked as Washington, D.C.’s Bureau of Internal Revenue at the beginning of 1964’s What a Way to Go!, that is incorrect. Filming actually took place at the Gateway West Building, once located at 1801 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. The structure was demolished in 2015 as part of the Westfield Century City expansion, but you can see what it formerly looked like here.

LADWP wasn’t a courthouse in the Season 6 episode of Adam-12 titled “Clinic on 18th Street,” which aired in 1974, either. That building is actually the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center located just a few blocks away at 210 West Temple Street.

Nor did it portray the 14th Street Precinct in the 1980s television series Cagney & Lacey as has been reported. The confusion on this one is semi-understandable, though, being that filming took place at another downtown L.A. DWP site – the Central District Facility located at 1350 South Wall Street. Sadly, the exact building utilized has since been torn down, though.

It has also been reported that the John Ferraro Building played the Tacoma Police Department in the 1989 comedy Three Fugitives. That location, though, is actually the very same former Central District Facility building from Cagney & Lacey.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The John Ferraro Building, aka the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, is located at 111 North Hope Street in downtown L.A. The facility’s lobby is open to the pubic each weekday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

January 11, 2019
The Majestic Downtown from “The Holiday”

The Holiday has definitely been on my brain as of late. I wrote about two of the houses used in the 2006 film for the December issue of Los Angeles magazine and recently got to tour Thorne Hall at Occidental College, the setting of one of its most poignant scenes. So I figured it was only appropriate to dedicate a post to another of the movie’s locales, DTLA’s SB Spring building, more specifically its lower level former bank space known as The Majestic Downtown, which masqueraded as the supposed London office of The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the flick. I have blogged about this spot twice before, once in 2010 for my own site and then again in 2014 for L.A. mag. The last time I did some stalking of it, though, an event was being set up and the friendly security guard manning the front door happened to invite me inside for a closer look! I have yet to share the photos I snapped that day, so I decided it was definitely time for a third go-round.

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SB Spring was originally erected in 1924 as the headquarters of the Hellman Commercial Trust and Savings Bank.

Commissioned by Isaias Hellman at a cost of $2.5-million, the Beaux Arts-style structure was designed by the Schultze & Weaver architecture firm.

Featuring an Indiana limestone façade with sweeping arched windows and doors and terra cotta carvings, the 12-story building originally housed offices on the upper levels . . .

. . . and a two-story Spanish Revival-style bank on the ground floor boasting 40-foot-tall hand-painted coffered ceilings, marble columns, stairs and flooring, intricate bronze chandeliers, and a large mezzanine. You can check out a photo of what the grand space looked like during its early days here.

Soon after construction of the property was complete, Hellman Commercial merged with Merchants National Bank and then was taken over by Bank of America shortly thereafter. The 250,000-square-foot structure became the financial institution’s Los Angeles headquarters and, as such, was known largely as the “Bank of America Building.”

When B of A moved its headquarters to a new location on Flower Street in 1972, the upstairs offices of the Spring Street building were leased out to various companies. The ground floor bank, however, remained in operation until its doors were finally closed due to a decline in business in March 1988.

Developer Barry Shy purchased the structure in 2009 and converted the upstairs offices into a 174-unit loft-style apartment building known as SB Spring.

Thankfully, the bank space, now a special events venue known as The Majestic Downtown, has been left largely intact over the years, making it the perfect spot for filming. And locations scouts have definitely taken note!

In The Holiday, The Majestic Downtown is where Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) works as a newspaper writer.

It is during the paper’s Christmas party at the beginning of the film that Iris learns her total cad of an ex-boyfriend, Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell), has proposed to the girl that he cheated on her with.

SB Spring has appeared in countless productions in addition to The Holiday. So many, that it would be impossible to chronicle all of its onscreen appearances here, but below are a few of my personal favorites.

Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) has Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) fill out a signature card under a fake name at the bank in 1990’s Ghost.

The Majestic Downtown masks as the Fourth Reich Bank of Hamburg where Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) provides his financial records in an attempt to secure a dinner reservation at L’Idiot restaurant in the 1991 comedy L.A. Story.

The site portrays Edge City Savings & Loan, where Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey) works, in the 1994 comedy The Mask.

Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) applies for a job there in the 1998 romcom The Wedding Singer.

In 2001’s Heartbreakers, Max Conners (Sigourney Weaver) and her daughter, Page Conners (Jennifer Love Hewitt), attempt to withdraw money from their accounts at the bank, but are thwarted by the IRS.

Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) saves a party at The Majestic Downtown by performing the Zombie Dance from Thriller in the 2004 comedy 13 Going on 30.

And, yes, I did, of course, imitate Jenna doing a Thriller move while I was there, but unfortunately the lighting in the building was extremely low, so my photo did not come out. (Many of the images I took that day suffered the same fate, unfortunately.)

The exterior of SB Spring masquerades as Belle en Blanc bridal salon in the 2011 comedy Bridesmaids.

Me doing my best Helen (Rose Byrne) out in front. Too bad the shop’s ornate intercom isn’t actually there in real life.

Though the interior of the salon was a studio-built set, it is outside of SB Spring that the scene’s most memorable moment took place.

It is there that Lillian (Maya Rudolph), ahem, loses her sh*t in the middle of the street.

Had to do it! (Though I accidentally posed a bit too far to the north.)

SB Spring plays Capitol Trust Bank, where Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and the gang attend a Homeland Security counterterrorism drill, in the Season 2 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “Windbreaker City,” which aired in 2014.

In 2018, the exterior of the bank popped up in the music video for the Lil Dicky/Chris Brown song “Freak Friday,” which you can watch here.

And E.B. Jonathan (John Lithgow) unsuccessfully attempts to secure a loan there in the hopes of saving his practice in the Season 1 episode of the new HBO series Perry Mason titled “Chapter 4.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Majestic Downtown, aka The Daily Telegraph newspaper office from The Holiday, is located at 650 South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the venue’s official website here.

December 21, 2018
Cordon’s Ranch Market from “Christmas with the Kranks”

Christmas with the Kranks has got to be one of the oddest movies I’ve ever come across location-wise. The 2004 holiday flick not only used the backlots of three (count ‘em!) three different L.A. studios to portray Riverside, Illinois, the Chicago suburb where the story takes place (as I chronicled in this post), but the soundstages of yet another area studio, The Culver Studios in Culver City, were utilized for several interior sets. And as I only recently discovered, production also played a bit fast and loose with the store where Nora Krank (Jamie Lee Curtis) finally got her hands on – and then promptly lost – a Hickory Honey Ham for a last-minute Christmas party. (The entire ham storyline is problematic, in fact, but more on that in a bit.) I figured the location trickery would make for a great holiday post, so I ran right out to stalk Cordon’s Ranch Market in Glendale, where the majority of the grocery store scene was lensed.

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Sadly, Cordon’s Ranch Market, which was originally established in 1999, shut its doors in April 2015. If only I had identified the location a few years sooner!

After Cordon’s shuttering, the site underwent a heavy remodel and subsequently re-opened as Moss Supermarket a few months later.

Moss did not last long, unfortunately, closing its doors in October 2017, a little more than two years after opening, and the space has sat vacant ever since.

In Christmas with the Kranks, Nora heads to Cordon’s Ranch Market to buy a ham – not just any ham, mind you, but a Mel’s Hickory Honey Cooked, Boneless, Skinless Ham with Natural Juices and Gelatin Added (um, gross!) – for her annual Christmas Eve party that she and her husband, Luther Krank (Tim Allen), have decided to throw at the very last minute upon learning their beloved daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), is unexpectedly returning home from the Peace Corps to celebrate the holidays with them. Hickory Honey Ham, you see, is Blair’s absolute favorite dish.

The shop’s name and signage are both clearly visible at the top of the scene when Nora is shown parking her car. I always assumed both had been faked for the shoot, though, due to the fact that the sign’s lettering and coloring looked very Christmas-y. Then, on a whim a few months ago, I decided to input “Cordon’s Ranch Market” into Google and was shocked when a result was kicked back for a since-closed grocery store in Glendale! One look at the place on Street View confirmed it was where filming had occurred. What amazed me even more was that the signage that appeared in the movie was real, as you can see in this image of Cordon’s exterior from when it was still in operation! Turns out it wasn’t altered to appear more holiday-ish at all!

Nora’s visit to the grocer does not go well. And neither does the scene’s continuity because as soon as filming shifts to the inside of the market, we are at a different location altogether. The store where Nora races another shopper in an attempt to nab the very last in-stock Hickory Honey Ham before ultimately crashing into a floor display at the beginning of the segment does not match these images I found of Cordon’s. The shop that appears onscreen features a muted color scheme and some sort of a village-scape painted on its upper walls, while Cordon’s operated under the Apple Market brand and, as such, boasted bright red, green, and yellow coloring. The movie market also has a checkered brown and white floor, which does not line up with Cordon’s blue and white tiling.

Unfortunately, I am unsure of what grocery store was utilized for the filming of that portion of the scene.

After Nora crashes into the display and loses her chance at grabbing the shop’s sole remaining ham, she comes across a family in the check-out line who happens to have one and she convinces them to sell it to her for an above-market price. And that’s where things get really weird because that segment was shot at Cordon’s! As you can see in these images of the shop, the cashier stands, general décor, and color scheme match what appeared onscreen perfectly.

The fact that two different market interiors were utilized for the rather brief segment makes me wonder if some of the scene was re-shot. Or if Nora was originally supposed to be shown venturing into multiple stores looking for the hard-to-get ham and, at the last minute, producers decided to combine the bits instead. Your guess is as good as mine, though.

Purchase safely in hand, Nora then heads out of Cordon’s, where she is promptly bumped by a passerby, causing her to drop the ham.

It subsequently rolls through the store’s parking lot . . .

. . . and into the street . . .

. . . where it sits for a brief moment . . .

. . . before getting run over by a big rig . . .

. . . which almost hits Nora in the process.

Though she manages to escape unscathed . . .

. . . the ham does not. (Per production designer Garreth Stover, 26 hams were destroyed during the making of the scene.)

As if the market location switch-up isn’t enough, there’s more! Though Nora returns home defeated and sans ham, a guest named Marty (Austin Pendleton) unexpectedly brings one to the Krank’s party, saving Christmas pretty much, and Nora is shown proudly serving it later in the evening to her future son-in-law, Enrique Decardenal (Rene Lavan). But in an unexpected twist, in one of the movie’s final scenes Luther grabs an uncooked ham off of his kitchen counter and brings it over to his neighbors’ house as a sort of peace offering – which begs the question, where in the heck did that second ham come from? Did another guest bring it? Did Nora reconstruct the ham that was run-over by the big rig? Did it show up as some sort of Christmas miracle? Unfortunately, a DVD commentary was never created for the film, so, short of a sit-down with director Joe Roth, we may never know. It seems to me a pretty huge gaffe, though, especially considering the Hickory Honey Ham storyline is so central to the movie. I am shocked that no one caught it in post-production.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The former Cordon’s Ranch Market from Christmas with the Kranks is located at 2931 Honolulu Avenue in Glendale. The store is currently closed and vacant.

December 19, 2018
Thorne Hall from “The Holiday”

If I had to pick a favorite movie character it would be Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach) from The Holiday. There’s nothing about him that I don’t adore – his kind heart, his wit, his charm, his championing of Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet). And there’s no scene that makes me cry more than the one in which he is honored by the Writers Guild of America West at the end of the film. When those theatre doors open and he sees that the auditorium is packed, the emotion is overwhelming! And then, just when you think you’ve caught your breath, his theme music – composed by Miles Dumont (Jack Black) – comes tinkling through the speakers and the tears start all over again. So I was ecstatic when, while on a tour of Occidental College with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a couple of years back, our guide pointed to Thorne Hall on the north edge of campus and informed us that the iconic scene – which you can watch here – had been shot there! Though we didn’t get to see the inside of the building that particular day, thanks to an incredibly nice contact I have at the school who interviewed me a few years ago, I was able to tour it last month, just in time for a holiday post!

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Thorne Hall was the brainchild of Rev. Remsen D. Bird, who served as Occidental’s president from 1921 to 1946. Upon taking office, Bird set out to expand and enhance the campus. Top on his list of wants was a large auditorium capable of hosting the entire student body and staff. The project was finally made possible thanks to financing provided by Charles Thorne, heir to the Montgomery Ward fortune, and groundbreaking took place on May 21st, 1937.

Myron Hunt & H.C. Chambers, the architecture team who also gave us Pasadena Central Library, were commissioned to design the Palladian-style beauty, which was named in honor of Charles’ late wife, Belle Wilber Thorne. The venue opened to the public on July 13th, 1938 with a concert put on by Westminster Choir School.

Little of the landmark site has been altered in the ensuing decades, though it did undergo a $2.1-million renovation in 1989. Spearheaded by architect/preservation specialist Brenda Levin, the project mildly revamped the auditorium’s interior by adding baffling over the stage to allow for better acoustics. As she explained to the Los Angeles Times, “Thorne Hall is one of Hunt’s purest Palladian buildings. Its beautiful Beaux Arts colonnade closes the western end of the main campus axis, and gives it its great sense of calm. I had to try and modernize the hall’s interior without cheapening its relationship to the dignity of its exterior.” A woman after my own heart!

The grand 792-seat venue has hosted countless famous figures over the years including Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Hope, Linda Ronstadt, Harry Belafonte, Edward James Olmos, Richard Nixon, Jane Goodall, Earl Warren, Robert Frost, Amy Tan, Anne Lamott, Cesar Chavez, Desmond Tutu, and Oliver Stone, just to name a few.

According to a 2013 Occidental magazine article, in 1940 Howard Swan, then director of the space, stated “Belle Wilber Thorne Hall today is more than a structure of steel and concrete. Thorne Hall is an institution, fostering activities that reach out and touch many interests and many persons. The donor of the building wished it to receive extensive use; certainly none of us realized that we were so soon to witness the development of an institution of strength, tradition, and power.” Charles Thorne’s hope for extensive use is still being realized today, with the venue serving as the site of such varied events as theatre productions, concerts, lectures, speeches, classes, and dance performances.

Oh, and filming.

It is at Thorne Hall that the Writers Guild of America West hosts “An Evening with Arthur Abbott,” in honor of the legendary octogenarian screenwriter, in The Holiday.

As Arthur walks into Thorne’s lobby with Iris, his worst fears are confirmed – it appears as if no one has shown up for the event.

But when the doors to the auditorium open . . .

. . . a resounding applause breaks out and Arthur is overwhelmed to see a packed house engaged in a massive standing ovation. His life’s work, it turns out, has not gone unnoticed by his peers.

Iris and Arthur proceed down the aisle into Thorne’s auditorium . . .

. . . and Arthur ventures onto the stage where he gives a glorious speech about the showbusiness of yesteryear. It is a heartwarming scene from beginning to end.

Sadly, the stairs he walked up (on his own!) were just set dressing brought in for the shoot.

Thorne Hall’s actual stairs are located on the extreme sides of the stage, as you can see below.

The Holiday is hardly the only production to feature Thorne Hall. In fact, the site popped up in another favorite of mine!

In 1994, Thorne was used extensively as Evans Hall, the California University theatre where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) auditioned, rehearsed, and performed as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the Season 4 episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 “Divas,” “Acting Out,” “Truth and Consequences,” and “Vital Signs.” The exterior . . .

. . . the lobby . . .

. . . and the auditorium all appeared in the episodes. (That’s a very young Ryan Hurst, aka Gerry Bertier from Remember the Titans, in the screen caps below.)

In what is actually a leftover establishing shot from 90210, Thorne Hall popped up briefly as “Evans Hall Library,” where Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) investigates the death of her friend, Charlene Hughes (Rebecca Cross), in the Season 2 episode of Charmed titled “Ex Libris,” which aired in 2000. All interiors were shot at DC Stages in downtown L.A., though.

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) gives a speech on raptors and asks for funding to continue his research on the subject in Thorne Hall in 2001’s Jurassic Park III.

Thorne portrays the Georgetown University auditorium where Tabitha Fortis (Laura Dern) gives a lecture on poetry in the Season 3 episode of The West Wing titled “The U.S. Poet Laureate,” which aired in 2002.

A prop fountain was installed in front of the hall for the shoot to give the locale more of a D.C. feel.

Thorne Hall masks as the U.S. Embassy in Belgravia, where a Marine is killed during a terrorist attack, in the Season 8 episode of NCIS titled “Defiance,” which aired in 2011.

In 2014 and 2015, Thorne Hall was turned into “Nerdvana” for Seasons 2 and 3 of the reality competition series King of the Nerds.

The Grim Cheaper and I happened to be on campus during one of the Nerd shoots and got to see Thorne Hall dressed in all of its Nerdvana glory!

Most recently, the building popped up briefly in the background of the Season 1 episode of The Romanoffs titled “Bright and High Circle,” which aired this past November.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Thorne Hall, from The Holiday, can be found at Occidental College, which is located at 1600 Campus Road in Eagle Rock. Please be advised that the theatre is closed to the public and is only accessible to those attending performances and shows on the premises. You can find out about the venue’s upcoming events here.

December 14, 2018
Krotona Apartments

I have always maintained that I am an equal opportunity stalker. It is not just filming locations that enthrall me, but pop culture landmarks, historical sites, and architectural curiosities. In fact, the curiouser the better. So when I came across a grouping of grandiose Moorish-style structures dotted throughout a small section of the Hollywood Hills while searching for the Swingers party house, my interest was immediately piqued. I headed over to Google and soon discovered that the properties were initially constructed as part of the Krotona Colony, a compound built in the early 1900s by the Theosophical Society religious sect. At the center of the sprawling onetime commune is the former Krotona Inn, a massive complex that originally served as the group’s national headquarters, but today is a bohemian apartment complex. It should come as no surprise that to the top of my To-Stalk List the site, now known as Krotona Apartments, went.

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The rambling Krotona Colony was the brainchild of Theosophical Society follower Albert Powell Warrington who desired to build a U.S. headquarters for the India-based group. He won approval for the project from the organization’s then leader, Annie Besant, and in 1912 purchased ten acres of land in the Hollywood Hills. Of the bucolic locale, he told Besant, “The trolley comes within one long block of our site . . . one can be in the business center of the city in 30 minutes. On the other hand, twenty minutes walk up the canyon will put one entirely outside all building improvements, and tucked in between charmingly wild canyons, one is as if in the wildest and most far-off mountain retreat. I have never known such an extraordinary combination of favorable conditions . . . We can make the spot a veritable Garden of Eden.” He derived the name of his oasis from Crotone, the Italian city where mathematician Pythagoras lived and studied.

Several Victorian-style buildings were already standing on the land at the time that Warrington purchased it and the Theosophical Society members set up shop in them before eventually adding more structures, all with Moorish influences.

The “heart of the commune,” as described by Curbed Los Angeles, was the Krotona Inn, an idyllic stucco complex designed by the Mead and Requa architecture firm in 1912 that boasted a central courtyard with a lotus pond, meandering pathways, a communal dining room, a kitchen, a cafeteria that served solely vegetarian dishes (natch), offices, lecture spaces, dormitories, a rooftop terrace, patios, and a large domed meditation venue known as the Esoteric Room. Two years after the property’s completion, architects Arthur and Alfred Heineman were commissioned to build a 350-seat auditorium directly next door that became known as the Grand Temple of the Rosy Cross. You can see what the two structures looked like in their early days here.

Many of the Theosophical Society’s wealthier members erected private Moorish-themed residences for themselves on the streets surrounding the Colony, ultimately creating a fantastical conglomerate of mystical architecture. The vast majority of the properties, amazingly, still stand.

Despite Krotona Colony’s idealized nature, the Theosophical Society did not remain there for long. In 1924, the group left Los Angeles behind and migrated to Ojai. Following their departure, the Krotona Inn was sold to actor/writer Rupert Julian and his wife, Elsie, who made it their primary residence. You can see some photographs from their time on the premises here. When Rupert passed away in 1943, Elsie moved to a smaller house nearby, at which point her former estate was converted to apartments.

Today, the complex, which was purchased by real estate investor Mayer Moizel in the 1990s, boasts 17 units, a pool, a large parking lot, several courtyards, and an on-site laundry facility. The former Esoteric Room meditation space now serves as a one-room studio apartment, which you can see photos of here.

While we were stalking Krotona Apartments, the friend of a resident happened to stroll outside to smoke a cigarette, struck up a conversation with us, and ultimately invited us into the courtyard for a closer look!

The property could not be more picturesque, with canopied trees, colorful plants, flowering blooms, and sparkling fountains dotting every square inch.

Not surprisingly, celebrities have long been attracted to the place. Per a 2011 Los Angeles Times article, both Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding and Evil Dead II screenwriter Scott Spiegel lived there at different points in time. Quentin Tarantino has even called the place home, crashing on Spiegel’s couch for nine months before selling his first script.

That first script just happened to be for True Romance, which, according to the same Los Angeles Times article, did some filming at Krotona. Supposedly, one of the building’s second-floor units portrayed Dick Ritchie (Michael Rapaport) and Floyd’s (Brad Pitt) apartment in the 1993 drama. Because only a small portion of the space can be seen in the flick and there is a lack of interior photos of the complex available online, I cannot say with any certainty whether or not that information is correct, though.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Krotona Apartments, aka the former Krotona Inn, is located at 2130 Vista Del Mar Avenue in the Hollywood Hills. The party house from Swingers can be found right around the corner at 6161 Temple Hill Drive.

November 14, 2018
Doheny Memorial Library from “Matilda”

Movies have a way of making locations appear more majestic than they truly are, thanks largely to photogenic set dressing, perfect camera angles, and expert production design (anyone who has ever seen a Nancy Meyers film knows exactly what I am talking about). Amazingly, that is not the case with Doheny Memorial Library, which, though featured to spectacular effect as young Matilda’s (Sara Magdalin) sublime sanctuary in 1996’s Matilda, is just as magnificent in person as it was made out to be onscreen. I became transfixed by the site upon first catching a glimpse of it while making screen captures for my August post on the Wormwood home from the flick and immediately set about tracking it down. All of the information I found online seemed to point to filming taking place at Pasadena Central Library (which I blogged about in October), but having lived in Crown City for 15 years and frequenting its book repository regularly, I knew that was incorrect. Pasadena Central Library, though gorgeous, is much less grand than the one featured in Matilda. So I headed over to Google and inputted the words “beautiful,” “library,” and “Los Angeles,” which led me to a 2016 TimeOut post conveniently titled “The Most Beautiful Libraries in Los Angeles.” Third on the article’s list was Doheny Memorial Library on the University of Southern California campus. One look at the photos running with the column and I knew it was the right spot. So I added it to my To-Stalk List, ran right over there shortly thereafter, and was elated to see that it is just as magical in person as Matilda made it out to be.

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Doheny Memorial Library was commissioned by oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny in honor of his son, Ned, a USC alumnus who was shot in February 1929 at Greystone Mansion in what remains one of Los Angeles’ most famous unsolved murder cases.

Construction on the grand space began on June 6th, 1931 and was finished the following year. The library, USC’s first freestanding athenaeum, opened to the public on September 12th, 1932.

Designed by Ralph Adams Cram and Samuel E. Lundon in the Italian Romanesque and Gothic styles, the building cost $1.1 million to complete. Landscape architect A. E. Hanson was responsible for creating the gorgeous gardens surrounding the property.

The result of their efforts is striking . . .

. . . even more so on the inside. Upon stepping through the hand-chased bronze front doors, visitors to the sprawling four-story site are greeted by a massive rotunda boasting intricate chandeliers, travertine flooring, and six towering stained glass windows designed by artist Wilbur Herbert Burnham.

I challenge anyone not to drop their jaw upon entering!

The ceiling alone is enough to render one speechless!

The crown jewel of Doheny Memorial Library, though, is the Los Angeles Times Reference Room, a 131 by 46-foot space featuring shelving for 6,000 tomes, seating for 400 students, and a blue and gold coffered ceiling that rises 27 feet above the floor.

The gorgeous canopy was designed by muralist Giovanni Smeraldi whose work also hangs in the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the Vatican, and the White House.

The site, which underwent a $17-million restoration and retrofitting from December 1999 to October 2001, is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen – both inside . . .

. . . and out.

There are countless rooms and floors to explore . . .

. . . with every nook and cranny seemingly prettier than the last.

Even the stairs are cinematic!

So it is no surprise that the place has popped up onscreen.

Doheny Memorial Library appears at the beginning of Matilda as the spot where the titular youngster finds refuge from her horrible family.

The movie made great use of the grand building, showcasing the entrance steps . . .

. . . the Los Angeles Times Reference Room (which was altered a bit for the filming) . . .

. . . and the rotunda . . .

. . . which was also altered via the addition of a rounded circulation desk.

The only part of Matilda’s haven that I could not find on the premises was the children’s reading room. I am unsure if that room was a set or a real space located at a different library. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

Matilda is hardly the only production to have been lensed at Doheny Memorial Library. In fact, the building is such a popular filming spot, there is no way I can chronicle all of its appearances here. What follows is a semi-comprehensive list.

Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) waits outside of Doheny Memorial Library, which is posing as Berkeley, in the hopes of seeing Elaine Robinson (Katharine Ross) in 1967’s The Graduate.

And he later confronts Elaine about her new fiancé inside the Reference Room.

Dustin Hoffman returned to Doheny Memorial Library in 1971 to film scenes for the thriller Marathon Man. It is there that his character, Babe, first meets Elsa (Marthe Keller) at what is supposed to be Columbia University.

Doheny’s lower level masked as the lobby of Brain’s (Harry Dean Stanton) lair in 1981’s Escape from New York. Very little of the building appeared in the film, though – the majority of the scenes involving Brain’s hideout were shot at Hoose Library of Philosophy, also on the USC campus.

Thanks to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, I learned that Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) was recruited to join the army following his graduation outside of Doheny Memorial Library, which was posing as the University of Alabama, in 1994’s Forrest Gump.

That same year, Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) and Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) researched train robberies at Doheny Memorial Library in City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold.

Daniella (Elisha Cuthbert) waits for Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) outside of the building, which is masking as Georgetown, at the end of the 2004 comedy The Girl Next Door.

And in the 2000 film Bread and Roses, Ruben (Alonso Chavez) and Maya (Pilar Padilla) meet up at the front of Doheny Memorial Library.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Doheny Memorial Library, from Matilda, is located at 3550 Trousdale Parkway in University Park.

November 9, 2018
Liz Purr’s House from “Jawbreaker”

Upon reading today’s title you might be thinking, ‘Hey! Jawbreaker is not a horror movie! What is it doing showing up in a Haunted Hollywood post?’ But hear me out. Last September, a fellow stalker named Mariana emailed to inquire if I had any intel on the “castle-like” pad where Liz Purr (Charlotte Ayanna) lived in the 1999 flick. I had never seen the film at the time (in fact, I was so unfamiliar with it, I kept referring to it as “Jawbreakers”) and asked Mariana to send over some screen captures so that I could try to track the residence down. I then promptly started researching the movie, which centers around three popular high schoolers who accidentally murder their best friend. Though technically billed as a black comedy/thriller in the same vein as 1988’s Heathers, it sure sounded horror-like to me. Director/screenwriter Darren Stein even classified it as “a blend of dark comedy with an underbelly of horror” to Broadly in 2016. So I figured Liz’s house would fit in perfectly with my October postings and was thrilled to hear back from Mariana later that same day. It turns out she didn’t need my help to ID the pad because she wound up finding it herself while using Google Street View to scour the Hancock Park area where she figured the stately Tudor was most likely to be located. During her hunt, Mariana also unearthed an even bigger Haunted Hollywood connection – Liz’s mansion was formerly owned by horror king Rob Zombie in real life! A dwelling that not only appeared in a thriller, but also once belonged to a renowned scary movie director?!? Um, yes, please! So I promptly added it to my HH To-Stalk List and, though it was too late to include in my 2017 postings, made sure to visit it in time for this year’s.

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Rob Zombie (real name Robert Bartleh Cummings) purchased the 1924 manse, which boasts 5 bedrooms, 7 baths, 7,401 square feet, a formal entry, a pub room, 4 fireplaces (one with a marble hearth), a chef’s kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a theatre, a gym, a wine room, a half-acre lot, a guest house, a pool house, a pool, a spa, and multiple patios, for $1.799 million in September 1999. He subsequently sold the pad in January 2014 for $3.55 million. Not a bad profit for a four-and-a-half-year investment! You can check out some photos from the listing here. The residence is all wood-paneled walls, beamed ceilings, and ornately carved doors. It looks like a virtual castle inside!

The subsequent owners put the property up for sale at a whopping $7.849 million in December 2016. By that time the interior had been significantly modernized (as you can see in this virtual tour and these photos) and, in my opinion, most of its charm was lost. I mean, who covers over wood paneling with gray paint?!? Someone sure liked the alterations, though, because the residence sold less than a month after hitting the market for $50,000 over its asking price.

It is from the handsome dwelling that Liz is kidnapped by her friends, Courtney (Rose McGowan), Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) and Marcie (a pre-Dexter Julie Benz), as a birthday prank in the opening scene of Jawbreaker. The girls’ stunt goes horribly wrong, though, as – spoiler alert! – Liz winds up choking to death on the jawbreaker that Courtney stuffs into her mouth to stifle her screams. (And let me just say that the image of the massive ball lodged in Liz’s throat will haunt me forever.)

The mansion pops up in several additional scenes, as well, including one in which Courtney, Julie, and Marcie bring Liz’s dead body back home in an attempt to stage a murder scene in her bedroom and cast blame on an unnamed rapist.

At the time of the filming, the residence was thoroughly visible from the road. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

The property is currently obscured by fencing and a large amount of foliage, which I am guessing was installed by Rob Zombie for privacy reasons. The front steps have also since been altered. While the home boasted a single exterior staircase when Jawbreaker was shot, today the entry is marked by a double set of steps that lead up to the gate.

The interior of the mansion was also used in the filming . . .

. . . as was the backyard. You can check out some behind-the-scenes footage of the segments shot at the house here.

Amazingly, the home’s Haunted Hollywood connections don’t end there – per The Movieland Directory website, during the 1970s the pad belonged to Dan Blocker who was best known for playing Eric ‘Hoss’ Cartwright on Bonanza. On the morning of May 13th, 1972, the actor woke up at the residence feeling dizzy and short of breath. His wife rushed him to the hospital where he died a few hours later from a blood clot in his lungs, an adverse effect resulting from a gallbladder surgery he had undergone a few weeks prior.

Fellow stalker Mark, from the NYC in Film website, let me know that the very same mansion also portrayed the supposed Jamaica Estates-area home of the McDowells in the 1988 classic Coming to America.

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Liz Purr’s house from Jawbreaker, aka Rob Zombie’s former residence, is located at 555 South Muirfield Road in Hancock Park. The Tate mansion from Soap can be found just up the street at 511 South Muirfield. And Nat King Cole’s longtime home is a block away at 401 South Muirfield.

October 24, 2018
Chabelita Tacos from “Truth or Dare”

Roadside taco stands don’t usually conjure up images of the macabre. Today’s locale is no different. In fact, the eatery – Chabelita Tacos – is a bright and colorful addition to the Harvard Heights skyline. But since it did appear in a memorable scene in the 2018 horror flick Truth or Dare, I thought it was only appropriate to include it in my Haunted Hollywood postings.

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Chabelita Tacos pops up toward the end of Truth or Dare, in the scene in which Markie Cameron (Violett Beane) receives a truth challenge from her father, Roy Cameron (Brady Smith), via an old iPhone video while she is sitting alone at a desolate outdoor restaurant.

Thanks to a street sign reading “Western” visible in the background of the segment, pinpointing the eatery was a snap. I had already tracked down the pad where Markie lived with her friends Olivia Barron (Lucy Hale) and Penelope Amari (Sophia Ali) in the movie to 2233 West 21st Street and figured the restaurant was likely nearby. So I opened up Google maps to where Western runs through that area and found Chabelita Tacos almost immediately, literally right around the corner from the house!

I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk it a few days later.

While signage in the windows proclaims that the restaurant serves the “Best Mexican Food in L.A.” (a sentiment Chowhounders wholeheartedly back up, though Yelpers do not), we had already eaten when we arrived on the premises, so we did not get to sample any of the fare.

Though technically a walk-up taco stand . . .

. . . the place has quite a bit of interior seating.

Surprisingly, aside from the fact that it has been around since at least 1992, I could not find much information about the history of Chabelita Tacos posted anywhere online – nor was I able to figure out what “Chabelita” translates to in English.

In the Truth or Dare scene, Markie is seated outside of Chabelita Tacos at one of the metal tables positioned along West 20th Street . . .

. . . on the same bench that I am sitting on in the photo below (though I am facing the opposite direction). How cool is it that the image of the divided food plate visible on the wall behind Markie in the bottom screen capture above is still painted on Chabelita’s wall?!

The area used is pictured below, though from a different vantage point than what was shown onscreen.

While the segment shot on the premises was brief, it was seriously creepy thanks to the iPhone video of Roy, whose face became warped when the demon Calax took over his body.

Chabelita Tacos was also featured in the opening scene of the 2003 comedy National Security as the spot where Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) and Charlie Reed (Timothy Busfield) grab a late night bite.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chabelita Tacos, from Truth or Dare, is located at 2001 South Western Avenue in Harvard Heights. Olivia, Markie and Penelope’s house from the movie is right around the corner at 2233 West 21st Street.

October 5, 2018