Here’s wishing all of my fellow stalkers a very happy and safe Fourth of July! I’m taking the day off, but will be back on Wednesday with a new post.
New Discover L.A. Article – About “Independence Day”
Be sure to check out my latest post for Discover Los Angeles about the L.A. filming locations of Independence Day, which turns 20 on Sunday!
The Real Life “The Simpsons” House
Did you know that there is a real The Simpsons house? Neither did I. For my birthday earlier this month, I told the Grim Cheaper that all I wanted to do was spend a couple of days at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa (which I blogged about here) in Henderson, Nevada. He granted my request and the two of us had a fabulous stay. While there, my friend, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, texted me to let me know that I was in the vicinity of a “filming location” (his use of quotes, not mine) and that I should Google 712 Red Bark Lane, Henderson. I immediately did so and was shocked to learn that a real life version of the Simpson family home from the long-running cartoon series (27 seasons and counting!) had been constructed at that address in 1997. The GC and I were at dinner at the time that I received Owen’s text and, throughout the remainder of our meal, were both consumed with looking at photos of the residence on our smart phones. Even though I’ve never been a fan of The Simpsons, I became completely enamored of the place (I mean, how cool is it that an actual livable home based on a cartoon rendering from a television series was built in an ordinary neighborhood?) and was shocked that I had never heard about it before. I made it very clear to the GC that we would not be leaving Vegas without stalking it, so we headed right on over there on our way out of town.
[ad]
The story of the unusual residence is as follows – in July 1997, Kaufman & Broad builders (now KB Home), PepsiCo Inc., and Fox Broadcasting Company hosted a contest as part of a marketing ploy for KB Home’s new Springfield Community – South Valley Ranch housing development and Fox Interactive’s new video game, Virtual Springfield, in which one lucky winner would be given a life-size, real world replica of The Simpsons house. The contest results were set to be announced during the series’ Season 9 premiere on September 21st.
The home was designed by Michael Woodley (Senior Vice President, Architecture, Kaufman & Broad) and Manny Gonzalez (Director of Architecture, Kaufman & Broad) and took 49 days to build at a cost of $120,000. Prior to construction, the duo watched 56 episodes of The Simpsons to make sure that the residence would be completed in exacting detail. As you can see below, the result of their efforts is spot-on.
Even the brick pop-outs on the real life chimney are an exact match to what appears regularly on the show (though the chimney itself is a bit different). God is in the details, as they say.
A close-up view of the chimney is pictured below.
Some liberties did have to be taken, though. Due to the size of the lot, the width of the real life house was limited to 40 feet, while Woodley estimates the cartoon version to be about 50 feet. The positioning of the garage and the area above it are a little bit off, as well. Overall though, it is a pretty incredible re-creation.
The property was originally painted in hues of bright yellow, orange, and blue to match its cartoon counterpart. You can check out some photos of what the residence looked like upon completion here, here, here, and here. Per contest rules, once the winner took over ownership of the house, the exterior had to be repainted in more neutral colors to match the other 151 dwellings in the Springfield Community – South Valley Ranch development.
While the repainting did take place, it did not help the dwelling blend in with its neighbors. In fact, The Simpsons house sticks out like a sore thumb. As you can see in the images below, the residence looks quite odd amongst the other homes on the street, which are all Spanish in style.
As such, I think the homeowner association should have allowed the original color scheme to remain.
I was absolutely floored to see, though, that the newer paint was chipping away on portions of the house, allowing the original coloring to peek through.
Not only was the exterior of the home re-created for the contest, but Hollywood set designer Rick Floyd was brought in to exact The Simpsons house’s interior. You can check out some photos of his design here, which was so detailed that a fake half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich was permanently installed underneath Bart’s bed. In all, Floyd collected 2,000 Simpsons-related props to carry out his vision (though it was stipulated that the furnishings were not included in the grand prize, but could be purchased should the winner so desire). Bart’s tree house, Homer’s BBQ, and the family’s swing set were even on display in the backyard. You can read an article about Floyd’s endeavors, which included picking out marshmallows from a box of Lucky Charms and gluing them together to represent Snowball II’s kibble, here.
Prior to the announcement of the winner, the property was opened to the public from August 13th through September 14th and a whopping 33,000 people came to tour it, including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. During Groening’s visit (which you can read a great article about here), he not only painted a picture of Bart on the wall of the dwelling with the words “El Barto was here,” but he also imprinted his handprints and sketched Homer in a portion of cement in the home’s front walkway. That etching is still there, though I didn’t realize it while I was stalking the place. The image below is from M2thaK’s fabulous YouTube video about the house.
The etching’s location is denoted with a pink arrow below.
A whopping 15 million people wound up entering the contest. The lucky winner was a woman from Richmond, Kentucky named Barbara Howard. In a heartbreaking twist, she, sadly, decided to take a cash payment of $75,000 in lieu of the home. Though Barbara appreciated the property’s significance, she had no desire to vacate her 260-acre farm to live in it. She did see the place in person, though, during a weeklong Las Vegas vacation that was also part of her winnings. Shortly after the contest ended, KB Home repainted the exterior of the property and began removing the various props and décor items, selling them off one by one. The 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,200-square-foot residence then sat vacant (and according to M2thaK’s video was severely vandalized) until KB sold it in 2001. (Though almost all online sources state that it was sold in 2001, Redfin actually lists a sale date of August 3rd, 2000. I am unsure which is correct. Redfin also shows the home was purchased for $100,000.) According to a 2008 Nevada Appeal article, the buyers repainted most of the inside, but did choose to leave the playroom and closet interiors the original colors. I can’t help but wonder what the fate of the house would have been had a true Simpsons aficionado been the grand prize winner. Would the majority of the interior and exterior (minus the paint color, of course) been left intact?
Either way, I am thankful – and amazed, really – that, even with all of the Simpsons detailing removed, the property is still so recognizable.
In the writing of today’s post, I discovered something that blew my mind! On The Simpsons, the family’s address is stated to be 742 Evergreen Terrace in Springfield (state undetermined). Being that I don’t watch the show, I was ignorant of that fact until today’s research. I was also ignorant of the fact that Historic Aerials, a website I use daily, displays a default address in the search bar. Now, I consider myself to be a very observant person, so how I never spotted that address before is beyond me! When I went to look at historic views of The Simpsons house earlier this morning, though, the words “743 Evergreen Terrace” seemed to be blaring at me. I figured the site might change the address displayed based on recent searches (in the same manner that targeted ads pop up whenever a web browser is opened), so I immediately ran to the GC’s computer, pulled up Historic Aerials and was floored to see that 743 Evergreen Terrace indeed showed up. On the series, that address denotes the mansion located across the street from the Simpsons, which at different points in time belonged to George and Barbara Bush and Gerald Ford. The founder of Historic Aerials must be a Simpsons fan! If only he (or she) had won the contest!
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling about this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The real life The Simpsons house is located at 712 Red Bark Lane in Henderson, Nevada.
Beating the Heat
Sorry to have been a bit MIA lately. I have been travelling back and forth to L.A. over the past two weeks along with the Grim Cheaper and my parents in order to try to beat the heat in Palm Springs (temps got up to 122 degrees last Monday!). I did do some stalking while I was in town – including visiting Southwestern Bag Company, aka the police station from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (photo above) – but there was not a lot of time for blogging, so I apologize. I should be getting back to my regularly scheduled programming this week. 
Nicole Brown Simpson’s Gretna Green House
You’d think I would be sick of all things O.J. by now, what with the recent airing of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and the many stalkings I’ve done of the various locations associated with it over the past few months (you can read those posts here, here, here, here, and here). But when my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, mentioned a couple of weeks back that a new five-part documentary about the famous fallen footballer and the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, would be airing on ESPN, I immediately set my DVR to record it. O.J.: Made in America did not disappoint. The Grim Cheaper and I were glued to the TV for its duration. After the airing of “Part Two,” Owen suggested I blog about Nicole’s former rental located at 325 South Gretna Green Way in Brentwood, which was featured prominently in the episode. Shockingly, not only had I never stalked the residence, but I had never so much as even looked at it via Google Street View. In fact, up until watching “Part Two,” I had been under the assumption that the place was Tudor in style. I was shocked to see that it is actually Spanish! I added the home to my To-Stalk List and was floored this past Monday when, in a random twist of fate, the GC and I happened to find ourselves in Brentwood passing Gretna Green. So we headed right on over to finally see the house in person.
[ad]
Nicole moved into the four-bedroom, five-bath, two-story, 3,424-square-foot pad upon separating from O.J. in January 1992 and remained there through January 1994, at which point she relocated to a Mediterranean-style condo at 875 South Bundy Drive, where she would be killed a short six months later.
In the spring of 1993, Brian “Kato” Kaelin, aka the world’s most famous houseguest, moved into the Gretna Green property. (His unusual nickname is a childhood moniker apparently derived from the character played by Bruce Lee on The Green Hornet.) Kato first met Nicole in December 1992 in Aspen, Colorado, where Simpson was vacationing with future The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Faye Resnick. The two apparently hit it off and the following month Nicole invited Kato to a party at her Gretna Green residence. During the soiree, he noticed the guest house on the property and asked if he could lease it. Nicole agreed. Kato paid a monthly rate of $500, which was offset by any time he spent babysitting the Simpson children. When Nicole moved out of the home in January 1994 and into the condo on Bundy, Kato was set to move with her and live in one of the downstairs bedrooms. O.J. apparently scoffed at the idea and instead invited Kato to stay in one of the guest rooms at his mansion on Rockingham, rent free. Kato accepted, thereby sealing his fate of being forever entwined with one of the most famous murder cases in history.
The gate leading to the backyard, where the guest house is located, can be seen on the very left hand side of the photo below.
Aerial views of the Gretna Green home are pictured below. Kato’s guest house, which is located on the southern side of the property, is denoted with pink arrows.
It was from the residence that Nicole’s infamous October 25th, 1993 calls to 911 were made. On that evening at approximately 10 p.m., O.J. showed up at the Gretna Green house unexpected, apparently upset over Nicole’s relationship with Mezzaluna restaurant manager Keith Zlomsowitch, and kicked in the back door to gain entry, at which point Nicole called the police. After talking to the dispatcher, she hung up briefly and then called back.
That call was chronicled in the O.J.: Made in America episode titled “Part Two.”
Several areas of the residence were shown in the episode, including the backyard, which provided us with a great view of Kato’s guest house.
Though no filming took place inside of the home, we were given a glimpse of the interior through the back windows.
I have to admit that I inwardly groaned when the camera ominously panned in on a large set of knives in the kitchen.
It was also at the Gretna Green home that, according to O.J.’s testimony from the civil trial, Simpson watched Nicole through a living room window while she was being intimate with Zlomsowitch.
Per Zillow, the 1937 residence, which sits on 0.17 acres of land, last sold in January 2000 for $630,000. I think that number may be slightly off, though, being that when the pad hit the market five years prior in 1995, it was listed at $1.275 million. During that sale, it was acknowledged that Nicole had made the infamous 911 calls from the property. According to the real estate agent, this was done “not as a come-on, but in an effort to disclose information so as not to take the buyer by surprise later on.”
You can check out some photos of what the house looked like shortly after the murders here, here, and here.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for suggesting I stalk this location. 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Nicole Brown Simpson’s former rental is located at 325 South Gretna Green Way in Brentwood.
The Los Angeles Filming Locations of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
Be sure to check out my latest Discover Los Angeles article about the L.A. locations featured in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I am especially excited about this post as – thanks to a lot of help from Michael Amundson, who worked on the movie, and my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog – a few of the film’s previously unknown locales were discovered. For me, personally, the trampoline location was mind-blowing!
“The Brady Bunch” MegaPost
My friend, fellow stalker Michael, is proving to be a true Brady Bunch virtuoso! Here he is yet again gifting us with yet another fabulous post about the 1969 sitcom – this one a round-up of nine different locales featured on the series! Take it away, Michael!
[ad]
I know, I know. Yet another Brady guest post foisted upon you. I swear, I do know how to find non-Brady locations. However, I had compiled a bunch of Brady Bunch establishing shot sites that I hadn’t seen posted anywhere online, and asked Lindsay if she’d be up for a catch-all post to at least get these addresses out there, and save anyone interested from duplicating research efforts. Note, as is frequently the case, while these establishing shots were filmed on location, the scenes with the actors were filmed on a Paramount soundstage.
Davey Jones’ Royal Towers Hotel
Wilshire Regent
I thought I’d start with a location I happened upon by accident. This winter, I was in Los Angeles riding down Wilshire Boulevard when I looked ahead and saw a building that I thought had been used in a Brady Bunch episode. I snapped a couple quick pics and found their match when I got home.
In the third-season episode, “Getting Davy Jones,” Marcia (in drag) and Greg sneak into Davy Jones’ hotel room in an effort to coax him into performing at the Fillmore Junior High prom.
The establishing shot of of the fictional Royal Towers Hotel was in reality the Wilshire Regent, a luxury co-op built in 1963. The section of Wilshire Blvd where it stands, known as the Wilshire Corridor, is now filled with high-rises, but the Wilshire Regent was one of the first apartment towers built in the area. And lucky for us, the exterior of the building looks remarkably unchanged.
Stalk It: Wilshire Regent, aka Davy Jones’ Hotel, aka Royal Towers Hotel is located at 10501 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Mr. Dimsdale’s Recording Studio / Mercola Building
Fred Hayman Building
In keeping with the musical theme, the next location comes from an establishing shot in the third-season episode, “Dough Re Mi.” The Brady Kids, ready to share their musical stylings with the world, get in hock against their collective allowances to rent studio time from Johnny Dimsdale’s father so they can record a demo of Greg’s latest, “We Can Make the World a Whole Lot Brighter.” However, Peter’s cracking voice jeopardizes the venture and their “$150 non-refundable dollars.”
One would think with a name slapped on the facade, it’d be a cinch to track down this location. Nevertheless, to this day, I haven’t found any other references to the Mercola Building (if anyone out there has, let me know!). As it turns out, I ended up running across this location by accident.
Last year, I walked through Beverly Hills on my way to meet up with a friend for coffee, and as I meandered down Canon Drive I couldn’t help but notice the bright yellow Fred Hayman Building. But, no sooner did I start to reflect on the difference between Giorgio yellow and Bijan yellow (iconic Beverly Hills boutiques known for their use of the color), then my attention was caught by another structure in the area and I forgot all about the Fred Hayman Building.
Researching that neighborhood when I got home, I found myself on Google Street View. Randomly turning my virtual self around, I saw the Fred Hayman Building again and realized it was a Brady location I’d looked for in the past.
Other than a paint job, the structure still looks remarkably similar to its appearance on The Brady Bunch. What looks to be a parking lot on the right of Brady clip is now home to Spago Beverly Hills, and the exterior of the shorter annex building has been remodeled numerous times, most recently housing a restaurant.
Stalk It: Fred Hayman Building, aka Mr. Dimsale’s Recording Studio, aka Mercola Building is located at 190 (& 184) North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.
Daily Chronicle Newspaper Building
Marfay Building
In the first-season episode, “Father of The Year,” Marcia sneaks out of the house to mail an essay submitting Mike for the local newspaper’s father of the year competition. Later in the episode, an office building is used to establish a scene set in the publisher’s office.
I stumbled across this building while looking through the massive archive of architectural photographer Julius Schulman that The Getty Research Institute has posted online.
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10 Job 593)
As soon as I saw the photo, I knew that it had been seen on The Brady Bunch. It took me a while longer to home in on the specific episode. A quick web search found that the structure—known as the Marfay Building—was built in 1949 by Welton Becket and Walter Wurdeman. You may know Becket’s and Wurdeman’s work from many classic mid-century buildings throughout Los Angeles—Pan-Pacific Auditorium, Capitol Records Building, Cinerama Dome, and the Century City master plan just to name a few.
The building’s facade was drastically overhauled in 1987, still you’ll notice the structure next door has maintained its integrity from the days of Brady.
Stalk It: Marfay Building, aka Daily Chronicle Newspaper Building is located at 5657 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Encino Medical Tower Dentist Office
Sometimes I luck out and an establishing shot does the work for me. Such is the case in the fourth-season episode titled “Love and the Older Man.” The Brady’s regular dentist has a new associate, Dr. Stanley Vogel, and Marcia is gaga, so much so that she fantasizes of a future replete with a dental chair in her living room. “Imagine me, Mrs. Marcia Dentist,” she dreamily exclaims.
The Encino Medical Tower looks much the same as it did in the 1970s, however some of the charmingly retro arches have unfortunately been remodeled.
Stalk It: Encino Medical Tower is located at 16260 Ventura Boulevard in Encino.
Gilbert’s Books
Another Brady location that didn’t camouflage its real-world name can be seen in the first-season episode, “The Hero.” It also happens to be another episode where we find Marcia envisioning her future. This time she writes in her diary, “My dream of dreams is to be Mrs. Desi Arnaz Jr.” Unfortunately, Cindy accidently donates said diary to charity resulting in a mortified Marcia. The family forms a search party to scour LA’s used bookstores in an attempt to track down the journal; Mike and Cindy stop at Gilbert’s Book Shop.
The Hollywood Boulevard-located bookstore is sadly no more, the building has been razed, and the W Hollywood occupies its former footprint (and then some). Fortunately, the Taft Building—the first high rise office building in LA, built in 1923—a sliver of which is visible in the Brady clip to the right of Gilbert’s, is still holding its own.
Stalk It: Gilbert’s Book Shop was located at 6278 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.
Valley Drug
In the second-season episode, “The Not-So-Ugly Duckling,” when Jan’s crush, Clark Tyson, is more interested in Marcia, she decides that her freckles are “making her a social outcast,” and heads to the drug store to look for a quick fix. The establishing shot again makes no attempt to hide its name; Valley Drug in bold script is emblazoned above the doorway.
A quick web search provided a present-day Valley Drug & Compounding in Encino. Although the Encino business’ logo matched the Brady clip, the structure did not.
After digging through newspaper archives, phone books, and verifying addresses against old Los Angeles building permits I was able to confirm that the drug store shown in the establishing shot was located on the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Magnolia Blvd.
Pharmacist, Sidney Simmons purchased Valley Drug at 5161 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in 1955 and in the early 1990s relocated the business down the road to 4800 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. In 1998, he sold the store to the Rite Aid chain and opened up the specialty pharmacy in Encino. An archived building permit shows the original drug store and its distinct chamfered corner entrance.
Sadly, the structure is long gone and the land now provides additional parking for a Jon’s Marketplace. At least a present-day Jan wouldn’t have to go far to find a lemon for her at-home freckle treatment.
Stalk It: Valley Drug was located at 5161 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood.
Television Studio (and Ballet Studio)
Metromedia Square
Shown in a number of episodes, now-razed television and film studio, Metromedia Square was a popular Brady-establishing-shot location. The Hollywood-constructed lot was originally known as Nassour Studios and built in the 1940s. The Times-Mirror Company purchased the facility in the 1950s and Metromedia took over the studio in the late 1960s. In the 1980s Metromedia started leasing the lot to News Corporation and the name was again changed to Fox Television Center. Finally, Metromedia sold the land in 2000 and the studio was torn down and Helen Bernstein High School was built on the property.
Establishing shots of Metromedia Square were used in a number of fifth-season Brady episodes, but the site is first seen in the forth-season episode “Amateur Nite.” Mike and Carol’s anniversary is coming up and the kids decide to buy them a silver platter. Unbelievably, Jan isn’t as familiar as most teens in the byzantine methods by which engraving is priced and can’t cover the cost of the customized platter. The kids naturally turn to song in an effort to pay their debts. Dubbing themselves “The Silver Platters,” they perform (in matching jumpsuits) on a local television show competition.
The exterior is next see in the episode “You Can’t Win ‘Em All.” Cindy becomes a prima donna when her test scores qualify her to help represent Clinton Grammar School on a local television station’s quiz show. Cindy’s inflated ego has no bounds, even turning down Alice’s cooking with a terse, “A star can’t go on television all fat and broken out.” When at the television studio, Cindy freezes with stage fright the moment the red light on the camera glows.
The exterior is shown again in “Adios, Johnny Bravo.” The Brady Kids—no longer strangers to the television studio—are taping a performance and Greg is pulled aside by a couple of quick-talking record producers hoping to mold him into the newest pop sensation because he literally “fit the suit.”
The last we see of Metromedia Square is in the episode “Try, Try Again,” where it’s inconsistently used to establish a scene set in the girls’ ballet class.
Although, I knew the establishing shots were of Metromedia Square, I wanted to figure out where exactly the shots were filmed. Strangely, I couldn’t find many photos of the lot, so I started with a contemporary aerial photo [below in color] and one photographed when the studio was still in existence [below in black & white]. I was also lucky to come across a few maps of the lot in my go-to resource, the LA building permit archives.
From those, I was able to home in on the area that was shown in the Brady clips. The direction in which the roads intersected proved to be a helpful guide, and the corner of an “Audience Parking” sign in the Brady clip confirmed that I’d zeroed in on the correct part of the lot. The orange arrows on the aerial photos and map above mark the location of the camera and the approximate angle used for the establishing shots. I was also surprised to find that the corner of a building at Fernwood Avenue and North Van Ness Avenue, formerly across the street from Metromedia Square, is still there. It’s the KTLA building at Sunset Bronson Studios and still looks the same as it did in the Brady clip. Interestingly, the current Sunset Bronson Studios was the original Warner Bros. lot, purchased by the young studio in 1920, and the current KTLA building originally housed Leon Schlesinger Productions (of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies fame). Warner Bros. purchased Schlesinger’s interest in the animation company in 1944, and in 1953 they sold the entire lot to Paramount; KTLA moved into the old Schlesinger building thereafter. You can see a vintage photo of Schlesinger’s building with its distinctive quoining here. At least a little sliver of history from the Brady clip still remains.
As you can see, Metromedia Square is no more and its buildings seen in the Brady clips have been replaced with the school’s basketball courts.
Stalk It: Metromedia Square Audience Parking was located on North Van Ness Avenue at Fernwood Avenue in Hollywood.
Drive-In Theatre
Gilmore Drive-In
The Gilmore Drive-In is another establishing shot location that was used in more than one Brady episode. In the forth-season episode “Greg Gets Grounded,” as a punishment for driving on the freeway while reading the back of a new record album, Greg’s family-car privileges are taken away for a week. After irking Carol and Mike with another misdeed, he narrowly avoids further punishment on a technicality by claiming that he followed their “exact words.” Predictably, Mike and Carol later hold Greg to his “exact words” and force him to cancel a date and bring Bobby and Peter to a frog jumping competition (naturally). After the competition, the young masters Brady absentmindedly leave their frogs in Greg’s car. Unfortunately for Greg, in a rush to pick up his date for a drive-in movie, Croaker and Spunker’s presence goes unnoticed until it’s too late.
And in the fifth-season episode “Peter and the Wolf,” Greg has a date with Sandra, but unless he can find a date for her cousin Linda, she’ll have to cancel. Enter Linda’s new date, a faux mustachioed Peter, alias Phil Packer, “Some swinging guy from another high school.” Need I write more? Obviously, nothing but comedy gold can come from a setup like that.
The establishing shot as it’s seen in the episode is rather dark (as evening is wont to do), but with a quick digital adjustment, a few clues to the drive-in’s location were unveiled. The detailing on the screen tower along with the larger panel to its right seemed unique to the Gilmore Drive-In in Los Angeles. My suspicions were confirmed when the lightened image also revealed the Park La Brea Apartments in the distance.
In the 1880s, Arthur Fremont Gilmore bought hundreds of acres of farmland around what is now Fairfax Avenue. In the early 1900s he struck oil on the property and transitioned from farming to the oil business. In 1918, his son Earl Bell Gilmore took over the family business and by the 1940s had sold the majority of their original acreage. He however kept a few dozen acres which housed Gilmore Stadium, Gilmore Field, the Farmers Market, and of course the Gilmore Drive-In.
Built in 1948, the theatre reportedly had a 650-vehicle capacity and was designed by architects William Glenn Balch and Louis L. Bryan. The asymmetric panel that helped me identify the theatre, upon further research, turned out to be an enlarged light shield built in 1955. By the 1970s the theatre had fallen into disrepair and demolition permits were issued in 1979. Today, The Grove shopping center, specifically Nordstrom, sits in the screen’s former location, leaving the Farmers Market as the only remaining original Gilmore-related enterprise in the area. The former site of the Gilmore Drive-In is outlined in orange below, with an arrow pointing in the direction of the former location of the screen.
CBS purchased Gilmore Stadium in 1950 and built CBS Television City on the land. Later in the decade, CBS expanded their studio onto the former site of Gilmore Field. Their website has some great aerial photos of the area, and many include the drive-in. Cinematreasures.org also has a nice selection of photos of the road-facing side of theatre’s screen tower.
Stalk It: The Gilmore Drive-In was located at 6201 West 3rd Street in Los Angeles.
Rose Bowl Stadium
In the fifth-season episode “Mail Order Hero,” Bobby’s in a pickle when after claiming to know Joe Namath, the football player is in town and Bobby’s friends call his bluff. In an effort to help her brother, Cindy puts pen to paper and speciously writes a letter to Namath on Bobby’s behalf, beginning with, “I’m writing to you because I’m very very sick.”
Inspired by the letter, the football player stops by the Brady residence, Bobby plays sick, Cindy plays nursemaid, and Mike and Carol, out of the loop from Cindy’s letter, shock Namath with their lack of concern over their dying son—“Well when you have six kids, something like this is bound to happen to one of them.”
A scene set at the stadium office with Namath is established with a shot of the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. The entrance area to the 1922-built stadium has recently undergone some renovations, but the structure itself still matches the Brady shot.
The angle from which the establishing shot was filmed obscured the Rose Bowl logo with some tress, but if you look carefully, you can still make out the corners of the signage.
Stalk It: The Rose Bowl Stadium is located at 1001 Rose Bowl Drive in Pasadena.
And there you have it, nine locations for the price of one. If you’ve made it to the end, congratulations and thanks for sticking with me! As always, many thanks to Lindsay for generously offering up her forum for another very-Brady post. (Editor’s note – a big THANK YOU to you, Michael, for yet another scintillating and fastidiously-researched article! 
)
Latest “L.A.” Magazine Article – A Filming Locations Bar Crawl
My latest Los Angeles magazine article is on newsstands now. It is part of the cover story about ten unconventional L.A. walks. You can find it on page 86 of the June issue and you can also read it online here. My article is Walk Number 8, titled “Double Shot.” Enjoy!
Happy Memorial Day!
I would like to wish my fellow stalkers a very happy Memorial Day and offer a heartfelt thank you to all who have served to protect the freedoms of this great country of ours, especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
My Latest Interview with Enchanted Serendipity
Be sure to check out my latest interview with Toni, from the Enchanted Serendipity website. You may remember Toni from her recent post on my site about Dawson’s Creek filming locations. You can read the interview here.