Category: This and That

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Haunted Hollywood Tour Takes a Detour to SF!

When I was in high school my good friend Dana and I were absolutely obsessed with a real life haunted house located close to where we lived. Every Friday afternoon like clockwork the two of us would make an after-school pilgrimage to the abandoned house known as the Carolands Mansion before stopping by a local cafe for our ubiquitous weekly frozen lattes. I have no idea why the two of us were so obsessed with this particular mansion and, in fact, I asked Dana today what it was that started our obsession and she couldn’t remember, either. LOL Whatever the reason, ever Friday afternoon without fail Dana and I would make our weekly visit to the abandoned property and drive around the perimeter once or twice for a little looksie. So this weekend when I went up north to attend my friend Nat’s annual weekend-before-Halloween murder mystery party I asked her to drive me by the house so I could do some stalking.

I hadn’t driven by the Carolands in over a decade and I was absolutely shocked to see how much the mansion had changed. The once abandoned house had been purchased and refurbished in my absence and it is no longer the haunted house of my high school memories. It was so strange to see the once dilapidated and spooky property post-facelift and I almost didn’t recognize the place. Gone are the broken, boarded-up windows, the yellowing, dead lawn and the decaying, overgrown foliage. But even after a complete remodel, the house has definitely retained some of its spookiness. I am not sure if it is the sheer size of the mansion (68,000 square feet makes it the largest enclosed space in a private house in the entire United States – it’s even bigger than the Spelling Chateau!) or its tragic history that evokes a creepy feeling. But either way, the house has a haunted feel to it, so it fits in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme.

The Carolands Mansion was built from 1914 to 1916 for Harriet Pullman Carolan, heir to a vast railroad fortune. Harriet, a true diva of her day, had the chateau built on a 544 acre parcel of land at the highest elevation point possible so that she could literally “look down on the Hearsts”. LOL The home was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by French architect Ernest Sanson for a cost of $3,000,000 (and we’re talking 1914 money!). The mansion stands at over eighty feet tall and boasts almost one hundred rooms, including 25 servants quarters, a flower arranging room, and even a secret floor hidden in between the second and third levels. In 1950 a Countess named Lillian Remillard Dandini purchased the home from Harriet and lived in it for the next 23 years. Upon her death she bequeathed the home to the City of Hillsborough, hoping it would become a cultural center. The city, however, could not afford the upkeep on the massive property, and after several subsequent owners, the home fell into serious disrepair and was left vacant and abandoned. During the Roosevelt Administration and again during the Kennedy Administration the US government considered purchasing the home and making it the “White House of the West”, but both times plans fell through. After decades of abandonment and neglect, Franklin Templeton heir Charles Johnson purchased the home in 1998 and spent the next few years and many millions of dollars restoring it to its former grandeur. But no face lift can fully erase the mansion’s tragic history.

When I was a little girl, my uncle used to tell me stories about visiting the Carolands with his high school buddies late at night and getting tours from the security guards hired to guard the home. Back then it was commonplace for area high schoolers to grab a six pack, hop the chain link fence surrounding the property, and slip a security guard a $20 for an interior tour of the mansion. Everyone did it. But that all changed one tragic night in 1985 when two teen-aged girls getting a tour of the mansion were raped and stabbed by a security guard named David Allen Raley. After torturing them for hours in the mansion, he put them in the trunk of his car and drove to his parents house where he ate a meal and played a game of monopoly with his family. He then dumped the two girls in a ravine and left them for dead. But one of the girls managed to crawl out of the ravine on her hands and knees and flagged down a passerby who rescued her and her friend. Sadly, though, while the girl survived, her friend later passed away on an operating room table. The case became very famous in the sleepy town of San Mateo where I grew up. I am not sure why the case garnered so much attention – perhaps because the crime was so heinous, or maybe because there was a survivor, or because the house had long carried the reputation of being haunted or perhaps most likely because up until that point it had been so common for teenagers to use the Carolands grounds as their high school hang out. It literally could have happened to anyone. Whatever the reason, the murders remain a stain on the memory of the once beautiful mansion.

Although not a true filming location, the house did appear in the 1992 pornographic film entitled All American Girls. The mansion was also the subject of the 2006 award winning documentary film entitled Three Woman and a Chateau. A book named Carolands was also written about the property. Although currently a private residence, the Carolands is sometimes opened up for events and fund raisers. The Republican National Commitee hosted an event there in January of this year and George W. Bush was in attendance. The Carolands is truly a marvel of a home and I highly recommend stalking this real life haunted house. Seeing it in person, it’s almost unbelievable how big it is.

Side note – while flying home from SF, who should be on our plane but actress/model Mariel Heminway. I snapped a quick pic of her in baggage claim, but it did not come out very well! I would so make a terrible paparazzi! LOL 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Carolands Mansion is located at 565 Remilard Drive in Hillsborough. After seeing the front of the mansion, follow Remillard to Ralston Avenue and make a right. Make another right on Craig’s Road and follow it past the bend for a nice view of the back of the house.

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Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Cafe

A few years ago I read a fabulous murder mystery called Shamus In The Green Room written by one of my favorite mystery authors, Susan Kandel. A significant piece of action in the novel takes place at the real life location of one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history. That location is named Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Cafe, and its namesake and owner, Thelma Todd, died there in 1935. After reading Susan Kandel’s book, I became completely intrigued with Thelma and her roadside cafe, so I immediately dragged my boyfriend out there to do some stalking. Since then, Thelma’s cafe has been incorporated into my annual Haunted Hollywood tour. 🙂

Thelma Todd was a famous Hollywood starlet and comedienne during the 1920’s. She appeared in over 120 feature films during her brief ten year career, including several Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy productions. In 1931, the “Ice Cream Blond” as she came to be called, opened up a cafe on the ground floor of a huge Spanish style building overlooking the Pacific Ocean just north of Santa Monica. The top floor of the building housed a very popular private Hollywood club named Joya’s. Thelma’s Sidewalk Cafe also became extremely popular with the Hollywood elite and Miss Todd lived in a little apartment located above her cafe.

On the night of her death, Thelma attended a party hosted in her honor at the legendary Trocadero nightclub in Hollywood. After the party, Thelma’s chauffeur dropped her off in front of her cafe at approximately 4:20 a.m. the following morning, December 15. In the early morning hours of December 16, 1935, a full day later, Thelma was found dead inside of a garage belonging to her neighbor/business partner/lover Roland West, located just behind her cafe. The famous blond was slumped over the steering wheel of her Lincoln Phaeton, still wearing her evening gown from Saturday night’s party, her face covered in blood. The coroner, however, ruled her death an accident. The cause listed on the coroner’s report? Carbon monoxide poisoning. Most of Hollywood was quick to discount that account of her death and theories of the true cause are endless. Most widely believed, however, is that mafioso Lucky Luciano, whom the Ice Cream Blond was rumored to be having an affair with, murdered her when she refused to allow his gambling ring to operate out of her cafe. Another theory is that her married business partner/boyfriend/neighbor Roland West (in whose garage she was found) murdered her in a jealous rage. The truth may never be known and Thelma’s murder is one of the most celebrated mysteries in Hollywood history.

Now home to Paulist Productions, the Spanish style building that once housed Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Cafe was first built in 1928, and was originally used as a shopping center for nearby homes. In the 1960’s the building became home to a Christian film and television production company named Paulist Productions. The company remains there today. In 2002 the building was given a full face lift and restored to its original grandeur. The structure is a very beautiful, ornate piece of Hollywood history, complete with detailed Spanish tiles and large arched wrought-iron windows. I highly recommend stalking it, as much for its beautiful architecture as its rich history.

If you want to read more about Thelma Todd and her death, check out the Find A Death website which does a great write-up.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Thelma Todd’s Roadside Cafe is located at 17575 Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades. Thelma was found dead in the garage of Roland West’s home located at 17531 Posetano Road, located just behind the former cafe.

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More Halloween!

Last year, during our annual Haunted Halloween tour, I dragged my boyfriend to the two houses where Jamie Lee Curtis and her friend babysit in the movie Halloween. The final action sequence in the movie takes place at these two houses, which are located across the street from each other. Even though I had never seen the movie Halloween, being that it was the season, I just had to stalk it. 🙂 I seriously need to rent this movie!

The first house I dragged my boyfriend to was the Doyle Family home where Jamie Lee Curtis babysits Tommy and Lindsay Doyle at the end of the movie. The Doyle home is a very cute house and it actually looks like it should be located in the Pasadena area. Being that the majority of the filming of Halloween actually took place in Pasadena, I am very surprised that the producers didn’t just find a home there to use. These location decisions always fascinate me and I would love to find out the reasoning behind them! Someday I really need to sit down with a location scout to pick their brain!

Anyway, the next house we stalked is located directly across the street from the Doyle house. It is the house where Jamie Lee’s best friend Annie babysits and also where she meets her untimely end. From what I can tell from the screen captures, this house looks very different from how it appeared in Halloween. While the front porch area is still recognizable from the movie, it appears that the home was somewhat modernized in recent years and a side garage was added. I so hate it when movie homes are remodeled! Filming locations should really be designated historical landmarks so that the exteriors are protected and forced to remain the same for eternity. 🙂 I mean I think I would seriously cry if anyone ever remodeled the 90210 house! LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The home where Jamie Lee Curtis babysits is located at 1530 North Orange Grove Avenue in Hollywood. The house where her friend Annie babysits is located directly across the street at 1537 North Orange Grove.

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Scream – One More Time

Many, many years ago – back when I first started college, in fact – I did a little stalking of my fave horror movie, Scream. I guess you can say that I have been pretty much obsessed with that movie ever since it premiered back in 1996. At the time I was still living in Northern California, and I was absolutely floored when I found out that the entire movie was filmed on location in the towns of Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, just about an hours drive from my house. I absolutely could not believe that one of my favorite movies was shot in such close proximity to where I lived, so of course I dragged my mom and my aunt Lea, who lives in the area, right out to stalk it.

The first stop on our Scream stalking tour was the Healdsburg police station, which my mom had suggested might have some info on what areas of town were used in the shoot.  I was quite the little stalker even then so I marched right in to make an inquiry and the officer on duty could not have been nicer.  I was shocked when he told me that the station itself stood in for “Woodsboro” PD where Deputy Dewey worked in the movie!   As he informed us, Scream used both the interior and exterior of the building, but shortly after filming was completed, the station was relocated to a new location. The former police station is now a grocery store/delicatessen called Oakville Grocery and sadly looks very different than it did in Scream.  The detective then surprised us by offering to take us on a little mini-tour of some other Scream locations in town.

And he gave us some good news – while the Woodsboro police station no longer looks like it did in Scream, the alleyway where Sidney punches Gail Weathers towards the beginning of the movie is still there and is still very recognizable from the movie. 🙂

And, in fact, the officer told us that if you watch that scene closely you will notice a crowd of people standing just outside the alleyway (pictured above). The crowd was actually made up of residents of Healdsburg who had come out to watch the filming. Wes Craven decided to keep them in the shot, and simply set up barricades and police tape around them to make them look like gawkers hanging around the police station waiting to hear news about the killings of Casey Becker and her boyfriend.

The officer then showed us the Healdsburg town square, which was featured several times in the movie, most prominently in the scene where Sidney and her friends eat lunch after learning about the killings. The town square looks EXACTLY as it did during the filming and even the fountain the group sits on is still there. For some reason, though, the fountain is usually boarded up, but otherwise, it looks the same as it did in Scream.

Another little tidbit of trivia that the officer shared with us was that the scene where the street sweeper drives around the Woodsboro town square at dawn the morning after the murderer first tries to kill Sidney (pictured above) was actually not filmed in the morning, but at dusk. Apparently Wes Craven needed the shot and was not able to get it during the morning of his last day of filming, so he simply shot it at night. I always love hearing little bits of insider information like that! : )

I must say that it was very exciting for me to visit the Scream locations in person – especially since visiting them was one of my very first stalking adventures. The town of Healdsburg is an absolutely adorable place, with great restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques. I highly recommend stalking it, even if you aren’t a Scream fan!

On a side note, my aunt told me this morning that Bradley Video, which was also featured in the movie Scream, just announced they are closing down. 🙁 How sad!

Note – the above photographs were taken during two different trips to Healdsburg, which is why I am wearing two different outfits. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Healdsburg town square is located on Healdsburg Avenue, between Plaza Street and Matheson Street. Oakville Grocery (the former police station) is located at 124 Matheson Street, kittycorner from the town square.

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The Thriller Movie Theatre

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is, in my humble opinion, the best music video ever created. And ever since seeing the Thriller dance scene from 13 Going On 30 (which has to be one of my favorite movie scenes of all time) I have loved nothing more than to bust out the Thriller dance at parties! 🙂 I so want to someday do the Thriller Dance at my wedding, but unfortunately I know there is NO way in hell my boyfriend would agree to that! But since my dad did volunteer to play the Michael Jackson role if I do decide to “rock my reception”, there’s still hope. 🙂 I’m pretty sure he’d even wear the red jacket. 🙂

So when I found out that the movie theater used in Thriller is located in Downtown Los Angeles, I just had to drag my dad out to stalk it. The theatre is named the Palace and it was designed by G. Albert Landsburgh in 1911 for the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit company. The theater was originally named “The Orpheum”, but when a new, and larger, Orpheum theater was built on the same street in 1926, the original Orpheum’s name was changed to the Palace. The Palace is the oldest remaining Orpheum theater still standing in the United States. Numerous celebrities have performed at the Palace in the past, including Harry Houdini, Bob Hope, the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, and Will Rogers. After the decline of Vaudeville, the Palace was turned into a regular movie theater showing first run features. Sadly, though, the theater closed down in the mid 1990’s and is currently only used for special events and as a filming location. Besides Thriller, the Palace Theater was also used in the movie Dreamgirls.  And, in an interesting bit of trivia, while the Palace was used for all of the exterior theatre scenes in Thriller, the interior scenes were actually filmed at the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena.

I could not have been more excited to see this location in person, especially during the Halloween season. And, of course, I just had to bust out a little bit of the Thriller dance while there (which my dad captured in one of the above photos). The people standing outside the theater thought I was absolutely crazy, but that’s just because they didn’t realize that they were in the midst of a landmark filming location! How great would it be to rent this place out for a huge Halloween party – or a wedding reception! 🙂 Maybe someday!

You can watch the entire Thriller video here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Palace Theatre is located at 630 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles.

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Kansas City Barbeque Is Back In Business – Just In Time For Halloween!

This weekend, I took a little vacay down to San Diego with my family. Of course, while there I had to do some stalking of the Top Gun Bar, aka Kansas City Barbeque, which sadly has been closed since June 26th of this year due to a major fire. I was very curious to see what the restaurant looked like since the devastating fire took place and what progress, if any, had been made on the restoration of the property.

I was actually shocked to see that the restaurant actually looked pretty good! I was expecting complete devastation, but I am happy to report that, from the outside, the place looks pretty much the same as it did before the fire, despite a few scorch marks.

While we were outside taking photographs, one of the staff members walked over to talk with us. He really could not have been nicer and he even showed us some photographs and newspaper articles about the fire. And he gave us the good news that, while the restaurant probably won’t be open for regular business until mid-November, there will be a Halloween party held there on October 31st! Not only is that great news, but it also allowed me to tie KCBBQ in with my Halloween theme for this month! 🙂

He told us that the kitchen area, which is located towards the rear of the restaurant and which is where most of the fire damage occurred, has already been entirely rebuilt. The interior seating area suffered mostly just smoke damage, and sadly much of the Top Gun memorabilia was lost, including the juke box where Kelly McGillis plays “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” in the closing scene of the movie. 🙁 But thankfully Goose’s piano was salvaged, as were most of the candid photographs taken by KCBBQ staff during the filming.

The owners are asking for replacement memorabilia at this time. They are looking for anything having to do with Top Gun, the military, Kansas City, or flying in general. You can send any memorabilia you wish to donate to the address listed below. They ask that you sign and date everything you donate.

I am glad to report, too, that through the disaster KCBBQ kept its sense of humor – at one point they even added the letter “D” to the their logo out front so that it read “Kansas City Barbequed”. LOL I truly can’t wait for this San Diego (and Hollywood, for that matter) landmark to re-open. Until that time, if you happen to be in the area on Halloween, be sure to stop by KCBBQ. Tickets are $20 per person, but include all the alcohol you can drink.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kansas City Barbeque is located at 610 W. Market Street in San Diego. The restaurant will hopefully re-open for regular business in mid-November. For more information you can visit their website.

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Pacific Market – The Grocery Store from “Scream”

To continue with October’s Halloween theme, this weekend I sent my Aunt Lea out once again to do a little Scream stalking. And this one was definitely a collaborative effort. Her mission, and she chose to accept it, was to stalk the grocery store used in my favorite horror movie. There had been some confusion on my part, though, as to what grocery store was actually used. While doing some cyber-stalking, I had read that a store named the Town and Country Market in Santa Rosa was the grocery store featured in Scream, but at the same time I couldn’t seem to find any sort of market in the area that went by that name.

Lea had an inkling, though, that the location used was actually a grocery store called Pacific Market, which happened to be located on a street named Town and Country Road. Turns out she was right, and in fact, what she found out in the course of her stalking is that during the time of filming 13 years ago, the market was actually named Town and Country. A few years ago, though, it was purchased by the family-owned Pacific Market chain and the name was changed. So, on Saturday evening Lea dragged her husband, Steve, out to Santa Rosa’s Pacific Market to do a little stalking for me. And apparently I am teaching Lea well, as after snapping some pics, she went up to one of the checkers to verify that the store was in fact used in Scream. Lea said she looked for the oldest checker on duty as she figured he had the greatest chance of working there at the time of filming. Nice! Anyway, the checker verified that filming did in fact take place at that location back in 1995, but that since it was owned by a different company at the time, no one who worked at Town and Country during the filming was currently employed there. 🙁 Bummer! But the good news is that even though the store was purchased by a new owner, for the most part the exterior looks exactly the same as it did in the Scream days.

Pacific Market is a fairly small, gourmet market specializing in locally-grown fresh produce, fine wine, and organic food. The market is actually only featured in one short scene towards the end of Scream. It is the location where Tatum and Sidney stock up on snacks for the party at Stu’s house after school gets cancelled for the day. In the scene, the girls are first shown entering the grocery store through a side entrance.

A few seconds later we see them walking down the frozen food aisle, while discussing Sidney’s relationship issues. At the very end of that scene, as the girls walk away from the freezer section, a reflection of the killer wearing the ghost mask appears on one of the freezer doors. Love it! I absolutely can’t wait to visit the grocery store myself someday. 🙂

Big thank you to my newest stalkers, Lea and Steve!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Pacific Market is located at 1465 Town and Country Drive in Santa Rosa, CA.

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The Stab Premiere

This weekend I dragged my boyfriend out to South Pasadena to do some more stalking of the movie Scream 2. This time we set out to stalk the Rialto Theatre where the premiere of the movie within the movie, Stab, takes place. The interior and the exterior of the Rialto are both featured quite prominently throughout the opening scenes of Scream 2,and it is at the Rialto that Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps meet their untimely end.

Interestingly enough, my new book, The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, states that only the exterior of the Rialto was used in the filming of Scream 2 and that interior filming took place at the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz, but that information is actually incorrect. As you can see from the above screen capture and photo, the lobby area of the Rialto was featured in the movie. The only reason for this inconsistency that I can figure out is that quite possibly the actual auditorium where Omar and Jada watch Stab was not at the Rialto, but at the Vista. But since the Rialto was closed while we were stalking it, I was not able to get inside to verify. 🙁

I do believe, though, that the bathroom where Omar Epps is killed was, in fact, located inside the Rialto. The reason I believe this is that the bathroom in the movie features Egyptian style writing and hieroglyphics on the wall, and the Rialto’s first owner, L. Lou Bard, created all of his movie palaces with an Egyptian theme. But again, I could not go inside to verify this. Looks like I am going to need to re-stalk the Rialto in the near future. 🙂

The Rialto was built by designer Lewis A. Smith for theatre owner and entertainer L. Lou Bard and premiered its first movie, What Happened to Jones, in October of 1925. In July of 1976 the Landmark Theatre Corporation bought the Rialto and due to fledgling ticket sales made plans to tear it down. Residents of South Pasadena protested, saved the Rialto from the wrecking ball, and in 1978 the theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But sadly, the Rialto still fell into a sad state of disrepair and closed its doors for good on August 20, 2007. Due to low patronage, the Landmark Corporation could no longer afford to keep the theatre open. And while the Historic Register prevents the theatre from ever being demolished, the Rialto currently sits vacant and delapidated, a distant memory of what once was. For those stalkers who want to see the inside of the historic theate – even though the Rialto is closed to the general public for day to day movie viewing, special events are still sometimes held there. In honor of Halloween there is even going to be a midnight performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show held there on Saturday, November 1st. You can check out this website for more information.

The Rialto has been featured in numerous productions over the years. Besides Scream 2, it also showed up in the movie The Player as the location where Tim Robbins first meets Vincent D’Onofrio and later kills him. The killing actually takes place in the alley behind the theatre (pictured above). The Rialto was also featured in Old School and Kentucky Fried Movie.  The Rialto’s interiors were also featured in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, as the location where MJ and his girlfriend Ola watch the video’s movie within a movie.  The Rialto’s exteriors, however, were not used in Thriller.  Instead, all of the exterior theatre scenes took place at Downtown L.A.’s Palace Theatre, which I have also stalked.  🙂 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Rialto Theatre is located at 1023 South Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena.

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Just Another Day In L.A.!

On Monday, I decided to do a little stalking of the horror movie Scream 2, a movie which I am sad to say was nowhere near as good as its predecessor. But since I had found the address of the fraternity house used in the movie and since the location fit in with my Halloween theme, I had to run right out to stalk it. The fraternity house was featured in the beginning of Scream 2 as the location of the party Sidney and her friends attend. It is while everyone is at this party that Sarah Michelle Geller gets thrown from the balcony of a supposedly nearby sorority house. Unfortunately I have yet to locate that sorority house and from what I can tell, in real life it is nowhere near the party house. LOL Anyway, the Scream 2 party house looks pretty much exactly the same as it does in the movie, minus all of the fraternity signs, of course. In real life, it is just a normal privately owned residence and it is not located anywhere near a college campus. But it was actually after leaving the Scream house, that my day got a whole lot more exciting.

My mom is always telling me to trust in the universe and it is times like this past Monday morning that convince me that I need to listen to her. While leaving the Scream house, I got a bit lost, as I have been known to do (I have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever!). So I put my address into my trusty GPS unit hoping that it would lead me home, but, instead, it led me right to the filming of one of my favorite TV shows ever – TNT’s The Closer. As I came around a bend after leaving the Scream house, I noticed some trucks and filming lights set up on the side of the road. Then all of a sudden, the next thing I knew, there were Kyra Sedgwick and G.W. Bailey (my fave actor on the show!) standing just a few feet from my car as I drove by! So, of course, I just had to pull over! 🙂

The policeman on duty at the set could not have been nicer to me and asked one of the A.D.’s if I could sit on the sidelines and watch the filming. The A.D. said no problem, so I got to sit down for about an hour and a half and observe the making of one of my favorite shows. And I have to say I could not have been more impressed with what I witnessed. Every single person on the crew was extremely friendly and it seems like a truly fun set to work on – and believe me, I’ve been on my fair share of sets and that is not always the case. The cast members were extremely friendly with each other – there was a lot of laughing and joking around in between takes. And I was super excited when the cast took a break and came to sit down right next to where I was sitting. Kyra’s director’s chair was set up very close to me, actually, and I could not have been more excited. I love me some Kyra! But instead of being starstruck by her, I was actually more struck by her level of professionalism. Out of all the actors and actresses that I have been fortunate enough to observe in person, she was by far the most focused on her work. During every single break, Kyra went straight to her director’s chair, took out her script, studied her lines and made notes in a notebook – much like I do in my acting classes. 🙂 As an actress, this was fascinating for me to watch and I could not have been more impressed. At her level, she could just as easily have goofed off during her breaks, or gone to grab an iced latte or something, but instead she was 100% focused on her work. I have always felt that I have learned far more from observing professional actors at work than I have from any of my acting classes and this was of course true yesterday as I watched Kyra. (I only took a couple of pictures of the filming as I did not want to disturb anyone – or get kicked off the set.) 🙂

After the producers wrapped up the filming and the actors were shuttled back to base camp, the policeman on duty told me they were moving to a new location and invited me to come along. So I immediately called my dad and asked him to join me, as he is a big fan of the show, too, and he has a better camera than I do. 🙂 The next location where The Closer filmed, also located in Pasadena, is a mansion that has actually been home to many a film shoot. Apparently the mansion has a resume as long as my arm, but unfortunately I don’t know the specifics of the filming that has taken place there. I do know, though, that it was used in the pilot episode of CSI: Miami, as the Las Vegas home of a swinging couple whose daughter is kidnapped during a party.

My dad took quite a few photos of the filming, but because we didn’t want to disturb anyone, unfortunately I didn’t get a pic with Kyra or any of the other cast members. 🙁 We had such a blast being on the set, though, and watching the filming! I can’t even believe I got to spend my day there! And to think, if I hadn’t gotten lost, I might never have experienced any of it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The party house from Scream 2 is located at 350 S. Grand Avenue in Pasadena. The Closer was filmed at 141 N. Grand Avenue, also in Pasadena, and on Arroyo Drive underneath the Colorado Street Bridge. Look for that Closer episode to air next January or February on TNT.

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Bugsy Siegel’s House

Just around the corner from the Witch’s House in Beverly Hills is one of the most famous crime scenes in Hollywood history – the home where legendary mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was murdered on June 20, 1947. This home is often cited as being owned by the famous mobster at the time of his death, but in reality it was leased by his girlfriend, actress Virginia Hill. Born on February 28, 1906 to a poor Brooklyn family, Bugsy, who by all accounts absolutely loathed his nickname, went own to become one of the most notorious and cold-blooded mobsters in history.

On that fateful night in 1947, Bugsy returned home from a dinner with friends and retreated to his living room with two friends. The living room area of his house is located to the right of the front door and the windows of that room are pictured above.

At 10:45 pm, while Bugsy sat on his couch reading the Los Angeles Times, his murderer crept up a neighbor’s driveway and fired off nine rounds from a 30/30 shotgun through a side window of Bugsy’s house. Four of those rounds hit Busgy in the head, killing him immediately and sending one of his eyeballs clear across the room. YUCK! The cold-blooded mobster, who is often credited with “creating Las Vegas” was dead at 41. His murder has never been solved.

On an interesting side note, about a year before Bugsy’s death, on July 7, 1946, Howard Hughes crashed one of his airplanes into two homes located across the street from Bugsy’s death house, almost killing himself in the process. One of the homes he crashed into is pictured above.

Bugsy’s death was famously re-enacted in the movie Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty and Annette Benning. But, for reasons unknown, producers did not use the real life home where his murder took place for the filming of the biopic. Instead a home in Hancock Park was used (pictured above).

A HUGE thank you to E.J. from The Movieland Directory for sharing with me a chapter from his book, Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites , and a wealth of information on the life and death of Bugsy Siegel for this post. When I first started writing this entry, I asked E.J. if he had any good stories about Bugsy’s home to share with me. About twenty pages of reading material from E.J. later, this post was born. 🙂 Thanks, E.J.!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bugsy’s real life former home and death site is located at 810 North Linden Drive, in Beverly Hills. Howard Hughes’ crash site is located just across the street at 903 and 905 North Linden Drive. The home where Bugsy dies in the movie about his life is located at 425 S. Plymouth Boulevard in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.