90210 & Beverly Hills, 90210 Filming Locations

April 27, 2020April 25, 2020

The Peach Pit Pop-Up

Stalking opportunities sometimes get away from me. Such was the case with the Johnny Rockets restaurant on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District. The site, which was actually the well-known burger chain’s first location, had long been on my To-Stalk List. Though I’d dined there numerous times over the years, I had yet to officially visit it for the purposes of a post when it shuttered unexpectedly in 2015. So I was thrilled when I learned that a Peach Pit pop-up was being held on the premises last fall! I quickly secured a reservation and the Grim Cheaper and I headed into L.A. to attend, but the experience wasn’t exactly all I’d hoped for. Considering the place boasts ties to both Beverly Hills, 90210 and its spinoff, Melrose Place, though, I figured it was still worthy of a blog.

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The original Johnny Rockets first opened its doors smack dab in the middle of Melrose Avenue on June 6th, 1986. Established by former fashion merchandiser Ronn Teitelbaum, the tiny Streamline-Moderne eatery was a “non-gimmicky” re-imagining of the diners he visited as a boy in the 1940s, namely Santa Monica’s Incline and West L.A.’s The Apple Pan. Per the Pierce website, “He founded the concept on the belief that everyone deserves a place where they can escape from today’s complicated world and experience the uncomplicated goodness of classic Americana. The name originated by combining the timeless Johnny Appleseed story with the classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Together, they embody the concept of classic Americana and the promise of the future.” You can check out an image of the restaurant from its early days here. Boasting just twenty counter seats, the site became a fast hit and even had its share of celebrity fans including Milla Jovovich, who dropped by in 1987, Bob Hope and Elizabeth Taylor. Ronn soon began opening sister sites and offering franchise opportunities. By the time he decided to sell the company in 1995, there were more than 60 locations dotted throughout 6 countries! When he passed away in 2000, the chain counted 138 eateries in 25 states and 9 countries!

Unfortunately, when the lease on the Melrose outpost came up for renewal in 2015, a suitable agreement between landlord and tenant could not be reached and the landmark restaurant shuttered on October 26th of that year. It was the end of an era! Per the Melrose Action website, Johnny Rockets was “the last standing icon of the amazing 80’s era along Melrose Avenue.” The space has remained vacant ever since, aside from the occasional pop-up like the Peach Pit, which was the brainchild of the Fox network and Pop Sugar and ran in conjunction with the premiere of the BH90210 reboot.

The tiny eatery was completely transformed to resemble the West Beverly gang’s ‘90s hangout.

Memorabilia and cast images were everywhere, along with the familiar vinyl record wall decorations!

There was even a loving tribute to Luke Perry.

And the employees were all decked out in traditional Peach Pit garb.

The photo opportunities were endless.

But while things looked pretty good from afar . . .

. . . upon closer inspection, it became obvious the set-up was rather janky.

No part of it was executed particularly well.

It seemed kind of just thrown together, not to mention dirty (as evidenced below).

We visited during the end of the pop-up’s run and things were definitely falling apart. The tile floor in the main dining area was actually just some sort of vinyl adhesive and it was apparent from the peeling and rips that high heels had taken their toll on it throughout the six weeks the place was in operation. (You can see some of said peeling in the bottom left of the pic below.)

The food choices were also extremely limited, with a total of only seven food offerings. And there wasn’t a French fry to be found! I can only imagine what Nat would say! The prices weren’t cheap, either. Including the cost of admission, we spent about $110 to experience the Peach Pit pop-up and I can’t say it was really worth it.

To be fair, the Peach Pit was originally supposed to run for three days only, but it proved so popular that Fox and Pop Sugar handed over the reins to the team behind the Saved by the Bell-inspired pop-up Saved by the Max who extended things an additional six weeks. I don’t think the space was built to withstand that much time.

And I know it must sound like I’m nitpicking here, but I wasn’t the only one. I can’t tell you the number of people I overheard at nearby tables expressing dismay at how poorly executed the whole thing was. Several of my neighbors had been to Saved by the Max and were shocked at how much the Peach Pit paled by comparison. One party even asked for their money back upon entering and taking a look at the menu.

Nevertheless, the space was chock full of nostalgia and I don’t regret my visit for a moment – though I can’t say I’d feel comfortable recommending my fellow stalkers shell out $100+ to attend if the pop-up ever re-opens.

It is pretty fortuitous that the original Johnny Rockets was chosen as the site of the pop-up being that Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) drove Sheryl (Paula Irvine) by the restaurant while sightseeing in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “The First Time,” which aired in 1990. Amazingly, despite the passage of three decades (say whaaat?) and a change in paint color, the place is still very recognizable from its cameo. But that’s not the eatery’s only 90210 connection!

Jason also posed for photographer Jonathan Exley at the Melrose Place Johnny Rockets in 1991.

I remember my thirteen-year-old self first seeing the spread in a teen magazine and knowing instantly that the shoot took place at a Johnny Rockets, though I was unclear which one. When I first visited the Melrose outpost years later, I recognized it immediately and couldn’t have been more thrilled!

But wait, there’s one more Beverly Hills, 90210 tie! The burger joint was also featured weekly in the opening credits of the show’s 1992 spinoff, Melrose Place, which you can watch here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Peach Pit Pop-up, aka the original Johnny Rockets from “The First Time” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 and the Melrose Place opening credits, was formerly located at 7507 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District. Sadly, both the restaurant and the pop-up are now closed.

September 9, 2019September 8, 2019

The Georgian Hotel from “BH90210”

While I was initially on the fence as to my feelings regarding BH90210, I have to say the meta-revival has really grown on me. Though I did not particularly love the pilot, by episode 4, I was absolutely enthralled and am so saddened that Season 1 will be coming to a close this week. And it’s not just the nostalgia factor that is hooking me. The show is really well done and really funny. Can I hear it for a Season 2, please?!? One thing about the production that I cannot get behind is the fact that none of it is shot in L.A. In a perplexingly move, Fox chose to shoot the reboot of one of the most famous series about Los Angeles in Vancouver of all places! Sacrilege, I know! BH90210 doesn’t even really make use of SoCal establishing shots. So I was thrilled to finally see a local spot, Santa Monica’s The Georgian Hotel, pop up as the exterior of the private club Jason Priestley belongs to in episode 4. I actually stalked the locale years ago, but never blogged about it. Figuring now was the perfect time to do so, I scanned through my extensive photo library to look for my pics of it, but couldn’t find them anywhere. So I called upon my friend Brian, of the Celebrity Net Worth website, who lives in L.A., to stalk the property on my behalf the next time he was in the area. Incredibly, he obliged the following day! Thank you, Brian!

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The Art Deco masterpiece that is The Georgian Hotel was commissioned by judge Harry J. Borde, owner of the neighboring Hotel Windermere which was originally established by his mother, Rosamund, on Ocean Avenue in 1909. (That site has long since been demolished.) As Santa Monica grew in popularity with vacationers, Borde decided to build a second, adjacent lodging, figuring it would also be profitable. Ground broke on his new project in 1931. Designed by architect Eugene Durfee at a cost of $500,000, the striking Georgian opened to the public in 1933.

At its inception, the 8-story hotel, commonly referred to as “The Lady,” boasted such modern amenities as a beauty parlor, a formal dining room, a barber shop, and, per a 1933 newspaper ad, “electrically-equipped kitchens.” Rates started at $40 a night. Oh, how times have changed! Today, rooms at The Georgian run about $300 on the low end.

The Georgian became a celebrity haven from the outset. Not only did the beach provide more temperate climates than other areas of L.A., but hidden in the hotel’s basement was a speakeasy. Some of the stars who frequented the place during its early days, whether to illegally imbibe or just relax, include Charlie Chaplin, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone, and Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle.

The lodging has gone through several renovations and transformations throughout its 86-year existence. It even served as an upscale apartment building in the ‘60s, housing the likes of Rose Kennedy, who summered onsite.

Today, the property offers 84 rooms (28 of which are suites), turn-down service, complimentary Wi-Fi (a rarity in L.A.), 24-hour room service (yes, please!), a gym, views of Palisades Park and the Pacific Ocean, the alfresco Veranda Restaurant, a business center, and event space. What happened to the basement speakeasy, you ask? Per the hotel’s website, it is being re-opened as Nineteen33 Underground Kitchen & Bar in the very near future.

Thanks to its exclusivity, The Georgian remains a celebrity enclave today, with such luminaries as Matthew Perry, Al Pacino, Tim Robbins, Matt LeBlanc, Robert Downey Jr., Ron Yerxa, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Claire Danes, Nicolas Cage, Oliver Stone, Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Charlie Webber all known to stop by.

On BH90210, The Georgian masks as the private club Jason Priestley belongs to (and is a founding member of), where the cast regularly hangs out. It’s kind of like the modern-day Peach Pit. Oddly, while the club has appeared in every episode from “The Pitch” on, typically only the interior is shown. The Georgian did not pop up until episode 4, “The Table Read.” The two establishing shots featured are below. The very same images were also used in episode 5, “Picture’s Up.”

Only the exterior of The Georgian is utilized on BH90210. The Interior of Jason’s club is nothing more than a set created at North Shore Studios in Vancouver, where the series is lensed.

Said set actually reminds me a lot of the Beverly Hills Beach Club set from the CW’s 2008 90210 reboot, which you can see images of here.

BH90210 is not the only production to feature The Georgian. Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) chase down a hit man there in the Season 4 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “Ninety Pounds of Trouble,” which aired in 1979. As you can see, the hotel looked very different – and much less colorful – then.

The following year, it popped up in an establishing shot of the Los Angeles hotel where con man Harley Dexter (Vincent Baggetta) stayed in the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Three for the Money.”

Chili Palmer (John Travolta) heads to The Georgian to track down Ray ‘Bones’ Barboni (Dennis Farina) and retrieve his stolen “black leather jacket, fingertip length, like the one Pacino wore in Serpico” in Get Shorty.

In the 1995 classic, The Georgian is said to be located in Miami. It is not very hard to see how it got pegged for the role, being that it does have a very Florida look and feel to it.

Lucia DeLury (Lisa Kudrow) and Bill Truitt (Martin Donovan) also check in to The Georgian while visiting Los Angeles in the 1997 comedy The Opposite of Sex.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Brian, from Celebrity Net Worth, for stalking this location for me and taking all of the photos that appear in this post. Smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Georgian Hotel, aka Jason Priestley’s private club on BH90210, is located at 1415 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. You can visit the property’s official website here.

March 11, 2019May 25, 2020

Hummingbird Nest Ranch from “Book Club”

One of my favorite stalking stories involves the Grim Cheaper and Sex and the City: The Movie, which I saw right when it came out in late May 2008. I was gifted Amy Sohn’s book about the film for my birthday just a few days later and while it did a fabulous job of breaking down the locales, one that I desperately wanted to find was only mentioned in passing. Of the Mexican restaurant where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dined with the girls during her non-honeymoon, all that was said was that filming took place in Simi Valley. As soon as I read those words, though, I knew what I had to do – call up every Mexican eatery in the area and ask if the flick was shot there, obvs! Now I should mention here that I hate telephone calls. The GC likes to say that I am scared of the phone and he’s not far off. So I enlisted his help with this endeavor. It was a rather humorous undertaking being that none of the people who answered his calls had any earthly idea what he was talking about. Needless to say, after spending hours on the task, we came up empty – but the whole thing sure was good for a few laughs. It was not until Mike, from MovieShotsLA, saw the film that the mystery was finally solved. He recognized the Mexican restaurant, which – spoiler! – isn’t really a restaurant at all, as none other than Hummingbird Nest Ranch, an oft-filmed compound nestled north of the 118 freeway in Santa Susana. The property is, unfortunately, closed to the public, but is available to lease for special events. So, since I was newly engaged at the time, it went to the top of my list of spots to tour as a possible wedding venue. I headed out there soon thereafter, but was struck with bad luck thanks to the reality series Tool Academy which had taken over the property for a weeks-long shoot, thereby severely limiting what I could photograph. Regardless, when I saw the site pop up as the idyllic “Sedona” ranch belonging to Mitchell (Andy Garcia) in Book Club (one of my favorite movies of 2018 – available on DVD here and via streaming here), I knew I had to finally blog about it.

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Hummingbird Nest Ranch was the brainchild of Metro Networks founder David Saperstein who, in 2000, purchased a 123-acre plot of picturesque land in the hills of Simi Valley for his second wife, Suzanne. Though a gorgeous 1920s home known as Sitting Bull sat on the property, David envisioned something grander for Suzanne and commissioned architect Richard Robertson to build a massive 17,000-square-foot Spanish-style estate on the grounds for the couple to live in.

Several other structures were also added including 3 riding arenas, 16 guest and staff houses, and a 20,000-square-foot barn. That’s the barn below. Yeah, I know – it’s grander than most homes!

There is also parking for 400 vehicles, numerous swimming pools, a spa, a large pond, a helipad, and a solar-panel farm on the premises.

Saperstein filed for divorce from Suzanne in 2005 and subsequently put the ranch on the market in 2007 for $75 million. When there were no takers, he switched gears and decided to turn the property into a massive 5-star resort complete with 105 rooms, 98 casitas, numerous restaurants and swimming pools, conference facilities, and a convention center.

The city of Simi Valley greenlighted the plan, but once the permits were in place in 2014, Saperstein changed gears yet again and re-listed the site, this time for $49.5 million. It finally sold in December 2015 for $33 million.

Though the purchaser was said to be transforming the place into a wellness hotel, so far those plans have not yet come to fruition.

Because the place sat largely vacant for close to a decade, it became the perfect venue for filming (not to mention a few celebrity weddings including that of Kaley Cuoco and Ryan Sweeting, Nazanin Mandi and Miguel Pimentel, and Morgan Stewart and Brendan Fitzpatrick).

For Book Club, producers chose to use Sitting Bull, Hummingbird Nest Ranch’s original 1920s house, instead of the massive main residence as Mitchell’s charming Arizona pad. Per a 2018 Architectural Digest feature, the property was love at first sight for production designer Rachel O’Toole. Of the home, she says, “It was just so perfect with the archways and the way that the light dapples through the yard and the pool. Standing at the front door you can see all the way through the kitchen into a bathroom, through an arched brick passageway and then outside through leaded glass to a fountain. I said to Bill [director Bill Holderman], ‘We shouldn’t waste our time looking elsewhere because this is it.’”

Diane Keaton, who plays Mitchell’s love interest in the film, also became smitten with the dwelling. When AD asked about her favorite Book Club locale, she responded, “I liked Andy Garcia’s house best. Andy’s house is an old Spanish. I wanted to buy it. That place is gorgeous.”

Of dressing the location for the shoot, O’Toole told AD, “For the color palette, we had burgundies and browns and tans with lots of textures like Persian rugs. We wanted Andy’s character to be grounded and approachable with things he collected from all his travels.”

Not much of the home was altered for the flick. Along with digitally adding the Arizona desert into the background of a scene . . .

. . . production also updated the pad’s 1970s kitchen, though it was only seen in a brief shot from outside the front door towards the end of the movie.

Sitting Bull also portrayed Gregory Sumner’s (William Devane) ranch on the popular nighttime soap Knots Landing, which aired from 1979 to 1993.

Though most of the Mexican resort scenes in Sex and the City: The Movie were shot at this house in Malibu, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masked as the hotel restaurant where a waiter guts Carrie by referring to her as “Mrs. Preston.”

Shortly after Sex and the City: The Movie debuted, the ranch popped up as Destinies, the rehabilitation center where Joan McCallister (Judy Davis) worked during the second season of The Starter Wife.

That same year, the ranch portrayed yet another rehab, this time on the Season 1 episode of 90210 titled “There’s No Place Like Homecoming” as the spot Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) was sent after almost overdosing.

As I mentioned earlier, Hummingbird Nest Ranch was used extensively as the home of the competing couples on Tool Academy, which began airing in 2009.

Also in 2009, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masqueraded as Calistoga Canyon Resort and Spa where the CBI team investigated a murder in the Season 1 episode of The Mentalist titled “Crimson Casanova.”

In the Season 7 episode of NCIS titled “Rule Fifty-One,” which aired in 2010, the Nest portrays the Mexican estate of Paloma Reynosa (Jacqueline Obradors).

The massive main house plays Steve Jobs’ (Ashton Kutcher) tony Silicon Valley mansion in the 2013 biopic Jobs.

On July 27th, 2014, Scheana Marie (one of the most miserable brides ever!) married Michael Shay at Hummingbird Nest Ranch. The event was chronicled in the Season 3 episodes of Vanderpump Rules titled “For Better or Worse” and “Ring on a String” which aired the following year.

In the 2015 Entourage movie, the ranch masks as the Texas home of Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton) and his son, Travis (Haley Joel Osment).

That same year, Hummingbird Nest showed up in the Season 1 episode of Stitchers titled “The Root of All Evil” as the mansion belonging to Joe Parks (Cameron Daddo) and his wife, Suzanne (Courtney Henggeler).

Also in 2015, the ranch popped up as the home of Dr. Irving Pitlor (Rick Springfield) in the Season 2 episode of True Detective titled “Night Finds You.”

Hummingbird Nest masked as the Palm Springs Hotel where Ace Amberg (Rob Reiner) trysted with Jeanne Crandall (Mira Sorvino) in the Season 1 episode of Hollywood titled “(Screen) Tests,” which hit Netflix in 2020.

The couple stayed in Sitting Bull in the episode.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hummingbird Nest Ranch, aka Mitchell’s house from Book Club, is located at 2940 Kuehner Drive in Santa Susana. You can visit the venue’s official website here. Please be advised that the ranch is private property and not open to the public.

March 28, 2018March 29, 2018

Tal Weaver’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Oh man, have I been wanting to say this for years – Tal Weaver’s house has been found! It is thanks to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, that I finally get to! For those who have no earthly idea what I am talking about, Tal Weaver – and his house – appeared in the Season 2 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Leading from the Heart.” In the episode, Tal, played by a very young and very long-haired Gabriel Macht (aka Suits’ Harvey Specter – my latest celebrity crush), throws a raving party at his sprawling Beverly Hills manse that is attended by Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty), her brother Brandon (Jason Priestley), and their wheelchair-bound cousin, Bobby (Gordon Currie). Though the home’s onscreen role was brief, it was extremely memorable and I have spent the past few years trying to track it down. I recently brought Mike in on the hunt and he managed to get in touch with Phil Buckman, aka the episode’s “Surfer Dude” – “Did you hear what that dude in the wheelchair said to me?” – who, thankfully, remembered where filming had taken place. Come to find out not only is Tal’s house one of L.A.’s most famous, but it’s a spot I had actually stalked and blogged about previously. As Phil informed Mike, Tal’s mansion is none other than the Cecil B. DeMille Estate located at 2000 De Mille Drive in Los Feliz. How I never realized it is beyond me! So, thank you, Mike and Phil! (When Mike gave me the good news, I told him, “You’re my hero!” to which he responded, “Some heroes don’t wear capes!” Winking smile )

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Though I covered the DeMille Estate’s history in my previous post on the pad, I figure a brief recap is in order here. Built in 1914, the Beaux Arts-style dwelling was originally designed by architect B. Cooper Corbette for Homer Laughlin, co-developer of Los Feliz’ exclusive Laughlin Park community. Homer did not live at the site long, selling the massive manse to DeMille in 1916 for $27,893. Five years later, the famed director acquired the home next door – formerly occupied by Charlie Chaplin – and connected the two with an atrium-like breezeway, meshing them into one ridiculously large compound with the Chaplin portion serving as a screening room/offices/guest quarters. Cecil remained on the premises until his passing in 1959. His estate then held onto the property for the next three decades, reportedly changing nothing from the time DeMille called it home, even going so far as to put fresh flowers on his desk daily. The compound was eventually sold to attorney Terry O’Toole and his wife, Evelyn, in 1988. According to a few articles I dug up via newspapers.com (which I cannot link to as a subscription is needed to view them), the couple briefly updated the estate before selling it to a Japanese company in 1990.

In 1996, the hilltop abode was purchased by art consultant/curator Lisa Lyons and her husband, art consultant/writer Richard Grossman. Prolific rehabbers, the couple enlisted architect Brian Tichenor of Tichenor & Thorp to separate and restore the two properties, first the Chaplin home (which they subsequently sold to producer/writer John Wells) and then the DeMille Estate. The renovation of the latter took a whopping six years. You can read a great Town & Country article about the extensive restoration here.

Grossman and Lyons put the 6-bedroom, 10-bath, 7,472-square-foot pad (which also boasts a pool, a pool house/gym, a detached studio, a rose garden, arched windows, iron balconies, molded ceilings, Doric columns, a mahogany-paneled dining room, a formal library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a whopping 2.1 acres of land) up for sale in 2008 for $26.25 million. There were no takers, though, so the listing was removed the following year. It then hit the market again in early 2017 (you can check out the MLS photos here), this time selling after just a couple of months for $24.5 million to none other than Angelina Jolie. Considering Laughlin Park’s long tenure as a celebrity enclave, the purchase was not surprising. Besides DeMille, Chaplin and Jolie, just a few of the stars to call the community home over the years include Natalie Portman, Jenna Elfman, Portia de Rossi, W.C. Fields, Carole Lombard, David Fincher, Lauren Graham, and Ellen Pompeo. Though the neighborhood is gated and not accessible to the public, the Grim Cheaper’s best friend’s parents are longtime residents and we’ve been fortunate to visit many times. During one of those visits, I did some stalking of the DeMille Estate, which is where the photos in this post come from. I am so thankful I snapped them, too, because I’m fairly certain getting any pics of the place now would be virtually impossible considering its current resident.

In “Leading from the Heart,” which originally aired in October 1991, Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) takes a liking to Cousin Bobby, who is visiting from Minnesota, and invites him to a party at her friend Tal Weaver’s house. As Kelly tells him, “Tal throws the best parties!”

When Kelly, Bobby and the rest of their group arrive, though, trouble ensues as the only way to gain entrance to the soiree is via a massive set of exterior steps that leads to Tal’s front door.

So it’s Brandon, Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) and Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) to the rescue! With Brenda and Kelly clearing a path, the three carry Bobby up the steps.

As you can see in the screen captures below (as well as the many above) as compared to the photographs above, when 90210 was filmed on the premises 27 years ago, the DeMille Estate was enclosed with fencing mainly consisting of wrought iron. Though the posts remain, the ironwork has since been replaced with a stucco wall and wooden gates, making the front steps much less visible – which is perhaps why I didn’t recognize the place as Tal Weaver’s pad. (Yeah, I’ll just keep telling myself that. Winking smile )

Things don’t improve much for poor Cousin Bobby upon venturing inside Tal’s residence, for which the real interior of the DeMille Estate was utilized.

Not only does someone fall onto Bobby’s lap and accidentally spill a drink on him, but Tal asks Kelly to dance, which sends Bobby into an ugly downward spiral. It is not long before he begs Steve, Dylan and Brandon to carry him back down the steps so that he can call a cab and leave. While re-watching the episode, I came to the conclusion that Cousin Bobby is actually kind of a jerk. Pretty much everyone he encounters at the party is incredibly friendly, nice, and accommodating (including Tal and the girl who spilled a drink on him), but he is curt and rude (towards Brandon and Steve, too!) and seemingly does his best not to fit in, even going so far as to read Kelly the riot act when (for the first time in the history of the show!) she has not actually done anything wrong. (I cannot believe I’m defending Kelly here!) By the time the credits roll, though, all is good again in Walsh-land, Kelly and Bobby have mended fences, and the gang heads out for a drive – with Brenda behind the wheel (gasp!) – before Bobby’s flight back to the Midwest.

I would be remiss if I did not post a photo of Tal in all of his long-haired glory. The role was actually Gabriel Macht’s first television job and, of the experience, he told BuzzFeed, “I remember Jason Priestley being on his phone a lot and dropping all these F-bombs. I thought that was funny because he was like America’s apple pie golden boy. I also remember having no idea what to talk about with Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth while we were hanging around the set.” So he did what any good theatre student would do – he created a backstory. In the episode, it is said that Tal and Kelly once attended a Sting concert together, so Macht used that as a jumping-off point. As he explained to BuzzFeed, “I was coming from theater school, so I was coming up with backstory about our time at the Sting concert and she looked at me like I was crazy. It was my first TV gig and I wanted him to be this sensitive guy — but I don’t think anyone named Tal Weaver, which is the greatest name in all of television, will ever come across like the good guy.” (No surprise that Jennie doesn’t sound all that friendly in his story. Winking smile )

As I mentioned in my original post on the DeMille Estate, the director is reported to have shot the Garden of Gethsemane scenes from his 1927 film The King of Kings on the grounds of the mansion, but, unfortunately, due to the passage of over ninety years time and the fact that the property and its acreage have been extensively renovated, I was unable to verify that.

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

A MONUMENTAL thank you to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and to Phil Buckman for helping him to do so! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Cecil B. DeMille Estate, aka Tal Weaver’s house from the “Leading from the Heart” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 2000 De Mille Drive in Los Feliz. The residence is located in the gated community of Laughlin Park and is, unfortunately, not accessible to the public.

February 14, 2018February 15, 2018

Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant from “Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed!”

They say you should always listen to your mother. It’s good advice. Case in point – about a decade ago, while stalking in Studio City, my mom, my dad, the Grim Cheaper and I passed by Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant on Ventura Boulevard and decided to pop in for a bite. During our meal, my mom encouraged me to take photos of the place as she figured it had likely been utilized for filming at some point or had a celebrity connection. I spent the next couple of minutes bothering the staff with inquiries about shoots on the premises, but no one was aware of any. I snapped a few pictures regardless, but never did further research on the subject. Flash forward to last month. On the advice of my good friend/fellow 90210 aficionado Mike, from MovieShotsLA, I ordered a copy of the book Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed!, an authorized behind-the-scenes look at the series and its stars written by Bart and Nancy Mills in 1991. When I got to the chapter on Jason Priestley and read the words, “He is all smiles and apologies as he arrives at Art’s Deli half an hour late because work had detained him,” I just about fell over! Oh, how right my mom was! Not only does the restaurant have a celebrity connection, but to my favorite show of all time, no less! I was so thankful I had taken some pics of the place! The only trouble was that when I went to locate the shots, they were nowhere to be found. Fortunately, the GC and I had to head out to Burbank for an IKEA run last week, so we made a pit stop at Art’s while in the area.

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Art’s was established by New York native Art Ginsburg, who moved to Los Angeles as a teen and spent his junior college years learning the ins and outs of sandwich-making while working at a deli owned by his cousin. Armed with $3,000, a collection of family recipes, and the support of his then girlfriend/later wife Sandy, he purchased a small Studio City eatery boasting a scant three and a half booths and twelve counter seats and opened it as Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant on June 22nd, 1957.

Art’s quickly developed into an area staple, popular with locals, tourists and celebrities alike who flocked to the deli in droves for its authentic Jewish delicacies, homemade soups, and spectacular sandwiches. It is the latter that the site became most famous for. Considering the restaurant boasts the tagline “Where every sandwich is a work of Art,” that is no surprise. Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold had this to say about the Reuben:, “Sometimes I suspect Ginsburg studies the Reuben the way other great scholars parse the Talmud — adjusting proportions, strength of dressing and sharpness of cheese, crunchiness and ooziness, sweet and tart, until the sandwich speaks simply if profoundly on its own. Art’s is a good deli, but after the Reuben, all else is commentary.” I did not sample that particular offering while there, but instead opted for the Turkey Club (with turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato on sourdough – along with added cheddar cheese) and it was honestly one of the best sandwiches I have ever had in my life. I can count on one hand the delis I would travel great distances to visit and Art’s is now on that list! (The others are Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese in Windsor Square, Sweet Lady Jane in Santa Monica and Sherman’s Deli & Bakery in Palm Springs.)

Thanks to the restaurant’s massive popularity, it was not long before Art’s needed to expand. The site has actually been enlarged four times throughout its sixty-year run, taking over five neighboring storefronts in the process, and its patronage only continues to grow. Today, the deli seats 170 – and is typically packed at most hours.

Art’s has also undergone a complete reconstruction. While it survived the Northridge earthquake of 1994 with only a cracked wall, it succumbed to a massive electrical fire caused by an aftershock early the following morning. There was never any doubt that Ginsburg would rebuild, though. As he told the Los Angeles Times the day after the blaze, “The sign has been up there since 1957; it’s still up there and it’s going to stay up there.” It took nine months to bring the eatery back to life, during which time the surrounding stores felt the brunt of the closure. According to a different Times article, “By some merchants’ estimates, business on the block is down 40% since Art’s 1,000 customers a day stopped walking off their meals by window shopping along Ventura Boulevard.” When the deli’s doors re-opened on October 19th, patrons were lined up outside anxiously awaiting their reunion with the best sandwiches in town. Art’s has been going strong ever since. According to a 1999 LA Weekly article, each week the restaurant goes through 1,000 pounds of corned beef, 4,800 bagels, and 480 pounds of turkey!

Ginsburg himself was just as much a pillar of the community as his restaurant. He not only founded the city’s business improvement district, but also sat on the board of the Los Angeles Valley College Foundation. Even after retiring in 2010 due to health issues, Art would still pop into the restaurant on a daily basis to hold court with his regulars. When he passed away in 2013, the entire neighborhood mourned. Ginsburg’s son, Harold, carries on Art’s vision today, running the eatery with the same aplomb and conviction as his father.

Thanks to Art’s gregariousness and the restaurant’s proximity to a multitude of studios, the place has long been a celebrity haven. Just a few of the luminaries who have been spotted dining on the premises include Delta Burke, Gerald McRaney, Tori Spelling, Leah Remini, Steve Martin, Rob Lowe, John Landis, Lew Wasserman, Ed Asner, Mickey Rooney, Richard Dreyfuss, Jaime Pressly, Ashley Tisdale, Sara Gilbert, Tom Green, Jonah Hill, Zoey Deutch, Lea Thompson, Howard Deutch, Sarah Silverman, and Justin Theroux. Billy Wilder even hung out there in Art’s early days. And in 2011, the deli was the site of an informal reunion for several St. Elsewhere cast members including Ed Begley Jr. and Abby Singer.

One of the most famous movies of the ‘80s was even born over breakfast at the deli. One morning in May 1983, Ivan Reitman, an Art’s regular, met up with Dan Aykroyd at the eatery to discuss a futuristic sci-fi flick the comedian was writing about teams of men who fought ghosts in outer space. As Ivan explained to The Hollywood Reporter of their talk that day, “I said, ‘Look, I love this idea that there are people whose job is to catch ghosts and act like firemen. But it should have a contemporary setting, a big city that we know, like New York. There’s something [better] about seeing apparitions in a context that we understand, like in our living rooms or on our city streets, rather than in a void in outer space in the future sometime. He said, ‘That’s cool.’ And I said, ‘Actually, the story of their formation would be good.’ And I pitched this idea that these guys were paranormal investigators — like, looking at paranormal studies at a university in some kind of postgraduate study program. They get in trouble, they get kicked out, and then they fortuitously set up a business. That was what I pitched at this breakfast and he said, ‘That’s all cool.’” The result of that meeting was, of course, Ghostbusters.

For his Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed! interview, Jason Priestley chooses to meet with the authors at Art’s, a favorite deli of his that sits in close proximity to the studio where the series was shot. While there, over a meal of matzo ball soup and a bagel with a pickle on the side, he discusses his journey to becoming a household name through his iconic role of Minnesota teen transplant Brandon Walsh. The eatery is referred to by name several times in the book and figures prominently in the chapter on Priestley. One passage reads, “Sitting in Art’s Deli on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, Jason racks his memory to come up with a reason why he chose his life’s work while he still had his baby teeth. To help himself think, he dunks his pickle in his soup.” I find it so incredible – and fabulous – that the restaurant is still in operation thirty years after that interview took place!

As my mom suspected, Art’s is also a filming location!

In the Season 5 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee titled “Happy Thanksgiving, Miranda,” which aired in 2014, Jerry Seinfeld takes Amanda Sings (Colleen Ballinger) for a Thanksgiving meal at Art’s Deli. The exterior . . .

. . . and interior were utilized in the filming.

Chelsea Handler dined with members of ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out) at Art’s Deli in the Season 1 episode of Chelsea titled “I Was a Ticking Time Bomb,” which aired in 2016. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the place appeared in the episode.

Sandy Wexler (Adam Sandler) drives past Art’s in a very brief scene near the end of the 2017 Netflix original movie Sandy Wexler.

According to our server, Guy Fieri also recently filmed something at Art’s, but I am unsure of exactly what.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant, where Jason Priestley’s interview for the book Beverly Hills, 90210: Exposed! took place, is located at 12224 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

February 9, 2018February 12, 2018

Bookstar from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

I have certainly been revisiting the past lately, as evidenced here, here, and here. Maybe it has something to do with nostalgia hitting me after our recent move. Whatever the reason, here I am yet again with yet another redux. Today’s locale is a favorite, one that I originally covered in May 2008 – Bookstar, a former-theatre-turned-Barnes-&-Noble in Studio City. Back in 1991, when the venue was operating as Mann’s Studio Theatre, Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) took Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) there for their first date in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Isn’t It Romantic?” While I have visited the unique book shop countless times over the years, it was not until last December when I came across this post on Scouting Los Angeles (if you are not familiar with Scouting Los Angeles or its sister blog Scouting New York, be sure to check them out – they are hands-down two of the very best location sites out there!) that I realized how much of the property’s original theatrical detailing remains intact. So I decided I just had to re-stalk the place and do another, more extensive write-up on it.

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Originally established as the Studio City Theatre by the Laurel Theatres company, the understated Streamline Moderne-style structure was designed by architect Clifford A. Balch of Magnolia Theatre fame. The 65-foot wide, 881-seat, single-screen venue celebrated its grand opening on June 11th, 1938 with a showing of MGM’s Test Pilot. You can check out a photograph of the movie house shortly before it opened its doors here and another photo here taken in 1946 by which point its ticket booth had been overhauled and made more ornate.

The arena hit a hiccup almost immediately. Per the Los Angeles Movie Palaces website, Laurel Theatres sued Fox West Coast for excluding them from various distributions just a few weeks after the opening. The lawsuit turned out to be rather ironic considering the fact that Fox (a division of the National General Pictures conglomerate) wound up managing the venue for many years after the Laurel Theatres group bowed out. During Fox’s tenure, the site was known as Fox Studio City Theatre. In 1973, when Mann Theatre Corporation took over the cinema portion of National General Pictures, which included the Studio City movie house, it was renamed Mann’s Studio Theatre.

Sadly, by 1990 the ever-growing popularity of multiplexes had caused patronage of Mann’s Studio Theatre to wane. The company chose not to renew their lease and the venue was shuttered in February 1991. Instead of selling to developers as many locals feared, the site’s longtime owners, the Rothman family, decided to bring in a tenant that would not only take advantage of the place’s history, but also preserve its aesthetic. The Rothmans’ real estate broker Bruce Bailey told the Los Angeles Times that despite generous offers from several builders, “they won’t change the property unless it is falling down. They are against mini-malls. They like the look of Studio City. They’ve had tenants ask if they could clear a portion and they won’t do it.” Those words are absolute music to my ears! I wish more Los Angeles building owners shared that sentiment. The Rothmans wound up finding exactly what they were looking for in Bookstar, a division of Barnes & Noble that had refurbished San Diego’s Loma Theatre into a book shop the year prior. The result of the company’s efforts is a fabulous amalgamation of cinema and print. Though the theatre’s lobby appointments and auditorium seating are now gone, pretty much every other original detail remains intact.

That detailing includes the colorful exterior terrazzo flooring;

the gilded ticket booth;

the marquee and “Studio City” signage;

the ceiling lip above the former concessions stand, as well as the columns that flanked it (which you’ll see some screen captures of in a bit);

the movie screen;

the ceiling art;

and the projection booth, which, per Scouting Los Angeles, now houses the store’s offices.

Paying homage to its original incarnation, all of Bookstar’s signage boasts cinematic and Art Deco styling.

It is easily one of the most unique spots to shop in L.A.

Movie magic between the stacks!

Mann’s Studio Theatre pops up three times in “Isn’t It Romantic?” At the beginning of the episode, Brenda tags along with her twin brother, Brandon (Jason Priestley), and his BFF Dylan for a showing of Animal Crackers at the venue. Watching the show, you can really get a feel for how little the space has changed since Bookstar took over. As I mentioned above, though the concession stand has been removed, the pillars that once flanked it as well as the curved ceiling lip above it remain in place.

Even the decorative outline carvings on the ceiling are still intact!

The staircase visible to the right of the concession stand in the scene also remains, but is now largely obscured by displays.

A better view of it is pictured below.

Later in “Isn’t It Romantic?”, Dylan, Brenda, and Brandon make plans to catch another Marx Brothers movie at Mann’s Studio Theatre, but Brandon gets sick, leaving Brenda to go out with Dylan alone, much to her father, Jim Walsh’s (James Eckhouse), chagrin.

While waiting in line for tickets, the two decide to, as Dylan says, “shine on the movie” and instead go back to his suite at the L’Ermitage, where they kiss for the first time.

Something I’ve always found amusing about the scene is that the establishing footage of the theatre shown in it is actually re-used from the third segment of the episode that takes place at Mann’s. Though you don’t see her from the front, Brenda is visible pacing away from the camera in the fabulous navy and pink outfit she wears for her date with Dylan in the later scene.

In the theatre’s third “Isn’t It Romantic?” appearance, Dylan and Brenda make another date to see another Marx Brothers flick at the cinema, but, devastatingly, he stands her up, leaving her to pace in front of the venue for hours until the movie lets out. Brenda is so upset over the experience that she stays home from school the following Monday. Have no fear, though – it all works out in the end. Well, until that little home-wrecker Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) steps in and ruins things in Season 3. But I digress.

It is so amazing that despite the changeover from theatre to bookstore and the passage of almost thirty years, the locale looks pretty much just as it did when the episode was filmed.

Bookstar has popped up in a couple of other productions, as well. It appears as the the theatre “near Olympic and Western” where Sergeant Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) investigate a juvenile assault with a deadly weapon at the beginning of the Season 2 episode of Dragnet titled “The Grenade,” which aired in 1967. Only the exterior of the venue was utilized in the scene. Interiors were filmed on a set.

Thanks to fellow stalker Al, I learned that the site is featured in Wang Chung’s 1985 “Fire in the Twilight” music video, which you can watch here.

The theatre is also seen very briefly in the 1988 comedy Earth Girls Are Easy in the scene in which Wiploc (Jim Carrey) meets some “Finland babes” while cruising Ventura Boulevard.

Jerry Seinfeld and Miranda Sings (Colleen Ballinger) briefly park in front of Bookstar at the end of the Season 5 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee titled “Happy Thanksgiving, Miranda,” which aired in 2014.

According to commenter YMike on the Cinema Treasures blog, Mann’s Studio Theatre also appears in an episode of the 1985 version of The Twilight Zone television series. I am unsure of which episode, though, and scanned through a copious amount of them in preparation for today’s post, but did not see it pop up anywhere. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Bookstar, from the “Isn’t It Romantic?” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 12136 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You can visit the shop’s official website here.

January 22, 2018January 21, 2018

SPARCinLA from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

The Grim Cheaper and I are moving in a couple of days (we bought a house out here in the desert – our first house!) and while packing last week I informed him that as soon as we got settled we would be taking a trip to Los Angeles as I “have nothing to blog about.” His response? “Yeah, just like you have nothing in your closet to wear!” He’s right, of course. My stalking backlog is ridiculously long. There are locales in my stockpile (pun intended) dating back almost a decade that I have yet to write about! Case in point –SPARCinLA, aka the former Venice Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, which Mike, from MovieShotsLA, alerted me to during a stalking adventure way back in July 2009. As I’ve mentioned many times before, Mike is like a walking/talking encyclopedia of the city. It is always such a treat driving around L.A. with him and watching him point out various spots and their respective filming resumes. That particular 2009 day, while journeying down Venice Boulevard, Mike happened to identify a small Art Deco-style structure on our right, explaining that it was the jail where Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) was taken after getting arrested in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “B.Y.O.B.” We decided to pull over to snap some pics and were thrilled to discover that the building was open to the public! (For reasons I no longer remember, I did not take any photos that day – I am guessing my camera was dead by the time we got to the station. So Mike was generous enough to share his for me to post here.)

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Built in 1929, the two-story reinforced concrete structure that now houses SPARCinLA served as Venice Police Station Division 14 through March 1973, when the department moved to its current home, the Pacific Area Community Police Station at 12312 Culver Boulevard in Del Rey.

SPARCinLA, aka the Social and Public Art Resource Center, took over the building in 1977, transforming it into a community cultural center comprised of an art gallery, exhibition space, special collections, a mural lab, archives, a darkroom, offices, and studios.

Miraculously, much of the site’s original detailing and furnishings were left intact. SPARCinLA is essentially a museum housed inside the confines of a former working police station and jail. It definitely makes for a unique environment to peruse art.

In fact, the setting is like a work of art in and of itself.

I absolutely love the view of the palm trees framed through the windows below.

Because so many of the original elements have not been altered or touched, stepping into the space feels very much like stepping into a police station from the 1950s – which makes it prime for filming. And Hollywood has definitely taken note.

In the “B.Y.O.B.” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, which aired in 1991, Brandon spends the night at the former Venice station after getting arrested for drunk driving following a car accident.

SPARCinLA only appears in exterior shots of the jail in the episode. Though the interior of the site is used regularly for filming (as you will see when you read further), Mike and I looked all over for Brandon’s cell and the visiting room where Jim and Cindy Walsh (James Eckhouse and Carol Potter, respectively) waited for him, but couldn’t find them anywhere. I am unsure where interior footage was lensed, but, as you can see below, it does look to have been an actual prison of some sort and not a set. Because of that, I am guessing that the exterior shots were likely re-used footage from another Aaron Spelling series. I highly doubt that production went all the way to the former Venice station to film exteriors and then to a different jail location for interiors, when they could have just shot interiors onsite. Strange things happen all the time during shoots, though, especially location-wise, so who knows?

That didn’t stop me from doing a little re-creation of Brandon’s stint behind bars. Winking smile

In the 1976 crime comedy Moving Violation, Division 14 portrays the jail where Alex Warren (Eddie Albert) discusses the surrender of his clients Eddie Moore (Stephen McHattie) and Cam Johnson (Kay Lenz).

The exterior of the building pops up as the exterior of the Anderson Police Station in Assault on Precinct 13, which was also released in 1976.

Only the outside of the structure is shown in the film. The interior of the Anderson station was just a soundstage-built set.

Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is sent to the former Venice jail after getting arrested for crashing into several cars in a parking lot and then subsequently ripping up his driver’s license in front of a cop – he has a “terrific problem with authority,” after all – in the 1977 comedy Annie Hall.

The station’s interior was also seen briefly in the film.

In the 1980 drama The Jazz Singer, Jess Robin (Neil Diamond) and his bandmates wind up in jail at Division 14 after a fight breaks out during one of their gigs.

SPARCinLA portrays Santa Monica Police Station #4, where Frances Farmer (Jessica Lange) is taken after one of her arrests, in Frances. The building’s exterior . . .

. . . lobby . . .

. . . and jail area all appear in the 1982 biopic.

In 1984’s The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (and I thought Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death was a terrible name for a movie!), the site plays the role of the New Brunswick Police Station . . .

. . . where Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin) is imprisoned.

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is taken there after her arrest following a car chase with the police in The Net. The 1995 thriller made use of the building’s lobby . . .

. . . and jail area.

SPARCinLA is one of three locations that masquerades as the Hollywood Police Station in the 1997 drama L.A. Confidential. While the Pacific Electric Building in downtown L.A. appears in all of the bullpen and office scenes and the abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail pops up in the prison sequences, Division 14 is featured in the lobby bits.

In the 2000 comedy Nurse Betty, Betty Sizemore (Renée Zellweger) is taken to the former Venice police station to be evaluated by a psychologist after witnessing her husband’s murder.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location and for providing all of the photos that appear in this post. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: SPARCinLA, aka the former Venice Police Station Division 14 from the “B.Y.O.B.” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 685 Venice Boulevard in Venice. You can visit the center’s official website here. The property is open to the public every Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. when exhibitions are being held.

January 30, 2017February 10, 2017

Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center & Community Garden from “La La Land”

On paper, La La Land looked like my perfect movie. I love Ryan Gosling. I love Emma Stone. I love musicals. And I LOVE L.A. The film just didn’t work for me, though. I realize mine is a vastly unpopular opinion, but I found La La Land to be too long, too slow, and too melancholy. My main beef, though? For a flick that purports itself to be a love letter to Los Angeles, it certainly did not showcase many real area locations. Sure there was the Griffith Observatory – I’ll give you that one. It’s a real site – and a great one at that. (Though the planetarium featured was a set re-creation.) What about the Rialto Theatre? Yes, the Rialto is an actual movie house, but it’s closed and has been since 2010. You can’t actually see a film there. Angels Flight? That’s real and historic – but, again, shuttered. Watts Towers and Grand Central Market were utilized, but their appearances were fleeting at best. Not even all of the scenes purported to take place on the Warner Bros. backlot were actually shot there. [And no, the coffee shop where Mia (Stone) worked isn’t real, either, though its facade can be seen on the WB Studio Tour.] And while a couple of area restaurants (like the Smoke House) did make the cut, most either played fictitious eateries or were never referred to by name. So basically everything the movie showcased was fake. Southern California is chock full of vibrant, picturesque, dramatic, historic, very real sites that are accessible. Why not celebrate the city and all of its glory by featuring them? A couple of years ago, I stalked one of the few La La Land locales that is actually open to the public (though it did not play itself in the movie) – Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center & Community Garden. I was familiar with the property thanks to its appearance in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, so I recognized it immediately when it popped up onscreen. I had never gotten around to blogging about it, though, and figured what better time than now?

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Orcutt Ranch was originally established by Union Oil Company president/geologist William Warren Orcutt and his wife, Mary Logan. The couple purchased and developed a 210-acre plot of land in what is now West Hills and commissioned architect L.G. Knipe to built a large adobe-style residence on the site. The home, which they dubbed “Rancho Sombra del Roble” (Spanish for “shaded oak ranch”), was completed in 1926 and still stands today. That’s it below.

The Orcutts first used the dwelling as a vacation home before eventually retiring there.

William passed away at the residence in 1942 and Mary continued to live there until 1966, at which point she sold the ranch to the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department.

By that time, a 24-acre portion of the property, which included the house, had already been declared a Historic-Cultural Landmark.

The city dubbed the site “Orcutt Ranch” and opened the grounds to the public.

When I stalked the place in August 2014 (along with Mike, from MovieShotsLA), I was thrilled to discover how open and accessible it is.

Even the Orcutt’s historic adobe was unrestricted, though we were not able to venture inside.

Besides the adobe, a large barn, and several other buildings, the sprawling property also boasts a myriad of gardens, groves, and green expanses, each dotted with countless varieties of plants and trees including birch, wisteria, dogwood, purple lily magnolia, oak, sycamore, and eucalyptus.

Orcutt Ranch is a beautiful place to peruse nature, sit and reflect, or wander aimlessly.

It is also a popular wedding venue.

And filming location! Orcutt Ranch actually portrayed two different places in La La Land. (For those who have yet to see the movie, be forewarned, the paragraphs that follow contain spoilers.) The interior of the Orcutt adobe first masked as the inside of the Chateau Marmont bungalow where Mia was staying at the end of the film. (Why the scene wasn’t shot in an actual room at the historic hotel is anyone’s guess.) Sadly, I do not have any screen captures of that particular scene to post here, but you can see images of the room used in it here and here. Later, in La La Land’s dreamy final montage, during which Mia and Sebastian (Gosling) imagine what could have been, the adobe portrays the couple’s home. Thankfully, I do have screen grabs from that scene thanks to this YouTube video.

It was the adobe’s unique arched door that I recognized while watching La La Land.

The interior of the Orcutt residence was also used in the sequence, including the solarium (which you can see a photograph of here) . . .

. . . and the living room (which you can see a photo of here). You can check out some more images of the adobe’s interior here.

The property’s courtyard and fountain made an appearance in the scene, as well.

As did the lush grounds. (My imagery below isn’t the best because that portion of the scene was shot on a 16mm movie camera and is therefore a bit grainy.)

As I mentioned in my intro, Orcutt Ranch also appeared in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. In Season 10’s “Laying Pipe,” it masked as the supposed Ojai-area church where Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) and Janet Sosna (Lindsay Price) took Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) and Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) to meet their minister.

Only the exterior of the ranch appeared in the episode.

The gazebo where Janet and Steve had a mini wedding rehearsal was not a set piece brought in for the shoot, but is an actual element of the property, which I was thrilled to see! It does look a bit different today, though, than in 1999 when the episode was shot.

The ranch’s gardens made an appearance in “Laying Pipe,” as well.

A couple of Orcutt Ranch’s outbuildings also masked as the Thomas family farm in the Season 1 episode of Deadtime Stories titled “Grandpa’s Monster Movies.”

One of the buildings used in the episode is pictured below.

For those who felt like I did about La La Land (or who are completely flummoxed as to why I didn’t like it), this The New Yorker review is a great read. As author Dale Robinette states, “I saw La La Land in a theatre, sitting up close to a big bright screen, and couldn’t tell whether it was filmed on location or in a studio in front of a green screen. If [director Damien] Chazelle’s intention was to celebrate, among other things, the public face of the city, he failed miserably at it.” I couldn’t agree more. Chazelle really should have taken a note from Swingers. The 1996 film brilliantly showcased a very real L.A., featuring actual area restaurants, bars and landmarks to such perfection that many still draw fans to this day, twenty years after the movie originally premiered.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center & Community Garden, from La La Land, is located at 23600 Roscoe Boulevard in West Hills. The site is open daily from dusk until dawn and admission is free. You can visit the property’s official website here.

March 21, 2016March 26, 2019

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s Gold Room from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Some locations hit you like a ton of bricks. Today’s locale was one of those spots. For ages, I had been trying to track down the supposed Las Vegas casino prominently featured in the Season 4 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “And Did It . . . My Way.” I was fairly certain that production had not actually travelled to Sin City for the shoot, but I could not for the life of me figure out where filming had taken place. Then last year, while writing a post about San Francisco’s famed Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar, I learned about a ballroom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles named the Gold Room. Now the Grim Cheaper and I have stayed at the Biltmore countless times over the years and I know the place like the back of my hand, yet somehow I had never seen or heard of that particular ballroom. I did not think much more about it until I began researching the historic hotel for a recent Discover Los Angeles post and came across this online brochure that lists some of the productions filmed at the Biltmore. I read through it and as soon as I saw the words Beverly Hills, 90210, everything suddenly aligned in my head! The Gold Room was the casino from “And Did It . . . My Way.” I popped in my DVD of the episode to confirm things and, sure enough, I was right! I was lucky enough to tour the ballroom recently as part of my research for the Discover L.A. article and, since getting there had been such a long time coming, figured I should pen a detailed post on the gorgeous space.

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The Gold Room is easily one of the most ornate ballrooms I have ever visited. The lavish space is two-tiered and separated by a curved stone balustrade, as you can see below.

The Gold Room originally served as a dining room for the Biltmore’s more elite guests and, at the time the hotel opened in 1923, was separated into two spaces. The lower level, where patrons entered the venue, was known as the Palm Room . . .

. . . while the top level, where patrons dined, was named the Supper Room.

Once the two spaces were merged, the ballroom was re-christened the “Gold Room.” And it has certainly earned that name. The gilded venue, which can accommodate 350 guests, boasts a striking gold frieze, nine mirrored windows adorned with gold leaf, and a stunning gold cast-plaster ceiling.

During the Prohibition years, the Gold Room served as a nightclub/speakeasy where guests, celebrities and “thirsty” Angelinos could partake. The mirrored window pictured below actually contains a hidden doorway that was utilized to bring liquor into the space, as well as to shuttle guests out when the need arose.

I had read about the hidden doorway while writing my Discover Los Angeles post and had even seen photographs of it, but the tiny opening is so discreet that, even though I knew what I was looking for, I could not find it until it was pointed out to me.

Also of note, dotted along the gold frieze that lines the ballroom’s ceiling are panels containing invisible windows that were utilized by the paparazzi to spy on celebrities partying down below during the space’s tenure as a nightclub. You can see a great photograph of one of those panels here.

Thanks to the Gold Room’s beauty and versatility, it is not very hard to see how it has ended up onscreen countless times over the years. In “And Did It . . . My Way,” it convincingly served as the Las Vegas casino that Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) and Stuart Carson (David Gail) secretly headed to in order to elope after becoming disillusioned by their parents’ reaction to their recent engagement. No secret is safe in Beverly Hills, though, and the rest of the West Beverly gang, as well as Jim (James Eckhouse) and Cindy Walsh (Carol Potter), inevitably follow and finally manage to talk some sense into the couple, who call off the nuptials.

The spot where Brenda and Stuart danced after canceling the wedding is the Biltmore’s Bernard’s ballroom, which you can see photos of here and here.

Way back in 1973, the Gold Room popped up very briefly in the caper classic The Sting as the upscale Chicago restaurant where Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) offered to finance Kid Twist (Harold Gould) and Johnny Hooker’s (Robert Redford) bookie scheme. Though recognizable, the room looked quite a bit different at that time.

The Gold Room is where Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) attend a pharmaceutical convention in 1994’s Junior.

In the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) attempts to crash Claire Cleary’s (Rachel McAdams) engagement party, which is taking place in the Gold Room.

That same year, the Gold Room popped up in Rumor Has It as the spot where Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) first laid eyes on Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner).

Also in 2005, the Gold Room once again masked as a casino, albeit one in Monte Carlo, in the Season 5 episode of Alias titled “Mockingbird.”

Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling) and Henry ‘Hank’ Rearden (Grant Bowler) attend a party there in the 2011 drama Atlas Shrugged: Part I.

And in the Season 5 episode of New Girl titled “Decision,” which aired in 2016, Cece Parekh (Hannah Simone) and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) tour the Gold Room, their dream wedding venue, which just so happens to have a last minute availability due to the fact that Shia LeBeouf cancelled his upcoming solitaire tournament.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Gold Room is situated off of the Galleria at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles, which is located at 506 South Grand Avenue in downtown L.A. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

December 15, 2015December 16, 2015

Tracey Ross from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

‘Tis finally the season – the season for holiday-themed filming locations! As is the case every year, because Christmas locales in the L.A. area are rather limited, I waited to start blogging about them until the end of December. And I should mention here that my postings over the next two or three weeks will be fairly limited, as well, due to some holiday events and trips that I have planned, including a shopping visit to L.A. (I can’t wait! There’s no shopping like L.A. shopping!) Anyway, today’s locale comes from my favorite television show ever, Beverly Hills, 90210. While scanning through the Season 2 episode titled “A Walsh Family Christmas” prior to writing my post on Lake View Medical Center in October, I spotted an establishing shot of the store where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) briefly worked and got a bit distracted. I had not remembered an exterior of the shop ever being shown on the series and became very excited about the possibility of tracking it down, which I eventually did. As it turns out, though, Geoff, of 90210Locations, had already found the place and listed the address on his site, which would have saved me quite a bit of time had I known. #blondemoment

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In “A Walsh Family Christmas,” Brenda lands a sales job at a local Beverly Hills boutique a few days before Christmas. The exterior of the boutique was shown several times in the episode and I was thrilled to see that both a store name, Tracey Ross, as well as a 105 address number were visible.

So I got to Googling and discovered that, while Tracey Ross is no longer currently in existence, there did indeed used to be a boutique by that name located at 105 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Grove. Today, that location houses an outpost of Lululemon.

At the time that “A Walsh Family Christmas” was filmed, the building that housed Tracey Ross looked considerably different due to the fact that the bottom level was split up into five different spaces, as you can see in the Google Street View imagery below from August 2007.

Tracey Ross was located in the northern portion of the building, two storefronts south of Alden Drive.

At some point in 2008, Rock & Republic opened an outpost on the premises and combined the building’s two northern units (including the one formerly occupied by Tracey Ross) into one big space. Though R&R has since moved out, that storefront has remained one unit ever since.

Thankfully, some recognizable elements remain despite the many changes that have taken place since 90210 was filmed. As you can see below, the Robertson storefront is still recessed, much like it was when it was featured in “A Walsh Family Christmas.” And the black-tiled facade of the suite next door is still a direct match to what appeared onscreen.

A close-up view of the storefront next door is pictured below.

Tracey Ross’ actual interior was also used in “A Walsh Family Christmas.”

In the episode, Brenda’s boss, Deirdre (Rebecca Staab), kicks a homeless man dressed as Santa Claus out of the store on Christmas Eve. When Brenda leaves the shop later that night, she sees some police officers harassing Santa and, in classic Walsh style, winds up rescuing him and bringing him home to her house for Christmas Eve dinner. Ironically, the shop visible across the street in the scene is Les Habitudes, the very same shop that designed the wedding dress that Tori Spelling wore in Beverly Hills, 90210’s final episode, “Ode to Joy.” The only reason I know that random factoid is that I worked as an extra in the episode and overheard Tori discussing the gown with a crew member.

Because the name Les Habitudes is so unusual, it stuck with me. When I happened to pass by the shop a couple of weeks later while walking on Robertson Boulevard, I recognized the moniker immediately. The boutique has since moved a few blocks south, but whenever I pass by the stone-covered building where I originally spotted it (which is currently vacant), I am immediately flooded with warm memories of being on the set of 90210.

Tracey Ross also appeared in the next episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, titled “Fire and Ice” (which is one of my favorite episodes of the series ever).

As if kicking Santa Claus out of the store on Christmas Eve wasn’t bad enough, in “Fire and Ice,” Deirdre steals a large commission from Brenda. But instead of immediately quitting, Cindy Walsh (Carol Potter) helps her get even.

Dressed as a wealthy Beverly Hills socialite, Cindy heads to Tracey Ross and proceeds to select thousands of dollars worth of items to purchase. When she receives receiving a parking ticket in the middle of her shopping expenditure, Deirdre offers to pay it for her, at which point Cindy announces that she doesn’t actually want any of the items, nor does she care for Deirdre’s attitude, but that she appreciates the ticket being taken care of. She then turns on her heel and stomps out of the store. Ah, snap!

The actual Tracey Ross has a much better reputation than Deirdre. Raised in Long Beach, the fashionista worked at several upscale Los Angeles boutiques after dropping out of UCLA in the ‘80s. She was a natural at selling clothes and eventually began styling celebrity clients, which led to her opening her own store in 1990. It was wildly successful. In 1996, when the rent was raised at her Robertson Boulevard space, Tracey moved to a new storefront at Sunset Plaza and it was a hit, as well. During its heyday, the boutique, which even had an onsite manicurist, became the stomping ground of such stars as Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, Natasha Henstridge, Courtney Love, Bob Dylan, Melanie Griffith, Lindsay Lohan, Ellen Pompeo, Nicole Richie, Kelly Lynch, Virginia Madsen, Linda Gray, Samantha Ronson, and Kate Hudson. Sadly, the Sunset Plaza shop was shuttered in 2009 due to the poor economy. You can read two great Los Angeles Times articles about Tracey here and here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Tracey Ross, aka the store where Brenda worked during Season 2 of Beverly Hills, 90210, was formerly located at 105 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Grove. Today, that space houses a Lululemon. In “A Walsh Family Christmas,” Brenda rescued Santa on the southwest corner of Alden Drive and South Robertson Boulevard. The former Les Habitudes storefront, which can be seen across the street in the scene, can be found at 101 North Robertson.