Category: TV Locations

The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar from "The Bachelor"

This season of The Bachelor has been one for the record books! I don’t think there has ever been a prior season featuring so many crazy contestants – and for The Bachelor, that’s really saying something. Sure there are a few sane women in the bunch (Whitney, Carly and Becca), but for the most part each episode is like a parade of crazy – and I am loving every minute of it! The Grim Cheaper and I just visited a location from a past season of the show last week while up in San Francisco for my grandma’s 90th birthday. One of my besties Nat, who lives in SF, planned a spectacular Valentine’s Day evening for us, during which we stopped by the iconic Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar at The Fairmont San Francisco Hotel. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited!

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Construction on The Fairmont began in 1902. In a bit of unfortunate timing, the hotel was completed, but had not yet opened, shortly before the 1906 earthquake. While the building was not harmed by the actual quake, the fires that followed wound up devastating the structure. Architect Julia Morgan, who co-designed William Randolph Hearst’s Ocean House in Santa Monica, was eventually brought in to rehabilitate it and The Fairmont was finally opened to the public in 1907. It soon became the city’s most popular upscale hotel. The property went through a succession of different owners during its early years and in 1929 was purchased by an engineer named George Smith, who installed a 75-foot indoor pool on the hotel’s Terrace level that he dubbed the “Fairmont Plunge.”

The hotel suffered a downturn during the Great Depression and was sold yet again, this time to Benjamin Swig. In the hopes of restoring The Fairmont’s popularity, Swig brought in interior decorator Dorothy Draper to redesign the place.

And it worked. The Fairmont once again became the toast of San Francisco society, as well as the go-to hotel for visiting celebs and dignitaries. Just a few of the stars who have stayed at The Fairmont over the years include Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Wells, William Randolph Hearst, Rudolph Valentino, Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, James Stewart, Kim Novak, Fred Astaire, James Brown, Ernest Hemingway, David Duchovny, Harrison Ford, Uma Thurman, Courteney Cox, Katie Holmes, and Mischa Barton. The Fairmont has also hosted such presidents as Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and, just last week, Barack Obama. And it was in the hotel’s famed supper club, The Venetian Room, that Tony Bennett first sang his trademark song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

In 1945, Swig hired MGM set director Mel Melvin to transform the Plunge into a nautical-themed Chinese restaurant that he named the S.S. Tonga. While popular, Benjamin decided to redesign the place once again in the 1950s due to the advent of the tiki bar craze. The new Polynesian-themed eatery was dubbed the “Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar.”

Swig stationed a barge, complete with a thatched roof, in the center of the pool and hired bands to play on it nightly.

He also installed a large dance floor that had been constructed out of the deck of the S.S. Forester, a ship that once travelled between San Francisco and the South Sea Islands.

To say that the Tonga Room is spectacular would be a gross understatement. The place is absolutely phenomenal and my photographs really don’t do it justice. It is easily one of San Francisco’s most unique spots and it is not surprising that producers chose to feature it in the Season 16 episode of The Bachelor that was filmed in SF. Oh, and did I mention that it rains there? So freaking cool!

The Fairmont popped up during Ben Flajnik’s season in the episode titled “San Francisco, California” and was shown several times throughout the episode.

Not only were the women put up at the hotel . . .

. . . but the incredibly dramatic rose ceremony - in which Shawntel Newton (from Brad Womack’s season) barged in and was then subsequently ousted (cue Courtney saying “Sayonara”) – took place on the patio of The Fairmont’s 6,000-square-foot Penthouse Suite. Just a few of the luminaries who have stayed in the suite include President John F. Kennedy, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Marlene Dietrich. You can check out some photographs of the space here. The library room is uh-ma-zing!

The show’s group date took place in the Tonga Room. In the episode, Ben described the restaurant as an iconic and historic San Francisco landmark, so I was shocked that I had never heard of it before, especially considering that I grew up in SF. I immediately called my mom to ask how it was that my parents had never taken me there and she replied, “We never took you there? How is that possible?” I don’t know, mom! I don’t know! I have wanted to remedy the situation ever since and am so glad that I was recently able to do so!

The Bachelor returned to The Fairmont during its current season. In the fourth episode, titled “Camping,” Bachelor Chris Soules and contestant Jillian Anderson had an extremely awkward date on the patio of the Penthouse Suite, the same spot where Ben’s rose ceremony took place.

The Fairmont has been featured in countless productions over the years, so many that it would be impossible for me to chronicle them all here. As Jim Van Buskirk and Will Shank say in their book Celluloid San Francisco, “The Fairmont has starred in so many movies that, legend has it, the doorman is required to be a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild.” Love it! A few of its notable onscreen appearances include Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In the 1958 thriller, Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) is shown briefly driving by the hotel.

Supposedly, the shots of San Francisco that appeared in the movie’s opening sequence were taken from the roof of The Fairmont, but I am unsure if that information is correct.

Hitchcock returned to the hotel to shoot a brief scene for 1976’s Family Plot, in which Blanche Taylor (Barbara Harris) leaves a cryptic message for George Lumley (Bruce Dern) with the doorman.

The Fairmont was used in establishing shots of the St. Gregory Hotel in the 1983 television series Hotel.

Interiors were shot on a set modeled after the inside of The Fairmont.

In the 1996 thriller The Rock, John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) demands a suite at The Fairmont while helping the FBI with a case.

The FBI secures him the Penthouse Suite and it is on the patio that Mason gets his hair cut . . .

. . . and from which F.B.I. Director Womack (John Spencer) is thrown.

Though portions of the Penthouse interior were utilized in the filming (including the library, pictured below), I believe that most of the hotel room scenes were shot elsewhere.

And oddly enough, when Mason is shown exiting The Fairmont, he is actually standing in front of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

In the 1994 comedy Junior, an establishing shot of The Fairmont is shown as the location of the West Coast Pharmaceutical Convention.

But interiors were actually shot in the Gold Room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

And when Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) are shown leaving the convention, they are actually standing at the Biltmore’s limo ramp .

Fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, also informed me that The Fairmont was where Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) gave a speech at the National Parks Conference in the Season 6 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Moving Up.” The hotel was only used in establishing shots, though. Interior filming took place elsewhere.

The Fairmont has also appeared in Jade, Hard to Hold, Shoot the Moon, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, A Night Full of Rain, Mother, Towering Inferno, Petulia, Midnight Lace, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Magnum Force, Kiss Them For Me, The Streets of San Francisco and The Amazing Race.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Fairmont San Francisco is located at 950 Mason Street in Nob Hill. You can visit the Fairmont’s official website here. The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is located on the hotel’s Terrace Level. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

February 23, 2015
The Cat & Fiddle

We’ll always have the Cat & Fiddle. Or so Angelinos thought. Sadly, the historic restaurant closed its doors this past December. When news of the impending shuttering hit the blogosphere in late October, I became desperate to stalk the eatery – especially once I read via several online news outlets that it had appeared in Casablanca (though, due to the fact that the 1942 classic was filmed pretty much solely at Warner Bros. Studios, I had my doubts as to the authenticity of the claims). I had visited the Cat & Fiddle once many moons prior (the Grim Cheaper’s friends took us there for cocktails on his birthday in 2002), but failed to take any photos. So I ran right back out there for a proper stalk last November while my friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria were in town (that’s Melissa and Maria above).

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The Spanish-style courtyard complex that housed the Cat & Fiddle for almost thirty years was originally constructed between 1928 and 1929. The property was known as the “Court of Olive” at the time and had been commissioned by silent film star Fred Thomson and his wife, journalist/screenwriter Frances Marion. In its earliest inception, the two-story site served as a shopping pavilion. It later became known as the “Fred Thompson Building” and went on to house a studio commissary, a studio wardrobe department, professional offices and several restaurants. You can check out some photographs of the place in its early days here. Miraculously, the building still looks exactly the same today as it did then.

Kim and Paula Gardner, proprietors of the Cat & Fiddle, brought their eatery to the Fred Thompson Building in 1985. The couple had originally established the British-style pub/restaurant at 2100 Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills (that space is now Pace) in October 1982, but it became immensely popular in a very short time and neighboring residents soon complained about the noisiness of the patrons, and the Gardners were forced to move.

For the Cat & Fiddle’s new home, Kim and Paula chose a shaded unit with a large patio located at the rear of the Thomson Building.

The Cat & Fiddle remained popular after the move and even celebrities were known to drop by. Such stars as Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Russell Brand, Shania Twain, Nathan Fillion, Abbie Cornish, Jeremy Piven, David Cross, Ed Helms, Lizzy Caplan, Bill Hader, Seth Green, Rosamund Pike, Dave Grohl, and Chris Evans were all spotted there at one time or another, while Christopher Lloyd, Morrissey and Drew Barrymore were longtime regulars.

Upon Kim’s death in 2001, Paula took over daily operations of the restaurant along with daughter Ashlee. While the place continued to be an extremely popular watering hole among celebs and non-celebs alike, in late 2014 the building’s owner, Jesse Shannon, informed Paula and Ashlee that he had chosen not to renew their lease. (Apparently, they had been paying less than half the market value of the space for quite some time.) The Cat & Fiddle’s last day of business was on December 15th. Paula and Ashlee are currently looking for a new spot to rent and hope to someday reopen their beloved restaurant. As for the historic space that once housed it? Shannon stated that he would be spending millions to restore the building to its 1920s state and that it would then be leased out to what Eater LA called a “familiar” name.

There are differing reports as to where exactly in the Cat & Fiddle space Casablanca was filmed. Obviously, the movie was shot long before the Cat ever came onto the scene, but the flick was supposedly lensed in the unit where the restaurant was later situated). Some claim that the room below, which is named the “Casablanca Room,” appeared in the movie.

While others claim that filming took place on the patio. The patio area truly is picturesque and, while it does bring to mind the atmosphere of Casablanca, I still had serious doubts that any filming of the movie had occurred on the premises.

As it turns out, my suspicions were correct. I recently watched Casablanca – and then later scanned through it a second time – and did not see the Cat & Fiddle pop up anywhere. As I mentioned above, from what I have been able to garner online, it seems that production of the movie never left the studio. Even the countless reports about a scene being lensed at the Van Nuys Airport have been debunked. So then how did the Cat & Fiddle rumors come about? My best guess is that the Thomson Building was featured at some point in either the 1955 television series Casablanca or its 1983 successor. That is just a guess, though. What I can say with absolutely certainty – unless I seriously missed something – is that the 1942 film did not shoot any footage at the Cat & Fiddle property. On a side-note – Casablanca is such a fabulous movie! I’ve seen it several times now and it just never gets old. If you have yet to watch it, I highly recommend that you do.

Thanks to Geoff, from the 90210Locations site, though, I learned that something was filmed at the Cat & Fiddle! In the Season 1 episode of Ray Donovan titled “Road Trip,” Tommy Wheeler (Austin Nichols) got into some trouble at the restaurant and Ray (Live Schreiber) had to remedy things for him.

Only the exterior of the pub was used in the episode, though. Interiors were filmed elsewhere.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Cat & Fiddle was formerly located at 6530 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. You can check out the restaurant’s official website, which is is still online, here.

February 10, 2015
The Bel Age Hotel from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Ah, change. It’s one of my least favorite things, especially when it comes to filming locations. So I was devastated when the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel, one of the most prominent locations from Beverly Hills, 90210, closed in 2007 to undergo a huge renovation and was renamed The London West Hollywood. I had been to the Bel Age prior to its closure, but failed to take any photographs of the place. I was so incredibly excited to be there that the visit is seared into my memory for eternity, but I still wish I had pictures. Back in 2003, I was enrolled in an acting school and two of my classmates happened to work at the Bel Age. One evening during class, upon learning what a 90210 freak I was, they offered to take me on a tour of the place. The whole thing was very last minute, which is why I did not have my camera. So around 11 p.m. that night (class got out late), we headed to West Hollywood and my friends proceeded to take me through every square inch of the hotel – we’re talking restaurants, kitchens, back hallways, suites, ballrooms, and, most memorably, the rooftop pool. The whole thing was pretty epic for someone as obsessed with 90210 as I am and, looking back, the fact that I did not have a camera is rather tragic. But there’s good news! Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I recently stopped by The London – and this time I brought a camera! – and I was shocked to discover that, despite the extensive remodel, the hotel is still very recognizable from 90210.

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For a good two decades the Wyndham Bel Age was the place to see and be seen in West Hollywood. Located right off the Sunset Strip, the wood-paneled, pink-hued, all-suite hotel, which was built in 1984, featured a fitness center, a salon, a florist, an antique gallery, a rooftop pool, two restaurants (the exclusive Franco-Russian-inspired Diaghilev and the more casual Club Brassiere, which turned into a jazz club at night), 24-hour room service (yes, please!) and an art collection rivaling that of a museum. The Bel Age displayed pieces from Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, and Erte (not just in public spaces, but in each guest room, as well!), just to name a few, and also boasted an open-air sculpture garden. In late 2005, the property was purchased by the Blackstone Group and subsequently closed for its $50-million renovation on May 15th, 2007. It re-opened as The London the following May.

As I mentioned, though, the hotel is still very recognizable from its 90210 days.

The Bel Age popped up countless times on Beverly Hills, 90210. It was pretty much the producers’ go-to hotel of choice. The property was first featured in the Season 1 episode titled “The Green Room.” As you can see below (though my photograph is facing the opposite angle from the screen capture), the lobby is still very similar today to how it was in the ‘90s. During the Bel Age days, the lobby was all pine wood paneling and muted pink accents. That wood paneling has since been painted white, but its shaping and embellishments remain the same. The large mauve rugs were sent packing, though, and the lobby currently boasts bright white marble floors.

The front desk is also still situated running the entire length of the western side of the lobby, just as it was pre-remodel. (My apologies as my below photograph was, again, taken from the opposite angle of the screen capture.)

The large corridors that branch off from the lobby are, also, still much the same as they were on 90210, minus a lot of pink and floral furniture.

The corridors house the entrances to the property’s banquet rooms (I believe) and were seen in several episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210.

The hallways between suites also haven’t changed much, aside from the addition of a lot of white paint. I got the photograph below off of Trip Advisor and, as you can see, the chair railings, crown moldings, diagonally-situated wall panels, and carved wooden doors that appeared on 90210 are all still intact today. The art work that once lined the Bel Age’s corridors was all, sadly, sold at an auction following the hotel’s 2007 closure and is therefore no longer on display.

One of the Bel Age’s actual rooms was used as the corporate suite where Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) lived in “The Green Room.” Though it is a bit hard to make out in the screen captures below, the room featured in that episode was Suite 211.

As you can see, the room from “The Green Room” matches a photograph of a former Bel Age hotel room that I got from the SanFrancisco.com website. You can check out what The London’s rooms currently look like here.

In the Season 1 episode of 90210 titled “The First Time,” Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) took his former girlfriend Sheryl (Paula Irvine) to meet Dylan for lunch at the Bel Age. At the time, the restaurant where they ate was known as Club Brasserie. That eatery is now the Boxwood Café. As you can see in the screen capture and photograph below (which I got off of the London website), the space’s unique peaked ceiling was not changed during the remodel.

Room 211 made an appearance in “The First Time,” too.

The Bel Age was also where the West Beverly High Mother/Daughter Fashion Show was held in the Season 1 episode titled “Perfect Mom.”

The actual fashion show took place in one of the hotel’s ballrooms, though not much of it can be seen in the episode due to the dark lighting. You can check out what the ballroom looks like today here.

In the Season 2 episode titled, “Things to Do on a Rainy Day,” Brenda Walsh (my girl Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and David Silver (Brian Austin Green) booked a room at the Bel Age in order to try to meet the guys from Color Me Badd, who were staying at the hotel. That so sounds like something I would do, by the way! Oh, who am I kidding – I HAVE done that!

Me doing my best Kelly-Donna-Brenda-standing-in-the-rain impersonation.

A real room – or a set very closely resembling one – was used in the filming of “Things to Do on a Rainy Day.” As you can see below, the gang’s suite, most notably the railing and curtain, matches the below photograph of one of the Bel Age’s former rooms, which I got off of the Agoda website.

In the Season 3 episode titled “Back in the High Life Again” (which was probably my least favorite episode of the ENTIRE series), Jack McKay (Josh Taylor) threw a soiree in his room at the Bel Age upon getting released from prison.

It was in the “High Life” episode, at the hotel’s rooftop pool, that Dylan finally chose Kelly. Gag! Mike and I did not make it up to the pool during our visit, but you can see what it looks like in its current state here. Thankfully, the pool was not altered during the remodel.

Most famously, the West Beverly Senior Prom was held at the Bel Age in the Season 3 episode titled “A Night to Remember.” And we all know what happened at the West Beverly Senior Prom! That night resulted in one of 90210’s most memorable storylines EVER. Let’s hear it for “Donna Martin graduates!”

The gang’s prom took place in one of the hotel’s ballrooms – I believe the very same ballroom that was used in “Perfect Mom.” If you look at a current photo of that ballroom, you can see that the space’s ceilings and crystal chandeliers remain the same today as they were in 1993 when the episode was filmed.

For as long as I can remember there has been a bit of a mystery surrounding the bathroom scene in which Donna got sick in the episode, but I am very happy to report that while writing this post I figured things out and can officially put that mystery to rest. A few years back, there was a blog called “Tales of an Extra” that was written by a man who was a professional background actor. (For whatever reason, the blog is no longer online.) The man appeared in numerous episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and had this to say about his experience shooting Season 3’s “Senior Poll” at the L.A. Forum, “Some scenes of some of the female characters and extras were shot in the ladies room, which were to be used as part of a prom scene in the episode, and had nothing to do with the Forum.” That post caused many people, myself included, to believe that the scene in which Donna got sick at the prom was most likely shot at the Forum. The bathroom from “A Night to Remember” is pictured below. The space never struck me as a bathroom that would be located at a sports arena, though. Not to mention the fact that it would be rather odd that a scene from “A Night to Remember” would be shot during the filming of “Senior Poll,” which was two episodes ahead of it chronologically. My friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, managed to track down the set decorator for both episodes for me, so I emailed her to try to clear things up. She informed me that the prom bathroom was a set created for the shoot and was most definitely not located at the Forum. Because the room certainly had that set look, I believed her. But that left me wondering about the supposed prom scene filmed in a Forum bathroom.

Then all of a sudden it hit me! Maybe there was a bathroom scene in the “Senior Poll” episode! I popped in my DVD and, sure enough, there was! And in it, Kelly was wearing a prom dress! In the scene, Kelly, Donna, Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) and some other West Beverly girls are shown getting ready to take their yearbook pictures for the senior poll. Kelly had won “Most Beautiful” and chose to wear a formal gown for her photo. It was that scene that was shot in a Forum bathroom. Mystery solved!

One thing I was not able to figure out, though, is where the stairs that the gang walked down in “A Night to Remember” were – or are – located. Mike and I did not see them while stalking The London, nor do I remember them from my 2003 tour of the Bel Age. They appear to have been located somewhere in the lobby, though.

The same stairwell also appeared in 90210’s “Perfect Mom” episode.

I also came across a more recent photo of the stairs in a 2006 WeHo News article. Though the picture is taken from a wide angle, it does not clear up where the stairs were – or again, are – located. Oh, how I would love to find them!

The apartment building where Mel Silver (Matthew Laurance) lived – and where the gang drank champagne before the prom – in “A Night to Remember” was actually the back side of the Bel Age hotel, which can be found on Larrabee Street. For the shot, producers simply installed an awning reading “121 Doheny Palm.” Aside from that minor change, the area still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did in 1993.

The interior of Mel’s apartment appears to have been some sort of banquet room or large suite, complete with a large built-in bar, at the Bel Age.

The wooden doors (see screen cap above) and carpeting of Mel’s apartment match those of the hotel, as seen later in the episode while the gang is waiting for Donna to come out of the bathroom. The framed artwork hanging on Mel’s wall is also a direct match to the artwork pictured hanging in the Bel Age hallways in previous episodes.

The Bel Age also served as the location of Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) and Janet Sosna’s (Lindsay Price) wedding reception in the Season 10 episode titled “Baby, You Can Drive My Car.” Though producers changed the name to the “Beverly Royale Hotel” for the scene.

While the Bel Age’s lobby . . .

. . . and one of its rooms appeared in the episode . . .

. . . I believe the room where the actual wedding reception took place was just a set.

The Bel Age also appeared in many episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 during its later years, but because I pretty much stopped watching the series during Season 5, it would be impossible for me to chronicle them all.

90210 is hardly the only production to have been lensed at the hotel. In the 1985 crime drama Prizzi’s Honor, Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson) and Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner) met up a couple of times at the Bel Age.

In one scene, they had drinks at Diaghilev restaurant.

That same year, Alec Newbary (Judd Nelson) rescued Jules (Demi Moore) from a date-gone-wrong at the Bel Age, said to be Washington, D.C.’s VanBuren Hotel, in St. Elmo’s Fire.

The staircase also made an appearance in the scene.

The Bel Age pool was the site of Sammy Joe’s (Heather Locklear) photo shoot in the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion.

Allison Parker (Courtney Throne-Smith) attended a work party at the Bel Age in the pilot episode of Melrose Place, which aired in 1992

The Bel Age was also where Charles Reynolds (Linden Ashby) stayed in the Season 1 episode of Melrose Place titled “Peanut Butter and Jealousy.” Only the exterior of the hotel was used in the episode, though.

Interior scenes were filmed at another location altogether.

In the Season 4 episode of Ally McBeal titled “The Getaway,” which aired in 2001, Richard Fish (Greg Germann) and John Cage (Peter MacNicol) headed to Los Angeles for a vacation and checked into the Bel Age.

The pool was featured in the episode, as well.

In the Season 2 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “I Wish I Could Forget You,” which aired in 2005, the Bel Age Hotel was where Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross) went for a romantic weekend with her new boyfriend George Williams (Roger Bart).

Bree and George ate at Diaghilev in the episode.

The stairs from 90210 also made an appearance.

In the Season 1 episode of Melrose Place 2.0 titled “San Vicente,” which aired in 2009, Ella Simms (Katie Cassidy) threw a party for movie executive Curtis Heller (Nolan North) at what was by then The London.

While it has been said that the Bel Age pool was featured in the opening scene of 1991’s L.A. Story, I am fairly certain that is incorrect. As you can see in the screen capture below as compared to an old photograph of the Bel Age pool that I got from the Top Travel News website, the patio area at the Bel Age is considerably larger than the patio that appeared in L.A. Story.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The London West Hollywood, aka the former Bel Age Hotel from Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 1020 North San Vicente Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

February 9, 2015
Huron Substation from “NCIS: New Orleans”

I have been a fan of the television show NCIS ever since it premiered in 2003. While I never got into its 2009 spin-off, NCIS: LA, the Grim Cheaper and I recently caught the backdoor pilots for the series’ most recent offshoot, NCIS: New Orleans, and absolutely loved them. I was also thrilled while watching to recognize the location used as the NCIS New Orleans field office in the episodes – it’s actually the Huron Substation located in Los Angeles’ Cypress Park. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had told me about the locale years ago because of its appearance in the movie Must Love Dogs, but for whatever reason, I had never stalked it. Once it popped up on NCIS, though, I figured it was high time that I did and finally ventured on over there last week.

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The Huron Substation was originally constructed in 1906 in order to provide electricity for the Yellow Cars transit line. As journalist Jean Merl explained in a 2009 Los Angeles Times article, “The trolleys, operated by Henry E. Huntington’s Los Angeles Railway, were the local counterpart to Pacific Electric Railway’s Red Cars, which covered four counties. Both systems operated streetcars powered by electricity and required scores of substations to convert alternating current to the direct current used by the cars.”

The massive, peaked-roof, brick structure was designed by civil engineer Edward Sigourney Cobb, who, according to the L.A. Times article, also helped to build Angels Flight, the famed funicular railway in Bunker Hill.

The City of Los Angeles sold the Huron Substation at the end of the 1950s and the site proceeded to go through several incarnations, including stints as a signal manufacturing plant, a welding shop and a furniture workshop.

The Huron Substation was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument on December 20th, 1988. A short time later, the interior was completely destroyed in a fire. Thankfully, then owner Bob Josten subsequently renovated the space, bringing it back to its original glory.

In 2005, a woman named Meike Kopp purchased the property. She uses the space as her private residence, but also rents it out for special events and filming – lots and lots of filming.

It’s no wonder the site has become so popular with location scouts – the Huron Substation is nothing short of spectacular. The interior is made up of sweeping 45-foot tall ceilings, huge arched windows, exposed brick, 12-foot high doors, an open first level that measures 32 by 46 feet, a second floor mezzanine, an enormous open staircase, and a large back patio. You can check out some photographs of the interior here. I can’t even imagine how cool it must be to live there!

While I did not get to see the interior, I was able to catch a glimpse of the patio area through the back fence. It, too, is pretty spectacular.

NCIS: New Orleans was first introduced via the Season 11 episodes of NCIS titled “Crescent City” and “Crescent City: Part 2.” The Huron Substation only appeared as the New Orleans NCIS field office in those two episodes.

Once the series was picked up, filming moved to the Big Easy and a set of the field office was built on a studio soundstage. You can see photographs of the set here.

Though production designer Victoria Paul stated in a November 2014 NOLA.com article that the set’s design was inspired by the carriageway used in the establishing shots of the field office (pictured below), it is obvious that the general layout and look of the space, with the exposed brick walls, large open staircase, carriage door and second floor mezzanine, were at least in part modeled after the Huron Substation. (The carriageway used on the series is located at approximately 723 St. Ann Street in New Orleans.)

As I mentioned earlier, I recognized the Huron Substation in NCIS: New Orleans due to its appearance in Must Love Dogs. In the 2005 romcom, the property was where Jake (John Cusack) lived. The upstairs area was used as his living space . . .

. . . while the downstairs was used as the workspace for his boat.

The Huron Substation was also extensively throughout 2001’s The Fast and the Furious as Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) garage.

In 2003’s Malibu’s Most Wanted, the site stood in for a nightclub where Brad ‘B-Rad’ Gluckman (Jamie Kennedy) performed.

Josh Groban’s 2006 “February Song” music video was filmed in its entirety inside of the Huron Substation.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

The Jonas Brothers also shot their 2007 “Kids of the Future” video on the premises.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

In the 2010 dramedy The Kids Are All Right, the Huron Substation masqueraded as WYSIWYG (an acronym for “What You See Is What You Get”), the restaurant owned by Paul (Mark Ruffalo). The building was used extensively in the filming. Areas utilized included the exterior;

the patio;

and the bottom floor, which was transformed considerably for the shoot.

That same year, the Huron Substation was transformed into Lou Pine’s, “the oldest were [werewolf] bar in Mississippi,” for the Season 3 episodes of True Blood titled “It Hurts Me Too” and “9 Crimes.”

The interior of the building appeared in the two episodes as well.

The Huron Substation also stood in for the interior of New York’s Central Park Boathouse in the 2010 comedy Date Night, though the scene that took place there was rather dark making the space fairly unrecognizable onscreen.

In 2012, the substation masked as the gym belonging to Chad Raber (Daniel Sobieray), a personal trainer who has been murdered, in the Season 1 episode of Major Crimes titled “Before and After.”

Huron Substation also appeared in the films Catwoman and Secretary and in episodes of Heroes and Dollhouse, though I am unsure of which episodes specifically.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Huron Substation, from NCIS: New Orleans, is located at 2640 Huron Street in Cypress Park. You can visit the property’s official website here.

February 3, 2015
St. Vincent Court from “The Mentalist”

I cannot wait for the Secret L.A.-themed February issue of Los Angeles magazine to hit newsstands! The City of Angels is chock full of tucked-away gems and I absolutely love discovering them. The Grim Cheaper and I just stalked one, in fact, that is also a filming location – St. Vincent Court, which appeared in a recent episode of The Mentalist. I first discovered the tiny and incredibly unique alleyway while on a Watson Adventures’ Downtown L.A. Movie Locations Scavenger Hunt with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, back in November 2010. So I recognized it immediately when it popped up on The Mentalist and ran right out to re-stalk it while in L.A. last week.

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St. Vincent Court is so named because it stands on the site of what was Los Angeles’ first college, Saint Vincent’s College. The school was originally founded in 1865 at the Lugo Adobe House. Two years later, it moved to a two-story building on 6th Street, between Hill and Broadway, in downtown L.A. St. Vincent Court, which is actually a small alleyway, was known as St. Vincent Place at the time and served as the main pathway onto the campus. In 1887, the school relocated to a new venue and the property subsequently served as a military compound. Then, in 1906, it was chosen to be the location of the very first Bullocks department store. The new store was constructed on the corner of 7th and Broadway, adjacent to St. Vincent Place, which was used as a pass through and for deliveries. Bullocks soon purchased the building located across the alley and built an air bridge to connect the two structures. The alley became dirty and dingy, as alleys tend to do, though, and in 1956 Bullocks and the City of L.A. teamed up to give the small space a facelift. Façades and false fronts were built, awnings installed, a café and flower shop added, and the alley’s name changed to St. Vincent Court. The site was dedicated in 1957 and became a California Registered Historical Landmark that same year.

St. Vincent Court is situated behind a rather unremarkable breezeway and is virtually hidden from view. Despite the signage out front announcing its existence, one could easily walk by without even realizing it is there.

From the outside, it looks like any other of the city’s non-descript alleys. Step inside, though, and you’ll find that it is anything but.

Inside, the place looks like Disneyland.

The fake balconies;

ornate overhangs;

whimsical signage;

elaborate doorways and windows;

and sidewalk seating . . .

. . . . all add up to give the alley an amusement park/movie set/fake European/old world-feel. To say that St. Vincent Court is unique is a vast understatement. The place is like a Hollywood backlot that has been randomly plopped into the middle of downtown.

Despite some recent opposition to outdoor seating in the alley, mid-week St. Vincent Court is typically bustling with hungry downtowners seeking authentic European and Mediterranean-style meals at lunchtime.

In the Season 7 episode of The Mentalist titled “Orange Blossom Ice Cream,” Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) went undercover in Beirut in order to capture a terrorist. No filming actually took place in the Middle East, though. Instead production simply headed to . . . downtown Los Angeles. The hotel where Patrick and Teresa stayed in the episode was none other than the Millennium Biltmore.

Two of the Biltmore’s hallways were used in the episode . . .

. . . but I am fairly certain that Jane and Lisbon’s suite was just a set built on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studios where The Mentalist is lensed.

For outdoor filming, production head to St. Vincent Court. The alley was first shown in the scene in which Patrick was taken to meet with terrorist Jan Nemic (Mark Ivanir).

Nemic’s lair was actually the back side of the Los Angeles Theatre.

Later in the episode, Lisbon and Jane dined on some manakish at a local Beirut eatery.

The restaurant scene was filmed at the Sevan Garden Kebab House, which is located at the northeastern end of St. Vincent Court. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the place’s interior. You can check some out here, though.

After dinner, Jane and Lisbon head out to St. Vincent Court and hail a cab.

At the end of the episode, Lisbon and Jane are shown walking up the Biltmore’s stairs . . .

. . . and onto the hotel’s rooftop to share some orange blossom ice cream.

St. Vincent Court also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Moonlight titled “Out of the Past.”

Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) sped through the alley while being chased by cops in Gone in 60 Seconds

And Taylor Swift danced there in her “Delicate” music video.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: St. Vincent Court, from the “Orange Blossom Ice Cream” episode of The Mentalist, is located on 7th Street, in between South Hill Street and Broadway, in downtown Los Angeles’ Jewelry District.

January 28, 2015
Burning Man’s House from “Major Crimes”

My friend Owen and I share an uncanny synchronicity. The other night I received an email from him which said the following, “837 Beacon Ave., L.A. You may want to stalk this place after you watch the Season 7 premiere of Parks and Recreation.” I had yet to see the episode, but immediately looked up the address via Google Street View and just about fell off my chair. The very same house had also appeared in that week’s Major Crimes and I had made a mental note while watching to track it down. As I said, uncanny! It was as if Owen had read my mind!

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The reason Owen thought I would be interested in stalking the residence should be apparent to those who read my site regularly. As you can see below, the property is abandoned and there is nothing this stalker loves more than an abandoned site.

In the Major Crimes episode that I had watched, Season 3’s “Special Master: Part Two,” the Major Crimes Division gang tried to catch a serial murderer/rapist known as “Burning Man” who was killing women in abandoned houses all over L.A. They finally manage to locate him at his abandoned childhood home in what is said to be Boyle Heights. In reality, though, the property is in Westlake.

The interior of the residence also appeared in the episode.

In the Season 7 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “2017,” which aired the day after “Special Master: Part Two,” April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) and Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) stumbled upon an open house at the property while driving through Pawnee, Indiana’s “creepy Warehouse District.”

I loved the fact that the owner was holding open houses every day in the episode. He was really motivated to sell!

While touring the interior, Andy states that the residence has the “fairly standard layout” of 12 closets, 3 bomb shelters, 5 dumbwaiters, 2 and 3/8 baths, and no kitchens.” Ah yes, and there is also a staircase to nowhere and a fire pole on the premises. Once the couple learns that the pad used to be a holding cell for assembly line workers from the Pawnee Doll Head Factory who had gone insane, they spontaneously decide to purchase it. Sold!

In real life, the property, which was originally built in 1895, boasts 6 bedrooms, 2 baths, 3,264 square feet of living space, and a 0.18-acre plot of land. And I am guessing that it does actually have a kitchen.

Though the property is abandoned in real life, I think it is in better shape than its façade would have one believe. Granted the place is not turn-key by any means, but it’s not dilapidated, either. I am also fairly certain that the windows are boarded up in order to protect them and not due to being broken.

Owen also let me know that April and Andy’s new home had appeared in several other productions over the years. In the Season 8 episode of The X-Files titled “Via Negativa,” which aired in 2000, the house serves as the supposed Pittsburgh headquarters of the Third Eye cult.

The interior of the property also appears in the episode.

Detective Michael Raines (Jeff Goldblum) and his team arrest some murder suspects at the house in the Season 1 episode of Raines titled “The Fifth Step,” which aired in 2007. Only the interior of the residence is featured in the episode.

In the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist titled “The Scarlet Letter,” which aired in 2009, the home masks as an apartment building where the stepmother of a murder victim lives.

The interior of the dwelling was also utilized in the filming, though obviously altered to appear as if it was comprised of separate apartment units.

That same year, the property was featured in the movie Blood and Bone as the boarding house where Isaiah Bone (Michael Jai White) stays after being released from prison.

The interior of the home also appears in the movie.

As you can see, it is in much better shape than one would expect. The woodwork is gorgeous! All the place needs is a little Magic Eraser and it would be amazing!

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Burning Man’s house from Major Crimes is located at 837 Beacon Avenue in Westlake.

January 27, 2015
South Fork Inn from “Revenge”

Finding today’s location had me feeling like a complete moron. Though my obsession with Revenge has waned in recent months (I have only watched three episodes from the current season), I remained hell-bent on tracking down the Colonial-style structure used in establishing shots of the South Fork Inn on the series. I figured the location was most likely a private home and scoured the internet for months looking for it, all to no avail. Then a couple of weeks ago, I decided to once again try my hand at finding it and proceeded to search through every location database that I knew of, comparing the Colonial-style homes listed with screen captures from the show. I found the right spot fairly quickly and could not believe my eyes once I did. Turns out the location is well-known to me – it was featured regularly and prominently on my favorite TV show of all time, Beverly Hills, 90210. South Fork Inn is none other than the Marion Davies Guest House at the Annenberg Community Beach House, aka the former Sand & Sea Club, aka the very same spot that stood in for the Beverly Hills Beach Club on 90210. (Insert facepalm here.) Granted, the property has changed quite a bit since 90210 filmed on the premises, but still, how I did not recognize it is beyond me.

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The five-acre beachfront property, which was originally known as Ocean House, was constructed in 1928 at a cost of $3.5 million for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and his mistress, Marion Davies. The lavish compound was designed in the Georgian Colonial-style by architects Julia Morgan and William Flannery. The site was comprised of a three-story main house featuring 55 bathrooms, 37 fireplaces, a theatre, a ballroom and a basement pub. The property also boasted three detached guest houses, as well as servants quarters, dog kennels, tennis courts, and two swimming pools. (Flannery designed the main estate, while Morgan was responsible for the pool, guest houses and other detached structures, as well as all interiors.) The parties held at the compound during Hearst and Davies’ tenure there were legendary and often included guest lists numbering in the thousands. Such luminaries as Howard Hughes, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill, and Gloria Swanson all spent time at the massive estate at one time or another.

Hearst and Davies vacated the mansion in 1946 in order to move to Beverly Hills. The couple took quite a loss on the place, selling it to a man named Joseph Drown for a measly $600,000. Drown immediately transformed the site into a hotel named Oceanhouse and a beach club named the Sand & Sea Club. The hotel was never a huge success, though, and in 1956, Drown had the main house and many of the original structures demolished. He then added three new buildings to the premises and continued to operate the property as the Sand & Sea Club.

For reasons that are a bit hazy, the land where the Sand & Seas Club stood was acquired by the State of California in 1959. The state in turn handed management of the land over to the City of Santa Monica. It was still being leased back by Drown, though, and the site run as a beach club. In 1964, Drown sold the club to Douglas Badt, who continued to operate it as the Sand & Sea Club until October 1990, when the city decided that a private club could not be situated on public land. It became a public club for a short time after that and was used often for filming. Then, the 1994 Northridge Earthquake rendered the site unsuitable for public use. It sat vacant and boarded up for several years following. (I took the below photo of the place in 2000.)

The city eventually started making plans to renovate the site and turn it into a public beach club, and renowned philanthropist Wallis Annenberg donated $28 million to the cause. Annenberg had been a member of the Sand & Sea Club as a child and wanted to see the once-great property resurrected. During the renovation, all of the remaining Ocean House structures were demolished, aside from one of the guest houses, which is currently known as the Marion Davies Guest House . . .

. . . and a 110-foot Italian marble swimming pool. Sadly, other than those two elements, no part of Hearst’s original compound, or the Sand & Sea Club remains.

The Annenberg Community Beach House opened on April 25, 2009. The site is open to the public daily and is also used as a special events/wedding venue – and, of course, for filming.

The Marion Davies Guest House pops up regularly as the South Fork Inn on Revenge.

The Guest House is only used for establishing shots, though. The interior of the Inn is just a set built inside of a soundstage at MBS Media Campus where the series is lensed.

In the pilot episode of Revenge, which was shot on location in North Carolina, the City Club of Wilmington was used as the exterior of the South Fork Inn.

Oddly, the interior South Fork Inn scenes from that episode were shot elsewhere, though.

As you can see in the images below, the property used for interior filming (which could very well be a private residence) is addressed “400.” That number does not match up to the address of the City Club of Wilmington, which is located at 23 South 2nd Street. UPDATE – A fellow stalker named Brian let me know that the interior scenes were shot at the Dudley Mansion located at 400 South Front Street in Wilmington. You can see some interior photographs of the place here.

Fellow stalker Glenn also just let me know that a different exterior was used as the South Fork Inn in the Season 3 episode titled “Homecoming.” That location is actually The Culver Studios at 9336 West Washington Boulevard in Culver City.

The Annenberg Community Beach House also popped up in the Season 3 episode of Revenge titled “Confession,” this time as a swanky beach club in the scene in which Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann) first met Patrick Osbourne (Justin Hartley).

Filming of that scene took place on the patio overlooking the pool area.

During the second and third seasons of Beverly Hills, 90210, which aired in 1991 and 1992, the Sand & Sea Club masked as the Beverly Hills Beach Club, where Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) worked and the rest of the West Bev gang hung out. The Marion Davies Guest House was not used in the filming of those episodes, though. [To make screen captures for this post, I had to re-watch several of the episodes in which Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) and Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) cheated on my girl Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) and let’s just say it had me feeling all kinds of ragey! ;)]

During the third season of Saved by the Bell (or fifth, if you’re watching Netflix), which aired in 1991, the Sand & Sea Club masked as the Malibu Sands Beach Club, where Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and the gang worked for a summer.

While the Marion Davies Guest House was not used in the filming of Saved by the Bell, either, it was briefly visible in the background of the episode titled “The Game,” as you can see below.

No interior filming of Saved by the Bell took place at the Sand & Sea Club. The interior of the Malibu Sands Beach Club was just a set built inside of a soundstage.

While doing research on the Sand & Sea Club for this post, I came across the photograph below. Apparently, Bethenny Frankel was a Production Assistant on Saved by the Bell during the early ‘90s and worked on some of the beach club episodes! How cool is that?

The Sand & Sea Club also made an appearance in the 1990 movie Side Out.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Marion Davis Guest House, aka South Fork Inn from Revenge, is part of the Annenberg Community Beach House, which is located at 415 Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. You can visit the property’s official website here.

January 26, 2015
FBI Headquarters from “The Mentalist”

Around this time last year, The Mentalist embarked on a huge change of course by having Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) leave the Sacramento-based California Bureau of Investigation and then join the Austin, Texas branch of the FBI. So, of course, that meant that I had a new location to find – the building used as FBI Headquarters. I spent countless hours searching for the stunningly modern structure, though, but was never able to track it down. For a while, I even thought it might actually be located in the Lone Star State. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I enlisted the help of my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and he came through big time! While doing a Google Image search, he happened upon this Tumblr page on which a commenter stated that the building used on the series is the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita. As soon as Owen shared the information with me, I became desperate to stalk the place. So last week, when we headed out to West L.A. for my dad’s doctors appointments, I begged the Grim Cheaper to take a little detour to Santa Clarita beforehand. Despite the fact that this would take us sixty miles out of our way (round-trip), he agreed! He’s seriously so good to me!

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The Dianne G. Van Hook University Center was designed by architect Leo A. Daly in 2010 at a cost of almost $29 million. The 110,000-square-foot ultra-modern structure contains 23 classrooms, 6 computer labs, 6 meeting rooms, a lecture hall/theatre, a book store, a video conference room, and a large outdoor patio. The building was named in honor of the college’s longtime superintendent/president, Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook, who has been running the COC since 1988.

Though the College of the Canyons has appeared in countless productions over the years (including Weeds, NCIS, and The Girl Next Door), for this post I am focusing solely on the University Center. The building first showed up in the Season 6 episode of The Mentalist titled “My Blue Heaven” and has subsequently been used in every episode since, usually in establishing shots.

The Dianne G. Van Hook University Center is just as stunning in person as it is onscreen. I love how the façade is made up of both sharp and rounded lines.

The interior of the building also pops up occasionally on The Mentalist, so I was beyond thrilled to discover that it is accessible to the public.

The University Center’s interior is also just as stunning in person as it is onscreen.

In the recently-aired Season 7 episode of The Mentalist titled “The Silver Briefcase,” Lisbon and Jane were shown walking along the building’s catwalk . . .

. . . and down the main staircase.

So I just had to pose for a pic on the stairs.

The building’s incredible views were also shown in “The Silver Briefcase.” Man, what I wouldn’t give to see that place at night!

The interior of the actual FBI offices on The Mentalist are sets located inside of a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank. I actually got to see those sets while on a tour of the lot back in June with my friends Lavonna, Kim, Kaylee and Katie. Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed, though.

The University Center also popped up in the Season 12 episode of NCIS titled “Blast From the Past” as the spot where Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) went undercover as an IT specialist.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center, aka the Austin Headquarters of the FBI on The Mentalist, is located on the College of the Canyons campus in Santa Clarita. The building does not have an exact address, but is situated on University Center Drive, just west of where it intersects with Rockwell Canyon Road.

January 20, 2015
Hyatt Westlake Plaza from “The Karate Kid”

2014 was definitely the year of The Karate Kid. Not only did the flick turn thirty, but two of its missing locations were finally found – Mr. Miyagi’s house, which I blogged about here, and the fictional Encino Oaks Country Club, which, as it turns out, was actually the Hyatt Westlake Plaza hotel in Thousand Oaks. The latter was only brought to my attention recently thanks to this June LA Weekly article. So while I was in the area one (very rainy) day a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by to investigate further.

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I had actually stalked the Hyatt Westlake Plaza once before, way back in February 2010, because of its appearance in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend.” (You can read that post here.) I later came to find out that the hotel was also used for some interior filming in the Season 5 episodes titled “P.S. I Love You: Part I” and “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” which were also set in Palm Springs. As I said in that post, which you can read here, Hyatt Westlake Plaza was obviously 90210’s go-to Palm Springs hotel stand-in. But more on that in a bit.

In The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) heads to the Encino Oaks Country Club to pick up Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue) for a date. Ali tells Daniel that she will meet him outside at 9:30, but she winds up being late. According to the LA Weekly article, Daniel waited for her just outside of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza’s main entrance. Thankfully, that information was easy to verify as the hotel’s entrance looks exactly the same today as it did in the fall of 1983, when The Karate Kid was shot.

In the scene, Daniel stood in front of the easternmost beam of the hotel’s porte-cochère.

You can even see the Hyatt’s tiled lobby fountain in the background, which was also visible in the “P.S. I Love You” episodes of 90210.

Today, the fountain is no longer tiled, but its shape remains the same as it was when 90210 was filmed in 1995.

Once Daniel gets tired of waiting for Ali in The Karate Kid, he heads inside the country club to try to see what is holding her up. He sneaks in through the kitchen and eventually sees Ali in a luxe ballroom kissing his nemesis, Johnny (William Zabka). According to LA Weekly, filming of that scene took place in the Hyatt’s Grand Plaza Ballroom, so I headed inside to check it out. Sadly, due to the fact that the hotel has been remodeled several times over the past thirty years, it no longer looks anything like it did onscreen, which gave me some pause.

The most notable change was that of the chandeliers. In The Karate Kid, the ballroom chandeliers were made of ornate crystals, while the room’s current chandeliers are almost Mediterranean in style and feature iron accents.

I did notice that the ballroom’s recessed ceiling squares and positioning of heating vents did appear to be a direct match with what appeared in The Karate Kid. Despite that fact, though, I started to have doubts about the location. It was hard for me to believe that the hotel would do away with such fancy crystal chandeliers, especially considering that the new chandeliers make the room much less elegant and far more casual. I thought it was more likely that filming had taken place at a different spot, one that still had those chandeliers in place.

I also was unable to locate the set of double doors that led to the kitchen in the movie, which only gave me further hesitation that the Grand Plaza Ballroom was the ballroom from The Karate Kid. I know, I know. I was definitely nitpicking, especially considering that it has been thirty years since filming took place. What can I say? I don’t like to be 95% sure, or 99% sure, or even 99.9% sure about locations I present on my blog. Before reporting anything, I want to be 100% certain about all of my assertions.

This past Monday, I started searching for other ‘80s productions filmed at the hotel, hoping one might show the Grand Plaza Ballroom. If I could find some sort of image of the ballroom and those crystal chandeliers were indeed in place, then I could verify that it was the same spot used in The Karate Kid. Thanks to IMDB, I learned that Hyatt Westlake Plaza had been featured in two Season 6 episodes of Knots Landing, “Vulnerable” and “The Long and Winding Road.” The episodes were filmed in 1985, just two years after The Karate Kid was shot. I spent hours searching for them online, but, sadly, Knots Landing is not available to watch anywhere! I finally managed to find a (rather dramatic) scene from the “Vulnerable” episode on YouTube and, miraculously, it took place in the Grand Plaza Ballroom! Eureka! You can watch it by clicking below.

Maddeningly though, the cameras never panned high enough in the scene to show the chandeliers. I did spot some similarities between the Knots Landing ballroom and The Karate Kid ballroom, though. As you can see below, the single and double wood frame décor elements were present in both productions.

The chair railings that run across both rooms are also a match.

As is the shaping of the doorframes. The wallpaper also seems to be the same in both films, though it is hard to tell.

I still was not convinced that the two rooms were one and the same, though. I wanted to see an image of those chandeliers! That would clinch things for me. Then, like a lightning bolt, it hit me! I suddenly remembered that in “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) made a speech to her fellow sorority sisters – wait for it – in a ballroom. I immediately popped in my DVD of the episode and, sure enough, the crystal chandeliers from The Karate Kid were visible! I finally had my confirmation!

While I was at it, I figured I might as well also chronicle all of the productions filmed on the premises. In the 1985 movie Tuff Turf, Hyatt Westlake Plaza once again masqueraded as a country club, this time the El Canyon Country Club that Morgan Hiller (James Spader), Frankie Croyden (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Kim Richards) and their friends snuck into. The front exterior of the property . . .

. . . and the lobby area were used in the flick.

Oddly though, the ballroom featured in the movie was actually the Riviera Country Club’s Crystal Ballroom in Pacific Palisades. You can see pictures of it here.

As I mentioned above, Hyatt Westlake Plaza appeared in two episodes of Knots Landing, Season 6’s “Vulnerable” and “The Long and Winding Road.” In the episodes, the hotel was where Mack MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson) and Karen MacKenzie (Michele Lee) confronted the shady Dr. Ackerman (Laurence Haddon) while he was participating in a bridge tournament. After the confrontation, Dr. Ackerman runs outside to the Hyatt’s parking lot and shoots himself.

In the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend,” which aired in 1991, the Hyatt Westlake Plaza masked as two hotels. It first stood in for the Desert Palm Mirage, where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) thought she was supposed to meet Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) for a romantic rendezvous.

“I had to sleep in a broom closet!”

And it also played the Desert Mirage, the hotel where Brenda later caught Dylan with another girl.

I so love that the elevators still look exactly the same today as they did when 90210 was filmed 24 years ago.

In Season 5’s “P.S. I Love You” episodes, the Hyatt was used as the interior of the hotel where the KEG/Alpha Convention was being held.

The Hyatt’s hot tub was also used in the scene in which Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) and Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) almost rendezvoused. The hot tub is denoted with a yellow arrow in the photograph below (which I got off of the hotel’s website). It is located just beyond the pool. As you can see, the tiered shaping of the top of the pillar visible behind Brandon on 90210 matches that of the Hyatt’s pillars. And the boulders situated near the pool are also a match to what appeared onscreen.

Hyatt Westlake Plaza has also appeared on The Bachelor. For a time, it was where contestants were put up prior to moving into the mansion. I do not believe that it has been used in the show’s more current seasons, though. The screen captures below were taken from the first episode of the series’ 14th season, which starred Jake Pavelka.

On a side-note – my dad has a couple of doctor appointments in L.A. this week and I am heading out there with him. While I will have a new Los Angeles magazine post for tomorrow, I will not have a new post for Friday.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hyatt Westlake Plaza, aka Encino Oaks Country Club from The Karate Kid, is located at 880 South Westlake Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

January 14, 2015
New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the “How to Get Away with Murder” House

Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about Annalise’s house from How to Get Away with Murder. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

December 4, 2014