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A very happy Memorial Day to my fellow stalkers. I hope we all take time today to remember the reason behind the holiday – to honor those who lost their lives protecting our freedoms. I am taking the day off, but will be back tomorrow with a giveaway. Until then, Happy Stalking! 
Back to the Future fans are undoubtedly looking at the photo above thinking, ‘That’s not Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) house!’ But the Craftsman I am standing in front of, located at 1705 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena, did actually serve as her 1955 pad in the movie. Before the die hards get all up in arms, I am well aware that it’s not the property widely recognized as her teenage home, which is just a few doors down at 1727 Bushnell. As I just discovered, though, the Baines’ residence was actually a mash-up of two different dwellings situated within a few hundred feet of each other. Let me explain. For years now, my friend Owen, from When Write Is Wrong, has been begging me to blog about sites from BTTF, his all-time favorite movie. Because its locations have been copiously chronicled both online and in books for decades, I’ve avoided the subject. As longtime readers know, I don’t like to write about places that have been covered elsewhere (especially feverishly so) unless I have something new to say. Well folks, I finally have something new to say! Owen’s birthday was a couple of weeks back, so I consider this post a belated present to him! HBD, friend!
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Many moons ago, one of my dad’s Los Angeles doctors mentioned during an appointment that he lived in “the Back to the Future house.” My ears immediately perked up (obvs!) and when I pressed for more details, he explained that he owned Lorraine’s 1955 pad and then said, “It’s bizarre to watch the movie and see Michael J. Fox sitting in my dining room.” I had long been aware of 1727 Bushnell’s (that’s it below) cameo as Lorraine’s home in the film and, assuming it had been used for both interiors and exteriors, figured that was the spot he was referring to and did not think much further on the subject (though I was thisclose to inviting myself over for a tour).
Flash forward to a few weeks ago. Shortly before Owen’s birthday, I toyed with the idea of writing about the place. My first move was to check if my dad’s doctor still lived on the premises, in the hopes that he might send me some interior photos. In looking at property records, though, I was shocked to see that not only did he not reside at 1727 Bushnell anymore, but that he never had! His former house, which was sold in 2017, is three doors up the street at 1705 Bushnell (it’s pictured below). Thoroughly confused, I almost brushed the whole thing off as misinformation. But then a lightbulb went off in my head – what if 1705 had been used for interiors? Thankfully, MLS pictures from the 2017 sale are still widely available online so my newfound hunch was easily verifiable. I could hardly hold my fingers steady as I slipped in my Back to the Future DVD and just about hyperventilated when I saw that I was correct! While 1727 Bushnell appeared as the exterior of Lorraine’s house, interior filming took place just up the street at 1705! As far as I can tell, this information has never been reported elsewhere, which has me giddy with excitement – for Owen, for myself, and for the leagues of BTTF fans out there!
But first, let’s get back to 1727 Bushnell. Not much of the 1909 Craftsman’s exterior is actually shown in Back to the Future. We really only catch a glimpse of the second floor windows when George McFly (Crispin Glover) tries to peep on Lorraine in an early scene.
As you can see, thanks to a completely new color scheme, the home looks quite a bit different today.
We do get a full view of the property’s exterior in a different Michael J. Fox movie, though! Interestingly enough, 1727 Bushnell also served as the Howard family residence in the 1985 comedy Teen Wolf.
In a Q&A Fox shot for Back to the Future’s Special Edition DVD, he even mentions encountering the movie’s location scouts while shooting Teen Wolf on the premises.
I am unsure if the actual inside of 1727 Bushnell was used in Teen Wolf, but I think it might have been.
If so, considering the decidedly 60s/70s look of the place, it goes a long way toward explaining why Back to the Future producers headed elsewhere to stage the inside of Lorraine’s 1955 home. And they found exactly what they were looking for right up the street.
As you can see in the screen shot as compared to the MLS image below, the inside of 1705 Bushnell is classic, timeless, and simple in design – perfect for a storyline set in the 1950s. (You can check out another matching shot of the home’s front entry area here.)
As you can also see in the screen captures below as compared to images here and here, not much of the property has changed in the years since Back to the Future was filmed (though it appears that producers did cover over the dining room’s stained glass window for the shoot – either that or the window was a later addition).
Along with the front entry and dining room, areas of 1705 visible in Back to the Future include the living room (you can check out an additional matching image of it here and a close-up view of the fireplace, which has been altered a bit but is still recognizable, here);
and the stairs . . .
. . . which you can see additional imagery of here.
I believe that Lorraine’s bedroom was just a set, though, and not one of 1705’s actual rooms.
In real life, 1705 Bushnell, which was built in 1912, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,772 square feet of living space, formal living and dining rooms, hardwood flooring, wainscoting, a fireplace, stained glass windows, an eat-in kitchen, a den, a partially-finished basement, an upstairs laundry room, a 0.18-acre lot, a pool, a built-in BBQ, and a detached garage that has been converted into a family room/pool house. You can check out some more interior photos of the place here and here.
How incredible – and thrilling – it is that new location information can still be unearthed from a decades-old movie, one that has been feverishly studied and documented ad nauseam over the years, no less! Imagine all of the other filming sites just waiting to be discovered! The possibilities are endlessly exciting! The future of stalking is bright, my friends!
A (belated) happy birthday to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog. 
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The home used for exterior shots of Lorraine Baines’ 1955 residence in Back to the Future is located at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Interiors were filmed just up the road at 1705 Bushnell. George McFly’s 1955 pad from the film can be found next door at 1711 Bushnell. And Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) property from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809 Bushnell. Several other famous, but non-BTTF-related houses are on the same street including Hope and Michael Steadman’s residence from thirtysomething at 1710 Bushnell; the Hopper family home as well as Joan’s pad from Ghost Dad at 1621 and 1615, respectively, and the Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School at 1803.
My taste in movies is about as mature and refined as my palate, which favors chicken strips and ranch dressing above all else. Case in point – I am obsessed with the 2004 tween romance A Cinderella Story. Chad Michael Murray? Hilary Duff on roller skates? A high school love story? A pink ‘50s diner? Yes, yes, yes and yes! I’ve written posts on several of the film’s locations over the years (you can read them here, here and here), but somehow forgot to dedicate one to Monrovia High School, which portrayed North Valley High (home of the Fighting Frogs!) and which I visited way back in 2013. I figure the time to rectify that is now!
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Designed by architect Austin Whittlesey, working under John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley, construction on Monrovia High School began in January 1928.
Completed early the following year, the Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, which features Palladian elements, cost $600,000 to erect.
Numerous expansions have taken place in the years since, the most recent from 2009 to 2011.
That project, which totaled a whopping $60 million, included the addition of a 2-story science building, a 30,000-square-foot gym complete with a weight room, and a new football stadium and surrounding track.
Thankfully, all of the additions were designed with the school’s original architecture in mind, ultimately creating a cohesive, striking and picturesque property.
Not only is the school itself beautiful, but the grounds are absolutely bucolic. I was just a wee bit obsessed with the massive tree pictured below.
I mean, just look at it!
Considering its handsome façade, it is no surprise that the place wound up onscreen. In A Cinderella Story, Monrovia High was used extensively. Areas of the school featured include the front exterior;
interior hallways;
the baseball field;
the pool;
the football field (which was, sadly, redone during the 2009 expansion);
and the main quad (it also looks a bit different post-expansion) . . .
. . . where the pep rally took place.
The quad is the spot I was most interested in seeing during my stalk, namely the “Friendship Circle” planter where Sam and Austin regularly sat throughout the movie.
Unfortunately, we stopped by on a Saturday, when Monrovia High was closed, so I wasn’t able to poke around. I was thrilled to see, though, that the quad area is visible through the front gates.
The gates even afford a small glimpse of the planter!
A Cinderella Story is hardly the only production to feature Monrovia High.
Skip Lewis (Chad Lowe) and Ken (Charlie Sheen) go to school there in the 1984 made-for-television movie Silence of the Heart.
In 1985, Monrovia High played itself in another made-for-TV film, Between the Darkness and the Dawn.
The production, which journalist John J. O’Connor deemed “a candidate for the worst television movie of the year,” gave audiences a glimpse at what the interior of the school looked like at the time.
Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz) enrolls in Monrovia High at the end of the 1985 drama Mask.
Monrovia High (along with Walter Reed Middle School from License to Drive) appears as Garden City High in the 1988 horror film 976-EVIL.
Brad Kimble (Will Friedle), Leah Jones (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Brooke Kingsley (Marley Shelton) attend Monrovia High School in the 1997 comedy Trojan War.
The school (along with several others, including Torrance High) was also used to portray John Hughes High School in 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Monrovia High School, aka North Valley High from A Cinderella Story, is located at 845 West Colorado Boulevard in Monrovia.
I abhor change, as longtime readers of this site well know. So I was devastated to learn that Fog City Diner, the landmark eatery in my hometown of San Francisco, had undergone a major revamp and reopened as the simpler, sleeker and far more modern “Fog City.” The shiny chrome train-like structure situated on Battery Street at The Embarcadero had been a staple of the city’s skyline for decades and a harkening back to my childhood every time I passed by. I was informed of the unseemly renovation while visiting my friend Nat, who lives in the area, in February 2015. Despite my sadness over the matter, since the restaurant’s former iteration made an appearance in the the 1993 comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer, we decided to head over there for some brunch/stalking my last day in town.
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Fog City Diner was originally established in June 1985 by restaurateurs Bill Higgins, Bill Upson and Cindy Pawlcyn, of Napa’s Mustards Grill fame. Designed by Pat Kuleto, the unique space bore the look and feel of a streamlined 1930s diner, but a very high class one, with the reimagined comfort food offerings to match. Just steps from the waterfront, the site where the eye-catching eatery was erected was originally home to a train engine repair facility. It became a coffee shop named Harbor Cafeteria, which catered to soldiers and sailors, in 1958. After going through several different restaurant incarnations, including Mildred Pierce and Battery Point, in the years that followed, it was eventually transformed into the gleaming chrome fixture that instantly became a San Francisco icon. You can check out some images of what it looked like here and here.
Sadly, in 2013 Higgins and Upson (Pawlcyn had long since dropped out) decided to give the restaurant a complete overhaul. It shuttered in March of that year and then re-opened six months later as Fog City. During the renovation, the historic and well-loved site was taken down to its studs and then rebuilt by architect Michael Guthrie. The new design, which sort of retains its diner shape, boasts a large central bar, seating for 160 patrons, an exhibition kitchen with a wood-fired oven and seven-foot grill, and views of the San Francisco Bay. Though pretty, all of the elements that made the place so unique have disappeared. Gone are the dark leather train-car-like booths, checkered tilework, handsome wood detailing, and fabulous chrome siding.
The revamped site looks like a normal, everyday restaurant, both inside and out.
When I visited Fog City for the first time as a kid, I remember being absolutely mesmerized. I truly felt as if I had entered an antique train car and was dining atop the rails. It was a magical experience – one that did not wane, even as I continued to frequent the eatery as a teen and adult. Sadly, the redesign just does not compare to the Fog City of old. You can check out what the interior formerly looked like here and here.
Thankfully, I can at least report that the food is still as good as ever.
In So I Married an Axe Murderer, Charlie Mackenzie (Mike Myers) takes Harriet Michaels (Nancy Travis) on a rather awkward double date with his friends Tony Giardino (Anthony LaPaglia) and Susan (Debi Mazar) at Fog City Diner.
The film gives audiences a fabulous glimpse of what the exterior . . .
. . . and interior of the restaurant looked like pre-remodel.
As you can see in the screen capture as compared to the photograph below, though the footprint of the structure remains the same, its aesthetic is a far cry from what it used to be.
Fog City Diner was the also site of a famous Visa commercial from 1990 (well, it was at least famous to us San Franciscans), which you can watch here.
And it was satirized as the Fog City Dumpster, a restaurant run by a group of bears, in Farley, the popular San Francisco Chronicle comic strip that ran from 1975 to 2007.
Fog City Diner was supposedly featured in an episode of Nash Bridges, as well, but I am unsure of which episode. 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! 
Stalk It: Fog City, aka the former Fog City Diner from So I Married an Axe Murderer, is located at 1300 Battery Street in San Francisco. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.
I am a sucker for a grand staircase! My affinity likely stems from the movie Titanic, which I was obsessed with back in the day. Whatever the impetus, I am drawn to them like a moth to a flame. Case in point – while researching the Surfridge neighborhood for this 2013 post, I was led to a page on the Seeing Stars website detailing the filming locations of the 2011 sci-fi flick In Time. As soon as my eyes hit the image posted of the King Edward Hotel and its grand lobby staircase, I was transfixed. The historic downtown L.A. lodging went right to the top of my To-Stalk List and when I ventured out there shortly thereafter, fate stepped in. Though not open to the public at the time, a security guard happened to be standing by the front door and upon explaining that I was interested in seeing the space because of its In Time cameo, he welcomed me right in! Getting to pose for a photo on the staircase I had become so enamored with almost overwhelmed me with excitement. Though I sat on blogging about the hotel for years, when I learned that it sold recently and was undergoing a renovation, I decided it was high time to finally do so.
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The Beaux Arts-style King Edward Hotel, designed by architects John Parkinson and George Edwin Bergstrom, opened its doors in 1906.
Billed as an upscale “modern” lodging, at its outset the property featured a gleaming marble lobby, mosaic tile flooring, fire-proof construction, and a telephone and hot and cold water in every room. There was also a bar situated on the 6-story building’s lower level for those guests wishing to imbibe. A watering hole still sits in the same corner spot today. Currently known as King Eddy Saloon, legend has it that the space was home to a piano store that served as a gateway to a hidden basement bar during the Prohibition years.
At some point, the hotel and surrounding neighborhood began to fall upon hard times. The King Edward eventually transitioned into SRO housing and for many years sat largely vacant. It was during that time that I stopped by. Though no longer upscale by any means, the building’s elegance still managed to shine through. And its lighting was like nothing I had ever encountered! The lobby’s ethereal glow (which per the Esotouric tour company is caused by an abundance of magnesium on the windows) was absolutely magical, making the space and all who entered appear frozen in a past era. The effect is evidenced in all of the interior photos I took that day. (I promise, no filters were used on them!)
In 2018, the King Edward was purchased by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and is currently being refurbished, its 150 units transformed into affordable housing for the city’s homeless. Hopefully, the lobby will be largely left as is, not only for future Angelinos to appreciate, but so that it can continue to be utilized as a filming location.
In In Time, the King Edward portrays The Century hotel where Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) and Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) attempt to hide from the Timekeeper.
The film does a masterful job of showcasing the site’s lobby and its gorgeous staircase.
I am unsure if the room where Will and Sylvia stay is an actual space at the King Edward, is located elsewhere, or was a set. Whatever the case, it is pretty spectacular. That ceiling!
In Time is hardly the only production to feature the King Edward. The 1972 horror/comedy Private Parts is largely set at the hotel.
Informant Ralph Macafee (Dan Hedaya) is put up at the King Edward in the Season 1 episode of Hill Street Blues titled “Fecund Hand Rose,” which aired in 1981.
Det. Sgt. Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) meets his new partner, Det. Sgt. Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer), outside of the King Edward in the pilot episode of Hunter, which aired in 1984.
That same year, Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner) and Amanda King (Kate Jackson) check out a murder scene at the hotel in the Season 1 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “Remembrance of Things Past.”
The exterior of the King Edward appeared in establishing shots of the hotel where Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) and Janet Sosna (Lindsay Price) hunted for ghosts in the Season 9 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Confession,” which aired in 1998. All actual filming took place at the Ambassador Hotel, though.
The hotel’s exterior was also used in an establishing shot of the lodging where Clay (Victor Browne) stayed in the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “Feats of Clay,” which aired in 1999.
The King Edward masks as the supposed New York hotel where Emil Slovak (Karel Roden) and Oleg Razgul (Oleg Taktarov) stay at the beginning of the 2001 drama 15 Minutes. Only the exterior is shown, though. I am fairly certain the men’s actual room was just a set.
Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) spot a suspect outside of the King Edward in the Season 2 episode of Southland titled “Phase Three,” which aired in 2010.
In the Season 2 episode of Ray Donovan titled “Rodef,” which aired in 2014, the King Edward portrays the SRO where Mickey Donovan (Jon Voight) is staying, which gets blown up.
Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) visits her brother, Hal LeSueur (Raymond J. Barry), at the hotel in the Season 1 episode of Feud: Bette and Joan titled “Hagsploitation,” which aired in 2017.
Det. Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) also lived at the King Edward on the television series Baretta, which ran from 1975 through 1978, but unfortunately I could not find any episodes of it available for streaming to make screen captures.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The King Edward Hotel, from In Time, is located at 121 East 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles.
History in Los Angeles hides in the most unsuspecting of places. Back in 2013, I stalked a small edifice at 118 Winston Street in downtown L.A. that portrayed a Western Union office in the 1973 caper classic The Sting. I learned of the non-descript property via The Movie Tourist Blog and was thrilled at the fact that virtually none of it had changed since its cameo more than four decades prior. I had no idea until sitting down to write this post, though, the many stories the building had to tell.
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Built in 1887, 118 Winston Street sits on the northern edge of Skid Row on a tiny five-block road that current occupants Stephen and Jodi Zeigler note “has always been a gritty little stretch of urban real estate.” The couple moved into the building in 2008 and opened These Days LA, an art gallery/boutique/publishing office, on its second floor in 2014. Los Angeles natives and aficionados both, the duo comprehensively chronicle the colorful provenance of their home/workplace in a two-part write-up on their blog, Communiqué. You can check out it out here and here. TL;DR? The CliffsNotes version is below.
Initially owned by music dealer A. G. Gardner, in its early days the building operated as a piano store on its street level and transient lodging on its second and third. Per newspapers ads I was able to dig up, the highly esteemed A. G. Gardner Piano House appears to have remained on the premises through 1907, with the Catholic Knights of America fraternal order utilizing it as a hall after that. Its function in the time that followed was a bit less – ahem – holy. At some point, the property began serving as a brothel, or “disorderly house” as periodicals of the day referred to it. Known as The Yale, the site was shut down in 1911 and its proprietor sentenced to 180 days in jail. From an upscale piano shop to a religious hall to a den of inequity – all in the space of four years. Talk about a whirlwind! If those walls could only talk. And there’s more!
In the 1930s, the Communist organizations International Labor Defense and the Young Pioneers of America moved in. Following that, 118 Winston served as several different rescue missions, including Sister Sylvia’s Soul Patrol run by Sister Sylvia Cresswell, aka the “Angel of Skid Row.’ The building was eventually condemned by the city before being transformed into a labor hall/workers’ dormitory. Then, in 1975, it was acquired by Baba Cooper who established a treatment center for Native Americans known as the United American Indian Involvement (UAII) on the premises. I am unsure of the structure’s occupants in between UAII’s departure in 1999 and the Zeiglers’ arrival nine years later. But whatever its function, 118 Winston has remained an onscreen stalwart all along the way.
The alley that runs adjacent to the building, which looks like it’s straight out of a studio backlot, is also a frequent film star with an interesting history. Named Werdin Place in real life, the stretch is more commonly known to locals as “Indian Alley” thanks to the fact that it became something of a haven for impoverished Native Americans during the ‘80s thanks to its proximity to UAII.
Once an intensely harsh, bleak and gloomy spot (as you can see in images here and here), the alley is now a virtual outdoor art gallery. Deemed “one of the most famous unofficial public spaces in the country” by On the Rez author Ian Frazier, the site is known for the vibrant murals, sketches and sculptures that line it, all of which honor its Native American legacy. The colorful works were actually initiated by Zeigler, who has since become the unofficial steward of the neighborhood. Per a 2014 Los Angeles Times article, Stephen “cleaned the streets when no one else would, wrote positive messages on the walls, and painted the street poles gold. Curiosity about his home’s past has turned him into a sort of historian-in-residence.” A man after my own heart!
The dynamic edginess of both 118 Winston and Indian Alley caught the attention of location scouts early on.
The building’s best-known appearance is in The Sting in which it portrays the downtown Chicago Western Union office that Kid Twist (Harold Gould) and J.J. Singleton (Ray Walston) pretend to paint as part of the set-up to the con on Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Though Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) refers to its location as “110 South Wabash” in the movie, the site’s actual address number of 118 is clearly visible above the front doors throughout the scene.
When the flick was shot in 1973, the property was operating as A-Rent-A-Man labor hall. Amazingly, despite the countless changes in occupancy and the passage of over forty years, it still looks much as it did in The Sting. Yes, the entrance is now gated, the façade painted black and the windows altered, but all in all it is still entirely recognizable.
I am fairly certain that only the building’s exterior appeared in The Sting and that the interior of the Western Union office was just a set.
118 Winston and Indian Alley briefly appear at the beginning of the Season 2 episode of McCloud titled “Encounter with Aries,” which aired in 1971.
In the Season 1 episode of Kojak titled “Requiem for a Cop”, which aired in 1973, a policeman chases a suspect into Indian Alley and is subsequently killed.
The following year, the locale masked as St. Matthew Mission in the Season 4 episode of Columbo titled “Negative Reaction.”
I believe the building’s real life interior also appeared in the episode.
Detective Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) gives a vagrant named Lijah (Douglas Fowley) a dollar outside of 118 Winston in the 1975 Starsky & Hutch pilot.
Later in the episode, Hutch and his partner, Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser), race down Indian Alley while chasing a suspect.
118 Winston also pops up in the Season 2 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “The Psychic,” which aired in 1977. It it outside of the building that Starsky shoots at a kidnapper’s car causing it to explode.
Mike Roark (Rick Springfield) gets pulled over in Indian Alley in the Season 2 episode of The Incredible Hulk titled “The Disciple,” which aired in 1979.
In the Season 4 episode of Quincy M.E. titled “Dark Angel,” which aired in 1979, an arrest goes wrong and a suspect dies outside of 118 Winston.
Kelly Garrett (Jacklyn Smith) and Jake Barnett (Norman Alden) drive out of Indian Alley and past 118 Winston in the Season 5 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Taxi Angels,” which aired in 1981.
Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) give a homeless man a ticket outside of the building in the Season 2 episode of Southland titled “Phase Three,” which aired in 2010.
118 Winston served double duty in the Season 1 episode of Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. titled “Tupac Amaru Shakur,” which aired in 2018. The building’s front exterior first popped up as the nightclub owned by Eric ‘Zip’ Martin (Garland Whitt), where Keefe D (Lahmard Tate) is sent to try to get information.
Later in the episode, the third floor fire escape area masked as the East Harlem apartment where young Tupac (Christian Isaiah) lived.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to The Movie Tourist for finding this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Western Union office from The Sting is located at 118 Winston Street in downtown Los Angeles.
I am one of the few people lamenting the upcoming opening of Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Though renderings certainly look cool (it is Disney, after all!), I fear the massive crowds the new 14-acre land is expected to draw are going to ruin the park. The Happiest Place on Earth is crowded enough! The powers that be majorly blundered on this one, IMHO. Galaxy’s Edge should have been its own park, a la California Adventure, leaving DL a separate entity for purists like myself. One thing The Walt Disney Company did get right recently? The restoration of Glendale’s historic Grand Central Air Terminal. The former airport/prolific film star, now part of Imagineering’s Grand Central Creative Campus, had been sitting boarded-up and vacant for years, as I chronicled in both a 2012 blog post and a 2015 Los Angeles magazine article. When my friend/fellow stalker John informed me that it was finally ready for its close-up once again following a painstaking renovation, I knew I had to get back out there to document its new look.
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Though I covered the history of Grand Central Air Terminal in both my previous articles, I figured a recap was in order here. The land where GCAT is now situated was originally part of what was to be Glendale Municipal Airport, a plan that never really, ahem, got off the ground. In 1928, investors bought the site (which at the time basically consisted of a hangar and a 1,200-foot runway that private pilots had been using since 1923) and began a major overhaul to transform it into a modern commercial airport.
Architect Henry L. Gogerty was brought in to design the main terminal building. His creation combined Spanish Colonial Revival, Art Deco and Zigzag Moderne styles.
The interior boasted such modern amenities as a coffee shop, a checkroom, a spacious waiting area, and, after Prohibition ended, a bar. You can check out what the inside looked like in these historic images, though I am unsure of when exactly they were taken.
Grand Central Air Terminal opened to the public on February 22nd, 1929 and quickly cemented itself as Los Angeles’ main airport. Its tenure didn’t last long, though.
During WWII, the site was transformed into a military base and its runway extended to accommodate large P-38 fighters. The move would have been crucial to GCAT’s survival, but when the war ended, the city demanded the runway be returned to its previous length, which was too short for modern jets, essentially rendering the facility obsolete. Commercial air travel migrated to the larger Hollywood Burbank Airport and Los Angeles International Airport and GCAT was finally shuttered in 1959. Its runway was subsequently removed, as were several ancillary buildings, but the terminal was left intact and transformed into offices. Walt Disney Imagineering leased much of the space in 1961 before purchasing it in its entirety in 1997. Following the acquisition, plans were announced to redevelop the former airport into a 125-acre creative campus featuring 3.6-million-square-feet of offices, production space, and soundstages. Local citizens balked at the idea, though, and plans were stalled, leaving the once grand terminal building boarded-up and vacant. I visited the locale in May 2012 and found it looking like this.
In 2013, the city finally approved a new renovation plan and Disney got to work. The revamped Grand Central Air Terminal, which consists of a visitor center, event space and offices, was completed in late 2015. As you can see, the finished product is phenomenal! What a difference!
Unfortunately, the property is not open to the public, but tours are offered monthly. You can find out more information on visiting GCAT here and you can check out some post-renovation interior photos on the Disney Tourist Blog here.
Considering its proximity to Tinseltown and its gorgeous architecture, it is no surprise that location scouts came a-knocking on Grand Central’s doors from the beginning. The place was such an onscreen stalwart in the ‘30s and ‘40s, in fact, that for those partial to Old Hollywood, it should be deemed a must-see.
Grand Central Air Terminal pops up at the beginning of the 1933 drama Air Hostess.
Thomas (Walter Johnson) and Shirley Blake (Shirley Temple) pick Adele Martin (Judith Allen) up there in 1934’s Bright Eyes. (Off subject, but could Shirley Temple have been more of a doll?!? Talk about adorable!)
Rosero (Luis Alberni) lands at GCAT, said to be in Texas, in the 1936 comedy Hats Off.
Ronny Bowers (Dick Powell) also lands there in 1937’s Hollywood Hotel.
That same year, GCAT portrayed the Le Bourget Airport in Stolen Holiday.
Thanks to fellow stalker Constant who commented on my 2012 post, I learned that the terminal also appeared in the 1939 thriller Five Came Back.
I am unsure if the interior shown in the movie was Grand Central’s actual interior or a set, but portions of it do seem to match these images.
GCAT very briefly masked as Transatlantic Airway’s London Terminal in 1943’s Sherlock Holmes in Washington.
Grand Central has appeared in more recent productions, as well. In the 1985 comedy My Science Project, it portrayed the Carson Police Department.
That same year, in arguably its most famous role, the terminal popped up as the Texas bus station where Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) ran into Simone (Diane Salinger), who was finally on her way to Paris, in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
GCAT also played a bus station in the Season 6 episode of Simon & Simon titled “Ancient Echoes,” which aired in 1987.
And in 2004’s The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, the terminal served as the inspiration for Genovia International Airport, which was actually just a backdrop. For whatever reason, the orientation of the building was flipped for the scene. You can check out a photo that shows a matching (but non-flipped) angle of Grand Central for comparison here.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker John for letting me know the renovation of this location was complete! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Disney’s Grand Central Air Terminal is located at 1310 Air Way in Glendale. You can find out more information about tours of the property here.
If stalking is my number one love, organizing ranks a close second. This weekend, I went full-on Monica Geller with all of my filming location spreadsheets and it. was. glorious. Not only did the process give me hours upon hours of enjoyment, but it made me realize how many sites remain sitting in my backlog waiting to be blogged about, the vast majority from my 2016 trips to New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. In the interest of purging, so to speak, I thought I’d dedicate today’s post to one of them – the Georgetown residence where Kirby Keger (Emilio Estevez) follows his crush, Dale Biberman (Andie MacDowell), to a party in the 1985 classic St. Elmo’s Fire.
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Very little of the home is actually shown in the movie, though the scene shot there is pretty darn memorable (“I’m obsessed, thank you very much!”). In fact, the view below is the only real glimpse we get of the place.
I learned about the pad (along with Third Edition bar, another St. Elmo’s Fire locale that I blogged about on Friday) thanks to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, who emailed me a long list of D.C.-area stalking sites just prior to my trip. At the time, I had yet to see the film and, when I finally sat down to do so recently, I was left wondering how on earth Owen had managed to find the place when so little of it was visible – not to mention how on earth I was going to verify its cameo in a post. It was not until re-watching the segment while simultaneously poking around Street View that I was able to corroborate things thanks to the unusual property situated across the street, which can be seen behind Kirby at one point.
In real life, Dale’s party house, which is largely hidden from view thanks to the surrounding foliage, boasts 9 bedrooms, 8 full baths, 3 half baths, 6,372 square feet, 3 stories, a formal living room, a banquet-sized dining room, a breakfast room, a library, a gym, a parlor, hardwood flooring throughout, an elevator (!), a fully-finished basement with a wine cellar, a 2-bedroom staff apartment, a walled garden, terraces, a veranda, a pool, and parking for 6 cars.
The 1875 property last sold in January 2018 for a whopping $7.37 million.
Thanks to the real estate listing photos posted online – which you can see here and here (and you can take a virtual tour here) – I was able to ascertain that the interior of the home was also used in St. Elmo’s Fire. Though very little of it can actually be seen and what is seen is blurred due to Kirby’s movements, the party house’s general layout matches what is shown in the MLS images.
Certain architectural details match, as well, namely the large pocket doors leading from the living room to the dining room.
I so love that there is a piano on display in the same exact spot as in the movie!
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The house where Kirby follows Dale to a party in St. Elmo’s Fire is located at 3053 P Street NW in Georgetown.
A couple of weeks ago, Rob Lowe posted an Instagram selfie taken in Georgetown with the caption “Return to the scene of the crime. #StElmosFire,” and I was instantly reminded that I had stalked some locations from the seminal 1985 drama while back east in April 2016. I learned about the locales thanks to my buddy Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, who emailed me a virtual catalog of D.C.-area filming sites prior to my trip. One of the spots listed was Georgetown’s former Third Edition restaurant (now El Centro D.F.) at 1218 Wisconsin Avenue Northwest, the exterior of which he noted had appeared in the flick. I had yet to see St. Elmo’s Fire at the time, but was familiar enough with it to know that much of the action takes place at a bar. I assumed that bar was Third Edition – and many online sources backed up that notion. When I finally sat down to view the film last week, though, I was shocked to see that Third Edition was only briefly featured and that St. Elmo’s Bar, where Billy Hicks (Lowe) and his fellow Brat Packers regularly hung out, was nothing more than a backlot façade. Reports of which backlot in particular varied and I figured, since there was so much confusion surrounding the subject, it was high time to step in and settle the matter of the St. Elmo’s Fire bar once and for all.
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Just to be clear – Owen never stated that Third Edition was the main bar from the movie – that assumption fell on me and was then verified – incorrectly – by a few sources online. The list Owen sent me prior to my trip contained numerous addresses of sites and corresponding descriptions of their onscreen roles, and his notation about Third Edition was entirely correct – while not the gang’s main hangout, its exterior did appear in St. Elmo’s Fire. Twice, in fact. The restaurant first pops up in the film’s opening montage in which shots of Georgetown are splashed across the screen. That’s it on the very left of the still below. (My corresponding photo is a bit off from the angle shown in the movie.)
Third Edition is then featured again in a later segment in which Jules (Demi Moore) picks up Billy and Alec Newbary (Judd Nelson) to go for a ride in her Jeep with the rest of the gang.
I find it amazing that despite the fact that the brick is now painted over and there has been a change of occupant, the place is still recognizable from its cameo 35 years ago! Even the menu display case, albeit a different one, is still affixed to the exterior of the restaurant in the exact same spot!
Third Edition was a Georgetown staple for more than four decades, running from 1969 through 2013. You can see what it looked like when it was still in operation here.
The three-story casual eatery/bar served comfort food and libations and was popular among locals and tourists alike. Much like St. Elmo’s Bar in the movie, it was also a haven for college students and featured multiple drink stations, a dance floor, DJs spinning music nightly, and an outdoor tiki lounge. As one Yelper reported, “It reminded me of a college fraternity party with random girls dancing on top of a platform and guys trying to dance with them,” which might as well be a description of Billy and Jules’ regular hangout.
When Third Edition moved out in January 2013, Mexican restaurant El Centro D.F. (the D.F. stands for “Distrito Federal,” meaning “federal district”) moved in. It remains in operation today.
St. Elmo’s Bar, on the other hand, was entirely movie magic. Both the interior and exterior were nothing more than studio-built sets – the former constructed inside of a soundstage at (I believe) Warner Bros. Studio, which was then The Burbank Studios, in Burbank . . .
. . . and the latter, as I came to discover, on the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood.
An entire half-block section of Universal’s New York Street area, in fact, was made over to resemble Georgetown for the shoot and, when production wrapped, was left intact for future filmings, becoming known as “Georgetown Avenue.”
The St. Elmo’s Bar façade, as well as the rest of the block, popped up several times throughout the movie . . .
. . . and was also featured on the poster.
Sadly, Georgetown Avenue was severely damaged in the fire that ravaged Universal’s backlot in November 1990. Though it was subsequently restored, it was again destroyed in the studio’s 2008 blaze and was not rebuilt. You can check out a map of where it used to be situated, in the upper left portion of New York Street, here. Because it no longer exists, and hasn’t existed in its St. Elmo’s Fire-state since the 1990 fire, figuring out if filming took place there, as several online sources claimed, proved difficult. Thanks to The Studio Tour website and its catalog of historic photos of the lot, though, as well as a 1989 episode of Quantum Leap that filmed near Georgetown Avenue, I was able to do so by pinpointing a few identifiers. As you can see in the still from the movie below, St. Elmo’s Bar sat on a small street that dead-ended at the façade of a large brick townhome. I found that same very façade pictured in this 1984 aerial of New York Street featured on The Studio Tour! Visible in the mid/lower left section of the aerial, the structure boasts three stories, a porticoed front door, and sculpted lips in between levels – all of which match what appeared in St. Elmo’s Fire. The window layout is also identical.
Next to the façade in the 1984 aerial is a stretch of brownstones. Such was the case with the movie façade, as well. You can see those brownstones and a portion of the brick townhome (it’s on the extreme left) in this 1984 photograph, also featured on The Studio Tour.
I was thrilled to discover that the brick townhouse is also partially visible in the Season 1 episode of Quantum Leap titled “Double Identity,” which was filmed at Universal in 1989.
Though shown from the opposite angle and dressed quite differently, the corner store situated across from the brownstones in St. Elmo’s Fire can be seen in Quantum Leap, as well.
When Georgetown Avenue was rebuilt after the 1990 fire, it looked significantly different, as you can see in this image which matches the angle of the screen capture below. Though the townhouse façade was re-created as well as the brownstones next to it, numerous changes were made.
Here’s another shot showing the rebuilt Georgetown Avenue along with a corresponding screen capture below. Why the street was not once again re-created after the 2008 fire, I am unsure, but I am guessing it is because not many productions are set in Georgetown. The studio likely figured it could get a lot more mileage out of a New York scape and, as such, did away with the D.C. set.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: El Centro D.F., aka Third Edition from St. Elmo’s Fire, is located at 1218 Wisconsin Avenue Northwest in Georgetown. St. Elmo’s Bar from the movie was a façade that once stood on Georgetown Avenue in the New York Street portion of the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal City. Unfortunately, that area of the lot was damaged in both the 1990 and 2008 fires and no longer stands.
Longtime readers of this site know that my musical tastes do not run the gamut. As I’ve said many times, if it is not sung by Britney Spears, Michael Bublé or Michael Jackson, or was produced in any decade other than the ‘80s, odds are I don’t know it. But when I was offered the chance to go to Coachella this past weekend (thanks to Amazon Locker!), I jumped at it. While I would never consider myself a “festival” person, I figured seeing the spectacle of the whole thing would be a huge thrill – not to mention the fact that three days of mandatory glitter and flower-crown-wear is pretty much my dream come true! I enlisted my mom to be my plus-one (she was more excited than I was!) and last Friday afternoon the two of us headed out to the Empire Polo Club in Indio for Day 1 of Weekend 2 of the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. While not really a filming location (though a scene from A Star Is Born was shot on the festival grounds in between Weekends 1 and 2 in 2017), I figured detailing our experience would make for a good blog post. So here goes . . .
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My mom and I decided early on that we only wanted to be at Coachella during daylight hours, when the crowds would be less intense. Those words must have the eyes of any music lover reading this post bulging right out of their head. Yes, I know – all the good bands play at night. We weren’t there for the music, though. Because our main goal was to see the grounds, enjoy the scenery, eat some festival food, and do a lot of people-watching, our scheduling worked perfectly.
I can’t express how nice it was to be able to walk the venue easily, avoid lines, and get to experience all that was offered at a calm pace.
Upon walking through the entrance gates, we were greeted by the famous Coachella Ferris wheel and, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, I knew I was not in Kansas anymore.
The venue is massive, whimsical, vibrant, splashy, and oh-so-picturesque.
It is not hard to see why the festival is a mecca for Instagrammers.
The backdrop is pretty darn spectacular no matter which direction you turn.
There’s just something about that combo of blue skies, palm trees, dramatic mountains, and colorful works of art.
My mom and I ended up only going to the festival on Friday and Sunday because the temps on Saturday ran too high. (That’s Day 3 – Day 2 for us – below.)
But over those two days, I took almost 500 pictures!
Needless to say I was just slightly enamored with the grounds. The views alone are worth the price of admission!
It’s no wonder the place is selfie Ground Zero.
The unique art installations, which reminded me quite a bit of Desert X, only added to the spirited aura.
Dedo Vabo’s H.I.P.O Hazardus Interstellar Perfessional Operations (pictured above and below), which featured a live element involving actors dressed as hippos (natch), was definitely the oddest of all the works.
And Colossal Cacti (which stretched up to fifty-two-feet tall) the most colorful.
Other installations included Mismo . . .
. . . Brighter in the Dark – an interactive sight and sound experience . . .
. . . and, of course, Spectra, a seven-story rainbow tower that debuted at the 2018 festival and wound up being left on the premises for good.
My mom and I were told the NEWSUBSTANCE-designed structure was a must-see.
And though it is very cool from the outside . . .
. . . and the inside does provide some fabulous vistas . . .
. . . and views of the concert grounds (not to mention stellar air conditioning), I can’t say it is really worth waiting in the long lines required to enter.
Also on display this year was Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella stage, now aptly named Pyramid.
The piece served as the central backdrop during her groundbreaking performance, which you can see in its entirety in the new Netflix documentary Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé.
Overview Effect was by far my favorite work on display, though.
Initially installed at the 2014 festival, the seventy-foot-tall animatronic astronaut moved throughout the festival grounds, hovering above concert-goers.
I literally could have followed him around all day!
He even had Coachella wristbands!
By the end of the weekend, he had picked up various other accountremants, as well, and, like most festival-goers, was looking a bit worse for wear. 
Truth be told, everything at Coachella is artistic – right down to the food stands!
And yes, there is coffee – but it doesn’t come cheap!
This cost me $9! 
The stages themselves (there are eight total) are like works of art, too.
The main stage, aka “Coachella Stage,” is pictured below.
And that’s the “Outdoor Theatre.”
My mom asked me at one point why there was so much open space around each venue. It wasn’t obvious at first, but it’s for the crowds – which is actually a bit terrifying.
Imagine this entire venue filled with people.
Or this one. Actually, you don’t need to imagine it – here’s a pic.
I am pretty sure I wouldn’t enjoy that. But being at Coachella during the day when crowds were light was a dream.
Things were just starting to get busy as we made our way to the exit both nights, which suited us just fine.
All in all it was a fabulous weekend and I am so thankful for the experience! Until next time, Coachella!
And thank you, Amazon Locker!
Until next time, Happy Stalking 
