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The “Scream” Warehouse

There has been so much tragedy in the world as of late. I’ve always avoided watching the news, but recently I feel like not even turning on my TV at all. Between the heartbreaking massacre in Las Vegas, the multitude of hurricanes plummeting the Eastern seaboard, and the fires ravaging both Orange and Sonoma Counties, devastation seems to be everywhere. My mom and I were actually in Santa Rosa visiting my aunt and uncle last year at this exact time. Hearing reports of the blaze desolating the area has been particularly saddening as I can’t help but think of the incredibly happy time we spent there, traversing pretty much all of Wine Country to stalk film locations, mainly from my favorite scary movie Scream, which was shot in its entirety in the region. (Thankfully, my aunt and uncle are both safe, as is their house.) I have yet to blog about the vast majority of the locales we visited during that fabulous trip and thought covering one today would be especially poignant.

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Scream is a bit of an anomaly in the motion picture world being that it was lensed almost exclusively at actual locations. Very few sets were utilized in the shoot, which took place over the course of eight weeks beginning in April 1996. During my visit to Northern California, I dragged my mom, aunt and uncle (as well as another uncle, my longtime BFF, Nat, and her boyfriend, Tony – there was literally an entire squad of us!) to every single site featured in the flick – every. single. one. I was so fixated on being thorough that we even stalked the warehouse that served as a soundstage during the production. Though the building is completely non-descript with absolutely no recognizable elements tying it to the film – not to mention it was either largely remodeled or demolished with a new structure now standing in its place (I’ll extrapolate on that a bit later in the post) – I was thrilled to be seeing it in person.

As I detailed in last year’s post about the Sonoma Community Center, a portion of Scream was originally set to be shot at Santa Rosa High School. The school board wound up vetoing the plan at the very last minute, though, leaving director Wes Craven and the rest of the production team scrambling to find a suitable replacement to mask as Woodsboro High. Enter the Sonoma Community Center, whose then manager offered up the site for use. Though the center did serve as a school up until 1948, it lacked several spaces detailed in the Scream script. So a couple of sets were built at a Santa Rosa warehouse to accommodate for the missing spots.

I learned of the warehouse’s existence and location thanks to my friend/Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, who runs The Drewseum website. As I mentioned in my October 2016 post about the Shadow of a Doubt house (which also appeared in Scream), over the years Ashley has managed to get her hands on a few Scream call sheets and she was kind enough to share them with me. Let me tell you, reading through them is like a dream! I mean, the location information alone is enough to make my head spin! One of the coveted pages details Day 9 of production (April 25th, 1996), during which several scenes taking place in Woodsboro High’s school office were lensed. The sheet lists the location of the shoot as a “warehouse stage” at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue. Ashley also shared with me the image below (a screen capture from Scream: The Inside Story), which shows the office set as it existed inside of the warehouse.

The Woodsboro High office set – which consisted of Principal Arthur Himbry’s (Henry Winkler) office, a small hallway and an anteroom – as it appeared in Scream can be seen below.

I am fairly certain that the Woodsboro High School girls’ restroom, where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) encountered the Ghostface killer for the second time, was also a set built at the warehouse. Though I originally assumed the segment was shot at the Sonoma Community Center, when I stalked the building, I could not find a bathroom even remotely similar to the Scream bathroom anywhere. I showed the employee who took us on a tour of the place the screen captures below and he informed me that he was fairly certain a restroom of that size and shape had never existed on the premises. Upon arriving home, I contacted a Scream crew member who got back to me immediately saying that the bathroom was indeed a set. Since crew member recollections are not always reliable, though, I wanted more confirmation. So I reached out to Leonora Scelfo and Nancy Anne Ridder, the two actresses who appeared alongside Neve in the scene. They both could not have been nicer, but had different memories of where filming took place. Leonora recalled shooting the bathroom scene on location at “the school” (I’m assuming she means the community center), while Nancy informed me that the bit was lensed on a set. As I said, cast and crew recollections can’t always be trusted. I am fairly certain, though, that Nancy was correct and that the Woodsboro High girls’ restroom was a set that existed inside of the Santa Rosa warehouse.

Ashley also has a hunch that a very tiny portion of the infamous opening scene was lensed at the warehouse, as well, though she is not certain of that fact. Scream’s opening, which took place at the residence of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), was actually the first part of the movie to be shot. At the time, Craven had not yet secured the rights from Fun World for the use of their “Peanut-Eyed Ghost” mask, which executive producer Marianne Maddalena had spotted while scouting the home that was ultimately used as Tatum Riley’s (Rose McGowan) in the flick and which Wes wanted to utilize to shroud Ghostface. Time running out, Craven had KNB EFX Group re-create the mask with just enough subtle changes so as not to infringe upon Fun World’s copyrighted design. KNB’s re-creation was used in the first two segments of Scream that were shot – the opening and the scenes in the Woodsboro High School office. After those bits were lensed, the rights to the Fun World mask were secured and for the rest of the shoot, the Peanut-Eyed Ghost was used. Both masks are pictured below. As you’ll notice, the differences between them are rather inconspicuous. The KNB version has a much sharper triangular nose than its Fun World counterpart. The KNB mouth boasts an upside-down tear-drop shape, while the Fun World mouth is more of an oval. And the eyes of the KNB ghost are thinner and more symmetrical than that of Fun World. Other than those small differences, though, it is pretty hard to tell them apart.

At some point after the rights were secured, Wes decided to reshoot the brief portion of the opening in which Ghostface is seen through Casey’s back window using the Fun World mask. Ashley has an inkling that the reshoot (stills of which are pictured below) was done at the warehouse and I think she’s right. That is just a hunch, though. While it makes sense that filming of the short, tightly-shot segment would have taken place at the warehouse, it is also entirely possibly producers constructed a tiny window set to shoot the bit at one of the other locales utilized in the production.

If you watch the Scream opening carefully, the two different masks are apparent. The sharp nose of the KNB version (which is pictured in the caps below) is the most noticeable giveaway.

I also have a hunch that the window portion of Sidney’s bedroom may have been a set. Though Craven states in Scream’s DVD commentary that filming of the bedroom scenes took place at the actual Santa Rosa residence utilized as Sidney’s in the shoot, as you can see in the image of the warehouse below, some sort of set boasting three single-hung windows is visible to the right of the high school office set.

Those windows are a darn close match to Sidney’s. Even her white lace curtains seem to be visible. In Scream, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) climbs through Sidney’s window, located on the Prescott home’s second floor, on two different occasions. To quote Bruce Willis, it seems doubtful, due to liability issues, that Wes would have Skeet clambering onto a roof and through a second-story window not once, but twice during production. It is much more likely that a small portion of the bedroom with more accessible windows was re-created at the warehouse for the scenes. Who knows, though?

When I arrived at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue last October, I was shocked to find a strip mall that looked to be of rather new construction standing on the premises. Walking around the center, which is home to a flooring store, a La-Z-Boy outpost and a sports shop, among others, I started to have doubts that the Scream warehouse was still standing.

Upon arriving home, I looked into the matter further and was dismayed at what I found. In comparing the 1993 overhead view of the site to the 2009 view via Historic Aerials, it is clear that the warehouse was either razed and completely rebuilt at some point during the interim or remodeled and expanded extensively before being transformed into the strip mall it is now. My guess is the former, which would mean that the Scream warehouse is no longer. Try as I might, though, I could not find any confirmation of my hunch or any information on the warehouse or the strip mall whatsoever. Even searching Santa Rosa building permits provided no clarification. Regardless, to me the site will always be hallowed ground and I was thrilled that I got to stalk it.

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

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, from The Drewseum, for telling me about this location and for providing so much of the information included in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Scream warehouse is/was located at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue in Santa Rosa.

October 12, 2017
The “One Hour Photo” House

Today’s location is not spooky – at all, in fact. It’s actually quite exquisite. But it did figure rather heavily in the creepiest scene from one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen, so I thought it would only be fitting to include it in my Haunted Hollywood postings. I am talking about the contemporary residence where the Yorkin family – Will (Michael Vartan), Nina (Connie Nielsen) and Jakob (Dylan Smith) – lived in One Hour Photo. I first got interested in tracking down the ultra-modern pad after coming across this The Straight Dope message board while researching Lacy Park, another of the 2002 thriller’s locations. In the thread, user Ins&Outs&What-have-yous inquired if anyone had any information on the dwelling, though no one seemed to. Shortly thereafter, I found my way to this page on the FilmGrab site in which a commenter named Melissa also inquired about the Yorkin home. Her query did not garner any responses, either. So, since facts about the house seemed to be nil, I decided it was my duty to track the place down and blog about it come October.

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Finding this spot took quite a while, I am loathe to admit. I knew from the movie’s production notes that the Yorkin home was located somewhere in Brentwood. My first stab at tracking down its exact address was to do a Google search for “Brentwood” and “modern house,” which yielded a slew of links to a slew of gorgeous properties, but none of them were the Yorkins’. I then added “filming” to the mix and scoured countless more links and images – so many that I ultimately do not remember the exact details of how I was finally led to the right place. At some point, though, I came across the video below which showed the pad as it appeared in an episode of Californication. The clip’s caption proved especially forthcoming, providing not only the property’s name, Benton House, but its architect, Ray Kappe. From there, Google prompted me to 90210Locations’ Californication page which detailed the residence’s exact address –136 South Canyon View Drive. Thanks, 90210Locations! I ran right out to stalk the place shortly thereafter.

In 1989, psychologist/mom/architecture buff Dr. Esther Benton purchased a large home on a shaded plot of land in Brentwood with the intention of performing a vast remodel. She commissioned Kappe for the job, but the incredibly prolific architect wound up razing the structure and rebuilding in his signature style instead, generating magic out of glass, wood and concrete. His creation, which took three years to complete (from 1991 to 1994), was designed with the working mom in mind. The residence boasts three large rooms, or “suites” as a 1998 New York Times article described them – a master bedroom suite, a suite for Esther’s daughter, and an office suite, which Kappe fashioned with a swiveling wall so that the doctor could “watch over the house without interrupting her time at work.” The property is also fashioned with 20-foot ceilings, a large skylight, Douglas fir embellishments, multiple fireplaces, a sunken bathtub, a frameless glass shower, and a towering glass and steel staircase. Zillow estimates the pad is worth a whopping $8.9 million today! Though absolutely stunning, as you can see in photos here and here, sadly none of it is visible from the street.

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial views.

For those who have not seen One Hour Photo, the movie centers on Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams), aka Sy, a Sav-Mart photo developer who becomes obsessed with the Yorkins, a family whose film he regularly develops. Though things are definitely not perfect in Will, Nina and Jakob’s world, through Sy’s eyes, the family and their home is idyllic, arcadian and devoid of any typical everyday problems. As Williams is quoted as saying in the film’s production notes, “In the outside world Sy stands out, especially when you get near the Yorkins’ house, which is very warm and incredibly beautiful, almost painfully beautiful because it is his idealized home.” Production designer Tom Foden further describes the dwelling as “representing a place of dreams and ideals.”

In the movie’s creepiest scene, Sy ventures into the Yorkins’ residence while they are away and proceeds to look through their things, put on their clothes, use their bathroom, watch their TV, and generally just make himself at home. In the end, it turns out the experience was all just a fantasy taking place in Sy’s mind, but because Williams played the role to such creepy perfection, the segment is seriously disturbing. The real life interior of the Benton House was utilized in the scene . . .

. . . as well as throughout other portions of the film.

When I first started looking into the Yorkin home, I couldn’t help but think about how much it resembles the residence belonging to Sebastian Stark (James Woods) on the television series Shark. So I was not too surprised to discover during the course of my research that the Shark pad was designed by Ray Kappe’s son, Finn Kappe. That property, one of my favorite TV homes ever, can be found at 2315 Live Oaks Meadow Road in Malibu.

What I was absolutely bowled over to learn, though, was that the inside of the Benton House was utilized as the inside of Sebastian’s home in Shark’s pilot episode, which aired in 2006. I had always assumed the Live Oak Meadows residence had been used for both interiors and exteriors! You can check out photos of the inside of that property here. As you can see, it looks nothing like Sebastian’s pad.

The Benton House interior was later re-created on a soundstage for the filming of all of Shark’s subsequent episodes. That set re-creation is pictured below. (And yes, that’s a young Matt Lanter – my favorite actor – in the second screen capture! <3)

In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “Girls, Interrupted,” which aired in 2007, the Benton House plays itself. Well, sort of. In the episode, Hank Moody (David Duchovny) takes his ex-wife, architecture enthusiast Karen (Natascha McElhone), to see the home of director Todd Carr (Chris Williams). Though said to be in Bel Air and not Brentwood, the pad is described as a Ray Kappe house in the segment.

The residence’s interior also appeared in the episode.

Back in 1999, the Benton House popped up in Cruel Intentions as the supposed Long Island, New York-area home of Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson).

As Geoff from 90210Locations also informed me, the Benton House portrayed the residence of Samantha Winslow (Susan Sarandon) during the fifth season of Ray Donovan.

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

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, of 90210Locations, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Yorkin house from One Hour Photo is located at 136 South Canyon View Drive in Brentwood.

October 9, 2017
The Haunted House from “The Goldbergs”

There’s literally nothing better than being scared at Halloween! In my mind, at least. Terrifying movies? Yes! Spooky decorations? Yes! Haunted houses? Yaaaas! Especially haunted houses! Too bad Adam F. Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) doesn’t share my sentiment. In the Season 3 episode of The Goldbergs titled “Couples Costume,” the teen only begrudgingly visits a haunted house on All Hallows’ Eve in the hopes of impressing his girlfriend, Dana Caldwell (Natalie Alyn Lind), after his sister and brother, Erica (Hayley Orrantia) and Barry (Troy Gentile), tell him he is too old for trick-or-treating. Figuring the pad utilized in the show would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme, I, of course, became obsessed with tracking it down immediately upon seeing it. Fortunately, it was a snap to find.

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While watching “Couples Costume,” I noticed that an address number of 2822 was visible just to the right of the haunted house’s front door. I had a hunch the dwelling was likely located in the same Cheviot Hills neighborhood as the property that portrays that Goldberg family’s home on the series (you can read about that site here), so I started scouring Google Street View for residences in the area numbered 2822. Sure enough, I found the place just a few blocks away at 2822 Forrester Drive.

In the episode, things don’t go well for poor Adam while at the haunted house, which is said to be taking place at a local fraternity on the Villanova University campus in Pennsylvania. Upon entering the tricked-out residence, he gets seriously spooked and uses Dana as a human shield, causing her to drop the promise ring he gave her. Adam then ditches Dana and runs for his life. Later in the evening, he winds up having to return to the haunted house with his sister, brother and mother, Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and face his fears in order to retrieve the ring.

The Tudor-style home that portrayed the haunted house in the episode looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, minus a few spooky decorations and the Greek Omega Theta Rho lettering over the front door.

In real life, the stately 2-story residence, which was built in 1926, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,241 square feet, and a 0.20-acre lot.

I believe the actual inside of the home was also utilized in “Couples Costume,” but, unfortunately, I could not find any interior photos to verify that hunch.

Interestingly, the property is a virtual twin to the Baxter home from the television series Last Man Standing. I blogged about that pad, which is located at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square, earlier this year. You can read that post here.

In an odd twist, a different residence was used as the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the Season 1 episode of The Goldbergs titled “For Your Own Good.” Even more odd, that home is located at 2826 Forrester, right next door to the property that portrayed the haunted house!

You can see that home on the right-hand side of my images below.

Odder still – 2826 Forrester was even utilized in “Couples Costume!” It is outside of the dwelling that Beverly tries to take candy from local trick-or-treaters in order to find the “deadly razor candy bar” she made to teach Adam a lesson about safety that she thinks was accidentally given out. I have no idea why producers pulled the ol’ switcheroo like that, especially since, being that it appeared in the episode, 2826 Forrester was obviously available for filming. My only guess is that Tudor-style properties lend themselves to haunted houses better than more traditional homes, so location managers must have looked for one to appear in the episode and wound up finding a suitable candidate right next door to the original fraternity house.

The residence across the street at 2815 Forrrester was also utilized in “Couples Costume” as the spot where Adam and Dana went trick-or-treating after eventually making up.

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 haunted house from the “Couples Costume” episode of The Goldbergs is located at 2822 Forrester Drive in Cheviot Hills. The residence that portrayed the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the “For Your Own Good” episode can be found next door at 2826 Forrester. The property that is used as the Goldberg family’s residence on the series is just a few blocks away at 3071 Earlmar Drive. And Dana’s home from the show is around the corner at 2885 Club Drive.

October 6, 2017
Myra Jones’ Former House

Though I love true crime and pretty much all of its facets, there are some cases that I find too sad and disturbing to read about, research, do any stalking of, or feature on my blog. Today’s locale, the site of the brutal rape and murder of a 71-year-old grandma, is not one I would typically cover. But the victim’s connection to what is arguably Hollywood’s most iconic thriller and the serious mistaken identity that resulted from her killing had me utterly fascinated. I figured my fellow stalkers would be intrigued, as well. I am talking about the 1988 slaying of actress Myra Davis, who worked under the stage name Myra Jones.

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The moniker is likely unfamiliar to most, which is not surprising being that Jones’ IMDB page lists a scant six credits. Her face is also likely unfamiliar. Again, not surprising being that she never actually appeared in the most famous production on which she worked. (That’s her below pictured via an image from the television show North Mission Road, which covered her murder in a 2005 episode.)Though Myra did find a bit of success later in life starring in commercials, it was not until after her death that her name and image found their way into the papers. A full decade after her death, actually, thanks to a bit of misreporting in an Associated Press article. But more on that in a bit. During her early days in Hollywood, Jones worked as a stand-in for Janet Leigh. From November 1959 to February 1960, she served as Leigh’s stand-in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho – even during the infamous shower scene. But you never saw her onscreen. For those not familiar with Hollywood terminology, a stand-in, which is not to be confused with a body double, literally “stands in” for an actor or actress anytime the camera is not rolling – typically during rehearsals to test camera set-ups, lighting, and blocking. While standing-in during the shower sequence, Myra wore a nude leotard, which mimicked flesh tones, so that various lighting schematics could be evaluated against it. But neither her face nor her body was featured in even one second of footage.

Flash forward to June 28th, 1988. After not hearing from her for several days, Myra’s granddaughter, Sherry Davis, headed to the actress’ West L.A. bungalow, located at 2917 South Beverly Drive in Palms, to check on her. Peering in the bedroom window, she discovered a horrifying site – Jones’ decomposing body splayed across the bed. She had been raped and murdered eight days prior. Though Sherry had suspicions that the crime might have been committed by next-door neighbor Joel Stein, who lived one door south at 2923 South Beverly, detectives zeroed in on Sherry’s brother, who was battling drug addiction at the time. The brother passed a polygraph, though, and police it seems didn’t look further. Myra’s case went cold.

Her 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,234-square-foot home, which Myra had lived in for 40 years, was subsequently sold.

Flash forward once again. This time to March 29th, 1998, almost a full decade later, when 60-year-old Jean Orloff was found raped and murdered inside her apartment located at 1810 South Bentley Avenue in West L.A. Though a fire alarm in her bedroom had been dismantled, her dust ruffle burned, and marks on her neck and back were visible, the police detective on the scene ruled that the death resulted from a heart attack. The burned bed skirt he explained away by saying Jean (pictured below via a Cold Case Files episode), who was a known smoker, might have dropped a cigarette during the attack, causing a small fire. No matter that no cigarette was found near her body or on the floor. Because of the ruling, Jean’s apartment was turned over to her family and they began to clean up the scene and pack her belongings. It was not until four days later that the truth was unveiled. While the funeral home was preparing Jean for cremation, a worker noticed that her death certificate had never been signed by the attending coroner. Orloff’s longtime doctor was contacted, but, because he had not seen Jean for over eight months, legally he could not endorse the document. So the coroner’s office sent out investigator Sherwood Dixson to re-examine the body and sign the paperwork. While inspecting her, Dixson noticed that there was significant bruising on Jean’s neck. In the days since her discovery, the ligature marks left by her killer had darkened significantly. Dixson ruled the death a homicide.

By the time of Dixson’s ruling, Jean’s family had already cleaned her apartment (pictured below from the Cold Case Files episode) and packed away most of her belongings, wiping away or tossing out any evidence in the process. The police were in a predicament. So they started reaching out to those close to Orloff in the hopes that someone might be able to shed some light on why she was killed. One of the people contacted was Jean’s longtime manicurist, Adrienne Rosenfeldt. Though Rosenfeldt did not have any relevant information to give police, when she returned home later that night she mentioned Jean’s murder to her son, Joel Stein. Yes, the same Joel Stein who lived next door to Myra Jones. The conversation got Joel thinking about his brother-in-law, Kenneth Dean Hunt, who also inhabited the home next door to Myra. Kenneth had been behaving strangely and binging on cocaine over the few days prior. Joel remembered that ten years earlier, immediately following Jones’ death, Kenneth had acted the exact same way. He called the police, who brought Hunt in for questioning and obtained his DNA. Sure enough, the results showed that he was the killer of both Jean and Myra. Sherry Davis had been right all along. Her grandmother had been murdered by the man next-door – just not the man she was thinking of. Kenneth was arrested, charged and ultimately convicted of both homicides. He was sentenced to life in prison. The story doesn’t end there, though.

When Hunt was arrested, the Associated Press published an article stating that one of his victims was Janet Leigh’s Psycho body double. The press subsequently ran with the story, tantalized by the eerie fact that a woman who appeared in one of the most famous murder scenes of all time wound up dying a brutal death at the hands of a deranged killer. The only trouble was the account wasn’t accurate. Can you say fake news?!? As I mentioned above, Myra was Leigh’s stand-in, not her body double. That job went to a former stripper and one-time Playboy cover model named Marli Renfro (pictured below). It is her body that appears in all portions of the shower scene in which Janet’s face is not visible in the frame. The press’ misreporting is somewhat understandable, I guess, being that the terms “body double” and “stand-in” are often used interchangeably, though they shouldn’t be. Further muddying the waters was the fact that both Leigh and Hitchcock categorically denied the use of a shower scene body double for years. Because Myra used a stage name, after the Associated Press released their initial article, some media sources, confused by Hitchcock and Leigh’s denials, simply assumed that Marli Renfro and Myra Jones were the same person. It was not long before news of the Psycho body double’s murder was everywhere, with some outlets even claiming that Myra had done the voice work of Norman Bates’ mother in the movie, another incorrect factoid.

It took years for the matter to be cleared up. Enter author Robert Graysmith, who had been obsessed with Renfro since his teens. While perusing a December 2007 news article about the murder, he was surprised to see Sherry Davis quoted as saying, “My grandmother would never have done any nude work.” Being that Marli had been featured on the cover of Playboy, the quote confused Graysmith and he began researching the matter further. As he shockingly soon discovered, not only were Marli Renfro and Myra Jones two different people, but Renfro was alive and well and living in the Mojave Desert. Even more shocking, Marli had no idea she had been proclaimed dead by the media or that there was so much confusion surrounding her role in Psycho until Robert contacted her and explained the situation. Graysmith wound up publishing a book on the subject titled “The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shower” in 2010.

I first learned about Myra’s killing from fellow stalker Alan who posted a comment on my Challenge Lindsay! page back in January alerting me to the addresses of several Haunted Hollywood locales, one of which was Jones’ home. Another fellow stalker named James responded to Alan’s comment, providing a link to a Wikipedia page about Marli Renfro. I was not familiar with either Jones or Renfro at the time, but once I started Googling, I pretty much couldn’t stop. The whole story is almost stranger than fiction!

Myra’s house, which was originally built in 1938, was featured in the Season 3 Cold Case Files episode that covered her murder titled “Before I Do/Hollywood Homicides.”

The residence also appeared in the North Mission Road episode about the case titled “Double Mystery.” You can watch that episode here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Alan for telling about this location and to fellow stalker James for providing the Wikipedia link that led me to reading more about the case.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Myra Jones’ former house is located at 2917 South Beverly Drive in Palms.

October 4, 2017
The “Lights Out” House

“Lights Out Cast Accidentally Cursed the House Where they Filmed.” So blared a headline from an Entertainment Weekly article about the 2016 horror film. As you can imagine, the words had me drooling. I first learned about the movie back in January from fellow stalker “sparklesnow” who left a comment on one of my Instagram photos asking for some help in tracking down the large Tudor-style estate where virtually all filming took place. When I popped “Lights Out” and “house” in to a Google search, the EW column was the first item kicked back. In it, actor Alexander DiPersia was quoted as saying, “A week after we finished shooting the basement scene [which] is very terrifying, I got a call from friends saying, ‘Turn on the news.’ And the house was on fire, like right after we finished shooting. From the basement, smoke was emanating up. We cursed that place.” A locale that was not only featured in a horror flick, but that also got vexed by the production? Count me in! I couldn’t imagine a place more perfectly suited to my Haunted Hollywood postings. So I set right out to track it down.

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Thankfully, the search was not very hard. Being that Lights Out was released in July 2016, I knew that filming had to have taken place in 2015. So I scoured the internet for reports of any fires at L.A.-area residences that year and came across this Los Angeles Daily News article detailing a blaze that struck a three-story home located at 140 South Avenue 59 in Highland Park on November 7th. One look at Street View images of the dwelling in comparison to the pad shown in the movie’s trailer confirmed it was the right spot. Fortunately, the inferno, which was put out within 43 minutes of the fire department’s arrival, does not appear to have caused much damage to the locale because, as you can see below, the Lights Out house is currently standing and seemingly intact.

In real life, the property is known as the Finis E. Yoakum House, named for the doctor-turned-faith-healer who commissioned it. Following a serious buggy accident in Denver in 1894, Yoakum migrated to Los Angeles, hoping the city’s temperate climate would aid in his recovery from his many injuries. A few months after arriving in La La Land, he attended a Christian Alliance prayer meeting, where he was blessed by a priest and almost immediately healed. The experience inspired Yoakum to assist others who were suffering. In 1900, he opened up his Queen Anne-style residence at 6026 Echo Street in Highland Park to those in need, providing shelter, clothing and food for free. In return, the residents performed charitable acts and helped around the property, which Yoakum dubbed the Pisgah Home, named for the mountain from which Moses first spotted the promised land. It was not long before Finis’ crusade took on momentum, transforming into a religion that became known as the Pisgah Home Movement.

In short time, more space was needed to house Pisgah Home’s growing number of residents. Several cottages were added to the Echo Street property and those that couldn’t fit in the ancillary structures would sleep in tents in the yard. Yoakum and his wife even had to move into a tent themselves at one point so that their residence could be utilized for those in need. In 1915, Pisgah Home members constructed a new, much larger Tudor-style dwelling for Yoakum and his family just up the road at 140 South Avenue 59.

The doctor only lived in the lavish structure for five years before passing away in 1920. After his death, the various properties making up Pisgah Home, most of which still stand today, were divided up amongst his family and the Movement. The Finis E. Yoakum house, which is a Los Angeles Historic Cultural-Monument, was subsequently sold and today is a privately-owned residence.

The 19-room estate, which looks much the same today as it did when it was originally built, features 8 bedrooms, 5 baths, 6,140 square feet of living space, a finished basement, several fireplaces, a 0.41-acre plot of land, a large swimming pool, and a detached 2-car garage.

Sadly, not much of it can be seen from the street.

In Lights Out, the Finis E. Yoakum House served as the residence of Sophie (Maria Bello) and Martin (Gabriel Bateman). I watched the movie shortly before writing this post and, let me tell you, it is absolutely terrifying – in the best way possible. I mean, the trailer alone was enough to make me want to sleep with the lights on for at least a week.

The sprawling property was used extensively throughout the flick.

Even the real life interior (which is exquisite!) was utilized in the filming.

Though undeniably beautiful (that woodwork and detailing!), I can see why the house was chosen for the movie. It definitely has a looming quality to it. Those stairs and doors just look like they give good creak!

As Alexander DiPersia mentioned in the EW article, Lights Out’s basement scene was particularly harrowing. According to IMDB, the mannequins featured in the segment were not props, but actually belong to the Yoakum House owners, who store them in the cellar! Shudder! Whether or not the home was actually cursed during the production, causing the fire that later broke out there, I’ll never know, but one thing’s for sure – I wouldn’t ever want to set foot in that basement to find out!

The Yoakum House is actually a frequent horror film star. In the 2014 thriller Ouija, the property was featured as the home of Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig), though only interiors were used.

A residence just a few doors down at 5915 Echo Street was utilized for all exterior shots.

Well, almost all exterior shots. The Yoakum House’s pool did make an appearance in the film.

The dwelling also popped up in interior scenes in Ouija’s 2016 sequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil.

In non-horror-movie-related news, the Yoakum House portrayed the bed and breakfast owned by Heaton (Kevin Pollak) and Rita Upshaw (Illeana Douglas) in the 2013 dramedy Chez Upshaw. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior were utilized in the shoot.

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 Finis E. Yoakum House, aka Sophie and Martin’s residence from Lights Out, is located at 140 South Avenue 59 in Highland Park.

October 3, 2017
The “Pacific Heights” House

I have been waiting for this day for months! Yep, that’s right folks – it is finally, finally time for my annual Haunted Hollywood postings and I could not be more excited! In honor of the occasion, I have added a Haunted Hollywood category to my site and while I typically only publish three columns a week during normal months, I am going to attempt to do a write up of a new spooky spot every single day of October. God knows I have enough material! We’ll see how it goes. For my first locale this year, I thought I’d cover the house from Pacific Heights. I stalked the picturesque pad, which can’t actually be found in the tony neighborhood the film was named for but about three miles south in Potrero Hill, last fall while visiting San Francisco. Though I actually find Pacific Heights to be more anger-inducing than scary, I still thought it would be fitting to include the dwelling that served as its focal point in my October postings.

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For those who haven’t seen Pacific Heights, the 1990 thriller – or “horror film for yuppies” as Roger Ebert dubbed it – tells the story of Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine), a young San Francisco couple who use all their savings to purchase a dilapidated, but still rather pricey (try $749,000!) Victorian home with two rental units supposedly located at 170 Pacific Street. Patty and Drake fix up the residence themselves, move into the top floor space and lease out the two rentals, one of them to maniacal con man Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton), who proceeds to terrorize the couple, as well as the occupants of the other unit, without paying so much as a dime of his monthly rent. Due to San Francisco’s pro-tenant property laws, Drake and Patty are powerless to stop Carter, evict him, or do much of anything really. Screenwriter Daniel Pyne was inspired to pen the film’s script after his own experience of trying to evict a deadbeat tenant from an apartment he once owned.

In the film, Patty and Drake’s real estate agent informs them that the turreted home was built around 1886 and “probably remodeled slightly in the ‘40s.”

In reality, the statuesque Queen Anne was constructed in 1895.

The three-story dwelling was made to look significantly run-down for the movie’s early scenes. According to William A. Gordon in his book Shot on This Site, “When the production company discovered it, the house had been recently repainted. To create a ‘distressed’ look, they masked the entire house with sound-blasting frisket, a substance with light adhesive on one side and paper on the other. The painted side was treated with chemicals to make the exterior look cracked and aged. After two days’ filming, the crew removed the frisket.”

After Drake and Patty complete their improvements, the property comes to resemble its actual self.

Only the exterior of the residence was utilized in the filming. Interior scenes were shot on a set built on a soundstage at The Culver Studios in Culver City.

The views shown in the film are real and absolutely breathtaking (though the San Francisco skyline has changed considerably since Pacific Heights was lensed almost 30 years ago).

In fact, in Shot on This Site, Gordon says the home was chosen for the movie because of its stunning panoramic views.

Along with spectacular views, in real life the residence also boasts a corner 0.06-acre lot, 4 bedrooms, a den, 3.5 baths, 3,200 square feet, 2 fireplaces, an eat-in kitchen, bay windows, parquet flooring, vaulted ceilings, separate guest quarters, a finished basement, a 1-car garage, a patio, a BBQ area, an attic, a garden, and a studio in-law apartment, just like in the movie. Per Zillow, the pad is currently worth a whopping $3.27 million.

Zillow also states that the property appeared in several episodes of Nash Bridges, but I am unsure of which episodes in particular. 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: Drake and Patty’s residence from Pacific Heights is located at 1243 19th Street in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood.

October 2, 2017
Bette Davis’ House from “Feud”

My favorite Big Little Lies quote belongs to Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), who, in response to Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) advising her to let something go, quips, “I love my grudges. I tend to them like little pets.” A woman after my own heart, I swear! Oh yes, I am a definite grudge-holder. So I really should have loved Ryan Murphy’s 2017 anthology series Feud, the first season of which detailed the longtime rivalry between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (played by Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, respectively). The show just didn’t grab me, though. Not in the way that American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, Murphy’s other recent anthology series, did. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I didn’t like Feud. I avidly watched all eight episodes and thoroughly enjoyed their historical nature, as well as the period costumes and elaborate (and extremely accurate) sets. But more often than not, the storyline seemed lacking and I kept finding myself feeling bored. I did have a massive fondness for the series’ locations, though, namely the grand Tudor that Bette called home. So when a fellow stalker named AB emailed me the pad’s address a few months back, I immediately jotted it down and couldn’t have been more excited when I finally made it out to Cheviot Hills to see it in person it last week.

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Bette’s sprawling mansion was featured repeatedly throughout Feud.

The stately property was utilized in both on location filming and establishing shots.

The Feud production team went to great lengths to keep the locations featured on the series true to life. The Cheviot Hills residence most closely resembles Ms. Davis’ Laguna Beach mansion located at 1991 Ocean Way, though that pad is situated on top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The front of it is much less grand than the manse that appeared on Feud, but the rear and side are pretty darn dramatic.

In real life, the massive 1926 estate boasts 7 bedrooms, 7 baths, 5,436 square feet of living space, 21 rooms, a wet bar, a pool, a barbeque area, a 3-car garage, a jetted tub, a fireplace, a 0.63-acre lot, a garden, a deck, and an in-law unit.

You can check out some amazing photographs of the home taken in 1928, shortly after it was built, here.

Only the exterior of the dwelling was utilized on Feud. Interior scenes taking place at Bette’s house were shot on a soundstage at 20th Century Fox Studios in Culver City, where much of the series was lensed.

In a February 2017 Variety article, Feud production designer Judy Becker describes Bette as a traditionalist when it came to her décor. She says, “Bette was from outside of Boston. She was a Yankee. We did a brown and green and earthy palette for her. She had a lot of American Colonial furniture, and she had a braided rug. You would think you were in New England, but this was in L.A.” In her research of the actresses’ homes, Becker found that despite moving several times throughout her life, Bette’s furnishings and design schematic always remained the same.

Unfortunately, I could not find any images of the interior of the Cheviot Hills residence, but man, oh man, would I love to see what it actually looks like. I can only imagine how gorgeous it must be!

I did learn, though, thanks to the Just Call Me Aggie website, that the pad was owned by actress Agnes Moorhead from 1946 to 1953. Upon moving in, Moorhead hired famed interior decorator Tony Duquette (whom you may remember from this post) to design the place.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker AB for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bette Davis’ house from Feud is located at 2720 Monte Mar Terrace in Cheviot Hills.

September 29, 2017
Dana’s House from “The Goldbergs”

Brenda and Dylan. Winnie and Kevin. Rachel and Joey. Adam and Dana. All TV couples who didn’t wind up together, but who, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, really should have. Though, since The Goldbergs is still on the air, I guess there’s still hope for the latter two. I mean, any romance that starts out with an ‘80s movie re-creation has to end well, right? It would just be sacrilege otherwise! For those who don’t watch the popular ABC series, when tween Adam Goldberg (Sam Giambrone) falls in love for the first time – with Dana Caldwell (Natalie Alyn Lind), the 13-year-old girl down the street who “smells like Fruity Pebbles” – he professes his feelings by standing in her front yard, boom box held above his head, serenading her with Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” a la Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) in Say Anything . . . The moment, of course, pulled at this 80s-loving-stalker’s heart strings. So when my friend/fellow stalker Michael (you know him from his many guest posts) recently informed me of the location of Dana’s house, I ran right out to see it in person.

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The Goldbergs’ Say Anything . . . homage occurs in Season 1’s “The Ring.” In the episode, Adam realizes he is in love with Dana and seeks advice from his lady-killer grandpa, Pops Solomon (George Segal), who urges him, “You gotta go for it! Make a big gesture, something that’ll show her exactly how you feel.” Things don’t go quite as planned, though, for poor Adam.

Upon hitting play on his boom box, he accidentally wakes up Dana’s brother and father before suffering the ultimate humiliation of getting caught in the sprinklers. Despite the fact that, as Adam later laments to Pops, “I serenaded her brother, I dropped my boom box, and I soaked my Lloyd Dobler coat,” the grand gesture is not lost on Dana and, in the end, Adam gets the girl.

While watching the scene, Michael noticed that a small park-like area was visible across the street from Dana’s house. Figuring the dwelling was most likely located in the same vicinity as the Cheviot Hills residence that portrays the Goldberg family home on the series, he started poking around the neighborhood via aerial views looking for a tiny landscaped space situated across from residences and it wasn’t long before he found the right spot. As it turns out, Dana’s pad is just around the corner from Adam’s!

As Michael also noticed (I totally missed it!), set dressers covered over a portion of the home’s garage with foliage for the shoot, as well as most of the driveway with fake grass.

In actuality, the property’s driveway takes up almost the entire northern end of the front yard, as you can see below.

In real life, Dana’s house boasts 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 2,934 square feet.

The picturesque pad, which was originally built in 1948 and features a 0.28-acre lot, is massive in person – much larger than it appeared onscreen.

The Caldwell residence popped up a few times on The Goldbergs, including in the Season 1 episode titled “You’re Under Foot” . . .

. . . and in Season 2’s “Cowboy Country.”

Inexplicably, a different home was used as Dana’s in the Season 2 finale titled “Goldbergs Feel Hard.” Though little other than the front door of the property was shown, it is definitely a different locale, as you can see below.

Dana’s residence has actually been featured in several productions over the years.

Thanks to my friend Chas, of the It’s Filmed There website, I learned that in the Season 2 episode of Joan of Arcadia titled “Game Theory,” which aired in 2005, the pad belonged to a different Dana – Dana Tuchman (Kevin Rahm), Joan Girardi’s (Amber Tamblyn) teacher.

In the Season 1 episode of Bones titled “The Woman in the Car,” which aired in 2006, the property portrayed the supposed Washington, D.C.-area home of Carl Decker (Zeljko Ivanek).

Thanks to filminglocs, I discovered that the Caldwell residence was also featured in the Season 7 episode of House titled “Carrot or Stick,” which aired in 2011, in the scene in which Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) tries to figure out who took a suggestive photo of him.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Michael (you can read his many guest posts here) for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dana’s house from The Goldbergs is located at 2885 Club Drive in Cheviot Hills. The property that portrays the Goldberg family’s residence on the series can be found just around the corner at 3071 Earlmar Drive.

September 25, 2017
The Former Site of the “Eight Is Enough” House

One of my biggest filming location pet peeves is when an unfound spot from an old movie or television show is explained away as having been demolished without any evidence to support that allegation. Like Whitney Houston, I wanna see the receipts! So when I recently came across an Eight Is Enough message board in which several commenters mentioned that the home where the Bradford family lived on the popular ABC series had been torn down years back, I was not quick to believe the claims and decided to look into the matter myself. As I eventually learned, the EIE house was indeed razed long ago, sadly. Because questions about the residence linger online, though, I figured it was worthy of a blog post – especially since my friend Michael (you may remember him from his many guest posts) was able to dig up some proof of its demolition.

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For those not familiar with Eight Is Enough, the show, which ran from 1977 to 1981, was based upon the 1975 memoir of Tom Braden, a Washington, D.C.-area political columnist who, with wife Joan, had eight children. For the series, the family’s last name was changed to Bradford and the setting shifted to Sacramento, where Tom (Dick Van Patten) and second wife, Abby (Betty Buckley), lived with their large brood – David (Grant Goodeve), Mary (Lani O’Grady), Joannie (Laurie Walters), Susan (Susan Richardson), Nancy (Dianne Kay), Elizabeth (Connie Needham), Tommy (Willie Aames) and Nicholas (Adam Rich) – in a charming two-story Colonial-style dwelling. (Diana Hyland, the actress who played Joan, Tom’s first wife and mother of the Bradford clan, sadly passed away in the middle of the series’ inaugural season and only appeared in the first four episodes. Tom then married Abby at the beginning of Season 2.)

A commenter on the Eight Is Enough message board had stated that the Bradford pad formerly stood right off Lankershim Boulevard at 10703 Chiquita Street in North Hollywood. Early on in my research, though, I unearthed a The Sacramento Bee article from 2015 in which associate producer Sandra Bice said that the property used on the show was located in Burbank. She explained that EIE location managers likely did some scouting of Sactown neighborhoods and then found a house in the vicinity of Warner Bros. Studio, where the series was lensed, that had a similar look and feel. I was not sure which source to believe, but felt an associate producer was likely more credible. To fulfill my due diligence, I did look into the Chiquita Street address, though. Number 10703 is no longer in existence, but, as Google showed me, that address falls at the end of a small cul-de-sac in Studio City, not North Hollywood. While there are several newly built homes situated in the cul-de-sac today, aside from a mid-90s construction date, I could find no other information on them or what stood there prior anywhere.

Seemingly stuck, without any sort of idea where to turn next, I brought Michael in on the hunt. Thankfully, he was able to work his usual magic, showing me the receipts via a 1984 Press Democrat article in which the home’s location was spelled out in literal black and white. As it turns out, the message board commenter was correct – almost. The Eight Is Enough house was once located at 10733 Chiquita Street (not 10703).

Running a search on that address, Michael then came across a building permit which showed that the residence was torn down in 1996.

The permit also provided a diagram revealing how the property was formerly laid out.

Armed with that information, I headed over to the Historic Aerials website to see if I could figure out exactly where the house and its detached garage used to be situated. Though a bit hard to see, the Bradford residence and garage are marked with pink and blue arrows, respectively, in the images below.

Using that imagery, along with the building permit, I was able to discern that the Eight Is Enough house and garage formerly stood in the areas denoted with pink boxes below.

That spot is pictured below in its current state.

The home, said to be at 1436 Oak Street in Sacramento on the series, was used extensively throughout Eight Is Enough’s 5-season run. Not only did the dwelling pop up regularly in establishing shots . . .

. . . but it also appeared in each episode’s opening credits . . .

. . . as well as in countless on location scenes. The residence was also featured in the 1987 made-for-television movie Eight Is Enough: A Family Reunion and in 1989’s An Eight Is Enough Wedding, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of either production with which to make screen captures for this post.

Only the exterior of the dwelling appeared on Eight Is Enough. Interiors were filmed inside of a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio.

Though the Bradford house is long gone, the road leading up to it still looks relatively the same.

Thanks to IMDB and the Eight Is Enough message board, I learned that the residence was an onscreen regular in its day, most likely due to its charming aesthetic, proximity to several studios, and Anywhere, U.S.A. feel. In the Season 2 episode of The Rockford Files titled “Where’s Houston?,” which aired in 1976, the Bradford pad portrayed the home of Houston Preli (Lane Bradbury).

I believe the property’s actual interior was also utilized in the episode.

The pad popped up on The Rockford Files once again two years later, this time as the supposed Sherman Oaks home belonging to Jay Rockfelt’s (John Pleshette) parents in Season 4’s “Dwarf in a Helium Hat.”

From the way the episode was shot, I can say with certainty that the real life interior was also featured.

The Eight Is Enough house was used in an establishing shot of the residence belonging to Rebecca Steck (Paula Hoffman) in the Season 2 episode of Valerie – or The Hogan Family, if you’re watching in syndication – titled “Caught on a Hot Tin Roof,” which aired in 1986.

Interestingly, the shot was actually borrowed from the pilot episode of Eight Is Enough, which makes sense being that both series were produced by Lorimar. Though the quality of The Hogan Family cap is terrible (I could not find a hi-res version of “Caught on a Hot Tin Roof” to stream), as you can see, the images above and below are one and the same.

In 1987, it popped up as the supposed Eden, Oregon-area Sitwell Mortuary where Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) met with some blackmail victims in the Season 4 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled “Trouble in Eden.” (Thanks to fellow stalker Dennis for the tip!)

The property’s interior also briefly appeared in the episode, though the main mortuary room featured was, I believe, just a set.

The Bradford home also portrayed the Conventry Presbyterian Halloween Spook House in the Season 3 episode of Quantum Leap titled “The Boogieman: October 31st, 1964,” which aired in 1990.

Thanks to fellow stalker AJM, I learned that the Bradford residence was used extensively as the home of Cus D’Amato (George C. Scott) and Camille Ewald (Lilyan Chauvin), where Mike Tyson (Michael Jai White) lived while training to become a boxer, in the 1995 biopic Tyson.

The interior of the pad also appeared in the movie.

Update – While perusing photographs of the 1938 Lankershim Bridge collapse, a fellow stalker named Paul spotted the Bradford home! He was kind enough to share the photos with me to post here. The image below is from the USC Libraries Digital Collection. The Bradford pad is denoted with a blue circle. Though not perfectly clear, it is a much better shot of the property than the ones provided by Historic Aerials. I love that, despite the somewhat fuzzy imagery, the home is still definitely recognizable from Eight Is Enough.

The second photo Paul shared comes from the Water and Power Associates website and, once again, the Bradford residence, which is pictured from the rear, is circled in blue. Though I have not been able to discern when precisely the property was originally built, at least we now know, thanks to Paul, that it was constructed at some point prior to 1938.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Michael (you can read his many guest posts here) for helping to confirm this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Bradford home from Eight Is Enough was formerly located at 10733 Chiquita Street in Studio City. The residence was torn down in 1996 and a new house now stands in its place.

September 22, 2017
Lacy Park from “Say Anything . . . “

Despite having lived in the San Gabriel Valley for 15 years, I somehow never visited Lacy Park in San Marino. I had heard of it, sure (the kids I used to babysit would watch fireworks there every Fourth of July), and knew it was a popular recreation spot, but was never exactly certain of its location. Lacy Park is often called one of San Marino’s “hidden gems” and now that I have been there, I can see why. Those unaware of its presence could easily drive right by without noticing it at all. Largely unmarked by signs and its parking lot hidden from view, the site isn’t exactly easy to find. And, for whatever reason, I never sought it out. But when Greg Mariotti, from The Uncool website, informed me that a scene from Say Anything . . . had been lensed on the premises (while the two of us were working on our guide to the 1989 movie’s Los Angeles locations), I knew I had to get over there ASAP to see it for myself.

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The spot where Lacy Park is now situated was originally home to a lake. Yes, a lake! Lake Avenue in Pasadena is named after it, in fact. Created by streams that poured down from the nearby mountains, the reservoir served as a water supply for the Gabrielino-Tongva Indian tribe in its early days.

In the 1770s, Spanish missionaries descended upon the area and dammed up the lake in order to use it for power.

The mere got further use – and slowly began to dry up – in 1854 when a vintner named Benjamin D. Wilson purchased it, as well as a significant amount of surrounding acreage, and started employing the water to irrigate his vineyards. He eventually allowed owners of neighboring land to also utilize the spring, which he dubbed “Wilson Lake,” depleting it significantly.

In 1900, the site, which had been renamed “Kewen Lake,” was still large enough for swimming and George S. Patton, who grew up in the area, would take regular dips there. (There’s even a memorial to the General on the property – it’s pictured below.)

In the ensuing years, the reservoir continued to reduce in size, becoming little more than a pond. The city of San Marino decided the grounds would be better utilized as a public park and began re-imagining it as such in 1924.

City councilman William Hertrich and landscape designer Armin Thurnher helped devise the bucolic space, which opened to the public as Lacy Park, named in honor of San Marino’s then mayor Richard H. Lacy, in 1925.

The 30-acre idyll is easily one of the most beautiful parks I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting.

Situated in the center of the peaceful glen is a huge, open expanse of rolling lawn, surrounded by two walking loops (one measuring 3/4 mile and the other measuring 1 mile) framed by a mass of trees on all sides. Much of the foliage, which includes oak, sycamore, and palm trees, was donated by railroad mogul Henry E. Huntington, whose estate – now the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens – is located just blocks away. Lacy Park also boasts a rose arbor, six tennis courts, a baseball field, and a children’s jungle gym.

In Say Anything . . . , Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), Diane Court (Ione Sky) and the rest of Lakewood High’s Class of ‘88 gather with friends and family at Lacy Park immediately following their graduation.

While there, Lloyd surreptitiously poses next to Diane while his BFF Corey Flood (Lili Taylor) snaps a photo.

Lacy Park also pops up in the 2002 thriller One Hour Photo as the spot where Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams) watches Jakob Yorkin (Dylan Smith) play soccer.

Supposedly Bill Cosby shot a movie at Lacy Park, as well, though I am unsure of which movie. Fellow stalker Chas, of the It’s Filmed There website, recently asked me how I identify all of the productions that have been lensed at a particular location. My answer? “I Google the sh*t out of places.” Well, today’s locale definitely provided the most unusual tip I’ve ever unearthed regarding filming information. While up to my usual Google tricks researching Lacy Park, I came across a deposition from the Cosby case (which you can see here and here) in which a plaintiff asserts that she met the actor while he was filming a movie at Lacy Park “in or about 1974.” Despite the rather unusual nature of the lead, I, of course, felt compelled to figure out which movie she was referring to, but, unfortunately, as of yet, I have not been able to. The only two that fit the bill as far as timing goes are Let’s Do It Again and Uptown Saturday Night. While the former is not available for streaming anywhere, I was able to scan through the latter. Though it does feature a park scene (pictured below), because of the mountains visible in the background and the arid nature of the foliage, I am 99.9% certain that it was shot at Griffith Park, not Lacy.

And while this Outlook Newspapers article says that Monster-in-Law also did some filming at Lacy Park, I scanned through the 2005 movie and did not see it pop up anywhere.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lacy Park, from Say Anything . . . , is located at 1485 Virginia Road in San Marino. Be advised – non-area residents have to pay a $4 fee to enter the grounds on weekends.

September 20, 2017