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Daisie Villa’s Houseboat from “Rosewood”

While I love the ocean, the thought of living on a houseboat has never appealed to me – that is until I caught a glimpse of the idyllic floating home belonging to Daisie Villa (Lisa Vidal) on the recently cancelled Fox procedural Rosewood. I became obsessed with the charming structure upon first seeing it in the Season 1 episode titled “Bloodhunt and Beats,” which aired in November 2015, and immediately attempted to track it down. I was unsuccessful in the hunt, though, and started to suspect that the picturesque liveaboard might be a façade built by producers solely for filming. Cut to May of this year. While doing some research on the Huntington Beach Civic Center, which masked as the East Miami Police Department on the series, I came across information about the houseboat’s location on Seeing Stars and just about passed out from excitement. The only problem was that when I took a look at aerial and street view imagery of the spot mentioned, there was no houseboat to be found. So I called in my friend/fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, who quickly figured things out for me.

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According to Seeing Stars, Daisie’s houseboat is located at Island Yacht Anchorage #1 at 1500 Anchorage Road in Wilmington. But as Owen discovered, the floating home can actually be found at Island Yacht Anchorage #2, which is at 700 Shore Road, on the opposite side of the promontory from Island Yacht Anchorage #1. Its exact location is denoted in the aerial view below.

A zoomed-in view of the houseboat’s location is pictured below.

Once Owen pinpointed the right locale, I rushed right out to stalk the place.

I was thrilled to discover that the houseboat is fully visible from the Island Yacht Anchorage #2 parking lot.

In person, the liveaboard did not disappoint.

As I mentioned above, the Rosewood houseboat first appeared in Season 1’s “Bloodhunt and Beats.” In the episode, recent Miami transplant Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz) temporarily moves in with her mom, Daisie, after the hotel where she has been staying closes due to a termite problem.

As you can see below, the pad is just as adorable in reality as it appeared to be onscreen.

Yeah, I think I could live here.

I could not find any information whatsoever about the property online. Because of its massive curb appeal, though, I would not be surprised if it has appeared in other productions.

Rosewood only utilized the houseboat during Season 1. In the episode titled “Thorax, Thrombosis & Threesomes,” Daisie leaves the structure for unnamed reasons and moves in with Annalise, who had found a home of her own in the interim.

Typically, only the north side of the property (pictured above) was shown on the series. That area is not visible from the Island Yacht Anchorage #2 parking lot, sadly. But in the episode titled “Paralytics & Priorities,” Villa has a discussion with Dr. Beaumont Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) on the porch of the home’s west side, which is visible.

From the way the episodes were shot, I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the houseboat was also utilized on the series.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend/fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Daisie Villa’s houseboat from Rosewood is located at Island Yacht Anchorage #2, which can be found at 700 Shore Road in Wilmington. The property can be a bit tricky to pinpoint via GPS. For those wanting to make the trip themselves, take Anchorage Road south to Shore Road and make a right. Shore Road curves around to the right and dead ends into the parking lot for Island Yacht Anchorage #2. Daisie’s houseboat is situated at the north tip of the parking lot.

June 23, 2017
The Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel from “The Office”

I typically have the memory of an elephant, but up until the Grim Cheaper and I recently started re-watching The Office over again from the beginning, I had honestly forgotten what a great show it is. I had also forgotten that several locations from it remain unknown and/or undocumented. One that I recognized immediately during our re-watch was the supposed Philadelphia hotel where Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) stayed in Season 3’s “The Convention.”

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Filming of the episode actually took place a good 2,700 miles west of the City of Brotherly Love. In reality, Michael, Dwight, and Jim checked into the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, a spot I originally visited in November 2011 when I met up with my friends/fellow bloggers Ashley, from The Drewseum, and Katie, from Matthew Lillard Online and Rumble Fish Online, for the very first time.

Because that meet-up took place a good year or so after my initial viewing of “The Convention,” I did not recognize the hotel. But as soon as I saw it onscreen for the second time, realization immediately hit and I ran right out to re-stalk the place shortly thereafter.

Situated on 12 acres directly across the street from the Bob Hope Airport, the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel boasts 488 rooms, 2 outdoor pools with cabanas and fire pits, a Jacuzzi, a fitness center, 45,000 square feet of meeting space, a coffee bar, and a business center.

The property also features two onsite restaurants, the Daily Grill and an outdoor lounge named E.D.B. – Eat, Drink, Be.

In “The Convention,” which aired in 2006, Michael, Dwight and Jim head to Philly to attend the Annual Northeastern Midmarket Office Supply Convention – or as Michael refers to it “a booze-fueled sex romp where anything goes.” The Marriott Burbank Airport was used extensively throughout the episode. Sadly, because the property has been remodeled twice since filming took place (first in 2008 and then again in 2015), it looks quite a bit different today than it did on The Office. It is still recognizable, though. Areas that were featured in the episode include the lobby;

the East Tower elevator bay;

the Convention Center (which you can see some photos of in my 2012 post about the Hollywood Show);

a couple of rooms;

a hallway;

the Daily Grill restaurant – which masked as the Scranton, Pennsylvania eatery where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) went on a double date with Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak), and Kelly’s neighbor, Alan (Robert Bagnell);

and the exterior hallway leading from the lobby to the East Tower . . .

. . . which, while enclosed at the time of the filming, was opened up during the 2015 remodel.

The Marriott Burbank also portrays the Antelope Valley hotel Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) pop into for a “shower pit stop” in the Season 2 episode of Dead to Me titled “Between You and Me.”

Their room, the presidential suite, was just a set, though, I believe.

Jen and Judy also party at the hotel’s Daily Grill, which poses as Whispers and Winks bar, in the episode.

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 Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, from “The Convention” episode of The Office, is located at 2500 North Hollywood Way in Burbank. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

June 21, 2017
My Latest Mike the Fanboy Article – About the “Pretty Little Liars”: Made Here Exhibit

I am finally back from my surprise whirlwind vacation! As it turns out, my best friends flew in from Switzerland for 9 days to spend my 40th with me, along with my parents and the Grim Cheaper. Though we were originally supposed to spend our time on Coronado Island in San Diego, thanks to a VRBO debacle, we had a last minute change in plans and wound up renting a fabulous house in Palm Springs. It was honestly the most magical birthday ever.

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As fate would have it, the morning after our friends left, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood held a press event for the lot’s new Pretty Little Liars: Made Here exhibit. My good friend Mike the Fanboy was asked to attend the event and he kindly passed the opportunity on to me. Since I was in L.A. anyway (our friends left out of LAX), the timing was perfect. You can read my article about the exhibit on Mike’s site here.

June 19, 2017
Surprise Vacation!

The Grim Cheaper has whisked me away for a surprise trip for my birthday (I literally have no clue where we are going or what we are doing), so I will not be blogging for the next couple of days. I should be back to posting on Friday, June 16th, so I will see you here then. In the meantime, you can follow along with our adventures on Facebook and Instagram – I am sure there will be much stalking involved with whatever we are doing.

June 9, 2017
Old Tony’s on the Pier from "The O.C."

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon has been in full effect lately when it comes to Old Tony’s on the Pier, a Redondo Beach restaurant I stalked way back in January 2012 with my good friend Mike (he provided many of the images in this post), but have yet to blog about. First, Alison Martino, founder of the fabulous Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page, posted some photos of the nautical-themed eatery on her Instagram in May. Then last week, a link to an L.A. magazine article titled “100 Places Where You Can Experience Retro Los Angeles,” which featured a blurb on Tony’s, landed in my inbox. So I figured the universe was trying to tell me it was high time I dedicate a post to the place.

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Old Tony’s on the Pier was originally founded in 1952 by a commercial fisherman/World War II veteran named Anthony Trutanich, who figured that running a restaurant had to be easier than angling for ocean life. Initially known simply as “Tony’s,” the eatery was established inside of a small shack-like space overlooking the Pacific on the Redondo Beach Pier. Though the restaurant business proved just as demanding as commercial fishing, Tony’s quickly became a success.

Even celebrities were clamoring to get a table.

Just a few of the luminaries who have dined on the premises include Ronald Reagan, Michael Rapaport, Bob Hope, Ann-Margret, Florence Henderson, Phyllis Diller, Frank Sinatra, Danny DeVito, Johnny Carson, Barbara Streisand, Dean Martin, Candice Bergen, Telly Savalas, and Jay Leno. Tony’s entrance is wallpapered with autographed headshots of the restaurant’s many famous fans.

Tony’s proved so popular that Trutanich expanded it twice. In 1961, he added a large patio to the site and then in 1963, he installed an octagonal-shaped second story that he designed himself. The crow’s-nest-like space houses a circular bar known as “op o’ Tony’s.”

In 1969, Trutanich opened a sister restaurant just across from his inaugural eatery and dubbed it “Tony’s Fish Market.” It was at that time that the original site was renamed “Old Tony’s” or “Tony’s on the Pier.”

Though a fire destroyed much of the Redondo Beach Pier in 1988, Old Tony’s remained intact. Trutanich became the driving force behind the structure’s rebuild, earning the nickname “Godfather of the Pier.” Sadly, Tony passed away in 2007 at the age of 84. His two sons, Tony Jr. and Michael, subsequently took over running the restaurants. While they closed Tony’s Fish Market in 2008, Old Tony’s remains intact and is still going strong today, 65 years after its inception.

Very little of Old Tony’s kitschy décor has been changed since it opened (though some renovations are planned for the near future, unfortunately), which is perhaps why it has proved popular with both patrons and location scouts.

In the Season 3 episode of The O.C. titled “The Pot Stirrer,” Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke) and Dr. Neil Roberts (Michael Nouri) met for a very brief lunch date at the eatery. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the place were featured in the episode.

According to the super nice servers we spoke with while stalking the place (that’s them below!), Old Tony’s has also appeared in the television shows House M.D. and Riptide, though I am unsure of which episodes specifically.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Old Tony’s on the Pier, from “The Pot Stirrer” episode of The O.C., is located at 210 Fisherman’s Wharf in Redondo Beach. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

June 7, 2017
St. Elizabeths Hospital from “A Few Good Men”

We all know the scene – a nervous Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) briskly walks across a grassy field toward the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, while, behind her, a large U.S. Marine band playing a rousing rendition of “Semper Fidelis” marches in formation and a Silent Drill Platoon performs an enthralling and precisely-timed exhibition drill. I am talking about the opening of A Few Good Men, easily one of the most famous segments in all of moviedom. So I, of course, wanted to stalk St. Elizabeths Hospital, the former mental health facility where the bit was shot, during my trip to Washington, D.C. last September. While the site proved a bit difficult to navigate, I did eventually get to see it – from afar. To cap off my recent A Few Good Men postings, I thought I’d write about it today.

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St. Elizabeths (no apostrophe) Hospital was originally established in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane on a 193-acre plot of farmland overlooking the Anacostia River. The institution was spearheaded by Dorothea Dix, an activist who tirelessly pioneered for the humane treatment of the mentally ill, and Dr. Charles Nichols, a physician’s assistant who became the site’s first superintendent.

Designed by both Dr. Nichols and architect Thomas Ustick Walter, the Gothic Revival-style hospital was built to showcase its bucolic setting, with the hope that the idyllic surroundings would bring peace to those who were institutionalized there.

The federally-run hospital, which was re-named St. Elizabeths in 1916, proved successful for many years and underwent several expansions, eventually coming to encompass a whopping 350 acres on which stood more than 100 buildings. The site grew so large, in fact, that it was divided into sections – the East Campus and the West Campus, with Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE bisecting the two. For various reasons, including decreased funding, the deinstitutionalization of health care and a cease on military admissions, St. Elizabeths began to see a decline in patient population in the 1940s. By 1987, operation of the East Campus had been transferred to the District of Columbia. Though admittance continued to decline, a new hospital was constructed in a small section of that site in 2010. It continues to operate today. In fact, up until late last year, John Hinckley Jr. was institutionalized there. (Hinckley actually spent 34 years at St. Elizabeths before being released into the care of his mother on September 10th, 2016.) While the remainder of the East Campus is currently vacant, it is set to be redeveloped as a mixed-use site.

St. Elizabeths’ West Campus continues to be federally owned and though it, too, was set to be redeveloped, the plans fell through. In 2004, the property was taken over by the General Services Administration and it is currently being transformed into the headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security.

Most websites detailing A Few Good Men filming locations state that the St. Elizabeths portions of the movie were lensed at 1100 Alabama Avenue SE, but that is incorrect. That address marks the entrance to the East Campus and when the Grim Cheaper and I pulled up, we knew right away were were in the wrong spot. Thankfully, I happened to find an extremely friendly security guard who counts AFGM as one of his favorite movies. He had no idea it had been filmed on the premises, nor did he recognize the building that masked as the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, which I thankfully had screen captures of. He was completely willing to help with the hunt, though, and called several of his co-workers for assistance. After much discussion, he was finally able to figure out that the building I was looking for was located on the West Campus, which, being that it is home to the Department of Homeland Security, is, obviously, off-limits to the public. The GC and I drove over there regardless, though, to see if anything was visible from the street.

Though the West Campus is heavily guarded, security there was friendly as well. The guard that we spoke with wouldn’t let us onto the property (for obvious reasons), but he did inform us that the structure that masked as the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in A Few Good Men still stands. He also told us exactly where to go to see portions of it from the street.

Known as the Administration Building in real life, the neoclassical-style structure was designed by the Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge architecture firm during a major expansion the hospital underwent in 1903.

The Administration Building popped up countless times throughout A Few Good Men. Along with the opening segment . . .

. . . and the scene in which JoAnne informed Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) that she got authorization to speak with his client from “Aunt Ginny” (in that bit, Kaffee’s car is parked just south of the building’s entrance) . . .

. . . it was also featured regularly in establishing shots of the movie’s many courtroom scenes.

A Few Good Men utilized the west side of the Administration Building, but, unfortunately, only the east side is visible from the street.

Though several websites report that the inside of an actual courthouse was used in A Few Good Men’s interior courtroom scenes, I have never believed that to be true. Shortly before writing this post, I got in touch with a friendly crew member who confirmed my hunch that the courtroom was a set built at The Culver Studios in Culver City.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: St. Elizabeths Hospital’s Administration Building, aka the Judge Advocate General’s Corps from A Few Good Men, is located on the site’s West Campus, the entrance to which can be found at 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Washington D.C. The campus is closed to the public, but the Administration Building is visible from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, about 1000 feet north of where it intersects with Milwaukee Place SE.

June 5, 2017
Sam’s Apartment from “A Few Good Men”

At the risk of saturating my blog with A Few Good Men locations, I’m back today with yet another spot from the 1992 courtroom drama. (And I still have an additional AFGM locale up my sleeve, which I will be writing about soon.) Last September, while in Washington, D.C. – where A Few Good Men was set and partially filmed – I dragged the Grim Cheaper, my good friend Nat, her boyfriend Tony, and her mom Marlys (yeah, there was a whole brood of us) out to Adams Morgan to stalk the apartment building where Lt. (j.g.) Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollack) lived.

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The building, which is known as Airy View in real life, only appeared once in A Few Good Men, in the scene in which Sam and his co-counsel, Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), discuss both Sam’s daughter’s first word and whether or not Daniel should encourage their clients to take a plea deal in the Pfc. William Santiago (Michael DeLorenzo) murder case.

Considering how brief the scene is, it is incredible how instantly recognizable Sam’s building is – but that could just be a testament to how many times I’ve seen the movie. Though, Nat and Tony easily recognized it, as well, and they aren’t nearly as obsessed with the flick as I am.

I found this spot thanks to my friend Owen (of the When Write Is Wrong blog), who provided me with quite an extensive list of D.C.-area filming sites prior to my East Coast trip. Owen, in turn, found it via the Movie Tourist website. I am guessing that Movie Tourist tracked it down thanks to the fact that both “Airy View” and an address number of “2415” are visible in the scene shot at Sam’s building.

In real life, the three-story Beaux Arts-style structure houses twenty condominium units.

Airy View was built from 1910 to 1911 and was designed by the L.E. Simpson & Co. architecture firm.

The gorgeous building features a recessed formal entrance with French Classical detailing and a landscaped central courtyard.

Airy View has a very Midnight-in-the-Garden-of-Good-and-Evil thing going for it, which I love. It’s almost hauntingly beautiful.

You can check out a photo of one of the building’s actual units here (those brick walls!) and here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Airy View, aka Sam Weinberg’s apartment from A Few Good Men, is located at 2415 20th Street NW in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

June 2, 2017
Danny’s Apartment from “A Few Good Men”

It is rare when a movie comes along and changes the course of your life. For me, one such movie was A Few Good Men. I walked out of the theatre after first seeing it in 1992 proclaiming that I was going to become a lawyer. I was 15 at the time – a sophomore in high school. I spent the next few years convinced that law was my calling, regularly and passionately professing my love of the film and its climatic “I want the truth!” moment to anyone who would listen. One day, a neighbor who happened to be on the listening end of my diatribe said something very profound to me. He said, “You don’t want to be a lawyer. You want to be a lawyer in a movie.” It was a valid assessment (I guess I did want the truth!) – one that got me thinking about acting. It wasn’t long before I tried out for – and landed a role in – my first play. My love of acting led to my move to L.A. shortly thereafter, which in turn led to the start of this blog. And the rest is history. Needless to say, A Few Good Men has always had a very special place in my heart. So when I learned that we were heading to Washington, D.C. last September, I informed the Grim Cheaper that I wasn’t leaving town without stalking Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s (Tom Cruise) apartment from the film.

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Daniel’s brownstone pops up regularly throughout A Few Good Men.

While blue at the time of the filming, the exterior of his Georgetown-area walk-up has since been painted yellow. Aside from the coloring, though, the place looks much the same today as it did when A Few Good Men was filmed 25 years ago.

According to Zillow, the property, which was originally built in 1900, houses condos in real life.

Because so many scenes took place there, I am 99.9% certain that the inside of Danny’s apartment was a set built on a soundstage at The Culver Studios in Culver City (where many of the movie’s interior scenes were lensed) and that the building’s actual interior was not used.

Cementing my belief is this November 1992 Los Angeles Times article which states that A Few Good Men “was shot almost entirely on a sound stage at Culver Studios in Culver City, with the exception of two weeks of location shooting exteriors in Washington.” Now we know that many scenes were, in fact, lensed on location in the L.A. area, so the article’s information isn’t exactly ironclad. (The column also asserts that because the Defense Department did not sanction AFGM, no filming was allowed to take place on any military bases – another falsehood. The flick utilized several military sites, including the US Coast Guard base in San Pedro, the Naval Air Station Point Mugu – which a later LA Times article does acknowledge – and Fort MacArthur.) Regardless of the erroneous reporting, I do believe that most of the movie’s interiors, including Danny’s apartment and his fridge full of Yoo-hoo, were sets. There’s just no way Tom Cruise was hanging out inside of someone’s actual apartment for the amount of time it would have taken to shoot the many segments. Nor would a studio utilize a real life interior – with no insulation to block out exterior noise and no control of the outside world – to such an extent.

What is interesting, though, and what had me doubting my hunch for a bit is the fact that countless scenes were shot from the outside of Danny’s apartment window looking in.

As unbelievable as it may seem (and it seems pretty unbelievable to me), I think that the production team built an exact replica of the building’s façade, as well as replicas of the neighboring façades, on a soundstage to shoot the window scenes.

While I initially thought that the segments were likely created using special effects, with footage of the actors superimposed behind actual shots of the building’s window, in scrutinizing the scenes further, I noticed that a line was visible in the brickwork running along both sides of the window fame that appeared the movie. As you can see in the photo below, that line is not there in real life, which led to my conclusion about the façades.

It is really too bad that the interior of Danny’s pad was not real. His place was so warm and inviting, though I have to admit I am a sucker for a fireplace and any sort of built-in bookcase.

On an A Few Good Men side-note – while researching this post, I was shocked to discover that the movie was based on a true story! In 1986, ten Marines stationed in Guantanamo Bay performed a code red on Pfc. William Alvarado, a fellow soldier who had been writing letters to his senator about the illegal discharge of another platoon member’s weapon. (Sounds familiar, right?) Though Alvarado did not die during the code red, his face turned blue and he passed out. The ten men informed the higher-ups and Alvarado was taken to Miami for treatment and survived. While seven of the Marines wound up being dishonorably discharged for the act, three decided to fight the charges in court. One of the lawyers assigned to the case was a man named Don Marcari, who defended Lance Corporal David Cox. It was Marcari’s very first trial. (Again, sound familiar? “So this is what a courtroom looks like!”) Another lawyer who worked on the case was A Few Good Men screenwriter’s Aaron Sorkin’s sister. She told Aaron about the proceedings via telephone one day. Sorkin was working as a bartender at the Palace Theatre in New York at the time and, inspired by what his sister told him, began writing a script based on the story on cocktail napkins during his downtime. That script went on to become a hit play and then a hit movie. But the tale doesn’t end there. Five of the marines involved in the real life case wound up suing Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994. And David Cox, who was planning to join the lawsuit, was murdered under extremely mysterious circumstances that same year. His killing has never been solved. You can read more about the story and Cox’s death here, here, here, and here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s apartment from A Few Good Men is located at 3017 Dent Place Northwest in Georgetown.

May 31, 2017
Happy Memorial Day!

I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a happy Memorial Day. I hope everyone takes a moment today to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect America’s freedoms. I know I will be. And I will return here on Wednesday with a new post.

May 29, 2017
Rose Towers from “CSI: Cyber”

Spanish-style courtyard apartment complexes are my jam (as evidenced here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). One that I became especially enamored of a little over a year ago was the pink-hued building where Tristan Jenkins (fave actor Matt Lanter) lived on the Season 2 episode of CSI: Cyber titled “Corrupted Memory.” While I don’t typically watch CSI: Cyber, when I learned that ML would be guest-starring I made sure to tune in – and was not disappointed. Not only did Matt do a fabulous job portraying an agoraphobe, but my jaw dropped during one of the opening shots when cameras swooped in to reveal the colorful terraced apartment complex his character called home. I immediately pulled out my laptop to try to figure out where filming had taken place, which my instinct told me was somewhere in West Hollywood. I came up completely empty-handed, though. I even tweeted Matt to ask about the locale, to no avail. It wasn’t until early this year that I was finally able to identify the place, via a rather circuitous route.

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A couple of months ago, the Grim Cheaper and I were watching an episode of Scorpion (our latest obsession) and I spotted what I thought was the exterior of the apartment building where Mia (Emma Stone) lived in La La Land. I did a quick Google search for “La La Land apartment building” and was shocked when photos of what I immediately recognized as Tristan’s complex from CSI: Cyber were kicked back! As it turns out, Tristan and Mia’s buildings are one and the same! (Though I was wrong on the whole Scorpion thing.) I was thrilled with the discovery and added the place’s address – 1728 East 3rd Street in Long Beach – to my To-Stalk List. Well, imagine my surprise when just a few days later, my friend Nat, who lives in San Francisco (you may remember her from Wednesday’s post), texted to let me know she was heading down to the LBC. While she was hoping we could meet up during her visit, I couldn’t make it out there. But I did ask if she’d be willing to stalk Tristan’s apartment on my behalf and she happily agreed. Thank you, Nat! (For those keeping track, this is the second locale that she has stalked for me over the past few months. I’ve taken to calling her my field correspondent and the GC has suggested I get her a press pass. )

In real life, Tristan’s apartment building from CSI: Cyber is known as Rose Towers. The complex was originally built in 1928 as El Cordova Apartments. Designed by George D. Riddle, the 20-unit Spanish Colonial Revival-style property boasts Moorish influences, wrought-iron balconies, lush landscaping, a terraced central courtyard with a tiled fountain, and arched entryways.

In 1955, El Cordova was transformed into an own-your-own apartment complex and then was transitioned once again in 1992, this time into condos.

In 2006, the homeowners association decided to re-stucco the building and, in doing so, discovered that there was also some water damage, wood rot, and minor structural issues that needed attention. The group banded together, performing much of the general contractor work themselves, to restore the property to its original glory. Their efforts, which took 4 months to complete at a cost of $150,000, earned them a preservation award from the Los Angeles Conservancy.

In “Corrupted Memory,” a woman is murdered at Rose Towers, which is said to be located at 1298 Horizon Court in Tampa, Florida, and the only witness is her agoraphobic neighbor Tristan, who is so traumatized by the event that his entire memory of it is blocked.

Quite a bit of the complex was shown in the episode.

I am fairly certain that the inside of two of the building’s actual condos were also utilized in the production. You can check out interior photos of a couple of the complex’s units here and here.

The exterior of Rose Towers was only shown once in La La Land, during the “Someone in the Crowd” musical number at the beginning of the movie. Very little of the structure was featured in the scene and none of the courtyard area, which is why I didn’t recognize it from CSI: Cyber.

While several websites report that Mia lived in Unit #16, her actual apartment exterior never appeared in the movie. Apparently, the portion of the “Someone in the Crowd” sequence shot at Rose Towers was originally supposed to be much longer -with Mia shown exiting her unit, dancing on the terrace, down the stairs, and past the fountain – but most of it wound up on the cutting room floor, leaving audiences with only a very brief view of the complex from the street.

You can watch a video put together by the Gazettes website about the filming of the “Someone in the Crowd” scene, in which host Jo Murray talks with homeowners about how the segment was shot and the cuts made, by clicking below.

The back alley behind Rose Towers was also shown briefly in a later La La Land scene in which Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) picks Mia up for a date.

Only the exterior of the complex was utilized in La La Land. Sadly, Mia’s brightly-colored apartment interior was just a studio-built set.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Rose Towers, aka the former El Cordova Apartments from the “Corrupted Memory” episode of CSI: Cyber, are located at 1728 East 3rd Street in Long Beach.

May 26, 2017