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Descanso Beach Club from “NCIS”

My family has long had a love affair with Catalina, the idyllic island located about 22 miles southwest of Los Angeles. One of our favorite spots to grab lunch or an evening cocktail while there is Descanso Beach Club, a toes-in-the-sand restaurant situated along the shore of Descanso Bay. I have visited the site more times than I can count over the years, but had no idea it was a filming location. So I was thrilled when I spotted it while re-watching an early episode of NCIS recently. I sat down to do a post on Descanso the following morning and was shocked to discover that, despite my many visits there, I hardly had any photos of the place. So I had to hold off on writing about it. Flash forward to this past weekend. My good friend Nat, who lives in San Francisco, made an impromptu trip to Catalina while in SoCal and texted me to ask if I had any area recommendations. I told her about Descanso Beach Club and what a great lunch spot it is. I also expressed that I would love her forever if she headed over there to snap some photos for me, which she happily did. Thank you, Nat! (Most of the pictures featured in this post are Nat’s, but a couple are ones that I took during my last trip to the island in 2009.)

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Descanso Beach Club is situated on the former site of the famed Saint Catherine Hotel, or Hotel St. Catherine as it was also known, which was established in 1918 by the Banning Family, who owned Catalina at the time. After a November 1915 fire destroyed many of the island’s tourist areas and lodgings, the Bannings decided to build an upscale resort on the grounds of their former home (which was also wiped out by the blaze), an idyllic plot of land overlooking Descanso Bay. Designed by the Milwaukee Building Company, St. Catherine opened its doors on June 28th, 1918. When William Wrigley Jr. purchased Catalina Island from the Bannings the following year, he added on to the Spanish-style hotel, installing a second guest wing and a swimming pool, among other amenities. The luxurious lodging soon became the stomping ground of many of Hollywood’s elite including Charlie Chaplin, Richard Arlen, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Joe Schenck, Betty Grable, Norma Shearer, Humphrey Bogart, Irving Thalberg, and Johnny Weissmuller.

On December 23rd, 1941, just a little over two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Catalina Island was closed to the public and became a training ground for the military. The Saint Catherine Hotel was transformed into living quarters for the soldiers. Though the property was converted back into a resort in the years following World War II’s end, it never regained its original luster and was razed in 1966. You can see what the St. Catherine looked like while it was still in operation here, here, here, and here. Following the demolition, the hotel’s once lush grounds were left vacant and largely abandoned for more than two decades. Though there were plans to build another luxury resort on the site, they never came to fruition. Instead, Descanso Beach Club was established there in 1992.

The word “club” is something of a misnomer. Though the site (including the beach area) is privately owned, it is accessible to the public and offers a wide array of seaside activities for tourists and locals alike. Guests can sit on Descanso’s large deck and order a meal, grab a drink at the open-air bar situated just steps from the ocean, or rent a chaise lounge or cabana and sip a libation on the sand. It is hands-down the best spot for cocktails and eats in Catalina. Fun fact – Descanso is the only place in Southern California where cocktails can legally be served on the beach.

Beginning in 2010, Descanso Beach Club was expanded and renovated to the tune of $6 million. A large special events hall was added to the property, as well as additional retail space, an espresso bar (yaaaas!), and an ice cream shop.

As I mentioned above, the last time I visited Catalina was in 2009, so I have yet to see the club in its current state, but Nat’s photos attest to the fact that it is just as beautiful as ever.

In the Season 1 episode of NCIS titled “The Immortals,” Descanso Beach Club masked as the Puerto Rico bar where Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) grabbed a cocktail after busting a local Navy Exchange clerk for illegally selling officer’s swords.

Though I recognized the bar immediately while watching the episode, I had to do a double take as the scene that took place there was incredibly brief. It was hard to believe that cast and crew headed all the way out to Catalina just to shoot that one short segment. “The Immortals” did feature quite a few boat scenes, though, so I am thinking that the production team zeroed in on the calm, clear waters off the island’s coast to shoot those bits, making Descanso Beach Club a convenient spot to film the bar segment.

The Season 15 episode of The Bachelor titled “Week 4: Radio Show Date” also did some filming at Descanso. In the episode, Bachelor Brad Womack took contestant Chantal O’Brien on a one-on-one date to Catalina Island. After an ocean-floor walk, the two finished off their visit with a romantic night cap at the club.

Aside from the actual beach, very little of the club was shown in the episode outside of a small view of the bar area that was visible when Brad and Chantal first arrived.

The Real Housewives of Orange County’s Vicki Gunvalson and Brooks Ayers shot a scene at Descanso in September 2011, but I scanned through all of the Catalina-based episodes from around that time period and it appears that the segment wound up on the cutting room floor. And back in the Hotel St. Catherine days, the 1927 film A Hero for a Night and 1935’s Murder on a Honeymoon were shot on the premises. Unfortunately, I could not find a copy of either movie with which to make screen captures for this post.

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

Huge THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location on my behalf!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Descanso Beach Club, from “The Immortals” episode of NCIS, is located at 1 St. Catherine Way in Avalon on Catalina Island. You can visit the club’s official website here.

May 24, 2017
The “A Few Good Men” Softball Field

I don’t know – or care – much about sports. I do love me some Tom Cruise, though. So when my friend/fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, sent me his list of Washington, D.C./Philadelphia-area locales prior to my trip back east last September, I was thrilled to see the softball field from the 1992 drama A Few Good Men mentioned. As noted in his files (which were extensive!), filming of the AFGM softball scenes took place on the baseball fields at West Potomac Park, just south of the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. When I went to look at the fields on Google Maps, though, I noticed that they did not match to what was shown onscreen. So I started to do some digging on the subject and came across a comment on the Movie Tourist blog posted by “tahoekid” that cleared things up. Apparently, Movie Tourist had posted the Potomac Park fields information back in early 2013 and when tahoekid went to stalk the site a little over two years later, he noticed that things didn’t match. He investigated the matter further and discerned that filming had actually taken place in a since-dismantled field once situated just northwest of Independence Avenue SW and 17th Street SW in an area that is now part of the national World War II Memorial.

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I was still having a hard time matching things up, though (I am so not good at pinpointing park locations, let alone a since-dismantled park location from a movie over twenty years old!), so I sent my findings over to Owen to ask his thoughts. As it turns out, he had come across Movie Tourist’s A Few Good Men page when it was first posted and had jotted down the West Potomac Park fields information, along with the other addresses, in his Washington, D.C. stalking files, but because he had no trips to the nation’s capital planned at the time, had not done any further research. In looking at the screen captures I sent him in comparison with Street View imagery of the roads outside of the World War II Memorial, he was able to match several things, confirming once and for all that filming took place exactly where tahoekid said it did.

The softball field pops up twice in A Few Good Men. It first appears in the scene in which Lt. Dave Spradling (Matt Craven) threatens to not only charge Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s (Cruise) client with possession of marijuana, but to also hang him from a “f*cking yardarm.”

The field appears once again shortly thereafter in the scene in which Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) informs Kaffee that his new clients, Pfc. Louden Downey (James Marshall) and Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison), have just been imprisoned.

In that scene, the district’s statue of Revolutionary War naval commander John Paul Jones is visible behind JoAnne. It is that statue that helped tahoekid determine where the softball field was once situated.

I was interested in pinpointing the field’s exact former location – Where was first base? Where was home? I am nothing if not a stickler for details. – and Owen, along with an assist from Historic Aerials, was able to do so. As you can see in the 1988 image below (for which Owen provided the graphics), the field was located directly south and slightly west of the Rainbow Pool, which sits at the eastern end of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool.

An unmarked version of the 1988 image is pictured below. You may have noticed that the field is a bit hard to see. As Owen explained to this sports-challenged stalker, “What’s interesting — and I’m guessing you’re not familiar with this — is that most softball fields are completely dirt in the infield and completely grass in the outfield. A baseball/softball field with an all-dirt infield is pretty easy to spot in Historic Aerials. The field from A Few Good Men, however, is almost entirely grass. The only dirt portions are narrow strips between the bases, a small patch for the pitcher’s mound and a larger section near home plate. That is why the field is difficult to spot on Historic Aerials … but it’s there.”

A more current aerial from Bing is pictured below. As you can see, though the Rainbow Pool is intact and looks much the same as it did in 1988, it has since been integrated into the World War II Memorial, which was built from 2001 to 2004. It was during those years that the A Few Good Men softball field was removed. You can see an image of what the area looked like prior to the memorial’s construction here (though, due to the angle from which the photo was taken, the softball field is not really visible).

The World War II Memorial’s information booth is the best marker as to the field’s former location. It sits pretty much directly on top of where home plate used to be.

Though Owen noted that “The field is long gone, of course, and almost nothing will be recognizable from the movie,” he did manage to pinpoint some things that remain intact (along with the John Paul Jones statue, which was mentioned earlier). The line of trees visible in the background of the first softball scene, which borders the southern edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, is still there today. (Because of the information booth and the many buses and cars typically parked in front of the site, the view of the trees from the vantage point from which AFGM was shot is currently a bit obstructed, as you can see below.)

Owen also noted that four fenced notches visible throughout the softballs scenes on the concrete wall that runs along Independence Avenue are still identifiable from their onscreen appearance.

As is the small portion of the Kutz Bridge that appeared in the background of the scene with JoAnne.

A map of all of those landmarks is pictured below.

I am hoping all of my sports-minded fellow stalkers had some fun with this locale. As Owen said after helping me out with it, “I enjoyed looking at this because how often do I get to combine filming locations and softball fields?!”

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and to tahoekid for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The A Few Good Men softball field was formerly located just southwest of where the World War II Memorial is currently situated today, near the spot where the information booth now stands.

May 22, 2017
East Miami Police Department from “Rosewood”

I was saddened to learn of the cancellation of Rosewood last week. Yes, I said in recent posts (here and here) that the show had jumped the shark, but I was holding out hope that it would return strong for a third season. Unfortunately, as Fox announced last Tuesday, that is not to be. Even worse, because the series was given the ax after the Season 2 finale had already aired, there will not be closure to any of the main storylines, namely the will-they-or-won’t-they relationship of the two leads, Dr. Beaumont “Rosie” Rosewood, Jr. (Morris Chestnut) and Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz). My fingers are crossed that the procedural will be rescued à la Timeless (which I am SO thrilled about it), but I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime, I thought I’d blog about one of the main locations used on the now defunct series – the Huntington Beach Civic Center, which stands, ahem, stood in for the East Miami Police Department where Rosie and Villa work, ahem, worked.

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The Huntington Beach Civic Center was constructed between 1972 and 1974 to replace the city’s former civic center, which was built in the early 1920s.

The 187,000-square-foot modernist complex, which sits on a 14.28-acre plot of land, was designed by both Meyer & Allen Associates and the Honnold, Reibsamen & Rex architecture firm.

The Meyer & Allen website states that the site was “designed for service to citizens, rather than a monument to government” with “a flexible, open-end plan that can adjust to and grow with the requirements of an expanding local government.”

The center, constructed mainly out of concrete, is comprised of 5 main areas – a 5-story Administration Building, which houses City Hall, a 1-story Development Building, a 1,000-seat amphitheatre, a Police/Public Safety Building, and Council Chambers.

It is the Administration Building that is used on Rosewood.

For those who are not familiar with the series, Rosewood is set in Miami, Florida. While almost all filming took place in Los Angeles, the pilot was actually shot on location in The Magic City. In the episode, Miami City Hall, located at 3500 Pan American Drive, masked as East Miami PD.

Beginning with episode 2, titled “Fireflies and Fidelity,” filming moved to the L.A. area (namely Orange County) and the Huntington Beach Civic Center made its first appearance as East Miami PD.

Both the west side of the Administration Building (pictured above) and the east side (below) are utilized on the series.

I was most excited to see the east side, which is where Rosie got his car back in Season 2’s “Mummies & Meltdowns.”

The spot where the gang waited for him, posed in front of his beloved canary yellow 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible, can be found at the bottom of the steps leading to the Civic Center’s east parking lot.

In person, the center looks much the same as it does onscreen, minus a few East Miami Police signs.

While I was posing for my obligatory photo in front of the location, a couple walked by and said, “Yep, you’ve found it! East Miami PD!” The friendly duo then told us that Rosewood had also done some filming at the Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center just up the street, so the Grim Cheaper and I headed right on over there. I so love receiving unexpected filming tips from locals! (If you missed my post on the library, you can read it 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: The Huntington Beach Civic Center, aka East Miami Police Department from Rosewood, is located at 2000 Main Street in Huntington Beach.

May 19, 2017
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from “Veep”

I don’t do museums, as many of my longtime readers well know. One that I did partake of and thoroughly enjoy, though, was The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, which I visited with my parents and the Grim Cheaper waaaay back in 2005 (so long ago that when I went looking for my photos of it to post here, I wasn’t sure if they were film or digital!). Surprisingly (to me, at least), I was thoroughly fascinated and engaged while venturing through the many unique exhibits chronicling the life of our nation’s 40th president, especially those dedicated to his Hollywood years. But, being that the site was not a filming location at the time, I didn’t deem it blog-worthy. So I was thrilled when I spotted the place pop up on the recently-aired Season 6 episode of Veep titled “Library,” as it meant I could finally devote a column to it.

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The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was initially established in 1991, 2 years after The Gipper left office. The dedication ceremony, which took place on November 4th, was attended by a wide array of important figures from our nation’s history, including George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, then President George W. Bush, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Barbara Bush, Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter, John F. Kennedy Jr., and Caroline Kennedy. The legion of notable attendees led Ronald Reagan Foundation chairman Lodwrick Cook to proclaim the event as “the largest gathering of American Presidents and Presidential families ever assembled.”

The $60-million library (the most expensive presidential library to be built at the time) originally sat on 100 acres and boasted 22,000 square feet of exhibit space. Thanks to a large expansion and land purchase, the acreage now totals 300 and the library now encompasses a whopping 125,000 square feet of exhibits.

The Spanish-style museum, which was renovated in 2011, is chock full of slices of Americana, as well as artifacts and mementos honoring Reagan’s life, including a 9-foot-tall section of the Berlin Wall, a steal beam retrieved from the World Trade Center site, the actual Chasen’s booth where Ronald proposed to wife Nancy, two restaurants, countless photographs, a presidential limousine, a multitude of the president’s handwritten love letters to Nancy (which were my favorite part of the entire museum – I teared up reading nearly each and every one), and re-creations of the Oval Office, East Wing, White House Rose Garden, and White House West Lawn.

The library is also home to the Air Force One Pavilion, a massive exhibit hall housing a former Air Force One aircraft that was utilized by seven U.S. presidents, including Nixon, Carter, Ford, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The plane, known as “SAM 27000” or the “Spirit of ‘76,” was installed at the site in 2004, its nose mounted upward to appear as if it is just taking flight, as it did so many times throughout the course of Reagan’s presidency (during which it flew him over 660,000 miles, to 26 foreign countries and 46 different states).

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library also serves as the final resting place of both the former president and Nancy. (Nancy passed away on March 6th, 2106, long after we visited the site in 2005.)

On Veep, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library masked as the Stuart Hughes Presidential Library, the opening of which former president Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her staff attend, despite Selina’s assertion that “I don’t understand how a guy who never cracked a book can open up a library.” Filming of the “Library” episode took place in the Air Force One Pavilion, where Selina is miffed to learn that all of the former presidents in attendance have gathered for an “impromptu” photo shoot in front of Air Force One without her. As she says, “Former f*ckers! This is as ‘impromptu’ as a colonoscopy, except with quadruple the a**holes.”

You can check out some photos of the filming, which took place on October 10th, 2016, here.

Filming also included some shots of the library’s President Johnson-era Marine One helicopter, which I somehow failed to take photos of while I was there. (The choppers utilized during Reagan’s presidency have not yet been decommissioned and are still in use today as Navy VIP transports, which is why one of Johnson’s is on display instead).

Per Veep executive producer David Mandel’s Instagram, Hoyt Steptoe’s (Bo Foxworth) press conference from the episode was also shot on the grounds of the library.

And while I would have bet money on the Reagan Library’s Oval Office re-creation being used in the scene in which Selina sits behind the presidential desk – and then gets stuck climbing back over the barricade – upon closer inspection, that does not appear to have been the case.

Though the Reagan Library Oval Office does have a barricade that bars visitors from sitting behind the mock-up of the Resolute desk, it runs along the outer edge of the room, not down the middle as was portrayed on Veep – which was my first clue that a set may have been utilized in the scene. A window frame provided the second clue. As you can see in images here, here and here in comparison to the caps below, the window frame visible behind Selina in the segment is much more ornate than that of the actual library. (On a side-note – Selina’s hilarious “flipturn” over the barricade apparently caused Louis-Dreyfus a bit of bruising. And on another side-note – Barstool Sports wrote-up a hilarious blurb on said bruise that Seinfeld fans will likely appreciate.)

According to this Lansing State Journal article, Veep is the only scripted show to have done any filming at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, though the site has been utilized for a few documentaries and televised events. Politically-minded fellow stalkers may remember that on September 16th, 2015, the second Republican presidential debate took place in the Air Force One Pavilion.

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 Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, from the “Library” episode of Veep, is located at 40 Presidential Drive in Simi Valley. You can visit the museum’s official website here.

May 15, 2017
The “All of My Heart” Farmhouse

It seems that every time I turn around lately, I come across someone who is obsessed with Hallmark Channel made-for-television movies. First it was my grandma, who couldn’t stop talking about them at Christmas. Around that same time, I started hearing about the flicks from my uncle’s girlfriend, who binge-watches them like crazy, much to the chagrin of my uncle (though he does do some amazingly funny recaps – according to him, the premises are all pretty much exactly the same). Next it was my aunt Lea, who started extoling their virtues to me in a phone call. Most recently, my good friend Kerry (you may remember her from my Club 33 post) mentioned her obsession with the flicks in an email. Prior to a recent day trip to Vancouver, where many of the Hallmark Channel movies are filmed, Kerry wrote to me to ask for some assistance in tracking down a farmhouse she had spied pop up in a myriad of the productions. As it turns out, she didn’t really need my help finding the place, but more on that in a bit. While helping her search, I came across countless online queries from likeminded fellow stalkers, all of whom were also inquiring about the location of the picturesque pad. Since the dwelling seemed to be so in-demand, once Kerry tracked it down and stalked it, I suggested she do a guest post on it and she happily obliged. Take it away, Kerry!

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Every now and then, a location will show up on my TV screen and it seems like time stops and everything moves in slow-mo. I forget about what I’m watching and instead I am zeroed in on the location. Such was the case when I was watching fave station, the Hallmark Channel, a couple of years ago. A charming farmhouse appeared before my eyes and I was instantly drawn to it. The wide open green grass leading to the steps of the perfectly curved railed porch….sigh! Yeah, this one was definitely love at first sight.

The movie is called All of My Heart and stars Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott. Since that first airing I have watched it several times. I love the farmhouse but I also love the story. From Hallmark.com: “A young caterer’s life suddenly changes course when she inherits a country home and learns she must share it with a career-obsessed Wall Street trader. At first, these opposites do not attract, but feelings begin to change when they find themselves having to work side-by-side to restore their newly acquired home.”

Once again, while enjoying another Hallmark movie, the farmhouse appeared on my big screen. This time, it was the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries movie series, starring Candace Cameron Bure. While watching The Julius House, imagine my surprise at seeing what I now refer to as “my” farmhouse take center stage as the lead in this film. To my delight, Aurora Teagarden purchases the farmhouse, which means it will continue to show up in future installments of the movie franchise. So far, it has also appeared in Dead Over Heels and will star once again in the upcoming A Bundle of Trouble, which is scheduled to air May 21.

I became enamored with finding my farmhouse and began the search online without any success. There seemed to be a lot of people wondering the same thing as me; Where in the world is this gorgeous farmhouse? I already knew it was somewhere in Vancouver, British Columbia, as this is an oft-used area for Hallmark productions. I’ve been known to stalk Vancouver locations many times over the years because I do not live too far from the border and I have family there. I had a good idea of the area of the farmhouse but had no success in finding its location. I decided to switch gears and reach out to fave Canadian filming website What’sFilming via email for some help. I heard back with an address fairly quickly. When I looked the address up on Google, it took me to a spot on a road in the Aldergrove area of B.C., but I didn’t see a house. Thinking it may be close by, I began looking at structures in the area, hoping I could locate the farmhouse by cyber-stalking it. Lindsay and her stalking posse make it look SO easy and although I am just a novice stalker in the cyber world, I figured I’d give it a whirl. I did find a structure that looked like it could be it but dismissed it as I was totally thrown off by the enormous number of trees visible surrounding it on Google Earth! With just a week to go until my trip to Vancouver, I reached out to Lindsay and she ran with it for a few days but also came up empty handed. Then things got good, REAL good. I told her about the structure with all the trees and she used Google Street View and abracadabra……..there was my farmhouse!!! (Told ya I’m not a professional cyber stalker, but I did learn from this experience.) Thank you, Lindsay!!!

My farmhouse is just down the road from the US/Canadian border and is totally visible from the street.

There is a long driveway/road that leads up to the property. The home is idyllic, the setting so beautiful, and that farmhouse porch, so inviting. I still find myself wanting to know more about this property, its age, how many generations have lived there, and how the owners like seeing it show up on TV. There is a pretty good chance they haven’t seen it on the big screen as I’ve been told neither the Hallmark Channel or Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel are available in Canada, much to the disappointment of my cousin Mary. [Editor’s Note – Reader Cathie just commented that many of the HC movies can be viewed on the subscription site Feeln. I’m not sure if the site is available in Canada, but it’s worth a try.]

During Lindsay’s research, she discovered the farmhouse was also used in Hallmark’s Growing the Big One, starring Shannen Doherty. In the movie, Shannen’s character inherits her grandfather’s farmhouse and there are some great shots of the place including that gorgeous porch and several areas of the property. [Editor’s Note – it was actually my friend/fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, who uncovered the info about Growing the Big One. I had gotten him involved in Kerry’s hunt for the All of My Heart farmhouse and along the way he came across a mention that my girl Shannen’s Hallmark movie had also been shot on the premises. Thank you, Owen!]

After studying All of My Heart, The Julius House, Dead Over Heels, and Growing the Big One, it appears that filming of each movie took place inside of the farmhouse. You can see the old-fashioned stove in all the flicks and the staircase, as well.

The interior has been painted from one movie to the next but it is very recognizable. I love that they utilized the real-life charm of this farmhouse and chose to film inside of it.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming Aurora Teagarden movie so I can see this beautiful home again on the big screen. And for those of us who loved All of My Heart, Hallmark recently announced there will be a sequel, which will air in the fall. Personally, I will be watching to see when filming begins and perhaps wander up to ‘Hollywood North’ again for another glimpse of the farmhouse, hopefully with the lights, camera, and action of Hollywood surrounding it.

The All of My Heart farmhouse is located at 27347 0 (zero) Ave in Aldergrove, British Columbia.

Thank you, Lindsay, for letting me guest blog today.

[Editor’s Note – THANK YOU, Kerry, for this fabulous post! Your enthusiasm and love for this locale made me not only want to head up to Vancouver immediately for another stalking trip, but to also start watching Hallmark Channel movies!]

May 12, 2017
Soup Burg from “Sex and the City”

I am the first to admit that I get fixated on the most random things. A few years back, I became obsessed with identifying the diner featured at the very end of the Season 1 episode of Sex and the City titled “Models and Mortals.” Though the eatery only appeared briefly, I was consumed with tracking it down. What can I say? I love a good diner. It took some legwork to find the place, but find it, I did. Sadly, by that time, Soup Burg, at 922 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side, had long since closed its doors. So while I never got the chance to eat there, I still ran right out to stalk its former location during my trip to the Big Apple last April.

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In “Models and Mortals,” Mr. Big (Chris Noth) and Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) run into each other at a fashion show after-party and strike up a conversation, during which he asks her where she writes her “cute” weekly newspaper column. She responds, “Well, about half the time, I’m at my apartment and the other half I’m over at this coffee shop on 73rd and Madison.” Flash forward to the episode’s final scene. Big surprises Carrie by randomly showing up at said coffee shop, where they discuss men who date models. During their brief conversation (he’s late for a meeting, you see), he informs her, “First of all, well, there are so many goddamn gorgeous women out there in this city. But the thing is this – after a while, you just want to be with the one that makes you laugh.” For those not well-versed in all things Sex and the City, Big is speaking about Carrie. The two get together just a few episodes later.

While scrutinizing “Models and Mortals” for clues as to the coffee shop’s whereabouts, I noticed that a sign reading “Soup Burg” was very briefly visible behind Mr. Big when he first sat down . . .

. . . as well as on the door when he left the restaurant.

So I headed to Google and quickly came across a Yelp page for a defunct eatery by that name which stated its former address as 1095 Lexington Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. Eureka, right? Wrong. It was not long before I figured out that while Soup Burg was a longtime UES staple dating back to the ‘40s, during its heyday the restaurant actually boasted three outposts, none of which was still in operation. The Lex Ave location did not open until 2004 and the third iteration at 1026 1st Avenue was also established around that same time. Since “Models and Mortals” was lensed in 1998, I knew the episode could not have been shot at either of those two spots. Filming had to have occurred at the original Soup Burg. So back to the drawing board I went. Another Google search led me to this 2014 The New York Times article which noted that the restaurant’s inaugural site was on the corner of East 73rd Street and Madison Avenue – exactly where Carrie had said it was in the episode! D’oh! The article also mentioned that the space was now home to a cashmere shop. From there it was easy to pinpoint the eatery’s exact former address of 922 Madison.

Soup Burg was originally established at the Madison Avenue site way back in 1948. I am unaware of who initially founded it, but in 1964, the café was purchased by Greek native Peter Gouvakis, who had worked on the premises since 1958. Soup Burg thrived under Gouvakis’ tutelage, becoming a veritable New York institution.

During the 1970s, Peter’s son Jimmy started working at Soup Burg, eventually taking it over, along with his brother, John, and their brother-in-law, Timmy Vlachos. The trio further grew the business and perfected the recipes. Soup Burg became known citywide for its burgers, which Time Out NY rated as the third best burgers in all of Manhattan in 2004. Though the two sister cafes were opened, the Madison Avenue location remained the best-loved. Of the site, New York magazine had this to say, “There are a few places on the East Side with this name, each as small as your first – or current – apartment, each looking like it was built in two days, each routinely buffed to a high Formica shine, and each with a menu big enough to daunt the banquet kitchen at the Marriott Marquis. Ignore all of them but the one at this address.”

In July 2006, Jimmy was informed that the rent on the Madison Avenue site was increasing from $21,000 a month to $65,000. Sadly, Gouvakis could not afford the increase and the restaurant (which, by that time, had been operating in the same space for 58 years!) shuttered later that month. By November, the upscale Manrico Cashmere boutique had moved in. You can see what the Madison Avenue Soup Burg looked like while it was still in operation here, here, here, and here. And you can read two great articles on its closing on the Doktor Weingolb blog here and here.

By that time, the 1st Avenue location had also closed its doors. And though the Lexington Avenue outpost remained open and extremely popular with New Yorkers as one of the only spots in the neighborhood to get a decent, affordable meal, it, too, faced a rent hike in 2014 and shuttered in June of that year. The increase was a pretty dumb move on the landlord’s part if you ask me, being that, per Google Street View, the space is currently vacant and does not look to have ever been occupied since Soup Burg moved out.

Many mourned the loss of the last operating Soup Burg. The New York Times journalist Anne Barnard had this to say about the closure, “The Soup Burg is – was – the archetype of what in today’s homogenized, all-American city is usually called a diner. Premillennial, pre-Starbucks New Yorkers would call it a coffee shop. Not the kind where you get a latte, though that item was grudgingly added to the menu. The kind where you get a burger bigger than its bun, or home fries with sweet peppers and onions, or a chicken orzo soup with saltines. Where you can sit down and eat for $10, with a bottomless, not distractingly good $1.50 coffee, and where they know your face, your order and sometimes even your name.”

I’m really sad I never got the chance to dine at any of the Soup Burg restaurants, but at least the original is forever immortalized onscreen thanks to Sex and the 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: Soup Burg, from the “Models and Mortals” episode of Sex and the City, was formerly located at 922 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. The space currently houses Manrico Cashmere. Via Quadronno, one of my very favorite Big Apple eateries, is located right around the corner at 25 East 73rd Street. It also appeared in “Models and Mortals.” You can read my post on the restaurant here.

May 10, 2017
Kyoto Gardens from “Her”

As a kid, I was pretty much never without a book in hand. (Truth be told, not much has changed since.) One of my favorite childhood tomes was Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 masterpiece The Secret Garden. Reading it made me want nothing more than to unearth a lush hidden idyll of my own. That desire has never left me. So when I learned about a “secret” garden tucked away on the third floor of a downtown L.A. hotel back in 2011, I rushed right out to stalk it immediately. Known as Kyoto Gardens, the site did not disappoint and the Grim Cheaper and I spent quite a bit of time exploring. While I took a myriad of photographs that day, at the time the place had yet to be featured onscreen (at least that I know of), so I never blogged about it. Then last week, while researching my post on the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, I was thrilled to randomly come across a mention of Kyoto Gardens’ appearance in the 2013 sci-fi drama Her, which meant that I could finally write about them!

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The 1/2-acre urban oasis was originally created in 1977 as part of Little Tokyo’s New Otani Hotel & Garden.

At the time, the tiny glen was called “Garden in the Sky.”

In 2007, the 21-story, 434-room hotel changed ownership and became the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens. It was sold once again in 2011 and turned into the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Los Angeles Downtown. The garden area is now known as Kyoto Gardens.

Situated atop the hotel’s two-story parking garage, Kyoto Gardens boasts an upper and lower terrace, waterfalls, streams, pathways, incredible views of the city, and a banquet room named Thousand Cranes that overlooks it all.

The garden was modeled after a breathtaking 10-acre site in Tokyo that was created as a private oasis for feudal lord Katō Kiyomasa during the 16th Century. Today, it is part of the Hotel New Otani Tokyo. You can see photographs of it here.

Kyoto Gardens is often used for special events and weddings.

You can check out some great images of the gardens, as well as the rest of the hotel, here.

Kyoto Gardens was transformed into a bucolic restaurant for the filming of Her. In the movie, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and Katherine (Rooney Mara) meet up at the picturesque site to sign their divorce papers over lunch.

During the meal, the two get into an argument over the fact that Theodore is currently dating Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), who is actually an operating system.

The hotel itself has also been featured in numerous productions, but since I did not take photos of anything other than Kyoto Gardens while I was there, I will have to save that info for a future post.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kyoto Gardens are located on the third floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Los Angeles Downtown, which is located at 120 South Los Angeles Street in Little Tokyo. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

May 8, 2017
Guasti Villa from "Veep"

It’s no secret how much I hate incorrect filming location information. But sometimes errant info can lead to good things. Case in point – back in 2012, an article was published about the Los Angeles locales featured in The Artist. One of the sites detailed was Guasti Villa, aka Busby Berkeley’s former Jefferson Park mansion, which was said to have masked as the home of Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) in the flick. (I cannot for the life of me remember what publication featured the article, nor can I find it online, but you can see reverberations of the Busby rumor here, here and here.) Prior to reading the blurb, I had been unaware of the historic residence, which is now part of the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, but immediately headed on over there to stalk it. Upon arrival, I was thrilled to discover that the property is not only open to the public, but that tours are offered! I was less thrilled to learn, via our friendly tour guide, that the manse had not actually appeared in The Artist (Peppy’s pad was a similar looking mansion on Fremont Place, but more on that in a bit). I was filled in on some of the Villa’s other onscreen appearances, but somehow never got around to blogging about it. So when I saw it pop up in the most recent episode of Veep, I decided it was high time I amended the situation.

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The Beaux Arts/Italian Renaissance Revival-style mansion was originally built for Secundo Guasti, an Italian-born farmer who founded the Italian Vineyard Company on 5,000 acres of land in Ontario in 1904. The vineyard went on to become the largest winery in California and Guasti constructed a sprawling virtual city, or company town, there for his workers, with a store, a school, a post office, a bakery, a railroad station, a church, and a firehouse. Though the site is now part of the Guasti Redevelopment Project, many of the original buildings remain intact today.

In 1910, Guasti commissioned the Hudson and Munsell architecture firm to build an ornate mansion for him on a large plot of land on West Adams Boulevard.

Hudson and Munsell’s finished product, which took four years to execute, is a virtual work of art. The Grand Ballroom (below) alone features a curving staircase with an ornate balustrade, Carrara marble flooring, carved oak wood detailing, and a hand-painted ceiling mural.

The rest of the Villa boasts coffered ceilings, multiple fireplaces, a hydraulic elevator, servants’ quarters, a carriage house, ornate corbels, egg-and-dart mouldings, friezes, a gentlemen’s parlor, a ladies’ parlor, a porte-cochère, and a formal dining room (pictured below).

When Guasti passed away in 1937, his family sold the Villa to Hollywood director Busby Berkeley. You can see what the mansion looked like at the time that Busby lived there here.

Though Busby was an undeniable genius when it came to directing, choreography and cinematography, finances were not his forte. Due to mounting debt, he was forced to sell Guasti Villa in 1946. The manse was purchased by the Los Angeles Physicians Aid Association, who transformed it into a retirement home, adding two residential wings to the property. During the group’s ownership, the property fell into a bit of a decline.

In 1974, the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA) acquired the Villa and turned it into their headquarters and learning center, painstakingly restoring the property in the process.

During the process, the church restored and revitalized much of the home’s original detailing. The result of their efforts is not only breathtaking, but fascinating and historically enlightening. I honestly could not have enjoyed the tour more.

Guasti Villa, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, is like a preciously preserved time capsule of what the city was like at the turn of the century.

MSIA not only revived the Villa, but its surroundings, as well. In 2002, the church added expansive meditation gardens to the premises, complete with a hand-carved stone labyrinth.

The labyrinth was closely modeled after the famous winding walk at Chartres Cathedral in France, which you can see photographs of here, here, and here. Made of travertine, it measures 40 feet in diameter and its pathway spans 1/3 of a mile. I was invited to walk the labyrinth while touring Guasti Villa and it was an entirely calming experience. My mind is constantly running, so only focusing on my steps and breath as I traversed the course was an extremely relaxing experience.

The lush meditation gardens also feature 16 fountains, a koi pond, a myriad of trees and plants, and countless tucked-away, shaded spaces.

Because of its unique and stunning beauty, it should come as no surprise that the site, which is known as the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, has been featured onscreen numerous times.

In the Season 6 episode of Veep titled “Georgia,” Guasti Villa masked as the palace of Murman Shalikashvili (Eugene Alper), the Republic of Georgia president who, as Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) describes, “The poisoning and the torture and the death squads aside, I think Murman is really good people. Honestly. And he’s a hell of a storyteller.”

The site also appeared in Veep’s Season 6 finale titled “Groundbreaking.” In the episode, the labyrinth area masked as the Arizona spa, ahem, the Whispering Sands Wellness Center where Selina stayed after losing the presidency.

In that same episode, Guasti Villa’s formal dining room portrayed the office of Sherman Tanz (Jonathan Hadary).

Thanks to the Silent Locations website, I learned that the mansion not only appeared in the 1923 Stan Laurel short White Wings . . .

. . . but that it also portrayed the supposed Beverly Hills home of Colonel Wilburforce Buckshot (James Finlayson), where Laurel hid out with pal Oliver Hardy, in 1930’s Another Fine Mess.

In the Season 3 episode of Hunter titled “Hot Pursuit: Part 2,” which aired in 1987, Guasti Villa served as the residence of Big Jack Hemmings (Robert Ridgely). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior appeared in the episode.

The mansion was featured extensively in Meat Loaf’s 2006 “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” music video.

The Villa’s interior was also utilized in the video.

You can watch “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by clicking below.

The property portrayed two different spots in the Season 1 episode of Truth Be Told titled “Live Thru This.” It first popped up as the New Soul rebab center where Erin Buhrman (Annabella Sciorra) was once a patient.

And it is also where Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) interviews Erin’s sober coach.

As I mentioned above, the mansion did not appear in The Artist. Peppy’s residence, which does bear a striking resemblance to Guasti Villa (as you can see below), can actually be found about 3 miles away at 56 Fremont Place in the Mid-Wilshire area. That property is also an oft-filmed spot which I wrote about 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: Guasti Villa, from the “Georgia” episode of Veep, can be found at the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, located at 3500 West Adams Boulevard in Jefferson Park. For information about touring the site, click here.

May 5, 2017
Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center from “Rosewood”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – stalking begets stalking. While out and about sightseeing filming locales in Orange County last month, the Grim Cheaper and I struck up a conversation with a friendly local couple who informed us that fave show Rosewood (well, it was a fave show until it jumped the shark recently) had just done some shooting at the Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center. So we headed right on over there and were both shocked at what awaited us! The library is one of the most architecturally unique, beautiful, and interesting spots I have ever had the pleasure of visiting!

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The Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center, which took 3 years to construct at a cost of $5 million, was opened to the public on April 2nd, 1975.

The property’s striking design came courtesy of Dion Neutra, son of Richard Neutra, the world-renowned modernist architect who gave us the Los Angeles County Hall of Records, the Ohara House from The Holiday, the Kauffman House in Palm Springs, and the Lovell Health House from L.A. Confidential.

The post-modern structure, which originally measured 74,000 square feet, was constructed out of volcanic rock, stone, wood, glass, and concrete .

Of the airy, light-filled space, which can hold 250,000 tomes, Dion said, “The idea was to place all readers in the outer portion of the floor area and concentrate the bulk of the book collection in a multi-tiered central core, brilliantly illuminated.”

I’d say he succeeded brilliantly with his plan. Dion’s creation is a bright, peaceful, and bucolic respite. I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to read, study or quietly contemplate.

The design could not be more unique – or open. As a 1975 Daily Pilot article stated, “The book stacks are centralized with all activity rooms located on the perimeter of the stacks, removing the cluttered look of most libraries.”

The building also boasts floor-to-ceiling windows on its rear side, which only adds to the site’s overall open aesthetic and affords visitors incredible views of Central Park, which is situated just outside of the library’s doors.

Though with all of its lush foliage, the interior itself almost feels park-like.

The Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center also features skylights, terraced reading decks, and seven interior fountains that Italian magazine Architecttura states “mask normal library sounds and permit conventional levels of conversation.”

The focal point of Neutra’s original design was a massive exterior spiral entrance ramp.

The concrete ramp, situated amidst a fountain, features seating areas, planters, and water displays.

In 1994, the library was expanded to 120,000 square feet, thanks to the addition of a large children’s wing, a 320-seat theatre, and 5 meeting rooms. Sadly, the project resulted in the enclosure of the front ramp and a massive overall of the site’s façade, which greatly altered Neutra’s design. You can see what the exterior of the building originally looked like here, as compared to its revamped state, which is pictured below.

Also altering the appearance of the library’s exterior is the fact that the huge moat-like fountain that surrounds it (which is very reminiscent of that of the John Ferraro Building in downtown L.A.) has been drained, for reasons I am sure have to do with California’s drought.

I can only imagine how stunning the views must be when the fountain is full.

In 2007, the library underwent another renovation, this time to restore Neutra’s original earth-toned color schematic to the interior.

Though the Huntington Beach Civic Center typically stands in for the East Miami Police Department on Rosewood, in Season 2’s “Half-Life & Havana Nights,” the Central Library was used instead. The scene in which Michelle Kelly (Joy Brunson) was brought in for questioning was shot just outside of the library on the pathway adjacent to the property’s large tiered fountain.

Later in the episode, the library’s east side (which I, unfortunately, did not get a photo of) masqueraded as the entrance to EMPD, where Harley (James Harvey Ward) was killed.

Central Park, which, as I mentioned earlier, is situated just outside of the library, was also featured in Rosewood, albeit briefly, in the Season 2 episode titled “Prosopagnosia and Parrot Fish,” in which it masked as a Miami cemetery.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center, from the “Half-Life & Havana Nights” episode of Rosewood, is located at 7111 Talbert Avenue in Huntington Beach.

May 3, 2017
Moody’s Bar and Grille from “Jerry Maguire”

Oh, how this stalker loves herself a dark, wood-paneled bar! There is just something so warm and inviting about them, which is probably why they are featured regularly onscreen. One that I was quite fixated on tracking down for years was the supposed Tempe, Arizona-area “Crocodile,” where Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) got stood up by Cardinals General Manager Dennis Wilburn (Glenn Frey) in the 1996 romcom Jerry Maguire. I finally managed to identify the watering hole as the now defunct Moody’s Bar and Grill, formerly located on the ground floor of the Sheraton Grande (which became the Los Angeles Marriott Downtown in 1997 and then the The L.A. Hotel Downtown in 2012). While the pub was detailed in my two-part post on JM locales in December (you can read Part I here and Part II here), I happened to spot it pop up in an episode of Melrose Place that I was scanning through recently and figured the place was worthy of its own write-up.

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Moody’s first came on my radar while I was researching The L.A. Hotel Downtown for my January 2016 post about the property. In reading about the hotel, I came across a FlyerTalk thread in which commenter “ntamayo” asked which Marriott had been featured in Fatboy Slim’s 2001 “Weapon of Choice” music video starring Christopher Walken. Commenter “Non-NonRev” responded that filming had taken place at the L.A. Downtown Marriott, explaining, “the dead giveaway is the entrance to Moody’s restaurant seen behind Walken early after he begins to dance.”

Upon digging a bit deeper into the location, I came across these photos of Moody’s taken in 2011 and was immediately smitten. As the August 1996 Los Angeles magazine article pictured below describes, the space was “reminiscent of East Coast meeting places” with a “friendly atmosphere and club environment” and a décor “rich with forest green, ivory marble, rich oak woodwork and polished brass.” This website deemed the bar “the Cheers of the West Coast” and, if images of it are to be believed, it definitely gave off that vibe. Moody’s is certainly the type of place I would have loved to grab a cocktail on a cool evening. Sadly though, further research revealed that the lounge had long since closed and, because I had not seen any sort of wood-paneled space when I stalked the the hotel in early 2016, I assumed it had been gutted and revamped into something else during the property’s massive $25-million renovation that took place between 2011 and 2013.

Flash forward to last summer, when I began compiling locations for the Jerry Maguire post. While scanning through the movie, I just about fell over upon realizing that the NFL Draft scene had been shot at the Sheraton Grande.

I immediately got to thinking about the Crocodile scene, during which Jerry is supposed to meet Dennis to discuss Rod Tidwell’s (Cuba Gooding Jr.) new contract. Knowing that location managers tend to shoot as many segments as possible in one spot, I had a hunch that the “Crocodile” might actually have been Moody’s. So I pulled up the 2011 images of the place and compared them to screen captures from Jerry Maguire and, sure enough, the two places were one and the same! I later got confirmation from Greg Mariotti, of The Uncool website, who co-wrote the JM post with me, that the Crocodile segment had, indeed, been lensed at Moody’s. (Interesting side-note – Cameron Crowe named the bar after the Crocodile Café, an actual hangout in Tempe, Arizona that was very popular in the ‘90s. Sadly, that space has also since shuttered.)

Prior to publishing the Jerry Maguire post, I stopped by The L.A. Hotel Downtown once again to see if I could learn the current state of the former Moody’s space and was shocked to discover, thanks to a very friendly receptionist, that, while shuttered, the bar remains intact! The receptionist even called down to the events manager for me to see if a quick tour could be arranged, but, unfortunately, she could not get ahold of him. She did tell me that the lounge was visible through some windows in the front of the hotel, though, which is how I snapped the photos that appear in this post.

Moody’s also popped up in the Season 4 episode of Melrose Place titled “No Lifeguard on Duty,” as the spot where Bobby Parezi (John Enos III) told Peter Burns (Jack Wagner) to stay way from Alycia Barnett (Anne-Marie Johnson).

In researching this post, I discovered a myriad of productions lensed at The L.A. Hotel Downtown that I somehow missed while penning my 2016 write-up – productions like Scandal, Melrose Place, and Criminal Minds. I’ve updated my original post to include the information. You can check it out 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: Moody’s Bar and Grille, aka the “Crocodile” from Jerry Maguire, was formerly located on the bottom floor of The L.A. Hotel Downtown, which can be found at 333 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the restaurant is currently closed.

May 1, 2017