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Aria’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – stalking begets stalking! One of the Vancouver locations I was most interested in finding from the Pretty Little Liars pilot was the gorgeous Craftsman-style house where doe-eyed beauty Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) lived. There was virtually nothing to go on, though – no address number, no street signs, no clues visible in the background. So I put that hunt on the back burner and instead set my sights on tracking down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain home from the episode. As fate would have it, finding it led me right to Aria’s house!

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While scanning through the pilot during my search, I almost fell out of my chair when I noticed that Aria’s house was actually visible in the background across the street from the DiLaurentis/St. Germain residence in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) walked Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson) home from school.

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, thanks to a visible address number, I was able to track down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain house in just a few minutes. And sure enough, when I looked across the street using Google Street View, there was Aria’s pad! Because I don’t have any trips to Vancouver planned in the coming year, my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, was nice enough to stalk the place for me during a recent (rainy) visit to Canada. Thank you, Kerry!

Sadly, Aria’s house looks a bit different today than it did when the pilot was shot back in December 2009. As you can see below, besides a color change from yellow and red to gray and white, most of the windows have been swapped out for new ones, and the roofline of the second story above the porch has been altered.

You can see some of the work being done in old Google Street View images from May 2015.

But if you toggle Street View back to May 2014, the home appears exactly as it did onscreen. Oh, how I wish I had gotten to see it before the alterations were made.

In real life, the residence boasts 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 5,000 square feet of living space.

Sadly, Aria’s awesome front porch swing is nowhere to be found.

Typically when shooting a pilot, the interior of a house will be utilized. Then if the series is picked up, that interior will be re-created on a soundstage for all future filming. That was not the case with this particular location. The segments that took place inside of Aria’s home in the pilot were not shot in Canada at all, actually, but at a practical house set on Midwest Street at Warner Bros. Studio. I did not realize that factoid until making screen captures for this post. In the scene in which Aria talked to her father, Byron (Chad Lowe), while standing in the family’s entry, the green doorway of a residence across the street was visible in the background. I knew that doorway belonged to a studio house immediately upon seeing it, did some further research, and discovered it was part of a façade that is, sadly, no longer standing.

The house once stood at the southern end of Midwest Street, but was dismantled in 2014 – along with the façade of Toby Cavanaugh’s (Keegan Allen) house – to make way for the studio’s newly-unveiled Stage 48: Script to Screen exhibit. You can see some faraway photographs I took of the structure while on a tour of the WB a few years back below.

Once I figured out the location of the green-doored façade, I was able to discern that the Montgomery house interior scenes from the pilot were shot inside of the home pictured below, which is also located on the southern edge of Midwest Street. Why were those segments shot at the WB lot and not on location in Vancouver like the rest of the pilot, you ask? Well, I looked into it and learned that the roles of both Byron and Aria’s brother, Mike (Cody Allen Christian), were recast after the pilot had been filmed, so any scenes involving them had to be re-shot. The vast majority of those scenes took place inside of the Montgomery home.

Interestingly, during one of my most recent visits to the WB back in June, I asked our tour guide for help in tracking down a couple of PLL locations that I knew were on the backlot, but that I couldn’t seem to find. He did not end up having time to show me the locales during the tour, so after it ended he took me and my friends on a private tour of the studio (it was amazing!), during which he pointed out the house below and informed us that it was used for exterior shots of Aria’s residence. As you can see, the bottom portion of the façade is painted to match the original coloring of the Vancouver home.

I can only recall one time when the façade exterior appeared on the series (though I am sure there are other instances). In the Season 6 episode titled “Don’t Look Now,” a very tight shot of the home was shown in the scene in which Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) dug through Aria’s trash, looking for her anti-anxiety medication.

All of the homes on Midwest Street are designed in such a way that their various sides can appear as different properties. The actual “front” of the structure that is used as Aria’s house is pictured below. The area that appears onscreen in Pretty Little Liars can be found on this residence’s southern side.

Our tour guide had also informed us that the interior of the home contained the set of Aria’s living room. And while sheet-covered furniture and props were visible through the front window of the house (as you can see below), which points toward a set being located there, I did not put a whole lot of credence into his assertion. Because the interior of Aria’s house is utilized with such regularly, I figured the sets were most likely situated on a soundstage and not inside of the Midwest Street dwelling. But now it appears that his information was correct.

Though I do still believe that some of the Montgomery home interiors exist inside of a soundstage (most notably, the set for Aria’s bedroom), it does seem that at least a portion of them were constructed inside of the Midwest Street façade.

UPDATE – I just came across the website of Pretty Little Liar’s production designer Rachel Kamerman and a caption on her portfolio page confirms what our tour guide told us. As you can see below, according to Rachel, the interior of the Montgomery house is a permanent set built on the W.B. backlot and not inside of a soundstage.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Aria’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1990 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver. The DiLaurentis home from the episode is located across the street at 1995 West 19th Avenue.

January 8, 2016
New “L.A.” Mag Post – About “The Wonder Years” Neighborhood

Don’t forget to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – it’s about The Wonder Years neighborhood. My articles typically get published in the early afternoon hours.

January 7, 2016
Ali’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

Pretty Little Liars will be returning to the small screen on January 12th and I could NOT be more excited! Though I found the recent mid-season finale to be absolutely ridiculous, not to mention a total let-down (this was SO me and my mom while viewing it), to the point that I thought I might never watch again, I now find myself thrilled that new episodes are only a few days away! As detailed in my February 2015 post titled “The Pretty Little Liars Guide to Warner Bros. Studio,” the ABC Family (soon to be re-named Freeform) series is shot pretty much in its entirety on the WB lot in Burbank. The pilot, though, was lensed in Vancouver and last year I managed to track down most of the locales that appeared in the episode. (There is one that remains unfound and a real thorn in my side, but more on that later.) My good friend/fellow stalker Kerry lives in the Pacific Northwest and recently took a weekend trip up to Vancouver. I asked if she wouldn’t mind stalking some PLL locations for me while she was in town and stalk them she did! Every single one! Thank you, Kerry! So I figured what better time to blog about them than in the days leading up to the premiere – and what better locale to start with than the DiLaurentis family house, which played such a pivotal role in the pilot.

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For those not in the know, the pilot of Pretty Little Liars centers around the disappearance of a teenage girl named Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse). The mysterious details of her disappearance, which took place a year prior, are revealed in flashbacks. In the episode, it is said that the DiLaurentis family, distraught over losing Ali, has chosen to sell their large Victorian-style residence and a new family is shown moving in.

The home was actually the first locale I tracked down from the episode. It was a snap to find thanks to its unique architecture and a “1995” number placard that I spotted above the front door in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) welcomes the new girl, Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), to the neighborhood. Address number in hand, I did a Google search for “1995,” “Victorian house,” and “Vancouver,” and the first link to pop up was a real estate listing for a residence located at 1995 West 19th Avenue. Sure enough, the images featured in the listing were a perfect match to Ali’s house. Wahoo!

The massive dwelling, which was originally built in the 1920s, is just as stunning in real life as it appeared onscreen (as least as evidenced by Kerry’s photos). In actuality, though, the property is not a single-family home, but a multi-unit dwelling.

The residence appears a couple of times in the pilot, most notably in the scene in which (spoiler alert!) Ali’s body is discovered buried in the side yard.

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the episode. Not only was one of the home’s bedrooms used as Maya’s bedroom . . .

. . . but, in an odd twist, the dwelling’s ornate wood-paneled stairwell masked as a back area of the church where Ali’s funeral was held. It is on those stairs that Ezra Fitzgerald (Ian Harding) and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) share a passionate kiss. You can check out some photographs of the stairway here.

Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up, production moved from Vancouver to California and the DiLaurentis house was “re-created” in the Jungle area of the Warner Bros. Studio backlot. I say “re-created” because the façade that was constructed looks absolutely nothing like the house that appeared in the pilot.

Aside from a large set of entry steps, the two homes don’t resemble each other in the slightest, as you can see below.

As for the location I mentioned earlier that remains a thorn in my side? I cannot for the life of me seem to track down the interior of Hollis Bar & Grill, where Aria and Ezra met for the first time.

My buddy Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, did manage to locate the building used in the establishing shot. The exterior of Hollis Bar & Grill is actually that of Ashland City Hall, located at 20 East Main Street in Ashland, Oregon. The image shown in the scene was likely stock footage, as no actual filming took place in the Beaver State. The interior, though, remains a mystery. If any of my fellow stalkers are familiar with the Vancouver area, please take a look at the above images and let me know if you can identify the watering hole pictured in them.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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 DiLaurentis house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1995 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver.

January 6, 2016
The “Wicked City” Library

I have one more Wicked City location up my sleeve (for the time being, at least – I did track down a couple of others after watching the recently-released final five episodes, but have yet to stalk them) – the former Second Church of Christ, Scientist in West Adams, which masked as an L.A. library in “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” I have long been familiar with the stately, domed structure thanks to my many area stalkings (Fatty Arbuckle’s former house is located on the same street, as is the oft-filmed St. Vincent de Paul Church) and recognized it immediately upon viewing the episode. I had never done a proper stalking of it, though, and promptly dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to remedy that a couple of weeks ago.

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Second Church of Christ, Scientist was designed by architect Alfred H. Rosenheim, who also designed the American Horror Story house. The prolific Albert C. Martin, Sr. (of Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles City Hall and Thomas Higgins Building fame) acted as the engineer. The massive Italian Renaissance-style structure, which was modeled after the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, aka the “Mother Church,” took more than two years to complete at a cost of $318,000. Its doors were opened to the public on January 23rd, 1910.

The property, which was built out of terracotta, brick, stucco and granite, was so grand that, according to the Big Orange Landmarks website, a 1908 Los Angeles Times article deemed it “the largest and most elaborate church west of Chicago.”

At the time of its completion, the interior featured a pipe organ, mahogany woodwork, stained glass windows, wainscoting throughout, and seating for 1,200 churchgoers.

The site’s most impressive feature, though, was – and still is – its 130-foot tall copper-clad, poured-concrete dome, which according to Big Orange Landmarks, measures 70 feet in diameter and weighs 1,400 tons.

The green-tinted dome seems to sparkle in the sunlight and only adds to the grandeur and beauty of the already picturesque church, which was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1968.

Due to declining membership and the high cost of maintaining the property, Christian Science Church vacated the building in 2008. The empty structure proved attractive to vandals, who spray painted the once stately structure with graffiti and broke many of its stained glass windows.

In December 2009, the site was sold to The Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches meditation, yoga, breathing, and emotional balance. The group lovingly repaired the damage done to the property and today use it as their main headquarters.

The former Second Church of Christ, Scientist played a significant role in Wicked City’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

Masking as a local library, it is there that Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) leaves the head of one of his murder victims among the stacks of books for detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) to find.

I initially thought that the actual inside of the former church had also been used in the filming of the library scenes, but as soon as I looked through these interior photographs of the place I realized that was not the case.

As it turns out, interior filming took place at DC Stages, a downtown Los Angeles studio that has been around since 1988. The facility, which was originally called Dos Carlos Stages, is situated inside of a a former perishable food storage center and boasts several standing sets including that of a police station, a city hall, a courthouse, political offices, a hospital, a jail, apartments, hotel rooms, a restaurant, and, of course, a library. You can check out a drone video shot of the various sets here and some some photographs here. What I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place in person!

Many sources state that the Second Church of Christ, Scientist was used regularly as the Fulton County Courthouse on the television series Matlock, but I have not been able to verify that. I downloaded a couple of episodes to scan through and in each of them a different building masked as the courthouse, neither of which was the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, as you can see below. The series aired for nine seasons, though, so it is quite possible the West Adams church did make an appearance (or several appearances) at some point during that run.

The locale also pops up as the Radiant Assembly of God church on the HBO series Perry Mason.

Only the exterior of the building is utilized on the series. Interior church scenes were shot at the Trinity Auditorium, located at 851 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Second Church of Christ, Scientist, aka the Wicked City library, is located at 948 West Adams Boulevard in University Park. DC Stages, which was used for the interior library scenes, is located at 1360 East 6th Street in downtown L.A. Be advised that the studio facility is not open to the public.

January 5, 2016
Edgeway Auto Upholstery from “Wicked City”

ABC finally released the remaining five episodes of Wicked City on both ABC.com and Hulu. Watching them proved to be a bit of a double-edged sword because the show got really good. And I already thought it was great! By episode 8, I realized what a real contender it could have been, with a long life on the small screen, but, sadly, that was not to be. I was thrilled, though, that producers were given a bit of a heads-up about the cancellation which allowed them to grant the story some closure. But seeing that closure only made me wonder what the original ending was intended to be, as I am sure it was vastly different from what did make it to the airwaves. My guess is that (spoiler alert!) the death of Karen McClaren (Taissa Farmiga) was a last-minute departure from the planned storyline, but who knows? Here’s hoping a DVD with behind-the-scenes info will be released at some point. (If I don’t eventually find out what was up with the Fly Brand cocaine, I may go crazy!) For those who have yet to see the final five episodes, I highly recommend watching. As fate would have it, Edgeway Auto Upholstery, where Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) worked on the series – a spot I had previously stalked, but had yet to blog about – figured prominently in one of them.

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Edgeway Auto Upholstery first popped up in the episode titled “Running with the Devil,” in the scene in which Kent pretended to be a Hollywood producer while making a phone call to a production company in order to try to track down an actress he wanted to kill. (The storyline was dark, but oh so enthralling!)

Edgeway turned out to be an easy find. I figured filming had most likely taken place at a real auto upholstery facility, one that was most likely located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. Besides the fact that the shop had a very Valley look to it, many of the spots featured in the series, such as Kent’s house and Valli Tropics, where Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) lived, were located in the area and producers often pick places to film that are in close proximity to each other. So I started searching for upholstery shops in the SFV and came across Nacho’s Auto Upholstery at 12443 Victory Boulevard in Valley Glen within minutes. Sure enough, it matched what had appeared on Wicked City.

Nacho’s looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. I love the fact that although the name was changed for the filming, producers used the shop’s actual lettering style for the fake signage.

Besides “Running with the Devil,” Nacho’s also popped up in “Heat Wave.” In the episode, detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) figure out that the serial killer they’ve been chasing works at an upholstery shop. While hunting down leads, they spot a vintage red Corvette similar to one that the killer had been seen driving, parked at Edgeway Auto Upholstery and they break into the shop to investigate.

Quite a bit of the location was shown in “Heat Wave.”

A sign reading “Nacho’s Auto Upholstery” was even visible in the background at one point. Whoops!

The shop’s small office area, which Roth and Contreras search through, was actually just a set, though.

And not even a full one, at that, as I learned thanks to a photograph that executive producer Jon Cassar tweeted along with the caption, “Sometimes 2 walls is all you need.” Ah, the magic of filmmaking.

Only the rear side of Nacho’s, which is reached via a back alley, appeared in Wicked City. The front of the shop, pictured below, was never shown onscreen.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Nacho’s Auto Upholstery, aka Edgeway Auto Upholstery from Wicked City, is located at 12443 Victory Boulevard in Valley Glen.

January 4, 2016
Happy New Year!

I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a safe and happy New Year! Cheers to 2016!

January 1, 2016
Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is enjoying time with family and friends and experiencing the magic of the holiday. I will be off for the next couple of days, but will resume regular postings in 2016.

December 25, 2015
New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Tournament House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Be sure to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post today – it’s about the Tournament House from Beverly Hills, 90210. My articles typically get published in the early afternoon hours.

December 24, 2015
Robolights – One of the World’s Most Unusual Christmas Displays

I’ve been lamenting to the Grim Cheaper lately about Palm Springs’ lack of Christmas décor. Sure there are some lights displayed in various shopping centers and on downtown streetlights, but overall the desert just doesn’t have the feeling of the holidays – at least not when compared to Los Angeles. There is one Movie Colony-area home, though, that takes decorating to a whole new level. The residence is known as Robolights and, while it is actually adorned year-round, come December it is transformed into a very unusual winter wonderland.

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The Grim Cheaper and I stumbled upon Robolights during one of our very first trips to the desert a good ten or so years ago and we could hardly believe our eyes. The attraction – though it is a private residence, “attraction” seems a better word to describe the place – was the brainchild of a twelve-year-old boy named Kenny Irwin Jr., who began building a robot display using scrap materials in the yard of his family’s Palm Springs home in 1986.

As Kenny grew, so did his Robot-themed exhibit. His family’s 5-bedroom, 4-bath, 3,931-square-foot home sits on almost two acres of land and, today, almost every square inch of it is covered with the installation. Instead of being overwhelmed by the massive display that has taken over the property, Irwin’s family is understanding, even encouraging of his art. In a recent Los Angeles Times article about Robolights, Kenny’s father described the residence as Kenny’s “canvas” on which “he can create anything that he imagines.” Something tells me my parents would not be nearly as accepting if I became impassioned to build something similar at their home.

Like Walt Disney said of Disneyland, Robolights will never be completed. Kenny works on the exhibit day in and day out, creating new sculptures and display elements out trash and discarded scrap materials. Currently, over 200 statues dot the property, some of them close to 50 feet tall! His neighbors seem to be as understanding of the project as his parents. According to the Times article, many of the objects used in his sculptures were donated by nearby residents.

Kenny describes Robolights as an “artistic wonderland” that “comprises close to a thousand tons worth of junk that I’ve transformed into art that would have otherwise ended up in landfills.” Indeed, the place is a brightly-colored dreamland of almost post-apocalyptic effigies, the likes of which I can pretty much guarantee you won’t find anywhere else.

Though not a filming location, the installation has brought Kenny some fame over the years. In 2010, Conan O’Brien pegged him to decorate the Conan set for the holidays. The result is pictured below. You can watch a video of its unveiling here. Kenny also designed a temporary 400-square-foot Christmas-and-robot-themed exhibit titled “Have Yourself a Happy Little Robotmas” for Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum in 2013.

Kenny’s main focus, though, is Robolights. The attraction can be viewed from the street year-round . . .

. . . but it really comes alive during the holidays.

Come Christmastime, Kenny decks the place out with close to 9 million twinkle lights and, for a suggested $5 donation, welcomes guests onto his property to get an up-close view of his version of a winter wonderland. Robolights has become a holiday staple for desert denizens, with more than 20,000 visitors walking through it each year.

Kenny describes the celebratory display as a “fusion of robotic, holiday and extraterrestrial themes giving visitors a holiday experience like no other.” Sadly, the GC and I have yet to visit Robolights during Christmastime, but are hoping to make it out there this year. You can see some photographs of it in all of its yuletide glory here and here. Even a non-holiday visit, though, allows for a completely unique and awe-inspiring experience.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Robolights is located at 1077 East Granvia Valmonte in Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s Facebook page here. The holiday display is currently running nightly from 4 to 9:30 p.m. through January 3rd. Though admission is free, a $5 donation is requested.

December 22, 2015
Downtown Christmas Shopping District from “The Brady Bunch”

Today’s Christmas-themed post comes, once again, courtesy of Michael, the fellow stalker who gifted us with the fabulous write-up about The Golden Spoon café from The Brady Bunch back in November. While visiting L.A. last week, Michael tracked down and stalked another BB locale, this one with a holiday slant. After returning home to Minnesota, he asked if I would be interested in having him write a second guest post about said locale and I very enthusiastically replied yes! (I’d also be interested in a third, a fourth and a fifth guest post, if the mood ever strikes you, Michael! ) So without further ado . . .

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Fully cognizant that this may now typecast me as the very Brady guest blogger, I’m back with another Brady Bunch location…a very merry Brady location. In the first season episode of The Brady Bunch, “The Voice of Christmas,” Cindy asks Santa Claus for a laryngitis-struck Carol to get her voice back in time to sing the solo at Christmas church services. Before the department store scenes with Santa (filmed on a soundstage at Paramount), brief establishing shots of an outdoor shopping area are shown.

After looking at the establishing shot more carefully, I noticed that the name on the building, although obscured, read “Radio Shack.” Even though the the shot was assumedly framed to emphasize the Christmas trees and Toyland sign in the windows, garland and bow on the lamp post, and children hauling a Christmas tree down the street, I knew Radio Shack was my best bet for tracking down the address.

Last week, while on vacation in Los Angeles, I stopped at the Central Library to search through their archived Western Los Angeles phone books from the 1970s. Letting my fingers do the walking, through the 1975 edition, I found less than 20 Radio Shack locations. Thinking that the establishing shot was of a pedestrian mall, the first listing that caught my eye was for the Golden Mall, in downtown Burbank. Perhaps Mike really was being accurate when he told Carol, “We’re going to go downtown and finish the shopping.”

I then started researching the Golden Mall, and came across a postcard that showed the same unique cane-shaped lampposts with glass globes as in the Brady Bunch clip. Fairly convinced I was on the right path, it was just a matter of finding out more about this shopping district. [Postcard scan courtesy of San Fernando Valley Blog]

In the 1960s and 70s, many downtown areas closed off vehicular traffic to their major shopping streets and created pedestrian malls in an effort to help compete with the growing popularity of suburban shopping centers. Burbank followed suit, and in 1967 closed off six blocks of San Fernando Road, from Magnolia Boulevard to San Jose Avenue. Then, removed of cars, the street was landscaped with grass, angular paths, modern playground equipment, benches, fountains, hexagonal planters, and public restrooms. [1973 photo courtesy of Burbankia]

By the 1980s, the mall was showing its age. There isn’t one definitive reason for the decline of the mall, but some oft-repeated theories involve business owners leery of updating the appearance of their stores only to have the city gobble up their properties as part of a City Centre Redevelopment Project, customers finding parking at the mall to be a chore, and the popularity of more modern nearby regional shopping centers siphoning shoppers away. [1985 photo courtesy of Burbankia]

In an effort to revitalize the shopping district, in October of 1989, the mall was reopened to traffic, and in 1991, Media City Center (now named Burbank Town Center) opened at Magnolia and San Fernando, abutting the former Golden Mall.

Since the Radio Shack address listed in the phone book—100 S Golden Mall—no longer exists, I tried searching for its present-day equivalent—100 S San Fernando Boulevard. Much to my surprise, I came up with a listing for Radio Shack at that address. A recent Google Street View showed a Bank of the West branch in that spot, but archived Street Views showed Radio Shack in its place as recently as 2011.

Worried that everything fell into place too easily, I contacted the good folks of the website, Burbankia. They quickly helped me confirm that the Radio Shack was indeed at that site from the 70s into recent years.

A May 1969 advertisement trumpets the grand opening of the Golden Mall Radio Shack. Seeing as this episode of The Brady Bunch aired in December of 1969, Radio Shack would have been in the midst of its first holiday season during the filming of the establishing shot. According to a recounting posted on Burbankia, this Radio Shack was located in the Gregg Building, which prior to the electronics retailer, housed a drug store.

Metal panels over the second story windows—a mid-century technique to modernize traditional brick buildings—have since been removed, ostensibly leaving the structure closer in appearance to when it was built in the early 1900s.

Although the facade has had some superficial changes over the years, I was happy to notice one similarity between my photos and the establishing shot—the placement of the bus bench along Olive Avenue.

After enjoying breakfast at nearby Frank’s, it was time to check out the former Radio Shack for myself. Although it was a Sunday morning, I’m happy to report that the restaurants lining the former Golden Mall were bustling, and Burbank Town Center was abuzz with families visiting Santa. One can only assume his wish-granting powers are as strong as in ’69.

Thanks again to Mike and Wes at Burbankia. If you’re interested in seeing more photos from the Golden Mall, or learning more about Burbank’s history, I highly recommend their website. Thanks also to the always informative San Fernando Valley Blog for sharing your photos of the mall. And, of course, a BIG thank you to Lindsay for giving me the opportunity to write another Brady-centric post. [Editor’s note – a BIG thank you to you, Michael, for the fabulous write-up! Here’s hoping for more in 2016!]

Stalk It: Bank of the West, aka the former Golden Mall Radio Shack, aka Downtown Christmas Shopping District from The Brady Bunch is located at 100 South San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank.

December 21, 2015