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The Salton Sea

About fifty miles southeast of Palm Springs lies the Salton Sea, a former resort destination that I had wanted to stalk ever since seeing Troy Paiva’s haunting images of the place on his website Lost America. Due to the fact that it is largely abandoned and hence lacking in public restrooms, I hesitated making the trek out there. (I suffer from an abnormally small bladder.) Then, while my best friend Robin was in town in mid-March, the Grim Cheaper convinced me that it was time to finally make the trip. Sadly, as we discovered, many of the abandoned structures that Paiva had pictured on his site were demolished in 2008. Being there still turned out to be quite an experience, though, to say the least. [There are several abandoned and semi-abandoned towns lining the shores of the Salton Sea – Bombay Beach, Niland, and Slab City (yes, that’s a place), just to name a few. We hit them all. This post will solely be focused on the North Shore and the Sea itself, with future posts about the other areas to come.]

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The Salton Sea was created accidentally in 1905 when runoff from the Colorado River broke through levees and flooded a large valley known as the Salton Sink. The deluge, which lasted for two years, left behind a 380-square-mile inland sea (the largest inland body of water in California – yes, it’s bigger than Lake Tahoe!) situated 228 feet below sea level. It was dubbed the “Salton Sea.”

Developers, recognizing the potential of the picturesque coastal site, started building resorts and marinas (including the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club – pictured above and below – which was designed by legendary architect Albert Frey in 1962) in the region in the 1950s. It wasn’t long before the Salton Sea became a luxury getaway destination and even celebrities flocked to the area for fishing, sunbathing and waterskiing. Just a few of the stars who spent time there include Sonny Bono, Frank Sinatra, Rock Hudson, Dean Martin, The Beach Boys, The Marx Brothers and Jerry Lewis.

The region’s tenure as a resort destination was short-lived. Agricultural runoff, containing fertilizer, pesticide and salt, from nearby farms continued to flow to the Salton Sea, at the same rate that the expanse was naturally evaporating. Because neither salt nor fertilizer evaporate, the salinity of the lake, as well as its toxicity, increased year after year. This caused a large growth of algae, which drained the sea of oxygen, which in turn killed off the fish population. Dead fish remains began to wash ashore, littering the once beautiful beaches. Birds wound up feeding on those dead fish and, in turn, also died. The thousands upon thousands of animal carcasses that papered the shoreline created a horrific smell that permeated the area. People started to flee. Then, in 1976 and 1977, two large storms hit the region, submerging many of the marinas, clubs, motels and neighborhoods. Residents vacated the Salton Sea in droves, leaving behind homes, cars and other structures. They were never to return.

It was the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club, which was shuttered and left abandoned in 1984, as well as the neighboring North Shore Motel and its pool, and a large Texaco gas station sign that I most wanted to see. Sadly, the motel, pool and Texaco sign are all long gone and the Yacht Club was completely refurbished in 2010 (it now serves as a special events center). You can check out some photographs of what they used to look like here.

Today, the abandoned sites are few and far between.

The ones that still stand are sufficiently eerie, though.

From afar, the Salton Sea is quite beautiful, with bright blue waters.

A closer glance reveals that beauty to be an illusion, though. In reality, the waters of the Salton Sea are a murky brown. The blue hue is simply a reflection of the sky.

The white shoreline hides its own secrets.

In truth, the “sand” of the Salton Sea is mainly comprised of crushed fish skeletons . . .

. . . as well as dead fish. It is an absolutely eerie place to visit.

Thanks to its apocalyptic landscape, the Salton Sea has been immortalized onscreen numerous times over the years. The flooded out house where Jim Henry (Richard Conte) lived in 1954’s Highway Dragnet was said to be located at the Salton Sea and I am fairly certain that filming actually took place there, as well. Because the area has changed so drastically over the ensuing sixty years, I was unable to confirm that, though.

I do know for certain – thanks to this 2006 Los Angeles Times article – that the interior of Jim’s house was a set and not the interior of an actual Salton Sea residence.

In 1957, the sea was where prehistoric mollusk mutations were discovered in The Monster That Challenged the World. The narration that opens the film states, “This is the Salton Sea in Southern California – a strange phenomenon in which nature has placed four hundred square miles of salt water in the middle of an arid desert.” Aside from the aerial view of the area shown during that narration, I do not believe any other filming took place there.

The region was also used for flashback scenes in which Tom Van Allen (Val Kilmer) thinks back to a time when his wife, Liz (Chandra West), was still alive in 2002’s aptly-named The Salton Sea.

In the book Hollywood Escapes, the film’s director D.J. Caruso is quoted as saying, “I had flown over The Salton Sea many times and always wondered What the hell is that down there, and why is it called a sea? After reading the first draft of Tony Gayton’s screenplay The Salton Sea, I hopped into my car and made an impromptu trip out there. Upon arriving, I was overcome by the vastness of this body of water. It was indeed visually striking and I was moved by its haunted beauty. The images at the Salton Sea alone could have made a two-hour picture. I knew this place was the perfect companion to the soul of Val Kilmer’s character. What once was beautiful and full of hope, now was lost and searching for a way to survive.”

The North Shore Beach and Yacht Club masqueraded as the Aces & Spades dance club in the 2005 thriller The Island.

I am fairly certain that only the exterior of the Yacht Club was used in the filming and that the interior of the Ace & Spades was a set built elsewhere.

The North Shore Motel also appeared briefly in the movie.

Rock band Linkin Park shot the cover images for their 2007 album, Minutes to Midnight, at the Salton Sea.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Salton Sea is located off Highway 111, about 50 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The North Shore Beach and Yacht Club can be found at 99155 Sea View Drive in Mecca.

April 21, 2014
The Disneyland Locations from “Saving Mr. Banks”

In February (on what turned out to be an exorbitantly crowded day), the Grim Cheaper and I visited The Happiest Place on Earth with Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and her husband, Keith Coogan. Since I had just recently watched – and fallen in love with – Saving Mr. Banks, I decided to do a little stalking of the Disneyland locales that appeared in the flick while I was there.

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In Saving Mr. Banks, which chronicles the making of the 1964 film Mary Poppins, Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) takes P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to Disneyland for the day in the hopes that the trip will soften the prickly author and make her more a bit more agreeable to work with. When P.L. arrives at the park, she is driven right through the main gates and up to the the back side of Disneyland Railroad’s Main Street Train Station, where Walt is waiting for her.

The Main Street Train Station and Disneyland Railroad are both original attractions, opened the same day that the park was on July 17th, 1955. The Victorian-style station is one of four located throughout the property and is serviced by five different trains. The locomotives, which run on bio-diesel fuel, are all historically accurate in their design, with one, the C.K. Holiday train, boasting a special caboose named the Lilly Belle. The Belle, which was originally part of the now-retired Retlaw 1 train, was redesigned with luxurious appointments in 1974 in order to act as a special passenger car for VIPs. You can check out some photographs of it here. The car is still in operation to this day and is open to the public, pending availability. If you would like to ride the Lilly Belle, inquire at the front desk of the Main Street Railroad Station as soon as the park opens and, if it is running that day and is available, you and your party will be given a scheduled ride time. Passengers are even given special train tickets to commemorate the experience. (There are rumors floating around the internet that the public is no longer allowed on the Belle. While this website claims the rumors have been confirmed, I am not sure if that is accurate.)

While outside the Main Street Train Station, Walt is shown jovially greeting admirers and handing out pre-signed autographs, which never ceases to crack me up as your chances of catching Tom Hanks happily interacting with fans are slim to none. The guy’s a great actor, but not AT ALL friendly – in fact he was downright mean to me when I met him a few years back. He was also deemed one of The Top Ten Worst Autograph Signers of 2013 by Mike the Fanboy – and rightly so. You can read Mike’s write-up here.

Walt and P.L. then make their way down Main Street, U.S.A. Mid-walk, Walt gazes up longingly at a window that bears his father’s name.

That window, located above the Emporium (Disneyland’s largest gift shop), is, too, a park original and has been there since opening day. It reads “Elias Disney, Contractor, Est. 1895.” Elias held a number of different jobs throughout his lifetime, including mail carrier, orange farmer and railroad crewman. He also did some work contracting houses in Chicago and it is believed that he might have started his own contracting business in 1895, hence the year listed on the window.

Walt then manages to get P.L. on a ride – the King Arthur Carrousel – although she does so very begrudgingly.

The King Arthur Carrousel (which utilizes a British spelling) is also a Disneyland Opening Day attraction and has been in operation since 1955. (It was in fact a carousel, the one at Griffith Park, that inspired Walt to create Disneyland in the first place.) The merry-go-round was originally built in 1922 and, prior to its relocation to The Happiest Place on Earth, had been a part of Sunnyside Beach Park in Toronto, Canada. Walt had the ride enlarged and remodeled before it made its Disney debut. The carousel features 68 hand-carved wooden horses (each has a name – supposedly, you were once able to stop by Disneyland City Hall and pick up a list of those names), one chariot and 3,328 sparkling bulb lights. Jingles, the horse that P.L. rides in Saving Mr. Banks, is one of the attraction’s actual steeds and its most ornately-decorated. In an ironic twist, on April 8th, 2008, as part of the park’s 50th anniversary celebration, Jingles was dedicated to none other than Mary Poppins herself, actress Julie Andrews.

The Disneyland locations can be seen briefly in the Saving Mr. Banks trailer, which you can watch by clicking below.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Disneyland Resort is located at 1313 Disneyland Drive in Anaheim. You can visit the park’s official website here. The areas used in Saving Mr. Banks include the rear side of the Main Street Train Station, just beyond the park’s front entrance; the Elias Disney window, which can be found on the west side of Main Street, on the second floor of the Emporium, next to and just south of the Crystal Arcade storefront; and the King Arthur Carrousel, which is in Fantasyland, just north of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

April 18, 2014
Kim’s New House from “L!fe Happens”

Once I had tracked down the main house used in L!fe Happens (you can read that post here), as well as Auntie Em’s Kitchen, which also appeared in the flick (you can read that post here), I became more than a little obsessed with finding the cottage that Kim (Krysten Ritter) rented towards the end of the 2011 rom-com. Ironically enough, I didn’t even like L!fe Happens all that much, but it was filmed in L.A. and knowing that there are undiscovered SoCal locations out there just waiting to be unearthed is like kryptonite to this stalker. So, once again, I found myself on the hunt.

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The bungalow only appears in a few brief scenes near the end of L!fe Happens, after (spoiler alert!) Kim decides to move out of the residence she formerly shared with her BFFs Deena (Kate Bosworth) and Laura (Rachel Bilson) and into her her own place.

While Kim is out house-hunting, she is shown driving on a street that – thanks to its broadness, position at the base of a group of mountains and fact that it dead-ends into another road – I figured was most likely located in Eagle Rock.

I was also fairly certain that the street sign that Kim passed in the scene said “Las Flores.”

I also noticed an address number that I believed to be “5120” painted on the curb in front of Kim’s new house. So I started searching all of the 5100 blocks of streets running perpendicular to Las Flores Drive in Eagle Rock. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I found the right place. As it turns out, the address number is actually “5129,” not “5120.” And they say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!

In real life, the picturesque 1911 cottage features three bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,694 square feet, and a 0.17-acre plot of land. It last sold in June 2012 for $565,000.

The home’s actual interior was also used in the filming, as you can see in the screen capture/MLS photograph-comparisons pictured below.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kim’s new house from L!fe Happens is located at 5129 Windermere Avenue in Eagle Rock.

April 16, 2014
The “Good Luck Charlie” House

During the lengthy process of researching the Melissa & Joey house (which many viewers seem to think has been used on another series – you can read my blog on it here), I came across a post on Julia Sweeten’s fabulous website, Hooked on Houses, about the residence where the Duncan family – dad Bob (Eric Allan Kramer), who is an exterminator, mom Amy (Leigh Ann Baker) and their kids, Teddy (Bridgit Mendler), Gabe (Bradley Steven Perry), PJ (Jason Dolley), Charlie (Mia Talerico) and Toby (Logan Moreau/Jake Cinoa) – lived on the now-defunct Disney series Good Luck Charlie. In the article, Julia mentioned that she had not been able to track down the property’s real life address, but that if anyone knew of its location to let her know. Well, Julia, challenge accepted!

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Upon first glance, I had a feeling that the Duncan house was located in the Pasadena area. A commenter on Julia’s article confirmed my hunch and another commenter clued me into the fact that while an address number of “358” was visible above the home’s front door in some of the series’ establishing shots, a different address number of “501” was shown painted on the curb in others. I was fairly certain that the “358” had been faked for the filming and that the residence’s actual address was most likely “501.” From there, finding the house was a snap!

The Duncan residence actually sits at 501 Palmetto Drive in Pasadena’s South Arroyo neighborhood.

The four bedroom, four bath, 5,045-square-foot Craftsman was originally built in 1903 and sits on 0.26 acres of land. The picturesque two-story abode (LOVE the double bay windows!) was last sold in April 1981 for $209,500. According to Zillow, it’s worth about $2.3 million today. Not a bad return on an investment!

The Duncan house, which was said to be located at 358 Edgewood Drive in Denver, Colorado on the series, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, minus the mailbox and tire swing – and Bob’s exterminator truck.

The brightly-colored interior of the Duncan home was just a set that existed on a soundstage at Los Angeles Center Studios, where the series was lensed.

It is quite a point of contention among Good Luck Charlie fans that the layout of the interior did not at all match the home’s exterior, especially the front door which was drastically different in design and shape from the door shown in establishing shots.

The house was also briefly featured, covered in snow (digitally, I believe), in the series’ 2011 made-for-TV movie, Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas.

While another Hooked on Houses commenter stated that they thought the Duncan house was used in the 1996 movie Space Jam, that information is incorrect. The Space Jam residence is located at 1002 Highland Avenue in South Pasadena, right next door to the home from Liar Liar (which I blogged about here).

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Good Luck Charlie house is located at 501 Palmetto Drive in Pasadena.

April 15, 2014
Azul Tapas Lounge from “Hidden Away”

Last February, a film crew descended upon Palm Springs for 12 days to shoot the Lifetime Original Movie Hidden Away. Sadly, I never got to witness any of the filming, but I read numerous newspaper articles about the production and stalked a few of the locations mentioned, including Azul Tapas Lounge. Because we do not get the Lifetime channel, I was not able to watch the thriller (and I use that word loosely) until recently after it became available for download on iTunes. Regrettably, I can’t say that Hidden Away was any good. It was a bit painful to watch, truth be told. Film critic Jackie K. Cooper had this to say in his review of the flick for the Huffington Post, “What do you do when it is Saturday night and there is no Sharknado on to scoff at? Well you find something almost as idiotic and that is the Lifetime Original Movie Hidden Away. Yes, this is a movie so ridiculous that it will make you laugh in spite of yourself.” That’s a pretty spot-on analysis. I did absolutely LOVE seeing my new hometown onscreen, though, and figured its locations were still blog-worthy, regardless.

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Azul Tapas Lounge, one of downtown Palm Spring’s most popular restaurants, is located inside of the General Telephone Building, which was originally constructed for the California Water & Telephone company in 1934. The two-story Spanish Eclectic structure, which is a designated Palm Springs Historical Site, operated as a telephone switching center until 1984. Today, both floors comprise Azul, a tapas restaurant that also serves American fare such as burgers, wraps and pizza. There are even six different grilled cheese sandwich selections on the menu, as well as a build-your-own grilled cheese option with over forty different add-ons (think poblano peppers, basil pesto, and bacon) ! Um, count me in!

Azul’s crowning element, though, is its humongous outdoor patio, which is centered around a large bar and features glider-booths, aka covered, bench-style swings (LOVE!).

Azul has become something of a celebrity hot spot – well, for Palm Springs, anyway. Bo Derek, Cloris Leachman and Jane Russell have all dined there in the past and, according to Fab Magazine, Carol Channing even threw her 90th birthday party at the eatery. Hidden Away’s unit production manager Brian Nolan is also a fan of the restaurant, having hung out there during various trips to the desert, which is how it came to be used in the movie. In a 2013 Palm Springs Life article, Nolan is quoted as saying,, “I knew for this movie we needed a location like this and we needed a cool restaurant, cool patio, coffee kind of scenario. I called George [Kessinger, Azul’s owner] and he was completely open to it and very excited to have us.”

Azul was used three times, as three different restaurants, in Hidden Away. The interior first popped up as the fictional Blasini’s, in the scene in which Brett (Sean Patrick Flanery) proposed to his girlfriend, Alexandra (Emmanuelle Vaugier). Unbeknownst to Brett is the fact that Alexandra is actually named Stephanie and that she faked her death, as well as the death of her daughter, Rachel (Allie Gonino), ten years prior in order to escape her abusive husband, Andrew (Ivan Sergei).

Azul’s interior was dressed with twinkle lights and large bamboo plants for the shoot and, in person, looks quite a bit different than it did onscreen.

For the exterior of Blasini’s, producers used an establishing shot of LG’s Prime Steakhouse, located at 255 South Palm Canyon Drive. Unfortunately, I do not have any photographs of LG’s, so please excuse the Google Street View image below.

The exterior of Azul was used for some filming, as well. It popped up as the outside of the upscale eatery where Andrew first confronted Stephanie/Alexandra after tracking her down in Palm Springs.

Interior filming for that scene took place at Tinto restaurant, which is located inside of The Saguaro Palm Springs Hotel. Confused yet? There’s more. The exterior of The Saguaro appeared in Hidden Away, as well. I’ll save that information for a future post, though.

Azul’s patio area later masqueraded as a coffee shop towards the end of Hidden Away, in the scene in which Alexandra told her best friend, Lynn (Law & Order’s Elisabeth Rohm), that she had faked her death and that her abusive ex-husband was now stalking her. Andrew is not-surprisingly watching the two women from across the street, while playing with a cigarette lighter and contemplating how to do away with Lynn. Like I said, it’s not a great movie. Unless you’re familiar with Palm Springs and want to see the city onscreen, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Azul Tapas Lounge, from Hidden Away, is located at 369 North Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs.

April 11, 2014
Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore from “The Wonder Years”

UPDATE – The Wonder Years is coming to DVD for the first time ever in October! The 26-disc boxed set includes all six seasons of the show, plus a cast reunion segment, over 15 hours of bonus footage, a collectible metal locker, two production booklets packed with behind-the-scenes information, a replica yearbook, and Wonder Years magnets. Sets can be pre-ordered here.

I recently received an extensive list of The Wonder Years filming locations from a fellow stalker named Mallory who lives in Iowa. Mallory is a huge fan of the series (she loved it so much that she put off watching the finale for ages as she couldn’t bear to see the show end – love that!) and over the years had managed to compile an index of over thirty locales featured on it. One of the locations, the book shop from the Season 1 episode titled “Swingers,” I had been trying to track down for a while. Said book shop turned out to be the historic Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore, an L.A. institution that was shuttered in 2008. I decided the place was still worthy of a stalk, though, and headed over there when I was in the area a couple of weeks ago.

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The original Dutton’s Books & Prints was opened in 1961 by Bill and Thelma Dutton at 5146 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood. All four of the couple’s children worked onsite, including eldest son Davis who took over operations of the store in the 1970s. He opened a couple of sister shops shortly thereafter. Doug, the youngest Dutton child, decided to establish his own branch of the family business and in 1984 purchased Brentwood Book Shop in the Barry Building, which had been around since the ‘60s. He renamed the site Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore and ran it independently of Davis’ outposts. Dutton’s Brentwood was an immediate success and Doug eventually expanded, taking over several adjacent storefronts, all of which surrounded a courtyard where patrons were encouraged to lounge over a good tome. In a 2008 Huffington Post article, author Tom Teicholz described the 5,000-square-foot space as such, “The whole place always had a ramshackle feel, with frayed carpets and crowded shelves. Each area is its own empire, and one felt free to wander among them, and trusted to take a book from one area to the other without being accused of running off.” The store even attracted its fare share of celebrities and such stars as Dustin Hoffman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Diane Keaton, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Meg Ryan, John Lithgow, Nora Ephron, Randy Newman, Maria Shriver, and Calista Flockhart could often be seen perusing the crowded aisles.

In 2004, upon learning that the owner of the Barry Building was securing plans to tear down the property to make way for a new shopping center, Doug decided to open a sister store in Beverly Hills. He figured that if the Brentwood site did end up closing, he would still have a place to operate. Sadly though, the Beverly Hills store wound up hurting him financially and he closed it in 2006. Shortly thereafter, Davis shuttered the original Dutton’s in North Hollywood due to declining sales. Dutton’s Brentwood was soon suffering the same fate and that, coupled with the fact that Doug had never recovered fiscally from the Beverly Hills debacle, led to the decision to close the store. On April 30th, 2008, Dutton’s Brentwood made its last sale. In a cruel twist of fate, the Barry Building’s owner eventually withdrew his plans to tear down the property in 2013. Had Doug not opened the Beverly Hills store, it is quite possible that the Brentwood outpost would still be in operation. Today, the space houses Cisco Home, a sustainable furniture company.

In the “Swingers” episode of The Wonder Years, Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) headed to Dutton’s to pick up a copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex: But Were Afraid to Ask, upon the recommendation of Kevin’s older brother, Wayne Arnold (Jason Hervey). While the Dutton’s name was visible on the shop’s awning in the scene, because the façade of the Brentwood storefront did not match what was shown onscreen, I figured a different Dutton’s had been used in the filming. As you can see below, the shop that appeared in The Wonder Years had an entrance door located on its right hand side. Dutton’s (which you can see photographs of from the time that it was in operation here and here) did not. None of the other Dutton’s locations seemed to match up either, though. It wasn’t until Mallory mentioned that she thought a fake door had been added to the exterior for the shoot that things began to fall into place.

We now believe that a different book store was used for the interior filming and that a fake door was added to the exterior of Dutton’s so that it would match up to what was shown of that interior.

We still cannot figure out where interior filming took place, though. As you can see in the scene capture below (which I flipped), there appear to be the words “Harmon Books” along with some sort of initial (possibly an “A”) painted on the door behind Kevin and Paul. No amount of Google sleuthing has been able to unearth a Harmon Books in the L.A. area, though. Does the store happen to look familiar to any of my fellow stalkers?

Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood website, I learned that the Dutton’s space was also featured in the 1965 film Sylvia, as the spot where Alan Macklin (George Maharis) first tracked down Sylvia (Carroll Baker). At the time, the shop was still operating as the Brentwood Book Shop.

Dutton’s North Hollywood location was the bookstore where Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry) worked in the original opening of Can’t Hardly Wait, which never made it to the screen. That opening is only visible briefly in the movie’s trailer.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Cisco Home, aka the former Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore from the “Swingers” episode of The Wonder Years, is located at 11975 San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood.

April 9, 2014
Opera on Ocean from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

A couple of weeks ago, a fellow stalker named Gina reminded me of a Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead location that I had yet to blog about – Opera on Ocean, the Santa Monica restaurant where slime-ball Gus (John Getz) took Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) for a lunch date in the 1991 flick. I had tracked the eatery down a while back, but because it had been shuttered years prior, I never ventured out to stalk it. Then, when I was in Santa Monica last week, I randomly found myself in front of the building that once housed it and figured now was as good a time as any to do a post on the place.

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Opera on Ocean, which was originally called simply “Opera,” was opened on the ground floor of Santa Monica’s Paseo del Mar building in March 1988 by restaurateurs Jerry Singer and Doug Delfeld and real estate developer Gary Fowler. Despite the musically-influenced name, no singing was done on the premises. According to a Los Angeles Times article published the year the eatery was founded, the moniker was “a metaphor for all these different things coming together.” The 130-seat space, which included an enclosed patio and an on-site take-out bakery, was designed in a Mediterranean style by Ruben Ojeda. Sadly, Opera, which served a mix of Spanish, Italian and Moroccan fare, never took off and was soon in dire financial straits. In 1989, the restaurant was taken over by new owners, who changed the name to “Opera on Ocean.” The chef, menu and décor were also altered, but it didn’t make a difference on the bottom line and the establishment was shuttered in November 1990.

The space was then remodeled and an outpost of the Il Fornaio chain opened there in 1995. After over 17 years in operation, it, too, eventually closed in late November 2012. Eight months later, a Del Frisco’s Grille opened at the site, following another major remodel/gutting of the interior and patio area. The property looks quite a bit different today than it did in 1990 when Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead was filmed.

In Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Gus takes Sue Ellen out for a welcome lunch at Opera shortly after she starts working at General Apparel West. During the meal, “Swell” orders a Martini & Rossi on the rocks and the server asks if she wants it sweet or dry, to which she responds, “Um, oh, just a little bit of both.” The exterior of Opera (as well as its signage) was shown in the scene and, thanks to Paseo del Mar’s beautiful architecture and prominent location directly across from the Santa Monica Pier, I recognized the building immediately during a re-watch of the flick back in 2009. (At the time, I was in a bit of a Don’t-Tell-Mom-filming-locations-track-down obsession, having just found the Crandell house and Clown Dog from the movie.)

Because the space has been extensively remodeled twice since filming took place there back in 1990 and I can find no photographs of how it previously looked online, at first I was unsure if Opera’s actual interior had appeared in the lunch scene or if a different restaurant had been used.

But then I spotted the word “Opera” on Sue Ellen’s menu in the scene, so the eatery’s interior did, in fact, appear in the film.

As you can see in the images below and in this online tour of the former Il Fornaio space, after the first remodel the restaurant became absolutely unrecognizable from Don’t Tell Mom.

The Del Frisco’s redesign (photographs of which I got off the restaurant’s website) made the place even more unrecognizable. Talk about a change!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Del Frisco’s Grille, aka the former Opera on Ocean restaurant from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, is located at 1551 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. You can visit Del Frisco’s official website here.

April 8, 2014
L.A., Here I Come!

I am heading to L.A. this morning and will therefore be taking the next few days off. I have absolutely NO plans for my stay yet , which I could NOT be more excited about! After the incredibly busy March that I had, I am looking forward to spending some time relaxing, shopping, hanging out with friends (including Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog), and, of course, stalking. I will be back on Monday. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine CityThink blog post on Thursday.

April 2, 2014
Auntie Em’s Kitchen from “L!fe Happens”

I recently re-watched the 2011 romantic comedy L!fe Happens and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more the second time around. One of the locations featured in it – Auntie Em’s Kitchen in Eagle Rock – I had actually recognized during my first viewing. I used to drive by the place frequently when I lived in Pasadena, but, despite hearing rave reviews, never dropped in. So I decided that it was high time I did so and headed on over there a couple of weeks ago for lunch.

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Auntie Em’s owner, Theresa Wahl, was led to the food world in a rather circuitous way. The former lead singer and guitarist for the all-female punk bank The Red Aunts, Theresa spent the better part of the ‘90s touring the U.S. and Europe. During her travels, she discovered countless new recipes, as well as some modern twists on old favorites. Upon returning to L.A., Wahl decided to put what she had learned to good use. She retired from singing and focused her efforts on the culinary arts, opening up a catering company specializing in good old American comfort food. Thanks to her music connections, she quickly landed jobs providing fare for bands and on music video and production sets. Just a few of the famous names that Theresa has fed over the years include Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rihanna, Brandy, Sheryl Crow, Carmen Electra, Dr. Phil, Lionel Richie, Alec Baldwin, Elton John, Ellen DeGeneres, and Cindy Crawford. She even provided the catering for Rose McGowan’s October 2013 wedding to Davey Detail.

In 2002, Theresa founded Auntie Em’s Kitchen, named in honor of the Auntie Em character from The Wizard of Oz. Um, love it! The place was an instant success and led to appearances for Theresa on the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Sugar High.

Auntie Em’s cheerful interior décor (which I somehow did not take any photographs of) is reminiscent of Monica and Rachel’s apartment on Friends – a bright mish-mash of colors and styles that merge together perfectly to create a warm, welcoming space. The eatery also features a bakery (which, being diabetic, I, unfortunately, could not partake of) and a marketplace that sells gourmet foods and unique trinkets. The place is pretty much the restaurant version of my favorite store, Lula Mae. Of the fare, Wahl said in a January 2013 USA Today article, “We’re cooking up comfort food with attitude. It’s just like Mom would make, if Mom had been a punk rocker with a baking habit. These are recipes that make me happy, and I love sharing them.” All ingredients are fresh – she says, “If it can’t be found at the farmers’ market, it won’t be found on your plate” – and almost everything served is homemade on the premises. What isn’t, is obtained from such high-regarded spots as La Brea Bakery and Strauss Family Creamery. I opted for the Artisanal Cheese Plate for my lunch and it was fabulous!

In L!fe Happens, Auntie Em’s Kitchen is where Deena (Kate Bosworth) writes her book and where she allows Henri (Justin Kirk) to hang out with her, as long as he adheres to her conditions – “no talking, no touching, no disturbing my work flow.” Only the exterior of the restaurant was used in the filming and, as you can see below, two large foliage pieces were installed at either end of the property during the shoot, most likely to block the view of the prying lenses of the paparazzi.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Auntie Em’s Kitchen, from L!fe Happens, is located at 4616 Eagle Rock Boulevard in Eagle Rock. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

April 1, 2014
The Mystery of the “Melissa & Joey” House

In February, I received a challenge from a fellow stalker named Jill who wanted to know about the home belonging to Melissa Burke (Melissa Joan Hart) on the ABC Family sitcom Melissa & Joey. The residence looked familiar to her and she was fairly certain that it had been used previously in another series. She was not alone in that belief. One quick Google search of “Melissa & Joey house, same as” led me to several message boards in which commenters queried about where they had seen the property before. I had never actually watched an episode of Melissa & Joey, but was immediately intrigued, so I streamed the show on Netflix. The Burke residence did not look at all familiar, though. Thus began the mystery of the Melissa & Joey house. And y’all know how much I love myself a good mystery! Fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, did manage to track the dwelling down shortly after Jill posted her challenge and while I ran right out to stalk it, I have yet to figure out why the place looks so familiar to so many viewers.

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Several of the message boards I came across featured commenters asking if the Melissa & Joey house was the same property used in Reba, Step by Step or Boy Meets World. As you can see in the collage pictured below, though, the Melissa & Joey residence bears virtually no resemblance to the Reba or Boy Meets World house. And while it does look similar to the Step by Step house, they are clearly not one and the same.

To me, the Melissa & Joey house is reminiscent of both the Mama’s Family and Old School homes, but, again, is obviously not either one.

So I will put it out there to my fellow stalkers. Do any of you recognize the home from another production?

Melissa & Joey is set in Toledo, Ohio, but the Burke residence can actually be found in Hancock Park. Of the property, series’ executive producer Boy Young said, “Her house is a house here in Los Angeles that we selected because it’s architecturally believable from Toledo. Our production designer basically surveyed architectural styles of Toledo and tried to find something here in L.A. that resembled that.”

In real life, the picturesque, two-story dwelling, which was originally built in 1914, features four bedrooms, three baths, 3,005 square feet of interior space, and a 0.22-acre plot of land. It last sold in April 2008 for $1.795 million.

Several message board commenters also stated their beliefs that the interior set – which exists inside of a soundstage at CBS Studio Center in Studio City – was recycled from another series, as well, although it does not look at all familiar to me. So I will once again put it out there to my fellow stalkers – does anyone recognize the interior of the Melissa & Joey house from another production?

On a side-note – I am BEYOND excited to announce that I wrote a small article about the Double Indemnity house for the April 2014 issue of Los Angeles magazine, which is on newsstands now.That’s me buying out the Palm Desert Barnes & Noble of every copy of the magazine that they had on Saturday.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Jill for challenging me to find this location and to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for tracking it down!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Melissa & Joey house is located at 102 North Norton Avenue in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.

March 31, 2014