Buffy the Vampire Slayer – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 26, 2015July 10, 2017

The Alhambra from “NCIS”

Sometimes you go years wondering about a location only to find out that it is right in your own backyard. For what seemed like ages, I had wanted to track down the United States Criminal Investigative Service office from NCIS. I had a feeling that the series used two different structures – one for establishing shots and one for on location exterior filming – and it turns out I was right. While watching a scene that took place outside of NCIS headquarters in the Season 11 episode titled “Crescent City (Part I),” I immediately recognized one of the visible buildings as being part of The Alhambra, a large commercial office and retail complex in Alhambra that I had visited often when I lived in L.A. That led to me eventually finding the structure used in establishing shots, as well. But more on that later.

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The Alhambra complex was built for C F Braun & Co., a petrochemical engineering company originally founded by Carl Franklin Braun in San Francisco in 1909. After World War I, Braun, seeking to expand the business, decided to relocate the main offices to Southern California where real estate was more affordable. He purchased a 45-acre plot of land at the corner of West Mission Road and South Fremont Avenue in Alhambra and proceeded to build a large office complex there. The beautiful site, which looks more like a college campus than a company headquarters, was completed in 1922.

Braun passed away in 1954, but the company continued to function throughout 1980, at which time it was acquired by Santa Fe International. The business then went through a succession of different owners and its Alhambra headquarters was eventually sold to The Ratkovich Company in 1999. The development firm set about revitalizing the site by adding retail shops, a massive gym and a housing development. The new complex was dubbed “The Alhambra.”

My mom used to teach in the Alhambra area and attended several conferences at The Alhambra. For reasons I no longer remember, I dropped her off at many of those conferences. On my first visit, upon driving into the complex, I became mesmerized by its beauty and wound up wandering around a bit.

Though I fell in love with many aspects of the complex, my favorite feature is easily the walking bridge that links it to a shopping center located across the street. In that shopping center? A Starbucks! So yes, I’ve utilized that walking bridge many a time .

I figured filming had to have taken place at The Alhambra at some point, but, at the time, could not seem to find any information about its cinematic history online. Then one day, while watching an early episode of House, I spotted it standing in for the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) and made a mental note to re-visit the complex so that I could stalk it properly. I never got around to it, though. Then when I saw it pop up on NCIS last year, The Alhambra moved right to the top of my To-Stalk List.

In the beginning of the “Crescent City (Part I)” episode of NCIS, Eleanor Bishop (Emily Wickersham) is shown trying to make a repair to her car outside of what is supposed to be the United States Criminal Investigative Service office in Washington, D.C.

While watching, I immediately recognized the brick exterior and unique roofline of The Alhambra’s A9 East building.

The area where the scene was shot is denoted with a pink “X” in the aerial view below.

A far-off view of that same area is pictured in the photograph below.

Later in the episode, Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula) and T.C. Fornell (Joe Spano) are shown walking through what is supposedly the Washington Navy Yard. In reality, the men were strolling along the eastern side of The Alhambra’s Building A10. (My photograph was taken a bit too far north and does not perfectly match the scene, but the building pictured in my photo is visible in the far background of the screen capture below.)

The area and direction in which the men walked is denoted with a pink arrow below.

The trio eventually winds up in the courtyard of The Alhambra’s Building A9 East.

That courtyard is denoted with a pink “X” in the aerial view below.

The Alhambra has appeared in several other episodes of NCIS, including Season 9’s “Till Death Do Us Part.”

Once I discovered NCIS’ use of The Alhambra for on location exterior filming of scenes taking place at the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service office, I decided to attempt to track down the building used for establishing shots. It turned out to be a rather easy hunt. The real life headquarters of NCIS in Washington, D.C., aka the the CNIC (Commander, Navy Installations Command) office, is used for those shots. That building is located at 716 Sicard Street SE at the Washington Navy Yard. You can see a photo of it here.

As I mentioned above, The Alhambra also regularly masked as the exterior of the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital on the television series House. The stills below are from the Season 2 episode titled “Daddy’s Boy.”

The Alhambra also appeared in the Season 3 episode titled “Son of a Coma Guy.”

As well as in Season 3’s “Needle in a Haystack.” For that episode, the grounds of The Alhambra were covered in snow.

Well, a portion of the grounds, at least. As you can see in the screen capture below, the production team failed to put snow on the far end of the street leading into The Alhambra, making the flurry appear to be a bit fake. Whoops!

The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer also made extensive use of The Alhambra. Though UCLA was initially utilized to masquerade as the University of California, Sunnydale on the show, when filming on a operating campus proved to be too difficult, production moved to The Alhambra to shoot exterior college scenes.

The Alhambra also masked as a mental institution in the Season 5 episode of Sliders titled “Map of the Mind.” And yes, that’s a CGI-generated vortex pictured in the second screen capture below.

The Alhambra was where Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) met up with CGB Spender (William B. Davis) in the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “En Ami.”

The Alhambra was also featured in episodes of The Profiler, Scandal, and Arli$$, though I am unsure of which episodes specifically.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Alhambra, aka the exterior of the United States Criminal Investigative Service office from NCIS, is located at 1000 South Fremont Avenue in Alhambra. You can visit the property’s official website here.

February 19, 2014February 18, 2014

Cordelia’s Apartment Building from “Angel”

In mid-January, fellow stalker Ashley, of The Drewseum, asked for some help in tracking down the Moorish-style apartment building where Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) lived on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff series Angel. She sent me a link to this image of the building and, even though I had never seen an episode of Angel, due to the place’s spectacularly unique architecture, I was immediately intrigued.

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I should mention here that while I never actually watched Angel, I was an extra on the series once back in 2000. And I just about died yesterday while scrolling through some random episodes to make screen captures for this post when I came across the very episode I was on – Season 1’s “To Shanshu in L.A.” That’s me below, with my natural hair color and style. The scene I was in was shot on the Paseo in front of the Redstone building at the Paramount Pictures lot, which had been set up to look like the Third Street Promenade. I hadn’t been in L.A. more than a couple of weeks at the time that the episode was shot and when the assistant director mentioned the Promenade, I remember thinking, “What in the heck is that?” LOL In the scene, we were supposed to be reacting to Cordelia suddenly screaming, dropping to the ground and writhing around, which is why I have such a strange look on my face in the second screen capture below.

Anyway, because Cordelia’s building was so architecturally unique, I figured it would be an easy find. I sent a picture of it to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and he had the same thought. We were wrong. The next few days were spent rather frustratingly searching through Google images and architectural guidebooks, to no avail. Mike eventually wound up coming across an old vacation rental listing for the building after doing a Google image search for “Spanish Fourplex Vacation Rental Hollywood.” My response after he texted me the news? “How in the heck did you come up with those search terms???” LOL What can I say, the guy has the magic touch. Unfortunately, the listing was no longer active, so we could not click on it to glean any further information, which was absolutely maddening! I finally somehow managed to open a cached version of the listing just long enough to launch the provided map link (I honestly have no idea how I did it being that it was about the hundredth time I had attempted the exact same procedure) and it, mercifully, led me right to the place.

As it turns out, Cordelia’s building is known as the Adams Apartments in real life – at least according to this Flickr account, which also states that the property was built in 1931 by architect Gil Chadwick. The 2000 Los Feliz Improvement Association Historical Survey provides some differing (and extremely vague) information, though. Because I could find no other data about the building anywhere, I am unsure of which report is correct.

Per Zillow, the four-unit building boasts a total of 8 bedrooms, 8 baths and 6,137 square feet.

In person, the structure does not disappoint! It is absolutely spectacular and I am extremely surprised that it has not been featured onscreen more often.

On Angel, the Adams Apartments were known as the Pearson Arms. Cordelia moved into the building, which turned out to be haunted, in the Season 1 episode titled “Rm w/a Vu.”

I am fairly certain that the interior of Cordelia’s apartment was just a set and not one of the Adams’ actual units, especially being that an entire wall was knocked down in the “Rm w/a Vu” episode as part of the storyline.

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 Ashley, of The Drewseum website, for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me to do so.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Pearson Arms apartment building from Angel, aka the Adams Apartments, is located at 3488-3490 Rowena Avenue/4207-4209 Avocado Street in Los Feliz.

October 12, 2011September 29, 2017

The “American Horror Story” House

Last week, fellow stalker Owen sent me an email with a tip, as well as this Curbed LA article, about a Haunted-Hollywood-type location that he thought I might be interested in stalking – the imposing brick and marble abode which figures as the focal point of the new television series American Horror Story. And right he was! I had just TiVo-ed the premiere episode of the show the previous night and could hardly wait to sit down and watch it. And I was not disappointed – American Horror Story is absolutely riveting! The fact that Owen had already tracked down the main location used in it was like icing on the cake! Randomly enough, another fellow stalker named August sent me an email this past Thursday evening in which he also tipped me off to the location of the American Horror Story house, along with a link to the exact same Curbed LA article that Owen had also sent! I figured the universe was most definitely trying to tell me something, so I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place this past weekend.

The American Horror Story house was originally built sometime during the early 1900s (the home’s official website says it was built in 1902, but Curbed LA and various other sites state that it was most likely constructed in 1908) by Alfred F. Rosenheim as his personal residence. The prominent Los Angeles architect also designed the Majestic Theatre on Broadway, the Herman W. Hellman Building in Downtown Los Angeles (L.A.’s very first first ten-story building), the Doheny Mansion’s glass conservancy and palm house in West Adams, and the Second Church of Christ Scientist, also in West Adams. The Rosenheim residence, which in 1999 was declared Los Angeles’ Historic-Cultural Monument Number 660, features a 9,660-square-foot, three-story main house, 7 bedrooms, 7 baths, Tiffany stained-glass windows, as well as Tiffany glass doors and light fixtures, maid’s quarters, a library, a hand-painted Japanese gold- and silver-leafed ceiling, a formal dining room, six different Batchelder fireplaces, a solarium, and a 1,600-square-foot basement. According to the Paradise Leased blog, upon its unveiling, the Los Angeles Times stated that the mansion was “magnificently appointed” and featured “almost every conceivable modern convenience and luxury” – including an intercom system that is still in working condition to this day!

In 1918, Rosenheim sold his self-designed abode to a mining tycoon named A.J. McQuatters, who used the mansion as his winter home. The property went through a succession of different residents in the following years, including character actor Edward Everett Horton, who leased the home for a short while, and the Sisters of Social Service, who converted the dwelling into a convent. In 1954, the Sisters also built a 50-foot-long, 4,500-square-foot detached chapel on the premises. That chapel has since been transformed into a recording studio. According to Curbed LA, the Rosenheim house has been on and off the market since 1999 and is currently for sale for a cool $4.5 million.

As you can see above, the residence, which sits on a 3/4-acre, corner plot of land and is truly magnificent in person, is actually much larger than its façade would lead you to believe. The place is absolutely GINORMOUS!

American Horror Story House–For Sale

You can watch the home’s real estate video by clicking above.

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The pilot episode of American Horror Story opens up in the year 1978 and shows two twin boys wreaking havoc on a dilapidated old mansion.

The real life interior of the property, which you can see pictures of here, was used in the filming of those scenes, although it was dressed considerably to appear neglected and run-down.

The episode then switches to the present day where it begins to follow the story of the Harmon family – mother Vivien (aka Connie Britton), father Ben (aka Dylan McDermott), and daughter Violet (aka Taissa Farmiga, who, in real life, is the younger sister of Up in the Air’s Vera Farmiga) – who has moved from Boston to Los Angeles in order to start a new life after suffering a considerable series of misfortunes. The family purchases the old mansion, which has since been fixed-up, despite being told about the previous owners’ murder-suicide, which took place shortly beforehand.

The real life interior of the house, in its actual state, is used extensively as the interior of the Harmon residence. You can see more interior photographs of the property here.

Oddly enough, though, the series does not make use of the property’s kitchen, which you can take a look at here. As you can see, it looks nothing like the kitchen that is shown on TV.

Thanks to fellow stalker Robert, from the Movie Locations and More website, I learned that the Rosenheim home was also used in the Halloween-themed Season 4 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer titled “Fear, Itself”, as the Alpha Delta fraternity house where Buffy Summers (aka Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends attended a Halloween party.

The interior scenes look to have been shot at a different location, though.

Except for the scene in which Oz (aka Seth Green) turned into a werewolf, which was filmed inside of one of the property’s real life bathrooms.

There seems to be quite a bit of erroneous information about the home’s filming history floating around online. According to the property’s official website, it appeared in a 1950’s movie named Old Blue Eyes which starred Frank Sinatra, although I can find no such production listed on Frank’s IMDB page. And according to this website, the house was also used in 2002’s Spiderman and 2007’s Because I Said So, but I scanned through both of those movies earlier today and did not spot the place anywhere. That same website also states that the residence appeared in Seabiscuit, but because I do not own the film and could not find it to rent or stream anywhere, I was not able to verify that.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Owen and August for telling me about this location! Smile

Stalk It: The American Horror Story house is located at 1120 Westchester Place in the Country Club Park section of Los Angeles.

October 21, 2010October 24, 2010

The Griffith Park Merry Go Round from “The Mentalist”

One location that I have wanted to stalk for almost two years now, ever since November of 2008 when it appeared in the Season One episode of The Mentalist titled “Seeing Red”, was the merry go round where Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) lured murder suspect Travis Tennant (aka Noel Fisher). The only problem was that I had absolutely NO idea whatsoever where to find it, as in my ten-plus years of living in Southern California the only merry go round that I had ever encountered was the one located on the Santa Monica Pier and it didn’t look anything like the one that had appeared in The Mentalist. So, I immediately called up Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and asked him if he knew where it was located. Sure enough, he did! As fate would have it, the merry go round is located right in the heart of L.A.’s Griffith Park and Mike used to ride it regularly when he was a kid!

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The Griffith Park Merry Go Round is actually something of a Los Angeles landmark and I am extremely shocked that, up until its appearance on The Mentalist two years ago, I didn’t even know of its existence. The Merry Go Round was first built in 1926 by the Spillman Engineering Company and is currently the only full size Spillman carousel still in operation today. It was originally commissioned by the Spreckels family, of the Spreckels Sugar Company, to be used at their San Diego theme park, the Mission Beach Amusement Center. Sadly, the amusement center was shuttered in 1935 in the midst of the Great Depression and the Merry Go Round was subsequently moved to Balboa Park to be featured in the California Pacific International Exposition. When the exposition ended in 1937, a man named Ross Davis purchased the carousel and transported it over 120 miles north to its new home in Griffith Park, where it is still in operation to this day, over seven decades later.

The Griffith Park Carousel is comprised of 68 different hand-made horses, all of which “jump” – ie. move up and down – and boast tails made of authentic horse hair.

The carousel also features a custom-built Stinson 165 Military Band Organ, which plays a library of over 1500 different songs.

And, incredibly enough, the Griffith Park Merry Go Round even served as the inspiration for one of the most famous landmarks in the entire world – Disneyland! Yes, you read that right. According to one of my very favorite stalking tomes, Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, Griffith Park historian Mike Eberts states, “Walt Disney brought his young daughters to the carousel and this is one of the places where he began to dream up the idea that would lead to Disneyland.” So incredibly cool! The bench where Walt used to sit during those outings (which is pictured very poorly above) is still on display at the merry go round to this day. And, according to the book Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, Walt’s daughter Diane “thought the inception [of Disneyland] took place during the Sunday afternoons when Walt picked the girls up from religious services – he never attended himself – and took them to the Griffith Park merry-go-round, where they would spend hours. ‘He’d see families in the park,’ Diane would later recall, ‘and say, ‘There’s nothing for the parents to do . . . You’ve got to have a place where the whole family can have fun.’” Further adding to the carousel’s celebrity status is the fact that James Dean’s very first acting job took place there! It was a commercial for Pepsi Cola and, in it, the newbie actor was shown handing out bottles of the soft drink to teenagers who were riding the merry go round. Such incredible history!

I, of course, had to take a ride on the carousel while I was there and it was so incredibly fun! Being there brought me RIGHT BACK to my childhood when I used to ride the Edgewater Packing House Carousel on Monterey’s Cannery Row each and every weekend. In an odd coincidence, I just found out today that my childhood merry go round was also designed by the Spillman Engineering Company, but it is sadly no longer in operation publicly as it was purchased by a Vegas millionaire who had it installed in a room in his home! Not kidding! But I digress.

In the “Seeing Red” episode of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane hypnotizes a young murder suspect named Travis in order to lead him to a supposed Sacramento-area merry go round so that he can be captured by the CBI.

Mike clued me into the fact that the Merry Go Round was also featured at the very end of the 1988 comedy Twins, in the scene in which Julius and Vincent Benedict (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, respectively) meet up with their wives, Marnie and Linda Mason (aka Kelly Preston and Chloe Webb, respectively), and their new twin children at a carousel in a park.

Once Mike told me about the Merry Go Round, I started noticing it popping up in all sorts of movies and television shows, including the Season 2 episode of CSI: New York titled “Zoo York”, in which the body of a teenage debutante is found on the supposed Central Park carousel.

The Griffith Park Merry Go Round also showed up in the 1992 flick Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as the spot where Amylin (aka Paul Reubens) turned Grueller (aka Sasha Jensen) into a vampire.

And it also appeared briefly in the Season 1 episode of MacGyver titled “Every Time She Smiles” as a supposed Bulgaria-area merry go round.

And thank you to fellow stalker Eileen, who informed me that the carousel also appeared in the video for the Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey song “Where You Are”.

The Merry Go Round was also featured in the Sally Field-directed movie Beautiful, but I don’t own that movie, so I was not able to make screen captures.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Griffith Park Merry Go Round is located at 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, inside of Griffith Park, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. The Merry Go Round is open each Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the summer months, it is also open on weekdays. The Merry Go Round can be a bit tricky to find and is not entirely visible from the road. The easiest way to get there is to take Los Feliz Boulevard to Crystal Springs Drive and head north. Make a left onto Fire Road and park in the first lot that you come to. The Merry Go Round is located just north of that lot.