Tag: Celebrities

The Governor’s Mansion from “Benson”

A few weeks ago while out stalking in Pasadena I stopped to take some pics of the mansion that was used as the home of Governor Gatling in the 1979 television series Benson. I had actually stalked this mansion eight years before when I first moved to Southern California, but had yet to blog about it. So here goes. 🙂 Growing up, Benson was one of my very favorite shows, but to tell you the truth it’s been so long, I barely even remember what it was about now! But I sure do remember loving it as a kid. 🙂 The series, which ran from 1979 to 1986, was a spin-off of the show Soap. Jerry Seinfeld’s very first acting gig was actually on Benson, where he played a character named Frankie. According to IMDB, Jerry was unknowingly fired from the show after three episodes. He apparently showed up to work one morning only to find out that he no longer had a job and that producers had forgotten to let him know! LOL Sounds like a plotline straight out of Seinfeld. 🙂

In reality, the Benson mansion is known as the Bundy House, named for its original owner, Harlow E. Bundy, inventor of the time clock. Harlow, a resident of Endicott, New York built the mansion in 1914 after deciding he wanted to retire to Pasadena. After retiring to the West Coast in 1915, he became involved (surprise, surprise) in the motion picture industry. Sadly, though, he passed away in 1916, a brief year after moving into his Pasadena mansion. The Bundy House is absolutely HUGE – almost unbelievably so! According to Zillow, the ten bedroom, ten bathroom home is a whopping 15,878 square feet and sits on an 87, 070 square foot lot. I highly recommend stalking the place as pictures just simply don’t do it justice.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Benson house is located at 1365 S. Oakland Avenue in Pasadena.

November 11, 2008
The Liar Liar House

One of the movie houses I have long been obsessed with finding is the home from the Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar. The house in the movie is absolutely adorable, very picturesque and I so badly wanted to see it in person. I happened to mention the Liar Liar house to Mike, from MovieShotsLA,a few weeks ago and of course, he already knew exactly where it was. Duh! I should have asked him for the location right from the beginning. 🙂 LOL! Anyway, once I had the address, I dragged my dad right out to stalk it.

When I first saw Liar Liar, over ten years ago, I actually turned to my mom in the theatre and said “That house has to be in Pasadena.” The home just looked like a Pasadena house to me. And it turns out I was right! 🙂 In person, though, the house actually looks very different than it appeared in the movie. The entire color scheme of the house has been changed and the front door is now painted a bright red. But even though much of the house has been modified in the 11 years since filming took place, it is still very recognizable from the movie. And while the house is absolutely adorable in person, I actually much prefer how it appeared in the movie, with its soft green and taupe coloring. Ugh, why do people keep changing the exteriors of movie houses?? LOL!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Liar Liar house is located at 1004 Highland Avenue in South Pasadena, just around the corner from Lady Heather’s house from CSI .

November 10, 2008
Audrina’s New Pad!

I have to admit that I shed a little tear during Monday night’s episode of The Hills as Audrina’s moving truck pulled away from the home she formerly shared with Lauren and Lo. With both Whitney and Audrina seemingly moving on from The Hills, I really hope this doesn’t signal the end of the my favorite reality series. I’d be absolutely devastated!!! I mean I get sad enough on Monday nights at 10:30 when The Hills’ ending credits start rolling, as I know I have to wait a full week before I can watch another episode. It’s sick, really. 🙂 Anyway, after watching Monday’s show, I decided I just had to stalk Audrina’s new pad. Thankfully, finding the location wasn’t too hard. I just called on the usual suspects – fave websites the Real Estalker and Big Time Listings – which both stated that the house was located on Bryn Mawr Drive in the Dell neighborhood of Hollywood. From that point it was just a matter of looking at recently sold homes on that street (there were only two) until I found Audrina’s. 🙂

But when I went to stalk Audrina’s pad in person yesterday there were cops swarming the place! I’m really not sure what the story was, and I didn’t stick around long enough to find out, but my best guess is that some Hills filming was taking place and a neighbor had called the police to complain – about what I am not sure. According to reports it seems that Audrina’s neighbors aren’t too happy that she moved into their normally quiet town. LOL The neighbors are upset about the noise and crowding of their small streets, but honestly had the cops not been there, I never would have had any idea that any filming was taking place. The street was quite and there wasn’t a film truck in site, or any other cars for that matter. Personally I’d love it if The Hills filmed in my neighborhood! I’d be out there watching everyday! 🙂

Audrina’s new house is a very cute, Spanish style home located on a very windy street high up in the Hollywood Hills. The house was just recently built and sits on a minuscule lot – according to Big Time Listings the lot only measures 0.09 of an acre – that’s 3,999 square feet!!! I mean most celebrity homes are bigger than Audrina’s whole property! LOL Ms. Patridge purchased the three bedroom, two and a half bath, 2,100 square foot home for $1,150,000 – which seems to be pretty low budget for a celeb, even for a reality star. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Audrina’s new house is located at 6393 Bryn Mawr Drive in Los Angeles. How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor is next door at 6387 Bryn Mawr.

November 6, 2008
Ashton Kutcher’s House from “A Lot Like Love”

My stalking hero Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has done it yet again! 🙂 The two of us have been looking for Ashton Kutcher’s parents’ house from my fave romantic comedy A Lot Like Love for a while now. I really had no hope of ever finding the home, as I had no idea what city it was located in and I couldn’t find any nearby landmarks, such as street signs or addresses, while watching the movie. But then last week, while doing some cyber-stalking, Mike found this article which featured a brief interview with Encino homeowner Ramona Hennesy, who mentioned that her home was featured in A Lot Like Love. Eureka! Once we knew the home was located in Encino, it was simply a matter of searching public records to find the address. And, voila – just a few hours later I was in my car headed to Encino to stalk the property. 🙂 YAY!

Unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of the house to see from the street and it looks a lot different in person than it appeared in A Lot Like Love. In the article mentioned above, Ramona says that producers turned her carport into Ashton Kutcher’s bedroom during filming, so the home was definitely altered for the production. And to be honest, when I first arrived there, I actually wasn’t entirely convinced it was the same house from the movie. There is currently a wall of tall hedges surrounding the property that didn’t appear in the movie. But when I got home, I looked at some old Google maps images of the house and the hedges didn’t appear in those photos either, so it seems that they are new additions. Why, oh why, do these homeowners have to go and change things????

The Encino home was featured several times in the movie, most prominently in the scene when Amanda Peet’s character shows up at Ashton’s parents house to finally confess her love for him. When he asks her how she found his address she says “I had your number and I just called information and got your address.” LOVE IT! That’s so something I would do! 🙂 LOL!

As always, a big THANK YOU goes out to Mike!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The A Lot Like Love house is located at 17050 Magnolia Boulevard in Encino.

November 5, 2008
Dots Cupcakes!

Last week, on a whim, I ventured into Dots Cupcakes in Pasadena to buy some Halloween cupcakes for my boyfriend. While waiting in line I noticed a framed InStyle Magazine article sitting on a shelf in the tiny shop. The article detailed the June 2007 wedding of Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, who rather than serving the traditional wedding cake at their nuptials, opted instead for country apple and red velvet mini-cupcakes from none other than the very bakery I was standing in! So of course I had to ask Dots owner and founder, Hyo Kwan, a few questions. 🙂

Kwan told me that she had no idea who the cupcakes were for until she arrived at the couple’s Calabasas ranch the day of the ceremony and met Rebecca Romijn. A few days later she had reporters from TMZ swarming her shop asking all sorts of questions about the celeb nuptials. She actually thought I worked for TMZ, too, with all the questions I was asking, and I had to convince her that I was actually just a stalker. 🙂 Since the InStyle spread, Kwan has been featured in several bridal and food magazines and I couldn’t help but think to myself how much I’d like to have her bake cupcakes for my wedding. 🙂 Dots will also be providing the desserts for Rebecca Romijn’s upcoming baby shower. Besides the O’Connells, other celebrity fans of the small shop include my fave Shannen Doherty, the Black-Eyed Peas, and Oscar De La Hoya- at least I think Kwan said Oscar De La Hoya frequents the shop. She mentioned some sports star with a multi-word last name, but once someone starts talking sports, I pretty much just tune out. LOL But celebs? Celebs I remember. 🙂 Kwan said that when Shannen Doherty stopped in, the shop was actually completely sold out of cupcakes! Shannen was very gracious, though, and did not throw any sort of hissy fit about not getting her cupcake fix. See, I knew she was nice!!! 🙂

Hyo, a former events manager for the L.A. Dodgers, was only 29 years old when she opened up Dots with virtually no baking experience whatsoever – just a love of cupcakes. An endeavor that began in her kitchen with a borrowed mixer has grown into a 5,000 cupcake-a-day business. And, after only a year and a half, Kwan is ready to branch out and will be opening up a second Dots location in Old Town Pasadena early next year. Kwan really could not have been nicer, entertaining me for a good 15 minutes with stories about her adventures baking for celebs. She even introduced me to a reporter for Pasadena Weekly Newspaper while I was there and told her about my blog. 🙂 You can read more of Hwan’s story here.

Dots cupcakes are FABULOUS and I HIGHLY recommend stalking the tiny shop! I have long been a fan of Magnolia Bakery in New York City – even though I am diabetic! LOL – so when the gourmet cupcake craze hit L.A. last year, I could not have been more excited. I swear I hit up every single cupcake shop in the greater L.A. area hoping to find a brand that could hold its own against my beloved Magnolia. Sadly, not a one of them was any good. Celeb favorite Sprinkles (pictured above), Yummy Cupcakes, Le Cupcake – they were all just mediocre. But on Thursday, as I bit into a Dots cupcake for the first time, I was floored! They are FABULOUSLY YUMMY and rank a very close second to Magnolia. I’ll definitely be satisfying my cupcake cravings there from now on when I can’t get to the East Coast. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dots is located at 400 S. Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena. You can visit their website here. The bakery is open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 7pm. They are closed on Sundays. Dots new store will be opening up in the next few months on Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Town Pasadena, right next door to J. Crew.

November 4, 2008
Halloween 2008

For Halloween this year, I desperately wanted my boyfriend and I to dress up like Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. I know, total shocker. 🙂 It all ended up coming together quite perfectly, too, as earlier this summer I found a white dress a la Marilyn’s subway grate ensemble, that was super inexpensive. I also happened to have an appointment to get my hair cut on Halloween morning, so I asked my amazing hair stylist, Martina, if she could do me up Marilyn style. She happily obliged and even offered to do my make-up for me. Without even looking at a picture of the starlet for reference, she was able to whip my hair into a full-on Marilyn ‘do and apply my make-up perfectly! I was shocked! When I asked her how she did it without using a photo, she said “Honey, that’s what I do!” LOL I actually think the effect may have been too good, though, because I had FIVE people stop me and say “Has anyone ever told you that you look EXACTLY like Marilyn Monroe.” Even though it was Halloween, no one seemed to realize I was wearing a costume – they thought I just looked like Marilyn naturally. LOL That actually might be good news, though – as maybe someday I’ll get to play MM in a big screen biopic of the star. 🙂

Anyway, since we couldn’t find anything to do in L.A. for Halloween (we were literally all dressed up with no place to go!), I dragged my boyfriend to Downtown Palm Springs. We spent the evening walking around Downtown, barhopping, hanging out, and watching all the other people in costumes. We had a blast! And I even got stopped by a Japanese tourist who wanted her photo taken with me. 🙂

We ended up spending most of our evening at the Palm Springs Riviera Resort & Spa – a legendary Palm Springs hot spot from back in the 50s and 60s. The resort recently underwent a complete rennovation and has been closed down for the past year. It only just reopened two weeks ago and it is a very cool, very hip spot to hang out. The hotel has a 50s-modern style vibe to it, made complete with a large picture of Marilyn made out of Guatemalan coins hanging in the lobby, so, of course, I had to snap a photo of it. 🙂 And the Riviera is even a filming location! It was featured as the hotel where Connie Stevens stayed in the 1963 flick Palm Springs Weekend.

The poolside Bikini Bar, where we hung out all night, is fabulous with its large firepits and ultra-comfy lounge chairs. While there we ran into 90s actor Jeff Prettyman, who is currently retired and living in Palm Springs. Jeff acted in the movies Young Guns and Cheerleader Camp, so of course I had to take a pic with him. 🙂

The following morning, I was reading a Palm Springs magazine in our hotel room and I happened to spot a photograph of Marilyn Monroe posing at the Racquet Club of Palm Springs (pictured above), a place I had never heard of. So, of course, on our way out of town I had to drag my boyfriend to stalk it.

But unfortunately, when we arrived there wasn’t much to see as the area is currently a large constuction zone. The once legendary resort and Hollywood playground is currently closed and undergoing a $50 million rennovation with the surrounding land being turned into luxury condominiums and lofts. That was the plan, anyway. In 2004, architect Van Scott Jones and financial handler Michael Mueller purchased the land with big plans to restore the resort to its former grandeur. However, just a few days ago the property went into forclosure and the fate of the Racquet Club is now left up in the air. I truly hope someone comes in to rescue this piece of Hollywood and Palm Springs history. Oddly enough, for some reason the construction area was not entirely fenced in, and since there weren’t any “no trespassing” signs posted, my boyfriend and I ventured in for a little looksie.

It was very, very cool to be walking around a piece of property that holds so much history. While there, I could just imagine the screen legends of the day lounging poolside under the desert sun. You can see the now empty pool behind me in the above photograph.

The Palm Springs Racquet Club was opened up on Christmas Day of 1933 by actors Ralph Bellamy and Charlie Farrell, who wanted a place in the desert where they could play tennis. The resort became enormously popular with the celebs of the day – a playground to the stars, compete with tennis courts, a large swimming pool and a legendary bar named the Bamboo Lounge. The bloody mary cocktail was actually first concocted in that lounge. Apparently, Racquet Club guests needed a little “hair of the dog” each morning to cure their budding hangovers, so the Lounge chefs mixed together a few ingredients and, voila, the bloody mary was born. The owners of a New York bar named the 21 Club often stayed at the Racquet Club and fell in love with the new cocktail. They ended up bringing the drink back to their New York bar and the rest, as they say, is history. The Racquet Club didn’t fare quite as well as the cocktail created there, though, and due to dwindling profits, it was sold several times and quickly fell into dilapidation and disarray.

Among the stars who hung out at the Racquet Club in its heyday – Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Jane Russell, Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, Gregory Peck, Errol Flynn, John Kennedy, Bing Crosby, Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy, Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day, Ronald Regan, and, of course, my girl Marilyn Monroe, who spent New Years of 1948 there with her agent Johnny Hyde (pictured above). Rumor has it that Marilyn was actually discovered by photographer Bruno Bernard while lounging poolside at the Club, but I am not sure how true that story is.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Raquet Club of Palm Springs is located at 2743 North Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. The Palm Springs Riviera Resort & Spa is located at 1600 North Indian Canyon Drive, also in Palm Springs. If you need your hair styled like Marilyn – or if you just need a new ‘do in general – you can visit Martina Maina at T-Birds Salon, located at 1808 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. You can visit T-Birds website here. T-Birds is located right across the street from an oft used filming location – the Safari Inn – which was featured in True Romance and Apollo 13 .

November 3, 2008
Michael Jackson’s Thriller Zombie Dance Location

Last week, while cyber-stalking the theatre used in Michael Jackson’s Thriller , I read that the final dance sequence in the video was filmed on a street in Los Angeles named Union Pacific Avenue. So, of course, I immediately called up Mike from MovieShotsLA to let him know. Unfortunately, Union Pacific Avenue is a very long street and the two of us had no idea where the exact spot was that Thriller was filmed. But, as usual, Mike worked his magic and within about ten minutes he had found it! He is so my hero!! So, with only two days left to go of my Haunted Hollywood theme, this morning I dragged my dad out to Union Pacific Avenue to do some Thriller stalking.

I was EXTREMELY excited to see that the street looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1983 when Thriller was filmed! The wall that MJ and his fellow zombies dance in front of is still standing and looks just the same as it did in the Thriller days. In fact it was that wall that Mike used to figure out the location of the filming. Using Google Maps Street View, he went up and down Union Pacific Avenue on his computer looking for the wall, hoping it was still standing. And it was! I am absolutely amazed (and thrilled!) that the wall is still there for us stalkers to appreaciate all these years later.

It also looks like the very same company that inhabited the building where the dance sequence took place twenty five years ago, is still, in fact, stationed there. As you can see in the above screen captures, the company signage is still in the exact same spot and looks pretty much identical to how it did in the video. 🙂 I can’t tell you how excited I was to be standing in the exact spot where MJ danced twenty-five years ago! There were a few workers standing around eating breakfast at a food truck while my dad and I were taking pictures and they thought we were absolutely crazy! They were looking at me while I was doing my Thriller poses as if I was stark raving mad. LOL Love it!

Had to do it! 🙂

You can watch the Thriller video here. On a side note, this year is the 25th Anniversary of Thriller and Michael Jackson released a 25th Anniversary Special Edition Album for the occasion. How did I not know about this???? I mean Thriller is my favorite album of all time! The Anniversary Edition contains seven bonus tracks with special guest artists including Fergie and Kanye West, a promotional booklet, and a DVD of music videos including Michael Jackson’s legendary “Billie Jean” performance at the Motown 25 television special.

Big THANKS as always to Mike for finding this location – just in time for Halloween, too! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Thriller main dance sequence location can be stalked at 3701 East Union Pacific Avenue in Los Angeles, just outside the City of Commerce. The area is highly industrial and not in the safest part of town, so please exercise caution – especially if you visit it at night.

October 30, 2008
They’re Here!

A few weeks ago I sent Mike from MovieShotsLA out to do a little Haunted Hollywood stalking for me. I had read online that the house from the original Poltergeist movie (another horror flick I have yet to see!) is located in Simi Valley, and since Mike was in the area, I asked him to run by and snap some pics for me. As you can see from the above screen capture, the home looks exactly the same today as it did 26 years ago when the movie was filmed. The house actually looks like an average, everyday home that could be located on any street in America, and I think that is exactly why producers chose to use it. In fact, the voiceover in the trailer for the movie says this: “The house looks just like the one next to it, and the one next to that, and the one next to that. A couple lives in it with their three children . . . and something more.” The normalcy of the house makes the movie all the more scary.

Even though I have never actually seen Poltergeist, the movie has always intrigued me due to the rumored curse that has long been attached to it. Four actors from the Poltergeist trilogy passed away at fairly young ages causing many to believe the movies are cursed. The most tragic of the Poltergeist deaths were, of course, the deaths of the two young girls who played the Freeling family daughters. Dominique Dunne, who played Dana Freeling in the movie and who was the real life daughter of author Dominick Dunne, was strangled to death by her former boyfriend in the driveway of her West Hollywood home on November 4, 1982, just a few months after Poltergeist premiered. She was 22. Child star Heather O’Rourke, who played younger daughter Carol Anne, passed away on February 1, 1988 due to complications from cardiopulmonary arrest and intestinal stenosis. She was 12. Ironically both girls are buried at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood. The other two Poltergeist actors who passed away at fairly young ages both starred in the second movie in the trilogy. Julian Beck, who played Kane, passed away from cancer at the age of 60, and Will Sampson, who played Taylor, passed away at 53 due to complications from surgery. Curse or no curse the untimely passing of so many of the trilogy’s stars definitely adds an amount of grim allure to the movie.

Big THANK YOU to Mike for taking the pics and stalking this location for me! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Poltergeist house is located at 4267 Roxbury Street in Simi Valley.

October 29, 2008
Haunted Hollywood Tour Takes a Detour to SF!

When I was in high school my good friend Dana and I were absolutely obsessed with a real life haunted house located close to where we lived. Every Friday afternoon like clockwork the two of us would make an after-school pilgrimage to the abandoned house known as the Carolands Mansion before stopping by a local cafe for our ubiquitous weekly frozen lattes. I have no idea why the two of us were so obsessed with this particular mansion and, in fact, I asked Dana today what it was that started our obsession and she couldn’t remember, either. LOL Whatever the reason, ever Friday afternoon without fail Dana and I would make our weekly visit to the abandoned property and drive around the perimeter once or twice for a little looksie. So this weekend when I went up north to attend my friend Nat’s annual weekend-before-Halloween murder mystery party I asked her to drive me by the house so I could do some stalking.

I hadn’t driven by the Carolands in over a decade and I was absolutely shocked to see how much the mansion had changed. The once abandoned house had been purchased and refurbished in my absence and it is no longer the haunted house of my high school memories. It was so strange to see the once dilapidated and spooky property post-facelift and I almost didn’t recognize the place. Gone are the broken, boarded-up windows, the yellowing, dead lawn and the decaying, overgrown foliage. But even after a complete remodel, the house has definitely retained some of its spookiness. I am not sure if it is the sheer size of the mansion (68,000 square feet makes it the largest enclosed space in a private house in the entire United States – it’s even bigger than the Spelling Chateau!) or its tragic history that evokes a creepy feeling. But either way, the house has a haunted feel to it, so it fits in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme.

The Carolands Mansion was built from 1914 to 1916 for Harriet Pullman Carolan, heir to a vast railroad fortune. Harriet, a true diva of her day, had the chateau built on a 544 acre parcel of land at the highest elevation point possible so that she could literally “look down on the Hearsts”. LOL The home was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by French architect Ernest Sanson for a cost of $3,000,000 (and we’re talking 1914 money!). The mansion stands at over eighty feet tall and boasts almost one hundred rooms, including 25 servants quarters, a flower arranging room, and even a secret floor hidden in between the second and third levels. In 1950 a Countess named Lillian Remillard Dandini purchased the home from Harriet and lived in it for the next 23 years. Upon her death she bequeathed the home to the City of Hillsborough, hoping it would become a cultural center. The city, however, could not afford the upkeep on the massive property, and after several subsequent owners, the home fell into serious disrepair and was left vacant and abandoned. During the Roosevelt Administration and again during the Kennedy Administration the US government considered purchasing the home and making it the “White House of the West”, but both times plans fell through. After decades of abandonment and neglect, Franklin Templeton heir Charles Johnson purchased the home in 1998 and spent the next few years and many millions of dollars restoring it to its former grandeur. But no face lift can fully erase the mansion’s tragic history.

When I was a little girl, my uncle used to tell me stories about visiting the Carolands with his high school buddies late at night and getting tours from the security guards hired to guard the home. Back then it was commonplace for area high schoolers to grab a six pack, hop the chain link fence surrounding the property, and slip a security guard a $20 for an interior tour of the mansion. Everyone did it. But that all changed one tragic night in 1985 when two teen-aged girls getting a tour of the mansion were raped and stabbed by a security guard named David Allen Raley. After torturing them for hours in the mansion, he put them in the trunk of his car and drove to his parents house where he ate a meal and played a game of monopoly with his family. He then dumped the two girls in a ravine and left them for dead. But one of the girls managed to crawl out of the ravine on her hands and knees and flagged down a passerby who rescued her and her friend. Sadly, though, while the girl survived, her friend later passed away on an operating room table. The case became very famous in the sleepy town of San Mateo where I grew up. I am not sure why the case garnered so much attention – perhaps because the crime was so heinous, or maybe because there was a survivor, or because the house had long carried the reputation of being haunted or perhaps most likely because up until that point it had been so common for teenagers to use the Carolands grounds as their high school hang out. It literally could have happened to anyone. Whatever the reason, the murders remain a stain on the memory of the once beautiful mansion.

Although not a true filming location, the house did appear in the 1992 pornographic film entitled All American Girls. The mansion was also the subject of the 2006 award winning documentary film entitled Three Woman and a Chateau. A book named Carolands was also written about the property. Although currently a private residence, the Carolands is sometimes opened up for events and fund raisers. The Republican National Commitee hosted an event there in January of this year and George W. Bush was in attendance. The Carolands is truly a marvel of a home and I highly recommend stalking this real life haunted house. Seeing it in person, it’s almost unbelievable how big it is.

Side note – while flying home from SF, who should be on our plane but actress/model Mariel Heminway. I snapped a quick pic of her in baggage claim, but it did not come out very well! I would so make a terrible paparazzi! LOL 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Carolands Mansion is located at 565 Remilard Drive in Hillsborough. After seeing the front of the mansion, follow Remillard to Ralston Avenue and make a right. Make another right on Craig’s Road and follow it past the bend for a nice view of the back of the house.

October 28, 2008
Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Cafe

A few years ago I read a fabulous murder mystery called Shamus In The Green Room written by one of my favorite mystery authors, Susan Kandel. A significant piece of action in the novel takes place at the real life location of one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history. That location is named Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Cafe, and its namesake and owner, Thelma Todd, died there in 1935. After reading Susan Kandel’s book, I became completely intrigued with Thelma and her roadside cafe, so I immediately dragged my boyfriend out there to do some stalking. Since then, Thelma’s cafe has been incorporated into my annual Haunted Hollywood tour. 🙂

Thelma Todd was a famous Hollywood starlet and comedienne during the 1920’s. She appeared in over 120 feature films during her brief ten year career, including several Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy productions. In 1931, the “Ice Cream Blond” as she came to be called, opened up a cafe on the ground floor of a huge Spanish style building overlooking the Pacific Ocean just north of Santa Monica. The top floor of the building housed a very popular private Hollywood club named Joya’s. Thelma’s Sidewalk Cafe also became extremely popular with the Hollywood elite and Miss Todd lived in a little apartment located above her cafe.

On the night of her death, Thelma attended a party hosted in her honor at the legendary Trocadero nightclub in Hollywood. After the party, Thelma’s chauffeur dropped her off in front of her cafe at approximately 4:20 a.m. the following morning, December 15. In the early morning hours of December 16, 1935, a full day later, Thelma was found dead inside of a garage belonging to her neighbor/business partner/lover Roland West, located just behind her cafe. The famous blond was slumped over the steering wheel of her Lincoln Phaeton, still wearing her evening gown from Saturday night’s party, her face covered in blood. The coroner, however, ruled her death an accident. The cause listed on the coroner’s report? Carbon monoxide poisoning. Most of Hollywood was quick to discount that account of her death and theories of the true cause are endless. Most widely believed, however, is that mafioso Lucky Luciano, whom the Ice Cream Blond was rumored to be having an affair with, murdered her when she refused to allow his gambling ring to operate out of her cafe. Another theory is that her married business partner/boyfriend/neighbor Roland West (in whose garage she was found) murdered her in a jealous rage. The truth may never be known and Thelma’s murder is one of the most celebrated mysteries in Hollywood history.

Now home to Paulist Productions, the Spanish style building that once housed Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Cafe was first built in 1928, and was originally used as a shopping center for nearby homes. In the 1960’s the building became home to a Christian film and television production company named Paulist Productions. The company remains there today. In 2002 the building was given a full face lift and restored to its original grandeur. The structure is a very beautiful, ornate piece of Hollywood history, complete with detailed Spanish tiles and large arched wrought-iron windows. I highly recommend stalking it, as much for its beautiful architecture as its rich history.

If you want to read more about Thelma Todd and her death, check out the Find A Death website which does a great write-up.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Thelma Todd’s Roadside Cafe is located at 17575 Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades. Thelma was found dead in the garage of Roland West’s home located at 17531 Posetano Road, located just behind the former cafe.

October 27, 2008