Clueless filiming locations

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011

The Electric Fountain from “Clueless”

Two weekends ago while doing some stalking in the Beverly Hills area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards to finally, finally stalk the fountain where Cher Horowitz (aka Alicia Silverstone) realized her true feelings for her former stepbrother Josh (aka Paul Rudd) in fave movie Clueless. I was clued in – pun intended 🙂 – to this location two years ago by a fellow stalker who had visited the fountain while vacationing in Southern California and had later sent me pictures of it. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me remember who this particular tipster was, nor can I find the emails she sent to me in any of my saved email folders. UGH! So, whoever it was that informed me of the location of the Clueless fountain, I sincerely thank you! Anyway, even though I was tipped off about this locale quite a while back and even though Clueless is one of my all time favorite movies, for whatever reason I had yet to stalk the place until last Saturday afternoon.

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In real life the Clueless fountain is named the Electric Fountain and it was built in 1931 at a cost of $21,000 by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, who also designed the Beverly Hills Post Office. The 50-foot in diameter fountain, which was constructed out of concrete, cast stone, and terra cotta tile, boasts a large central basin detailed with relief carvings that represent various events in California history. Anchored at the top of the basin is a sculpture of a Native American woman praying for rain that was molded by Robert Merrell Gage, the same artist who sculpted the facade of the Los Angeles Times Building in Downtown L.A. The fountain got its unusual name thanks to the fact that it was the first electric fountain to be built in the United States. The structure is perhaps best known for its nightly water and lights show, which is vaguely reminiscent of the Fountains of the Bellagio show in Las Vegas, albeit on a much smaller scale.

My favorite aspect of the fountain, though, is the fact that it is located directly across the street from a Starbucks. 🙂

In Clueless, Cher arrives at the Electric Fountain while walking around the City of Beverly Hills in an attempt to clear her “totally buggin’” head after failing her driver’s license test and getting into a huge fight with Tai (aka Brittany Murphy). It is while she is at the fountain that she has an epiphany and realizes that she is in love with Josh.

And I,of course, just had to reenact the scene while there. 🙂

The rock group The Go-Go’s danced in the Electric Fountain (in a scene that must have been a precursor to the opening credits of fave television series Friends) in the music video for their 1981 hit song “Our Lips Are Sealed”.

You can watch the “Our Lips Are Sealed” music video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Clueless fountain is located on the northwest corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards, in Beverly Gardens Park, in Beverly Hills. The Witch’s House, which also appeared in Clueless, is located just around the corner from the fountain at 516 North Walden Drive, also in Beverly Hills.

March 24, 2010March 23, 2010

Dionne’s House From “Clueless”

One location that I have been searching for for what seems like forever is the huge castle-like abode where Cher’s (aka Alicia Silverstone’s) best friend Dionne (aka Stacey Dash) lived in one of my all time favorite comedies, 1995’s Clueless. Since I had been trying to track down the home for years and had come up virtually empty handed, I recently decided to call upon fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, and Owen – or, as Mike likes to call us collectively, “The Team” 😉 – for help. Well, I almost fell off my chair when Owen emailed me back less than ten minutes later with an address. Here I had been trying to track down this location for years and Owen managed to find it in a span of ten minutes???? Am I losing my mojo or something? As luck would have it, thanks to a simple Google search, Owen stumbled upon a website called “The Daily Truffle” which recently featured an entire post about Clueless locations in honor of the tragically short life of actress Brittany Murphy who played newcomer Tai in the flick. One of the addresses mentioned on the site? You guessed it, Dionne’s home! YAY! As it turns out, the author of “The Daily Truffle” lives just a few blocks away from the residence, which is how she knew of its location. Thank you, Daily Truffle!

Dionne’s house shows up in one very short scene at the very beginning of Clueless. And I am not kidding when I say the scene was short – it lasted a mere 18 seconds! But even though its appearance onscreen was brief, Dionne’s home was one of the most memorable locations of the entire movie and I was ABSOLUTELY DYING to stalk the place.

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Unlike Cher’s house, which is located in Encino of all places (egads!), Dionne’s house is located exactly where the movie purports it to be – right in the heart of Beverly Hills. Sadly though, as you can see in the above photographs, the residence looks much different today than it did in 1995 when Clueless was filmed. 🙁 As luck would have it, an extremely nice contractor happened to be working at the house when my dad and I showed up to stalk the place earlier today and he explained that the property was sold in late 2008 and that the new owners not only completely gutted the interior, but also added an exterior gate and massive amounts of foliage to the perimeter which completely block the home from view. SO SAD. The contractor also told me that part of Clueless was filmed inside of the residence. But, because no scenes from the movie actually took place in Dionne’s home, I am guessing that the property might been used to stand in for Cher’s house in some way. That is just pure speculation on my part, though, so don’t quote me on that. 😉

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Thankfully, because the home’s newly installed gate was standing wide open while we were there, I was able to snap a few close-up pictures of the front door area which was featured prominently in Clueless – well, as prominently as it could have been in an 18 second scene. 😉

If you look at Dionne’s house via Google Street View, it appears pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen in Clueless. Oh, how I wish I had stalked the place two years ago before the remodel began! Ugh! In real life, Dionne’s house, which was built in 1930, boasts 7 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and a whopping 9,850 square feet!

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Big THANK YOU to both Owen and The Daily Truffle for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dionne’s house from Clueless is located at 705 North Sierra Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 10, 2008September 29, 2017

The Witch’s House from “Clueless”

One of my favorite sites to stalk in all of Beverly Hills is known simply as “The Witch’s House” and it just so happens to fit in perfectly with this month’s Halloween theme. Although not really a filming location, the house is a Beverly Hills landmark of sorts. Known formally as “The Spadena House”, after the Spadena family who lived there in the 1930s, the house did show up very briefly in fave movie Clueless, during the scene when Alicia Silverstone is “totally buggin'” about Ty’s crush on Josh (pictured in above screen capture).

The home was originally built on a silent film studio lot in Culver City known as Irvin C. Willat Productions and was used as an office/dressing room. It was designed by the very first art direction Oscar Winner, Henry C. Oliver, in 1921. Willat Productions was sold in 1926 and the house was purchased and later moved to its current location in the heart of Beverly Hills, where it was turned into a private home for the Spadena family. No one can say for sure how the house came to be called “The Witch’s House”, but mention the words to any Beverly Hills native and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Personally, I believe the house got its nickname due to its resemblance to the witch’s home in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”.

In 1998, a real estate agent named Michael Libow was hired to sell the house. Apparently he became frustrated that all prospective buyers planned to demolish the property, so he took matters into his own hands and purchased the home himself for $1.3 million. He is currently restoring the property to its original state, along with the help of art director Nelson Coates. For the past few years the two have painstakingly rennovated the home, even re-creating the original moat which once surrounded the property. The Witch’s House is still currently under rennovation, so unfortunately a large chain link construction fence blocks some of the view from the street. But hopefully in a few years the rennovations will be complete and the house will be even more spectacular for us stalkers to view.

Because it is so truly unique, I am actually very surprised that the house hasn’t appeared in more Hollywood productions. Besides Clueless, the Witch’s House was also featured in the 1965 movie The Loved One, as the home of Sir John Gielgud’s character, and in the 1957 horror film The Undead. Supposedly, during its time on the Willat lot, the home also appeared in a quite a few 1920s silent films, as well.

The Witch’s House is simply a must see for all Beverly Hills tourists, especially during the Halloween season, and it is a beautiful example of Storybook style architecture.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Witch’s House is located at 516 N. Waldren Drive, at the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, in Beverly Hills.