CSI filming locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

September 17, 2013September 16, 2013

Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom from “CSI”

While watching the Season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Turn of the Screws” way back in May 2004, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down the theme park that stood in for the supposed Las Vegas-area Sphinx Amusement Park. My mom was the one who ended up locating it for me, thanks to this March 2004 AP news article that she found online. As she discovered, Sphinx Amusement Park was none other than Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom located at 1101 North California Street in Redlands. And while I proceeded to pass by the property countless times on my way to and from Palm Springs over the years following, for whatever reason, I never stopped to stalk it. Then, two Sundays ago, while driving back to the desert, I convinced the Grim Cheaper to make a quick pit stop there. Sadly though, the site has since been transformed into Splash Kingdom water park and looks quite a bit different than it did nine years ago when CSI was filmed.

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In “Turn of the Screws,” Gil Grissom (William Petersen), Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), Nick Stokes (George Eads), and Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) of the Las Vegas CSI team investigate a roller coaster that has run off its tracks, killing six people, at Sphinx Amusement Park.

The midway area of Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom was utilized extensively in the episode. Sadly, all of the park’s rides were shut down in 2006 and later removed to make room for a state-of-the-art, 18,000-square-foot wave pool.

The Lost Kingdom’s Screaming Mummy stood in for Pharaoh’s Fever, the derailed roller coaster, in “Turn of the Screws.” The coaster was originally constructed in 1976 as part of Altoona, Iowa’s Adventureland and, at the time, was known as the Super Screamer. In 2000, the 45-foot tall steel ride was sold and transported to Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom, where it remained in operation until mid-2006. I am unsure of its current whereabouts. You can check out some photographs of the Screaming Mummy from its Redlands days here.

Thankfully, the roller coaster and midway area are still visible via Bing Maps, as you can see below.

Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom was originally opened in June 1996. The 17-acre Egyptian-themed park boasted four nine-hole miniature golf courses, three race car tracks, water slides, a laser tag arena, an outdoor 2,550-seat amphitheater, an arcade, banquet facilities, a sand beach, and midway rides. In April 2006, the site underwent an operational change and was re-christened Pharaoh’s Theme and Water Park. It was then that the ride portion of the property was closed. Shortly thereafter, Pharaoh’s became the site of all-night raves, infuriating local residents and setting off a messy legal battle between the park’s owner and management that lasted through October 2009. A judge ultimately granted the city of Redland’s request for an injunction against dance parties taking place on the premises and, in 2010, the location re-opened under new management as Pharaoh’s Adventure Park.

In 2012, the theme park was sold to new owners who performed an extensive renovation project which phased out much of the Egyptian theme. The site was re-christened Splash Kingdom and the Sphinx who stands guard at the front entrance given a pair of Ray-Bans to don.

The site still boasts most of its former amenities, such as the miniature golf courses and race car tracks, but has been revamped to include over twenty water slides (one of which, The Anileator, at 90 feet is the world’s tallest enclosed water slide), an upscale sports lounge, a quarter-mile long floating river, a 12,000-square-foot wall-to-wall indoor trampoline park, bumper boats, two activity pools, and the tallest freestanding water attraction tower in the U.S. Because we were on our way back to Palm Springs, we did not actually partake of any of the water slides, but they sure looked fun! I’m sensing a re-stalk in the near future. Winking smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom, now Splash Kingdom, from the “Turn of the Screws” episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, is located at 1101 North California Street in Redlands. You can visit the Splash Kingdom website here.

September 5, 2013September 11, 2013

The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Little Miss Sunshine”

A couple of months ago, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to re-watch fave 2006 dramedy Little Miss Sunshine and I just about fell out of my chair when I spotted the Hyatt Regency Valencia pop up in a brief scene. I had actually stalked and blogged about the Santa Clarita-area hotel way back in November 2009 (you can read that post here) due to its appearance in Twilight. Because the post was fairly brief, though, and had been published during the early days of my site, I figured it was most-definitely worthy of a redo. So the GC and I headed right on over there last month while the two of us were in L.A. for a visit.

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The Hyatt Regency Valencia, which has actually been featured in countless productions thanks to its Anywhere, U.S.A. look and feel, boasts 244 guest rooms, 11 of which are suites, a pool, a gym, a business center, an outdoor fireplace lounge, a lobby lounge, three gardens, 12,000 square feet of meeting space, a day spa, and access to three different local golf courses.

The hotel’s onsite eatery, Vines Restaurant & Bar, has become one of my and the GC’s favorite pit stops over the years; we often find ourselves dropping in for lunch or a cocktail whenever we are in the area.

In Little Miss Sunshine, the Hyatt Regency Valencia stood in for the Scottsdale, Arizona-area Desert Courtyard Suites where Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) tracked down Stan Grossman (Bryan Cranston) to confront him about his defunct “Nine Steps” deal. Several areas of the hotel were utilized in the short scene including the front entrance;

the lobby;

the lobby lounge, which was changed a bit for the filming;

and the pool. (I somehow failed to snap any pictures of the pool while I was stalking the Hyatt, so I snagged the one that appears below off of the hotel’s official website.)

In the Season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Fur and Loathing,” which aired in 2003, the Hyatt Valencia stood in for the Las Vegas-area King’s River Hotel where PAF CON ( the Plushies and Furries Convention – yes, plushies and furries) took place.

In the 2008 tween hit Twilight, the Valencia Hyatt masqueraded as the Phoenix-area hotel where Bella (Kristen Stewart), Alice (Ashley Greene), and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run towards the end of the movie. And while the exterior of the property . . .

. . . and the lobby were featured in the filming;

the interior of Bella, Alice and Jasper’s suite was filmed elsewhere. As you can see in these photographs as compared to the screen captures below, what appeared onscreen does not match the Hyatt’s actual rooms.

In 2010, the Hyatt again popped up as the site of a convention on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, this time for vampire- and werewolf-wannabes in the Season 11 episode titled “Blood Moon.” And while one of the hotel’s hallways;

outdoor fireplace lounge;

and a ballroom were used in the filming;

the interior of the room where Michael Wilson (Thad Luckinbill) was attacked was just a set. As you can see below, it looks nothing like the Hyatt’s actual rooms.

In the Christmas-themed Season 9 episode of NCIS titled “Newborn King,” which aired in 2011, the Hyatt Regency Valencia masqueraded as The Freemont Inn, where Navy Captain Jake Marsden (Marc Aden Gray) was killed.

One of the hotel’s suites (I think Room 334) also appeared in the episode.

As I mentioned in my March 2012 post about the Florida-area house where Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) lived during two Season 8 episodes of The Office, the Hyatt Regency Valencia masqueraded as the Palmetto Suites Tallahassee, the supposed Sunshine State hotel where the Dunder Mifflin gang stayed for a few weeks while setting up a chain of Sabre retail stores in the Season 8 episodes titled “Tallahassee” and “After Hours.” Quite a few areas of the Hyatt were utilized in the filming, including the front exterior;

the lobby;

the lobby lounge, where a fake gift shop was set up for the shoot;

several rooms, including Room 243 where Cathy (Lindsay Broad) stayed, Room 244 where Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) stayed, Room 248 where Erin stayed, and Room 249 where Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) stayed;

two hallways;

and Vines Restaurant & Bar.

According to the Visit Santa Clarita website, episodes of Parenthood, CSI:New York, Make It or Break It, Las Vegas, Big Love, and The Unit have also been filmed at the Hyatt Valencia, but, unfortunately, I am unsure of which episodes in particular.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia from Little Miss Sunshine is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

February 8, 2013February 7, 2013

Alfred Hitchcock’s House from “Hitchcock”

Hold on to your hats, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! A couple of months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up to let me know that he had just watched a screener of the 2012 biopic Hitchcock (he works at a high-profile production company) and, knowing my penchant for the Master of Suspense, suggested I run right out and see it for myself as soon as possible. Thankfully, because Helen Mirren, who played Alma Reville, Hitch’s wife, in the flick, had been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award, Fox Searchlight had made a digital screener available for SAG members and I was able to watch it shortly after Mike’s call. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the film and learned quite a bit lot about the legendary director that I had not previously been aware of. The locations (all of which are in L.A.) and design of the movie were quite stellar, to boot! And while I recognized that the exterior of the Hitchcock household had been portrayed by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ former Beverly Hills manse (which I blogged about here), what I did not realize (until Mike told me) was that the interiors were filmed at a residence in Pasadena – one that I was actually quite familiar with and had even blogged about before, way back in October 2008. Because the post did not cover the full filming history of the home, though, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a re-stalk and ran right out to do just that a few days before our move.

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The gargantuan Tudor mansion pictured below was originally constructed in 1902 as a Craftsman-style winter home for a Chicago novelist named Gertrude Potter Daniels. Just three years later, in 1905, the property was sold to a new owner, Salt Lake City mining magnate Susanna Bransford Emery Holmes, aka “Utah’s Silver Queen”, and her husband Colonel E.F. Holmes. The couple moved into the property fulltime in 1910 and immediately began an extensive $37,00- renovation project that significantly altered the dwelling. Holmes dubbed her new residence, which was completed in 1922, “El Roble” in honor of a massive oak tree that once stood on the premises.

Today, the dwelling, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, boasts a three-story, twenty-room, 7,300-square-foot main home, ten bedrooms, six baths, a 1.35-acre plot of land, a two-story freestanding gate house (pictured), chauffeur’s quarters, a pergola, and formal gardens. You can check out some fabulous photographs of what lies behind the mansion’s front gates here.

As you can see below, the land on which the home sits is absolutely gargantuan in size – as is the home itself.

The beautiful residence, which once belonged to Occidental College, was featured as the Pasadena Showcase House of Design in both 1975 and 1996 and its gardens have appeared twice in Sunset Magazine. The place has also been spotlighted countless times onscreen.

As I mentioned above, the exterior of Alfred and Alma’s mansion in Hitchcock was actually that of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ former Beverly Hills home. (Big THANK YOU to Mike for making the Hitchcock screen captures which appear below.)

The interiors were a mixture of both El Roble in Pasadena and studio sets. The areas of El Roble that appeared in Hitchcock include the wood-paneled study, which you can see a real life photograph of here;

the living room, which you can see a real life photograph of here;

and the entryway, which you can see a real life photograph of here.

The Hitchcocks’ bedroom;

bathroom;

and kitchen were all sets constructed on a studio soundstage.

To create the rich interiors of the Hitchcock homestead, production designer Judy Becker consulted historic photographs of the couple’s actual former residence in Bel-Air (which I blogged about here). Of the refrigerator pictured below, set decorator Robert Gould (whose father, as fate would have it, served as a second unit director on the original Psycho) said in a fabulous November 2012 Los Angeles Times article , “We chose the fridge because of the interesting handle with the round detail. It had an innuendo of a peep hole, a subtle way of referencing Hitchcock’s voyeurism throughout the film.” I absolutely love learning little tidbits like that! God is in the details, as they say.

In the fabulous 1978 comedy Foul Play, El Roble stood in for the supposed San Francisco-area residence belonging to Archbishop Thorncrest (Eugene Roche).

During Season 4 of Falcon Crest, El Roble appeared several times as the mansion where Cole Gioberti (William R. Moses) and Melissa Agretti Cumson Gioberti (Ana Alicia) lived.

In the Season 2 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Cross Jurisdictions”, the house was where former chief of detectives Duke Rittle (John Kapelos) was tortured and killed.

In the Season 3 episode of Ghost Whisperer titled “Unhappy Medium”, El Roble was where the Drake family – Susan (Dawson’s Creek’s Mary-Margaret Humes), Nikki (a very young Elisabeth Moss), and Sydney (Austin Highsmith) – lived.

In the Season 4 episode of The Closer titled “Fate Line” (which I actually got to watch being filmed – you can read my blog post about the experience here), El Roble was the residence of murdered horror movie producer Sean Thompson (who was never actually seen onscreen).

In the Season 4 episode of Greek titled “Agents for Change”, El Roble stood in for the home belonging to Evan Chambers’ (Jake McDorman’s) parents, Mr. Chambers (Kevin Kilner) and Mrs. Chambers (Kathryn Harrold).

According to fave website OnLocationVacations, the yet-to-be released movie The Pretty One, starring Zoe Kazan and Jake Johnson, did some filming at El Roble this past June. And while an April 1996 issue of Los Angeles Magazine stated that The Godfather was also filmed on the premises, I scanned through the flick while doing research for this post and did not see the mansion pop up anywhere.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location and for providing all of the Hitchcock screen captures. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The home used for the interior of Alfred Hitchcock’s residence in Hitchcock is located at 141 North Grand Avenue in Pasadena. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ former mansion, which stood in for the exterior of the Hitchcock house, is located at 918 North Alpine Drive in Beverly Hills.

January 4, 2012February 2, 2012

Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant from “Larry Crowne”

A few days before Christmas, while I was wallowing in a horrible head cold, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch the 2011 flick Larry Crowne. Neither of us had very high hopes for the movie as it had received such horrible reviews, but I am very happy to report that we both ended up loving it. So much so that we watched it again a few days later when my parents came to town to celebrate Christmas with us. The whimsical storyline centers around Larry Crowne (aka Tom Hanks), a middle-aged former Navy chef who is forced to rethink his life after being fired from his job at the local U-Mart Store. He decides to enroll in a nearby community college where he not only makes friends with a group of wildly eccentric and endearing characters, but also finds his life finally start to take shape. If you have yet to see Larry Crowne, I highly recommend ignoring the critics and renting it! Anyway, one of the main locations featured in the flick was Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant – a Burbank-area eatery that I had passed by countless times during my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles, but had, for whatever reason, never dined at. So I immediately added the place to my “To-Stalk” list and dragged the GC right on out there as soon as we returned home from visiting my grandmother in Reno this past weekend.

As we pulled up to Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, I spotted an article about Larry Crowne posted on the café’s front door and knew right away that I was going to LOVE the place.

And I am very happy to report that I did! Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, which is also sometimes called Frank’s Steak House, first opened its doors in 1957 and not much has changed since. Walking into the diner is like stepping back in time about fifty years – and I mean that in the best way possible.

The interior of Frank’s, with its dark vinyl booths, popcorn ceiling, and Formica countertops, is straight out of the 1950s and it is not at all hard to see why countless location managers have flocked there over the years. The place also serves up some FABULOUS food at very reasonable prices, which pleased the GC to no end. I opted for a mushroom cheeseburger with French fries and a side of ranch dressing and it was all simply amazing – especially the steak fries, which were extremely thick and seasoned in a way that was reminiscent of the fries served at fave restaurant chain Red Robin. The GC ordered the homemade split pea soup and it was also out of this world.

I was absolutely floored when I spotted a photograph of Tom Hanks posing with Jose, Frank’s owner, on display on the wall next to the kitchen. As fate would have it, Jose happened to come over to chat with us while we were dining and, let me tell you, the guy could NOT have been nicer! He sat with us for a good twenty minutes and filled us in on the Larry Crowne shoot, which took six days to complete. Jose informed us that the cast and crew were some of the nicest that he has ever encountered – and he has encountered quite a few. He also told us about the restaurant’s vast filming history and showed us countless photographs that he had stored on his cell phone of the various filmings that have taken place on the premises and the numerous celebrities that have posed with him. As you can imagine, I was pretty much drooling the entire time.

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In Larry Crowne, Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant is featured repeatedly as the eatery where Larry and his scooter-riding friends hang out.

Later on in the movie, Larry gets a job working as a line cook in the restaurant’s kitchen.

That kitchen is pictured above.

Jose, who has been a chef for over forty years, actually acted as Tom Hanks’ cooking consultant during the filming of Larry Crowne and at one point had to step in to do some chopping for the actor. The hands you see above, which are supposedly Larry’s in the movie, are actually Jose’s. So incredibly cool!

In the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Squash It”, the exterior of Frank’s stood in for the Reno, Nevada-area diner where Valerie Malone (aka Tiffani Thiessen) convinced Ray Pruit (aka Jamie Walters) to return to Beverly Hills.

As you can see above, though, a different restaurant was used for the interior filming.

Jose informed us that Frank’s Coffee Shop had been featured in no less than 5 episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, one of which is the upcoming “Willows in the Wind”, which just so happens to be Marg Helgenber’s final episode. Unfortunately, Jose was unsure of the titles of the other four episodes filmed on the premises, but I was able to do some digging and tracked down two of them. Then, after publishing this post, a CSI message board led me to the other two. Win! Frank’s first appeared in the Season 6 episode titled “Rashomama” as the supposed Las Vegas, Nevada-area coffee shop where the car belonging to Nick Stokes (aka George Eads), as well as all of the crime scene evidence inside of it, was stolen.

And in the Season 7 episode titled “Law of Gravity”, Frank’s stood in for the restaurant where Michael Keppler (aka Liev Schreiber) ran into Frank McCarty (aka Len Cariou).

In the Season 9 episode titled “Mascara” (CSI’s 200th episode), Frank’s is where Dr. Raymond Langston (aka Laurence Fishburne) met up a few times with his former thesis student Sylvia Mallick (aka Aimee Deshayes).

And in the Season 11 episode titled “The List”, Catherine Willows (aka Marg Helgenberger) met up with Detective Vartann (aka Alex Carter) to discuss the case she was working on.

In the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Ron and Tammy”, Frank’s stood in for the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area restaurant where Ron Swanson (aka Nick Offerman) took his ex-wife, Tammy Swanson (aka Megan Mullally), out for lunch.

Jose also let us know that Frank’s was featured in the 2003 flop Gigli, but I scanned through the movie yesterday while doing research for this post and did not see it anywhere. I did, however, spot it briefly in the flick’s trailer, so the scene that was filmed at Frank’s appears to have been left on the cutting room floor.

That scene can be viewed at the 2:18 mark when Larry Gigli (aka Ben Affleck) tells Ricki (aka Jennifer Lopez), “I got a confession. I think we’re good together.”

Fellow stalker Jason also let me know that Frank’s Restaurant was featured in Chris Daughty’s “No Surprise” music video.

Chris Daughty–“No Surprise” Video Filmed at Frank’s Coffee Shop & Restaurant in Burbank

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Jose also told us that Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant was featured in the A&E Network mini-series Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, but I scanned through it yesterday and did not spot the restaurant anywhere. He also told us that Criminal Minds had filmed on the premises recently, but I scanned through all of the Season 7 episodes that have aired so far and did not see it, so I am guessing that it will pop up in an upcoming episode in the very near future.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, from Larry Crowne, is located at 916 West Olive Avenue in Burbank.

December 14, 2011December 6, 2013

Farralone – Frank Sinatra’s Former House

While doing research on the Chaplin Court apartment complex, which I blogged about last Thursday, I came across some information about an oft-filmed-at Chatsworth-area estate formerly owned by Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, that, for some inexplicable reason, I had somehow not previously known about. The mansion, which in most circles is known simply as Farralone, is a marvel of modern design that just came on the public market for the very first time in history a couple of weeks ago. And, let me tell you, I took one look at the photographs featured on the real estate listing and became just a wee-bit obsessed with stalking the place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there last weekend to do just that.

Farralone, or the “Great Glass Mansion” or the “Sinatra Compound” as it is also sometimes called, was commissioned by Chase-Manhattan-Bank-heiress Dora Hutchison in 1951 and was designed by Pereira & Luckman, the architecture firm who also gave us the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, the Theme Building (aka The Encounter Restaurant & Bar) at the Los Angeles International Airport, and, my personal favorite, the Disneyland Hotel. Dora built the house to be used as a party pad and regularly hosted rousing soirees where she counted Ava Gardner, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, and Vincent Minnelli as guests. When Dora moved back to her native New York, she leased the property to none other than Frank Sinatra, who remained there for almost ten years. Sadly though, as you can see above, not much of the property is visible from the street.

But that’s why God created real estate listings! The estate, which was just put on the market earlier this month for a cool $12 million, boasts sweeping views, parking for over 200 cars, 10,000 square feet of living space, 4 bedrooms, 6 baths, 3 private offices, a conference room, a detached gym, a 50-foot swimming pool, 14 acres of land, a vineyard, a production studio, 16-foot ceilings, glass walls, and a 1,000-square-foot, 1-bedroom, 2-bath guest house (with its own separate pool) where my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe supposedly lived in for a time.

Farralone has seen so much filming over the years that, according to a December 2nd, 2011 Forbes article, it not only nets up to $2 million a year in location fees, but also “comes with a property manager who acts as a liaison with the studios, paid for by the studios.” The article further states that the “main house also boasts a lower level production studio equipped with conference room, edit bays, private office and a separate entrance, all paid for and maintained by the studios.” Ironically enough, when we showed up to stalk the property some filming was actually taking place. The super-nice security guard on duty informed us the the shoot was for a reality dating show of some sort, but she was unsure of the name.

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In the Season 4 episode of Californication titled “Lawyers, Guns, and Money”, Farralone showed up as the residence belonging to Stu Beggs (aka Stephen Tobolowsky), where Marcy Ellen Runkle (aka Pamela Adlon) made a house call to give Stu a “full Kardashian” body wax.

In the 2001 thriller Swordfish, Farralone was the house where Gabriel Shear (aka John Travolta) lived and where Halle Berry famously shed her top for the very first time onscreen – an act for which she was supposedly paid a whopping $500,000. Thanks to some crafty CGI, the Sinatra compound was made to appear as if it was located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles for the film, instead of Chatsworth.

Farralone was also the home where Jack Wyatt (aka Will Ferrell) lived and threw his post-divorce party in the 2005 romantic comedy Bewitched.

In 2006’s Dreamgirls, Farralone stood in for the residence belonging to pop star Deena Jones (aka Beyonce Knowles) and her music-producer husband, Curtis Taylor Jr. (aka Jamie Foxx).

In the Season 2 episode of Mad Men titled “The Jet Set”, Farralone was used as the supposed-Palm-Springs-area home where Joy (aka Laura Ramsey) took Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) while he was visiting California.

In the 2002 flick The Salton Sea, Farralone was the home where Nancy Plummer (aka Shirley Knight) and Verne Plummer (aka R. Lee Ermey) lived.

In 2001’s Tomcats, the Sinatra Compound was where Kyle Brenner (aka Jake Busey) lived.

The real estate listing mentioned that Farralone had been featured in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and I really have to pat myself on the back for this one because as soon as I read those words I knew immediately that the episode in question was Season 9’s “Kill Me If You Can”. I was not even watching CSI regularly back in 2008 when the “Kill Me If You Can” episode aired, but I had caught it on TV at some point and when I saw CSI mentioned in the listing, my mind immediately flashed to an image of Lawrence Fishburne standing by the Farralone pool while investigating the death of an art dealer. Why these random, useless bits of location information remain stored in my head is beyond me, but they do. Smile

Thanks to commenter Becky on the Design Public blog, I learned that in the Season 1 episode of Six Feet Under titled “An Open Book”, Farralone stood in for the home belonging to the parents of Brenda Chenowith (aka Rachel Griffiths).

And thanks to the HGTV website, I learned that Farralone was where the Design Star contestants lived during Season 4 of the reality series.

Location manager Scott Trimble also let me know that Farralone was where Optimus Prime came out of the swimming pool in the first Transformers movie.

Fellow stalker Jason informed me that the estate also showed up as the party location at the very beginning of 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Farralone also popped up in the 2004 music video for Usher’s hit song “Burn”.

Usher–Burn–filmed at Farralone in Chatsworth

You can watch the “Burn” video by clicking above.

Several articles have also claimed that the home appeared in the 2001 biopic Ali, but I scanned through that movie yesterday and did not seen anything resembling it pop up onscreen, so I am fairly certain that information is incorrect. I am thinking that the house might have instead been featured in the similarly-named television movie Ali: An American Hero, but because I have never seen it and was unable to find it anywhere online, I cannot verify that hunch. One rumor that I can put to rest is that the Farralone pool was not actually the site of Marilyn Monroe’s second-to-last photo shoot, as the real estate listing and several articles about the property have claimed. Truth be told, that photo shoot was not really a photo shoot at all, but simply consisted of photographer Lawrence Schiller snapping some stills of the starlet while she filmed scenes for her very last movie, Something’s Gotta Give. The shoot, which took place a few days before Marilyn’s death and featured her skinny-dipping while talking to co-star Dean Martin, was not actually shot on location, but on a set that was built inside of Stage 14 on the Fox Studios lot in Century City.

As you can see above, the pool from Something’s Gotta Give does not match the real estate listing photographs of the Farralone pool.

You can watch a YouTube video of the Something’s Gotta Give pool scene being shot, during which it is stated that filming took place on Stage 14 of the Fox lot, by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Farralone, the former Frank Sinatra estate, is located at 9361 Farralone Avenue in Chatsworth. You can visit the home’s official real estate listing here and you can check out some fabulous interior pics of the property here.

October 27, 2010September 29, 2017

Mountain View Cemetery from “The Office”

Since my favorite holiday, Halloween, is fast approaching, I thought it would only be appropriate to devote the next few blog posts to some filming locations of a spookier nature. So, this past Sunday morning, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the Grim Cheaper, and I went on a joint stalking venture up to Altadena to stalk Mountain View Cemetery which appeared in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “The Chair Model”, among countless other productions. I first found out about this locale from my parents’ neighbor, Julie, who owns The Coffee Gallery in Altadena – a location which was also used in “The Chair Model” episode and which I blogged about this past July. According to Julie, while scouting locations for the “Chair Model” episode, location managers sought out a coffee shop that was in close proximity to Mountain View Cemetery where they were also shooting scenes, which is how they came to use her cafe. Like the old saying goes, it’s all about location, location, location. 😉 Anyway, once Julie told me about the place, I started doing some research on it and discovered that Mountain View Cemetery has been featured in hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the years. Apparently, the 60-acre cemetery is used for filming an average of 150 days out of EACH AND EVERY year, which is absolutely incredible to me! Upon finding out that fact, I promptly informed both Mike and the GC that Mountain View Cemetery was the ONLY place I wanted to be buried. Spending my hereafter at a site that is in use as a filming location almost half of each year sounds like absolute heaven to me (pun intended). Mike jokingly said that if I did end up being buried there, my tombstone should read, “Lindsay Blake, from IAMNOTASTALKER –Still Stalking Filming Sites From Beyond the Grave”. 🙂

Mountain View Cemetery, which is one of the oldest cemeteries in the San Gabriel Valley, was first established in 1882 when a man named Levi W. Giddings designated a plot of his family’s land to be used as a site for burials for the citizens of Pasadena. His descendants still own and operate the cemetery to this day, over 128 years later. Mountain View, which as the name implies does boast picturesque views of the San Gabriel Mountains, is an absolutely enormous and quite beautiful property, with sprawling lawns, stately trees from all over the world, an art collection, two chapels, and two mausoleums. Besides being a filming location, Mountain View is also the final resting place of several notables, including actor George Reeves, who played TV’s original Superman in the 1950s television series of the same name. George is entombed in the cemetery’s Pasadena Mausoleum. Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, one of the original founders of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and builder of the Mount Lowe Railway, is also buried at Mountain View, in the cemetery’s Royal Oak’s section.

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The yet-to-be released show Franklin & Bash was setting up to do some filming while we were stalking the cemetery on Sunday, and as you can see in the above photographs, had fake tombstones, floodlights, a generator, and a mock funeral assembled, which was very cool to see.

There was also a fake crypt set up on the property, which none of us actually realized was a fake . . .

. . . until we got around to the back of it and saw the prop door. So, of course, I just had to get inside of it to snap a quick picture. 🙂 I am not sure if the fake crypt was a prop for Franklin & Bash or for Wicked Literature: A Halloween Theatre Festival – a Halloween-themed live theatre event which is running at the cemetery now through the end of October. But being that Franklin & Bash is a series about a law firm, I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the crypt was set up for the Wicked Literature show.

In “The Chair Model” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) falls in love with a chair model whom he sees in an office supply catalog. He sends Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) on a recognizance mission to track down the model and is crushed when he learns that she was recently killed in a car accident. Dwight and Michael later visit the cemetery where she is buried in order to pay their respects. While there, they break into a rousing rendition of the song “American Pie”.

While stalking Mountain View on Sunday, I was absolutely dying to find the exact spot where The Office had been filmed. Unfortunately though, I was unable to figure it out at the time. It wasn’t until after I got home and re-watched “The Chair Model” episode that I was able to discern the correct location. So, bright and early yesterday morning, I dragged my dad out to re-stalk the place so that I could get some photos of the spot where Michael and Dwight had mourned, ahem, sang. That spot can be found in the northeastern section of the cemetery.

In the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “There Won’t Be Trumpets”, Mountain View was the site of Mama Solis’ (aka Lupe Ontiveros’) funeral. In the scene filmed at the cemetery, Gaby Solis (aka Eva Longoria Parker) flies into a rage after discovering that her destitute husband Carlos (aka Ricardo Antonio Chavira) has purchased a large crypt for his dead mother. It was during the filming of that scene that Eva Longoria Parker accidentally (and hilariously) got the heel of her stiletto stuck in the cemetery’s grass. Some paparazzi who were on hand managed to snap pictures of the event and those pictures later made their way onto the pages of US Magazine, but unfortunately I cannot find copies of those photographs anywhere online.

While watching the “There Won’t Be Trumpets” episode, I was convinced that Mama Solis’ crypt had been a prop put into place for the filming. As I discovered yesterday morning, though, her burial site is an actual crypt belonging to the Buckley family. So darn cool! I would like to let it be known here and now that, upon my death, filmmakers have my permission to use whatever it is I end up being buried in – whether it be a crypt, a mausoleum, or a simple grave – whenever and in as many productions as they so desire! 😉

The cemetery was also used in the Season 8 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Foundation” as the final resting place of Susan Ross (aka Heidi Swedberg), George Costanza’s (aka Jason Alexander’s) former fiancé, who died after ingesting toxic glue while licking the envelopes of their wedding invitations.

Mountain View also appeared in the Season 11 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Shock Waves” as the site of the funeral of Officer Franklin Clark (aka Reggie Von Watkins), during which a bomb explodes. Fave website Altadenablog was on hand during the filming of that episode and took some great photographs of the crew setting up the extensive rigging for the explosion scene.

The cemetery also popped up in the pilot episode of the HBO series Six Feet Under as the site of the funeral of Nathaniel Fisher (aka Richard Jenkins).

The cemetery was also used in Ozzy Osbourne’s video for his 2010 song “Life Won’t Wait” . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

Ironically enough, after visiting the cemetery, I had a feeling that it might have been the very cemetery used in fave movie A Lot Like Love, so after I got home I re-watched the flick and noticed the large, open-air grave-marker located in the background behind Oliver Martin (aka Ashton Kutcher) in the scene pictured above.

I could also just make out the last name “Holmes” written on the marker. So, yesterday morning, while re-stalking the cemetery with my dad, I walked around to see if I could spot that open air crypt.

And, amazingly enough, I did! As it turns out, the filming of A Lot Like Love had taken place just due west of where The Office had filmed. The grave where Emily Friehl’s (aka Amanda Peet’s) mother was buried in the movie was a fake that was put into place solely for the filming. In real life, her grave is just empty space. Ironically enough, Ashton Kutcher returned to the cemetery once again this past May to film scenes for the yet-to-be released comedy No Strings, along with co-star Natalie Portman. You can check out some photographs of them filming here. The 2007 remake of the classic horror film Halloween was also filmed at Mountain View Cemetery.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mountain View Cemetery is located at 2400 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena. The area which appeared in The Office is in the northeastern portion of the cemetery and is denoted with a pink circle and a pink “X” in the above aerial views. A Lot Like Love filmed just due west of where The Office was filmed in the area of the cemetery numbered 4474, which is denoted with a purple circle in the above aerial views. Desperate Housewives was filmed in front of the Buckley crypt, which is located in the section of the cemetery numbered 4386, directly across from the Vista Del Monte mausoleum, which is denoted with a blue circle and a blue arrow in the above aerial views.

March 10, 2010March 11, 2018

On The Set of “CSI: Miami”

This past Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took the day off from work so that the two of us could do a little stalking. For whatever reason, though, for the first time ever we didn’t come up with any sort of plan or itinerary beforehand of where we were going to go or what we going to stalk. And it’s a good thing we didn’t, either, because fate stepped in and the two of us wound up stumbling upon the cast and crew of CSI: Miami filming on location in Altadena. YAY! Earlier that morning, Mike and I had stopped by my parents’ house to ask my dad to accompany us to Altadena Drive so that he could take a few pictures of us in front of Casa Walsh from Beverly Hills, 90210. I am in the process of creating a slideshow for my wedding in August and because Mike is one of my groomsmen :), I wanted to get a picture of the two of us together in front of our very favorite stalking location. Anyway, while driving to the Walsh residence we passed by a very large production crew and, of course, just had to pull over to find out what was being filmed. Amazingly enough, it turned out to be my dad’s very favorite show, CSI: Miami. I should explain here that I, too, love me some CSI: Miami. Like LOVE it, never miss an episode, was screaming in delight when Calleigh and Eric finally got together last season. But I think it’s safe to say that my love for the show greatly pales in comparison to my dad’s. As I mentioned the last time we stumbled upon the filming of the show back in January of ‘09, my father is absolutely, one hundred percent obsessed with the series – it is his favorite show of all time. CSI: Miami is his Beverly Hills, 90210. So, it goes without saying that he was ABSOLUTELY THRILLED when we stumbled upon it being filmed yet again. Anyway, as Mike, my dad, and I made our way to the set we passed by a security guard and asked him if it would be OK if we watched the filming. He not only told us to make ourselves at home (YAY!), but also pointed out the fact that Jonathan Togo, who plays Ryan Wolfe on the series, was standing about two feet in front of us. So, we immediately walked up to him and asked if he’d be willing to snap a picture. Well, let me tell you, Jonathan was SO INCREDIBLY NICE and not only posed for pics, but marched us right over to the set, introduced us to everyone, and gave us our own personal tour of the place!!!!! He literally could NOT have been more sweet, more upbeat, more friendly, or more charming and was EASILY one of the NICEST celebrities I have ever had the pleasure of meeting! I so heart Jonathan Togo! 😉 He even came over to check up on us several times while we were on the set to make sure we were having a good time. At one point I mentioned to him how I had chosen my wedding photographer based on the fact that an episode of CSI: Miami had been filmed in his studio (yes, Rob Greer, the photographer whose studio was featured in the “Smoke Gets In Your CSIs” episode of CSI: Miami is photographing our wedding!) and Jonathan laughed and said, “WOW, you guys really are fans!” 😉

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The scene that was being filmed on Friday centered around the investigation of a fire at a “Miami” area home. While we were watching the filming, I happened to comment on how realistic the fire damage was. Well, one of the crew members started laughing and told me that movie magic wasn’t responsible for the burn marks, but that the house had actually been involved in a real life fire last April! I thought he was pulling my leg at first, but as it turns out there really was a fire at the residence just about ten months ago. You can see photographs of it on fave website Altadenablog here. Apparently, the CSI: Miami location manager was in Altadena scouting homes to be used in the episode, when he spotted the charred remains of above pictured house and realized it would be perfect for the show! I mean, honestly, what are the odds of that?

The makeup in the episode was also incredibly realistic. Pictured above is one of the guest stars, whose hands were supposed to have been burned in the fire. Even close up his injuries looked incredibly real! It was unbelievable!

While we were watching the filming, my dad happened to spot actor John Beasley who played Coach Warren in one of his all time favorite movies, 1993’s Rudy. I mean, honestly, could the day have gotten any better for my dad?? John, who was guest starring in the episode being filmed, also could NOT have been nicer and happily posed for photographs with all of us. 🙂

Also on hand filming on Friday was Emily Procter, who plays Calleigh Duquesne on the show, but we unfortunately did not get a photograph with her, and actress Robin Bartlett, who played Debbie Buchman on Mad About You.

Unfortunately, David Caruso was not on the set on Friday, but one of the crew members mentioned that he would be there the following Monday and that we were welcome to come back if we wanted to. IF we wanted to???? Duh! Of course we did! So, bright and early Monday morning, I headed up to Altadena once again to do a bit more CSI: Miami stalking. 🙂

On the set on Monday was Eddie Cibrian, who is SUPER cute in person! Those dimples! Sigh!

And Eve LaRue, who remembered us from our last set visit and who, just like last time, was as sweet as could be. 🙂

And, of course, the man himself, David Caruso! My dad had actually had a bad night this past Sunday – as I’ve mentioned before, he suffers from pancreatitis – and when I went to pick him up on Monday morning to go to the set, he was still not feeling well. So, I had to venture over to the filming by myself. Before I left, though, my dad asked me to bring the photograph we took last January with Mr. Caruso to the set. The now-framed photograph is a prized possession of my dad’s and it inhabits prime real estate on his desk at home and he was hoping that Mr. Caruso would sign it for him. And I am happy to report that, much like what happened back in January, when I got to the set on Monday, David Caruso immediately walked up to me to introduce himself and shake my hand, which is such a rare occasion on a film set. In most instances, fans have to seek the stars out during breaks from filming, but on CSI: Miami, the opposite is true – the stars often walk up to the fans to introduce themselves and say hi. It is AMAZING! Anyway, I explained to DC that we had met him about a year ago and that my dad is a HUGE fan of his and asked if he’d be willing to sign the photo.

Mr. Caruso not only happily obliged, but also gave me some autographed photographs of himself, a Horatio bobble head, and the above pictured Lance Armstrong-style “Horatio” bracelet. LOVE IT! That bracelet is now prominently placed around the gearshift in my car. 🙂 Anyway, later on in the afternoon I returned to my parents’ house to see if my dad was feeling any better, which he was, so I brought him back to the set. Well, as soon as Mr. Caruso saw my dad, he walked right up and gave him a HUGE hug. From that point on, he came over to talk to us pretty much between every single take and was so incredibly nice and down to earth that it was almost unbelievable! I honestly can’t say this enough – David Caruso has got to be the NICEST guy in show business!

Jonathan Togo was also on the set on Monday and remembered me from the previous Friday. I think he thought I was a little nutso to have returned to the set to watch MORE of the filming, because at one point he walked up and said, “You HAVE to be at least a little bored! Just a little bit! Come on, admit it!” But I could honestly sit for HOURS and watch productions being filmed. The entire process and everything that goes into it – from the hundreds of crew members and extensive camera equipment . . .

. . . to the actual filming – absolutely fascinates me, especially if it’s for a show I watch regularly. I honestly can’t get enough of it!

As I mentioned last January, the entire cast and crew of CSI: Miami is fun and friendly, almost unbelievably so. Mike also said that in all his years of living in Los Angeles and of all the sets he had visited in the past, he had NEVER seen one quite like theirs. As you can see in the above pictures, there is definitely a very jovial feeling on set and you’d be hard pressed to find a time when the cast and crew is not laughing or cracking jokes with each other, even during difficult scenes. At one point yesterday, they were trying to film a scene which involved a tricky camera maneuver that just didn’t seem to be working. They had to film the scene numerous times and even through the frustration of it all, they were STILL laughing and kidding each other between takes! LOVE IT!

Both Friday and Monday were absolutely incredible days for me and my dad. I literally could not drag him away from the set yesterday, and he typically hates that sort of thing, so it was very cool for me to see him enjoying himself at a filming. Especially when he has been so sick lately. As I said after our last set visit, being with the cast and crew CSI: Miami provided him with the kind of healing that just can’t be found in a doctor’s office or a hospital building. 🙂 I honestly can’t thank them all enough. When we left the set yesterday, David Caruso said, “I hope to see you guys again the next time we are in Pasadena.” H – you can count on it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: CSI: Miami was filmed at 1838 East Braeburn Road in Altadena, just down the street from the Walsh’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210, which is located at 1640 Braeburn Rd. Look for the CSI: Miami episode to air sometime in April.

November 30, 2009December 9, 2020

The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Twilight”

The other Los Angeles area filming location from Twilight that I mentioned in last Wednesday’s post is the Hyatt Regency Valencia Hotel. In Twilight, the Hyatt stood in for the Phoenix area hostelry where Bella (aka Kristen Stewart), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), and Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run from the evil vampire James (Cam Gigandet) towards the end of the movie. In reality, the hotel is, of course, not located anywhere near Arizona, but instead can be found just about four miles away from the home that was used as Bella’s mom’s house in the flick. So, of course, since I was already in the area last week, I just had to stalk the place. 🙂 I found this location thanks again to the link that fellow stalker Kerry sent me last April while the first Twilight movie was still in production. Thank you, Kerry! 🙂

The Hyatt is, sadly, featured only briefly in Twilight, but I am happy to report that it looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. In the scene featuring the Hyatt, Bella, Jasper, and Alice are first shown hanging out in a hotel room discussing their current predicament. And while the exterior set up shots for that scene were indeed filmed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, after looking at photographs of the hotel’s rooms online, I am fairly certain that the interior filming took place elsewhere. My best guess is that the hotel room scene was either filmed on a soundstage or at a real hotel located somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, where the rest of the movie was filmed.

We next see Jasper and Alice in the hotel’s lobby area waiting to check out. And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, that particular scene was actually shot on location at the Hyatt Regency Valencia and the lobby area still looks pretty much the same in person as it did in Twilight. Even the red flower paintings hanging behind the reception desk are there in real life. 🙂 Love it!

In a subsequent scene, Bella is shown rushing out of the Hyatt Regency Valencia’s main entrance and into a waiting taxi cab. And that pretty much covers the entire Twilight segment that took place at the Hyatt! LOL All told, the scenes probably last a little under 45 seconds. As I said in the previous Wednesday’s post, though, it’s better than nothing! 🙂

While stalking the hotel, I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the bellhops who truly could NOT have been nicer to me. He even took the photograph of me featured at the top of this post. 🙂 According to the bellhop, the Hyatt is actually an oft-used filming location and has been featured in such series as CSI: Las Vegas, NCIS, and the reality show Make It Or Break It. The bellhop said that a scene from Twilight was also filmed in the hotel’s parking garage, but he wasn’t sure which scene. He also informed me that Robert Pattinson actually stayed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia for a few days during the filming of Twilight. LOVE IT! The Hyatt Regency Valencia is a really beautiful hotel, with a large swimming pool, picturesque gardens, and a beautiful wedding courtyard (pictured above). I highly recommend stalking the place or even staying there while visiting the L.A. area. Who knows – you may even wind up in RP’s former room! 🙂

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On a very random side note: Earlier today, while reading the fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook, I learned that the scene pictured above, in which Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, was actually filmed in Pasadena! Apparently, the scene was originally filmed on location in Oregon, but director Catherine Hardwicke never ended up getting the exact shot she wanted. So, a few months later, when the cast and crew was back in California, some reshoots were done, one of which was the Bella/Edward kiss scene. For the re-shoot, a replica of Bella’s bedroom was built at the Elk’s Lodge in Pasadena. 🙂 So, as it turns out, there are actually three L.A. area locations that were featured in Twilight. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia, where Bella, Jasper, and Alice hid out in Twilight, is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit their website here. The Elks Lodge in Pasadena, where Bella and Edward first kissed, is located at 400 West Colorado Boulevard. You can visit their website here.

April 6, 2009April 6, 2009

The El Royale Motel

A couple of weeks ago while doing some Valley stalking, my boyfriend and I happened to drive by a small motel named the El Royale and I immediately recognized it from this page on the Seeing Stars website. I didn’t watch the Fourth Season of The O.C. (even though I do love me some Benjamin McKenzie!), but apparently the El Royale Motel was used in the second episode of that season. In the episode, entitled “The Gringos”, Ryan and Seth follow Volchok down to Ensenada, Mexico to try to avenge Marissa’s death. While there they check into the El Royale.

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Interestingly enough, though, it appears that the El Royale was used only for establishing shots of their motel and that no actual filming took place there. You can see in the above screen captures that the interiors of Ryan and Seth’s room don’t match the exteriors of the El Royale. For example, when Ryan and Seth enter the motel room, you can see an interior hallway behind them. The El Royale does not actually have any interior hallways. Ryan and Seth’s motel room window is also small and flat and does not match the popped out picture windows that exist at the real El Royale. My best guess is that the interior of their room was a set that existed only on a soundstage.

The El Royale also made an appearance in the 1997 Marky-Mark film Boogie Nights (pictured above). It was used as the location where Duke and Reed plan the drug scam they are going to pull on Rahad. In Boogie Nights, as with The O.C., it appears that only the exteriors of the motel were used, as once again, the interior shots don’t match up to what the motel really looks like.

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The El Royale was also featured in the movies Angel and Fool For Love. But since I have not seen either of them, I am not sure whether only the El Royale exteriors were used or if some interior filming took place there, as well.

One of the few productions that did actually film inside of an El Royale Motel room, is the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In a Season 9 episode of the show entitled “Kill Me If You Can”, a woman is found dead inside of one of the El Royale bungalows, leaving behind a desert tortoise named Gareth as the only witness to the crime (pictured above).

The El Royale is a very unusual little motel, with about 15 tiny bungalows situated around an empty cement lot. Each bungalow has its own entrance and carport. It is easy to see why the El Royale has been used so often in film and television productions as it definitely gives off a seedy motel vibe. I do recommend stalking it, though, as it is such a unique spot and seeing it in person will make you feel as if you’ve stepped back in time to a different era.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The El Royale Motel is located at 11117 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

October 7, 2008September 29, 2017

Lady Heather’s House

On the second season of CSI: Las Vegas we were introduced to a character whom Grissom later became very fond of named Lady Heather. On the show Lady Heather, who was played by The O.C.’s Melinda Clarke, owns an S&M fetish club in Sin City which she runs out of her extraordinary home. Lady Heather first appeared as a guest star in an episode entitled “Slaves of Las Vegas” and has since reappeared on four separate occasions, becoming something of a cult favorite for CSI fans. Her unique home also appeared in all five of the “Lady Heather” episodes and, being that it is a pretty spooky house and fits in with my Haunted Hollywood theme for this month, I dragged my dad right out to stalk it.

Lady Heather’s house is an absolutely ginormous mansion (13,393 square feet according to Zillow!!) located on a large corner lot in South Pasadena. I found the home thanks to Scott’s LA Audio Driving Tour of Pasadena, which lists many great Pasadena filming locations. It is easy to see why producers chose to use this house for the filming of CSI, as it has a very looming and dark presence, most likely due to its sheer size. For the filming of CSI, producers brought in many Gothic decorations, like large candelabras, to create a more dark and spooky atmosphere. But when you see the home in person, it becomes obvious that not much had to be done in preparation for filming due to its naturally ominous look. In person, the home looks like it could be a real life haunted house. And it actually looks like it belongs on a bayou in New Orleans rather than in the middle of Suburban Pasadena. Unfortunately I don’t own CSI on DVD, so I couldn’t get very good screen captures of the home.

In the various Lady Heather episodes, the exterior of the home is shown numerous times, especially the front door and front porch area (which unfortunately I do not have any screen captures of).

A back porch area is also shown in a special 90 minute episode from Season 3 entitled “Lady Heather’s Box”. It is the location where Grissom and the dominatrix sit down for a cup of tea.

Lady Heather’s house is a very cool place to see in person. I highly recommend stalking it if you are at all a fan of CSI or if you want to conduct your own Haunted Halloween tour. 🙂

UPDATE – This very same house was also used as the haunted mansion in the recently aired Season 3 episode of The Mentalist entitled “Red Scare”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lady’s Heather’s house is located at 929 Buena Vista St., at the corner of Buena Vista and Meridian Avenue, in South Pasadena.