Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead

October 9, 2015September 29, 2017

Groman Eden Mortuary from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

Never in a million years did I think that the 1991 comedy Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, one of my all-time favorite movies, would provide me with a Haunted Hollywood posting, but it did! In July 2014, a reader named Frank Vollhardt wrote a comment on my post about the DTMTBD house alerting me to the location of the mortuary featured in the flick. Because the morgue scene was rather brief, until reading his comment, I had completely forgotten about it. So thank you, Frank! I immediately added the place, Groman Eden Mortuary in Mission Hills, to my To-Stalk list, but somehow did not make it out there until just recently.

[ad]

Groman Eden Mortuary, or Eden Memorial Park as it is also known, was originally established in 1954. The 67-acre site is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the U.S.

Though the setting is quite beautiful (as far as cemeteries go), Groman Eden has reportedly been the site of some very dark deeds.

Quite a few famous souls are buried or entombed at Eden Memorial Park, including comedian Lenny Bruce, The Three Stooges’ Phil Arnold, Laverne & Shirley’s Phil Foster, Howard Caine and Jon Cedar from Hogan’s Heroes, The Knack’s Bruce Gary, and musician Fred Katz.

Legendary funnyman Groucho Marx has been entombed there since his death in 1977 – well, sort of. In a rather chilling (and absolutely bizarre) turn of events, the comedian’s ashes were stolen from the cemetery on May 12th, 1982 and then found later that same night about twelve miles away on the steps of the administration building of Mount Sinai Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. The ashes were quickly returned to Eden Memorial, where they remain today, but the culprit was never found. According to lore, scrape marks from the screw driver used to remove the ashes are still visible on the exterior of Groucho’s niche, which you can see a photograph of here. While there are noticeable marks in the lower portion of the placard bearing his name, whether they are actually from the 1982 robbery is anyone’s guess.

The columbarium where Groucho is entombed, which is pictured below, is located in the southern portion of the cemetery. You can find more precise information on where to find his niche here.

When Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate), Kenny Crandell (Keith Coogan), and their siblings discover that their babysitter, Mrs. Sturak (Eda Reiss Merin), has passed away in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, they decide to place her in a chest and drop her off at a local mortuary with a note saying, “Nice old lady inside. Died of natural causes.” As you can see below, Groman Eden Mortuary’s real name was shown in the scene.

Aside from the entrance changing from a double to a single door, the building featured in the scene looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Don’t Tell Mom was shot over 24 years ago.

The gate shown in the movie is not the cemetery’s main gate on Rinaldi Street, but the side gate located on Sepulveda Boulevard, which is pictured below.

I failed to snap a photo of the gate taken from the same angle that appeared in Don’t Tell Mom, but you can see a matching Google Street View image below.

While I would have guessed that Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’s closing scene, in which the mortuary workers (played by Robert F. Newmyer and Brian Reilly, both of whom served as producers on the movie and both of whom have, sadly, since passed away) pay their respects to the “Nice Old Lady,” also took place at Eden Memorial Park, I have it on good authority that that is not the case. According to Keith Coogan, who just so happens to be married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, that segment was shot at a park on Temescal Canyon Road, in between Sunset Boulevard and the Pacific Coast Highway, in Pacific Palisades. I have not tried to pinpoint the exact spot where the scene was lensed yet, but will do so in the near future.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Frank Vollhardt for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Groman Eden Mortuary, from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, is located at 11500 Sepulveda Boulevard in Mission Hills. The gate and building used in the filming are denoted with orange arrows in the aerial view pictured below.

September 25, 2015September 25, 2015

Lake View Medical Center from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

In researching today’s post, I put in several hours scanning through countless Season 1 and Season 2 episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210. Time well spent as far as I’m concerned! Winking smile This was all due to a comment left on my blog last October by a reader named Vanessa Laine who said that the now defunct Lake View Medical Center in Lakeview Terrace was the hospital that appeared in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. I immediately got to perusing the internet for more information on the site and came across this 1991 Los Angeles Times article which mentioned that 90210 was doing some filming on the premises at the time. A location that had been used in both fave show 90210 AND fave movie Don’t Tell Mom? It was like a dream come true! So I ran right out to stalk the place. It wasn’t until yesterday, though, that I was able to figure out (with some help from my buddy Mike, from MovieShotsLA) which 90210 episode the former hospital had appeared in.

[ad]

Lake View Medical Center was originally built in 1960 and served as a working hospital until it went bankrupt in 1986. Shortly thereafter, the Phoenix House organization made plans to purchase the 14.5-acre property and turn it into a drug rehabilitation facility for teens, but opposition from local residents thwarted those plans. The location remained vacant for the next several years while lengthy negotiations took place between Phoenix House and the city. During that time, it was used regularly for filming. Negotiations over the site finally ended in December 1992 and the Phoenix House Academy in Los Angeles opened its doors in 1994.

Virtually none of the property can currently be seen from the street, which is not surprising considering its function as a drug rehabilitation center.

According to the Los Angeles Times article, Beverly Hills, 90210 had filmed on the premises in late November 1991. Because he is such an expert on the show, I sent Mike a text asking if he could recall any episodes from around that time period that involved a hospital. He responded seconds later saying, “Yeah, there are two hospital scenes in ‘A Walsh Family Christmas.’” As it turns out, he was right on the money! What can I say? When it comes to 90210, he is the man! In the episode, Lake View Medical Center first stood in for the Albuquerque, New Mexico hospital where Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) went to retrieve his birth certificate.

Only the interior of Lake View appeared in the scene. The establishing shot of the hospital is of a different location (one that looks so familiar to me, but that I just cannot place). UPDATE – The Grim Cheaper just read this post and said, “Isn’t that building at Warner Bros. Studio?” He was right! He has only been on the tour twice, while I have been a good 25 times, yet he was the one to recognize it! As it turns out, the exterior of the Steve’s hospital is Warner Bros. Building 136.

The same building was also used as John Connor’s (Thomas Dekker) high school in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Later in “A Walsh Family Christmas,” Lake View masked as the mental hospital where Emily Valentine (Christine Elise) had been placed a few episodes prior after trying to light the gang’s homecoming parade float on fire. In the spirit of Christmas (and completing ignoring the fact that she spiked his drink with U4EA), Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) visits Emily in the episode and gifts her with his Minnesota Twins jersey.

As you can see below, the tall wooden doors that appeared in each scene are a match to each other.

West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, located at 7300 Medical Center Drive in West Hills, was used for the exterior of Emily’s hospital in the episode.

Once I had pinpointed Lake View’s appearance in “A Walsh Family Christmas,” I searched through numerous other early episodes that involved hospitals thinking it might have been featured in those, as well, but no such luck. As far as I can tell, Lake View only appeared on 90210 once.

In Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Lake View stood in for River Ridge Hospital, where Kenny Crandell (Keith Coogan) took his little brother, Walter (Robert Hy Gorman), after he fell off the roof. I had quite a bit of trouble pinpointing the area of Lake View that was used as the exterior of the hospital in the scene – so much so that I started to doubt Vanessa’s tip. As it turns out, the building featured in the movie is not part of the Phoenix House complex, but is the neighboring Community Charter Middle School. From what I have been able to gather, the structure did originally belong to Lake View Medical Center, but was sold off at some point after the site was shuttered.

Though the front overhang has since been removed, the building is still very recognizable from its Don’t Tell Mom appearance.

The interior of Lake View was also featured in the movie.

As you can see below, once again the tall wooden doors seen in Don’t Tell Mom are a match to what was shown on 90210.

Lake View also popped up in Beverly Hills Cop III as the spot where Det. Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) took Uncle Dave Thornton (Alan Young) after he had been shot.

As you can see below, Don’t Tell Mom and Beverly Hills Cop III utilized the exact same area of the hospital.

Lake View Medical Center was featured extensively in the 1993 drama Mr. Jones as the place where Mr. Jones (Richard Gere) was institutionalized after having several manic episodes.

There are those tall wooden doors again!

Lake View was also where Abby Quinn’s (Demi Moore) doctor worked in the 1988 thriller The Seventh Sign.

You can see the Don’t Tell Mom building through the window in the screen capture below.

The complex was perhaps most famously used in 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in which it masked as the Pescadero State Hospital of California where Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) was institutionalized.

At the time, it looked a bit different than it does today due to the fact that the parking lot was then located in the area just south of the hospital.

Today, the parking lot is situated just west of the hospital building and there is currently grass covering the former parking area.

On a Beverly Hills, 90210 side-note – I just came across this amazing blog that recaps the show and its fashion, and it had me in absolute hysterics! You’ve gotta check it out. Best part? The author is 100% Team Brenda. A woman after my own heart!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Vanessa for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me to identify its appearance in Beverly Hills, 90210. Smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Phoenix House Academy in Los Angeles, aka the former Lake View Medical Center from Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 11600 Eldridge Avenue in Lakeview Terrace. Please keep in mind that the complex is a working drug rehabilitation facility. The building used as the exterior of River Ridge Hospital in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead is the Community Charter Middle School located next door at 11500 Eldridge Avenue.

June 18, 2015June 11, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – The “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” House

Be sure to check out today’s post for L.A.mag.com, about the Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead house. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

April 8, 2014April 8, 2014

Opera on Ocean from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

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

[ad]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

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

February 20, 2014February 19, 2014

The All American Burger from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

I was devastated to learn back in early 2010, thanks to fellow stalker Amanda, that The All American Burger on Sunset Boulevard, which masqueraded as Clown Dog restaurant in 1991’s Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was being turned into a Chipotle Mexican Grill. I never expected that the historic eatery was going to be demolished in the process, though, so when I drove by it later that same year, I was shocked to discover a vacant lot. All that remained of the once-popular burger shack was its neon signage. It was not until two weeks ago, though, while I was on my way to stalk Parisian Florist, that I saw the Chipotle outpost that now stands in its place. Sad as I was, I figured I might as well pull over and snap some pics so that I could write an updated post on the property.

[ad]

The All American Burger was originally founded in 1963 by a successful stockbroker named Aaron Binder. The company grew fairly quickly and, by 1970, four sister eateries had opened up throughout L.A. For reasons that are unclear, things took a turn for the worse in 1981 and the chain filed for bankruptcy. Binder was later found guilty of fraud (stemming from a tax shelter investment scheme) and sent to prison for ten years. He wound up serving 42 months. It is unclear what happened to the restaurants following the bankruptcy and Binder’s imprisonment, but I believe they were sold to several new owners. Each branch was eventually shuttered, except for the Sunset Boulevard location which, according to LA Weekly, was the last remaining of the chain, until it, too, closed its doors in early 2010. The subsequent demolition of the restaurant and rebuilding did not take long as Chipotle opened on the site in November of that same year.

I originally visited The All American Burger in December 2009 and it turned out to be one of my favorite stalking experiences ever. You can read about that stalk – in which I got to don an All American Burger uniform and go behind the counter – here.

Sadly, the Chipotle building looks nothing at all like the former The All American Burger. As I mentioned, the sole remnant of the historic eatery is its signage – or at least a portion of it. As you can see below, the hand pointing to the parking lot that was part of the All American Burger sign was incorporated into Chipotle’s new sign.

I would say I love the fact that Chipotle made the gesture, but I’m too darn sad that The All American Burger was demolished in the first place.

While doing research for this post I learned that it was directly across the street from The All American Burger, on the curb in front of 7677 Sunset Boulevard, that Hugh Grant infamously picked up a prostitute named Divine Brown in the early morning hours of June 27th, 1995. Hugh then drove Divine three blocks to the corner of Hawthorn and North Curson Avenues, where the two indulged in “lewd conduct” and were eventually arrested. Oddly, neither seemed to be negatively affected by the arrest. Hugh’s career did not miss a beat and, according to this 2010 Daily Mail article, Divine made about $1 million off of the 20-minute encounter and wound up leaving the “business” for good. She currently runs a music production company in Atlanta.

In Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, The All American Burger stood in for Clown Dog restaurant, where Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) worked for a day and met her future boyfriend, delivery boy Bryan (The Good Wife’s Josh Charles).

The real life interior of the eatery was also used in the movie.

The All American Burger was featured in a couple of other productions during its too-short lifetime. In the Season 2 episode of Californication titled “La Petite Mort,” which aired in 2008, the restaurant was where Hank Moody (David Duchovny) confronted his daughter’s boyfriend, Damian (Ezra Miller).

And in 2009, the eatery was where Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) responded to a 911 call from a customer complaining that her regular lunch spot was out of chicken nuggets (LOL) in the Season 1 episode of Southland titled “Derailed.”

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The All American Burger, aka Clown Dog restaurant from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was formerly located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The property is now the site of a Chipotle Mexican Grill.

February 3, 2014January 31, 2014

Chuck E. Cheese’s from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

I have been on the hunt for the Chuck E. Cheese’s featured in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead for what seems like ages. Despite having an inside connection – my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, is married to none other than Kenny Crandell, aka Keith Coogan, himself – I had a tough time tracking the place down. All Keith could remember about the eatery was that it was located somewhere in the Valley near a large cement watershed. So, feeling inspired a couple of weeks back, I decided to look at aerial views of every San Fernando Valley-area Chuck E. Cheese’s to see if any matched the one that appeared in Don’t Tell Mom. Sure enough, the one in Sun Valley’s Canyon Plaza shopping center did. Well, sort of – but more on that later.

[ad]

The Sun Valley Chuck E. Cheese’s shows up towards the beginning of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, in the scene (which was one of Keith’s favorites) in which Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) takes her siblings – Kenny, Melissa (Danielle Harris), Zach (Christopher Pettiet) and Walter (Robert Hy Gorman) – out for dinner after landing an executive administrative assistant job at General Apparel West. Oddly enough, at some point after Don’t Tell Mom was filmed in 1991, Chuck E. Cheese’s moved from the storefront pictured below (which is currently vacant) to one a few doors north in the same center. Despite the move and some other alterations, though, the restaurant’s former site is still recognizable from its onscreen appearance.

As Sue Ellen and her siblings leave Chuck E. Cheese’s, they witness their dead babysitter’s Buick getting stolen by three drag queens dressed as Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli and Dolly Parton. The theft takes place in Canyon Plaza’s large parking lot in front of what was, at the time, a Mervyn’s, but today is a Kohl’s. While the shopping center has since been remodeled a bit, it is still very recognizable from the scene. I absolutely love that the space next to Kohl’s still houses a Subway after all these years!

The Sav-On Drugs that appeared in the movie is now a CVS Pharmacy (Southern California Sav-Ons were acquired by CVS Caremark in 2006), but, thankfully, looks much the same as it did onscreen in 1991. In fact, it was due to the structure’s jutted-out façade with decorative arched cut-outs that I was finally able to identify the Chuck E. Cheese’s location.

The space where Chuck E. Cheese’s moved to appears to have housed an AutoZone at the time that Don’t Tell Mom was filmed. You can just barely make out its red neon logo in the screen capture below.

I was most excited to see that the rounded sidewalk where the Crandell kids stood in the scene and the yellow speed bump next to it were still there in real life, looking EXACTLY the same as they did onscreen. LOVE IT! I cannot express how much fun it was to stalk such an iconic location from one of my favorite movies 23 years after it was filmed, especially since so little of it has been changed.

If only the pay phone that Sue Ellen used to call Bryan (Josh Charles) was still on the premises (if it was, in fact, real and not a prop)!

Big THANK YOU to Keith Coogan for helping me to find this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Chuck E. Cheese’s from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead was formerly located at 8353 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Canyon Plaza shopping center in Sun Valley. It has since moved a few storefronts north to 8375 Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

December 14, 2009November 8, 2010

Clown Dog Restaurant from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

UPDATE – I just drove by this location last week and was shocked to discover that the entire thing had been completely torn down. The only part of it left standing is the All American Burger sign pictured below. 🙁 A Chipotle restaurant is currently being built in its place. So incredibly sad! I will leave this post up, though, for those stalkers who are interested in seeing photographs of how it used to look.

A few weeks ago, I dragged my boyfriend out to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to stalk a restaurant named All American Burger – a location which has been on my list of places to stalk ever since fellow stalker Owen informed me that it stood in for the Clown Dog diner where Bryan (aka Josh Charles) worked in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. In a random twist of fate, Owen happened upon this information during his search for the main house used in Don’t Tell Mom back in September. While trying to track down that location, Owen came across an interview with actor Keith Coogan, who played Christina Applegate’s younger brother Kenny in the flick, who had this to say, “The film was shot entirely in Southern California. Mostly in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley areas. The house is really close to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Some locations were in the heart of Hollywood, like the roof of the Holiday Inn, and the Clown Dog is actually an ‘All American Burger’ located on Sunset Blvd. Some scenes were shot in Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as some interiors which were filmed in Simi Valley/Sherman Oaks.” (Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find the source of that interview online, otherwise I would post a link to it here.) An actor who not only remembers where scenes from his movies were filmed, but actually references them in an interview??? SO LOVE IT!!!!! Thank you, Keith!!! So, once I heard where Clown Dog was located, I immediately added the address to my long “to stalk” list and finally made it out there to see the place in person just a few weeks back. YAY!

And, let me tell you, this was one stalk that was DEFINITELY worth the wait. As fate would have it, the owner of the restaurant, an INCREDIBLY nice man named Lang, was working behind the counter when we arrived. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, “Was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filmed here?” Lang laughed and told me that yes, indeed, the movie had been filmed on the premises. I then asked him if everyone who came in inquired about the very same thing, to which he replied “You’re only the second person in the twenty-plus years I’ve worked here who has ever asked me that!” LOL It’s nice to know I’m unique! Lang seemed truly amused at my excitement over stalking his restaurant and really could NOT have been nicer about it. Not only did he tell me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted . . .

. . . BUT HE ALSO LET ME DON ONE ONE OF THE ALL AMERICAN BURGER UNIFORMS AND STEP BEHIND THE COUNTER TO POSE FOR A PIC! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I also so love it that the real All American Burger hat is almost exactly the same as the Clown Dog hat that Christina Applegate wore in the movie! 🙂

Because my fiancé and I were both starving at the time, we just had to grab a bite to eat during our stalk. And, let me tell you, we were not disappointed! While All American Burger is by no means fancy, their food is simply A-MA-ZING! The menu features your typical all-American fare, such as burgers, hot dogs, and French fries, all of which happen to be right up my alley. 🙂 My fiancé and I ended up splitting a cheeseburger and fries – both of which were excellent! And the Grim Cheaper was very excited about the fact that the entire meal cost us $4! Even more exciting to him, though, had to be the restaurant’s working pinball machine, which he played quite a few games on. So cool! (Please pardon the above picture, I was in a goofy mood that day. 🙂 )

All American Burger pops up twice in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. It first shows up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Sue Ellen (aka Swell), gets a job working behind the counter of the fast food restaurant.

Fed up with Mr. Egg, her perennially happy boss, Swell quits her new job after only one day of work, but not before making a romantic connection with fellow Clown Dog employee Bryan.

The restaurant next shows up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Swell, upset over her recent fight with Bryan, drives by Clown Dog and sadly watches him working through the window.

I am very happy to report that although over 18 years have passed since Don’t Tell Mom was filmed, All American Burger still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. Missing in real life, of course, is the circus themed decor that was used to dress the restaurant during the filming. Besides Don’t Tell Mom, All American Burger has also been featured in a recent episode of Southland and in an album cover for one of musician Howie Day’s CD’s. And because the restaurant is something of a Hollywood institution, celebs have been known to stop in there from time to time, including The O.C.’s Adam Brody, who is a regular. 🙂

[ad]

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: All American Burger, aka Clown Dog from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

October 15, 2009October 20, 2009

The Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead House

Thought I’d take a little break today from writing about New York filming locations as there is a movie house that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked a few weeks back that I am just dying to blog about – Christina Applegate’s home from fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead! I swear, I’ve wanted to stalk that house for what seems like forever, but could never figure out its location. In fact, Mike and I had become convinced that the house wasn’t really a house at all, but a facade that had been built on a studio back lot somewhere. So, a few weeks ago, I decided to ask fellow stalker Owen for some help in either locating the house or getting a confirmation that it had been just a set. Well, not twenty-four hours later, Owen emailed me back . . . with an address!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had somehow managed to track down a crew member from the 1991 film who confirmed that the house was real. And while he didn’t remember its exact location, he said he had the address written down in one of his files and promised to look it up for us. So, later that day, the guy actually WENT THROUGH HIS FILES and found the address!!!! How incredibly nice is that????? And pretty much immediately after I had it, Mike and I were on our way to stalk the house.

Because the Don’t Tell Mom house had been at the very top of my Must-Stalk list for YEARS, I was practically bursting with excitement the entire car ride there! I’m actually surprised my head didn’t explode or something! LOL And I am very happy to report that, in person, the house did not disappoint! 🙂 Over eighteen years later and it still looks very much the same as it did in the movie. 🙂 The crew member had told Owen that they had roughed up the house a bit for the filming and dressed it to look dingier than it actually was. He also told Owen that, using camera angles, the house was made to look much smaller onscreen than it actually was in real life. Well, I really had to laugh when I heard that, because the one thing I’ve always remembered about the Don’t Tell Mom house was how absolutely HUGE it was. So, for the crew member to say that it was even bigger in person absolutely boggled my mind! Anyway, due to the behind-the-scenes info that Owen was told, I wasn’t really expecting the house to look at all the same in person as it did in the movie. So, you can imagine my surprise when Mike and I pulled up to the house and saw that it was still completely, one hundred percent recognizable from the film! YAY! Because the angle of the house shown in the movie was not the view of the house seen from the street, I was, unfortunately, not able to get great photographs of it. In the movie, the exterior shots of the house were filmed mostly from the driveway area, with the camera facing West. The view from the street, however, which you can see in the above photograph, faces South.

Pictured above is the view of the house from the West, but because of the many trees on the property, not much is visible from that angle. 🙁

Other behind-the-scenes info the crew member told Owen was that the real interior of the home was used extensively for the filming, but that it, too, was made to look dingier and smaller for the production. He also told Owen that the “Dishes Are Done” scene in which Kenny (aka Keith Coogan) stands on the roof of the house with his friends and shoots the dishes instead of cleaning them, was not filmed on the home’s actual roof, but on a fake roof that was built in the backyard area. If you’ll notice in that scene, the camera never pans back far enough to show the whole house, because there wasn’t a whole house to show. The boys were actually standing just a few feet off the ground. 🙂

The crew member also said that the home’s real life backyard and pool area were used for the filming of the fashion show scene. And, as you can see in the above screen capture and aerial image, both look very much the same today as they did in the movie.

And can I just say that I so love the fact that the house was made a part of the Don’t Tell Mom movie poster! So cool!

On an ironic side note: About a year ago I got to meet Christopher Morley, who played the Marilyn Monroe drag queen who stole Christina Applegate’s car in the movie. And even though he wasn’t in any scenes that took place at the house, pretty much the very first words out of my mouth when I met him were “Do you happen to know where the house from Don’t Tell Mom is located?” To which he replied, “Oh honey, I don’t even remember where I filmed my scene, let alone where they filmed scenes I wasn’t even in!” LOL I always find it amazing when people forget things like that. And, while I realize that, as hard as it may be to believe, most people aren’t as interested in stalking locations as I am, I still find it odd when crew members don’t remember the addresses to places where they worked for days at a time. For about a year and a half, I worked as a personal assistant and, I’m telling you, my former boss could call me up today and say, “Do you remember where you bought those sheets for my guest house in May of 2007?” and, even though I’m not particularly interested in bedding, not only could I tell him the name of the store and it’s exact location, but also the color of the sheets I got him and the cost! And that’s not just because that particular store offered me champagne when I walked in the door, either. LOL No, no matter what anyone says, I will just never understand how people can forget something as important as a filming location! 😉

[ad]

Big, big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead house is located at 15548 Iron Canyon Road in Canyon Country, near Santa Clarita.