Tag: Entertainment

The Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park Bandshell from “New Girl”

Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, because today’s post is going to be a long one! Another New Girl location that my good friend/fellow stalker Lavonna asked me to track down recently was the park where Jess (Zooey Deschanel) held a recital for her “Ensembell” bell choir in the Season 1 episode titled “Bells”. This actually turned out to be a rather fun hunt for me because, in an unprecedented turn of events, the Grim Cheaper became a bit fixated with helping in the search. When the two of us first watched the “Bells” episode a few weeks after Lavonna’s challenge, he thought the park and its unique bandshell looked familiar, but he could not place where he had seen them. So he immediately started doing research on local parks, yet, sadly, came up empty-handed. Then, a few days later while we were out and about stalking, anytime we would happen to drive by a park, he would pull over to see if the New Girl bandshell was there. As luck would have it, he ended up spotting it that same afternoon at MacArthur Park in the Wilshire District of Los Angeles. Whoo-hoo! Thank you, GC! So we pulled right on over to snap some pics.

[ad]

The land where MacArthur Park now sits was first developed by the City of Los Angeles as a drinking water reservoir in the 1880s. When the area’s piping systems were later changed around 1890, the reservoir was no longer needed and the site was transformed into a public park known as Westlake Park. The locale, which featured a picturesque lake, a boathouse, and manicured gardens, quickly became a popular recreational destination for the wealthy citizens who lived nearby and the wealthy tourists who vacationed at the many luxury hotels in the neighborhood. During that era, the 32-acre property was known as the “Champs-Elysees of Los Angeles”. Oh, how times have changed! In 1934, it was decided that Wilshire Boulevard, which formerly dead-ended at Westlake’s western border, would be extended and connected to Orange Street in order to run through to downtown Los Angeles. A berm was built which bisected Westlake, and its large lake, into two halves, with the northern portion of the lake eventually being drained, leaving a smaller, 8-acre, 23-million-gallon, 15-foot deep pond on the property’s southern side.

Sadly, during the ‘80s, the site, which in 1942 was renamed General Douglas MacArthur Park in honor of the famed WWII general, became a haven of drug, gang and criminal activity. Despite an attempted revitalization in 2002, the property is still pretty dangerous. Even though we stalked the park during daylight hours, I was still extremely uncomfortable being there. While we were snapping pictures of the Levitt Pavilion bandshell, which was completely renovated in 2007 and now offers over 50 free concerts each summer, some loon jumped onto the stage armed with a huge generator, microphone and boom box and proceeded to put on his very own rap concert. I cannot even imagine what the place is like at night! It sure is picturesque, though!

MacArthur Park is full of shady characters and we also witnessed a few drug sales in the short ten minutes we were there. To quote the Wikipedia page on the location, “Public urination in the park is illegal but commonplace.” Yep, that pretty much sums it up! As you can see below, though, the site does boast some pretty incredible views of the downtown L.A. skyline.

Because the park, which in 1972 was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #100, is so picturesque, it is not hard to understand why it has been the site of countless filmings over the years. The place also inspired the Richard Harris-penned 1968 song for Jimmy Webb titled “MacArthur Park” and Donna Summer’s 1970 remake of it, and it also quite possibly might have been the location of the eponymous bridge in the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1992 hit “Under the Bridge”.

In the “Bells” episode of New Girl, MacArthur Park stood in for the fictional “Pershing Park” where Ensembell held their first recital. (The homeless guy fist-fighting the air in the first screen capture pictured below is pretty much a true-to-life description of the types of people one will encounter at the park.)

In the Season 1 episode of Dragnet 1967 titled “The Bank Examiner Swindle”, MacArthur Park was where Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) interviewed Fred Gregory (Burt Mustin), one of the victims of a financial scam against the elderly.

In the Season 1 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Lady Blue”, MacArthur Park stood in for the fictional “Lincoln Gardens” where Detective Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Detective Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) investigated the murder of Starsky’s ex-girlfriend Helen.

And in the Season 2 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Vendetta”, the park was where the duo picnicked with their girlfriends before getting interrupted by a “1040” call.

In the Season 5 episode of The A-Team titled “The Grey Team”, MacArthur Park was where Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck (Dirk Benedict) and John ‘Hannibal’ Smith (George Peppard) spied on a Soviet agent named Saroff (Tony Steedman).

In 1993’s Falling Down, MacArthur Park was the spot where William ‘D-Fens’ Foster (Michael Douglas) got into an altercation with a homeless man. At the time of the filming, the lake had been drained and the park was undergoing major construction for the Metro Rail Rail Line addition, so it looked considerably different than it does today.

In 1997’s Volcano, MacArthur Park was the site where seven public works employees were steamed to death while working on a storm drain.

The location was used extensively in 2001’s aptly-titled MacArthur Park.

In 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan) saves her friend Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) from being killed at MacArthur Park.

The music video for Gym Class Heroes’ 2005 song “Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America”, which starred Katy Perry, was shot extensively at MacArthur Park.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

Gym Class Heroes: “Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America” Filmed at MacArthur Park

In the Season 6 episode of Numb3rs titled “Hangman”, Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and his FBI team were shot at while setting up security for a political rally at MacArthur Park.

In the Season 1 episode of fave show FlashForward (I am still not over the fact that it was cancelled!) titled “Black Swan”, there is a flashback scene of the blackout experience of a man named Ned Ned (Keir O’Donnell) in which a city bus crashes into the MacArthur Park lake.

In the Season 1 episode of American Horror Story titled “Murder House”, MacArthur Park was where the ultra-creepy Larry Harvey (Denis O’Hare) approached Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott) to ask for $1,000 to get headshots taken.

MacArthur Park has popped up on the television series Southland no less than 3 times. In the Season 2 episode titled “Butch & Sundance”, the park was where Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) chased a gang member named Orlando (Eddie Maldonado).

In the Season 4 episode titled “Identity”, Detective Bryant and Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) arrested a teenager for drug possession at MacArthur Park.

In that same episode, MacArthur Park also appeared as the spot where Detectives Lydia Adams (Regina King) and Ruben Robinson (Dorian Missick) tracked down a suspect named Nicole (Chrissy Stokes).

And in the Season 4 episode titled “God’s Work”, Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz – aka Beverly Hills, 90210’s Tony Miller ) talked to his unnamed sponsor, who was played by Lawrence Gilliard Jr., about his partner, Officer Jessica Tang (Lucy Liu), while walking around MacArthur Park’s lake.

In 2011’s Drive, “Driver” (Ryan Gosling) made a deal with Cook (James Biberi) while at MacArthur Park.

And while IMDB claims that the Season 2 episode of the original Melrose Place titled “Till Death Do Us Part” was shot at MacArthur Park, filming actually took place at the similar-looking Echo Park.

MacArthur Park was also featured in the movie Brave New World, but unfortunately I was unable to find a copy of that production with which to make screen captures for this post. And while the location supposedly appeared in 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I scanned through the flick earlier today and did not spot it anywhere.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park bandshell, from the “Bells” episode of New Girl, is located at 2230 West 6th Street, on the northern side of MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles. You can visit the Pavilion’s official website here. Be forewarned, MacArthur Park is not the safest place, especially at night, so please exercise caution.

June 18, 2012
Ann’s House from “Parks and Recreation”

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post about the Sullivan Street Pit from fave new show Parks and Recreation, during our whirlwind stalking adventure last Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I also hit up the house where Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) lives on the show. Just as it is made to appear on P&R, Ann’s supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area residence is actually located directly behind the undeveloped plot of land in Van Nuys that stands in for the Pit on the series. So, after snapping some pictures of Lot 48, Mike and I walked one block east to do some stalking of the abode. I, of course, found this location thanks to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog – the very same fellow stalker who also informed me of countless other Parks and Recreation locations, including Leslie Knope’s house and the Sullivan Street Pit.

[ad]

Ann’s house first popped up in the pilot of Parks and Recreation and has subsequently been featured in pretty much every episode since. During the first season, Ann lived in the one-story residence with her slacker boyfriend, musician Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), but she ends up kicking him out in the episode titled “Rock Show” after discovering that he had asked his doctor to keep his leg casts on for an extra two weeks because, as he explained to Ann, “I really, really like it when you serve me food.” LOL

In real life, Ann’s house, which was originally built in 1948, boasts two bedrooms, one bath and 1,407 square feet and, thankfully, looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it does onscreen in Parks and Recreation. Even the yellow fire hydrant located at the edge of the front lawn is there in real life, which was absolutely shocking to me as I had always assumed that the hydrant was a prop put in place for the show. I mean, has anyone ever seen a fire hydrant situated inside of someone’s front yard before? Will wonders never cease?

The property’s back gate area also appears quite frequently on the show.

And the home’s backyard was featured in the Season 1 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Boys’ Club”, in what was hands down one of my very favorites scenes in the entire series – the scene in which Andy takes a bath in a kiddie pool before chasing his neighbor down the street, while naked and on crutches.

And while I would have bet money on the fact that the real life interior of the home had been used in the filming of the pilot episode before later being recreated on a soundstage (which is a fairly typical scenario), I came across some interior photographs of the residence on fave website Zillow and, as you can see below, it looks NOTHING AT ALL like Ann’s house. So incredibly odd!

While doing research for today’s post, I happened to discover that the apartment complex that formerly stood on the site of the Sullivan Street Pit is actually still visible on Bing aerial maps. LOVE IT!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Ann Perkins’ house from Parks and Recreation is located at 5655 Murietta Avenue in Van Nuys. The Sullivan Street Pit from the series is located directly behind Ann’s house at at the southeast corner of Hazeltine Avenue and Collins Street in Van Nuys.

June 8, 2012
Jess’ House from “New Girl”

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend/fellow stalker Lavonna asked me to track down the residence where Jess (Zooey Deschanel) lived prior to moving into the ultra-cool Binford Building on fave show New Girl. Jess’ former house only appeared once on the series, in the Season 1 episode titled “Kryptonite”, and thankfully I had already tracked down another location from that episode a few weeks prior – John O’Groats Restaurant in Rancho Park, which I blogged about here. I had an inkling that Jess’ former dwelling was most-likely located near O’Groats (since location managers tend to stick to sites in close proximity to each other while filming an episode), so I started searching aerial views of neighborhoods adjacent to the eatery and, sure enough, stumbled upon the home fairly quickly. Yay! So after dragging the Grim Cheaper out to John O’Groats for breakfast in mid-May, we headed right on over to stalk the place.

[ad]

In the “Kryptonite” episode of New Girl, Jess – with her eccentric new roommates, Nick (Jake M. Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Winston (Lamorne Morris), and her best friend, Cece (Hannah Simone), in tow – returns to her former residence to demand her television set and clothes back from her cheating ex-boyfriend, Spencer (Ian Wolterstorff). An argument, of course, ensues over one of Jess’ t-shirts, resulting in the ever-hilarious Schmidt slapping Spencer across the face, using his pinky ring for extra force. Gotta love it! As you can see below, Jess’ former house looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. For whatever reason, producers covered over the side porch area with a large fern and removed the hinges and kick plate from the front door, but other than that, the place appears just as it did in the episode.

Even though, in real life, the 1923-era house only boasts a scant three bedrooms, three baths, and 2,200 square feet of living space, it sold this past March for just under $1 million! Welcome to L.A., my fellow stalkers! You can check out the property’s real estate listing here.

Oddly enough, a different residence stood in for Jess and Spencer’s home in New Girl’s pilot episode. While only the interior of a house was shown in that episode (in the scene in which Jess catches Spencer cheating) it is not the same property that was used in “Kryptonite”, as you can see in the screen captures pictured below as compared to the photographs on the home’s real estate listing. [What do y’all think of my photo collage below, by the way? I am trying out some different photography editing websites, like PicMonkey (my favorite so far), and experimenting with different collages, fonts, shapes, etc. in order to step things up. Do any of you have a photo editing site that you would recommend?]

I am ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED with the collage capabilities of Polyvore (a fashion website, on which I made the graphic below) and am looking for a similar site, but one with which I would be able to edit my own photographs instead of simply using site-provided pics – something similar to Photoshop, but easy to use. The GC purchased Photoshop Elements, the dumbed-down version of Photoshop, for me and I could not even get past the set-up screen! #Idon’tgetlayers!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jess’ house, from the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Kryptonite”, is located at 2045 Pelham Avenue in Century City.

June 7, 2012
Leslie Knope’s House from “Parks and Recreation”

A few months ago, fellow stalker Brandon (the very same stalker who tracked down the Skyline Residence from Crazy, Stupid, Love., which I blogged about back in November) emailed me to ask for some help in locating the Craftsman-style abode where Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) lives on the television series Parks and Recreation. And while I had never actually seen the show, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, is a long-time fan and a few years back had sent me a list of several locales from it that he had managed to track down. Thankfully, Leslie’s house just so happened to be on that list and after emailing the address to Brandon, I decided that I should check the place out for myself. Well, let me tell you, once I laid eyes on it, I absolutely fell in love and decided that this stalker seriously needed to start watching some P&R, which I finally sat down to do last month. And I have to say that I am really enjoying it! I am only mid-way through Season 2 right now, but the series just seems to keep getting better and better with each episode and I love the fact that, thanks to Owen, I now have a whole slew of locations from it to stalk. Whoo hoo!

[ad]

As far as I know, Leslie’s house has only appeared once on Parks and Recreation (as I said, I am currently only mid-way through the second season) – in the Season 2 episode that was aptly titled “Leslie’s House”. In the episode, Leslie hosts a dinner party to impress her new boyfriend, Justin Anderson (aka Jen Aniston’s real life main squeeze, Justin Theroux), using the help of several Pawnee Recreation Center teachers, which, in typical P&R fashion, leads to her getting called in for a disciplinary hearing on an abuse of power charge. As you can see below, the dwelling looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, minus the fake snow, of course. I find it quite ironic that producers chose to use the property to stand in for Leslie’s supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area residence, though, being that the Craftsman style of architecture is so quintessentially Southern Californian.

As you can see in these real life photographs of the home as compared to the screen captures below, the actual interior of the property (which is stunning!) was also used in the filming.

In real life, Leslie’s house is quite spectacular! The property, which was originally built in 1916, boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,374 square feet, and sits on a 0.30-acre plot of land.

The Grim Cheaper absolutely fell in love with the huge tree pictured below that drapes over the property and could not stop taking photographs of it. So picturesque!

As you can see below, producers had the home’s address number digitally changed from 2358 to 35 for the filming in what I am guessing was an effort to deter us stalkers. Thank goodness Owen is smarter than the average bear, though, and was able to find the place as I am not sure I would have been able to.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! And stay tuned for many more Parks and Recreation locales to come!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Leslie’s house from Parks and Recreation is located at 2358 Highland Avenue in Altadena.

June 5, 2012
The Sand Acre Estate – Where Marilyn Monroe is Rumored to Have Vacationed

A few weeks ago, while doing research on Seward Johnson’s “Forever Marilyn” statue, which I blogged about yesterday, I came across a press release posted on the Visit Palm Springs website and just about passed out over the mention of a desert-area MM location that I had never before heard of! The press release stated, “Marilyn Monroe has many legendary ties to Palm Springs. To name a few, she was photographed and “discovered” by Johnny Hyde from the William Morris Agency at Charlie Farrell’s Racquet Club. She was also rumored to have frequented a Movie Colony estate with Joe DiMaggio, currently known as the Sand Acre Estate, and owned a 1950’s bungalow-style house in Las Palmas.” While I had stalked and blogged about both Charlie Farrell’s Racquet Club and Marilyn’s Las Palmas home, I had somehow never before even heard of the Sand Acre Estate! So I immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there this past Friday afternoon while visiting my parents in the desert.

[ad]

When we pulled up to the Sand Acre Estate, which is located in Palm Springs’ Movie Colony neighborhood (LOVE that name!), I was shocked to discover the sheer enormity of the place! As you can see below, it is absolutely gargantuan! And I was even more shocked to discover that the manse is located directly across the street from Cary Grant’s former desert home, which I stalked back in July of last year. How in the heck had I not known about this place??

The Sand Acre Estate, which is currently a vacation rental and special events venue, is surrounded by a tall stucco wall that is topped by even taller hedges making the place extremely private and hidden from view. The stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon us that day, though, because the front gate happened to be standing wide open when we arrived, affording us a tiny peek at the site’s magnificent grounds.

The 3,434-square-foot Spanish-style dwelling, which was originally built in 1933 and recently underwent a year-long restoration, boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, exposed beam ceilings, a media room, a large gourmet kitchen, a carriage suite complete with its own bedroom, a tennis court, a pool and Jacuzzi, numerous en-suite wood-burning fireplaces, a gym, and a 1.02-acre corner plot of land.

As you can see below, the property also boasts some breathtaking views of the San Jacinto Mountains. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the home here.

The rumors of Marilyn and Joe vacationing at the Sand Acre Estate are, sadly, just that – rumors. Because there is nothing concrete to prove that the couple ever set foot on the premises, Larry Rener, who manages the property, is quoted as saying, “We go with the rumor.” The tower-shaped area pictured below is the room where Marilyn and Joe are purported to have stayed during their frequent visits. And while I am not sure what the starlet’s link to the property was, if one ever even existed, it is definitely easy to picture her vacationing there, unwinding by the pool with her new husband while protected from the prying eyes of the ever-present and hounding media. Besides Marilyn, the Sand Acre Estate also has another Hollywood connection – Linda Gray, Donna Mills, and Morgan Fairchild once posed for a photo shoot there for the cover story of Palm Springs Life magazine’s January 2009 issue.

And on a very exciting side-note – fellow stalker Lavonna texted me on Friday afternoon to let me know that my fan question for Colin Egglesfield on Extra had finally aired! Whoo hoo!

As you can see below, I had quite a bit of fun watching the filming, especially when Colin showed us his AMAZE-BALLS Tom Cruise impersonation. Big THANK YOU to Lavonna for telling me about the episode and for making the screen captures that appear in this post.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Sand Acre Estate, where Marilyn Monroe is said to have vacationed with Joe DiMaggio, is located at 953 North Avenida Palmas in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s vacation rental website here. Cary Grant’s former desert home is located right across the street at 928 North Avenida Palmas.

May 31, 2012
John O’Groats Restaurant from “New Girl”

Another restaurant that appeared on fave show New Girl that I stalked recently was John O’Groats, a tiny breakfast and lunch café in the Rancho Park area of West Los Angeles. As fate would have it, a few years back I attended a weekly acting class at the Pico Playhouse, which is located directly next door to John O’Groats, and, on occasion, my actor friends and I would venture on over to the diner to grab a bite to eat before class. So when it popped up in the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Kryptonite”, I recognized the place and its darling interior immediately. Because I had not been there in years, though, and had no photographs of it, I added John O’Groats to my ever-growing To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there this past Sunday morning for breakfast.

[ad]

John O’Groats was originally opened on February 26th, 1982 in a tiny, 750-square-foot space on the corner of Manning Avenue and Pico Boulevard. The eatery was the second culinary endeavor of Angelica and Robert Jacoby, who first founded Bit O’Scotland in Westwood seventeen years prior. After deciding that they no longer wanted to work nights, as they missed eating dinner regularly with their two sons, the Jacobys closed their pioneer restaurant and opened a coffee shop that served only breakfast and lunch. Their new café, which was named for a village in Scotland, enjoyed immediate success thanks to its homemade American-style comfort food, created with only the freshest and finest ingredients. After two years, the couple moved John O’Groats to a larger location where it still remains to this day, almost three decades later. Due to its immense popularity, the Jacoby’s have since expanded twice – first in 1995 and then again in 2000 – but, even so, it is still quite common to see large crowds standing outside waiting for a table. Thanks to its fabulous food and proximity to 20th Century Fox Studios, the restaurant has also become a magnet for celebrities over the years. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Julia Roberts, Debra Messing, Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Ed O’Neill, Billy Baldwin, Danica McKellar, Josh Brolin, and Diane Lane.

John O’Groats has received countless culinary accolades in the press, including Zagat’s “Best Breakfast”, Esquire Magazine’s “Best Breakfast in America”, and USA Today’s “Best Power Breakfast in L.A.” – all of which are incredibly well-deserved! I am not a big breakfast person, but John O’Groats serves up some spectacular grub! The homemade biscuits, which the restaurant is famous for, are fabulous, as is the French-press coffee. The café also serves both sausage patties and sausage links, which I appreciate as I do not like links, but LOVE me some patties and most eateries only serve one or the other. Love it!

In the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Kryptonite”, John O’Groats was the eatery where Nick (Jake M. Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Winston (Lamorne Morris) discussed who was the “Top Dog” in their apartment. Our waitress informed us that the series had actually filmed on the premises twice, but I am guessing that the second taping wound up on the cutting room floor because I scanned through each of the show’s other 23 episodes and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Oprah Winfrey also taped an interview at John O’Groats with actor Jonah Hill for her 2012 Oscar Special in February of this past year.

You can watch a clip of the interview by clicking below.

Oprah Winfrey Oscar Interview with Jonah Hill at John O’Groats

And a BIG belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog! I love you more than Matt Lanter, Michael Buble and Kristin Cavallari put together, girl!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: John O’Groats restaurant, from the “Kryptonite” episode of New Girl, is located at 10516 West Pico Boulevard in the Rancho Park neighborhood of West Los Angeles. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

May 22, 2012
The Prince Restaurant from “New Girl”

One location that has been at the top of my To-Stalk list for what seems like ages now is The Prince – a historic and oft-filmed-at 1920s-era eatery located in Koreatown. And while I had never actually dined there, I had long been familiar with the place’s interior thanks to its many appearances onscreen. So when the restaurant popped up in the pilot episode of New Girl, and in pretty much every episode thereafter, I immediately recognized it and told the Grim Cheaper that we had to get down there as soon as possible to stalk the place. As it turns out, The Prince was well worth the wait because, as I mentioned a few weeks back in my Must-Stalk List, the eatery is, hands down, one of the coolest places that I have ever visited in all of Los Angeles!

[ad]

The Prince was originally opened as the Windsor Inn, an outdoor garden café located in the courtyard of the historic Windsor Apartments building, in 1927. A little over two decades later, in 1949, a man named Ben Dimsdale took over the establishment, whereupon he moved the location indoors to the first floor of the building, shortened the name to “The Windsor” and instituted a French-inspired menu. Thanks to its proximity to the legendary Ambassador hotel and its dimly-lit, gorgeous interior, it was not long before the place became one of Los Angeles’ finest eateries, serving everyone from American presidents to A-List actors. In 1991, the restaurant changed hands once again, was renamed “The Prince” and the menu given a Korean flair, but thankfully the interior was left intact and, in fact, has not been touched to this day. Love it, love it, love it!

Walking through The Prince’s front doors is like stepping back in time to some fabulous bygone era. Thanks to its dark, wood-paneled walls, plush red leather booths, and stained glass décor, it is easy to see why the place has become a favorite of location scouts over the years. As you can see below, The Prince’s interior is nothing short of spectacular.

I was absolutely gobsmacked to discover while doing research for this post that The Prince is not mentioned in ANY of my Los Angeles tour books or filming locations books! One of the coolest restaurants that I have ever set foot in, not to mention one of Southern California’s most filmed-at locales, and NOT ONE of my guidebooks even makes mention of it! HOW ON EARTH IS THAT POSSIBLE?? It is a good thing you have me, my fellow stalkers!

The GC and I opted to sit at the bar during our stalk and had the pleasure of meeting one of the restaurant’s owners, who was so beyond nice it was almost unbelievable! She chatted with us for the entire duration of our two-hour meal (I did NOT want to leave, hence our long stay ) and guided us through the eatery’s Korean-inspired menu. After ordering drinks we were given a complimentary order of chips and salsa, both of which were homemade on the premises earlier that day, as is everything (and I do mean everything) The Prince serves. After devouring the chips and salsa, which were excellent, we started our meal with an order of Pan-Fried Dumplings and my eyes just about popped out of my head when the dish arrived as the serving was absolutely HUGE! There had to be at least 16 dumplings on that plate! And, yes, they were delicious, as well!

The owner ended up convincing us to try an order of the Deep-Fried Whole Chicken, The Prince’s signature dish. After it arrived, she even taught us how to eat it Korean-style, with chopsticks(!), mixed with several sauces and slaw, and wrapped in a special thin bread that was almost like a gooey tortilla. And I can honestly say that it was AMAZING – one of the best meals, and dining experiences, that I have ever had! I cannot tell you how cool it was to partake in a foreign custom that I had been completely unfamiliar with. I cannot say enough good things about The Prince – how can you go wrong with stellar food, out-of-this-world service and an ambiance that will knock your socks off? The place is truly one of Los Angeles’ finest treasures and hands-down one of the coolest places that I have ever been to! I absolutely cannot wait to go back and I cannot more highly recommend the restaurant to my fellow stalkers. If you have only one night to dine in Los Angeles, go to The Prince.

On New Girl, The Prince is the bar where Nick (Jake M. Johnson) works and where the gang – Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston (Lamorne Morris), and Cece (Hannah Simone)- regularly hangs out.

The Windsor Apartments is also where Nick almost moved to at the end of the episode titled “See Ya”.

The interior of the Prince was used as the interior of The Brown Derby, where J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) met up with Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to discuss her husband’s death, in 1974’s Chinatown. As you can see below, the restaurant still looks exactly the same today as it did then. Love it, love it, love it!

The Prince appeared in the Season 1 episode of Mad Men tilted “Ladies Room” as the supposed Manhattan-area restaurant where Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) took their wives, Mona Sterling (Talia Balsam) and Betty Draper (January Jones), on a date.

Later in the episode, Don and Betty return to The Prince alone for dinner.

In 2005’s Thank You for Smoking, The Prince was used extensively as “Bert’s”, the supposed Washington, D.C.-area watering hole where Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), Polly Bailey (Maria Bello) and Bobby Jay Bliss (David Koechner) met on a weekly basis to discuss their strategy for giving alcohol, tobacco and firearms a better public image.

In the pilot episode of The Defenders, The Prince showed up twice as a supposed Las Vegas-area bar where Nick Morelli (James Belushi) and Pete Kaczmarek (Jerry O’Connell) grabbed drinks.

In the 2006 movie Crank, The Prince was where Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) killed Alex Verona (Jay Xcala), after first chopping off his hand.

According to The Prince’s website, the restaurant was also used in episodes of The Layover, Eagleheart, Prime Suspect, and Criminal Minds, but I was, unfortunately, unable to figure out which episodes exactly, and it will also be appearing in the yet-to-be-released movie The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Prince is located at 3198 1/2 West 7th Street, inside of the Windsor Apartments building, in Koreatown. The restaurant opens at 4 p.m. nightly and I would recommend partaking of their valet parking as the area can get a bit sketchy after dark. You can visit The Prince’s official website here.

May 21, 2012
The View from Leonard and Sheldon’s Apartment on “The Big Bang Theory”

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, while doing research on the rooftop where Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) got married in the Season 5 episode of The Big Bang Theory titled “The Countdown Reflection”, I came across a TBBT forum that was an absolute treasure trove of location information. I became so entranced by the many debates about where the photograph was taken of the view shown from Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper’s (Jim Parsons) apartment, in fact, that I completely lost track of time and failed to make dinner, so the Grim Cheaper and I ended up having to go out! (That’s a good trick, actually – I’ll have to remember that one! ) I cannot tell you how often the GC and I would pause episodes of The Big Bang Theory over the years trying to figure out from where that photograph was taken. We had both come to the conclusion long ago that the view was fake – a fictional composition of a skyline created by TBBT art department. So imagine my surprise when I read on the forum that the view was actually real! Not only that, but the photograph of it had been taken from a place that I am extremely familiar with.

[ad]

On the forum, a Pasadena resident named “JamesPMiller” posted a comment which detailed his extensive, and successful, hunt across the City of Roses trying to pinpoint the exact spot where the photograph of Leonard and Sheldon’s view was taken. The lengths that he went to during this venture are nothing short of awe-inspiring. He is a man after this stalker’s own heart, that’s for sure! As it turns out, Leonard and Sheldon’s view can be seen from the roof (or Level 6) of the parking structure of the Community Bank building on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Ironically enough, the GC has meetings at the Community Bank building on a regular basis and I frequently have to drop stuff off to him there. So when I read of the location, I really had to mentally smack myself in the forehead as it is a place that I visit almost daily. Doh! Maybe all of that blonde hair dye is truly going to my head, as the GC has long suspected. Anyway, once I learned of the location, I ran right over there to take some pics.

As you can see below, the view from the parking structure matches up perfectly to the backdrop that appears on the show. It seems that the TBBT producers digitally removed the steeple of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, which is visible in my photographs, but, other than that, the two views are identical.

The photograph of Sheldon and Leonard’s view was taken from the parking place denoted by the pink “X” in the photograph below.

The space is the seventh spot over from the southern-most end of the parking structure.

As JamesPMiller also noted in TBBT forum, the view from the apartment where Penny (Kaley Cuoco) lives was also taken from the Community Bank building parking garage roof, just a few spaces south from where Leonard and Sheldon’s backdrop picture was taken. So incredibly cool!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Big THANK YOU to JamesPMiller for finding this location! I cannot urge you enough to read the story of his search, which begins on Page 5 of The Big Bang Theory forum.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The photograph of the view from Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment on The Big Bang Theory was taken from the roof (Level 6) of the Community Bank building parking garage, which is located at 790 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Although the address is 790 East Colorado Boulevard, the entrance to the parking structure is located on South Hudson Avenue, in between East Green Street and East Colorado Boulevard. The photograph of Sheldon and Leonard’s view was taken from the seventh parking spot over from the southern-most end of the roof, and the photograph of Penny’s view was taken from the fifth parking spot over from the southern-most end of the roof.

May 18, 2012
“The Big Bang Theory” Rooftop – Where Howard and Bernadette Got Married

This past Monday evening, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to catch up on a slew of television episodes that we had backlogged over the past week, one of which was The Big Bang Theory’s “The Countdown Reflection”. In the episode, which has to be one of the cutest of the entire series, Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and longtime girlfriend, Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch), finally tie the knot on the rooftop of the building where Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) live. Well, as you can imagine, as soon as I finished watching the wedding scene, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down that rooftop. I was fairly certain that it was located somewhere in Pasadena as the Big Bang gang supposedly lives in the City of Roses and area locations appear regularly on the show. Heck, even my building was filmed once for the background of a driving scene back in 2010, although I was never able to spot it in an episode. And while Leonard and Sheldon’s address has been referred to a few times as 2311 North Los Robles Avenue, in actuality that location does not exist as Los Robles ends at the 2200 block. So thinking I would need some help with this one, I immediately texted fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write is Wrong blog, to ask for his assistance. And imagine my surprise when, at 7:30 yesterday morning, I received a text back from him with an address! Yay! When I asked how he had found the rooftop so fast, he replied, “Sheldon isn’t the only smart guy around.”

[ad]

As it turns out, one quick Google search had led Owen to the YouTube video posted below, which pinpointed the rooftop’s exact location. So, as soon as I received Owen’s text, I headed right on over there to stalk the place, after first hitting up a Starbucks, of course.

“The Big Bang Theory” Rooftop from “The Countdown Reflection” Episode

In “The Countdown Reflection”, Bernadette decides she wants to marry Howard before he takes off on his venture into space, so the two go down to the local courthouse and attempt to have a quickie ceremony. When those plans fall through, Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) suggests that they hold their wedding on Leonard and Sheldon’s rooftop that upcoming Sunday, when the Google Earth satellite will be overhead. All five of Howard and Bernadette’s closest friends – Raj, Leonard, Sheldon, Penny (Kaley Cuoco), and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) – quickly ordain themselves as ministers and, in a tear-inducing moment, perform the ceremony together.

After Howard and Bernadette seal their union with a kiss, the camera pulls away from the group and we see that Raj, who in the episode said, “If I wasn’t an astrophysicist, I would have been a party planner!”, has decorated the rooftop with a heart and arrow made out of silk. SO DARN CUTE! I literally got goose bumps when I saw it!

As the camera pulls farther away, we are given an aerial view of Leonard and Sheldon’s building and the surrounding area. And while The Big Bang rooftop and the structure located directly below it do not match up to what appeared onscreen (thanks to some CGI magic), the rest of the surrounding buildings do, as you can see below. And while Owen suggested that I rent a plane to get some actual photographs of the rooftop, until I have the means to do so, Google aerial images will have to do.

I did manage to snap some actual photographs of the front of the building, though. Interestingly enough, while doing research for today’s post, I happened to come across a Big Bang Theory forum in which member “jcc551f9n” states that he or she is fairly certain that the interior of Leonard and Sheldon’s building was based on the Brookmore Apartments located at 189 North Marengo Avenue in Pasadena. Jcc551f9n says, “I lived in the building for two years and the inside looks like the exact replica of The Big Bang Theory apartments. Exposed brick, stairwell looping around the elevator, very similar front doors as the show. And the Brookmore Apartments elevator was always broken. Even the laundry room looks the same. A number of Caltech and JPL physicists live there as well as more than one aspiring actress.” Another commenter named “ottonomy” replied to jcc551f9n’s post stating that he or she also thought the Brookmore was the inspiration for the Big Bang apartment set. He or she says, “Hmm… The Brookmore Apartments were one of the first places I considered, when trying to guess where the apartment might be. You’re spot on about the stairs and elevator. I remember delivering pizzas there in the eighties. It was run down, and the halls were lined with addicts, prostitutes, and their dealers and pimps. The renaissance of Old Pasadena had changed it by the late nineties, when I started working as a locksmith and made frequent appearances there to open locked doors for people who were better at rocket science than at keeping track of their keys. It’s amazing how much the place has improved, though the elevator was indeed not working when last I was there.” So interesting! I stopped by the Brookmore yesterday to try to sneak a peak at the elevator area through the front door, but unfortunately it was not visible. What I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that building, though!

On a The Big Bang Theory side-note – I am just a wee-bit obsessed with series star Kaley Cuoco’s recent in-flight photo shoot for CBS Watch Magazine (which is like the best magazine, ever, by the way – if you do not already have a subscription, I highly recommend getting one). The shoot, which took place during an actual flight, intrigued me for two reasons – one because I am absolutely petrified of flying and am astounded that the crew was able to pull off an entire photo shoot while aboard a 777 jet en route from New York to London.

And two, because I absolutely fell in love with Kaley’s Louis Vuitton clutch, which I am fairly certain is vintage, being that I cannot find it anywhere on the LV website. Love it, love it, love it! Why this stalker’s eye is immediately drawn to anything in that classic, brown LV pattern, I will never know, but it is – like a magnet! Oh, Grim Cheaper, are you listening? My birthday is coming up!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Stalk It: Leonard and Sheldon’s rooftop from The Big Bang Theory is located at 215 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena.

May 16, 2012
The “Perfect Strangers” Apartment Building

A few weeks ago, while perusing fave book Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here: More Locations of America’s Pop Culture Landmarks by Chris Epting (which was gifted to me by fellow stalker Lavonna – thanks, Lavonna! ), I came across a blurb about the supposed Chicago, Illinois-area apartment building where Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) and “Cousin Larry” Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) lived in the 1986 television series Perfect Strangers. As it turns out, the apartment building is not located in the Windy City at all, but right here in Downtown Los Angeles. I immediately became intrigued with the place, not because it is in L.A., nor because I was a huge fan of the series as a child, but because in the blurb Epting had stated that while the top three floors of the property had since been torn down, the bottom level remained intact and still looked much as it did on the show, which absolutely flabbergasted me! While a building being demolished in Los Angeles is, sadly, an all-too-common occurrence, only certain floors being demolished was something completely foreign to this stalker. I did some further research on the subject, though, and discovered that it is apparently a semi-common practice in L.A. when repairing buildings that suffer from earthquake damage. So incredibly odd! Deciding I just had to see the place for myself, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there a few days later.

[ad]

In real life, the Perfect Strangers building was known as the Santa Rita Hotel and it consisted of four stories, as you can see below. Thankfully, despite the fact that the top three floors are now missing, the bottom level does still have some semi-recognizable elements from what appeared onscreen. The shape and layout of the fictional Ritz Discount store, where the cousins worked on the show, remains largely as it was during the filming, as do the protruding lip and grey line that run the length of the building.

Standing there, looking at the structure, I was absolutely perplexed that it used to stand at four stories tall. I still cannot fathom how in the heck the top levels were knocked down without damaging the bottom floor in the process. But that is why I am a stalker and not an architect. Amazingly enough, even though it appeared to be quite beautiful, I could not find any information whatsoever online about the building, its history, or its partial demolition. If I had to guess, though, I would say that the edifice was damaged during the Northridge Earthquake in 1994 and was demolished at some point shortly thereafter. But, again, that is just a guess. You can check out a 1939’s-era photograph of the Santa Rita Hotel on the USC Libraries website here. And you can check out a great write-up on the location by a Perfect Strangers aficionado named John Corbett here.

Thanks to another of John’s write-ups, I learned that the Santa Rita Hotel was only used as Larry and Balki’s apartment building during Seasons 1 and 2. For Seasons 3 through 6 a different, but similar-looking structure, located at 326-34 West Dickens Avenue/2100-10 North Clark Street in Lincoln Park, Chicago, was used. A screen capture of that building is pictured below.

As John also pointed out in his post, oddly enough, in the nighttime establishing shots of the building a sign reading “Caldwell Hotel” is visible. I am fairly certain, though, that that sign was just a prop, as was the case with the “Ritz Discount” sign.

Because Perfect Strangers was a sit-com that was shot in front of a live studio audience, only the exterior of the Santa Rita Hotel was used in the filming. The interior of Larry and Balki’s apartment was just a set that existed inside of a soundstage at Lorimar (now Sony) Studios.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Perfect Strangers apartment building is located at 1100 South Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

May 15, 2012