Famous houses – Page 17 – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 20, 2011May 19, 2011

The “She’s Out of Control” House

Last week I enlisted fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, to help me find locations from the 1989 teen comedy She’s Out of Control. Now I should mention here that while I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED She’s Out of Control growing up, according to the movie’s IMDB trivia page film critic Gene Siskel detested it so much that he actually considered quitting his job after viewing it! LOL In truth, the flick is one of my very favorite 80s movies of all time, so how Gene could hate it that much is absolutely beyond me!

I mean, how can you go wrong with a movie that features performances by both a very young Dustin Diamond (aka Screech from Saved by the Bell!) . . .

. . . AND Mr. Chandler Bing himself, Matthew Perry?!? Sheesh! I don’t even want to know what choice words Gene would have for that other favorite 80s movie of mine Girls Just Want To Have Fun!

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Anyway, Chas being the great guy that he is immediately added the DVD to his Netflix queue (even though it is unequivocally a chick flick) and it arrived in his mailbox just a few days later. He watched the movie shortly after receiving it and, amazingly enough, somehow managed to track down the house belonging to the Simpson Family – Doug (aka Tony Danza), Katie (aka Ami Dolenz), and Bonnie (aka Laura Mooney) – that very same night! The abode was, of course, the location that I was most interested in stalking, so I could not have been more excited when he gave me the news and I ran right out to stalk the place the very next morning. Yay!

I had fallen in love with the Simpson house the first time I watched She’s Out of Control over two decades ago and I am very happy to report that it is just as cute and charming in person as it appeared to be onscreen.

And while I had originally thought that the real life interior of the residence was used in the movie, that does not actually seem to be the case. I happened to find these interior photographs of the house online and, as you can see in the above screen captures as compared with this interior image as well as this one, the stairwell which appeared onscreen does not match that of the actual house.

The real life kitchen and living room areas also do not seem to match their onscreen counterparts.

While doing some internet research on the property yesterday morning, I was shocked to discover that the very same dwelling also popped up as the residence where Laurie Strode (aka Scout Taylor-Compton) babysat Tommy Doyle (aka Skyler Gisondo) in the 2007 Rob-Zombie-directed remake of the horror film Halloween.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location! Smile You can check out Chas’ detailed She’s Out of Control filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Simpson house from She’s Out of Control is located at 1960 La France Avenue in South Pasadena. Here is a map link to that location.

May 19, 2011May 20, 2011

The Cravens Estate from “Commander in Chief”

As I mentioned a few weeks back, because of my love for Matt Lanter, the Grim Cheaper and I recently purchased and sat down to watch the first – and only – season of the short-lived television series Commander in Chief, on which the cutie actor portrayed the role of First Son Horace Calloway. I absolutely fell in love with the show and immediately started creating a list of locations to stalk from it, the most important being Pasadena’s former Cravens Estate, now the American Red Cross’ San Gabriel Pomona Valley Headquarters, which was used several times to stand in for the White House on the series. And as soon as the GC and I finished watching the final episode, I dragged my dad right on out to stalk the place. I have actually written about the Cravens Estate once before, back in July of 2008 just a few months after I first started my blog, but it was a very brief post and did not include any photographs of the interior of the property. So, I figured the place was definitely worthy of a re-post.

The Cravens Estate was originally built in 1930 for Mr. John S. Cravens and his wife Mildred and was designed by San Francisco-area architect Lewis P. Hobart, who was also responsible for constructing the City by the Bay’s Grace Episcopal Cathedral and the Crocker Building on Market Street. After migrating to Pasadena in 1900, the Cravens first commissioned an English-style mansion to be built on a 16-acre plot of land on what was then known as “Millionaires’ Row”. Three decades later, after vacationing in France, the couple decided to tear down their existing abode and build a new one based upon the design of the the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte, located just south of Paris. That new manse became known as the Cravens Estate and it cost a whopping $310,000 to construct, making it one of Pasadena’s most expensive homes at the time. After the Cravens, who had no children, passed away in the 1940s, the property went through a succession of owners until finally being donated to the American Red Cross in 1962, whereupon it became their San Gabriel Pomona Valley Headquarters. The mansion is both a Pasadena Cultural Landmark and a Landmark of Historical Significance. In 2010, it was chosen to be used as the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, whereupon numerous designers came in and completely restored the property, which had lost a bit of its luster over the years, back to its original grandeur.

When I originally dragged my dad out to stalk the estate, I was hoping that we might be allowed to take a quick peek at the interior of the property and snap a few pictures. Well, imagine my surprise when the SUPER-nice receptionist said that if we were interested we could schedule a full-blown tour of the building. If we were interested? IF WE WERE INTERESTED??? Um, heck yes, we were interested!!! So I immediately scheduled a tour and dragged my dad back out to the estate once again just a few days later. What we ended up being given, though, was not what I had expected at all. Our SUPER-nice tour guide was extremely excited over how much I already knew about the estate and my enthusiasm for its filming history, so she wound up taking us on a TWO-AND-A-HALF-HOUR excursion through the property during which she showed us its every nook and cranny, including the attic area, the servants’ quarters and the basement. I can honestly say that it was one of the best stalking experiences of my life! Even my dad enjoyed it! The estate, which boasts four levels, 50 rooms, and just under 20,000 square feet of living space, is an absolutely remarkable piece of property! Pictured above is the entryway, which features hand-painted murals depicting the grounds of the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte.

Our tour included the Cravens Estate’s reception room;

dining room;

Mrs. Cravens’ former sitting room;

a sun room;

the media room;

one of the original bathrooms;

the upstairs balcony;

the bridal room;

Mrs. Cravens’ original closet;

and the back side of the estate.

The area of the home that I was most excited about seeing, though, was the kitchen, which stood in for the White House Residence’s kitchen on the first few episodes of Commander in Chief.

The Cravens Estate kitchen was actually remodeled in 2010 for the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, but thankfully, as you can see above, it still looks very much the same as it did on the series.

We also got to see one of the property’s upstairs rooms . . .

. . . which was featured on Commander in Chief as the office of First Gentleman Rod Calloway (aka Kyle Secor).

And we were shown the central stairwell and glass-plated dome area . . .

. . . which popped up in the series as a White House stairwell in the episode titled “The Price You Pay”.

I just about died when our tour guide said I could pose for a picture on that very same stairwell. LOVE IT!

The exterior of the Cravens Estate also appeared in “The Price You Pay” episode as a supposed Washington, D.C.-area restaurant where President Mackenzie Calloway (aka Geena Davis) and her husband, Rod, take Attorney General nominee Carl Brantley (aka Alan Arkin) and his wife, Sue (aka Elizabeth Dennehy), out for dinner.

The Cravens Estate was also used extensively as Dalton Academy during this past season of Glee – a show which has gotten so bad that I can hardly bear to watch it anymore. Anyway, it first showed up in the Season 2 episode titled “Never Been Kissed” in the scene in which Kurt Hummel (aka Chris Colfer) spies on a rival Glee club known as the Warblers. Kurt later transfers to Dalton and joins the Warblers, after which time the estate was featured regularly on the series. Areas of the estate which appeared on the show include the central staircase;

the entryway;

the reception room;

and the dining room.

The Cravens Estate was also featured weekly as the supposed Falls Church, Virginia-area JAG headquarters on the television series of the same name. According to the official Cravens Estate website, JAG producer Donald P. Bellisario used to regularly receive letters from fans stating that they had searched high and low for the property while on stalking expeditions in Falls Church, Virginia, not realizing that it was actually located right here in Pasadena.

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The Cravens Estate was also used extensively as the Silverberg & Blake law firm where Robert Clayton Dean (aka Will Smith) worked in the 1998 thriller Enemy of the State. Areas which appeared in the movie include the exterior;

the dining room;

the central stairway;

and the same upstairs room that was used as Rod Calloway’s office on Commander in Chief.

In the 2001 movie Swordfish, the estate was where Stanley Jobson’s (aka Hugh Jackman’s) daughter, Holly (aka Camryn Grimes), went to school.

The back of the estate stood in for the French Consulate where a limo was bombed towards the beginning of the 2007 flick Rush Hour 3.

The estate’s reception room also appeared in Rush Hour 3.

According to the book The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, the above-pictured scene from the 2001 movie Traffic, in which Robert Wakefield (aka Michael Douglas) is briefed by the White House Chief of Staff (aka Albert Finney), was filmed in a room at the Cravens Estate, although because only a tight shot of it was shown, I am not able to verify this or make a guess as to the exact room where filming took place.

The estate was also where Chauncey Gardiner (aka Peter Sellers) and Eve Rand (aka Shirley MacLaine) attended a cocktail party in the 1979 movie Being There.

The estate also stood in for the University of Minnesota dorm where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty) briefly lived in the Season 4 episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “So Long, Auf Wiedersehen” and “The Girl from New York”.

In the Season 5 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Look Into Their Eyes and You See What They Know”, the estate stood in for Beecher Academy, where Edie Britt’s (aka Nicolette Sheridan’s) son Travers (aka Stephen Lunsford) attended school. After Edie’s death, the women of Wisteria Lane – Bree Hodge (aka Marcia Cross), Lynette Scavo (aka Felicity Huffman), Gabrielle Solis (aka Eva Longoria), Susan Mayer (aka Teri Hatcher), and Karen McCluskey (aka Kathryn Joosten) – travel to the school in order to bring Edie’s ashes to Travers.

The entryway of the Cravens Estate was transformed into a restaurant in the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “The Gypsy and the Hobo” for the scene in which Roger Sterling (aka John Slattery) takes Annabelle Mathis (aka Mary Page Keller, who, ironically enough, also had a recurring role on Commander in Chief) out for dinner.

Fellow stalker/Jennifer Love Hewitt-aficionado Owen also let me know that the estate appeared as Parkdale Academy in the Season 4 episode of Ghost Whisperer titled “Delusions of Grandview”.

Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used quite extensively in the episode.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The American Red Cross’ San Gabriel Pomona Valley Headquarters, aka the Cravens Estate from Commander in Chief, is located at 430 Madeline Drive in Pasadena. Here is a map link to the location. You can visit the property’s official website here. If you would like a tour of the estate, please call to schedule an appointment first.

May 18, 2011May 17, 2011

Meredith’s House from “The Office”

Another location from the Season 7 episode of The Office titled “Michael’s Last Dundies” that fellow stalker Owen tracked down recently was the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area dwelling belonging to the series’ resident alcoholic/hussy/all-around slob Meredith Palmer (aka Kate Flannery), which just so happened to be the locale that I was most interested in stalking! Owen had spotted an address number of “14142” on the roof above Meredith’s porch while watching the episode and figured that the property had to be located in close proximity to Toby’s house, which I blogged about yesterday. And he was right! He ended up finding the place just two and a half blocks west of Toby’s abode. So, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over to stalk the place, just a few minutes after visiting Toby’s house, two weekends ago.

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In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and new manager-in-training Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell) drop by Meredith’s house at six o’clock in the morning while out delivering the Dundie Award nomination certificates. Upon first approaching the dilapidated property, Michael says, “I’ve never seen this place in the daylight!”, to which Deangelo replies, “This reminds me of Katrina!” LOL LOL LOL

When they arrive at Meredith’s front door, they find it not only unlocked, but ajar.

A few seconds later, Meredith comes meandering up the driveway, shoes in hand, and exclaims, “I’m so busted! Walk of shame!” She then invites Michael and Deangelo inside for breakfast, saying, “I have Vienna sausages and I have . . . napkins.” LOL When Deangelo announces, “I’m not going in there!”, Michael shuts the door quietly and the two sneak off the property. It should come as no surprise to regular viewers of the series that Meredith goes on to win the “Best Mom” Dundie award later that night. LOL

Before arriving at Meredith’s house, I had no idea what on earth to expect as I was not sure if the property had been dressed to appear run-down onscreen or if it actually looked that way in real life. Well, as you can see in the above photographs, amazingly enough, the house looks just as bad in person as it did onscreen, if not worse! When I emailed the above-pictured photographs to fellow stalker/Office aficionado Lavonna, she immediately wrote back asking, “So the house just looks like that????? I thought it had been decorated for the filming!!!!” LOL The Office location scouts must have been beyond ELATED upon discovering the residence and realizing that they would not have to change ANYTHING prior to filming. As Chelsea Handler would say, “Nailed it!”

While there, I, of course, just had to reenact Meredith’s walk of shame by posing with my shoes in my hand. Winking smile

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Meredith’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 14142 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to the location. Toby’s house from that same episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 5752 Calhoun Avenue, also in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location. Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location.

May 17, 2011May 16, 2011

Toby’s House from “The Office”

The night of April 28th, 2011 was one of the saddest nights I have experienced as of late due to the fact that it marked Steve Carell’s final appearance on fave show The Office. In the days leading up to the airing of his last episode, which was titled “Goodbye, Michael”, I had a fairly large pit in my stomach as I felt like I was gearing up to say goodbye to a good friend, which, in a way, I guess I was. Michael Scott is one of my all-time favorite characters in television history and the fact that he will no longer be visiting my living room each and every Thursday night is seriously depressing. I felt the exact same way when Sex and the City went off the air in February of 2004, but I digress. Anyway, even though I was absolutely dreading it, I was hoping that Michael’s last episode would be a spectacular one, but I have to say that I wound up being sorely disappointed. I felt that both Michael Scott and Steve Carell deserved a much bigger, much more sentimental send-off than what they actually received. I did, however, absolutely LOVE the episode titled “Michael’s Last Dundies”, which aired the week prior to “Goodbye, Michael”, in which the Dunder Mifflin team gathered together to attend the annual Dundie Awards. I thought the episode was a much more appropriate farewell for a man who meant so much to so many people during the past seven years that The Office has been on the air. So when fellow stalker Owen told me that he had tracked down almost all of the locations featured in it – including the house belonging to Michael’s nemesis, Toby Flenderson (aka Paul Lieberstein) – I just about died of excitement and ran right out to stalk them all that very weekend.

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In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott and Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell), Dunder Mifflin’s new Scranton Branch manager-in-training, venture out to all of the Dunder Mifflin employees’ houses – at six in the morning, no less! – to deliver the much-coveted Dundie Award Nominations. After waking up Jim Halpert (aka cutie John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), and seriously angering the series’ resident grouch Stanley Hudson (aka Leslie David Baker), Michael and Deangelo head to Toby’s house. When they arrive, instead of ringing the doorbell and presenting the human resources director with a nomination certificate, Michael yells out, “Toby, you suck!” and then proceeds to throw eggs at his front porch, which causes Deangelo to ask, “Is this an employee of ours?” LOL LOL LOL

During the episode, Owen had spotted an address number of “5752” on the wall of Toby’s house and figured the property had to be located somewhere in close proximity to Jim and Pam’s residence in Van Nuys. And, sure enough, he was right! He ended up finding Toby’s house just a few blocks southwest of Jim and Pam’s.

Sadly, the real life owner of Toby’s house recently installed a rather large fence around the perimeter of the property, which not only completely changed the look of the place, but also made it quite difficult to take pictures. So I must say that this was one stalk that ended up being quite disappointing. I did get to talk to the owner of the property while I was there, though, and he truly could NOT have been nicer and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of the episode. He informed me that it took about two hours to film the segment, which ended up lasting about ten seconds onscreen.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Toby Flenderson’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 5752 Calhoun Avenue in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location. Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location.

May 13, 2011May 12, 2011

Marco Salazar’s Pretend House from “90210”

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, located directly across the street from the house belonging to Marla Templeton (aka Sally Kellerman) on fave show 90210 is the mansion where Marco Salazar (aka Freddie Smith) pretended to live in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Women On The Verge”. So after stalking Marla’s home this past Saturday afternoon, the Grim Cheaper and I walked right on over to Marco’s faux abode to snap a few pics of the place. I found this location, yet again, thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who somehow managed to track the residence down long before the “Woman On The Verge” episode even aired. How did he do that, you ask? Well, this past March, one of the directors of 90210, whom Geoff follows on Twitter (@90210director), tweeted a photograph of the mansion while he was doing some editing of the show. Geoff took one look at that photograph and immediately set about trying to find the place. And find it, he did – that very day. Being that the picture that @90210director tweeted showed an extremely limited view of the property, I was absolutely SHOCKED when Geoff emailed me to let me know that he had found it. Especially considering that he found it in Bel Air, which is the absolute LAST place on earth that I ever would have thought to look. Due to the mansion’s newer-looking construction, I would have assumed that it was located somewhere in the Encino area, so my hat is DEFINITELY off to Geoff on this one!

Marco’s faux residence is actually not just a filming location, but a former celebrity home as well. According to my good friend E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, the property was where legendary singer Peggy Lee, of “Fever” and “Why Don’t You Do Right” fame, lived during her later years and was also where the crooner sadly passed away on January 21, 2002 after suffering from a heart attack.

Sadly though, as you can see in the above aerial view, the property has been extensively remodeled in recent years and no longer looks the same as it did when Peggy Lee lived there. In real life, the Tuscan-style mansion, which was originally built in 1969, boasts 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, and a whopping 6,052 square feet of living space.

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The property first popped up towards the beginning of the “Woman On The Verge” episode of 90210, in the scene in which Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan) picks up his new boyfriend, Marco, whom he believes lives on the premises, for a date.

Later on in the episode, Teddy returns to the mansion in order to confront Marco after discovering that he has been lying to him about his whereabouts. It is then that Teddy meets the home’s actual owner and learns that Marco does not, in fact, live there at all, but that his mother is employed at the property as a housekeeper. Can you say drama?!?

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Marco Salazar’s pretend house from 90210 is located at 11404 Bellagio Road in Bel Air. Here is a link to the property’s location on Bing Maps. (Special thanks to fellow stalker John, from the Bay Area, who suggested that I include a map link in all of my posts, which I will be doing from this point forward. Smile ) Marla Templeton’s house from 90210 is located just across the street from Marco’s at 542 Bellagio Terrace. Here is a map link to that location.

May 2, 2011April 29, 2011

The Newhall Mansion from “Charmed”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I visited two Saturdays ago while doing some stalking in the Heritage Valley area was the Newhall Mansion, formerly the Piru Mansion, which fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, had told me about a few weeks prior. The Newhall Mansion has appeared in countless productions over the years, most notably the Season 2 episode of Charmed titled “How To Make a Quilt Out of Americans” and Chas figured that because my girl Shannen Doherty had once been there, I might be interested in stalking the place. Oh, how right he was!

The Newhall Mansion was originally built in 1889 by David C. Cook, the founder of the town of Piru. Cook, a wealthy religious book publisher who hailed from Elgin, Illinois, first came to Piru in 1887 after becoming afflicted with a debilitating coughing illness. Doctors suggested that he move to a more temperate climate to ease his lungs and he found that climate in Piru. He purchased 12,000 acres of unincorporated land in the Santa Clara River Valley and in 1887 he built the Colonial-Revival-style property pictured above. That residence is now a bed and breakfast known as the Heritage Valley Inn and it made a brief appearance in 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie.

In 1889, Cook commissioned a new home to be built, this one in the Queen-Anne-style, on a parcel of land located just a few blocks up the road from his first home. Although it is not known for sure, it is largely believed that the architectural firm of Joseph and Cather Newsom designed the 12,000-square-foot abode. Cook wanted his new home to be a “second Garden of Eden” and had the grounds surrounding the mansion planted with only those fruits and plants mentioned in the Bible, including dates, pomegranates, figs, apricots, olives, and grapes. Although it was considered to be grand for its day, the original mansion had no electricity, running water, or even bathrooms! Occupants had to use a three-hole outhouse located on a walking path a few yards up the road from the home whenever nature called! Yikes! In 1968, the property was purchased by Scott and Ruth Newhall, owners of The Newhall Signal newspaper. Soon after the couple inherited some money and in 1981 decided to use it to renovate their historic home, but sadly tragedy struck. In February of that year, one of the workers who had been hired to paint the property made the unfortunate decision of using a blowtorch to burn off the home’s numerous layers of old paint. The 92-year-old structure immediately caught fire and burned to the ground. Thanks to a solid insurance policy, the Newhalls were able to rebuild the gutted residence and, using old photographs and workers who had maintained the property over the years as guides, they reconstructed the mansion in the exact form in which it was originally built. In 2003, the home was sold to another member of the Newhall family, David Newhall Hill, who spent the next 6 years renovating and updating it, adding state-of-the-art heating and air conditioning, a security system, and a fire safety system consisting of on-site emergency water tanks and built-in rooftop rain birds. Today, the 4-story home, which sits on over 10 acres of land, boasts 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and – count ‘em! – 8 fireplaces and is currently for sale for a cool $2.7 million. According to the real estate listing, the property generates over $65,000 a year in film and rental income, so it almost pays for itself!

The GC and I randomly caught a great glimpse of the back side of the property while stalking the trailer park from Burlesque, which I blogged about last Thursday.

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In the “How To Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode of Charmed, the Newhall Mansion stood in for the home of Gail (aka Anne Haney), the evil aunt of the Charmed Ones – Prue (aka Shannen Doherty), Piper (aka Holly Marie Combs), and Phoebe (aka Alyssa Milano).

In the Season 6 episode of The X-Files titled “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”, the Newhall Mansion was used extensively as the haunted house belonging to Maurice (aka Edward Asner) and Lydia (aka Lily Tomlin) in which Fox Mulder (aka David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (aka Gillian Anderson) get trapped one dark and stormy Christmas Eve night. Scanning through the episode to make screen captures for today’s post I was reminded of what a great show The X-Files was! Man, I used to love it – and its star, Mr. David Duchovny. Until he went to rehab for sex addiction, that is! Sad smile

In the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Of Ghosts and Angels”, the Newhall Mansion stood in for the haunted home belonging to Tiffany Welles’ (aka Shelley Hack’s) childhood friend, Erica Burke (aka Robin Mattson).

The mansion also supposedly appeared in two episodes of the original Melrose Place– the Season 7 episodes titled “Lethal Wedding 4” and “When Cheerleaders Attack”. It was apparently used as the wedding location of Dr. Peter Burns (aka Jack Wagner) and Eve Cleary (aka Rena Sofer), but because I have never seen those episodes and because Season 7 is not yet available on DVD, I was not able to verify that. According to the official Newhall Mansion website, the property has also appeared in episodes of Monk, Murder, She Wrote, The Incredible Hulk, Payne, Ping!, and Reno 911.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Newhall Mansion from Charmed is located at 829 North Park Street in Piru. You can visit the mansion’s official website here. Tours of the property are offered the first weekend of each month. You can catch a glimpse of the back side of the mansion from Warring Canyon Road, just north of Center Street, near the trailer park from Burlesque, which I blogged about last Thursday.

April 18, 2011April 17, 2011

The Upton Sinclair House

Last weekend while doing some research on the net, the Grim Cheaper discovered that a home in Monrovia where legendary author/screenwriter/movie producer/politician Upton Sinclair had once lived was currently for sale. So, while I was in the area visiting my parents this past Friday afternoon, I just had to go stalk it. For those who never had the pleasure of a required reading list in high school, Upton Sinclair was the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of over 90 titles, the most famous of which was 1906’s best-seller The Jungle, a fictional, but truthful account of America’s meat packing industry during the turn of the century. I read the tome during the summer before my junior year of high school and even though it was easily one of the worst books I have ever read – like in my entire life! – I will always have a very special place in my heart for it as the day I started reading it a HUGE, white Himalayan cat appeared out of nowhere on the doorstep of my then-home. Thinking he had run away from a nearby house, my mom and I put signs all around our neighborhood announcing that we had found a lost cat. When no one claimed him after a week my parents said we could keep him and I could NOT have been more excited. In that weeklong interim, though, we kept him in one of our downstairs bedrooms, secluded from the rest of the house, as we had another cat and were afraid the two would not get along. I literally spent every waking moment of those seven days in that downstairs room, all the while reading The Jungle. I read that entire book with him by my side and even though Norman, as we came to name him, passed away six years ago, every time I see The Jungle on my bookshelf I think of him and our first week together. So when the GC told me that Upton Sinclair’s house was located just up the street from my parent’s new apartment, I could not have been more excited and just had to go stalk it.

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And I am so glad that I did! The Spanish-Colonial-Revival-style property, which boasts 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, and 2,380 square feet of living space, was originally built in 1923. The home was designed by Frederick H. Wallis, the Los Angeles-area architect who, along with his partner Samuel Tilden Norton, constructed the Los Angeles Theatre, the William Fox Building, and the Los Angeles Financial Center. Upton Sinclair lived in the residence from 1942 to 1966 and, in the writing studio that he had converted from a garage, penned his Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel Dragon’s Teeth, as well as numerous other tomes. That studio has since been transformed into a guest house, but according to this San Gabriel Valley Tribune article, the special fireproof vault that he had built to house his many manuscripts is still intact. The residence is a Monrovia Historic Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It is currently for sale for a cool $1,195,000.

Of the home, Sinclair once said that it had the “perfect peace to write in . . . a garden path to walk up and down while I planned the next paragraph”. And I have to say that he was right – the property is truly idyllic. While I was there, all that could be heard were the sounds of birds chirping and a soft breeze rustling the trees. There was also an owl hooting away somewhere on the property – I kid you not. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to live in this home and have my own garden path to stroll along while contemplating the next paragraph for my blog each day! Something tells me that the GC would never go for the $1.2 million price tag, though. I’m guessing he would make me give up my Starbucks addiction if we were to buy this place. Winking smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Upton Sinclair house is located at 464 North Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia. You can visit the home’s real estate listing here.

April 12, 2011April 11, 2011

Trish’s House from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”

Two weeks ago, on the recommendation of fellow stalker Owen, the Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down to watch the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I have no idea why we avoided seeing the flick for as long as we did, but I have to say that we both ended up absolutely loving it. It’s sweet, light-hearted, and laugh-out-loud funny. It seems that not everyone was a fan, though. A few months back, fellow stalker Lavonna, who is a major Steve Carell aficionado, told me an absolutely hilarious story about The 40-Old-Virgin that I just have to share! Apparently, and unbeknownst to her, Lavonna’s husband decided to watch the movie while he was home by himself one day. He never mentioned anything about it to Lavonna, but when their daughter Melissa went to watch the flick a few weeks later she opened up the DVD box to find a note taped inside which read, “I want that two hours of my life back! – Dad” LOL LOL LOL Love it! That so sounds like something my father would do!

Anyway, when fellow stalker Owen told me that he had tracked down the residence where Andy Stitzer’s (aka Steve Carell’s) girlfriend, Trish (aka Catherine Keener), lived in the flick – along with pretty much every other locale used in the movie – I dragged the GC right on out to stalk the place. Thank you, Owen!

Sadly, Trish’s house has become a bit run-down since the filming of The 40-Year-Old Virgin took place back in 2005. While the property was pretty adorable in the movie, the paint is now, unfortunately, faded and peeling, the front yard has become quite overgrown, and weeds are currently growing through the many cracks in the driveway. Such a shame! The residence was just sold this past November, though, so I am hoping that the new owner will give the place some much-needed TLC and restore it back to its onscreen condition.

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One VERY odd thing that I noticed after I returned home and scanned through the movie was that the home’s front door seems to have been moved since filming took place. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, in The 40-Year-Old Virgin the front door was located perpendicular to the street, facing the apartment building next door, but it has since been moved kitty-corner to where it used to be and is now situated facing the street. Very, very strange!

I think the inside of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was also used in the flick. Either that or producers modeled the set of Trish’s residence very closely to that of the home’s real life interior.

The home’s real life backyard also appeared in the flick during the montage scene which showed Andy and Trish’s first twenty dates.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Trish’s house from The 40-Year-Old Virgin is located at 4433 Cartwright Avenue in Toluca Lake.

April 8, 2011April 7, 2011

The Other “Catch Me If You Can” House

A few years ago during an acting class, my very favorite acting teacher, Annie, happened to mention that the Catch Me If You Can house was located just around the corner from where she then lived in Studio City. She said she had been walking her dogs one afternoon back in 2002 and had stumbled upon a scene from the movie being filmed at a large, Colonial-style house that producers had dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow. Well, her story had me thoroughly confused as I knew that the large, Colonial-style house where Frank Abagnale Jr.’s (aka Leonardo DiCaprio’s) mother, Paula (aka Nathalie Baye), lived in the flick, which was dressed in Christmas décor and covered with fake snow for a scene, was located on East California Boulevard in Pasadena. Annie insisted, though, that the house was located in Studio City and that she had watched much of the filming take place. I didn’t think much of it at the time and figured it was just a case of producers scrapping one location for another mid-shoot, as has been known to happen sometimes during the course of a production. It wasn’t until I was scanning through Catch Me If You Can back in March to make screen captures for my post on the Barclay Hotel that I realized that, as incredible as it may sound, there were actually TWO large, Colonial-style homes that had been dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow in the flick! As it turns out, the house Annie had told me about appeared briefly in the very beginning of the movie as the supposed New Rochelle, New York-area residence where Frank Jr. lived with his parents before they lost all of their money.

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Once I realized that the house that Annie had told our class about had, in fact, appeared in the movie, I immediately got to work in tracking it down. I knew where Annie’s former residence was located, so it was just a matter of searching around her neighborhood for the property. Thanks to the home’s distinct corner location, it was not very hard to find. And I dragged the GC right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend. The Catch Me If You Can house is quite charming in person and is situated on an absolutely HUGE corner lot which measures .38 of an acre. And while the landscaping in front of it has changed quite a bit since filming took place, it is still very recognizable from the movie.

The residence appeared in two scenes in the movie. It first popped up in the scene in which Frank Abagnale Sr. (aka Christopher Walken) and his wife Paula dance in their living room after attending an awards ceremony at the local Rotary Club.

And it later appears in the scene in which the family is shown moving out of the house after having fallen upon hard times.

And, as you can see in these photographs of the home, the real life interior, including the living room area . . .

. . .and one of the bedrooms, was used in the filming.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frank’s parents’ house from the beginning of Catch Me If You Can is located at 12075 Valleyheart Drive in Studio City.

April 4, 2011April 3, 2011

Liam Court’s House from “90210”

This past Thursday afternoon, while out running some errands in the Hancock Park area, I decided to do a little stalking of the residence where Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!) lives on fave show 90210. I found this location thanks to Geoff at the 90210 Locations website who posted the information way back in October of 2009. And even though I do seriously love me some Matt Lanter, for whatever reason it took me almost a year and half to get out to stalk the place.

Geoff actually first found this location shortly after it appeared in the Season 1 episode of the new Melrose Place titled “Windsor” in which it was used as the spot where Lauren Yung (aka Stephanie Jacobsen) caught David Breck (aka Shaun Sipos) stealing jewelry. Geoff had an inkling that the manse was located in the Hancock Park area as he had just tracked down the house belonging to Michael Mancini (aka Thomas Calabro) on the series in that same vicinity. Because the estate is so incredibly large and distinct-looking, it did not take him long to find it using aerial views. Then, as fate would have it, someone emailed him a screen cap of Liam’s house just a few days later and asked if he might be able to track it down. He, of course, recognized the place immediately. It is so funny to me that two such closely-related CW shows would use the very same house in episodes that aired within a month of each other. But that’s Hollywood for you. Winking smile

In real life, the estate is known as the Ahmanson Mansion as, during the years 1958 through 1968, it belonged to Howard F. Ahmanson Sr., the prominent Los Angeles philanthropist who founded Home Savings and Loan, which for a time was the largest savings and loan association in America. You can see a photograph of Mr. Ahmanson standing inside the mansion on the Find A Grave website here. The impressive property, which was originally built in 1929, boasts 7 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a large pool, a tennis/basketball court, a four-car garage, a carriage house, 14,071 square feet of living space, and a 1.5 acre plot of land. It is an absolutely magnificent home and it is not very hard to see why it ended up being used on 90210.

Liam’s house first showed up in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “To Sext or Not to Sext”.

For whatever reason, though, producers chose not to use the front view of the house for the establishing shot shown on the series, but instead chose to use a view of the side of the property.

The real life interior of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was used in the episode, as well.

And the home’s tennis/basketball court, which you can see a photograph of here, was also used in the “To Sext or Not to Sext” episode as the spot where Ryan Matthews (aka Ryan Eggold) and Harry Wilson (aka Rob Estes) played basketball and discussed Ryan’s relationship with Jen Clark (aka Sara Foster).

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The Ahmanson Mansion was also used as the residence belonging to Francis Buxton (aka Mark Holton) in 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

The real life interior of the house also appeared in the movie, as well.

Although I am fairly certain that Francis’ humongous bathtub was most likely just a set.

The Ahmanson Mansion was also featured in several Season 4 episodes of the television series Falcon Crest and in the 1990 Jackie Collins’ mini-series Lucky Chances.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff from the 90210 Locations website for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ahmanson Mansion, aka Liam Court’s house from 90210, is located at 401 South Hudson Avenue in Hancock Park. The view of the house shown on 90210 can be seen from West 4th Street.