Famous houses – Page 29 – IAMNOTASTALKER

September 11, 2009September 15, 2009

Kirsten Dunst’s Bring It On House

Well, as Vanessa Williams once sang, I definitely “saved the best for last” regarding my Bring It On posts this week. As you might have already guessed, the BIO filming location I was most excited about stalking was, of course, the ultra-cool, modern-style abode belonging to Kirsten Dunst’s character, Torrance Shipman, in the movie. Fellow stalker Owen found this location by, again, getting a hold of a Bring It On crew member who remembered that the house was located on a cul-de-sac about twenty-five miles north of San Diego in a small beach community named Cardiff-by-the-Sea. Owen got to cyber-stalking and, sure enough, found the house pretty much immediately. So, on our way home from San Diego this past Saturday morning, I dragged my parents out to Cardiff-by-the-Sea to stalk the house. And, let me tell you, the stalking gods were definitely smiling down on me that day, because when we pulled up to the house the owners happened to be standing outside and they ended up giving us a TOUR OF THEIR HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 But I’ll get to that in a minute.

When I first hopped out of the car, camera in hand, and noticed the owners standing outside, I asked them if their house had been used in Bring It On and they said, “You found us!” LOL The owners honestly could NOT have been nicer and literally talked to us for over twenty minutes and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming. They also told us all sorts of cool behind-the-scenes information, like the fact that the movie was originally titled Cheer Fever and that the flick was not expected to be released in theatres, but to instead go straight to DVD. No one had any idea it would turn out to be such a huge hit! The owner, Cindy, also told us that producers were considering three different houses in the area to stand in as Torrance’s home in the movie – hers, one just around the corner, and another in Point Loma. They ended up choosing Cindy’s because they liked the fact that it was located on a cul-de-sac. So interesting! Then, when I asked Cindy if she had gotten to meet Kirsten Dunst during the filming, she said “Hold on a minute!”, ran inside, and grabbed a photo album that she had made of the shoot!!!! It was at that point that I just about keeled over from excitement!!! 🙂

As you can probably imagine, I was absolutely mesmerized by Cindy’s photo album! It contained numerous pictures of the filming, including candid photographs of the actors hanging out on set and getting their make-up done, and photographs of the house being dressed up for the shoot. Cindy told us that producers actually changed the front of her home quite significantly for the filming. In real life, the home has two separate garages – a single car garage on the right hand side and a two car garage on the left. For a reason that she was unsure of, set dressers built a false exterior to cover up the two-car garage, as you can see in the above photograph. They also added a significant amount of foliage in front of that fake exterior, I am guessing to hide that part of the driveway.

One part of the home that was not changed for the movie was the little circular address plaque situated on the front of the single car garage. Yay!! I so loved seeing that! 🙂

Another cool tidbit of information that Cindy told me what that prior to the filming of Bring It On, she did not have a bench in her front porch area. But when producers brought one in for the shoot, Cindy and her husband really liked how it looked and ended up purchasing one to put in the exact same spot where Jesse Bradford sat in the above scene. Love it!

Included in Cindy’s Bring It On scrapbook were pictures of the interior of her home all dressed up for the filming. As I had been under the assumption that all of the interior scenes had taken place on a soundstage, I just about fell over when I found out that they had actually filmed inside of the real house! And it was then that Cindy asked – are you sitting down for this??? – if my mom and I wanted to come inside her home to see the areas that were used in the movie! DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE? DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE? LOL OF COURSE WE DID! 🙂 The area of the home that I was most excited about seeing was the cool spiral staircase located off of the living room, as my fiancé and I have a very similar stairwell in our apartment! 🙂 When I mentioned that fact to Cindy, she insisted that I pose for a picture on the stairs. SO COOL! 🙂 Thank God she did, too, as it was the ONLY photograph I ended up taking inside of the house. 🙁 I was so incredibly overwhelmed at seeing everything in person that I totally forgot to take any pictures! LOL I am such an airhead sometimes, I swear!

Needless to say, the Bring It On house is absolutely beautiful inside. The areas of the home that were used in the filming include the kitchen and the living room, which both look a bit different in real life, as producers changed the color of the walls and brought in all new furnishings for the shoot.

The home’s master bedroom – which we did not get to see – was also used in the movie as Kirsten Dunst’s room. Producers not only had the room painted a mustard yellow color (yuck!) for the filming, but also paid a young girl to decorate the walls with magazine pin-ups, photographs, and cheerleading memorabilia. Oh, how I would have LOVED to have had that job as a kid! LOL So would have been right up my alley. 🙂

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I cannot tell you how cool it was to see the Bring It On house so up close and personal and to get to speak with the real life owners at length about their experiences during the filming. My mom was completely floored, too, and she’s never even seen Bring It On! LOL As I was leaving the house, I texted Owen to let him know the awesome news and he wrote back “How do you always get so darn lucky???” To tell you the truth, I often find myself asking that very same question! LOL Sometimes the stalking stars just align, I guess, but, let me tell you, I often have to pinch myself when thinking about all of the amazingly cool things I’ve gotten to do while stalking! 🙂

A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location. And another BIG THANK YOU to the owners of the Bring It On house for COMPLETELY making my day by inviting my mom and me into their home and spending so much time chatting with us! You guys ROCK! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kirsten Dunst’s house from Bring It On is located at 2002 Bruceala Court in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, just North of San Diego. If you stalk this home, please respect the owners’ privacy and do not trespass, ring the doorbell, or ask to be let inside. My mom and I were extremely lucky to meet the residents and be given a tour of the home, but as this is not common practice, please don’t bother the owners about doing it yourself.

September 10, 2009September 9, 2009

Eliza Dushku’s House from Bring It On

One of the locations I was most excited about seeing this past weekend in San Diego was the La Jolla area residence that was used as the home of siblings Missy Pantone (aka Eliza Dushku) and Cliff Pantone (aka cutie Jesse Bradford) in 2000’s Bring It On. Full credit goes to fellow stalker Owen for tracking down this locale through some painstaking research. A few weeks back, when Owen first set out on his mission to find all of the Bring It On locations, we both decided that the places we were most interested in seeing were the two main homes used in the movie. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, out of all the movie and television locations I’ve stalked, homes always seem to be my favorite! 🙂 Anyway, Owen managed to get ahold of a Bring It On crew member who told him that he remembered exactly two things about Eliza Dushku’s house in the movie. One – it was absolutely GINORMOUS in size, and two – it was located on a cul-de-sac somewhere near La Jolla Village Drive in La Jolla. So, with that information in hand, Owen got to work using Google Maps and, sure enough, it wasn’t long before he had found it! So, this past weekend while vacationing in San Diego, I,of course, immediately dragged my parents right out to stalk the Bring It On house.

As you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On house still looks pretty much the same today as it did back in 2000 when the movie was filmed. And, the crew member Owen spoke with was right – the home is absolutely HUGE! So huge, in fact, that I couldn’t step back far enough to fit the whole thing in my camera lens. LOL

A few minor changes have actually been made to the exterior of the house, though, which shouldn’t be all that surprising, I guess, being that Bring It On was filmed almost a decade ago. Those changes include the two trees flanking each side of the front door, which have grown considerably since the filming;

the wrought-iron stairway railing which has since been removed;

and – what is, in my mind, the strangest alteration of all – the front door, which has been changed from a double door to a single. So odd!

As you can see from the above screen captures and Google Maps aerial view, the backyard still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Bring It On was filmed. The only thing missing is the swing set, which I am fairly certain was just a prop brought in solely for the filming.

Eliza Dushku’s house shows up several times throughout Bring It On, most memorably in the Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Bradford toothbrushing scene that I talked about in Tuesday’s post – one of my most favorite movie scenes ever! So love it! 🙂

Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On house is truly beautiful in person – and, as I mentioned before, absolutely enormous! According to Zillow, the five bedroom, six bathroom home, which was built in 1991, measures a whopping 7,160 square feet!! And, as you can see in the above photograph, also has a FIVE CAR GARAGE!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On house is located at 7762 Starlight Drive in La Jolla.

September 4, 2009September 3, 2009

The Obsessed House

A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up and said, “Where is that big pink house in Altadena that you stalked a while back?” Well, I had absolutely no idea what on earth he was talking about! For some reason, a “big pink house in Altadena” just wasn’t ringing any bells with me. And it really should have, being that I actually know the house he was speaking about quite well. I mean, it’s practically an Altadena institution! Heck, I’ve even blogged about it before! LOL But that’s the blonde in me, I guess. 🙂 Anyway, about an hour after Mike’s phone call, it all of a sudden hit me like a ton of bricks – he had been asking me about the famous Balian Mansion, or, as I like to call it, the real Clark W. Griswold house. 🙂 Mike had been inquiring about the mansion because it was featured briefly in the 2009 movie Obsessed, which he had just finished watching. Mike had an inkling that Beyonce Knowles’ house from the film (pictured above) was most likely located in the same area. And, sure enough, he was right! Just a few clicks through Google Maps later and the two of us were able to locate it, literally right around the corner from the Balian Mansion. 🙂 So, of course, we immediately ran right out to stalk both homes. 🙂

Because only one view of the Obsessed house – the view pictured above – was ever shown in the movie, it looks quite different in person than how it appeared onscreen. For some reason, producers filmed at an angle which cut out the entire garage area. (You can see what the garage looks like in the first picture featured in this post.) The only reason I can think of behind this decision is that producers wanted the home to appear smaller than it really was.

Which makes absolutely no sense to me! You see, while watching the movie I became completely obsessed (ha ha) with the fact that the interior of Beyonce’s home looked a whole lot bigger than the exterior. It’s as if the two just didn’t match up. The inside of her house was absolutely HUGE, yet the outside appeared quite average in size. It was bizarre and completely distracted me throughout the entire movie. I just couldn’t seem to get past it! I kept pausing the DVD to ask my fiance if the dichotomy in sizes was bothering him as much as it was bothering me. (It wasn’t, by the way. LOL) Anyway, as you can sort of see in the above screen capture, the interior of the house appears to be GINORMOUS, which does not at all fit with the exterior that was shown.

Further complicating the matter is the fact that the exterior of the Obsessed house is Mediterranean in style, painted in bright terracotta colors, yet the interior has a classic Colonial style feel. Needless to say, the whole thing just didn’t work for me and I spent the entire movie distracted by the discrepancies between the interior and exterior of the house. LOL Now, it’s quite possible that these variances were not necessarily a production decision and that the studio based their sets on the home’s real life interiors, but somehow I really doubt that. Ironically enough, Mike and I got to see the interior sets of the Obsessed house while taking the Sony Pictures Studio Tour last November. Sadly, though, we weren’t allowed to take any photographs of them. 🙁

Another thing I became obsessed with while watching Obsessed, was the home’s gorgeous, intricately carved mailbox. I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with it! Being that the mailbox was so unusual, I was fairly certain it was a prop that had been brought in solely for the filming. So, you can imagine how FLOORED I was when Mike and I pulled up to the house to find that mailbox standing there! So cool! 🙂 As soon as I buy my first house, I am SO getting one of those! In fact, I’d buy one right now, but I think it’d look a little silly standing out in front of my apartment. LOL

After stalking the Obsessed house, Mike and I made our way down the street to stalk the Balian Mansion. The mansion is actually only featured very briefly in the movie, in the scene when Beyonce turns her car around after realizing she forgot to turn on her home’s security system.

On a humorous side note – As you can see in the above screen capture, the Google Maps Street View photograph of the Obsessed house was apparently taken after the property had just been TP’ed. LOL LOL LOL Talk about your bad timing! Can you imagine your house being forever immortalized on Google Maps with toilet paper strands hanging from every tree??? LOL LOL LOL Too darn funny! The kids who pulled this off must be seriously patting themselves on the back right now!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Obsessed house is located at 2345 Midlothian Drive in Altadena. The Balian Mansion is located just down the street at 1960 Mendocino Lane.

September 2, 2009May 23, 2012

The Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel

While in Catalina this past week, as much as I wanted to stay at the Pavilion Lodge, my family instead opted to book a room at a little place called the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel. And even though it’s never been a filming location, because the hotel was once the private residence of world-renowned author Zane Grey, I deemed the site to be blog-worthy. 🙂 For those who have never heard of him (like myself prior to my recent stay at his former home), Zane Grey is the best selling author of 89 Western style novels, including Riders of the Purple Sage, The Lone Star Ranger, and Call of the Canyon. Zane, who was born on January 31, 1872, actually started out his professional career following in the footsteps of his father as a dentist. Zane’s true passion was always writing fiction and playing baseball, but his father vehemently discouraged both pursuits. In fact, when Zane was a young boy, his father discovered a story he had written and not only tore it up, but severely beat him because of it. After marrying his wife, Dolly, in 1905, Zane began to finally pursue writing as a career. It wasn’t long before he became a household name and one of the first authors in history to earn a million dollars. At one point in time, Zane was also America’s highest selling author.

In his lifetime, Zane Grey published over one hundred novels which in turn sold over forty million copies. While most of his works were Western adventure stories, Zane also wrote books about his other passions, including sport fishing, hunting, and baseball. Zane’s novels became so popular that after his death in 1939, his publishing company, Harper & Brothers, continued to release one of his unpublished manuscripts each year for the next twenty-four years. All were wildly successful. Fifty of Zane’s novels were turned into one hundred different Western movies and he has over 120 writer, director, producer and actor credits on IMDB. What I wouldn’t give for that resume! Zane even formed his own production company at one time to handle the high demand for movies based on his books. One of Zane’s novels, The Vanishing American, was even filmed on Catalina Island. Legend has it that Zane brought in a herd of fourteen bison for the filming and left them there after the production wrapped. The bison took to Catalina quite naturally and spawned into a herd of over 150 buffalo that now call the island home.

In 1926, after falling in love with Catalina Island while vacationing there, Zane bought a parcel of land high on a hill in Avalon from William Wrigley and built a pueblo. Zane called his home “a place for rest, dream, peace, sleep”. Sometime after his death, Zane’s heirs turned the Pueblo into a small hotel. What a FABULOUS idea! I wish all celebrity heirs would follow suit!

The tiny hotel features only sixteen rooms, each named after one of Zane’s popular books. And while all of the rooms boast a view of some sort, none have a television, a phone, or a clock – an idea my fiance wasn’t too keen on. The whole point of staying at Zane Grey is to really get away from it all. The place touts itself as a quiet, peaceful retreat where you can spend a few days in total relaxation. And I have to say it was pretty darn amazing!

The hotel’s setting is simply breathtaking, with sweeping ocean . . .

. . . and mountain views,

large adobe verandas;

a living room featuring Zane Grey’s original furnishings and a grand piano,

and wild animals roaming the property. My fiance woke me up extremely early one morning to show me a buck he had noticed wandering the grounds (pictured above). The hotel is also blissfully quiet – whispering in common areas and out by the pool is encouraged. Because I am not big on noise, I LOVE quiet, peaceful hotels. In fact, the more quiet and peaceful, the better. And it doesn’t get much quieter or more peaceful than at the Zane Grey. Ironically enough, the only people not adhering to the “quiet” rule, were the people who worked on the property. The receptionist and housekeeper were SO darn loud, it was almost comical. So, other than wanting to strangle the two of them during most of the trip, my stay was highly relaxing. And I would recommend the Zane Grey to anyone. Even though the accommodations are a bit run-down and the service is highly sub-standard, we really enjoyed our stay there.

A bit of celebrity trivia for you – directly across the street from the Zane Grey hotel is a huge, modern style home that, according to several people I talked to on the island, Sharon Stone was interested in purchasing at one time.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel is located at 199 Chimes Tower Road in Avalon on Catalina Island. You can visit their website here. The accomodations are very basic and sparse, so if you are looking for a fancy hotel this is DEFINITELY not the place for you. For higher end accomodations, I’d instead recommend the Inn on Mt. Ada. The house Sharon Stone thought about buying, but didn’t, is located directly across the street from the Zane Grey Pueblo at 124 Chimes Tower Road.

August 28, 2009December 6, 2013

Marilyn Monroe’s Catalina House

The most important item on my Catalina Island stalking list was the home where a very young Marilyn Monroe lived with her first husband James Dougherty during the years 1943 to 1944. This was long before Miss Monroe became a Hollywood icon and household name, back when she was just a girl who was known simply as Norma Jeane Baker. Norma married James in 1942 at the tender ago of 16. Yes, you read that right – 16!!! The family who was taking care of her at the time was moving out of state and rather than take Norma with them, opted to basically marry her off to one of the neighbor boys. After only one short year of marriage, James was shipped off to Catalina Island to begin his basic training with the Merchant Marines. Marilyn moved to Catalina with him and remained on the island for about a year and a half. So, as you can probably imagine, I was absolutely busting at the seams to find her former home – a task that proved to be much easier than I had anticipated.

While waiting at the Catalina Island taxi station yesterday, I happened to notice a flyer for a movie called Hollywood’s Magical Island: Catalina with a picture of Marilyn on it posted on a wall. So, of course, I just had to ask the taxi operator if he knew anything about the movie, which he, sadly, didn’t. So, I said, “Shoot! I was hoping it might have information about where Marilyn’s Catalina house was located.” Well, lo and behold, the cab operator got this funny look on his face and said “I know where her house is – it’s at 310 Metropole Avenue!” I totally thought the guy was pulling my leg, as what would be the odds that the very first person I ask about her house would know its exact location??? Well, I must have some seriously good stalking karma because the guy really did know the correct address. He told me that just about a year ago a Japanese film crew had descended on the island to make a documentary about the starlet and they actually filmed part of it at her house! Turns out the taxi guy knew the location, because it’s located just three blocks up the street from his little taxi stand and he saw the filming! Honestly, what are the odds????? 🙂

So, of course, I immediately dragged my parents and my fiance right up the street to stalk Marilyn’s former residence. 🙂 Marilyn’s house is an adorable little beach bungalow that looks pretty much exactly like I pictured it would! So darn cute!!!! The home is actually a duplex, I believe, rather than a single family residence, as there seem to be two separate front doors, as you can see in the above photograph.

But, being the overly-anal person that I am, I just had to ask around town for further verification that the house I had just stalked was definitely Marilyn’s former home. I hate putting information on my blog unless I know with absolutely certainty that that information is correct. And all I had to go on for this one was the word of a random cab operator. So, I wanted further verification. Well, as it turns out there are COUNTLESS stories floating around out there as to where the starlet’s former house is located. While most locals I talked to had no idea that Marilyn had even lived on the island LOL LOL LOL, those few that did had differing stories. I heard everything from “She lived somewhere on Whitley Avenue” to “No, no, no, her house is on Descanso Avenue between Beacon and Third Streets” to “Marilyn Monroe lived here? Are you sure?” And that last one came from a guy who WORKS AT THE CATALINA ISLAND MUSEUM! LOL LOL LOL Needless to say I was just a tad bit frustrated over all of the differing theories. I mean, come on people! This is Catalina history! Someone should know where MM lived!!!! Finally, I ended up locating two different books about the history of the island, both of which said Marilyn’s former home was located on Metropole Avenue – just like the cab guy had said! 🙂 So, while I can’t say with absolute certainty that Marilyn Monroe did at one time live at 310 Metropole Avenue on Catalina Island, I am going to go out on a limb here and trust the word of two history books, a local taxi operator, and a Japanese film crew. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s Catalina house is (most likely) located at 310 Metropole Avenue in Avalon.

August 26, 2009August 25, 2009

The Almost Famous House

Thanks to fellow stalker Chas, way back in the beginning of July, I was able to stalk the main house used in the 2000 award winning movie Almost Famous. Somehow, though, in all this time, I’ve yet to blog about it. What can I say – so many places to stalk, so little time to write about them. 😉 Anyway, back in early July I happened to mention to Chas that I would be spending the day in the Santa Monica area and he asked me if I wanted the address of the little bungalow featured in the movie Almost Famous, as he had just located it. IF I wanted address??? IF I wanted the address??? Hello!!!! Is the pope Catholic??? Of course I wanted the address! 🙂 And once Chas gave it to me, I was on my way!

In the movie, the tiny little bungalow pictured above belongs to Frances McDormand, Zooey Deschanel, and Patrick Fugit, who plays main character William Miller, and is supposedly located in the San Diego area. And, while some scenes from the film were actually filmed in San Diego, such as William’s high school and the opening concert scenes, for the Miller’s family home producers chose to use a residence located about 130 miles North of San Diego, on a sleepy little street in Santa Monica. And a little bit of movie trivia for you – Almost Famous is loosely based on the real life teenage years of director Cameron Crowe and the high school he chose to use in the movie is his real life alma mater – University of San Diego High School. He even cast his real life high school journalism teacher in a small role in the flick, which is just about the coolest thing ever! 🙂

And I am happy to report that the Almost Famous house looks very much the same today as it did when the movie was filmed over nine years ago. In fact, the only difference I noticed – besides the abundance of Fourth of July decorations 🙂 – was a change in paint color from blue to yellow. Otherwise, the adorable little bungalow looks pretty much identical to how it appeared in the movie. And, while the house pops up several times throughout Almost Famous, unfortunately the entire exterior was never shown all at once, so I was not able to make any good screen captures. : (

I was actually very surprised to hear that the Almost Famous house was located in Santa Monica, as it really doesn’t look like the typical Santa Monica area home to me. I would have expected to find it in Pasadena, instead. So, I’m really glad that Chas decided to track down the house, as I’m pretty positive I never would have been able to.

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Almost Famous house is located at 1047 Maple Street, at the corner of Maple and 11th Streets, in Santa Monica.

August 24, 2009August 23, 2009

The Independence Day House

One of the locations at the very top of fellow stalker Owen’s “To Find” list was the house belonging to Captain Steven Hiller, aka Will Smith, and his girlfriend Jasmine Dubrow, aka Vivica A. Fox, in the 1996 blockbuster movie Independence Day. So, a few weeks ago, Owen enlisted the help of master stalker Chas and, amazingly enough, the two of them found the house in just a few short hours!!!! So, of course, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I immediately ran right out to stalk it! Mike had actually been looking for this house for quite some time, but had become convinced that it was a fake house that had been built solely for the production on a studio backlot somewhere. Well, thanks to Owen and Chas, we can now say for certain that the Independence Day house was, in fact, very real! 🙂

Both Mike and I were absolutely SHOCKED to discover that the Independence Day house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did thirteen years ago when the movie was filmed!!! The paint color, the shutters, and the foliage are all still pretty much identical to how they appeared in the movie. SO LOVE IT! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good screen capture from the movie which showed the entire house. 🙁

The thing I was most shocked about seeing in person was the little “6033” address plaque hanging from the front porch which was also featured in the movie (pictured above). I could NOT believe that little plaque was there in real life, too! I thought for sure it had been a movie prop. SO DARN COOL!

The Independence Day house only pops up in a few brief scenes at the very beginning of the movie. It is first shown in the scene when Will Smith walks outside to get his morning paper only to discover a large flying saucer hovering above his neighborhood. We next see it when Will says goodbye to his girlfriend and her son before driving off to go save the world from alien invaders. And, from how it appears in the movie, I am pretty convinced that the real life interior of the home was used for the filming, as well.

There actually was one major part of the house that was changed for the filming of the movie – the view. Producers actually cheated quite a bit regarding the home’s location in the movie. In the scene when Will Smith first notices the flying saucer while standing in his front yard, he looks to his left and sees the above pictured valley and freeway system.

In reality, though, while the home is located on a bit of a hill, it doesn’t really overlook anything. What Will really would have been looking at in that scene is pictured above. 🙂

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I highly recommend stalking the ID4 house to all fans of the movie! Especially since it still looks so similar to how it appeared onscreen! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Captain Steve Hillard’s Independence Day house is located at 6033 74th Street in the Westchester area of Los Angeles.

August 21, 2009August 21, 2009

The “Twins” Mansion

Another day, another Twins location. 🙂 Unbelievably, before writing my post about the Twins house yesterday, I had yet to actually see the movie. For some reason, even though we own a copy of it on DVD, I had never sat down to watch it. Until yesterday, that is. But, as often happens to me when watching a movie for the first time, I got more absorbed in the locations and behind-the-scenes information than the actual storyline. I kept having to pause the movie to run to my computer to look things up. LOL One of the locales that I became a bit obsessed with finding yesterday was the mansion belonging to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito’s father in the movie. Ironically enough, while doing some cyberstalking of the home, I came across this post on fave website ’80s Movie Rewind and was SHOCKED to see the location of the house listed with a special thanks to none other than my good friend Mike, from MovieShotsLA. LOL LOL LOL It’s such a small stalking world, isn’t it?? Granted, I’m sure Mike had told me the address of the Twins mansion before, but when the two of us get to talking about locations I get so excited that half of what he says doesn’t even register. I’ll ask him about a movie locale months later and he’ll say “I ALREADY told you where that was!” LOL Needless to say, the Twins mansion address is one of the bits of information that, for whatever reason, my brain didn’t store.

Anyway, as soon as I had the address yesterday, I ran right out to stalk the house. And I am very happy to report that – over TWO DECADES later – the Twins mansion looks pretty much EXACTLY the same today as it did when the movie was filmed! I mean, even the paint color is still the same! LOVE IT! In fact, the only differences I noticed were some very minor changes in foliage. Movie location owners really need to take lessons from the people that live in this house! LOL

The Twins mansion shows up very briefly in the scene when Arnold is out looking for infomation about his mother who passed away in childbirth. He winds up at this home and ends up meeting his father for the very first time. A scene takes place in the front yard of the house and then, later, in the father’s study. And, from how it looked in the movie, I believe a real room inside the house was used as the study.

The Twins mansion, which in real life is known as the A.L. Garford House, was built in 1916 by the prominent Pasadena architectural firm of Marston & Van Pelt. Sylvanus Marston built over 1,000 residences in the Pasadena area throughout his twenty-two year career, including America’s first ever bungalow motor court apartment complex, and has even been called “Pasadena’s Quintessential Architect”. Marston built homes and buildings in an eclectic array of styles ranging from English Tudor to Imperial Chinese. The Garford House was actually one of the first Pasadena area homes to be built in the elaborate Churrigueresque, or Spanish Baroque, style, and, according to this article, was the first ever Spanish style home to have a painted stucco exterior. It truly is a very beautiful and absolutely ginormous home!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito’s father’s house from Twins, aka the A.L. Garford House, is located at 1126 Hillcrest Avenue, on the Northeast corner of Hillcrest Avenue and South Oak Knoll Avenue, in Pasadena.

August 20, 2009August 20, 2009

The “Twins” House

A few weeks ago, fellow stalker Owen asked for my help in locating Danny DeVito’s Mediteranean style home from the 1988 comedy Twins. Owen had already done quite a bit of stalking legwork on this one and had managed to contact one of the movie’s crew members who told him that the house was located on a numbered street near Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, though, due to the fact that many of the numbered streets in Santa Monica aren’t featured in Google Maps Street View, Owen was not able to cyberstalk the home. Which is where I came in. 🙂 Because I am in the Santa Monica area quite frequently, I offered to drive around the numbered streets to see if I could locate the elusive Twins house. From watching the movie, Owen knew that the home had an address number of 323 and that the neighboring house was numbered 327, which narrowed down our search parameters quite a bit. So, a few weeks ago, with a screen capture of the house and those few bits of information in hand, I dragged my fiance out to find the Twins house. And find it, we did! 🙂

Amazingly enough, the house was actually located on the very first street we drove down. When I realized we had found it, I turned to my fiance in shock and said “Could it really have been this easy?” LOL Sadly, though, the Twins house looks MUCH different today than it did back in 1988 when the movie was filmed. While still recognizable, it looks as if quite a bit of remodeling has been done to it in recent years. I guess I really shouldn’t be all that surprised that the house has changed so significantly, though, after all the movie was filmed more than two decades ago!

Besides adding on a whole second story, the homeowners also removed the enclosed front porch area and popped out the home’s entry way and front door by a good couple of feet, as you can see in the above photograph and screen capture. A large tree which covers the front window has also since been planted.

But the most significant – and odd – change to the house has to be the complete removal of the driveway. Owen and I have actually been over the driveway removal issue ad nauseam and still can’t figure out the reasoning behind it. I mean WHY ON EARTH WOULD SOMEONE REMOVE THEIR DRIVEWAY? LOL It’s absolutely BIZARRE! My fiance brought up the point, though, that it’s quite possible the city refused to grant the homeowner’s remodeling permits unless they agreed to do away with their driveway. Santa Monica is known as something of an “alley city” – numerous homes in the area don’t have driveways and the garages are reached via a back alley – so it’s actually a pretty good possibility that my fiance hit the nail on the head about why that driveway is no longer there.

Ironically enough, the neighboring house, which shows up briefly in Twins, still looks EXACTLY the same as it did when the movie was filmed.

Even though the Twins house looks quite different today, it was still extremely exciting to be stalking it. And a little bit of movie trivia for you – a very young Heather Graham had a brief, uncredited role in Twins as Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mom. David Caruso also had a small role in the movie as parking attendant Al Greco. His voice is so different in the flick, though, that I literally almost didn’t recognize him!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Danny DeVito’s house from Twins is located at 323 11th Street in Santa Monica.

August 18, 2009August 18, 2009

The “7th Heaven” House

Got a challenge a few months back from a man named Glenn who wanted me to locate the house used as the Camden residence on the Aaron Spelling television series 7th Heaven. Unfortunately, though, this challenge proved to be rather difficult as there are quite a few conflicting rumors about the home’s location floating around online. The general consensus on most of the fan sites, though, was that the house only ever existed on a studio backlot somewhere in Hollywood. And, even though I didn’t really believe that to be the case, I am embarrassed to admit that I gave up on finding the home’s location rather quickly after reading that. Sorry, Glenn! But last week, I decided to enlist the help of fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Chas, and Owen and, sure enough, it wasn’t long before Chas had called me back with an address!!!!! YAY! Funny side note – after Chas gave me the 7th Heaven house address, I immediately texted both Owen and Mike to let them know that their searches could be called off. Well, ironically enough, Mike’s phone wasn’t working that day, so what did he do, but go out and rent EVERY SINGLE DVD of the series that he could find! I’m not kidding! The next day he called me and said “I’m going to watch every single hour ever made of this show if I have to, but we are going to find that house!” LOL LOL LOL I felt sooooooo bad as poor Mike was not only stuck with a hefty Blockbuster bill, but also a few hundred hours of cheesy television that he had no desire whatsoever to watch.

Even though I’ve never seen a single episode of 7th Heaven, I was still extremely excited to be stalking the Camden house! Sadly, though, the home has changed quite a bit in recent years as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph. In fact, the house looks so different from how it appeared on the series that when I first saw it in person I wasn’t sure I was at the right place. LOL Just a few of the alterations made to the home include a change in paint color from white to baby blue, the installation of a white picket fence around the exterior of the property . . .

. . . and the addition of quite a bit of thick foliage, which makes the home hardly visible at all from the street, as you can see in the above photograph. And while the Camden house is very cute in person, truth be told, I think it looked a whole lot better on the show. 🙂

Chas was able to track down this house by contacting a former 7th Heaven crew member who just happened to remember its exact location. The guy also gave Chas a brief history of the filming of the Camden home, finally allowing us to put those pesky location rumors to rest. The real story of the Camden house is as follows – For the pilot episode of the series, which was filmed in 1996, a house in Altadena that Mike and I have always refered to as the “Rubio House” served as the Camden residence. I’ve blogged about the Rubio House once before as it has appeared in COUNTLESS productions, including The Mentalist, NCIS, Bye Bye Love, and Can’t Hardly Wait, among numerous others. Anyway, for whatever reason, once the series got picked up, producers decided to ditch the Rubio house and use a Santa Monica residence instead. For the next six seasons, that Santa Monica house was used for all exterior filming and establishing shots. But, sometime during the sixth season, the owners of the house got a bit tired of the constant filming on their property and put an end to it. How one can become tired of filming taking place on their property is BEYOND me, but to each their own, I guess. 😉 Once the house was off limits for filming, the production crew built a very basic replica of it, consisting of only one exterior wall and a fake front yard, on the studio back lot. From then on all filming of the Camden house took place there. So, that explains how all of those different location rumors about the house got started! 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location and finally solving the mystery of the 7th Heaven house! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The 7th Heaven house is located at 527 Alta Avenue in Santa Monica. Courteney Cox’s former home is located just up the street at 606 Alta Avenue. The house used as the Camden residence in the 7th Heaven pilot can be found at 1090 Rubio Street in Altadena.