Tag: famous places

  • Patrick Swayze’s Former Apartment

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    Ever since the Grim Cheaper purchased the Dirty Dancing: Limited Keepsake Edition DVD for me this past Christmas, I have become just a tad bit obsessed with finding out more behind-the-scenes information about the movie.  So, the other day I picked up Patrick Swayze and wife Lisa Niemi’s autobiography which is titled The Time of My Life and, let me tell you, I’ve hardly been able to put it down since.  It is an absolutely FABULOUS book and Patrick Swayze was an absolutely AMAZING man!  The unbridled love that he had for his wife is riveting to read about and heartbreaking at the same time, now that he has since passed away.  Let’s just say that theirs was not a typical Hollywood union.  Patrick married Lisa on June 12, 1975, when he was only 22 years old and she was only 19, and they remained together and completely devoted to one another throughout the rest of his life.  While the majority of married actors surrounding him on movie sets were conducting on-set affairs during filming, Lisa accompanied Patrick on each and every single shoot – whether he was filming in Los Angeles or in the far reaches of Africa – and I think that is part of what made their marriage so strong.  If you have any interest whatsoever in learning more about Patrick Swayze or the movie Dirty Dancing, I honestly cannot recommend The Time of My Life enough!  The book also doles out quite a few stalking addresses, including one of the couple’s first Los Angeles apartments, which I ran right out to stalk yesterday!

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    Patrick and Lisa first moved to Southern California in 1979, after spending several years together in New York.  The two first lived in the ground-floor apartment of a home owned by two older women in the Hollywood Hills.  Of his new landlords, Patrick said, “The women upstairs were real characters, and one of them seemed always to have a tumbler of scotch in her hand.”  LOL  In 1980, after living in that apartment for a little over a year, the couple moved to what Patrick describes in the book as “an apartment in West Hollywood, on La Jolla Avenue”.  Well, as soon as I read those words I knew I was going to have to track down that apartment!  Thankfully though, Patrick made the job extremely easy for me by putting in the book the above photograph of himself, along with his mother and Lisa, standing outside of their apartment in which an address number of “623” was visible.  Because he had described the place as being in West Hollywood, I had assumed it would be located on North La Jolla Avenue, but when I searched for that address via Google street view, nothing matched up.  So, I then looked at the building located at 623 South La Jolla Avenue and there was his apartment, looking almost EXACTLY the same as it had back in the early 80s when the Swayzes had called the place home!. So incredibly cool!

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    In the book, Patrick says that his apartment came with a two-car garage that he and Lisa turned into a woodworking shop as the couple ran a carpentry business on the side, which kept them afloat financially in between acting gigs.  I am guessing that their garage was the one denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

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    But, for whatever reason, in the above photograph, which was included in the book, Patrick is shown posing with his brand new DeLorean car outside of the garage belonging to the neighboring apartment building.  That area, too, though looks very much the same today as it did back in the early 80’s.

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    Shortly after moving into the apartment, the Swazyes found themselves broke with only $3 in their bank account.  Patrick says, “The saving grace of our new apartment was the orange tree in the backyard, which ended up feeding us for the difficult weeks we spent trying to pull our financial life together.  We managed to scrape together enough coins to buy a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread, and that, with the oranges, was what we ate.”  Just a few weeks after going broke, fate intervened and Patrick landed the lead role of “Bandit” in the television series Renegades.  His career took off from there.  The couple continued to live in the La Jolla Avenue apartment for the next few years as Patrick’s fame continued to grow.  But after the television series North and South aired in 1985, the actor became a household name and the Swayzes had to move from their beloved, but entirely-too-accessible apartment.  Patrick says, “Lisa and I also realized that we’d now have to take steps to protect our privacy.  Even in those pre-internet days, there were still paparazzi all over Hollywood, not to mention some overzealous fans who weren’t above staking us out at home.  When I got the role of Orry Main, it allowed us to buy a five-acre ranch, where we could keep horses and enjoy nature without being disturbed.”  That ranch, which they named “Rancho Bizarro and which Lisa still owns to this day, is located on Lemoncrest Avenue in Sylmar, about twenty miles north of Los Angeles.

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    Another location that Patrick talks about in The Time of My Life – one that I was absolutely DYING to stalk until I found out that it was no longer there – was the Harkness Theater at Lincoln Center in New York.  In September of 1973, Patrick, who was at the time a member of the Harkness Ballet Company, was hired to pose for artist Enrique Senis-Oliver who had been commissioned by oil heiress Rebekah Harkness to paint a large mural in her new theatre, which was then just being built.  The enormous painting, which Patrick says “stretched from the stage to the very top of the proscenium and down both sides”, was titled Homage to Terpsichore and it featured hundreds of nude men dancing.  Incredibly, all of those men were Patrick!  Over a period of several weeks, Enrique had used the actor/dancer as the model for each and every single male featured in the mural!  Sadly though, that mural is no longer as the Harkness Theatre was torn down in 1977, only a few short years after it had been built.  So incredibly sad!  You can see photographs of part of Patrick’s mural here and here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

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    Stalk It:  Patrick Swayze’s former apartment building is located at 623 South La Jolla Avenue in Los Angeles.  The garage Patrick posed in front of with his new DeLorean is located just north of his apartment building and is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view.

  • The Avalon Hotel – The Former Beverly Carlton Where Marilyn Monroe Once Lived

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    Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked while in the Beverly Hills area two weekends ago was the historic Avalon Hotel, where my girl Marilyn Monroe once lived for a period of about three years back in the 1950’s.  During that time, the property was a residential motel known as the Beverly Carlton that was first opened in 1948 and was designed by legendary graphic designer Alvin Lustig.  And while the hotel was actually considered to be a moderately priced accommodation for its time, besides Marilyn, such stars as Mae West, Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz often stayed there.  In the 70s and 80s the hotel became rundown, underwent several remodels, and was transformed into both a retirement home and an apartment complex.  In 1998, property developer Brad Korzen purchased it and enlisted his now-wife, Kelly Wearstler of KWID Designs, to give the place an extensive reboot.  In doing so, Wearstler and her team researched the original design elements of the hotel, which they obtained from photographs taken by famed photographer Julius Shulman for a 1948 Forum Magazine article, and it was those original designs that ended up serving as the inspiration for the entire remodel. 

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    The result is that the property looks VERY much the same today as it did back in the 1950’s when Marilyn lived there!  Love it! 

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    I first learned about the Avalon a few years back when Cold Case star Kathryn Morris posed for an InStyle Magazine photo shoot on the hotel grounds.  I became quite obsessed with the Avalon Hotel sign pictured above, but had assumed it was a fake that had been created for the shoot.  Looking back, why I never thought to Google the terms “Avalon Hotel” is absolutely beyond me, but as they say hindsight is 20/20.   Then last Christmas, I was flipping through Southwest Airline’s Spirit Magazine while on the plane ride home from visiting my grandmother in Reno, when I happened upon an article about the Avalon and noticed a picture of that same unique sign from the InStyle photographs.  Well, I just about fell over upon realizing that the Avalon was in fact a real life hotel and immediately added its address to my ever-growing To-Stalk list.  It wasn’t until much later, though, while doing some cyber-stalking on the internet, that I discovered that my girl Marilyn had once called the place home.  So incredibly cool!

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    According to the super nice desk clerk that we spoke with while stalking the place, MM actually lived at the Beverly Carlton during several different periods of her life – first in 1948 and then again in 1951 through 1952, for a total of about three years time.  The hotel is comprised of three different buildings – the Olympic, the Beverly, and the Canon – and the desk clerk informed us that Marilyn lived in Room 305 of the Beverly building, which is pictured above, although I have read some conflicting reports online, so I am not sure if that information is entirely accurate.  What is for certain, though, is that during her tenure at the hotel, Marilyn rented a one-room studio apartment, which you “>can see a photograph of here.  The starlet posed for numerous photo shoots while living on the premises – both inside of her actual studio and next to the hotel’s hour glass-shaped pool.  You can see many of the photographs from those particular shoots here.  I cannot tell you how cool it was to look through those pictures and see Marilyn standing in a location that still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when she posed there almost six decades ago.

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    Celebrities who have been spotted at the Avalon in more recent years include Jacinda Barrett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake, Guy Pearce, Eva Longoria, William Baldwin, Selma Blair, Jonah Hill, Kate Hudson, Ryan Phillipe, Abbie Cornish, Terrance Howard, Tilda Swinton, Superbad’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Grey’s Anatomy’s Jessica Capshaw, Numb3rs’ David Krumholtz, House, M.D.’s Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer, Entourage’s Kevin Connolly, sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff, and 90210’s Shenae Grimes, Michael Steger, and Ryan Eggold.

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    The front desk clerk also let us know that in the Season 4 episode of I Love Lucy titled “L.A. At Last”, the Avalon stood in for the Beverly Palms Hotel where Lucy Ricardo (aka Lucille Ball), Ricky Ricardo (aka Desi Arnaz), Ethel Mertz (aka Vivian Vance), and Fred Mertz (aka William Frawley) stayed while vacationing in Los Angeles.  Lucy and Ricky’s hotel room set from that episode is now on display at the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York, which I think is just about the coolest thing ever!

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    The Season 5 episode of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List titled “Paris is My New BFF”, in which Paris Hilton guest-starred, was filmed on location at the Avalon’s pool area. 

    And 90210 star Jessica Lowndes recently posed for Zooey Magazine’s October 2010 issue at the Avalon, which you can see photographs of here.  You can also watch a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot by clicking above.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Avalon Hotel, aka the former Beverly Carlton Hotel where Marilyn Monroe used to live, is located at 9400 West Olympic Boulevard in Beverly Hills.  Marilyn Monroe lived in the hotel’s Beverly Building, the entrance of which is located at 412 South Beverly Drive.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

  • The Electric Fountain from “Clueless”

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    Two weekends ago while doing some stalking in the Beverly Hills area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards to finally, finally stalk the fountain where Cher Horowitz (aka Alicia Silverstone) realized her true feelings for her former stepbrother Josh (aka Paul Rudd) in fave movie Clueless.  I was clued in – pun intended 🙂 – to this location two years ago by a fellow stalker who had visited the fountain while vacationing in Southern California and had later sent me pictures of it.  Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me remember who this particular tipster was, nor can I find the emails she sent to me in any of my saved email folders.  UGH!  So, whoever it was that informed me of the location of the Clueless fountain, I sincerely thank you!  Anyway, even though I was tipped off about this locale quite a while back and even though Clueless is one of my all time favorite movies, for whatever reason I had yet to stalk the place until last Saturday afternoon.

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    In real life the Clueless fountain is named the Electric Fountain and it was built in 1931 at a cost of $21,000 by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, who also designed the Beverly Hills Post Office.  The 50-foot in diameter fountain, which was constructed out of concrete, cast stone, and terra cotta tile, boasts a large central basin detailed with relief carvings that represent various events in California history.  Anchored at the top of the basin is a sculpture of a Native American woman praying for rain that was molded by Robert Merrell Gage, the same artist who sculpted the facade of the Los Angeles Times Building in Downtown L.A.  The fountain got its unusual name thanks to the fact that it was the first electric fountain to be built in the United States.  The structure is perhaps best known for its nightly water and lights show, which is vaguely reminiscent of the Fountains of the Bellagio show in Las Vegas, albeit on a much smaller scale. 

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    My favorite aspect of the fountain, though, is the fact that it is located directly across the street from a Starbucks.  🙂

     

      

    In Clueless, Cher arrives at the Electric Fountain while walking around the City of Beverly Hills in an attempt to clear her “totally buggin’” head after failing her driver’s license test and getting into a huge fight with Tai (aka Brittany Murphy).  It is while she is at the fountain that she has an epiphany and realizes that she is in love with Josh.

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    And I,of course, just had to reenact the scene while there.  🙂

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    The rock group The Go-Go’s danced in the Electric Fountain (in a scene that must have been a precursor to the opening credits of fave television series Friends) in the music video for their 1981 hit song “Our Lips Are Sealed”.

    You can watch the “Our Lips Are Sealed” music video by clicking above.

     

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

    Stalk It: The Clueless fountain is located on the northwest corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards, in Beverly Gardens Park, in Beverly Hills.  The Witch’s House, which also appeared in Clueless, is located just around the corner from the fountain at 516 North Walden Drive, also in Beverly Hills.

  • The Hollywood Towne House Motel – Lumen’s Motel from “Dexter”

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    This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I were doing some stalking in Hollywood when we happened upon the Hollywood Towne House Motel – aka the supposed Miami-area hotel where Lumen Ann Pierce (aka Julia Stiles) lived during this past season of fave series Dexter – which in my never-to-be humble opinion was the very best season the show has yet produced.  Is it just me or does the series keep getting better and better with each passing year?  Julia Stiles was absolutely PHENOMENAL in her role this past season.  I honestly think it was the best acting she has done thus far in her career.  Loved her, loved her, loved her!  Anyway, while I usually rely on Seeing Stars’ extensively detailed Dexter filming locations page to find locales from the series, I recognized Lumen’s motel immediately upon driving by it, thanks to the place’s unique (and very bright) color scheme.  What was even more amazing, though, was the fact that the Grim Cheaper also recognized the place immediately upon driving by, as well!  He’s learning, folks!  Smile

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    Even had we not recognized the place, this one most likely would have been an easy find as the real life name of the motel was used on the show.  So incredibly cool!

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    The Hollywood Towne House Motel first showed up in the Season 5 episode of Dexter titled “Beauty and the Beast”, in the scene in which Dexter Morgan (aka Michael C. Hall) tracks down the motel Lumen was living in before she was kidnapped.  The motel looks exactly the same in person as it did on the series and it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as the place definitely has a Miami vibe to it.

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    The motel’s real life main office also appeared in the episode.

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    And it, too, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, except that in real life there is a pane of security glass which surrounds the front counter.  I so desperately wanted to get a picture of myself standing in the spot where Dexter was standing in the episode, but unfortunately the office was closed when we showed up to stalk the place.

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    The motel was also used in the next episode of Dexter, which was titled “First Blood”, in the scene in which Dexter breaks into Lumen’s motel room and discovers that she is planning to seek revenge against her kidnappers.

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    In that episode Lumen was living in room number 110.

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    And while I originally had thought that the real interior of Room 110 was used in the filming of “First Blood”, after looking at the photographs of the motel’s actual rooms on TripAdvisor, I no longer believe that to be the case.  I am guessing that the interior of Lumen’s room was a set that was built on a soundstage.  (The TripAdvisor reviews of the motel are not too kind, by the way.  One is titled “Should be condemned!  It’s a Dump and Unsafe!!!!”  LOL LOL LOL  And one group of particularly enterprising guests even went so far as to make a YouTube video review/tour of the motel which is pretty incredible to watch!  If you are at all grossed out by dirty hotel rooms, however, I suggest you do NOT watch it.)

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    Ironically enough, “Beauty and the Beast” was not the first time that Dexter was filmed on location at the Hollywood Towne House Motel.  The very same spot was used in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Turning Biminese”, in the scene in which Sergeant Angel Batista (aka David Zayas) seeks out Detective Barbara Gianna (aka Kristin Dattilo), who is working undercover as a prostitute, to ask her out on a date.  Real romantic setting to ask someone out on a date, I know.  Smile

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    While we were stalking the place, I was floored to discover that Sunset Gower Studios, the lot where Dexter is filmed, is located directly across the street from the Hollywood Towne House Motel, which explains how producers came to use it on the series.

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    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Hollywood Town House Motel, aka Lumen’s motel from Dexter, is located at 6055 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.  Lumen stayed in room number 110 on the show.

  • The “My So-Called Life” House

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    Since I blogged about the house which stood in for the Chase residence in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life yesterday, I thought I would write today about the house which was used in the remaining 18 episodes of the series.  I have actually blogged about this location once before, over three years ago when I first started this site (and I absolutely CANNOT believe that it has already been THREE years!), but because it has been so long I figured the property was worthy of a more in-depth re-post.  So, here goes!  I became obsessed with finding the Chase residence back in 2007, but unfortunately, at that time the location was not posted anywhere online and the only information I had to go on was an address number of “1110” that was visible in the background of a few episodes.  I had a hunch, though, that the dwelling was most likely located in South Pasadena, as the producers of My So-Called Life had filmed another one of their series, thirtysomething, primarily in that area.  So, one weekend the Grim Cheaper and I ventured up and down all of the 1100 blocks located in South Pasadena until we found the house.  And, amazingly enough, it didn’t take us long at all.   

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    As it turns out, the property is located just a few blocks south of Mission Street at 1110 Glendon Way.  And I am very happy to report that even though over one and a half decades have passed since filming took place, the Chase house still looks very much the same today as it did onscreen.

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    The only real differences I noticed were that the exterior has since been painted a dark green color, while it was light blue on the series, and the French doors located just to the left of the front door have since been replaced by a large picture window.  Otherwise though, the property is completely recognizable from the show.

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    The house is actually owned by the City of South Pasadena and is currently vacant, so I was able to snap some pics of the interior of the property through the front windows.  As you can see, it doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to the interior of the Chase house that was shown on the series, which was, of course, a set that was modeled after the residence used in the pilot episode.

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    The Chase house was also used as the childhood home of Michael Myers (aka Daeq Faerch) in Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of the horror film Halloween

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    According to this website, the home’s real life living room and foyer appeared in Halloween, but the basement, bathroom, hallway, and bedroom scenes were filmed inside of a residence located at 2218 South Harvard Boulevard in Los Angeles.

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    The house where Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) lived on My So-Called Life is located just across the street and two properties south of the Chase home. 

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    Amazingly enough, it still looks very much the same today as it did when filming took place over 16 years ago. 

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    In the episode titled “Dancing in the Dark”, Angela and Jordan Catalano’s (aka Jared Leto’s) very unromantic first kiss took place in Jordan’s car which was parked just outside of Brian’s home.

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    And I am fairly certain that the real life interior of Brian’s house was also used in the filming of that episode.

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    The home located just across the street from Angela’s, which was pictured in the background of quite a few episodes, still looks pretty much exactly the same today, as well.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Chase house from all of the episodes of My So-Called Life excluding the pilot is located at 1110 Glendon Way in South Pasadena.  Brian Krakow’s home is located across the street and two houses south of the Chase residence at 1115 Glendon Way.

  • The Chase House from the Pilot Episode of “My So-Called Life”

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    Ever since fellow stalker Andrew tracked down the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles from the “So-Called Angels” episode of fave show My So-Called Life, I have been itching to re-watch the entire series from beginning to end as I have not seen it in years.  So, I immediately went out and purchased the most recently-released boxed set of the show and finally sat down to start watching it last night.  While doing so, I became a bit obsessed with locating the house where the Chase family – Graham (aka Tom Irwin), Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), Angela (aka Claire Danes), and Danielle (aka Lisa Wilhoit) – lived, because, as an astute fellow stalker named Somerset pointed out to me a while back, it was not the same property that was used for the other 18 episodes of the show

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    Unfortunately though, there was virtually nothing for me to go on for this particular stalk – no house number, no visible street signs, not even a full view of the exterior of the property.  But then, all of a sudden, like a lightning bolt from the sky, I spotted a clue – a very important clue.  In the scene in which Angela waits for Rickie Vasquez (aka Wilson Cruz) to pick her up to go to Let’s Bolt nightclub, I noticed that the streetlights on Angela’s street were round.  And while I had seen those streetlights (pictured above) before, I had only ever seen them in one place – in one very small section of Pasadena.  The trees that lined Angela’s street also looked very familiar to me and I had an inkling that they might be the very trees that are located along Pasadena’s oft-filmed Madison Avenue. 

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    So, I began my search for the Chase home on Madison Avenue and, using Google Street View, found the property almost immediately!  YAY!  And I ran right out to stalk the place first thing yesterday morning.

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    And while the full exterior of the house is never actually shown in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the location of the window to the right of the front door and the roof lines of the front porch match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen. 

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    The house across the street matches up perfectly, as well.

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    As does the house that is located at the end of Angela’s street.

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    The tree that is visible in the background of the scene in which Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) and Angela are shown arguing also looks exactly the same today as it did onscreen.

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    And amazingly enough, the tree that Brian sits in at the end of the episode is actually there in real life and still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in March of 1993 when the pilot was filmed!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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    When Angela gets dropped off by the police at the end of the episode, instead of going directly home, she and Brian walk north on Madison Avenue to the corner of Madison and Alpine Street, where Angela spots her father talking to a woman who is not her mother.  That area also looks much the same today as it did during the filming.

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    And, according to the DVD commentary by series creator Winnie Holzman, director Scott Winant, and executive producer Marshall Hershkovitz, the interior of the property was also used in the filming of the episode.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house!

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    After the Grim Cheaper got off work yesterday evening, I dragged him back out to the house so that he could snap a picture of me reenacting that famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street.  Oh, I cannot tell you how long I have wanted to take that picture!  I was literally skipping to the car on the way there.  Sigh!

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    On a side note – the creators of My So-Called Life, whose production company is named “The Bedford Falls Company”, threw in quite a few references to their favorite film It’s A Wonderful Life in the pilot episode of the series –  including the scene in which Angela changes her clothes behind a bush a la Mary Hatch (aka Donna Reed) and a scene in which Brian wears a shirt with the number “3” on it, a la George Bailey (aka James Stewart).  Love it, love it, love it! 

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    It’s A Wonderful Life is also playing in the background of the scene in which Angela apologizes to her mother.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Chase house from the pilot episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1025 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena.  The tree Brian sat in at the end of the episode is located in front of the house at 1014 South Madison Avenue.  Angela spots her father talking to the mysterious woman at the southeast corner of South Madison Avenue and Alpine Street.  And, finally, the famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street was filmed in front of 1014 and 1025 South Madison Avenue with the camera looking north on Madison towards Alpine Street.  The Mr. Deeds house is located just three doors down from the MSCL pilot house at 989 South Madison Avenue.  The house that was used as the Chase home in the other 18 episodes of the series is located at 1110 Glendon Way in South Pasadena.

  • Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa from “House, M.D.”

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    The third and final location that I stalked while vacationing in Lake Arrowhead this past Thanksgiving with my family and the Grim Cheaper was the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa, which was featured prominently in the Season 6 episode of House, M.D. titled “Known Unknowns”.  The property, which was originally named the Arlington Lodge, was first built in 1923 by A.L. Richmond, the owner of the Arlington Hotel in Santa Barbara, and was designed by architect McNeal Swasey at a cost of $500,000.  The upscale Lodge boasted numerous luxuries, including ornate drawing rooms, outdoor terraces, guest quarters with private bathrooms, and a main lobby, dubbed the “Great Hall”, which featured a 45-foot tall vaulted ceiling, a large fireplace, and a grand staircase.  The resort was opened to the public on June 23, 1923 and became an immediate success.  According to legend, such Hollywood luminaries as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Roy Rogers, Carole Lombard, and Gary Cooper were all frequent guests.  The hotel also attracted movie crews and such films as 1952’s Just For You, which starred Jane Wyman, Natalie Wood, Bing Crosby, and Ethel Barrymore – Drew’s great-aunt, 1965’s I’ll Take Sweden, which starred Bob Hope, Tuesday Weld, and Frankie Avalon, and 1973’s made-for-TV movie A Summer Without Boys, which starred Barbara Bain and Michael Moriarty, were all filmed on location there.  Sadly though, the Arlington Lodge burned to the ground in October of 1938.  And while it was rebuilt shortly thereafter, the entire resort was razed in December of 1976 in order to make room for a new hotel, the Arrowhead Hilton Lodge, which opened to the public in 1982.  And while Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, and Baron Hilton – Paris’ grandfather – were all in attendance for the resort’s grand opening, it doesn’t seem as if many celebrities frequent the hotel today.  Currently the property, which is now known as Lake Arrowhead Resort, boasts 162 guest rooms and 11 suites, a full-service spa, a fitness room, a coffee bar, an upscale restaurant named BIN189, and a 40-foot pool. 

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    Sadly though, I have to say that the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is truly nothing special.  Don’t get me wrong, the place is O.K., but after the website had touted its “idyllic” and “majestic” ambiance, I had expected a heck of a lot more than what was actually there.  The setting is absolutely gorgeous, but truth be told, ALL of Lake Arrowhead is that beautiful.

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      And while the BIN189 restaurant is absolutely GORGEOUS, I cannot in any way, shape, or form recommend eating there.  While we were stalking the hotel, we popped into the restaurant and were enticed by its roaring, oversized fireplace and decided to grab a drink there, but as soon as we sat down, a woman came into the eatery with her large dog (which one would think would be a health code violation, but I guess not) and the dog proceeded to bark hysterically at the top of its lungs.  The dog was so terribly loud that we had to get up and leave.  All of the patrons in the restaurant at the time were quite upset over the barking dog and three groups besides ours ended up walking out in the middle of their meal.  You’d think at an average cost of $35 a plate, the management would have done something  -like kick the freaking woman and her dog out -but because the hotel is “pet friendly”, the servers all said that there was absolutely nothing they could do.  So, that was pretty much it for that place!  My family literally could not get out of there fast enough and I therefore did not get to stalk very much of the resort!  🙁

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    In the “Known Unknowns” episode of House, M.D., in which doctors Gregory House (aka Hugh Laurie), James Wilson (aka Robert Sean Leonard), and Lisa Cuddy (aka Lisa Edelstein) attend a pharmacology and public policy conference in the Adirondacks, extensive use was made of the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.   According to a review that I read on Travelocity, the vast majority of the hotel – including the restaurant and pool – was closed off during the filming, yet the hotel management failed to inform guests of that fact when they made their reservations – which sounds pretty much right on par as to the level of customer service that we experienced while there.  Anyway, filming of the episode took place in the lobby area;

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    down by the lake;

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    on the outdoor terraces;

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    in one of the meeting rooms;

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    and in BIN189, which was both the site where the big 80’s party scene was filmed;

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    and where the doctors ate breakfast on the last morning of their conference.

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    I am fairly certain that the two guest rooms shown in the episode were not actually Lake Arrowhead Resort hotel rooms, but were sets that were built on a studio soundstage, as they just don’t seem to match up to the rooms that are pictured on the hotel’s website.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Even though I REALLY wouldn’t recommend stalking this particular location, Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is located at 27984 California 189 in Lake Arrowhead.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

  • Bugsy Siegel’s Former Resort – Club Arrowhead of the Pines

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    Another place that I stalked while visiting Lake Arrowhead this past Thanksgiving was the Bracken Fern Manor country inn, which in the 1930’s was part of a private gambling club/resort named Club Arrowhead of the Pines that was run by none other than legendary mobster Bugsy Siegel.  Because the Grim Cheaper is obsessed with all things mob-related, I knew that this was one location that he would actually be interested in stalking.   Smile  Bugsy came up with the idea of opening his exclusive members-only resort in the late 1920’s, after realizing that Lake Arrowhead was quickly becoming the new playground of the Hollywood elite.  The property, which cost a whopping $1.3 million to construct, opened on July 4, 1929.  At the time, the resort was comprised of three individual buildings consisting of a private gambling club, a brothel, a speakeasy, luxury guest quarters, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts, a barbershop, a private gas station, a ski lift, horse stables, and a highly-coveted supply of artesian well water – which was used in the making of moonshine.  Most important of all though, the resort provided its guests with privacy.  In fact, Bugsy had chosen the out-of-the-way, wooded locale due to its extreme seclusion and remoteness.

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    The building that now houses Bracken Fern Manor was known as “The Market” during the time that Bugsy operated the property.  The Market was made up of a soda fountain and a butcher shop on its bottom floor, an icehouse in its basement area, and the top floor housed the now-infamous brothel, aka “The Crib”, where Bugsy employed a crew of wannabe starlets to “entertain” his gentlemen guests.

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    The resort’s former Clubhouse, which housed the property’s private gambling club and speakeasy, is now known as the Tudor House and is currently vacant.  The building is located directly across the street from Bracken Fern Manor and still looks very much the same today as it did back in the 1920s.  You can see an old photograph of the Tudor House here.  At the time that Bugsy managed the property there was a secret underground tunnel which connected the Clubhouse to the Market and allowed male guests to travel to the brothel undetected.

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    According to the Bracken Fern Manor website, while that underground tunnel has long since been filled in, the door and steps which formerly led down to it are still, in fact, intact.  I am fairly certain that door is pictured above, but unfortunately I could not find anyone to verify that while we were stalking the place.  We did venture inside the inn while we were there as I had really wanted to talk to someone about the property’s storied history, but unfortunately the place seemed rather deserted.  Not to mention it was also completely run-down.  It is DEFINITELY not as nice as it appears on the website.  I had almost booked us a room there to spend Thanksgiving weekend, as I thought the GC would have loved staying in a hotel formerly owned by Bugsy, but after seeing the inside of the place I was so incredibly thankful that I hadn’t.  In fact, my mom told me that if she had had to spend Thanksgiving at the Manor she would have absolutely killed me!  So, while I can’t say that I’d recommend staying at the inn, I would definitely recommend stalking it.  I can’t tell you how cool it was to see the 81-year old property in person and to imagine all of the debaucherous goings-on that took place there during the Prohibition years.   

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Bracken Fern Manor, aka the former “Market” from Club Arrowhead of the Pines, is located at 815 Arrowhead Villa Road in Lake Arrowhead.  You can visit the inn’s official website here.  The Tudor House, aka Club Arrowhead of the Pine’s former Clubhouse, is located across the street at 800 Arrowhead Villa Road.  You can visit the Tudor House website here.

  • UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center from “The American President”

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    Before heading to Lake Arrowhead, where the Grim Cheaper, my parents, and I spent Thanksgiving weekend this past November, I did some research on filming in the area and just about fell off my chair when I discovered, thanks to the official Lake Arrowhead website, that part of the 1992 romantic comedy The American President had been shot on location there.  Unfortunately, the website did not specify which scene in particular had been shot in the area nor did it say where exactly filming had taken place.  So, I immediately called upon fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who put me in touch with the movie’s location manager, Richard Davis Jr., whom he happens to know, and Richard was kind enough to write me back that very same day!  Yay!  Richard informed me that filming had taken place at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, which stood in for the president’s country retreat, Camp David, in the flick.  So, I dragged my parents and the GC right on out to stalk the place pretty much immediately upon arriving in the lakeside city.

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    The UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, which was originally known as the North Shore Tavern, was first constructed in 1921 and at the time was Lake Arrowhead’s most exclusive resort.  The property changed hands a few times over the years and was transformed into everything from a yacht club to a grammar school.  In 1957, the Los Angeles Turf Club, the property’s then-owner, sold off the vast majority of the grounds, including the lake, to several different buyers, but they decided to donate the main lodge to a school.  The lodge was first offered to USC, who declined it.  The L.A.T.C. next approached the Regents of the University of California, who accepted the gift and still own the property to this day.  The state of the art facility is currently comprised of over forty acres of land and features a large swimming pool, an indoor Jacuzzi, a ropes course, three dining rooms with first class catering service, an amphitheater, a rock wall, a zip-lining course, volleyball and tennis courts, hiking and biking trails, 12 conference rooms incorporating 9,000 square feet of meeting space, and 105 guest rooms, including 81 “condolets” – two-story villa-type dwellings.

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    In The American President, the conference center’s main lodge stood in for Camp David, where President Andrew Shepherd (aka Michael Douglas) took Sydney Ellen Wade (aka Annette Bening) for a weekend getaway.  The lodge is only shown for a very brief six seconds in the scene in which Marine One, the presidential helicopter, lands on the conference center’s expansive front lawn.  Of filming the scene, which took place on March 29, 1995, Richard Davis Jr. said, “The snow had melted before we could land the helicopter so we crushed about 4 tractor trailer loads of block ice and spread it around like snow. The chopper landed on that and VFX painted in the rest. The shots looking down from the helicopter were shot in Tahoe and cut in. Winter ended early that year.  Another couple of weeks and we probably would have had to go to Alaska.”  So incredibly cool!

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    Richard also informed me that the interior and exterior of the actual cabin where Andrew and Sydney stayed in the scene were just sets that were built inside of a studio soundstage.

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    The real life interior of the main lodge is pictured above.

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    Thanks to fave stalking guide Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors (which also had The American President information listed, but for whatever reason I failed to see it), I found out that the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center was also used as Cascade, the supposed Vermont-area sanitarium where “ugly duckling” Charlotte Vail (aka Bette Davis) was sent in the 1942 film Now, Voyager.  I cannot tell you how incredibly cool I think it is that the property still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed over 68 years ago!  Love it!  Love it!  Love it!

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    The center’s tennis courts were also used extensively in Now, Voyager and they, too, still look very much the same today as they did in the movie.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!  Smile

    Stalk It: UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center from The American President is located at 850 Willow Creek Road in Lake Arrowhead.  You can visit the center’s official website here.

  • Architect Frank Gehry’s House

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    One location that I stalked quite a while back, but have yet to blog about is the residence belonging to legendary 81-year old Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, a man who is perhaps best known for his contemporary designs of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Dancing House in Prague, the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and his new line of jewelry for Tiffany & Co.  Gehry and his wife, Berta, purchased their pink Dutch Colonial-style Santa Monica home in 1977  and the architect immediately began a process of “deconstructivism” on it.  Interestingly enough, he left the exterior of the home completely intact and untouched, but stripped down the interior to the point that only bare studs and wood framing remained.  He subsequently set about rebuilding the interior with more modern-style elements and then proceeded to wrap the exterior of the original house with a new frame made of corrugated metal, plywood, glass, aluminum, and chain-link fencing, essentially wrapping the entire house with a brand new exterior. 

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    According to the Arch Daily website, of the unusual design, the architect said, “I loved the idea of leaving the house intact.  I came up with the idea of building the new house around it.  We were told there were ghosts in the house . . . I decided they were ghosts of Cubism.  The windows . . . I wanted to make them look like they were crawling out of this thing.”  He also stated, “Here we are being surrounded by material that’s being manufactured in unimaginable quantities worldwide and is used everywhere.  I don’t like it, no one likes it, and yet it’s pervasive.  We don’t even see it.  I noticed and started to find ways to beautify it.  I wanted to take the curse off the material.  It’s also why I made cardboard furniture.  Cardboard is another material that’s ubiquitous and everybody hates, yet when I made the furniture with it everybody loved it.”  Ironically enough, although he had received quite a bit of recognition prior to the remodel, it is Gehry’s Santa Monica house that is largely credited with putting the now-iconic architect on the map.

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    And while the unique abode became an architectural phenomenon virtually overnight, Gehry’s neighbors were not quite as appreciative of his aesthetic.  Legend has it that one even went so far as to shoot at the house late one night in a show of protest!  In 1991, Gehry angered both his neighbors and architectural enthusiasts alike when he once again remodeled the property, this time to meet the needs of his family – he had two growing teenage boys at the time who each wanted a room of their own.  Architectural purists apparently feel that the most recent remodel makes the house appear too “finished”, but, as you can see above, the new design still retains quite a bit of rawness and the place is definitely still an acquired taste.  In fact, the Grim Cheaper used to live just a few blocks away from the property and we would often drive by and marvel at the residence’s atrocity.  It wasn’t until years later that we realized who the house belonged to and its architectural significance. 

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    The oddest part of the property, in my mind at least, is the extensive use of chain-link fencing, which in most instances seems to appear virtually out of nowhere.  And even though the residence is not really my cup of tea, I can’t recommend stalking it enough for the mere fact that there is literally no other place like it in the entire world.

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    Gehry’s house was hilariously recreated – animation-style – for the Season 16 episode of The Simpsons titled “The Seven-Beer Snitch”, in which Marge Simpson commissions Gehry, whom she calls “the bestest architect in the world”, to build a concert hall in Springfield.  That concert hall winds up going bankrupt on its opening night and is later turned into the Springfield Prison.

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    You can see some great interior and close-up photographs of the Frank Gehry residence here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Frank Gehry’s house is located at 1002 22nd Street, at the corner of Washington Avenue, in Santa Monica.