famous places – Page 52 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 9, 2009December 6, 2013

The Fairmont Miramar Santa Monica

I don’t know about you all, but for the past few Sunday nights I have been absolutely glued to my television set watching Season 2 of the Ryan Seacrest produced Denise Richards: It’s Complicated. And while I admit that the girl is an absolute train wreck and that her laugh is like fingernails on a chalkboard, for some incredibly odd reason I just can’t stop watching! LOL So, since I was in the area recently, I just had to stalk the hotel Denise moved into at the beginning of this season.

Wanting a “fresh start” after the past “difficult year”, Denise decided to sell her Hidden Hills home and move closer to her daughters’ school and her “work” – whatever that means. I didn’t realize Denise had a full time job. LOL Anyway, until her former home sells, the Richards Family, including Denise, her father Irv (no, that’s not a typo, that’s actually his name!), and daughters Lola and Sam, are calling the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica home. The hotel shows up quite often on this season of Denise’s reality show, especially the bungalow area where her family lives . . .

. . . and the hotel’s onsite fitness center, where she works out daily with her trainer/sometimes date Ray.

The Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows was originally the private home of John P. Jones, a former Nevada senator and one of the founders of the City of Santa Monica. John built a mansion on the site in 1889 and dubbed his property “Miramar” which means “view of the sea” in Spanish. In 1912, the Jones Family sold their home to King C. Gillette, founder of the razor company of the same name and the King Gillette Ranch where TV’s The Biggest Loser is filmed. Nine years later, in 1921, Gillette sold the property to hotel entreprenuer Gilbert Stevenson, who turned it into an upscale seaside resort. In 1924, to make room for more guests, Stevenson added a large brick building to the property and also, sadly, had the original Jones’ mansion torn down just a few years later. In 1959, the hotel added yet another tower. Forty years later, the current owner, investment group Maritz, Wolffe & Co. purchased the hotel, started a $16 million renovation process, and brought in the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts company to manage the property. All these years later it is still a truly beautiful place and I highly recommend stalking it! 🙂

Denise Richards is not the first celeb to check into the Miramar. Over the years numermous stars have stayed there, including Cary Grant, Greta Garbo (who lived at the hotel for close to three years), Doris Day, JFK and Jackie O., Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, my girl Marilyn Monroe, Rosa Parks, Denzel Washington, Quincy Jones, Hugh Hefner, Anthony Hopkins, Arnold Schwarznegger, Steven Spielburg, Shaquille O’Neal, and Hilary Swank, just to name a few.

The hotel has been featured in countless movie and television productions over the years. In the Season 5 episode of Entourage entitled “First Class Jerk”, the Miramar stood in for a Hawaiian resort where Vinnie and the boys hung out.

The large Moreton Bay Fig Tree which stands at the entrance to the Miramar and quite closely resembles a banyan tree gives the hotel somewhat of a tropical feel, so it’s no surprise that Entourage producers chose to film there instead of shooting on location in Hawaii. The fig tree was planted way back in 1879 – yes, 1879 – by Senator Jones, the original owner of the propety. It measures a whopping 80 feet high and 120 feet wide!

The hotel also showed up as the location where Anthony Hopkins’ wife carried out her affair in 2007’s Fracture.

It was also the hotel where Helen Mirren and her friends stayed during their L.A. visit in the Disney movie Calendar Girls. Please excuse the horrific YouTube screen captures pictured above! LOL In the 1962 Cary Grant and Doris Day comedy That Touch of Mink, the Miramar was used as a West Indies resort. The hotel has also been featured in Along Came Polly and the television series Simon & Simon.

And last, but definitely not least, the night before her surprise wedding to KFed, Britney Spears threw herself a Bachelorette party in one of the Miramar’s bungalows. KFed partied with his boys, aka “The Pimps” right across the street at Houston’s Restaurant (pictured above). Both, I’m sure, were classy affairs! 😉 At the time, Kevin was living with Britney in her nearby oceanside pad in the 1221 Ocean Avenue condomium complex.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is located at 101 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. You can visit their website here. Houston’s Restaurant, where KFed held his bachelor party, is located across the street at 202 Wilshire Boulevard.

July 8, 2009July 8, 2009

The Blast from the Past House

UPDATE: Just a quick note to let all of you stalkers out there know that tonight at 11 p.m. PST I will be interviewed by radio host Peter Anthony Holder for his talk show Holder Tonight on Montreal’s number one English talk station, CJAD, and on their sister station CFRB, which is the number one talk station in Toronto! 🙂 Those of you who want to listen in to a live stream can do so at www.CJAD.com or www.CFRB.com. The live stream link for both stations is located on the upper left hand side of their homepage. Then tomorrow morning Kelly Green, from Tensessee’s The Farm 100.9, will be interviewing me at 7:20 a.m., but unfortunately it doesn’t look like that station has streaming audio. 🙁 http://www.thefarmradio.com/greenteam.htm Hopefully they will put the interview in the archive section of their website, though, and I’ll be able to post a link. Now on to the post! 🙂

A few weeks ago, I dragged Mike, from MovieShotsLA, out to a location I have been meaning to stalk for quite a while now – Alicia Silverstone’s cute little craftsman house from the 1999 movie Blast from the Past. I had actually been wanting to stalk the adorable house ever since I first saw the movie over ten years ago, but had no idea where it was located. So, when I found out that Mike knew the address and had actually stalked the home several times previously, I begged him to take me there. 🙂

I am very happy to report that the house looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Blast from the Past – right down to the little red car parked out front! I’m not kidding – that red car really was parked out there while we were stalking the place!!!! LOL LOL LOL I was shocked to discover, though, that the Blast from the Past house was located in Los Angeles, because, thanks to its Craftsman style architecture, it actually looks more like a Pasadena area home. Even stranger still is the fact that in the beginning of the movie, when Brendan Fraser leaves his family’s bomb shelter, his mom tells him to seek out “a girl from Pasadena”, because she’s “always found girls from Pasadena to be a little bit nicer”. 🙂 So, basically, the Blast from the Past location scouts went, not to Pasadena, but to Los Angeles to find a Pasadena style home to stand in for a Pasadena girl’s residence. That’s Hollywood for you! 🙂

The house, most notably the front door and front porch area, show up numerous times throughout the movie.

And it is on the street in front of the home that Brendan Fraser runs away from the County Family Services people . . .

. . . and crashes his rented meat truck into the County Family Service woman’s car. LOL LOL LOL

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I was shocked to discover, while doing research for this post, that the same home was also used in the 1974 movie Chinatown as the house where the mysterious Katherine (Belinda Palmer) hides out. It is amazing to me how similar the home still looks thirty-five years later!! According to IMDB, the same house was also featured in the 2000 made-for-TV movie If These Walls Could Talk 2, but I haven’t been able to verify that. I can say for certain, though, that it was not the main house used in the movie.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Blast from the Past house is located at 1972 Canyon Drive, just off of Franklin Avenue, in Los Angeles.

July 7, 2009April 20, 2010

Neverland Ranch

Since we were in the area this past weekend celebrating the Fourth of July, I just had to drag my fiance out to Neverland Ranch yesterday to stalk pop star Michael Jackson’s former home. I had actually stalked the Ranch once before, back in November of 2007, but I wanted to stop by once again to see what sort of pandemonium would be taking place there due to the pop star’s recent death. Even though MJ hadn’t lived on the property since 2005, the home has been a mecca of sorts for the music legend’s fans ever since his sudden passing on June 25th. Michael purchased the 2,600 acre property, which at the time was known as Sycamore Valley Ranch, from resort and golf course developer William Bone in 1988. It was on this land that Jackson built his fantasy home, comprised of two railroads, a zoo, a ginormous swimming pool, a lake, a ferris wheel, a carousel, bumper cars, numerous other amusement park rides, an arcade, a private movie theatre, and a whopping twenty-two buildings. He dubbed the property Neverland after the home of his favorite storybook character, Peter Pan, aka the boy who wouldn’t grow up. In 2005, after being acquitted of child molestation charges, Jackson vacated the property and vowed never to return. He said that during the police investigation, the officers who searched his property for evidence had “violated” it and he no longer felt at home there. The property narrowly escaped foreclosure a few years later in May of 2008 when Jackson sold his loan and a part of his property rights to an investment company named Colony Capital LLC for about $35 million. The land is currently owned jointly by both Colony Capital LLC and Michael’s estate. At this point it is not known what is to become of the King of Pop’s former home, but there are talks of turning it into a sort of Graceland/Michael Jackson museum, which I think would be absolutely incredible to visit! But, yesterday, I had to settle for just stalking the Ranch’s exterior.

On the way to Neverland, I started to get a little nervous that due to massive crowds we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near the property. About four miles away from the Ranch, the above traffic sign was posted which blinked the warnings “Slow Traffic Ahead” and “Caution: Congestion Ahead”.

The city had also placed countless “No Parking” signs along the five mile stretch of rural road which leads to MJ’s former home.

Thankfully, while there were a lot of people paying their respects at Neverland Ranch yesterday, we were still able to stalk it quite easily. As you can see in above photograph, there were a ton of media vans and reporters on site staked out to cover the goings-on at the Ranch. Police were also on duty, patroling the area.

The media crews were camped out in front of the property to stake out their section of land , much like was the case over at Forest Lawn Memorial Park where Michael is set to be buried.

Also much like at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, CNN had apparently decided that they didn’t need to actually physically be on site to stake out their claim on a section of land, but that a set of cones would do. LOL I was so tempted to move their cones! 🙂

In anticipation of the many visitors to the Ranch, numerous porta-potties had been set up by the city, which I was very grateful for.

A few entrepreneurial individuals were actually selling Michael Jackson memorabilia, like t-shirts and buttons, out in front of his former home. What’s even more amazing to me is that people were actually buying the stuff! Nice, huh?

The entrance to Neverland Ranch looked much different yesterday than when I visited it in 2007. In an ironic juxtaposition, while the last time I visited the Ranch when Michael was still alive, the property was quiet and almost barren, yesterday it was full of life and absolutely crawling with people. I’m guessing there were about fifty fans outside of the Neverland gates who had come to pay their respects to the singer. While there, my fiance spoke to two gentlemen from Spain who had flown all the way to California just to visit the Ranch and pay their respects to Michael! Not everyone was there for the pop star, though. At one point, a man in an SUV drove up to where my fiance was standing and asked him what all the commotion was about. My fiance was like “Um, this is Michael Jackson’s house.” The guy, who had obviously been born under a rock, had absolutely NO idea that he was driving past one of the most famous celebrity homes on earth. LOL LOL LOL

Practically every square inch of the Ranch’s front entrance was covered over with personalized signs, balloons, stuffed animals, and flowers that people had left for Michael. Signs had even been hung from the trees! It was absolutely incredible to see!

As I mentioned the last time I stalked the place, unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of Neverland to see from the road. But my fiance managed to snap a few pics through the entrance gate. There seemed to be quite a few people on duty at the Ranch, including gardeners, security guards, and what looked to be ranchers of some sort.

Because the perimeter of Neverland isn’t really fenced in, floodlights had been set up to ward off nighttime trespassers.

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Los Olivos, the sleepy town where Neverland Ranch is located, is no stranger to the spotlight. The tiny town, which is made up of only one main street that stretches four short blocks, stood in for Mayberry in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Return to Mayberry. And a small local restaurant named Los Olivos Cafe was the spot where Miles, Jack, Maya, and Stephanie shared a romantic meal in the 2004 movie Sideways.

The town is something of a celebrity hotspot, as well. A few years ago, my fiance ate lunch next to Jennie Garth and her husband Peter Facinelli at Los Olivos’ Panino restaurant. But while I’ve been to Los Olivos quite a few times, sadly I’ve never encountered a celeb there. 🙁

The above sign, which I spotted in a gift shop window yesterday morning, pretty much perfectly sums up the tiny, sleepy town. 🙂

For those fans who would like a more in-depth view of Neverland, you can read an AMAZING article and see some INCREDIBLE pictures taken by a photographer named Jonathan Haeber who snuck into the Ranch back in December of 2007 here. TMZ also posted some great pics of the interior of Michael’s actual home which was located on the Neverland Ranch property. Matt Lauer also gave viewers an indepth tour of Michael’s home just a few days after his untimely death, which you can watch here. And finally, you can see a video Larry King posted of the Neverland property here. My dad and I had the pleasure of stalking the Michael Jackson Exhibit by Julien’s Auctions earlier this year. My photos of the exhibit, which included all of the pop singer’s Neverland Ranch furniture and much of his music memorabilia, can be viewed here.

It was very nice to be able to pay my respects at the Ranch yesterday, especially since I was not one of the chosen few who received tickets to Michael’s memorial at Staples Center. 🙁 I had so been hoping to win those. So, instead I will be watching the event live at home, along with the rest of the world.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Neverland Ranch is located off of the 154 Highway at 5225 Figueroa Mountain Road in Los Olivos, about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara and about five miles Northeast of central Los Olivos .

July 6, 2009July 7, 2009

The Old School House

A few weeks ago, while out stalking, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to pay a little visit to the house where Luke Wilson lived and set up his fictional Lamdba Epsilon Omega fraternity in the 2003 comedy Old School. The house is located on a quiet, tree-lined street that has long been a favorite of location scouts. South Pasadena’s Bushnell Avenue has shown up in everything from the movies Back to the Future and Ghost Dad to the television series thirtysomething. I promise to devote a future post to the other famous homes located on the oft-filmed street, but today’s post will be dedicated solely to the Old School house. 🙂

I am happy to report that aside from a few minor changes, the Old School house looks exactly the same in person as it appeared onscreen. Unfortunately, the sun was shining very brightly the day we stalked the house, so my pictures did not turn out very good. 🙁

Because the Old School house was supposed to be located very close to, or as Vince Vaughn says “practically on”, a college campus, producers brought in a mailbox, a kiosk, and several parking meters to make the area look less residential. They also created fake parking places in front of the home, much like was done at the nearby Bedtimes Stories house.

The house shows up many times throughout the movie, most notably as the site of Vince Vaughn’s Mitch-A-Palooza Party, where he hires Snoop Dogg to perform.

Will Ferrell’s streaking expedition was also filmed in front of the Old School house. Before heading over to Honolulu Avenue in nearby Montrose, Frank-the-Tank tries to lead his fellow Mitch-A-Palooza partiers on a streaking trip down Bushnell Avenue. Unbeknownst to him, he is the only one streaking. LOL

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My friend and fellow stalker Owen, informed me that the Old School house was also used in the 1989 flick Back to the Future II. In the movie, bully Biff steals a little kid’s ball and tosses it up onto the balcony of the Old School house.

In a very random side note, the Old School fraternity house actually belonged to Will Ferrell at the time of the filming. In the movie’s DVD commentary, Will Ferrel says, “And this was actually my house. My little craftsman house in Pasadena. I was cool with it, even though you guys ruined the hardwood floors with all the equipment.” Actors Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson also took part in the DVD commentary and since there was quite a bit of joking around going on during their talk, I can’t say with absolute certainty that the house ever actually belonged to Will. He very well could have just been joking around. But he does continally refer to the house as being his throughout the entire commentary, so I think it might actually be true. At one point he even said that his wife was extremely upset when she saw the house set up for the post-Mitch-A-Palooza scene (pictured above). According to property records, the home was sold to a new owner in 2006, so while I can’t say for sure that Will owned it during the filming of Old School, I can say he for sure that he doesn’t own it anymore.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Old School house is located at 1803 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. The house located at 1727 Bushnell was used as both Lorraine’s 1955 house in Back to the Future and Michael J. Fox’s house in Teen Wolf. George McFly’s 1955 house is located at 1711 Bushnell, while Biff’s from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809. At 1710 Bushnell is the home that was featured as Ken Olin and Mel Harris’ in the television series thirtysomething. Ghost Dad was filmed at both 1615 and 1621 Bushnell. I will write a more detailed post on all of those locations at a later date. 🙂

July 3, 2009April 20, 2010

Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills

I was all set to publish a blog post today about the Old School house, but a drive through Burbank yesterday evening caused that plan to go awry. At around 7 p.m. last night, after running a random errand in Hollywood, I drove home via Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank and practically had to stop my car right in its tracks due to a virtual circus that was taking place out in front of Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Over fifteen news vans were parked on the side of the road and countless media personnel were milling about on the sidewalk in front of the Burbank area cemetery. I had heard rumors that Michael Jackson’s funeral might take place at Forest Lawn early next week, but I didn’t believe reporters would be setting up already. So, of course, I just had to pull my car over to find out what was going on!

According to the reporters staked out at Forest Lawn, there are numerous unconfirmed reports that Michael Jackson’s family is planning to bury the King of Pop in a private ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. I asked one of the reporters why so many media vans were there if the funeral reports were not yet confirmed and he informed me that the cemetery, which goes by the full name of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, is their “best guess as to Michael’s funeral location”. Apparently, the reporters are camping out in teams for the next FOUR days until the funeral takes place. It is absolutely incredible to me that they are willing to actually camp out for over NINETY-SIX hours on the side of the road on the off-chance that Michael’s funeral might take place nearby! Unreal! Only time will tell if the funeral actually will take place at Forest Lawn, but if the media is willing to camp out there for FOUR full days, I am guessing they must have a pretty solid tip to go on. And I can only imagine what the place is going to look like in the days to come!

It seemed yesterday that pretty much every single news outlet imaginable was already on duty in front of Forest Lawn. Even Telemundo was there!

Apparently, CNN thought they could simply tape off a piece of the road to reserve their spot, in lieu of having their reporters camp out on-site. LOL If I was reporter for a competing station I’d so stand there and be like, “Um, sorry! You snooze, you lose!” 🙂

Most of the news vans on-site already had GINORMOUS satellite equipment set up so that they could broadcast live. It was absolutely incredible to see!

And although I have yet to stalk the inside of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, I promise to do so in the near future so that I can write a more complete blog post about the cemetery. Forest Lawn has long been popular with the rich and famous and Michael Jackson is hardly the first celeb to be buried there. Forest Lawn is also the final resting place for Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Ozzie Nelson, Freddie Prinze, Liberace, Telly Savalas, John Ritter, Sandra Dee, Steve Allen and the recently deceased David Carradine. Apparently, the Forest Lawn staff is remiss about divulging the location of star’s graves, but thankfully the Seeing-Stars website provides a plethora of information about the cemetery including a virtual map!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank. Do not confuse this Forest Lawn cemetery with their other location named Forest Lawn Glendale, which is located just a few miles away at 1712 S. Glendale Avenue in Glendale.

July 2, 2009July 2, 2009

The Never Been Kissed High School

Yesterday, I dragged my mom out to a location I have been meaning to stalk for years now – the school that stood in for South Glen High School in the 1999 romantic comedy Never Been Kissed. In actuality, though, the school where filming took place wasn’t a high school at all, but a huge middle school named John Burroughs located in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. John Burroughs Middle School opened up way back in 1924 with a starting roster of only 400 students. Today, that student body has grown to include a whopping 2,300 Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth graders! John Burroughs, or “JB” as it is more commonly known, is absolutely HUGE in person, much larger than it appeared in Never Been Kissed. So large, in fact, that I couldn’t step back far enough to fit its whole exterior in the lens of my camera!! I so need to invest in that fish eye lens! LOL John Burroughs is a very beautiful, traditional style brick school that looks like it could be found in any city in America. Because of its All-American feel, it’s not hard to see why it has been featured in countless movie and television productions.

While my mom and I were stalking the school, we ran into a couple of faculty members who really could not have been nicer to us. They gave us a brief rundown of some of the filming that has taken place on the JB campus, but inronically it seemed that I knew more about the school’s filming history than they did. 🙂 LOL And, since school is not currently in session, they even let us walk around the campus to snap some pictures. 🙂 I am happy to report that John Burroughs Middle School looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Never Been Kissed. Both the interior and the exterior of the middle school were used extensively in the filming. Specific areas of the school featured in the movie include the exterior, where Drew Barrymore parked her brother’s car each morning;

the school’s entryway, complete with metal detectors, which were put there specifically for the filming;

the main stairwell;

the hallways;

and the main office, where Drew Barrymore got smacked in the face by a door.

From what I understand, some of JB’s classrooms were also used in the filming of the movie, most notably Room 108, which according to the faculty member I spoke with is a room which has been featured in numerous productions.

Burroughs Middle School also popped us as Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire’s 1950’s high school in Pleasantville . . .

and as Michael J. Fox’s high school in Teen Wolf.

The exterior of the middle school was also featured in Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Rex Buster, The Samurai of Strongsville, Ohio, Rebound, Beauty Shop, Agent Cody Banks, Casper: A Spirited Beginning, and the television series Family Matters. The interiors of the school were used in The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Like Father, Like Son, and Meteor Man and its auditorium was featured in the movie Deep Impact. There are also reports that the school was used in both Pretty in Pink and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but I’m not sure that information is correct. Filming for both of those moves took place extensively at John Marshall High School in Los Feliz. That’s not to say, though, that some minor filming might have taken place at Burroughs Middle School, but so far I have not been able to verify that.

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Famous alumni of John Burroughs Middle School include Laila Ali (Muhammad Ali’s daughter), Tyra Banks, author James Ellroy, and American Idol’s Frenchie Davis.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: John Burroughs Middle School is located at 600 South McCadden Place in Los Angeles.

July 1, 2009July 1, 2009

Will Ferrell’s Streaking Scene

A few weeks ago, while out stalking in Montrose, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to pinpoint the exact location where Will Ferrell went streaking in the 2003 movie Old School. Although it’s fairly common location knowledge that the streaking scene took place on Honolulu Avenue in the City of Montrose, I actually first heard that information straight from the horse’s mouth last July when I saw Will Ferrell speak at my acting school. During the question and answer session of Will’s presentation, one of my fellow students raised their hand and asked Frank the Tank himself where the streaking scene had taken place. Love it!! 🙂 Amazingly enough, Will remembered the general location where that scene had been filmed and ever since then I have been meaning to stalk it. So, a few weeks ago, Mike and I set out to do just that.

With our Blackberries in hand, the two of us walked up and down Honolulu Avenue watching Will’s streaking scene on YouTube while trying to find the exact location. And sure enough, we did! 🙂 We were actually able to pinpoint Will’s streaking spot by matching up the Montrose Shopping Park Directory sign . . .

and some windows that were shown in the background of the scene. YAY!

While we were stalking Honolulu Avenue, one of the super-friendly local shop owners informed us that the Montrose Bakery and Cafe, which is located just down the road from Will’s streaking spot, was also featured in Old School. The Cafe’s exterior stood in for the exterior of the University Cafe where Luke Wilson and his friends have a pow wow about how to save their fraternity. Interestingly enough, though, the Cafe’s interior was not used in the filming. The interior scenes were filmed at another location altogether.

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You can watch Will Ferrell’s absolutely hilarious – but NSFW – streaking scene here. “We’re going streaking! Yeah! We’re going streaking through the quad and into the gymnasium! Come on, everybody! Come on, Snoop, Snoop-a-Loop! Bring your green hat!” LOL LOL LOL

On a bittersweet side note, I dragged my mom out to Montrose earlier today to snap some more photos of the “streaking street” and we noticed the above tribute to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett posted outside of a local shop named Pure Sunshine Beauty Supply. It seems everyone the world over is mourning Michael and Farrah’s untimely passings. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Ferrell’s streaking scene took place on the block of Honolulu Avenue located between Market Street and Ocean View Boulevard in Montrose. Frank’s wife is driving East on Honolulu Avenue when she first spots Frank. She stops the car right around 2246 Honolulu Avenue to let him hop inside. Montrose Bakery and Cafe, aka the University Cafe, is located at 2325 Honolulu Avenue, also in Montrose.

June 30, 2009June 16, 2011

Montrose Bowl

A few weeks ago, while out stalking the city of Montrose with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the two of us happened to stumble upon a little bowling alley named Montrose Bowl, which has been featured in countless movie and television productions. Even though the bowling alley is currently closed to the public – it is only available as a venue for private parties – we just had to step inside for a little looksie. 🙂 The owner truly could NOT have been nicer to the two of us and gave us a complete run-down on the bowling alley’s filming history. He even let us poke around to snap a few pictures. 🙂

Montrose Bowl, which opened up back in 1936, has been a family owned and operated business for the past twenty-five years. The 1950’s style, eight lane bowling alley is one of the smallest alleys in all of Los Angeles. It is definitely a unique little place and it’s not hard to see why it has been featured in so many productions. Walking through the doors of Montrose Bowl is truly like stepping back in time.

The first production ever to film at the alley was the 1985 Michael J. Fox movie Teen Wolf. Montrose Bowl shows up twice in the movie as the basketball team’s post-game hang-out spot.

In 1991, Montrose Bowl stood in for the New York bowling alley where Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino hung out in the romantic comedy Frankie and Johnny. One of Montrose Bowl’s bathrooms was also featured in a scene from the movie.

Montrose Bowl’s interior was changed significantly for the filming of the movie Pleasantville, where it portrayed the bowling alley frequented by William H. Macy and J.T. Walsh. Much of the decor from the filming of Pleasantville has been left up, so the alley currently looks very similar to how it appeared onscreen in the 1998 comedy about a 1950s television family.

The exterior of the Pleasantville bowling alley was built on a studio backlot, but as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, quite closely resembles the real life exterior of Montrose Bowl.

Montrose Bowl has also been the site of countless celebrity parties. Back in his heyday, Phil Spector hosted an annual party at the bowling alley, with guests like Stevie Nicks, Van Halen, Gene Simmons and KISS in attendance. Bruce Willis, Dustin Hoffman, and the L.A. Kings hockey team have also hosted parties there. Once I heard that Montrose Bowl was somewhat of a celebrity hotspot, I just had to ask if my girl Jen Aniston had ever bowled there – and I was absolutely FLOORED to find out that indeed she had! 🙂 Apparently Ms. Aniston was a guest at a birthday party that Vince Vaughn threw for his sister at the alley a few years back. 🙂 Love it!

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Montrose Bowl is a VERY cool place and I highly recommend stalking it if you get the chance. It also seems like a GREAT place to throw a party!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Montrose Bowl is located at 2334 Honolulu Avenue in Montrose. You can visit their website here. The bowling alley is currently closed to the public and only open for private events. But if you’re lucky, you may be able to stick your head in the door for a quick peek. 🙂

June 29, 2009June 29, 2009

The Nightmare on Elm Street Houses

While all of my friends and family are, for the most part, very supportive of my stalking endeavors, I still quite often get asked the question, “Do people really care about this stuff?” and “Can you explain your website to me, because I just don’t get it.” LOL One of the people who “just doesn’t get it” the most is my good friend, and fellow actor, Blaze. So, the other day, while the two of us were out and about in Hollywood, I decided to show him what my website is all about. 🙂 Blaze has long been a huge fan of the horror movie genre, and when I say a huge fan, I mean a HUGE fan. So, since we were in the area, I asked him if he wanted to see the two main houses from his very favorite horror movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Blaze was absolutely shocked – and appeared somewhat skeptical – that a) the Nightmare on Elm Street houses were located in the L.A. area, and that b) I actually knew where to find them. Oh ye of little faith!

As I drove up to the home which stood in for Nancy’s in the movie – with a very smug smile on my face, I might add! – Blaze started SCREAMING his head off saying “OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! IT’S THE NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET HOUSE!!” LOL He hopped out of my car before I had even come to a complete stop and ran right up to the home’s front door to take a picture. He truly could not have been more excited!!! It’s stalking moments like this that I absolutely love – showing someone a location from a favorite movie and having it resonate with them just as much as it does with me. It’s the whole reason I started my blog. 🙂 And I’m pretty sure that Blaze now “gets it”.

I am very happy to report that Nancy (aka Heather Langenkamp’s) house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when A Nightmare on Elm Street was filmed there back in 1984. Blaze kept saying “Even the colors of the house are still the same!” 🙂 Nancy’s house also showed up in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, as the residence of Jesse Walsh.

Located directly across the street from Nancy’s house is the house that was used as Glen (aka Johnny Depp’s) in the movie. And I am happy to report that Glen’s house also looks pretty much EXACTLY the same as it did in A Nightmare on Elm Street. I find it amazing – and refreshing – that both Nightmare On Elm Street houses look the same today as they did in a movie which filmed over twenty-five years ago!

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On a sidenote, it turns out that A Nightmare on Elm Street was Johnny Depp’s very first acting role. According to IMDB, Johnny was accompaning his good friend, actor Jackie Earle Haley, on an audition for the movie. While there, he was spotted by director Wes Craven, who took one look at him, liked what he saw, and asked him to audition for the part of Glen. Johnny won the role and the rest, as they say, is cinematic history! 🙂 Check out Johnny’s crop top in the above pic. LOL LOL LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Nancy’s house from A Nightmare on Elm Street is located at 1428 North Genesee Avenue in Hollywood. Glen’s house is located right across the street at 1419 North Genesee.

June 25, 2009June 25, 2009

The National Lampoon’s Vacation House

And speaking of National Lampoon’s Vacation, last week fellow stalker Owen made it his mission to locate the Griswold home from the 1983 comedy flick. Amazingly enough, he ended up finding the house pretty much right away! For this particular movie location expenditure, Owen decided to “stalk outside the box”, so to speak, and started looking through Vacation’s IMDB message boards to see if they provided any clues as to the home’s locale. He ran across a thread entitled “Griswold House 2008″ where, lo and behold, someone had actually posted recent pics of the home. Owen ended up contacting the owner of those photos who told him that one evening, while stuck in traffic after attending a concert in Los Feliz, he happened to gaze to his left where he saw, and immediately recognized, the Griswold Family home. How this guy recognized the house from a movie filmed way back in 1983 while not actively looking for it, is beyond me. My hat is definitely off to him!!!! 🙂

So, Owen did a little bit of digging and ended up finding the house, exactly where the man told him it would be – in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. In reality, the home is a long way off from Chicago, Illinois, where the Grisworlds supposedly lived in Vacation. 🙂 I am happy to report that the house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1983 when the movie was filmed there. Hallelujah! 🙂 It is absolutely AMAZING to me that in twenty-six years virtually nothing about the house has been changed.

Well, except for one thing. For some incredibly odd reason, the owners did make one major addition to the Griswold home. Since the filming, a large fence which surrounds the perimeter of the property and blocks the view of the house from the street, has been added. I wonder if the fence was installed to ward of potential stalkers, like myself. 😉 Either way, even with the addition of the fence, the home is still largely recognizable from the film.

Even the street out in front of the house, where we see Clark pull up in the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, seems to be exactly the same as it appeared in Vacation.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The National Lampoon’s Vacation house is located at 2310 North Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.