Tag: filming locations

Leigh Ann’s House from “Teaching Mrs. Tingle”

The final Teaching Mrs. Tingle location that I was absolutely desperate to find was the home where Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes) lived in the 1999 thriller. Because the other two properties featured in the movie are located in Pasadena (you can read my post on the house belonging to Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren) here and Coach Wenchell (Jeffrey Tambor) here), I was positively convinced that Leigh Ann’s residence was, as well, and spent countless hours scouring aerial views of the city. After repeatedly coming up empty-handed, though, I decided it was time to call in the big guns – fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog – for some back-up. And, amazingly enough, Owen found the dwelling fairly quickly – in Culver City of all places, an area which I never would have searched in a million years. Thank you, Owen! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the abode just a few days later.

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In the screen capture I had sent him, Owen had noticed that the faint outline of a 4 was visible in front of the 110 address number posted above Leigh Ann’s front door. Because of the picturesque trees visible on Leigh Ann’s street, Owen was also at first convinced that her house was located in Pasadena and spent quite a bit of time searching 4100 blocks in the area. When those efforts proved fruitless, he decided to take a look at IMDB’s Teaching Mrs. Tingle filming locations page to see if it would provide any insight. And, sure enough, it did! After noticing that both Culver City High School and Culver Studios were mentioned as being used in the flick, he shifted his hunt there and eventually found the house at 4110 Lincoln Avenue, just a few blocks north of the high school (which I believe was only used for a few interior shots). Yay!

Leigh Ann’s house is only featured twice, and very briefly at that, in Teaching Mrs. Tingle – first in an opening scene in which Jo Lynn Jordan (Marisa Coughlan) picks Leigh Ann up for school. In the scene, only the residence across the street from Leigh Ann’s is actually shown, though.

The abode next pops up in the scene in which Leigh Ann returns home for the night after she and her friends have taken Mrs. Tingle hostage. As you can see below, the residence looks quite a bit different now than it did during the filming. A white picket fence has since been constructed around the perimeter of the property, the paint color has since been changed and quite a bit of foliage has since been added to the front yard. I was absolutely floored to see that the moon-shaped cut-outs were still present in the window shutters, though. Love it!

In real life, the residence was originally built in 1934 and boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,472 square feet of living space, and a 0.15-acre plot of land. As luck would have it, the homeowners happened to be outside when we showed up to stalk the place and they truly could NOT have been nicer. And while they did not own the bungalow at the time of the filming, the previous resident had informed them of the property’s cinematic history. For some inexplicable reason, though, they have yet to rent the movie to see the house onscreen for themselves. Sheesh! Some people! If I owned that house, I’d be watching Teaching Mrs. Tingle pretty much nightly!

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the dwelling was also used in the flick, but, unfortunately, I could not find any interior photographs of the residence with which to verify that hunch, nor did the homeowners know if any filming took place inside

I was absolutely shocked at how much Leigh Ann’s neighborhood resembled Pasadena in person. In fact, if someone had shown me the photograph below prior to me stalking Leigh Ann’s house, I would have bet money on the fact that it was a photograph of a Pasadena street. Who knew Culver City had trees like that?

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Leigh Ann’s house from Teaching Mrs. Tingle is located at 4110 Lincoln Avenue in Culver City.

October 3, 2012
The Blankenhorn Lamphear House from “Teaching Mrs. Tingle”

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post (which you can read here), I recently went on a trek to find all of the locations used in the 1999 thriller Teaching Mrs. Tingle. The locale I was most interested in tracking down, of course, was the huge Victorian manse belonging to the movie’s titular character, who was played by Helen Mirren. Once I learned from the flick’s production notes that the residence was located in the Pasadena area, I figured that, thanks to its fabulous façade, it would most likely be chronicled in the architectural section of Hometown Pasadena. So I immediately started scanning through the tome and fairly quickly came across a blurb about a property named the Blankenhorn Lamphear house which said, “This house is one of Pasadena’s finest examples of the Queen Anne style, the most romantic and fanciful of the Victorian era’s architectural idioms.” I quickly punched the address provided into Google Street View and, sure enough, the Blankenhorn Lamphear house and Mrs. Tingle’s abode were one and the same! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place just a few minutes later.

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The Blankenhorn Lamphear house was originally constructed in 1893 by the Bradbeer and Ferris architecture firm. It was commissioned by a wealthy railroad executive named David F. Blankenhorn. David’s son, David F. Blankenhorn Jr., who was born on the premises, grew up to become a very successful real estate mogul – it was he who handled William Wrigley Jr.’s purchase of Catalina Island in 1919. The Blankenhorns later sold the property to a Mr. and Mrs. John Lamphear, who lived there for many years with their three children. The property changed hands once again in 1994 when the Lamphear estate sold it to its current owner for $425,000.

As you can see below, the 6-bedroom, 2-bath, 3,017-square-foot home, which sits on 0.31 acres, is absolutely spectacular in person.

In Teaching Mrs. Tingle, high school students Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes), Luke Churner (Barry Watson) and Jo Lynn Jordan (Marisa Coughlan – in an AMAZING performance) pay a late night visit to the home of their mean-spirited English teacher, Mrs. Tingle, in order to clear up a misunderstanding. Things don’t go quite according to plan, though, and the three wind up holding Mrs. Tingle hostage inside of the abode for a few days.

A large gate and a massive amount of foliage were added to the residence for the filming, so it looks quite a bit different (and a lot less spooky) in person than it did onscreen.

And while the Teaching Mrs. Tingle production notes state, “The filmmakers chose for Mrs. Tingle an elegant Victorian house in Pasadena, split by a mysterious spiral staircase – a layout that matches the constant shifts and turns of plot and ups and downs of the fate of Leigh Ann Watson and Mrs. Tingle”, because the majority of the movie’s action took place inside of the home, I do not believe that the real life interior was used in the flick. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any interior photographs of the property with which to verify that hunch, though.

Fellow stalker Anthony informed me that the very same house was also used as the residence where Helen North Beardsley (Lucille Ball) and Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda) lived with their eighteen (!) children in the 1968 flick Yours, Mine and Ours. As you can see below, the façade of the house has not changed much since that time.

The home’s real life address number of “346” was even visible in the background of a few scenes. Love it!

According to a 1974 Pasadena Star News article, only the exterior of the Blankenhorn Lamphear house was used in the flick. The interior of the Beardsley home was a set built inside of a soundstage somewhere in Hollywood. As you can see below, it does not match the interior of Mrs. Tingle’s house in the slightest.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Blankenhorn Lamphear house, aka Mrs. Tingle’s home from Teaching Mrs. Tingle, is located at 346 Markham Place in Pasadena. The Daddy Day Care house is located right around the corner at 351 Congress Place.

October 2, 2012
Coach Wenchell’s House from “Teaching Mrs. Tingle”

It’s that time again, my fellow stalkers! October 1st – the beginning of my Haunted Hollywood postings. And I could not be more excited! So without further ado . . . let’s get started! A couple of months ago, I stopped by my good friend Marci’s boyfriend’s house to pick up something she had left for me there. (Marci just so happens to be the owner of one of my favorite places in the entire world – Lula Mae gift shop at 100 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena. If you are in the area, I cannot more highly recommend stopping by. I love the place so much, I practically hang out there. It’s where I go whenever I need a gift, or am in a bad mood, or am suffering from writer’s block. The store manages to cure all of my ails! But I digress.) While I was there, Marci’s bf and I got to talking about filming locations (imagine that!) and he mentioned that the 1999 thriller Teaching Mrs. Tingle had been filmed at a residence near where he used to live on Atchison Street in Pasadena. Well, let me tell you, I just about fell over upon hearing the news as I had long been under the assumption that the flick had been lensed in North Carolina. So I ran right out to purchase the DVD and immediately started trying to track down all of its locales. Thanks to some big help from the usual suspects (fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog), I managed to find quite a few of them. So I figured what better way to kick off my Haunted Hollywood month than by posting about the house that started my Teaching Mrs. Tingle obsession.

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As it turns out, the house on Atchison Street stood in for the residence where Coach Wenchell (Jeffrey Tambor) lived in Teaching Mrs. Tingle. It popped up only once in the movie, in the scene in which Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes) and Luke Churner (Barry Watson) drove the passed-out (and married!) Coach back to his home after he stopped by Mrs. Tingle’s (Helen Mirren) pad for a booty call. And I should mention here that while I was not really a fan of Teaching Mrs. Tingle, this stalker absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES herself some Katie Holmes, which is why I became so obsessed with tracking down locales from the flick.

After they arrive at his house, Leigh Ann and Luke dump the Coach onto his front porch and then Leigh Ann, sadly, spots the Coach’s wife sitting inside reading by herself. Only a very tight shot of the home and its front porch area was shown in the flick.

It was such a tight shot, in fact, that I had a hard time pinpointing the exact house that appeared in the movie. (Marci’s boyfriend had only told me that the residence was located on the 1100 block of Atchison). It was not until I spotted two very distinct trees in the background, located in front of a neighboring residence, that I was able to figure it out.

In real life, Coach Wenchell’s house, which was originally built in 1926, boasts two bedrooms, two baths, 2,112 square feet of living space, and a 0.33-acre plot of land. As you can see below, it is an absolutely adorable little house and I am really surprised that more of it was not shown onscreen.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic. (I made the photograph below using some SERIOUSLY COOL Halloween filters, fonts and graphics that were just added to my favorite photo editing program PicMonkey.)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Coach Wenchell’s house from Teaching Mrs. Tingle is located at 1101 Atchison Street in Pasadena. Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag got married, is located just around the corner at 1757 North Lake Avenue.

October 1, 2012
Grand Central Air Terminal from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

While doing research for yesterday’s post (which you can read here), I came across a page on IMDB that stated that the bus station scene from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was filmed at the Glendale Amtrak Station. I knew from previous cyber-stalking, though, that the Pee-wee bus station scene was actually filmed a few miles north of the Amtrak depot at the now-defunct Grand Central Air Terminal (a location that I first learned about way back in March 2011 while writing my post on the nearby former bowling alley that stood in for the exterior of Jack Rabbit Slim’s in Pulp Fiction). Ironically enough, I had actually stalked both the Glendale Amtrak Station and Grand Central Air Terminal on the same day in early May. So to clear up the confusion about the Pee-wee bus station, I thought now would be as good a time as any to blog about the place.

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Grand Central Air Terminal was designed by Henry L. Gogerty in the Spanish Colonial Revival/Art Deco-style on the site of what was formerly a private airport for millionaire Leslie C. Brand. The property was officially opened to the public on February 22, 1929 and featured the first paved runway west of the Rocky Mountains. The airport was also the first to offer transcontinental passenger air service from Los Angeles to the East Coast and the premiere flight took place in 1929 with none other than Charles Lindbergh at the helm. Hollywood luminaries Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were also onboard. Other stars who took flights to or from Grand Central over the years include Shirley Temple, Gary Cooper, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, Carole Lombard, and Jean Harlow. Such aviation pioneers as Howard Hughes, Glenn L. Martin, Eddie Rickenbacker, Amelia Earhart, and Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan are all counted as having piloted flights from the airport.

In 1947, following World War II, Grand Central’s runway was cut down to 3,400 feet to make room for a road. When the runway was later deemed too short for jet planes to use in 1959, the 125-acre property was closed and most of its hangars and runways demolished or removed. All that remains of the original airport is the actual terminal building and its three-story Zigzag Moderne-tower. The site was subsequently purchased by Prudential Insurance, who transformed it into an industrial park named Grand Central Business Park. In 1961, The Walt Disney Company leased the vast majority of the property and subsequently purchased it in 1997. The Park is currently used as Disney corporate offices and as the headquarters of Walt Disney Imagineering. And while the Walt Disney Company has an agreement with the city of Glendale to restore the air terminal building, which suffered damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, back to its original grandeur by the year 2015, it has, sadly, been left to deteriorate in the meantime.

In Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Grand Central Terminal stood in for the supposed San Antonio bus station where Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) ran into Simone (my former acting teacher Diane Salinger).

You can even see a portion of a sign reading “Grand Central Building” in the background of the scene.

Thanks to its proximity to several different Hollywood studios, Grand Central Air Terminal has been the site of countless filmings over the years. In the beginning of 1933’s Air Hostess, it was the Los Angeles airport where the TWA flight from Albuquerque landed.

Grand Central was also the airport where saxophonist Ronny Bowers (Dick Powell) landed upon first coming to Southern California in 1937’s Hollywood Hotel.

In 1943, Grand Central stood in for Transatlantic Airways’ London Terminal in the movie Sherlock Holmes in Washington, although it only appeared very briefly.

The north side of Grand Central Terminal stood in for the Carson Police Department in 1985’s My Science Project, although such a small portion of the building was shown that it is virtually unrecognizable.

You can see below, though, that the front of the police station matches the area where Pee-wee sat in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

Grand Central Air Terminal also looks to have been the inspiration for the painted backdrop that was used to portray Genovia International Airport in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. While the layout of the terminal was, for whatever reason, flipped in the movie, the resemblance is undeniable. You can check out a historic photograph of Grand Central, in which its similarities to the Genovia airport are obvious, here. Being that the movie was produced by The Walt Disney Company, it makes sense that the former terminal served as the model for Genovia International.

Grand Central Terminal was also supposedly used in 1923’s Going Up, 1930’s Hell’s Angels, 1933’s Lady Killer, Captured and Central Airport, 1934’s Bright Eyes, 1936’s Hats Off, 1938’s Sky Giant, and 1941’s Sky Raiders, but, unfortunately, I could not find copies of any of those productions with which to verify that information.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Grand Central Air Terminal, from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, is located at 1310 Air Way in Glendale. The former bowling alley that was used as the exterior of Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant in Pulp Fiction is located right around the corner at 1435 Flower Street.

September 27, 2012
Malibou Lake from “Parks and Recreation”

A couple of months ago, I set out to find the lake house belonging to Donna Meagle (Retta) and her family in the Season 4 episode of fave show Parks and Recreation titled “Sweet Sixteen”. (It was that search that led me to discover Johnson Lake in Pasadena, which I blogged about here.) And while I was absolutely convinced that Donna’s home was located on the banks of the oft-filmed-at Lake Sherwood, I scanned through aerial views of pretty much every single property in that area and came up completely empty-handed. Then fate took a hand and led me to some information about another oft-filmed-at lake in the vicinity – one that I had never before heard of – named Malibou Lake in Agoura. I immediately became intrigued with the place and, after a few minutes of searching, found Donna’s house. Yay! Unfortunately though, because Malibou Lake is a bit of a hike from Pasadena, I was unable to drag the Grim Cheaper out there to stalk it until a couple of weekends ago. But, let me tell you, it was well worth the wait!

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Malibou Lake Mountain Club, as the area has come to be known, was originally founded in 1922 by fishermen George Wilson and Bertram Lackey, who had purchased 350 acres of land in the Santa Monica Mountains with the intent of turning them into a lakeside community, resort and social club. According to a November 2007 Los Angeles Times article, the development was named Malibou Lake with an “o” to avoid being confused with the nearby Malibu Lagoon.

To create their idyllic development, Wilson and Lackey built a clubhouse, sold plots of land for housing, dammed up two nearby creeks, and waited for the 65-acre central basin to fill with water and become a lake. That water took four years to arrive, though, to the consternation of the many new homeowners who had built what they thought were lakeside residences. Finally in the spring of 1926, thanks to a long-overdue bout of storms, twenty million gallons of rainwater fell into the basin and Malibou Lake was born.

I can honestly say that Mailbou Lake is one of the coolest, most picturesque places that I have ever stalked.

Not to mention one of the most unique. Pictured below is a sign that I never thought I would see in L.A.

I cannot even imagine what it would be like to live there! As you can see below, one lakeside house even had a sailboat docked nearby! Sigh!

And while the club, lake and surrounding houses are gated and private, I am very happy to report that much of the area is visible from public streets.

Malibou Lake Mountain Club has appeared in hundreds upon hundreds of productions since its founding and it would be absolutely impossible for me to catalog them all here, but I will do my best to mention its more notable onscreen appearances. In the “Sweet Sixteen” episode of Parks and Recreation, Donna’s lake house is where the gang threw a surprise party for Jerry Gergich (Jim O’Heir). Sadly, the property is not visible from the road, so I was not able to snap any photographs of it.

The interior of the house – which is uh-ma-zing, by the way – also appeared in the episode. You can check out some interior pictures of the property here.

The iconic drowning scene from 1931’s Frankenstein was filmed at Malibou Lake. You can read a FABULOUS article about the exact spot where filming took place penned by screenwriter John Cox (a man truly after my own heart) on the Frankensteinia blog here.

In the 1940 film The Great Dictator, Malibou Lake was where Hynkel – Dictator of Tomania (Charlie Chaplin) shot ducks and was later captured.

In 1956’s The Bad Seed, Malibou Lake stood in for Fern School – the private school attended by Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack).

The Malibou Lake Mountain Club clubhouse masqueraded as the Havenhurst Motel in the Season 4 episode of Perry Mason titled “The Case of the Angry Dead Man”, which aired in 1961. The lake and its environs have actually appeared in countless episodes of Perry Mason over the years, some of which are detailed on the Perry Mason TV Series website here.

Malibou Lake was where Lane Meyer (John Cusack) first met Beth Truss (Amanda Wyss) in 1985’s Better Off Dead.

In 1990 and 1991, Malibou Lake stood in for “Easter Park” in several episodes of Twin Peaks, including the Season 1 episode titled “Cooper’s Dreams” (pictured below).

The Malibou Lake Mountain Club office also appeared throughout the series as the Timber Falls Motel. You can see some real life photographs of the office along with comparison screen captures on the In Twin Peaks blog here and on the Brad D Studios website here.

Malibou Lake was used extensively as Urbania, Ohio in 1994’s Little Giants.

In 1998’s Mr. Saturday Night, Malibou Lake stood in for the Catskills resort where Buddy Young Jr. (Billy Crystal) regularly performed his comedy routine and also met his future wife, Elaine (Julie Warner).

In the 1999 dramedy The Story of Us, Malibou Lake masqueraded as the lake at Camp Pinewood, the summer camp where Ben Jordan (Bruce Willis) and Katie Jordan (Michelle Pfeiffer) spent Parents’ Weekend with their children, Erin (Colleen Rennison) and Josh (Jake Sandvig).

In the 2002 horror flick The Ring, a house on Malibou Lake was used as the office of Doctor Grasnik (Jane Alexander), where Rachel (Naomi Watts) went to seek out more information on Samara Morgan (Daveigh Chase).

The real life interior of the house was also used in the movie.

Sadly, that property was torn down to make way for a new, larger residence sometime in 2010 or 2011. The original home is still visible via Bing aerial maps, though, as you can see below.

A view of the vacant plot of land that remained after the residence was torn down, which I found on fave website Zillow, is pictured below.

And the new abode, which is currently for sale for a cool $1.29 million, is pictured below. The GC and I had actually been gushing over it while stalking the lake. You can check out its real estate listing here. Um, yeah, I could live with that.

John Cusack returned to Malibou Lake in 2005 to film the scene for Must Love Dogs in which Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) chases down his character, Jake, to ask for a second chance.

Thanks to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, I learned that in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “Dunder Mifflin Infinity”, which aired in 2007, Malibou Lake stood in for Lake Scranton where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) drowned his car due to “faulty” GPS directions.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out the latest post – about trying to track down a diabetic-friendly evening bag – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Malibou Lake Mountain Club is located at 29033 West Lake Vista Drive in Agoura Hills. Donna’s lake house from the “Sweet Sixteen” episode of Parks and Recreation is located at 2140 East Lakeshore Drive, inside of the gated Malibou Lake Mountain Club community. It is, unfortunately, not visible from the road. The home that was used as Doctor Grasnik’s office in The Ring was formerly located at 29175 South Lakeshore Drive, but it has since been torn down and replaced with a new home.

September 13, 2012
Tom Bergin’s Tavern from “Duplex”

Two weeks ago, while doing research on Molly Malone’s (which I blogged about here), I came across a website for another historic Irish pub also located on South Fairfax Avenue in L.A.’s Fairfax District. The bar is named Tom Bergin’s Old Horseshoe and Thoroughbred Club (or just simply Tom Bergin’s Tavern) and not only was it originally founded over seven decades ago (y’all know how much this stalker absolutely loves herself some historic restaurants), but the place is also a filming location AND a big-time celebrity hangout! So I, of course, immediately added the address to my To-Stalk list and could hardly wait to drag the Grim Cheaper right on over there, which I finally did last Saturday evening. And, amazingly enough, this was one location that he did not mind being dragged to.

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Tom Bergin’s Tavern was first founded on February 12th, 1936 by a 46-year-old lawyer named – you guessed it – Tom Bergin. The bar was originally named the Old Horseshoe Tavern and Thoroughbred Club in honor of a Boston-area watering hole owned by Bergin’s uncle. And while the establishment first stood at 6110 Wilshire Boulevard, when the lease on that location expired in 1949, Bergin built a new eatery, named Tom Bergin’s Horseshoe Tavern, just down the street at 840 South Fairfax Avenue. Employees and customers alike carried the pub’s legendary horseshoe-shaped bar three blocks south to its new home. And amazingly enough, not only is Tom Bergin’s still located in that very same spot on Fairfax – over six decades later! – but that very same horseshoe-shaped bar is still in use to this day!

In 1973, Bergin sold the tavern to T.K. Vodrey and Mike Mandekic. And while Mandekic ended up leaving to pursue other endeavors in 1998, Vodrey stayed on for more than another decade. In 1999, Vodrey changed the pub’s name once again, this time to Tom Bergin’s Tavern, as it is still known to this day. When Vodrey retired in 2011, Warner Ebbink thankfully stepped in, purchased the site and set about restoring it. Ebbink, who owns Little Dom’s (one of my favorite L.A. restaurants, which I blogged about here) is no stranger to historic eateries, having also purchased and restored both the 101 Coffee Shop (another fave that I blogged about here) and Dominick’s (a 1940s-era establishment where Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack used to hang out, which I have sadly yet to stalk). Ebbink immediately set about giving Tom Bergin’s a much-needed 7-month face-lift, of which he said in a May 2012 The Hollywood Reporter article, “It’s more restoration than renovation, keeping with what was true of Bergin’s. We just replaced and repaired what needed to be replaced and repaired, then distressed them so people won’t even know.” Um, LOVE IT!

Ebbink truly is a man after my own heart. In an April 2012 Los Angeles Times article about Tom Bergin’s, he is quoted as saying, “L.A. doesn’t respect its history. Back when this was built, you could build places with themes. The architecture alone was worth saving, and it has this super-rich history. We knew it was a special place.”

And I am very happy to report that Tom Bergin’s Tavern did indeed look old and weathered, but I mean that in the best way possible. The place just oozes history and walking through its front door is like stepping back in time.

Tom Bergin’s even serves champagne in old-school, Marilyn Monroe-style coupes! Love it, love it, love it!

The pub’s now legendary tradition of honoring regular customers by displaying a green shamrock with their name on the ceiling was started in 1950 by longtime manager Jake Ohlsen. It was not long before the bar’s entire ceiling was covered in the shamrocks and today there are over 7,000 on display.

During the renovation, each shamrock was removed, cleaned and then re-hung. Love it!

Tom Bergin’s Tavern has countless ties to Hollywood. Just a few of the celebrities who have been spotted there over the years include Kiefer Sutherland, Tommy Lasorda, Julia Roberts, Ronald Reagan, Cary Grant, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Lee Majors, Glenn Ford, Bing Crosby, Pat O’Brien (the actor, not the The Insider host), and, my personal favorite, Luke Perry. Cary Grant’s favorite booth is pictured below and his shamrock is currently in the process of being framed to hang nearby.

Longtime regular Kiefer Sutherland’s shamrock is pictured below. When the two were a couple, Julia Roberts’ shamrock hung right next to Kiefer’s, but he had it removed shortly following their break-up.

Legend has it that producers Glen and Les Charles got the inspiration for their long-running hit television series Cheers while at Tom Bergin’s and that the character of “Coach” was based on Bergin’s longtime head bartender Chris Doyle.

In 2003’s Duplex, Tom Bergin’s Tavern stood in for the supposed Brooklyn-area bar where Alex Rose (Ben Stiller) holed up during a rainy day in order to finish writing his book, and where his wife, Nancy Kendricks (Drew Barrymore), later met him for a drink. In the movie, both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were used.

In the Season 2 episode of Top Chef Masters titled “Pub Food”, contestants were challenged to create an upscale version of a traditional pub dish at Tom Bergin’s. In the episode, both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of Tom’s were used.

A photo shoot for House of Pain’s eponymous first album was also held at Tom Bergin’s in 1992 (pictured below). And while episodes of 24 and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia were also supposedly lensed at the bar, I was unable to verify that or figure out which episodes specifically.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Tom Bergin’s Tavern is located at 840 South Fairfax Avenue in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

September 10, 2012
The LAPD/FBI Headquarters from “The Fast and the Furious”

One location that I am asked about constantly is the mid-century modern-style, circular-shaped home that served as the LAPD/FBI undercover headquarters in the 2001 flick The Fast and the Furious. And while fellow stalker Gary, of the Seeing Stars website, had briefly written about the Beverly Hills property a couple of years ago after learning that it had, sadly, been torn down (despite the best efforts of the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee), since I get asked about it frequently and since it was such an incredibly unique residence, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a blog post.

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In The Fast and the Furious, the circular home, which was said to have been confiscated by the LAPD, popped up quite frequently. The areas shown include the central courtyard and pool;

the front entrance . . .

. . . and the interior. As you can see, the place was pretty darn spectacular and extraordinary. My mind is absolutely boggled over the fact that someone would want to tear it down!

The same house was also featured in 2000’s Hanging Up as the residence where Lou Mozell (Walter Matthau) lived. In the movie, the property is referred to as being on Angelo Drive, which was its actual former location. Quite a lot of the house appeared in the flick, including the front exterior;

the interior;

and the pool and courtyard, which were shown in both a dilapidated . . .

. . . and normal state.

I absolutely love Meg Ryan’s hair cut in Hanging Up, by the way. So adorable! I might just have to get mine cut that way, too! But I digress.

In The Fast and the Furious, Sgt. Tanner (Ted Levine) says of the circular abode, “You know, Eddie Fisher built this house for Elizabeth Taylor in the ‘50s.” That anecdote is actually untrue, though. According to the Estately website, in real life, the home, which was designed by architect David Fowler for his mother, was built in 1963 and boasted 4 bedrooms, 6 baths, 5,444 square feet, and over six acres of land with unparalleled 180-degree views of the city. After the residence was sold in 2000 for $2.8 million, the entire thing was bulldozed to the ground in order to make room for a new – and absolutely gargantuan – mansion (which you can see below in an aerial view that I got from a 2012 Wall Street Journal video).

According to fave website Curbed LA, the new mansion, which belongs to Anthony Pritzker (heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune), boasts 53,000 total square feet (although the main house measures “only” 49,300 square feet), a two-level basement, a media library, a “hairdressing area” (whatever that is), a gym complete with changing rooms, an arts and crafts room, his-and-her offices, a floating pool, a game room, a two-lane bowling alley, an entertainment foyer with a bar, a detached guest house, and a rec room. The residence is, according to Property Shark, the second-largest house in all of Los Angeles. The only residence bigger? The Manor – aka the former Mapleton Drive home of Aaron and Candy Spelling.

Sadly though, as you can see below, other than the exterior gates, no part of the property is visible from the road.

I was able to track down the below historic aerial images of the house, though, on the Historic Aerials website. As you can see, the home was originally built in the shape of a perfect circle. So incredibly cool!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The house that was used as the LAPD/FBI headquarters in The Fast and the Furious was formerly located at 1261 Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills. A very different residence stands on that site today.

September 5, 2012
Molly Malone’s from “Patriot Games”

Way back in mid-June, while trying to track down the Irish pub that masquerades as Scully’s bar on fave show Parks and Recreation (a location that I still have, maddeningly, yet to find, by the way), I came across a website for a Fairfax District-area watering hole named Molly Malone’s. The website mentioned that the historic establishment had been featured in several movies over the years, including Patriot Games, Leaving Las Vegas and Life Without Dick. And even though I am not particularly a fan of any of the three flicks, I just about died of excitement upon reading the news and immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list. Why, oh why, do more bars and restaurants not post similar such information on their websites? It would make my job so much easier! And while I was not able to drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk Molly’s until two Saturdays ago, I have to say that the place was most-definitely well worth the wait.

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Molly Malone’s, which is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue, was originally founded sometime (I believe) during the 1960s. In 1970, the place was taken over by a Dublin-born homemaker named Angela Hanlon, who had come to Los Angeles via Baltimore with her entertainer husband. Finding herself homesick for her native land, Hanlon one day ventured in Molly’s and quickly became a regular. And although there are several differing reports as to how Hanlon came to own the watering hole, the story I like best, which was chronicled in a 1997 Los Angeles Times article, is that, on one very fateful day, Hanlon loaned Molly’s then-owner money and when he skipped town shortly thereafter, the place wound up in her hands. Molly Malone’s has been owned and operated by the Hanlon family ever since.

The space at 575 South Fairfax housed bars long before Molly Malone’s was ever founded, though. According to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article by Hillary Johnson, legend has it that the 575 Club, one of the many watering holes to precede Molly’s, was actually one of the first to be given an alcohol license after Prohibition.

Molly Malone’s dark walls are covered with over seventy original paintings – almost all of them renderings of the bar’s regular customers – created by legendary oil painter Neil Boyle, who was a loyal patron of the drinkery for decades until he passed away in 2006. Lorraine Devon Wilke writes in a 2011 Huffington Post article, “For an artist whose pieces command phenomenal fees, who was always in demand for murals and commissioned work, and whose work hangs in galleries and museums around the country, the prestige of showcasing such valuable art was undeniable to Molly’s. Some patrons came in simply to view Neil’s paintings. It was a draw. Literally.”

In the 1995 LA Times article that I mentioned above, author Hillary Johnson states, “A sign on the wall says, ‘Dublin, 40 km.’ Some would say it’s closer.” And I would have to agree with that sentiment. As soon as we walked through Molly Malone’s dark wooden front door, we were welcomed like old friends. And when I asked the bartender on duty about the various movies filmed on the premises, he came out from behind his post, grabbed me by the hand and proceeded to take me on a tour of the place. And he even introduced me to Molly’s former longtime manager, who just happened to be on site that day, to see if he could answer any more of my questions! Talk about hospitality! Love it!

Besides being a filming location, Molly Malone’s has also long been popular with the Hollywood set. According to the former manager that I spoke with, Lenny Kravitz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Mickey Rourke, and Ralph Fiennes have all been spotted there. The place is also a live music venue and boasts a large back room, complete with a stage, where many young musicians have gotten their start.

The band Flogging Molly not only cut their teeth at the bar, but named themselves in honor of it. Of the name, front-man Dave King said, “We used to play there every Monday night and we felt like we were flogging it to death, so we called the band Flogging Molly.” Love it!

In 1992’s Patriot Games, Molly Malone’s was the Irish pub where Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) threatened to destroy Paddy O’Neil (Richard Harris) after O’Neil refused to tell him the whereabouts of Sean Miller (Sean Bean) and Kevin O’Donnell (Patrick Bergin).

While numerous websites state that either Boardner’s of Hollywood (which I blogged about here) or Cock ‘N Bull British Pub in Santa Monica was the bar featured in the opening scene of 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas, that information is actually incorrect. The bar in question was actually Molly Malone’s and it popped up twice in the flick, first in the scene in which Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) rather aggressively purchases a random woman named Terri (Valeria Golino) a drink before inviting her home with him.

It next appeared in the scene in which the “L.A. Bartender” (Graham Beckel) urged Ben to stop drinking once and for all.

Molly Malone’s also popped up twice in 2002’s Life Without Dick. It first appeared in the scene in which hitman Daniel Gallagher (Harry Connick Jr.) asked his friend Rex (David Cross) to get rid of a gun. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were used in that scene.

Molly’s next popped up in the scene in which Daniel finally admitted to his new girlfriend, Colleen Gibson (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker), that he was a hitman.

The exterior of Molly’s also appeared in that scene, as well.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Molly Malone’s, from Patriot Games, is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. The bar is a 21-and-over establishment, so, if you are going to stalk it, you will have to leave the kiddies at home. You can visit Molly Malone’s official website here.

September 4, 2012
Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center from “Parks and Recreation”

One location that had been lingering at the top of my To-Stalk for more than a few months was Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, which stands in for Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, where Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) works, on fave show Parks and Recreation. I found this locale thanks to Mike, from the always-fabulous Franklin Avenue blog, who recognized the site way back in 2010 when it popped up in the Season 2 finale of P&R titled “Freddy Spaghetti”. And while I did drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the place in early June, because I had failed to bring along any screen captures, I could not for the life of me figure out which angle of the building was used on the show and we ended up leaving after just a few minutes. I promptly added Providence to my Re-Stalk list, though, and, after doing some celebrity stalking in the area this past Monday afternoon with my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, I dragged her right on over there to properly stalk the place.

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Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, which was originally founded in 1943 by the Sisters of Providence Health System, is the largest hospital in the entire San Fernando Valley, boasting 431 beds. The location is also one of the largest employers in the SFV, with over 650 physicians and a staff of almost 2,500 on its payroll. The hospital is located directly across the street from The Walt Disney Studios and, in fact, has a very large Disney connection.

Walt Disney himself turned over the first official piece of sod during Providence’s groundbreaking ceremony, provided funding for its construction, commissioned his animators to create artwork for the interior décor, and even served on the hospital’s original Advisory Board (all of which you can see pictures of on the Started by a Mouse website here). And sadly, after collapsing in his home on November 30th, 1966, he was taken to Providence where he remained for the next two weeks before passing away on December 15th. According to the Started By a Mouse website, during his hospital stay, Walt “plotted out designs for his property in Florida [Walt Disney World] on [Providence’s} acoustical ceiling tiles.” Walt’s older brother, Roy O. Disney, also passed away at Providence, five years later – almost to the day – on December 19th, 1971. But the connection does not end there. Just recently, in 2010, the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center (named in honor of Roy O.’s son, Roy E. Disney, and his former wife), was founded. According to the Providence website, the state-of-the-art, four-floor, 55,000-square-foot facility provides cutting-edge care to “treat the body, mind and spirit of each patient” and utilizes both Western medical technologies, such as radiation and chemotherapy, as well as Eastern, including acupuncture, meditation, fitness, yoga, and herbal remedies.

Parks and Recreation and Walt Disney are hardly Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center’s only claims to fame. Due to its proximity to both The Walt Disney Studios and NBC Studios, the hospital has seen its fair share of celebrities come through its automatic doors. Pop star Justin Bieber was taken there in January 2011 after suffering from an allergic reaction while filming an episode of CSI; Lucy Lawless was rushed there in October 1996 after falling off a horse while filming a skit for The Tonight Show; and John Ritter tragically passed away there on September 11th, 2003, as did Corey Haim on March 10th, 2010. (As you can see in the photograph below, some filming was actually taking place while Pinky and I were stalking the hospital, but we did not see any crew members whom we could ask about it. All of the filming signs were marked “BOP” and for the life of me I cannot figure out what that acronym stands for. Any ideas? UPDATE – the Providence Found blog tweeted me to let me know that the television series Body of Proof was filming at the hospital the day we were there. Thanks, Providence Found!)

On Parks and Recreation, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center pops up pretty much weekly in establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, or Saint Joseph’s Medical Center as it is also sometimes referred to.

The interior of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, though, is, of course, just a set.

Oddly enough, though, while Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center is used for all establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, a different location – St. Vincent Medical Center, located at 2131 West 3rd Street, just north of MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles – stood in for the place in the Season 1 finale of Parks and Recreation, which was titled “Rock Show”.

Some actual filming of that episode also took place inside of St. Vincent Medical Center.

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was also featured in the Season 2 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians titled “Kris the Cheerleader”, as the place where Kris Jenner underwent emergency knee surgery, although a different side of the building was shown than what is regularly shown on Parks and Rec.

Filming of the “Kris the Cheerleader” episode also took place inside of the hospital. And I have to comment here that, wow, that show is bad! It was painful just scanning through a single episode to make screen captures for this post!

The Providence Found blog let me know that in 2010’s Due Date, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was “Pacific Mercy Hospital” where Sarah Highman (Michelle Monaghan) gave birth and the place that Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) spent the entire movie trying to get to.

The interior of the hospital also appeared in the movie.

Providence Found also informed me that Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center stood in for “Los Angeles Hospital” where Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) discovered that her boyfriend, Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey), was married. The catwalk over the hospital’s healing garden was used in the film.

As was the GI waiting area.

On a stalking side-note – My buddy E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, who is easily one of the best researchers and wittiest writers I know, recently penned a book about Old Hollywood titled Unscripted: Hollywood Back-Stories, Volume 1. I highly recommend checking it out! You can purchase an e-copy of the book (it is currently only available digitally) on Nook here and on Kindle here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, aka Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital from Parks and Recreation, is located at 501 South Buena Vista Street in Burbank. You can visit the hospital’s official website here. The area shown in establishing shots on Parks and Recreation is the exterior of Providence’s emergency room, which is located off Buena Vista Street, while the Alameda Street entrance was the entrance shown on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

August 31, 2012
The Los Angeles Police Administration Building from “The Closer”

One location that I had long been desperate to stalk was the real life Los Angeles Police Administration Building – or the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters, as it is also known – in downtown Los Angeles, which played itself each week on fave show The Closer. So in honor of the series’ recently-aired final episode, the Grim Cheaper and I ventured down there this past Saturday morning. And I just have to say here that I, sadly, was not very impressed with The Closer’s finale, which was titled “The Last Word”. I thought Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) deserved a much more meaningful – and heck, happier! – send-off, for heaven’s sake! But I digress.

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The Los Angeles Police Administration Building was constructed over three years – from 2007 to 2009 – on the site of the former Caltrans building and was made possible thanks to funding from Proposition Q (the $600-million Public Safety Bond Program) after the former LAPD headquarters, which was known as Parker Center, was deemed too aged and unsafe for continued use in the mid-1990s. The structure officially opened on October 24th, 2009 and, in an embarrassing twist, the American flag was hung incorrectly at the founding ceremony, with the stars facing right, instead of left. LOL

The stunning ultra-modern building, which was designed jointly by AECOM and Roth Sheppard Architects and cost a whopping $437 million to construct, boasts 10 floors, 500,000 square feet, a one-acre public park, a 400-seat civic auditorium, a rooftop garden, a 200-seat café, a fitness center, and an underground parking garage. The structure also features a Memorial Monument and Reflection Garden honoring those LAPD officers killed in the line of duty, both of which we somehow missed. We did spend quite a bit of time admiring the display pictured below, though, which features the badges of 202 fallen LAPD officers dating all the way back to 1907.

The Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters’ front courtyard area is extremely beautiful and boasts a large infinity fountain;

a garden comprised of drought-resistant plants;

and spectacular reflections of Los Angeles City Hall, which is located across the street. Best of all – it is completely accessible to the public!

I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking the spectacular structure, which, not surprisingly, won the Los Angeles Architecture Awards Grand Prize in 2010.

The Los Angeles Police Administration Building first showed up in the Season 6 episode of The Closer titled “The Big Bang”, the storyline of which centered around the Priority Homicide Division’s ultra-frustrating move to their new headquarters. [Poor Commander Taylor (Robert Gossett) still doesn’t seem to have an office – even on the new spin-off Major Crimes!]

And while the building was typically featured each week in establishing shots, some on-location filming of “The Big Bang” took place there as well, as you can see below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Los Angeles Police Administration Building, aka the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters, from The Closer, is located at 100 West 1st Street in downtown Los Angeles.

August 21, 2012