Tag: filming locations

Trudi’s Apartment Building from “L.A. Story”

Last month, when I published my post on the location of the iconic talking freeway sign from L.A. Story, a friend named David, whom I met in an acting class years ago, sent me a Facebook message letting me know that the unique, modern-style apartment building where Trudi (Marilu Henner) lived in the flick was located at 884 Palm Avenue in West Hollywood. David also informed me that the building still looked pretty much exactly the same as it did 22 years ago when filming took place, which, of course, had me salivating. So I ran right out to stalk it shortly after visiting the house belonging to Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) in the 1991 comedy, which I blogged about yesterday.

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Amazingly enough, despite the building’s unique look, I could find virtually no information whatsoever about its history online. The only fact that I was able to glean – thanks to views of the property on the Historic Aerials website – was that it was constructed sometime between the years 1980 and 1987.

When L.A. Story was filmed in 1991, the site was known as the Palm Square Apartments. The 29-unit, upscale building, which is currently named NMS Apartments @ West Hollywood, features a pool, a Jacuzzi, an executive gym, and gourmet kitchens and hardwood flooring in each suite.

The building is most well-known for the unusual artwork located at its entrance.

The piece, which is named “Stairway Sculpture”, was created by artist Paul Betouliere in 1987 as part of the West Hollywood Urban Arts Collection.

NMS Apartments @ West Hollywood popped up twice in L.A. Story – first in the scene in which Harris not-so-patiently waits for Trudi to finish her “abstract busyness”, including putting on “thirty-minute lips”, before heading to a brunch.

The Stair Sculpture was shown prominently in that scene.

NMS Apartments @ West Hollywood next appears in the scene in which Trudi informs Harris about the three-year affair she has been having with his agent, Frank Swan (Kevin Pollak). After breaking up with her over her indiscretions, an elated Harris dances down the front steps of the building.

So I, of course, just had to imitate him while I was there.

Thanks to a real estate listing that I found on Zillow, I can confirm that the actual interior of one of the NMS units was used as the interior of Trudi’s apartment in L.A. Story. As you can see below, the setup of the kitchen in the listing matches up to what appeared onscreen.

As does the curving staircase. Even the railing is still the same – albeit a different color, thank God!

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 David for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Trudi’s apartment building from L.A. Story is located at 884 Palm Avenue in West Hollywood.

May 15, 2013
Harris’ House from “L.A. Story”

Another L.A. Story location that production designer Lawrence Miller talked about in “The L.A. of L.A. Story” featurette included on the 1991 comedy’s 15th Anniversary Edition DVD was the Spanish-style dwelling where wacky weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) lived. And even though the address of the home had been listed on the L.A. Story filming locations page for years, I figured the place was still worthy of a blog post. So I ran right out to stalk it – Starbucks latte in hand, of course – while visiting Los Angeles a couple of weekends ago.

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In real life, according to Property Shark, the West Hollywood abode, which was originally constructed in 1923, is not a private residence after all, but a multi-family dwelling consisting of four separate units that contain a total of four bedrooms, four baths and 3,366 square feet of living space.

Unfortunately, the site currently bears little resemble to its onscreen counterpart. In fact, when we first pulled up, I thought I had the wrong address! Boo!

The two-story house was one of the main locations used in L.A. Story and popped up repeatedly throughout the movie.

In “The L.A. of L.A. Story”, which was taped in 2006, Miller said, “The director had a concept of L.A. being a desert where people brought water to it and created paradise. This little compound here was selected primarily because of the beautiful trees and greens and foliage that sort of embraced the driveway. This location caused us a little bit of a problem in that the week before we were to shoot here, the neighbor next door decided he wanted to prune all of his greens, all of the trees, all of the things that we loved so much and it forced us to bring in Greensmen to try to duplicate what it was that was there. And it’s interesting looking at it fifteen years later and seeing that it still hasn’t all grown back.” (The screen captures below were taken from “The L.A. of L.A. Story.”)

Sadly, since the filming of the featurette, the foliage that once covered the front of Harris’ house has also been removed, completely changing the look of the place, despite the fact that the structure of the home itself has not been altered. Goes to show the aesthetic power of trees!

Miller also said that the home’s real life front door was swapped out during the filming for a custom-made leaded glass door.

And that the alarm keypad that controlled Harris’ fake barking dog was just a prop.

Unfortunately, that area of the house is not very visible from the street.

I was shocked to learn, thanks to Miller’s interview, that the real life interior of the home was also used in the filming. I would have bet money on it being a set! Areas of the property that appeared in the movie include the kitchen;

the bathroom, with the “slo mo” faucet;

the living room;

and the bedroom, which is, oddly enough, situated right next to the front door, as you can see below.

It was in that bedroom that Harris famously wrote “Bored Beyond Belief.” on a window.

The exact pane that Harris wrote on is the top middle panel of the window located just north of the front door, as denoted by the pink arrows below.

According to “The L.A. of L.A. Story”, the then owner of the property was paid a whopping $35,000 for its use in the movie (and we’re talking 1991 dollars!) and filming on the premises took five weeks to complete, including prep time. $35,000 for five weeks? Yeah, I’d take 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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Harris’ house from L.A. Story is located at 1206 North Orange Grove Avenue in West Hollywood.

May 14, 2013
The “L.A. Story” Intersection

The locale from L.A. Story that I was most interested in tracking down was also the one that I thought for sure I would never find – the intersection featured in the movie’s opening montage. Because the intersection was fairly non-descript, only shown briefly and no clues as to its location visible in the scene, and because over two decades had passed since filming had taken place, I figured it would be a virtually impossible find. Enter fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, whom I had sent a couple of screen captures to in the hopes that he would assist in the hunt. Amazingly enough, he emailed me back 24 hours later with an address! Somehow, Owen had managed to track down several of the flick’s crew members (have I mentioned he missed his true calling by not joining the FBI?), all of whom had gotten back to him almost immediately. Most did not recall the intersection’s location, but thankfully one did remember that it was in the vicinity of the Santa Monica Airport. And while it took a bit of time searching aerial views of all of the four-way stops near SMO, Owen did manage to pinpoint the place. So I ran right out to stalk it two weekends ago while in L.A.

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L.A. Story opens with a montage of clips showing everyday life in Los Angeles. And while the segment is seemingly satiric, I can attest to the fact that most of the bits are truthful. You can watch that montage by clicking below.

In my favorite part of the segment, four cars meet at a four-way stop and each driver waves the others on. In a hapless twist, all of the drivers wind up hitting the gas at the same moment and crash into each other in the middle of the intersection. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in that exact same scenario – minus the crash, thankfully – and I can’t help but laugh every time I watch the scene. It is just so L.A.

I was absolutely thrilled to discover that the intersection and houses visible in the background of the scene still look pretty much exactly the same today as they did in 1991 when L.A. Story was filmed.

Ironically enough, if you look closely at the scene, you will notice that more than four cars were actually used in the filming – a behind-the-scenes tidbit told to Owen by one of the crew members. In fact, he said, “I recall we wrecked about 16 cars on the various takes on that scene.” How cool would it have been to see that in person?

Even more interesting is the fact that the actual crash portion of the scene was not shot at the intersection, but at a random parking lot (I think a parking lot at the Lantana production center in Santa Monica where the L.A. Story production offices were located). The crew member informed Owen, “To crash the cars on the street, I would have had to close down those streets and permit for the crash. That would have required too much time since the crash is shot from overhead, in other words, it required a crane. So we would have shot the crash/crane part of it in a parking lot.” I absolutely LOVE learning little bits of trivia like that, especially being that there was never a commentary made for L.A. Story, something that I am still in shock over.

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: The four-way stop from L.A. Story is located at the intersection of Butler Avenue and Kingsland Street in West Los Angeles.

May 8, 2013
The “L.A. Story” Fundraiser House

Another L.A. Story location that I was desperate to track down was the sloped-roof residence where Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) and Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant) attended a “private art museum” fundraiser in the 1991 comedy. Because the home was so architecturally unique, I was sure that it would be an easy find. I was wrong. After scouring countless online film location libraries and architectural databases and coming up empty-handed, I decided that I needed to call for reinforcements. I sent a few screen captures to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, to see if he recognized the place and, as luck would have it, he did! During a visit to Los Angeles a couple of years back, Geoff and his wife had done some sight-seeing in the Palos Verdes area. They happened to drive by the L.A. Story house that day and took note of it due to its distinctive roof. All Geoff had to do was retrace their steps and, voila, he found the place in a snap. Yay! So I ran right out to the South Bay to stalk it while in L.A. two weekends ago.

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In real life, the residence is known as the Bowler house, named for John Bowler, the industrial building contractor who commissioned it. The dwelling, which was constructed in 1963, was designed by Lloyd Wright, son of legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and was composed of concrete, glass and Santa Maria stone. Lloyd also designed all of the property’s furnishings (which were angled to match the design of the house), cabinetry and vast landscaping.

Thanks to the triangular, pitched roof, which was manufactured out of blue corrugated fiberglass, the property is also sometimes called the Bird of Paradise house, which is something of a misnomer, as Lloyd had actually based the design on a diamond module.

The residence, which was renovated by Eric Lloyd Wright, Lloyd’s son, in 1991, features 3,904 square feet of living space, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a library, a formal dining room, a master suite, a laundry room, an in-ground swimming pool, separate guest quarters, and a 0.89-acre plot of hilltop land boasting 180-degree ocean views. The site was put on the market in mid-2008 for $2.5 million and wound up selling in January 2009 for $1.895 million. You can check out the real estate listing and some great interior photographs of the house here.

In L.A. Story, Harris and Sara head to the Bowler house to attend a formal fundraising dinner in which a man is trying to raise city funds to found an art museum that will not be open to the public. LOL Pictured below are the screen captures that I sent to Geoff when I asked for his help in tracking down the residence. It is amazing to me that he was able to recall a home pictured in dark, very limited screenshots simply from driving past it several years back. My hat is definitely off to him!

The real life interior of the home also appeared in the scene.

On a side-note – I would like to wish a HUGE congratulations to my girl Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, who not only just got a big promotion at work (she can now get herself – and me! – into Disneyland for FREE anytime she wants!), but, most exciting, also recently got engaged . . . to Keith Coogan (yes, that Keith Coogan!). I am over-the-moon happy for her and wish her and Keith all the joy in the world!

I got to meet Keith this weekend (at Disneyland) and I cannot express how much fun it was to run around quoting lines from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead with him. When he randomly said, “Rock and roll!” at one point during the day, I just about died! He is also really into filming locations, so, Pinky, I approve. You chose well!

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 Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Bird of Paradise house, aka the L.A. Story fundraiser house, is located at 3456 Via Campesina in Rancho Palos Verdes.

May 7, 2013
Sara’s Apartment Building from “L.A. Story”

After tracking down the location of the “talking” freeway sign and Now! clothing store from fave movie L.A. Story (which I blogged about here and here, respectively) a couple of weeks ago, I embarked upon a mission to uncover all of the unknown locales from the 1991 flick. And with a lot of help from the usual suspects – fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Geoff, from the 90210Locations website – I managed to do just that! One location that I actually found all on my own, though, was the unique sloped-roof building where Londoner Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant) stayed while visiting Los Angeles in the movie. So I ran right out to stalk it while in SoCal this past weekend.

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Thankfully, this one was quite the easy find. I had an inkling that Sara’s building was located in the West Hollywood area, where a considerable amount of L.A. Story was lensed. So I did a Google search for “West Hollywood apartment building” and “butterfly roof” and, sure enough, one of the results was a WeHo.org page that included a write-up about the historic Hollywood Riviera building located at 1400 North Hayworth Avenue, which turned out to be the right spot. (Although it actually houses condominiums, not apartments.) Woot woot!

The Hollywood Riviera was designed by prolific Los Angeles-based architect Edward H. Fickett in 1954. The extremely unique, 38-unit, post-war-modern-style building features a sloped butterfly roofline, louvered windows, floating exterior staircases, canted (yeah, I had to look that one up, too) balconies, and a central courtyard with a swimming pool.

It also has a pretty cool retro-style sign.

Incredibly, of the 37 West Hollywood apartment buildings that Fickett designed during his lifetime, only five are known to remain standing to this day. Most were demolished to make way for larger, more modern structures. Due to this sad fact and the building’s unique architecture, the West Hollywood Historic Preservation Commission designated the Hollywood Riviera a Historic Cultural Resource in 2010.

In L.A. Story, Sara, the love interest of Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin), stays at the Hollywood Riviera while in town to write an article about Los Angeles for The London Times. The building shows up numerous times throughout the movie.

The areas of the Riviera that appeared in the flick include the front exterior;

the front door of one of the units (I am guessing that the unit’s real life apartment number was used in the filming);

and the courtyard and pool.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of one of the units was utilized in the shoot as well, although Sara’s homestead was two stories, while all of the Hollywood Riviera condos that I have found real estate listings for online consist of only one story, so who knows. You can check out a real estate listing for an actual unit here to see how it compares.

I am also fairly certain that Sara’s balcony was a real Hollywood Riviera balcony.

The Hollywood Riviera was also where Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) lived in 1999’s The Limey.

And while several websites (including this one and this one) state that the building has appeared in numerous movies and television shows, I could not find the names of any of the other productions that filmed on the premises.

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: Sara’s apartment building from L.A. Story, aka the Hollywood Riviera, is located at 1400 North Hayworth Avenue in West Hollywood.

May 2, 2013
Kelly Gulch from “Parks and Recreation”

Right next door to Pat’s Topanga Grill, which I blogged about on Tuesday, is an oft-filmed-at residence known as Kelly Gulch. Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had mentioned the property to me back in early December while the two of us were in the midst of our hunt for the Topanga Canyon house where Paula (Sissy Spacek) lived in Four Christmases (which I blogged about here). Because Kelly Gulch has been featured in countless productions over the years (far more than I could ever chronicle in a single blog post), including fave show Parks and Recreation, he thought it might be a good location for me to stalk. So I did just that, late last December, right after the Grim Cheaper and I grabbed breakfast at Pat’s.

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Kelly Gulch was constructed by Michelene (who goes by Mike) and Frank Kelly in 1978. The couple had moved from Los Angeles to Topanga Canyon with their two young children in 1970. Quickly realizing that their 750-square-foot bungalow was not large enough for a family of four, they wound up purchasing an 8.5-acre plot of oak-shaded, creek-side land, that Frank had found in the classified ads, for $20,000 in 1976. Two years later, Frank started building a picturesque three-bedroom log cabin, from a “Real Log Homes” kit, on the site. The residence, which they dubbed “Kelly Gulch”, took a year to complete. A detached one-room writer’s studio and a large, two-story, 1,152-square-foot, standalone barn that doubled as a workshop/studio apartment soon followed.

Fate took a hand in 1984 when a location scout stopped by a Topanga Canyon real estate office looking for a log cabin in which to shoot Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The real estate agent pointed him in the direction of Kelly Gulch and the rest is history. According to a Topanga Messenger article, a whopping two hundred productions have since been lensed at the remote residence! Its most famous appearance, though, remains in Friday the 13th. In fact, due to that appearance, in which it stood in for the Jarvis family home, the property has become a landmark of sorts to horror film buffs.

Both the interior and the exterior of the cabin were used extensively in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and, according to the same Topanga Messenger article, filming on the premises took a full three months to complete!

The large Victorian house located next to the Jarvis home in the movie was just a prop building that was constructed for the shoot.

In mid-2012, the Kellys decided that they needed to move to a place with less upkeep and put their beloved Topanga cabin on the market for $1.675 million. They subsequently moved to the seaside city of Camarillo. According to Redfin (on which you can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the home), Kelly Gulch was sold on December 31st, 2012 for $1,515,000. When asked by the Messenger if she would miss being a part of regular filmings, Mike said, “Not really. There were 14- to 16-hour days and Frank and I could never leave the property during a shoot. As we’ve gotten older, we couldn’t do it anymore.” And even though hundreds of celebrities have set foot inside her home over the years, she stated, “The only thing that ever impressed me was the check.” LOL

The property seems so incredibly rural and remote, it is hard to believe it is located on a bustling canyon road right next door to a restaurant.

Sadly though, as you can see below, not much of it is visible from the street.

The gate, which looks like something from a movie set (and who knows – it might be! ), was pretty darn cool to see, though.

In 1986, the cabin popped up in Murphy’s Law as the home of Ben Wilcove (Bill Henderson), where Jack Murphy (Charles Bronson) and Arabella McGee (Kathleen Wilhoite) sought refuge.

The interior was also utilized in the filming.

The Friday the 13th franchise returned to Kelly Gulch to film a few brief scenes for the 1998 sequel titled Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Although the majority of the flick was lensed in Alabama, the scene in which Robin (Elizabeth Kaitan) is killed was filmed at the Topanga residence. You can check out a photograph of the room that segment was shot in here.

According to the Camp Blood website, Kelly Gulch was also used in the scene in which Jason is shown looking up at the house. You can see a photograph of that particular angle of the house here.

Kelly Gulch was where the group of teenaged campers hid out after accidentally killing Billy Harley (Matthew Hurley) in 1989’s Pumpkinhead.

The interior of the cabin was used in the filming, as well.

In 1994’s My Girl 2, the residence is where Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) tracked down her mom’s first husband, Jeffrey Pommeroy (JD Souther).

A different interior was used in the filming, though.

In the 1996 movie Eraser, the cabin was where a federal witness named Allison hid out and was later murdered.

The interior of the residence was used in the filming of that movie, as well.

In the 2000 thriller Ed Gein (a true story that inspired the movie Psycho), the cabin was where the Anderson family lived.

The interior was also used in the movie.

Kelly Gulch was where the body of Jessica Garner (Elena Fabri) was found in the Season 2 episode of Medium titled “Judge, Jury and Executioner”, which aired in 2005.

In 2008, the cabin was where Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (cutie Jerry Ferrara – sigh!) were put up during the filming of Vince’s new movie Smokejumpers in the Season 5 episode of Entourage titled “Pie”.

The interior also appeared in the episode.

In the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Hunting Trip”, which aired in 2009, Kelly Gulch stood in for the Slippery Elm Park ranger station where Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) hosted his annual hunting trip – and got shot in the head.

The interior of the house was also used in the episode.

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 Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kelly Gulch, from the “Hunting Trip” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 1801 North Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Topanga Canyon.

April 26, 2013
Pat’s Topanga Grill from “Medium”

Way back in December, after stalking the Topanga Canyon house where Paula (Sissy Spacek) lived in the 2008 Yuletide comedy Four Christmases (which I blogged about here), the Grim Cheaper and I passed by Pat’s Topanga Grill and decided to pop in for some breakfast. Because the GC always likes to joke that businesses in Topanga, an area known for its bohemian lifestyle, only accept beads or wares in trade for goods rather than cash, I was a little reticent about dining at the eatery, but as it turned out, we both absolutely LOVED the place! Come to find out, Pat’s is also a big time celebrity hot spot AND a filming location. Talk about a fortuitous stop!

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Pat’s Topanga Grill, which has long been a Topanga Canyon staple (although I am unsure of the exact year in which it opened), was founded by Pat and Kathi Burke. Amazingly enough, despite being an area landmark, I could find virtually no information about the place’s history online or in my extensive collection of Los Angeles-themed books, which seems to be a pattern lately. I had the same problem with the Sierra Pelona Motel from Crossroads (which I blogged about here) and the Malibu Hindu Temple from Beverly Hills Ninja (which I blogged about here). Boo!

Thankfully though, we did get to meet Kathi while we were dining at the Grill and she could NOT have been nicer. When I asked about filming on the premises (as I invariably do whenever visiting a new place), she informed me that a Season 1 episode of Medium had been shot there. She also chatted with us about some of the celebrities who have dined at the restaurant over the years, which as you can see below, is quite an extensive list. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted at Pat’s Topanga Grill include Kate Hudson, Wendie Malick, My So-Called Life’s A.J. Langer (whom I was most excited about), Vinessa Shaw, Rosanna Arquette, Kyle Chandler, Anthony Crivello, Gene Simmons, and Dave Grohl.

While I was fairly certain that Pat’s breakfast menu would be comprised of mostly tofu items, I was floored to discover that was not the case. The restaurant does serve some vegan options, but most of the cuisine is made up of down-home cooking, and, thankfully, sausage (both links and patties – my fave) and eggs are also offered. And I am very happy to report that the food was FABULOUS!

As was the vintage, haphazard décor, which makes one feel as if they have stepped into an eatery miles away from city life. I absolutely fell in love with the antique Topanga freeway sign pictured below. How cool would it be to have that hanging in your home?

Unfortunately, Kathi could not remember which episode of Medium had been filmed at the Grill, only that the restaurant had been turned into a gas station for the shoot. So I did quite a bit of scanning yesterday to figure it out. Thank God for Netflix! As it turns out Pat’s popped up in the Season 1 episode titled “Coded” as the supposed Springville, Arizona stop-and-go gas station and minimart where Henry Yellen (Joe Chrest) received weekly phone calls from his imprisoned brother, Darrell Yellen (Don Harvey).

As Kathi had mentioned, the interior was dressed heavily for the filming to make the restaurant look like a minimart and is not very recognizable in person.

Although the counter, where the GC and I ate, is visible in the episode, which I was floored to see.

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: Pat’s Topanga Grill, from the “Coded” episode of Medium, is located at 1861 North Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Topanga Canyon. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

April 24, 2013
The Hideaway Saloon from “90210”

While watching the Season 5 episode of 90210 titled “Misery Loves Company” a few months back, I became just a wee bit mesmerized by the Hideaway, the biker bar where Naomi Clark (AnnaLynne McCord) and Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) tried to track down Naomi’s lost wedding ring. The series’ fabulous costume designer, Kime Buzzelli, had posted pictures of the site on her Instagram page (@kbuzzy), so I commented asking for its real name (for whatever reason, I had incorrectly assumed that the name shown in the episode was a fake). She wrote back right away (she’s great about interacting with fans) saying, “It was this place called the Hideaway and it was LEGIT! Loved it.” When I told her I was going to have to stalk it in the near future, she replied, “I’d love to go back, it seems like it’s actually like we shot it. Perfect amount of tough and scary.” So I immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there a few weeks later. And I just have to say here that I am seriously depressed over the fact that 90210 was cancelled. Yes, the show had gone downhill in recent months (The Hangover-themed “Dude, Where’s My Husband” episode starring a few of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was a definite low point), but I still loved watching it and am beyond sad that, come next season, I will no longer be able to. And I swear, if Annie Wilson (Shenae Grimes) and Liam Court (my man Matt Lanter) do not get together in the final episode, CBS will be receiving a very strongly worded letter from me!

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The Hideaway, which was constructed in 1917, originated as a stagecoach stop. It went through a few different incarnations after that, but started serving alcohol in (I believe) 1947 and has been going strong ever since.

I am fairly certain that the decidedly rustic décor has not changed much since the property’s beginnings almost a century ago.

The Hideaway is actually the perfect name for the site because it is completely hidden away from view. So much so that the GC and I almost drive right past it! As you can see below, it is tucked below the road and virtually impossible to see.

The place is so seemingly remote and peaceful – it even butts up to a little stream! – that it is hard to believe it is located just one mile from the busy 210 Freeway.

And while I originally thought that the hitching posts out front were a décor choice, I was way off!

While we were exploring the place, the GC spotted more hitching posts in the back of the bar, as well as, ahem, evidence of horses having been on the premises, and a sign stating, “Do not tie horses to fence.” According to a 2001 L.A. Weekly article, the Hideaway is one of only three bars in the county that allows patrons to hitch their steeds to the posts out front. How incredibly cool is that?

The Hideaway’s payphone booth, which is painted to look like wood, is pretty cool, too.

Unfortunately, the Hideaway was not yet open when we showed up to stalk it (it opens at 11 a.m. on weekends), so we were not able to venture inside. We did happen to meet a few nearby homeowners who were nice enough to fill us in on the site’s filming history, though. And being that the bar offers karaoke (my favorite!), as well as live music, dancing, darts, and pool, I am going to have to drag the GC back there one evening when it is open.

In the “Misery Loves Company” episode of 90210, Naomi convinces Adrianna to go for a Thelma & Louise-style road trip up the coast, “minus the Grand Canyon suicide dive, of course.” During the drive, the two stop to skinny-dip in a natural spring (why not?) leaving their designer duds behind in Naomi’s convertible (of course). As you can guess, the clothes – and Naomi’s wedding ring, which was in her pants pocket – get stolen and, acting on a tip from some local hippies who happen to be walking by, the girls head to a biker bar just up the road in order to confront the culprits. (In that episode’s side story, Liam gets kidnapped by his psycho bodyguard who plans to take him to Mexico in a three foot by five foot box. Oh, and Annie gets shot. There’s a reason the GC has turned to me while watching 90210 over the past couple of weeks and said of the series’ cancellation, “Really, you didn’t see this coming?” )

The real life interior of the bar was also used in the episode.

As you can see below, the Hideaway even has a little anteroom for dancing and is much larger than its exterior would have you believe.

Due to its rugged look and isolated feel, the Hideaway has been a favorite of location scouts since way back when. Thanks to the Falcon Crest website, I learned that in the Season 1 episode titled “The Tangled Vines”, which first aired in 1981, the watering hole masqueraded as the supposed Tuscany Valley-area bar where Lance Cumson (Lorenzo Lamas) took his cousins Cole Gioberti (William R. Moses) and Vickie Gioberti (Jamie Rose) for a drink. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the bar were used in the scene.

In the 2000 black comedy Drowning Mona, the Hideaway stood in for the Verplanck, New York-area bar where Murph Calzone (Mark Pellegrino) worked.

The interior of the bar also appeared in the movie.

How much does Casey Affleck, who plays Murph’s brother, Bobby in the flick, look like Zac Efron, by the way?

In The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, the Hideaway was where Daisy Duke (April Scott) worked. At least I think it’s where she worked. Unfortunately, the movie was not available to stream anywhere online, so I was only able to watch a preview of it and while I did spot the Hideaway, I am not exactly sure of what function it served in the 2007 flick.

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 90210 costume designer Kime Buzzelli for telling me about this location! You can check out Kime’s official website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Hideaway, from the “Misery Loves Company” episode of 90210, is located at 12122 Kagel Canyon Road in Kagel Canyon. You can visit the bar’s official website here.

April 18, 2013
Now! Clothing from “L.A. Story”

My second most-wanted location from the 1991 classic comedy L.A. Story was Now!, the ultra-hip clothing store with unisex dressing rooms where SanDeE* (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker) worked. (My first most-wanted was, of course, the iconic freeway sign that I blogged about last Thursday.) So I was floored to see that the locale was included in “The L.A. of L.A. Story” special feature on the movie’s 15th Anniversary Edition DVD. In the feature, which was lensed in 2006, production designer Lawrence Miller said, “This was a clothing store at the intersection of La Cienega and Santa Monica Boulevard and is now, regrettably, a Sav-on drug store.” I was shocked to learn this information as Now! had always looked like a Venice Beach-type shop to me and I had even spent quite a bit of time looking for it in that area. D’oh! Well, believe you me, once I had the correct address, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list and ran right out there just a few days later, while in L.A. for a brief visit. It was not until I started doing research for today’s post, though, that I discovered what a ridiculously vast history the place has – such a vast history, in fact, that while I had intended on publishing this column last Friday, I was still compiling information at 8 p.m. on Thursday night and had to postpone it until today.

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Now! clothing is currently a CVS pharmacy. (CVS Caremark acquired all Southern California Sav-on drug stores in 2006.) Amazingly enough, though, it still looks almost exactly the same today as it did 22 years ago when L.A. Story was filmed! But more on that later.

The location has gone through many different incarnations during its lifetime, each of them quite unique and notable. It was originally constructed in 1940 as a 22-lane bowling alley named La Cienega Lanes, which you can see a photograph of here.

La Cienega Lanes, which was owned at one point by Art Linkletter, was featured numerous times in the 1956 thriller Man in the Vault, as the hangout of locksmith Tommy Dancer (William Campbell). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the alley appeared in the movie.

La Cienega Lanes closed sometime in the late 1970s. In July 1979, music producer Denny Cordell opened a private, members-only “roller boogie palace” named Flippers at the site. The exclusive club, which had a cap of 1,000 members who paid $200 annually plus a $7 entrance fee for each visit, boasted a bar, a restaurant, a custom skate shop, and a skating floor made of polyurethane. You can check out a photograph of the exterior of the rink in all of its bright blue and purple glory here. By February 1980, the tropical-themed club ceased being a members-only institution and was opened to the public. It also became a popular concert venue at that time, with such legends as The Go-Go’s, John Cougar, The Ramones, and Prince on the line-up. The band Cerrone even featured the exterior of the rink on the cover of their 1984 album Club Underworld. Flippers was also a major celebrity hot spot and in its heyday such stars as Cher (who was rumored to be part-owner of the place), Olivia Newton-John, Cheryl Ladd, Loni Anderson, Robin Williams, Jane Fonda, Aretha Franklin, Jacqueline Bisset, Patrick Swayze, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all got their skate on there.

Flippers has a bit of a filming history, as well. The club was featured in the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Angels on Skates”, in which the Angels – Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd), and Tiffany Welles (Shelley Hack) – investigated the kidnapping of a young skater named Rita Morgan (Lory Walsh).

The interior of the roller disco was also used in the episode.

Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, let me know that Flippers was also featured in the Season 3 episodes of CHiPs titled “Roller Disco: Part 1” and “Roller Disco: Part II”. Unfortunately, Season 3 of CHiPs has not yet been released on DVD, nor is it available for streaming on iTunes, Amazon, or Netflix, but I was able to make the grabs below thanks to the Melissa Sue Anderson Fan website.

According to both Wikipedia and IMDB, the roller disco set from Skatetown, U.S.A. (which was built inside of the Hollywood Palladium) was based on the real life interior of Flippers, but I think that information is actually incorrect. Flippers opened its doors in July 1979 and Skatetown was released just a mere three months later, in October 1979. Being that movies typically take at least eight months to edit, even if they had done a rush job on the flick, the timing simply does not add up. Not to mention that the Skatetown set looks nothing at all like Flippers.

And while a few websites have stated that 1979’s Roller Boogie was filmed at Flippers, that information is also incorrect. The exterior roller rink scenes from the movie were shot at at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, which I blogged about back in October 2010.

I am unsure of where the interior scenes were filmed, but, as you can see below, it was not Flippers. According to a poster named “Wanda Pr of Arlington” on Flickr, who was in the movie, the interiors were shot at “an old dance hall on Sunset.”

For whatever reason, Flippers did not last long. In 1983, the space was purchased by Doug and Susie Tompkins, owners of the popular San Francisco-based Esprit de Corp. clothing brand. The site was to become the company’s first freestanding retail store. The couple quickly began a $15-million, 15-month renovation of the building and hired famed designer Joseph D’Urso to carry it out. He remodeled both the interior and the exterior of the property and added a three-story, 150-space parking lot (pictured below). The 32,000-square foot store, which became Esprit’s flagship, opened in December 1984.

According to a 1985 Milwaukee Journal article, D’Urso designed a swirling ramp at Esprit’s entrance to provide handicapped access as well as a “ceremonial route” to the double front doors.

He also designed a small “tree-shaded plaza” in the hopes that “people would feel more protected from the traffic” cruising by on the busy Santa Monica and La Cienega Boulevards.

It was during its time as an Esprit store that the building was used in L.A. Story. The location popped up twice in the movie, first in the scene in which Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) went shopping with his girlfriend, Trudi (Marliu Henner), and wound up meeting SanDeE*, who sold him a pair of white pants. Only the interior of the store was shown in that scene.

In “The L.A. of L.A. Story”, Lawrence Miller stated that the interior, which featured Zolatone walls, metal catwalks, and black waxed cement, was left pretty much as-is for the shoot. He also said they were “blessed” to such a find such a perfect interior in which to film and that it worked perfectly as “part of the build-up” to Harris and SanDeE* meeting in an environment that “shows how inappropriate she is”. Man, what I wouldn’t give to have seen that interior!

Harris later returns to Now! to pick up his pants, which were being altered, and it is in that scene that the exterior of the building is shown. As you can see below, aside from a few very minor changes, the site stills looks exactly the same today as it did then!

As you can imagine, I could hardly contain myself when I arrived at CVS and saw how much it still looked like Now! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! It was all I could do not to start spinning out in front of the store like SJP did in the flick.

Despite immense popularity among the teen set, Esprit de Corp. suffered a major downfall in the late ‘80s, due in large part to Doug and Susie’s messy divorce, and the flagship store closed its doors in 1994. The site sat vacant for a decade, despite talks of the city of West Hollywood purchasing it to use as their City Council chambers and a library. Sometime in 2004 or 2005, the building was turned into a Sav-on. Thankfully, though, the exterior was left intact for all of us stalkers to appreciate. And, according to this April 2013 article on the WeHoVille blog, the shadow of the Esprit sign is STILL visible on the side of the building! I so wish I had known that before stalking the place! For those who are interested, the shadow is located on the eastern-most side of the parking structure. You can just barely see it in the Google Street View image below.

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: Now! Clothing from L.A. Story, aka CVS pharmacy, is located at 8491 West Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

April 15, 2013
The “L.A. Story” Freeway Sign

One locale that the Grim Cheaper suggested I track down a few years back – and that I have wondered about ever since – was the spot where the freeway sign from the 1991 classic comedy L.A. Story once stood. Because it was a prop sign that was situated on a long expanse of a non-descript Southern California road, though, I figured that, short of getting ahold of a crew member, it would be a virtually impossible find. Cut to two weeks ago when, while doing research on the O’Neil house from Beverly Hills, 90210, I came across this Wikimapia page which stated that the L.A. Story freeway condition sign had been located on Burbank Boulevard in Encino. I just about fell out of my chair upon learning this news because I had never before seen it mentioned anywhere. And while I tried to find other articles that backed up the claim, I came up empty-handed. I knew that the information had to have come from somewhere, though, so I searched Amazon to see if a DVD commentary for the movie was available. While no such commentary exists (how is that possible?!?!), I did come across a listing for the 15th Anniversary Edition of L.A. Story which included – are you ready for this? – a vignette titled “The L.A. of L.A. Story: An Interactive Map of the Popular Sites Filmed for L.A. Story”. Um, yes, please! The DVD is sadly out of print, but I did find a used copy of it on eBay for $5 and, let me tell you, it was the best $5 I ever spent – although I am sure the GC would disagree.

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The L.A. of L.A. Story, which was shot in 2006 and is absolutely amazeballs, features production designer Lawrence Miller (who sadly passed away in 2009) returning to ten of the movie’s most iconic locations to tell the stories behind them. LOVE IT! One of the locales visited was, of course, the famous freeway sign. In the piece, Lawrence describes shooting on Burbank Boulevard, just east of Hayvenhurst Avenue, but never specifies the exact spot where the sign stood. I was having a heck of a time pinpointing the location via Google Street View, so I enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who found the right area almost immediately. Thank you, Mike! As you can see below, the two double-pronged trees visible behind Lawrence in the feature match up perfectly to the spot that Mike found on Burbank Boulevard. So the two of us ran right out to stalk the site this past Sunday afternoon while I was in town for a couple of days.

In L.A. Story, wacky weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin – who also wrote the screenplay!) encounters a rather cheeky freeway condition road sign that instead of foretelling traffic statuses, predicts the future of his life. According to Lawrence, the sign was custom-built and was programmed to “talk” to Harris in several different languages so that its lines would not need to later be dubbed when shown in foreign countries. So interesting!

As you can see below, the Los Angeles cityscape was digitally added to the background of the road sign scenes.

In real life, the area behind where the sign once stood is comprised of a massive amount of foliage.

In The L.A. of L.A. Story, Lawrence also states that Burbank Boulevard was chosen as the sign site because it is a “freeway lookalike” that is easy to close down, and that he was the person who actually chose the exact spot where the sign would be installed on the day of the shoot.

As you can see below, the area still looks very much the same today as it did in 2006 when the special was filmed.

Unfortunately though, there is currently quite a bit more plant growth than there was when Lawrence visited the site seven years ago.

Which is especially upsetting because when The L.A. of L.A. Story was filmed, he was actually able to find the hole where the sign once stood, which I just about lost my mind over! And while Mike and I ferociously dug through the underbrush looking for that hole (we were pretty much on our hands and knees pulling back weeds – I can only imagine what passersby were thinking!), we were unable to uncover it. I did vow to go back with a rake and a shovel one day, though, so have no fear! I will locate that darn hole if it’s the last thing I do!

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 Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The L.A. Story freeway sign was located on eastbound Burbank Boulevard, just east of Hayvenhurst Avenue at what Google Maps lists as 16388 Burbank Boulevard, in Encino.

April 11, 2013