Hollywood – Page 3 – IAMNOTASTALKER

December 22, 2017January 14, 2018

The “L.A. Confidential” Christmas Eve Pot Bust House

Some might not consider the subject of today’s post a Christmas location. It’s certainly not from a holiday flick, that’s for sure. But the scene that was shot there took place on Christmas Eve, so I figured it was fair game. For those who do not recognize the pad pictured above, it was at the two-story Craftsman that the infamous “movie premiere pot bust” – or as I always refer to it, the “Christmas Eve pot bust” – from L.A. Confidential was lensed. If you’ve never seen the 1997 film (and I just learned that the Grim Cheaper counts himself in that category, which absolutely flabbergasted me!), I’ll fill you in.

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At the beginning of the 1950s-set drama, Hush-Hush tabloid reporter Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) convinces LAPD sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) to arrest two Metro Studio contract players, Matt Reynolds (Simon Baker) and Tammy Jordan (Shawnee Free Jones), whom he has set up for pot possession, so that he can document the whole thing for his magazine. When they arrive at Reynolds’ home, Vincennes, ever the media opportunist, immediately notices that a Hollywood premiere is taking place at the theatre down the street and instructs Sid, “Put your camera right there. When I walk out, I’ll stop right here, you get the movie premiere in the background.” To which Sid says, “I like it! I like it! The movie premiere pot bust!” (Why a film premiere would be taking place on Christmas Eve night is beyond me, but I guess that is a question for director/screenwriter Curtis Hanson.) As Sid later spins the story, “It’s Christmas Eve in the City of Angels and while decent citizens sleep the sleep of the righteous, hopheads prowl for marijuana, not knowing that a man is coming to stop them – celebrity crime stopper Jack Vincennes, scourge of grasshoppers and dope fiends everywhere.”

Because of the tight angle from which the scene was shot, as well as the low lighting (not to mention a change in paint color in the ensuing years), the movie premiere pot bust house looks quite a bit different in person than it did onscreen.

While it deceivingly looks like a single-family residence from the street, as was depicted in L.A. Confidential the 1914 property is actually a multi-occupancy dwelling. Per Zillow, the structure boasts a total of 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,304 square feet, and a 0.23-acre parcel of land.

Though they are now largely obscured by a screened-in porch, you can just make out the property’s two front doors in my photograph below.

The home’s actual interior was also utilized in the movie. It is there that Vincennes (does L.A. Confidential have great character names, or what?) first learns about Fleur-de-Lis thanks to a mysterious black business card he finds tucked away in a notebook.

Though the scene taking place there is rather brief, the pot bust house was one of the tougher locales for the L.A. Confidential production team to nail down. According to an interview with location manager John Panzarella and key assistant Leslie Thorson that ran in L.A. Weekly this past September, early versions of the script called for a residence within view of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Panzarella says, “Our directive always was to have a theater that was in a sightline to a house, like half a block away. We did go look at the Chinese Theatre, we went down Sycamore, we went down Orange, we went down all the adjacent streets and there was no house there that was within sightlines.” So they started seeking out other venues – in Leimert Park, Westwood, and additional areas of L.A. But they came up with zilch. That’s when production designer Jeannine Oppewall stepped in and saved the day by proposing that an old Art Deco bank building at 5620 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood could possibly mask as a theatre in the scene. Her idea was right on the money and Panzarella and Thorson soon zeroed in on a home with period-perfect architecture located just down the street from the structure at 1714 North Gramercy Place to portray Reynolds’ residence.

Transforming the bank building into the fictional “El Cortez” theatre for the shoot did prove a bit challenging, as the owners of the structure would not allow anything to be attached to the façade. So Oppewall had to think outside the box. As she explained to Curbed L.A. in a recent interview, “What I ended up doing was designing the movie marquee as a freestanding triangle. We shoved it up against the building, and then we built two pilasters on the back two legs that disappeared directly into the background of the building . . . And we had to have a supporting pillar in the front, which we painted black. I specified that we had to always have some extras standing directly in front of it so you wouldn’t see that it was actually standing on three legs.”

Known as the California Bank/Precision Auto Building in real life (per this Historic Resources Survey Report), the structure was designed by John Parkinson of Parkinson & Parkinson, the father-and-son architecture team who also gave us Union Station, Bullocks Wilshire and both Security Trust & Savings Bank’s Highland Park Branch and North Hollywood Branch. According to the Los Angeles Times, the site, which boasts a 95-foot-tall pyramid-topped tower, was built in 1920 (though many others report the year of construction as 1929). Said tower was badly damaged during the Northridge earthquake in 1994. Though it has, thankfully, since been repaired, you can check out some eerie photographs of its toppled spire here and here.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Christmas Eve pot bust, aka the movie premiere pot bust, from L.A. Confidential took place at 1714 North Gramercy Place in Hollywood. The California Bank/Precision Auto Building, aka the fictional “El Cortez” theatre seen in the background of the scene, can be found just down the street at 5620 Hollywood Boulevard.

December 15, 2017December 14, 2017

The “Four Christmases” Dance Studio

I can hardly believe it, but the Christmas season is upon us again! It seems like just yesterday I was hanging out in a pool celebrating my 40th birthday in June! I hate how fast time seems to pass, but I do love the holidays and am thrilled to finally be covering a Yuletide-themed locale. Today’s post comes courtesy of my good friend Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who a few years back worked for a production company with offices all over the L.A. area, including the building at 1161 Vine Street in Hollywood. One fateful day, Mike was tasked with setting up some new film and video equipment at the Vine Street space and happened to cue up Four Christmases on his laptop to play in the background while he toiled away (slightly random, being that this was in the summer!). He just about fell over when the dance studio scene came on because, as he looked around the room, he realized he was sitting in the exact spot where the segment had been lensed! Talk about synchronicity! He promptly snapped a bunch of photographs of the place and recently sent them to me, thinking the site would make for a good holiday post. Thank you, Mike!

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Situated on the corner of Lexington Avenue right in the heart of Hollywood, 1161 Vine boasts quite a Tinseltown pedigree, having served as the headquarters of not one, but two sound industry titans. During the ‘40s, the handsome 1928 building acted as the main office of Altec Lansing, an audio electronics company best-known for developing horn-based loudspeaker systems for movie theatres, concert venues, and home entertainment centers. You can see a photograph of what the property looked like during the Altec Lansing days here. Amazingly, aside from the addition of quite a bit of foliage, not much of its exterior has changed since that time. In 1951, Ryder Sound Services moved into the 5,758-square-foot site, utilizing it as a recording and post production studio. The company, which pioneered magnetic audio recording for the motion picture industry, was founded by Loren L. Ryder, a 5-time-Academy-Award-winning sound engineer.

At the time that Four Christmases was filmed in 2008, the modern office space, which boasts exposed brickwork, a 24-foot-high bow truss ceiling, concrete and wood floors, a fireplace, a full kitchen, and a large loft area, served as a photography studio. Today it is home to digital media firm Beautycon. I wonder if the people who work there have any idea of the place’s cinematic history. I am guessing most don’t and can totally picture a not-in-the-know employee putting on the flick during the holiday season and, upon seeing the dance scene and realization dawning, screaming out, “Oh my God! I work there!” No? That’s just me? And Mike? Winking smile

You can check out some additional interior photographs of the property here.

Toward the beginning of Four Christmases, Kate (Reese Witherspoon) and Brad (Vince Vaughn) attend a ballroom dance class at 1161 Vine. While there, they get into a rather humorous exchange with two newly-engaged couples who are taking dance lessons for their upcoming weddings, about why they have no desire to get married or have kids. After denouncing expressions like “tying the knot” and “ball and chain,” Brad tells the betrotheds, “I mean I’d rather be, like, stuck on an island with some weird millionaire hunting me trying to kill me and me trying to escape than to be involved in something with those kind of slogans, ‘cause that’s like a time bomb waiting to explode.” Upon seeing their rather shell-shocked reactions to his diatribe, he closes off with, “But anyway, congratulations on getting married. That sounds like a really cool thing. And to each their own. Merry Christmas.” You can watch the hilarious scene here.

The segment is one of my favorite bits of the whole movie, mainly because Kate and Brad dance to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” a holiday song I adore.

As you can see in the photos and screen captures above and below, 1161 Vine looks much the same in person as it does onscreen, minus the slew of festive Christmas decorations.

The property’s loft area was utilized for another Four Christmases scene in which Kate and Brad are shown calling their respective parents to inform them that they won’t be making it home for the holiday. Though the segment wound up on the cutting room floor, eagle-eyed viewers might remember a portion of it popping up in the movie’s trailer. As I mentioned in this 2012 post, I originally thought the phone call bit was supposed to have occurred at Kate and Brad’s house, which confused me to no end as the space looks nothing like the residence that appeared in the other scenes set at the couple’s home. But I was lucky enough to get in touch with production designer Shepherd Frankel who set me straight. He explained that Kate and Brad were purportedly phoning their parents from a break area of the dance studio. Why the two would be making such personal calls from a public place, I have no idea, but perhaps that is why the scene, which you can watch in its entirety here, was scrapped.

While researching this post, I was absolutely bowled over to discover that 1161 Vine boasts another holiday movie connection! According to the Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol blog, all of the dialogue for the 1962 film, which was the first ever animated Christmas special, was recorded at the building! At the time, the property was home to Ryder Sound Services.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for not only stalking this location, but also providing all of the photos that appear in the post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Four Christmases dance studio is located at 1161 Vine Street in Hollywood.

April 24, 2017April 24, 2017

Studio Gate 3 from the “Feud” “Hollywood Drive” Promo

It will probably come as a shock to most readers that I don’t know a lot about Old Hollywood. Sure, I am well-versed in all things Marilyn Monroe and have stalked my fair share of noir locations, but on the whole, I’d say I’m pretty lacking in knowledge about the Tinseltown of yesteryear. I am always itching to learn more, though. So I was thrilled when it was announced that the inaugural season of Ryan Murphy’s new anthology series Feud was tackling the decades-long discord between screen legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, a rivalry dating back to the 1930s of which I knew virtually nothing. (The second season is set to center around Prince Charles and Lady Di. Um, count me in!) I avidly watched the show (which ended its eight-episode run last night), eating up details of the actresses’ mutual animosity for one another with a spoon, as well as obsessively researching its locations. I even went so far as to stalk a spot that only appeared in a brief 31-second promo – a first for me.

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In the promo, titled “Hollywood Drive,” Davis and Crawford are shown simultaneously arriving at Gate 3 of an unnamed Hollywood studio and then playing chicken with each other to get in. (Though Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon portrayed Joan and Bette, respectively, on Feud, the promo made use of unnamed actresses for the roles.)

You can watch the trailer by clicking below.

I recognized the “studio” gate immediately thanks to its appearance in a Season 3 episode of Scandal in which it masked as the front gate of the White House. (More on that in a bit.) I logged a ridiculous amount of man-hours looking for the site after seeing it in Scandal (so much so that visions of it are now burned into my brain!) and finally pinpointed it as the entrance to Beth Olam Cemetery-Hollywood, which is part of Hollywood Forever Cemetery. (More on that in a bit, as well.) So when the gate popped up in the Feud promo, identifying it was a no-brainer.

Not much of the locale was changed for “Hollywood Drive,” aside from the addition of a few boxed plants and signage reading “Studio Gate 3.” The structure’s central blue dome was also kept out of frame.

Hollywood Forever was originally established in 1899 as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery. In the late 1920s, the southwest portion of the then 102-acre property was appropriated for Jewish burials and became known as Beth Olam Cemetery-Hollywood. Though it has its own gate, it still very much a part of Hollywood Forever. (Today, Hollywood Forever boasts 62 acres due to the fact that in 1920, 40 acres were sold off to 2 different movie studios to develop what is now collectively Paramount Pictures.)

In 1939, the cemetery was purchased by convicted felon Jack Roth, who had just finished serving 5 years of a suggested 11- to 95-year prison sentence for grand theft and securities fraud. Jail did not change Roth’s criminal tendencies. He immediately set about spending the burial ground’s funds on himself, installing a wet bar in his office and purchasing a yacht that he claimed was used to scatter clients’ ashes and was therefore tax deductible. Not surprisingly, the state of the cemetery began to severely decline under Roth’s tutelage. As this fabulous 2011 Tablet article states, “In one year, Hollywood Memorial made more money disinterring bodies than interring them—relatives wanted their loved ones moved to better-kept environs.” When Jack passed away in 1998 (for those wondering, yes, he is buried at Hollywood Forever), the site was sold to brothers Tyler and Brent Cassity, who revitalized and cleaned up the neglected graveyard, renamed it “Hollywood Forever Cemetery,” and began offering tours, as well as hosting the insanely popular Cinespia movie nights. (I saw Pee-wee’s Big Adventure there back in 2008 and had an absolute blast.) The duo also eventually wound up facing their own complicated tangles with the law, which are detailed in the Tablet post.

While Hollywood Forever is used in filming all.the.time., for this post, I thought it would be best to focus solely on the Beth Olam gate.

Though a gate at The Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens masked as the White House’s front gate in previous seasons of Scandal, for reasons likely having to do with convenience, the production utilized the Beth Olam gate in Season 3’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” The structure appeared twice in the episode. It first popped up in the scene in which Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) received an ominous phone call from her mother upon arriving at the White House.

Later in the episode, Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) tried to convince Olivia not to abandon her post as presidential fixer while at the gate. A makeshift guard shack and wall of hedges were installed for the Scandal shoot and the White House later digitally added into the background of the segments.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Studio Gate 3, from the Feud “Hollywood Drive” promo, is actually the gate to Beth Olam Cemetery-Hollywood (which is part of Hollywood Forever Cemetery) located at 900 North Gower Street in Hollywood.

October 11, 2016September 29, 2017

Hollywood Tower

“The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you’re filling. Or you may find yourself a permanent resident… of The Twilight Zone.” So says Rod Serling at the end of Disney World’s popular The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction. The design of the ride, located at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, was inspired by several California locales, one of which was Hollywood Tower, a luxury apartment building situated alongside the 101 Freeway in Tinseltown. The looming structure is such an icon and area landmark that it has become synonymous with the landscape of L.A. It is also consistently cited as one of the city’s most haunted locations (along with The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the Hollywood Knickerbocker Apartments, and the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles), so I figured what better time to blog about it than now?

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Hollywood Tower was originally built in 1929 as “La Belle Tour,” a luxury apartment house. The French Normandy-style building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed by architects Cramer and Wise.

The 8-story property, which rises to 110 feet at its highest point, boasts rooftop gardens, a subterranean garage, and 52 units, including 3 penthouses.

As the plaque on the front door tells you, the location served as “Sophisticated living for film luminaries during the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood.”

Renamed Hollywood Tower in 1942, such stars as Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Robert Patrick, George Raft, Eugene Pallette, William Powell, and Colin Clive (aka Dr. Henry Frankenstein – love it!) all called the place home at one time or another. Carmen Miranda was even married on the premises.

You can check out what the interior of the building looks like here, as well as some images of the individual units here, here, and here. The bathrooms are to die for!

Rumors of hauntings at Hollywood Tower are prevalent online. The Rock Photographer blog, penned by a building resident, mentions the hauntings (including a “shadowy, floating figure” who stalks the fourth floor), as well as suicides, murders and mob hits that have taken place on the property in this post, though no specifics are given.

Whether or not the building is actually haunted remains to be seen, but being that the structure has a decidedly looming presence, it is no surprise that it influenced the Disney Imagineers who created The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. (Check out Scouting LA for a fabulous write-up on the various SoCal properties that served as inspiration for the ride.)

As you can see below as compared to this image, the ride’s signage is very similar to that of Hollywood Tower. The overall design of the two structures is also somewhat similar, though Tower of Terror bears a distinct Southwestern element that cannot be found at Hollywood Tower.

Hollywood Tower is also a filming location! In the 1948 crime drama Devil’s Cargo, Margo Delgado (Rochelle Hudson) calls the building home.

Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) briefly stays with his friend at Hollywood Tower in the 1984 thriller Body Double.

The real life interior of one of the apartment units was also used in the movie, though very little of it can be seen.

Hollywood Tower is also where Leon (Alan Solomon) lived and gathered five students together to invite them to compete in the “Great All-nighter,” an all-night scavenger hunt through Los Angeles, in the 1980 comedy Midnight Madness.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hollywood Tower is located at 6200 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.

June 6, 2016February 17, 2017

“The Brady Bunch” MegaPost

My friend, fellow stalker Michael, is proving to be a true Brady Bunch virtuoso! Here he is yet again gifting us with yet another fabulous post about the 1969 sitcom – this one a round-up of nine different locales featured on the series! Take it away, Michael!

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I know, I know. Yet another Brady guest post foisted upon you. I swear, I do know how to find non-Brady locations. However, I had compiled a bunch of Brady Bunch establishing shot sites that I hadn’t seen posted anywhere online, and asked Lindsay if she’d be up for a catch-all post to at least get these addresses out there, and save anyone interested from duplicating research efforts. Note, as is frequently the case, while these establishing shots were filmed on location, the scenes with the actors were filmed on a Paramount soundstage.

Davey Jones’ Royal Towers Hotel

Wilshire Regent

I thought I’d start with a location I happened upon by accident. This winter, I was in Los Angeles riding down Wilshire Boulevard when I looked ahead and saw a building that I thought had been used in a Brady Bunch episode. I snapped a couple quick pics and found their match when I got home.

In the third-season episode, “Getting Davy Jones,” Marcia (in drag) and Greg sneak into Davy Jones’ hotel room in an effort to coax him into performing at the Fillmore Junior High prom.

The establishing shot of of the fictional Royal Towers Hotel was in reality the Wilshire Regent, a luxury co-op built in 1963. The section of Wilshire Blvd where it stands, known as the Wilshire Corridor, is now filled with high-rises, but the Wilshire Regent was one of the first apartment towers built in the area. And lucky for us, the exterior of the building looks remarkably unchanged.

Stalk It: Wilshire Regent, aka Davy Jones’ Hotel, aka Royal Towers Hotel is located at 10501 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Mr. Dimsdale’s Recording Studio / Mercola Building

Fred Hayman Building

In keeping with the musical theme, the next location comes from an establishing shot in the third-season episode, “Dough Re Mi.” The Brady Kids, ready to share their musical stylings with the world, get in hock against their collective allowances to rent studio time from Johnny Dimsdale’s father so they can record a demo of Greg’s latest, “We Can Make the World a Whole Lot Brighter.” However, Peter’s cracking voice jeopardizes the venture and their “$150 non-refundable dollars.”

One would think with a name slapped on the facade, it’d be a cinch to track down this location. Nevertheless, to this day, I haven’t found any other references to the Mercola Building (if anyone out there has, let me know!). As it turns out, I ended up running across this location by accident.

Last year, I walked through Beverly Hills on my way to meet up with a friend for coffee, and as I meandered down Canon Drive I couldn’t help but notice the bright yellow Fred Hayman Building. But, no sooner did I start to reflect on the difference between Giorgio yellow and Bijan yellow (iconic Beverly Hills boutiques known for their use of the color), then my attention was caught by another structure in the area and I forgot all about the Fred Hayman Building.

Researching that neighborhood when I got home, I found myself on Google Street View. Randomly turning my virtual self around, I saw the Fred Hayman Building again and realized it was a Brady location I’d looked for in the past.

Other than a paint job, the structure still looks remarkably similar to its appearance on The Brady Bunch. What looks to be a parking lot on the right of Brady clip is now home to Spago Beverly Hills, and the exterior of the shorter annex building has been remodeled numerous times, most recently housing a restaurant.

Stalk It: Fred Hayman Building, aka Mr. Dimsale’s Recording Studio, aka Mercola Building is located at 190 (& 184) North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.

Daily Chronicle Newspaper Building

Marfay Building

In the first-season episode, “Father of The Year,” Marcia sneaks out of the house to mail an essay submitting Mike for the local newspaper’s father of the year competition. Later in the episode, an office building is used to establish a scene set in the publisher’s office.

I stumbled across this building while looking through the massive archive of architectural photographer Julius Schulman that The Getty Research Institute has posted online.

As soon as I saw the photo, I knew that it had been seen on The Brady Bunch. It took me a while longer to home in on the specific episode. A quick web search found that the structure—known as the Marfay Building—was built in 1949 by Welton Becket and Walter Wurdeman. You may know Becket’s and Wurdeman’s work from many classic mid-century buildings throughout Los Angeles—Pan-Pacific Auditorium, Capitol Records Building, Cinerama Dome, and the Century City master plan just to name a few.

The building’s facade was drastically overhauled in 1987, still you’ll notice the structure next door has maintained its integrity from the days of Brady.

Stalk It: Marfay Building, aka Daily Chronicle Newspaper Building is located at 5657 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Encino Medical Tower Dentist Office

Sometimes I luck out and an establishing shot does the work for me. Such is the case in the fourth-season episode titled “Love and the Older Man.” The Brady’s regular dentist has a new associate, Dr. Stanley Vogel, and Marcia is gaga, so much so that she fantasizes of a future replete with a dental chair in her living room. “Imagine me, Mrs. Marcia Dentist,” she dreamily exclaims.

The Encino Medical Tower looks much the same as it did in the 1970s, however some of the charmingly retro arches have unfortunately been remodeled.

Stalk It: Encino Medical Tower is located at 16260 Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

Gilbert’s Books

Another Brady location that didn’t camouflage its real-world name can be seen in the first-season episode, “The Hero.” It also happens to be another episode where we find Marcia envisioning her future. This time she writes in her diary, “My dream of dreams is to be Mrs. Desi Arnaz Jr.” Unfortunately, Cindy accidently donates said diary to charity resulting in a mortified Marcia. The family forms a search party to scour LA’s used bookstores in an attempt to track down the journal; Mike and Cindy stop at Gilbert’s Book Shop.

The Hollywood Boulevard-located bookstore is sadly no more, the building has been razed, and the W Hollywood occupies its former footprint (and then some). Fortunately, the Taft Building—the first high rise office building in LA, built in 1923—a sliver of which is visible in the Brady clip to the right of Gilbert’s, is still holding its own.

Stalk It: Gilbert’s Book Shop was located at 6278 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Valley Drug

In the second-season episode, “The Not-So-Ugly Duckling,” when Jan’s crush, Clark Tyson, is more interested in Marcia, she decides that her freckles are “making her a social outcast,” and heads to the drug store to look for a quick fix. The establishing shot again makes no attempt to hide its name; Valley Drug in bold script is emblazoned above the doorway.

A quick web search provided a present-day Valley Drug & Compounding in Encino. Although the Encino business’ logo matched the Brady clip, the structure did not.

After digging through newspaper archives, phone books, and verifying addresses against old Los Angeles building permits I was able to confirm that the drug store shown in the establishing shot was located on the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Magnolia Blvd.

Pharmacist, Sidney Simmons purchased Valley Drug at 5161 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in 1955 and in the early 1990s relocated the business down the road to 4800 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. In 1998, he sold the store to the Rite Aid chain and opened up the specialty pharmacy in Encino. An archived building permit shows the original drug store and its distinct chamfered corner entrance.

Sadly, the structure is long gone and the land now provides additional parking for a Jon’s Marketplace. At least a present-day Jan wouldn’t have to go far to find a lemon for her at-home freckle treatment.

Stalk It: Valley Drug was located at 5161 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood.

Television Studio (and Ballet Studio)
Metromedia Square

Shown in a number of episodes, now-razed television and film studio, Metromedia Square was a popular Brady-establishing-shot location. The Hollywood-constructed lot was originally known as Nassour Studios and built in the 1940s. The Times-Mirror Company purchased the facility in the 1950s and Metromedia took over the studio in the late 1960s. In the 1980s Metromedia started leasing the lot to News Corporation and the name was again changed to Fox Television Center. Finally, Metromedia sold the land in 2000 and the studio was torn down and Helen Bernstein High School was built on the property.

Establishing shots of Metromedia Square were used in a number of fifth-season Brady episodes, but the site is first seen in the forth-season episode “Amateur Nite.” Mike and Carol’s anniversary is coming up and the kids decide to buy them a silver platter. Unbelievably, Jan isn’t as familiar as most teens in the byzantine methods by which engraving is priced and can’t cover the cost of the customized platter. The kids naturally turn to song in an effort to pay their debts. Dubbing themselves “The Silver Platters,” they perform (in matching jumpsuits) on a local television show competition.

The exterior is next see in the episode “You Can’t Win ‘Em All.” Cindy becomes a prima donna when her test scores qualify her to help represent Clinton Grammar School on a local television station’s quiz show. Cindy’s inflated ego has no bounds, even turning down Alice’s cooking with a terse, “A star can’t go on television all fat and broken out.” When at the television studio, Cindy freezes with stage fright the moment the red light on the camera glows.

The exterior is shown again in “Adios, Johnny Bravo.” The Brady Kids—no longer strangers to the television studio—are taping a performance and Greg is pulled aside by a couple of quick-talking record producers hoping to mold him into the newest pop sensation because he literally “fit the suit.”

The last we see of Metromedia Square is in the episode “Try, Try Again,” where it’s inconsistently used to establish a scene set in the girls’ ballet class.

Although, I knew the establishing shots were of Metromedia Square, I wanted to figure out where exactly the shots were filmed. Strangely, I couldn’t find many photos of the lot, so I started with a contemporary aerial photo [below in color] and one photographed when the studio was still in existence [below in black & white]. I was also lucky to come across a few maps of the lot in my go-to resource, the LA building permit archives.

From those, I was able to home in on the area that was shown in the Brady clips. The direction in which the roads intersected proved to be a helpful guide, and the corner of an “Audience Parking” sign in the Brady clip confirmed that I’d zeroed in on the correct part of the lot. The orange arrows on the aerial photos and map above mark the location of the camera and the approximate angle used for the establishing shots. I was also surprised to find that the corner of a building at Fernwood Avenue and North Van Ness Avenue, formerly across the street from Metromedia Square, is still there. It’s the KTLA building at Sunset Bronson Studios and still looks the same as it did in the Brady clip. Interestingly, the current Sunset Bronson Studios was the original Warner Bros. lot, purchased by the young studio in 1920, and the current KTLA building originally housed Leon Schlesinger Productions (of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies fame). Warner Bros. purchased Schlesinger’s interest in the animation company in 1944, and in 1953 they sold the entire lot to Paramount; KTLA moved into the old Schlesinger building thereafter. You can see a vintage photo of Schlesinger’s building with its distinctive quoining here. At least a little sliver of history from the Brady clip still remains.

As you can see, Metromedia Square is no more and its buildings seen in the Brady clips have been replaced with the school’s basketball courts.

Stalk It: Metromedia Square Audience Parking was located on North Van Ness Avenue at Fernwood Avenue in Hollywood.

Drive-In Theatre

Gilmore Drive-In

The Gilmore Drive-In is another establishing shot location that was used in more than one Brady episode. In the forth-season episode “Greg Gets Grounded,” as a punishment for driving on the freeway while reading the back of a new record album, Greg’s family-car privileges are taken away for a week. After irking Carol and Mike with another misdeed, he narrowly avoids further punishment on a technicality by claiming that he followed their “exact words.” Predictably, Mike and Carol later hold Greg to his “exact words” and force him to cancel a date and bring Bobby and Peter to a frog jumping competition (naturally). After the competition, the young masters Brady absentmindedly leave their frogs in Greg’s car. Unfortunately for Greg, in a rush to pick up his date for a drive-in movie, Croaker and Spunker’s presence goes unnoticed until it’s too late.

And in the fifth-season episode “Peter and the Wolf,” Greg has a date with Sandra, but unless he can find a date for her cousin Linda, she’ll have to cancel. Enter Linda’s new date, a faux mustachioed Peter, alias Phil Packer, “Some swinging guy from another high school.” Need I write more? Obviously, nothing but comedy gold can come from a setup like that.

The establishing shot as it’s seen in the episode is rather dark (as evening is wont to do), but with a quick digital adjustment, a few clues to the drive-in’s location were unveiled. The detailing on the screen tower along with the larger panel to its right seemed unique to the Gilmore Drive-In in Los Angeles. My suspicions were confirmed when the lightened image also revealed the Park La Brea Apartments in the distance.

In the 1880s, Arthur Fremont Gilmore bought hundreds of acres of farmland around what is now Fairfax Avenue. In the early 1900s he struck oil on the property and transitioned from farming to the oil business. In 1918, his son Earl Bell Gilmore took over the family business and by the 1940s had sold the majority of their original acreage. He however kept a few dozen acres which housed Gilmore Stadium, Gilmore Field, the Farmers Market, and of course the Gilmore Drive-In.

Built in 1948, the theatre reportedly had a 650-vehicle capacity and was designed by architects William Glenn Balch and Louis L. Bryan. The asymmetric panel that helped me identify the theatre, upon further research, turned out to be an enlarged light shield built in 1955. By the 1970s the theatre had fallen into disrepair and demolition permits were issued in 1979. Today, The Grove shopping center, specifically Nordstrom, sits in the screen’s former location, leaving the Farmers Market as the only remaining original Gilmore-related enterprise in the area. The former site of the Gilmore Drive-In is outlined in orange below, with an arrow pointing in the direction of the former location of the screen.

CBS purchased Gilmore Stadium in 1950 and built CBS Television City on the land. Later in the decade, CBS expanded their studio onto the former site of Gilmore Field. Their website has some great aerial photos of the area, and many include the drive-in. Cinematreasures.org also has a nice selection of photos of the road-facing side of theatre’s screen tower.

Stalk It: The Gilmore Drive-In was located at 6201 West 3rd Street in Los Angeles.

Rose Bowl Stadium

In the fifth-season episode “Mail Order Hero,” Bobby’s in a pickle when after claiming to know Joe Namath, the football player is in town and Bobby’s friends call his bluff. In an effort to help her brother, Cindy puts pen to paper and speciously writes a letter to Namath on Bobby’s behalf, beginning with, “I’m writing to you because I’m very very sick.”

Inspired by the letter, the football player stops by the Brady residence, Bobby plays sick, Cindy plays nursemaid, and Mike and Carol, out of the loop from Cindy’s letter, shock Namath with their lack of concern over their dying son—“Well when you have six kids, something like this is bound to happen to one of them.”

A scene set at the stadium office with Namath is established with a shot of the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. The entrance area to the 1922-built stadium has recently undergone some renovations, but the structure itself still matches the Brady shot.

The angle from which the establishing shot was filmed obscured the Rose Bowl logo with some tress, but if you look carefully, you can still make out the corners of the signage.

Stalk It: The Rose Bowl Stadium is located at 1001 Rose Bowl Drive in Pasadena.

And there you have it, nine locations for the price of one. If you’ve made it to the end, congratulations and thanks for sticking with me! As always, many thanks to Lindsay for generously offering up her forum for another very-Brady post. (Editor’s note – a big THANK YOU to you, Michael, for yet another scintillating and fastidiously-researched article! Smile )

June 29, 2015February 25, 2016

Musso and Frank Grill from “Sex and the City”

I deserve a facepalm for today’s location! For ages I had been trying to track down the Los Angeles steakhouse where Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) dined with “Letterman Lew” (Sam Seder) in the Season 3 episode of Sex and the City titled “Sex and Another City.” Because the episode had been filmed over 15 years ago, I figured the restaurant was most likely no longer in existence, but still spent quite a lot of time searching for it regardless. Then in April, I had a brainstorm. I decided to tweet to Sam Seder to ask if he remembered where filming had taken place. Not only was he nice enough to respond, but he did indeed remember the restaurant! As it turns out, it was a place I had stalked before and even blogged about – Musso and Frank Grill, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood! How I did not recognize it is beyond me! Not to mention the fact that I should have realized Sex and the City would utilize one of L.A.’s most historic eateries while filming on location in La La Land. Since my original post on Musso and Frank was written waaaaay back in August 2008, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a redux.

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Musso and Frank Grill, or Musso’s as it is commonly called, was originally established by Frank Toulet in 1919 as Frank’s Francois Café in a space located at 6669 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1923, Frank partnered up with Joseph Musso and renamed the restaurant Musso and Frank Grill. French chef Jean Rue created the menu with offerings of classic comfort foods, steaks and French-inspired fare. Amazingly, little of that menu has been changed since.

Despite the fact that Musso and Frank Grill was immediately successful, Toulet and Musso sold it to Joseph Carissimi and John Mosso in 1926. The restaurant continued to be profitable under Carissimi and Mosso’s tutelage and eight years later it was moved to a larger space one storefront east at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard. The following year, the duo opened the Back Room, a private enclave for the movers and shakers of the day to congregate. The room became especially popular with the literary world and such luminaries as William Faulkner, Dashiell Hammett, John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T.S. Eliot all spent time there. Raymond Chandler is even said to have written The Big Sleep largely from the Back Room. The space was eventually dubbed the “Writers’ Room” and a Los Angeles Times article stated that if you spent enough time there you “…would have seen every living writer you had ever heard of, and some you would not know until later.”

When Carissimi and Mosso’s lease on the Back Room expired in 1955, they moved all of its furnishings, including the bar, wood paneling and wall sconces, to the storefront located next door to Musso and Frank. That space was dubbed the “New Room.” It still bears that name today, despite the fact that it has been in existence for sixty years. The New Room, pictured below, continued its tradition of popularity with writers of the day and Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski were all said to have hung out there.

Musso’s was immensely popular with the Hollywood set, as well. Just a few of the stars who dined there during the early years include John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Bing Crosby and my girl Marilyn Monroe. Charlie Chaplin was such a frequent patron that he had his own booth. Pictured below, it is the booth located at the front, western corner of the restaurant’s main room. In more recent years, Tom Cruise, James Woods, Demi Moore, Tom Hanks, Francis Ford Coppola, Keith Richards, Sean Penn and Drew Barrymore have all been spotted at Musso’s.

John Mosso’s family eventually bought out the Carissimi family and they continue to run Musso and Frank Grill to this day. Though the eatery closed its doors this past Friday (June 28th) for a ten-day restoration project, patrons should not worry – all of the changes set to be implemented are minor. The restaurant will reopen on Tuesday, July 7th.

In “Sex and Another City,” Miranda and her old friend Lew head to Musso and Frank Grill to enjoy a New York strip steak. While dining, Miranda learns that Lew is on a special diet in which he chews his food, but doesn’t swallow it. Needless to say, their meal does not end well.

In the episode, Miranda and Lew were seated in the New Room.

Musso’s has popped up in countless movies and television shows over the years. In 1994’s Ed Wood, the restaurant is where Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) has a chance encounter with Orson Welles (Vincent D’Onofrio).

Only the exterior of Musso and Frank was used in the filming, though. Interiors were shot elsewhere.

Musso and Frank’s parking lot masked as the parking lot of the Dresden, where Sue (Patrick Van Horn) got into a fight with “House of Pain” in the 1996 comedy Swingers.

Though the restaurant’s rear awning was covered over to read “Dresden” in the scene . . .

. . . Musso and Frank’s parking lot signage was still visible.

The eatery’s parking lot also appeared in the 2003 comedy Hollywood Homicide.

Musso and Frank was featured twice in 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven. It is first where Danny Ocean (George Clooney) tells Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) about his plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos.

Later in the movie, the two discuss whether or not to bring on an eleventh person while sitting at Musso’s bar.

Musso and Frank is where the Diablo Cartel, Tanaka Yakuza, the Antonioni Crime Family and Seamus O’Grady (Justin Theroux) hand over briefcases full of cash in 2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

The restaurant popped up several times on the television series Mad Men. It was featured twice in Season 1’s “Red in the Face.” In the beginning of the episode, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) have drinks at Musso’s before heading to Don’s house for dinner.

Later in the episode, the two return to eat oysters at Musso’s.

Musso and Frank masked as Sardi’s, where Don grabbed a bite with Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw), in Season 2’s “The New Girl.”

It was also used twice in the Season 4 episode titled “The Rejected.” It first popped up as the spot where Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) found out from Tom Vogel (Joe O’Connor) that his wife was pregnant.

Later in the episode, it masked as Jim Downey’s Steak House, where Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton) confronted Pete about calling him an “all-American idiot who fell into everything.”

In the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “Nerdy Little Secrets,” Marla Templeton (Sally Kellerman) told Annie Wilson (Shenae Grimes) about her life in Hollywood while dining at Musso and Frank.

Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) celebrated his birthday at Musso and Frank with Ivan Schrank (Rhys Ifans) and Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig) in the 2010 drama Greenberg.

In the scene, Greta is wearing a Henry’s Taco’s t-shirt. Henry’s is another historic Los Angeles eatery that I blogged about here.

Musso’s has appeared on the television series Scandal no less than three times as Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and her father Eli Pope’s (Joe Morton) go-to restaurant. In the Season 3 episode titled “The Fluffer,” the two get a surprise – and unwelcome – visit from Maya Lewis (Khandi Alexander) while eating dinner at Musso and Frank.

Olivia and her father returned to Musso and Frank in the Season 4 episode titled “Randy, Red, Superfreak and Julia.” It is there that Olivia asks Eli if he had anything to do with Harrison Wright’s (Columbus Short) death.

Father and daughter share a meal at the restaurant once again in the Season 5 episode titled “It’s Hard Out Here for a General,” during which Eli scolds Olivia for breaking up with the president when she “had the Oval.”

In the Season 1 episode of Bosch titled “Chapter 1 – Tis the Season,” Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) and Julia Brasher (Annie Wersching) get drinks at Musso and Frank.

Musso and Frank Grill is honestly one of the coolest restaurants L.A. has to offer and I cannot more highly recommend a visit!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Musso and Frank Grill is located at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the establishment’s official website here.

April 21, 2015October 5, 2015

Hatfield’s Restaurant from “Chef”

Today’s location is a bit of a bummer, I’m afraid. Ever since seeing the movie Chef (one of my favorites of 2014), I was itching to stalk Hatfield’s restaurant, which appeared quite extensively throughout the flick. So when I discovered that it had recently closed, I was devastated. But I ventured on over to see the exterior of it in person, nonetheless, while I was in L.A. a few weeks ago.

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Hatfield’s restaurant was established by Karen and Quinn Hatfield in 2006. The fine dining eatery was originally located in a small space on Beverly Boulevard, but moved to 6703 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood in 2010.

The Melrose Avenue space had housed a restaurant named Citrus until 2001 and then went through a succession of different occupants, including Alex, Meson G, and Red Pearl Kitchen. When the Hatfields leased the site, they remodeled the interior, creating an open space filled with bright white accents. While I was hoping to get a peek of that interior via the front windows, due to the way the restaurant is set up, not much was visible, unfortunately.

For reasons that were not specified, Hatfield’s closed its doors in December 2014 and the property that once housed it currently sits vacant. Karen and Quinn have since opened Odys & Penelope Churrasco and Grill in the Fairfax district and they still operate The Sycamore Kitchen in that same neighborhood, as well.

In Chef, Hatfield’s masked as the Gaellic-style Brentwood eatery named Gauloises where Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) worked.

I fell in love with the restaurant’s open kitchen while watching Chef and was dying to stalk – and photograph – it. A place like that is just screaming to be photographed! I sincerely hope that whoever takes over the space leaves its design intact.

According to a May 2014 Eater LA interview with Favreau, who wrote, produced, directed and starred in Chef, the kitchen is what made him choose the site for filming. He says, “Cinematically it was wonderful. When you build a restaurant on a stage for a Hollywood film it looks so perfect. This one had a beauty to it and was very well laid out. I loved how the front and back of the house you could see the open kitchen – you could see in – that was fun for the cameraman. Kitchens aren’t usually aesthetically pleasing places in reality; they’re generally hot and crowded. The visual aspect of it isn’t a priority. This one is.”

The culinary scenes in Chef are absolutely beautiful – and not just because of the design of Hatfield’s kitchen. Eater LA characterizes the sequences as “food porn” and that’s a pretty accurate description. Roy Choi, the chef behind the immensely popular Korean taco food truck fleet Kogi, consulted on the movie. According to Jon, before coming onboard Choi said, “’I’ll do it but you have to get the kitchen right. Movies always get it wrong. I’ll do everything you need. I’ll train you, do the menus, look over your scripts, help you in the editing room. Whatever you want. But you have to promise you’ll get the details right.’ I said that’s all I ever want to do. That’s the way I work. That’s exactly what I had in mind as well.” Favreau even attended a French culinary school and worked in some of Choi’s restaurants prior to filming, which becomes obvious while watching the flick. Favreau’s hands move like an artist when handling his dishes. Check out this grilled cheese-making scene and you’ll see what I mean. Just make sure you have some sliced sourdough and cheddar on hand ‘cause cravings are sure to follow!

Hatfield’s was also where Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) sat through a terse staged lunch in the Season 3 episode of Scandal titled “Ride, Sally, Ride.”

The space also masks as Jimmy’s, the restaurant belonging to Jimmy Martino (John Stamos), in the new Fox series Grandfathered. The interior of the eatery . . .

. . . and the kitchen area are featured on the show.

Exterior filming, though, takes place at Faith & Flower, located in The Watermarke Tower at 705 West 9th Street in downtown Los Angeles. That same building is also where Jimmy lives on the show.

During the space’s stint as Meson G (which you can check out some photographs of here), it masked as New York restaurant Nolita for the pilot episode of the 2005 television series Kitchen Confidential. I had never heard of the show, which was created by Darren Starr and starred cuties Bradley Cooper and Owain Yeoman, prior to doing research for this post, but it looks great! You can check it out for free on Hulu.

Thanks to my friend Molly, from the fabulous DIY/lifestyle website Almost Makes Perfect, I learned that David Boreanaz was punked at Meson G during Season 6 of Punk’d.

In 2008, when the site housed Red Pearl Kitchen, it appeared in the Season 4 episode of The Hills titled “We’ll Never Be Friends” as the spot where Doug Reinhardt took Lauren Conrad on a date.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hatfield’s restaurant, from Chef, was formerly located at 6703 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. The space is currently closed and awaiting a new tenant.

January 15, 2015January 8, 2015

My Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – About Beso from “Gone Girl”

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post here – about Beso restaurant from Gone Girl. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

September 4, 2014August 28, 2014

Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – About Diane’s House from “Back to School”

Be sure to check out my latest Scene It Before post – about Sally Kellerman’s house from Back to School – on LAMag.com. My columns typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

July 28, 2014July 25, 2014

Bowfinger International Pictures from “Bowfinger”

I am a sucker for any movie about Los Angeles. Coincidentally (or perhaps no so coincidentally), Steve Martin has written and starred in two of my favorites – L.A. Story and Bowfinger. Two completely different takes on life in LaLaLand, but both equally valid and poignant. Because I originally moved to Southern California to pursue an acting career, Bowfinger really hit home for me. Especially the scene in which wannabe actress Daisy (Heather Graham) jumped off the bus that transported her from Ohio to Hollywood, suitcase in hand, and asked of random passersby, “Where do I go to be an actress?” That was so me when I moved to SoCal – bright-eyed, full of dreams and so, so naïve. Who am I kidding, that is still so me – the dreams have just shifted a bit. So when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me years back that he had tracked down the bungalow that served as both the residence of Robert K. Bowfinger (Martin) and the headquarters of Bowfinger International Pictures in the flick, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list. Somehow, though, I did not make it over there until a couple of weeks ago.

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Sadly, the house has changed considerably since filming took place. While the columned portico stationed around the front door was a set piece added for the filming and never an actual fixture of the property, the front door itself used to be in the same spot it was shown to be in Bowfinger, but has since been moved.

Mike took some photographs of the residence a couple of years ago and, as you can see, the location of the front door at that time matched what appeared onscreen. You can check out some other pictures of what the front door originally looked like here and here.

The door has since been covered over and moved to the side of the dwelling, as you can see in the image below (which I got off of the Yelp page for the FunHouse 420 Café and Lounge which was formerly housed in the bungalow).

Oddly enough, though, while taking a closer look at Bowfinger I noticed that an opening in that area was visible, so it seems that the home used to have two front doors.

Despite the front door alteration, the dwelling is still recognizable from the movie.

The area surrounding it is not, though. While the neighborhood used to be chock full of bungalows and apartment buildings, it now consists mainly of parking lots. The Bowfinger house is pretty much the only home in the vicinity still standing. And, sadly, it does not look like it will remain so for long. The land the residence is located on is currently being offered for sale (for $5million!) for the purpose of building a high-tech storage facility.

I am fairly certain that the interior of Bowfinger International Pictures was a set and not the bungalow’s actual interior, which you can see some photographs of here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for loaning me the picture that appears in this post! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Bowfinger International Pictures from Bowfinger is located at 1621 Vista Del Mar Avenue in Hollywood.