Jamie Lee Curtis filming locations

Back in November 2010, a fellow stalker named Clayton wrote a comment on my post about Fair Oaks Pharmacy from Mr. Deeds (which you can read here) alerting me that fave movie Little Black Book and the 1985 classic Back to the Future had also done some filming at the 50s-style soda fountain. And while he was actually wrong on both counts, his comment led me to the discovery that part of the opening sequence from Little Black Book had been filmed just down the road from Fair Oaks Pharmacy, at three different locations along South Pasadena’s picturesque Mission Street. So I ran right out to stalk them. For whatever reason, though, I completely forgot about writing the spots up for a blog post until a couple of weeks ago when I got on my kick of tracking down the remainder of the locales from the flick. Better late than never, though, right?

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Mission Street first popped up in Little Black Book’s opening scene (which was also featured at the end of the movie), in which Stacy (Brittany Murphy) is shown crying, while listening to Carly Simon and blocking what is supposed to be New Jersey city traffic, in her bright yellow Volkswagen bug.

That scene actually took place in front of Ellen’s Silkscreening on the corner of Mission Street and Mound Avenue. As you can see below, a few fake street signs were added for the shoot, but otherwise the location looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

Mission Street pops up again just a few minutes later in Little Black Book’s opening montage in which Stacy is shown falling in love with her new boyfriend, Derek (Ron Livingston). In one of the montage scenes, the couple goofs around in a store window, making it appear as if they can fly.

That sequence took place in the doorway of Space Arts Center, just a few storefronts east of Ellen’s Silkscreening. I absolutely LOVE that the little bulletin board visible behind Stacy and Derek in the scene is there in real life, albeit in a different color.

Had to do it. Smile

Later in the montage, Stacy and Derek are shown walking Derek’s dog, Bob, in front of a large brick building, also supposedly located in New Jersey.

In reality, that building is the former Mission Arroyo Hotel, located about four blocks west of Space Arts Center. The 1923 structure no longer serves as a hotel, but is a commercial space comprised of offices and shops.

That same building masqueraded as the supposed Haddonfield, Illinois-area Nicol’s Hardware store, where Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis) ran into Annie’s father, Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers), while he was investigating the robbery of “some Halloween mask, a rope and a couple of knives” in the 1978 classic horror film Halloween.

As you can see below, the building hasn’t changed much over the years.

The former Mission Arroyo Hotel can also be seen in the background of the 2008 comedy Step Brothers, in the scene in which Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly), after a failed job interview, realize that their destiny is to start an entertainment company.

And although the camera was facing the opposite direction and the Mission Arroyo Hotel can’t actually be seen, it was at that same intersection that an adult Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) dissed her childhood crush, Chris Grandy (Jim Gaffigan), in all-time favorite movie 13 Going on 30. You can read my November 2007 post about that location here.

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Clayton whose comment led me to find this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: In the beginning and end of Little Black Book, Stacy’s car is parked in front of Ellen’s Silkscreening, which is located at 1500 Mission Street in South Pasadena. The “flying” window from the movie’s opening montage is the doorway to Space Arts Center at 1506 Mission Street. Later in the montage, Stacy and Derek walk past what is now WOD Gear Clothing Company at the former Mission Arroyo Hotel, which is located at 956 Mission Street. Nicol’s Hardware from Halloween is now Radhika Modern Indian restaurant at 966 Mission Street, also a part of the former Mission Arroyo Hotel. The Mr. Deeds soda fountain, aka Fair Oaks Pharmacy, is located at 1526 Mission Street. And the hardware store from Teen Wolf can be found at 1518 Mission Street, but I have yet to blog about that particular locale.

A couple of months ago, fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, clued me into an INCREDIBLY cool little bit of Haunted Hollywood stalking information that I had not been previously aware of. Apparently, the real life owners of the home that stood in for the Strode residence in the 1978 classic horror film Halloween are so extremely stalker-friendly that they provide a supply of plastic pumpkins on their front porch all year long for fans of the movie to pose with in photographs. Well, as you can imagine, I was absolutely bowled over with excitement upon hearing this news and decided that, even though I had previously stalked the Strode house and blogged about it briefly way back in October of 2008, that it was most-definitely worthy of a re-visit. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to South Pasadena to do just that this past weekend.

And, sure enough, as soon as we arrived at the home, I spotted an assortment of plastic foam pumpkins sitting on a chair on the property’s front porch, along with a framed sign.

That sign reads, “Yes this is the scene with Jamie Lee Curtis from the 1978 Halloween. You may borrow the pumpkin. Have a good time.”

The sign also includes a still from the movie so that fans can refer to it while posing on the front walkway. How incredibly cool are these homeowners??? Big, huge, Andre-the-Giant-sized props go out to them for embracing the cinematic history of their residence and allowing stalkers to share in some of the fun. If I owned a famous movie home, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be doing this same, exact thing. LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

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The supposed-Haddonfield, Illinois Strode residence was featured several times in Halloween. It first appeared in the beginning of the movie in the scene in which Laurie Strode (aka Jamie Lee Curtis) is reminded by her father, Morgan Strode (aka Peter Griffith), to drop a key off at the “Meyer’s place”. According to the fabulous website The Cabinet, that particular scene was the very first of the entire movie to be shot. And according to IMDB’s Halloween trivia page, director John Carpenter hired Jamie Lee Curtis, in what was her very first movie role, as a sort-of nod to Alfred Hitchcock who had cast Jamie’s mother, Janet Leigh, in the iconic role of Marion Crane in Psycho. In another homage to the legendary Hitchcock classic, Carpenter also named the character of Michael Meyer’s psychiatrist “Sam Loomis” after Marion’s lover in Psycho.

The Strode residence next shows up in the scene in which Laurie returns home from school, after having been accidentally scared by Sherriff Leigh Bracken (aka Charles Cyphers).

And finally, it appears in the scene in which Laurie waits, pumpkin in hand, to be picked up by her friend Annie Brackett (aka Nancy Kyes) to go baby-sitting.

It is that scene that the homeowners allow you to recreate with their fake pumpkins. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Amazingly, the Strode residence looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did in 1978 when Halloween was filmed. The north-facing side of the house is the area that appeared in the movie.

For whatever reason, the east-facing side, which is pictured above, was not seen in Halloween. According to fave website Zillow, in real life the property is not a single-family home, but a multi-occupancy dwelling which features three separate units.

And while I cannot say for certain that the home’s actual interior was used in the filming, I am guessing that it was.

On a very random side-note – while doing some research on Halloween earlier today, I almost fell off my chair upon discovering that Kyle Richards (star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, whom I loathe more than there are words in the English language to express – I honestly do not think there has ever been a bigger b*tch in the history of reality television, but I digress) had played Lindsey Wallace, the little girl whom Annie babysat, in the 1978 flick.

And on a Halloween side-note – as the GC and I were driving away from the Strode residence, we spotted a house that was decorated beyond belief for the upcoming holiday!

As you can see above, the amount of detail that went into the embellishment of the home is utterly incredible!

I was shocked to discover that the fence which runs along the perimeter of the property and reads “cemetery” above the gate was actually just a prop! I mean, I, of course, realized the “cemetery” part was decoration, but the entire fence? WOW!

And it was not until I was about to leave that I realized the home’s brick façade was also just a decoration! As you can see in the above photograph, the entire front of the residence has been wrapped in some sort of plastic covering. Talk about going all out!!! If I ever have a house, you better believe that this is what it is going to look like every year come Halloween! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Laurie Strode’s house from the original Halloween movie is located at 1115 Oxley Street in South Pasadena. The massively-decorated-for-Halloween home that we stumbled upon is located right around the corner at 1130 Diamond Avenue in South Pasadena.

Tag: Jamie Lee Curtis filming locations

Mission Street from “Little Black Book”

Laurie Strode’s House from “Halloween”