Be sure to head over to LAMag.com today to read my latest Scene It Before post – about Edge City Savings & Loan from The Mask. My columns typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
The “Bruce Almighty” Party House
Last week while going through the glove compartment of my car, I came across the Scott’s L.A. Audio Tour of Pasadena CD that I had purchased about seven years prior. For those who have never heard of Scott’s L.A., the family-owned company produces a series of audio driving tours of the Southern California area, all of which feature numerous famous locations, including quite a few that have appeared in movies and on television. Since I had not listened to the CD in years, I decided to spend a couple of hours re-taking the tour. And I am so glad that I did because there were a few locales mentioned on it that I had completely forgotten about, the most important of which was the party house from the 2003 movie Bruce Almighty. And even though I was not at all a fan of Bruce Almighty, because my girl Jen had filmed a scene at the house, I figured it was most-definitely stalk- and blog-worthy.
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In real life, the Bruce Almighty party mansion is known as the Stern House and it was originally built in 1938 by architects Garrett Van Pelt and Robert E. Alexander. The Mediterranean-style property, which sits on 0.83 acres of land, boasts 7 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, and 7,146 square feet of living space. And even though the residence has a name and seems to be historic in some way, surprisingly I could not find any other information about it online.
In Bruce Almighty, the Channel 7 news team throws Bruce Nolan (aka Jim Carrey) a party at the supposed Vanderbilt Estate in New York in honor of his recent promotion. When Bruce’s girlfriend Grace Connelly (aka Jennifer Aniston) shows up at the party, she catches him kissing his co-anchor Susan Ortega (aka Catherine Bell) and a fight ensues out in front of the mansion.
And while I could not find any photographs of the inside of the property to verify this, I am fairly certain that a different residence was used to film the interior party scenes.
Ironically enough, while scanning through Bruce Almighty yesterday to make screen captures for this post, I noticed that the house belonging to Debbie (aka Lisa Ann Walter) in the flick is the very same property where the Simpson family lived in fave movie She’s Out of Control, which I stalked this past May.
I also came across this super-cute photograph on IMDB of my girl Jen and Bruce Almighty director Tom Shadyac which was taken out in front of the She’s Out of Control house. Love it!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Bruce Almighty party house is located at 1395 Ridge Way in Pasadena. You can visit the Scott’s L.A. website and purchase the company’s various tour CDs here.
Monrovia Bakery from the New “Iceland” Pilot
During this entire past week, the television pilot for the new Fox comedy series Iceland, which stars Scrubs’ Kerry Bishe, Friday Night Lights’ Zach Gilford, and 24’s John Boyd, has been filming on location on Myrtle Avenue in Old Town Monrovia, just down the street from where my parents now live. The show, which takes place in a supposed small town in Minnesota, centers around a young woman (Bishe) whose fiancé dies suddenly shortly before their wedding day – and yes, despite its tragic-sounding premise, the series is being pitched as a comedy. So I, of course, asked my parents to keep tabs for me on what was going on – and to take lots of photographs of the filming, which my dad has been doing on a pretty much daily basis. My mom had also heard that some filming would be taking place at the Monrovia Bakery, which is located at 506 South Myrtle Avenue, this past Wednesday, so I ventured on over there on Wednesday morning to do some stalking of the set.
Sadly though, the shoot at the Monrovia Bakery was not scheduled to take place until the evening hours and most of the cast and crew was filming at an apartment building located a few miles away when I showed up to stalk the set. The day was not entirely lost, though, as I did get to speak with the SUPER nice owner of the bakery, which has remarkably been in business since 1900!, who filled me in on all of the filming that has taken place in her shop over the years.
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I was extremely excited to hear that in the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “Seven Twenty Three”, the Monrovia Bakery stood in for the supposed Ossining, New York-area Swenson’s Bakery where Betty Draper (aka January Jones) met Henry Francis (aka Christopher Stanley) to discuss saving the local Pleasantville Road Reservoir. Both the interior . . .
. . . and the exterior of Monrovia Bakery were featured in the episode.
After leaving the bakery, Betty and Henry walk by Wentworth’s Furniture Store, where Henry spots a “fainting chair” in the window and suggests that Betty should purchase it.
In real life Wentworth’s Furniture Store is the Irish Gardener gift boutique located right next door to Monrovia Bakery.
In 1992’s Beethoven, Monrovia Bakery was the neighborhood bake shop where Beethoven the dog stopped to pick up a free bear claw.
For the 2007 Jim Carrey movie The Number 23, producers transformed Monrovia Bakery into a model train shop while, in an odd twist, the nail shop next door was transformed into a . . . you guessed it, bakery! Apparently, Monrovia Bakery did not have the exact look that producers desired for the shoot and they felt that they would be better able to redress the nail shop than redecorate the real life bakery into the image that they wanted. So, a false rear wall was constructed inside of the nail shop and a myriad of bakery cases and bakery equipment was brought in for the filming, when all the while all of those exact same things could be found already in place right next door! I will never understand production decisions like that, I swear! 
Monrovia Bakery was also featured in the 1988 made-for-TV movie Rock ‘n’ Roll Mom and in a television pilot starring That ‘70s Show’s Laura Prepon that was, unfortunately, never picked up.
While we were stalking the bakery, some set dressers came to start preparing the premises for filming, which included putting up the above-pictured “Ellie’s Bakery” sign over Monrovia Bakery’s real life front awning. So incredibly cool!
Pictured above are some photographs that my dad took this past Monday afternoon during the filming of Iceland. The shoot took place in front of the Monrovia Library and involved a wedding scene of some sort. From what the owner of the Monrovia Bakery told me, in the pilot of Iceland, Kerry Bishe’s character decides to go on with her wedding, even though her fiancé has just recently passed away. I believe that is the scene they were filming above.
Stars Kerry Bishe, Jack Gilford, and John Boyd were all on set on Monday.
And my dad managed to snap some great shots of both Kerry . . .
. . . and Zach. I sent the pictures over to my friend Christine at fave website OnLocationVacations on Monday afternoon and after she looked at them she said that my dad should seriously consider becoming a paparazzi! Love it! 
On a Kerry Bishe side note – In one of the actress’ very first film roles, she portrayed the twenty-something woman shown looking into a department store window while Carrie Bradshaw (aka Sarah Jessica Parker) says in one of her famous voiceovers, “Year after year, twenty-something women come to New York City in search of the two L’s – Labels and Love” in the opening scene of Sex and the City: The Movie. So incredibly cool!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! “
Stalk It: Monrovia Bakery, from the new Iceland pilot and the “Seven Twenty Three” episode of Mad Men, is located at 506 South Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia. The Irish Gardener, aka Wentworth Furniture Store from Mad Men, is located next door at 504 South Myrtle Avenue.
The Little Door Restaurant from “Monster-in-Law”
One restaurant that I have long wanted to stalk, but could just never seem to find was the adorable little outdoor courtyard spot where Kevin Fields (aka Michael Vartan), his mother, Viola Fields (aka Jane Fonda), and his new fiancé, Charlie Cantilini (aka Jennifer Lopez), lunched towards the end of the 2005 romantic comedy Monster-in-Law. Then, as fate would have it, back in September while trying to track down the French restaurant where Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty) and Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling) accidentally ate veal brains during Season 2 of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210, I came across the website for The Little Door on West 3rd in Los Angeles and immediately recognized it as the restaurant from Monster-in-Law. I added the spot to my “To-Stalk” list and the Grim Cheaper and I finally headed out there this past Saturday night to grab some cocktails. And I have to say the place was AMAZING!
The Little Door, which was opened in 1996 by French-born brothers Frederic and Nicolas Meschin, is easily one of the most adorable restaurants I have ever had the pleasure of dining at. The property, which is actually a converted former schoolhouse, is made up of four different dining areas: the Blue Room, the Winter Garden, the Patio, and the Piano Room. The most popular area, and the area where Monster-in-Law was filmed, is the Patio, a romantic garden setting complete with trees, trickling fountains, twinkle lights, and a retractable glass roof that is opened during the summer months. (The room is also very dimly-lit, which is why the above photographs came out so poorly.) The Little Door has been named “Most Romantic Restaurant of L.A.” and it is not very hard to see why. It is easily one of the romantic places I have ever visited. The staff was also incredibly NICE and lacked any sort of that fancy-L.A.-restaurant-type snootiness. In fact, the bartender and I talked non-stop about celebrities while we were there, which was refreshing as many servers in L.A. try to act like they are above the whole Hollywood thing, when in reality over 90% of them are actors. 
And while the eatery is on the pricier side, the food is absolutely FABULOUS and I honestly cannot recommend stalking the place enough!
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In Monster-in-Law, Charlie, Viola,and Kevin meet up for lunch in the Patio area of The Little Door whereupon Charlie finally turns the tables on her soon-to-be horrendous mother-in-law Viola and announces “It’s my game now!”
The Little Door was also featured in the Season 2 episode of Entourage titled “The Abyss”, in the scene in which Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly) and Sloane McQuewick (aka Emmanuelle Chriqui) discuss the fact that Vinnie Chase (aka Adrian Grenier) no longer wants to be in the movie Aquaman.
Besides being a filming location, the restaurant is also a big-time celebrity hotspot. Just a few of the stars who have dined there recently include Russell Brand, Katy Perry, Jim Carrey, Britney Spears, Gary Oldman, Scott Weiland, Mark McGrath, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Reynolds, Eva Longoria, Tony Parker, Jay-Z, Jessica Alba, Christina Aguilera, Posh Spice, David Beckham, Lisa Marie Presley, Pink, Tara Reid, Salma Hayek, Nigel Lythgoe, and Paris Hilton. The list literally goes on and on! In fact, the GC and I spotted Dennis Haysbert, who played President David Palmer on the hit television series 24, having a quiet dinner while we were there. So incredibly cool!
While we were dining, our bartender informed us that an episode of Entourage had also been filmed next door at the Little Door’s sister restaurant, Little Next Door. So, after we finished eating, we ran right over to stalk the place. Little Next Door, which is a full-service restaurant as well as a bakery and a café, is an absolutely adorable little spot and is already on my list of places that I need to re-stalk in the very near future.
Little Next Door popped up in the Season 4 episode of Entourage titled “No Cannes Do” in the scene in which Eric and Vinnie have a production meeting with independent film director Billy Walsh (aka Rhys Coiro) and actress Anna Faris, who played herself on the series.
Little Next Door is also a celebrity hotspot and such stars as Rachel Bilson, Lo Bosworth, Tyra Banks, Jessica Biel, Audrina Patridge, Michelle Trachtenberg, Ali Larter, and Isabel Lucas have all been spotted there.
On a side note – Ever since seeing Blair Waldorf (aka Leighton Meester) gorging herself on macarons in the Season 4 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Juliet Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, I have been dying to find a bakery that sells the tiny French cookies so that I could sample some for myself.
So, when I saw a myriad of them on display in the bakery case at Little Next Door, I just had to purchase a boxful. And, let me tell you, they were simply AMAZING! Like the best cookies I have ever had in my entire life! Macarons, which consist of flavored ganache sandwiched between two almond meringue cookies and are not to be confused with the similarly-named macaroons that are made out of coconut, are light, airy, flavorful and literally melt in your mouth! It is no wonder that Blair Waldorf is obsessed with them! Because I am diabetic, I only sampled a bite of both the chocolate and Dulce de Leche-flavored macarons, but the Grim Cheaper tried a few of the other flavors and absolutely LOVED them all! The cookies aren’t sold in many places in L.A. that I have found, but let me tell you, if you can get your hands on some, you simply must try them!!!!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Little Door restaurant, from Monster-in-Law and “The Abyss” episode of Entourage, is located at 8164 West 3rd Street in Los Angeles. Contrary to what was shown on Entourage and in Monster-in-Law, the eatery does not serve lunch, but is only open for dinner beginning at 6 p.m. nightly. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Little Next Door, from the “No Cannes Do” episode of Entourage, is located at 8142 West 3rd Street and is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Griffith Observatory
A couple of months ago I dragged my parents and my then-fiancé/now husband out to Los Feliz to do some stalking of the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park – a place which I had never before visited despite having lived in Los Angeles for over a decade. I had actually wanted to stalk the Observatory for close to 18 years – ever since November of 1992, to be exact – thanks to the fact that it was featured in a Season 3 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. But more on that later.
The land that now encompasses Griffith Park was donated to the City of Los Angeles by Welsh industrialist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith (and no, that was not a typo – the guy’s first name was actually the same as his last!) on December 16, 1896. Griffith stipulated that the donated parcel of land, which measured 3,015 acres, was to be used as a public park. He said, “It must be made a place of rest and relaxation for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people. I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happy, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered.” When Griffith passed away 26 years later, in 1919, he bequeathed the majority of his $1.5 million estate to the city for the purposes of building a theatre and an observatory inside of the park. Construction on the observatory, which was designed by architect John C. Austin and engineer Russell W. Porter, began on June 20th, 1933 and the building opened to the public just under two years later, on May 14, 1935.
The Griffith Observatory, which sits high atop Mount Hollywood, features a 300-seat state-of-the-art planetarium, a 2,700-square foot multimedia theatre, a Zeiss refracting telescope, an exhibit hall, and, as you can see above, views which are nothing short of incredible.
Hollywood location scouts took notice of the property right from the very beginning when it was chosen to appear in the 1935 movie The Phantom Empire shortly after its opening. Since that time, the Observatory has been featured in hundreds upon hundreds of productions – far too many for me to be able to properly catalog here, but I’ll do my best to give my fellow stalkers a broad overview.
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As I mentioned above, the Observatory was featured in a Season 3 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. That episode was titled “Rebel With A Cause” and it was, ironically enough, one of my least favorite episodes in the entire history of the series. The episode centers around the break-up of longtime couple Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry) and Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty), immediately after which Dylan puts the moves on Brenda’s best friend Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth). Mind you, Dylan and Kelly had also been seeing each other behind Brenda’s back for an entire summer at that point in the series. Dylan then decides to take Kelly out on a date – just two nights after his break-up with Brenda! – and when Brenda randomly catches the two of them together in a restaurant, she calls Kelly a “bimbo” and Kelly actually has the nerve to be mad at Brenda. I mean, HELLO, Kelly! Not only did you spend an entire summer making out with your BEST FRIEND’S boyfriend, but when said best friend and said boyfriend break-up, it’s not 48 hours later that you are out on a date with him. With friends like that, who needs enemies?? Let me tell you, had that happened to me, I would have been calling Kelly a whole lot worse things than “bimbo”. And yes, I realize Beverly Hills, 90210 is just a television show and that the “Rebel With A Cause” episode aired almost two decades ago, but the whole thing still seriously upsets me! But I digress. Anyway, in the episode, before taking her out to dinner, Dylan brings Kelly to the Griffith Observatory, where they watch a show in the planetarium.
After the show, the two little home-wreckers head outside for a heart-to-heart chat and, even though I was strongly opposed to the whole Kelly/Dylan romance, for whatever reason, it was the location of that chat that I was most interested in stalking.
I had a very difficult time locating the wall where Dylan and Kelly sat, though, as it is not in an easily-visible part of the building. It actually wasn’t until we were heading back to our car that I finally spotted the right place.
As it turns out, Kelly and Dylan’s wall is located in the eastern-most section of the Observatory. It is actually the wall to a ramp which leads to the back of the building and is located on the left-hand side of the Observatory (as you are facing it) and is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view.
The Observatory’s most famous onscreen appearance was, of course, in the 1955 James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause, which, amazingly enough, I have never actually seen! In the beginning of the flick, Jim (aka James Dean) and Judy (aka Natalie Wood), along with the rest of their high school class, go on a field trip to the Observatory where they watch a show in the planetarium.
And the very same wall from 90210 also appears in that scene.
Rebel’s final scene also takes place at the Observatory, but I do not want to post any screen caps of that scene as they would spoil the ending.
There is a statue of James Dean on display on the Observatory’s front lawn which commemorates the historic filming that took place there in 1955. So darn cool!
Griffith Observatory was also the site of the climatic scene in 1999’s hilarious comedy Bowfinger, in which renegade, wanna-be movie director Bowfinger (aka Steve Martin) and his ragamuffin film crew secretly tape Daisy (aka Heather Graham) and Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy) fighting off a fictitious band of aliens.
In the first Transformers movie, Mikaela Banes (aka Megan Fox) and Sam Witwicky (aka Shia LaBeouf) are at the Observatory when they witness a group of Transformers crash landing on earth in the form of meteorites.
In The Terminator, the Observatory is the spot where the Terminator (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) first emerges from a time warp and begins his mission to kill Sarah Conner (aka Linda Hamilton).
In 2008’s Yes Man, the Observatory is the location of Allison’s (aka Zooey Deschanel’s) weekly jogging/photo class, during which Carl (aka Jim Carrey) crashes after drinking waaaaaaay too many Red Bull energy drinks.
It is also where Carl professes his love to Allison at the very end of the movie.
And it is during that ending scene that Carl and Allison run right by the exact spot where Beverly Hills, 90210 was filmed 16 years beforehand. 🙂
The scene in which Natalie Cook (aka Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (aka Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (aka Lucy Liu) discover that Madison Lee (aka Demi Moore) is actually a fallen angel in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle takes place at the Observatory.
The observatory was also featured in the music video for Paula Abdul’s hit single “Rush Rush”, which was an homage to the movie Rebel Without a Cause.
You can watch the full video, which starred Keanu Reeves, by clicking above.
Griffith Observatory has also appeared in the movies Dragnet, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Rocketeer, House on Haunted Hill, Nancy Drew, and Earth Girls are Easy, and in episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, 24, Star Trek Voyager, Alias, MacGyver, Melrose Place, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Colbys.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Griffith Observatory is located at 2800 East Observatory Road, inside of Griffith Park, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. You can visit the observatory’s official website here. Admission is free. The observatory is closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The “13 Going On 30” Thriller Dance Location
A few months ago, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen in tracking down the location from fave movie 13 Going On 30 where Jenna Rink (aka Jennifer Garner) saved the Poise Magazine party by performing her rendition of the Zombie Dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, which, not surprisingly, just so happens to be my very favorite scene in the flick. From the beginning, I was absolutely convinced that the “Thriller” scene had been filmed in a building located somewhere in New York, but Owen had a hunch that it had actually taken place right here in Los Angeles. And, as usual, Owen was right. After doing a bit of cyber-stalking, he somehow managed to track down one of the movie’s location managers who told him that Jenna’s “Thriller” dance had actually been performed inside of an oft-used filming location in Downtown Los Angeles, one that I am ashamed to admit I was already very familiar with – the former Bank of American building located on the corner of 7th and South Spring Streets. The building has been used in COUNTLESS productions over the years, but I am sad to say that, for whatever reason, I somehow failed to recognize it.
Being that the former bank’s big ol’ safe is clearly visible in the background of the “Thriller” scene, I really should have figured this one out. Man, I’m such a blonde sometimes!
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Once Owen had tracked down the location for me, I put the former bank building on my very long “To-Stalk” list and finally managed to visit the place in person while out doing some stalking in the Downtown Los Angeles area a couple of weeks ago. The Spring Street Tower, as it is sometimes called, which was built in 1912 by the architectural firm of Schultze and Weaver, served as the Los Angeles headquarters for the Bank of America Corporation from 1930 to 1972. After Bank of America vacated the twelve story high Beaux Arts style building, the upper floors served as offices for various companies throughout the years, while the marble clad lobby became an extremely popular filming location. In recent years, SB Properties, a building development company, took over the building and converted the former offices into lofts. And while the lobby area still looks much the same as it did during the time when it was operating as a bank, there are currently plans in the works for a restaurant and club to open up in that space, which is both good news and bad news. Bad news because I am guessing that once the space becomes a restaurant, it will cease to be a filming location and will most likely be heavily remodeled and good news because if it does eventually become a restaurant that means that someday in the near future I will be able to stalk the area where Jennifer Garner danced, a place which is currently off limits to the public. YAY! 🙂
When we first arrived to stalk the former Bank of America building, I did not actually have high hopes that I would be able to see any of the interior. So, let me tell you, I just about passed out from excitement when I discovered that the lobby area, where the “Thriller” dance scene took place, was thoroughly visible through the former bank’s front windows. From the windows you can see the vault;
the main staircase;
the second floor balcony;
and several of the wood-paneled main offices. You can also see some fabulous interior photographs of the bank building here.
In 13 Going On 30, the former Bank of America building was the location of the Poise Magazine “Girls Night Out” party, during which Jenna’s boss, Richard (aka Andy Serkis) complains that the guests are leaving far too early and if someone doesn’t do something to liven up the joint – and quick – then the entire magazine might go down the drain. So, Jenna immediately heads over to the DJ booth where she requests Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and then proceeds to lead the entire party in the famous Zombie Dance. Oh, how I would love to do that dance at my wedding! 😉
So I, of course, just had to imitate Jenna doing the “Thriller” dance while I was at the building. 🙂 I think it goes without saying that my fiancé was HIGHLY embarrassed while taking the above photographs of me.
The former bank is also where Robbie (aka Adam Sandler) tries to get a job to impress Julia (aka Drew Barrymore) in 1998’s The Wedding Singer. When the bank’s manager, who was played by Kevin Nealon, turns him down, Robbie says, “You don’t even have to give me the job. If you could just give me some business cards with my name on it, I think that might help. How ‘bout this – I’ll give you ten singing lessons for one business card. Please?” LOL
In 1995’s Se7en, the bank building was dressed to look like a library and appeared in the scene in which Detective Lt. William Somerset (aka Morgan Freeman) researches the Seven Deadly Sins.
In L.A. Story, the bank stood in for the Fourth Reich Bank of Hamburg where Steve Martin is forced to show his financial records to the owner of the impossible-to-get-into L’Idiot Restaurant in order to secure a dinner reservation there.
In 1994’s The Mask, the bank was used as Edge City Savings and Loan where Stanley Ipkiss (aka Jim Carrey) worked.
In Spiderman 2, the bank appeared up as the spot where Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) takes his Aunt May (aka Rosemary Harris) to apply for a loan from a bank teller played by none other than The Soup’s Joel McHale. 🙂 While the two are in the bank, Doc Ock shows up to rob the place and almost succeeds until Spiderman steps in and, of course, saves the day.
In Ghost, the bank was used as the place where Sam Wheat (aka Patrick Swayze) takes Oda Mae Brown (aka Whoopi Goldberg) to fill out a signature card under the false name of Rita Miller.
In Blow, the former Bank of America building stood in for the Bank of Panama in one very brief scene.
In The Prestige, the building shows up twice. First, the bank lobby appeared as the courtroom where Alfred Borden’s (aka Christian Bale’s) murder trial is held.
And second, the bank’s second floor mezzanine area stood in for the bar where Robert Angier (aka Hugh Jackman) shared a drink with Cutter (aka Michael Caine).
The bank also appeared in the movies Marathon Man, Traffic, Fatal Vision, Prizzi’s Honor, St. Elmo’s Fire, All of Me, and in episodes of 24, Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues, Matlock, and Hardcastle & McCormick.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The old Bank of America building is located at 650 South Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The best place to catch a glimpse of the interior of the property is through the windows located on either side of the building’s front doors, which are pictured above.
The “Liar Liar” Towing Yard
A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I spent an entire day stalking in and around the Malibu area. But before actually heading west to the ‘Bu, Mike made a little surprise pit stop in Alhambra so that the two of us could stalk the towing yard that appeared in fave comedy Liar Liar. Mike had actually told me about the yard, which is called Henry’s Towing in real life, the first time we met and even though I had long been dying to stalk the place, for whatever reason, I had yet to do so. So, I was BEYOND elated when he pulled up to the yard a few weeks ago and told me what it was. Mike found this location thanks to the fact that he grew up in the Alhambra area, not too far from Henry’s, and had driven by the place countless times during his youth. So when he saw Liar Liar for the first time back in 1997, he recognized the yard immediately. Yay! Thank you, Mike!
Henry’s Towing appeared in my absolute favorite scene in Liar Liar (well, besides the HILARIOUS “The pen is blue!” scene, of course), in which Audrey Reede (aka Maura Tierney) takes her ex-husband Fletcher Reede (aka Jim Carrey) to pick up his Mercedes which has just been towed.
After retrieving the car, Fletcher notices that there is a scratch on it, causing him to have a completely hilarious meltdown consisting of one of my favorite movie monologues of all time! During the meltdown he says, “You know what I’m gonna do about this? NOTHING! Because if I take ya to small claims court it’ll just drain eight hours out of my life and you probably won’t show up and if I finally got the judgment you’d just stiff me anyway. So what I’m gonna do is piss and moan like an impotent jerk and then bend over and take it up the tailpipe!” To which the towing attendant says, “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” LOL Love it!
You can watch the tow yard scene by clicking above.
Unfortunately, though, thanks to a large fence which now surrounds the property, the majority of the towing yard is not visible from the street. 🙁
But you can see a good view of the place in the above aerial image.
Ironically enough, according to one of the workers we spoke with, the cashier’s window featured in Liar Liar is not actually Henry’s real life cashier’s window. Instead, producers chose to use a different window located deeper inside the property, behind the exterior fence.
The window which appeared in the movie is denoted with the pink arrow above and, sadly, if you aren’t visiting Henry’s to pick up a towed car, you won’t be able to see it. 🙁 Such a bummer!
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The real life cashier’s window – which is a part of Henry’s main office – does appear very briefly in Liar Liar, though, towards the end of the towing scene when Fletcher walks Audrey to her car. The two walk past the perimeter fence – which at the time did not have black tarp covering it – and towards the real life cashier’s window while she tells him about the wish his son made the previous evening.
The window looks a bit different today than it did during filming, though, as the little wooden awning which appeared above it in the scene has long since been removed. Henry’s main office has also been painted a different color in the years since filming took place.
The back side of the main office can also be seen in the background during Fletcher’s meltdown.
While not much of Henry’s Towing Yard is visible from the street, I still absolutely loved seeing it in person and the memories of the movie that being there brought back. I do have to admit, though, that the guys working the counter thought Mike and I were BEYOND weird for stalking the place. And even though I explained to them that we were big fans of the movie Liar Liar and were taking the pictures for our respective stalking websites, I am fairly certain they thought we were angry patrons whose cars had been recently towed and that the photographs were for a pending lawsuit, as they kept a VERY close eye on us the whole time. LOL Don’t they know a stalker when they see one? 😉
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location. 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The Liar, Liar towing yard, aka Henry’s Towing Service, is located at 1100 Westminster Avenue in Alhambra.
The Firehouse from “Ghostbusters”
This past weekend while doing some stalking in Downtown L.A. I dragged my fiancé out to see an oft-used filming location that has long been at the top of my “To-Stalk” list. That location is known as Fire Station #23, a real life former working fire house that served as the offices of Dr. Raymond Stantz (aka Dan Aykroyd), Dr. Peter Venkman (aka Bill Murray), Dr. Egon Spengler (aka Harold Ramis), and Winston Zeddmore (aka Ernie Hudson) in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters. And as fate would have it, when we pulled up to the now-defunct fire station, the caretaker of the property, an EXTREMELY nice man named Daniel Taylor, happened to be standing outside speaking with a student filmmaker. So, I, of course, struck up a conversation with him and asked if it might be alright if I stepped inside to take a look around and snap a few photographs. And, let me tell you, I just about fell over from excitement when Daniel told me to go right in! YAY!
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Fire Station #23 actually has quite a storied, and sometimes scandalous, history. The structure, which first opened on October 2, 1910, was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Hudson & Munsell and served as the headquarters of the Los Angeles Fire Department for over a decade. The three story building, which cost between $57,000 and $60,000 to construct and measured 26 feet wide, 167 feet deep and encompassed 13,600 square feet of space, has been mired in controversy ever since the day it was first dedicated. In the beginning, angry citizens deemed the construction costs far too steep for a public building, especially since tax payers were footing the bill and considering the extravagance with which the place was built. And it has been said that no other fire station in the country is as opulent. The top floor of the structure housed the Fire Chief’s suite, an apartment which every fire chief from 1910 to 1928 called home. The suite featured a marble bathroom complete with a double bathtub, Peruvian mahogany wall paneling, imported Italian tile detailing, oak flooring, a private elevator, a brass bed, a roof garden, a marble fireplace, and French bevel glass mirrors. The second floor contained the captain’s dwelling, a library with built-in bookshelves, and bunks for twenty firefighters. The bottom floor contained an open arcade with enamel tiled walls, 21 foot high pressed tin ceilings, and stalls to accommodate ten horses. Pretty amazing for a fire house, huh? The Los Angeles Times even dubbed the place “the Taj Mahal of fire stations”.
Fire Station #23 remained in operation for fifty years, whereupon its men responded to over 60,000 fires. But with the city moving towards building more modernized stations, Engine Truck Company #23 closed its doors for good on November 23rd, 1960. Because a station in Pacific Palisades adopted the “23” company number, the shuttered station took on the name “Old 23”. For the next six years, the fire department utilized the space for medial records storage and as a training facility. In 1966, the same year it became a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, the fire house was shut down by the department completely. For the next ten years, as the area surrounding the building became more and more impoverished, the station fell into serious disrepair and suffered from extreme vandalism and looting. In 1979, the Fire Commission decided to renovate the property and eventually turn it into a firehouse museum. A non-profit organization named Olde 23 was set up to oversee the restoration process and to raise funds for the massive undertaking. In 1980, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Nine years later, though, in 1988, the plans for turning Old #23 into a museum were nixed and the city opened their Los Angeles Fire Department Museum at a location in Hollywood instead.
Seven years later controversy came raining down upon the fire house once again when Los Angeles Times staff writer Robert J. Lopez authored a front page article accusing the Olde 23 corporation of misuse of funds. According to the article, Olde 23 had been collecting massive amounts of money (over $210,000 to be exact) thanks to the numerous film shoots that had taken place on the premises over the years. Not only had the company failed to turn that money over to the city, though, but no one had even informed the city that any sort of filming was going on. Being that a city department is responsible for handing out film permits, I’m not quite sure how this even happened, but I guess it’s just another case of a beaurocracy’s right hand not knowing what the left is doing. Causing further scandal was the fact that even though the city had moved the museum location to a different site seven years prior, Olde 23 was still collecting not only filming fees that would supposedly go into the museum fund, but also donations for the project. AND (yes, there’s more!) the supposed non-profit was ALSO collecting filming fees from production companies for shoots that were taking place at other firehouses in the area – firehouses that the Olde 23 company had no jurisdiction over! LOL Talk about a sh*tstorm!! 😉 President and C.E.O. of the Olde 23 company was none other than Los Angeles Fire Chief Donald O. Manning himself, who resigned from his post just 8 days after Lopez’s newspaper article hit the stands. Following his resignation, Fire Station #23 continued to host film shoots, with the money going to the City of Los Angeles, the property’s rightful owner. Just this past September, though, the building was designated surplus property and the city is considering selling it to several different private investors, including a restaurant developer and a non-profit arts education group.
Daniel Taylor, who has been caretaker of the property since 1985 and who the city is currently trying to evict, has different plans for the building, though. He recently formed the Corporation for History, Arts, and Culture (CHAC) with the hopes of restoring the old firehouse to its original grandeur for use as both a cultural center and a filming location. He estimates the restoration project to cost upwards of $8 million and is trying to raise funds now. If you would like to learn more about the cause, you can do so on CHAC’s official website. And while the future of the historic firehouse remains to be seen, in the meantime I highly recommend stalking it as it is a truly beautiful and unique building.
In Ghostbusters, the exterior of the gang’s headquarters (pictured above) was actually filmed at Hook & Ladder Company #8 located at 14 North Moore Street in New York.
But for the interior filming, cast and crew came to Fire Station #23 in Downtown Los Angeles. And I am happy to report that the interior looks almost exactly the same today as it did in 1984 when Ghostbusters was filmed! Amazing!
The boys’ back office area is not there in real life, though, and I am assuming it was just a set that was added solely for the filming.
The upstairs of the firehouse was used in the filming, as well, but unfortunately I didn’t get to see that area while I was there.
Five years later cast and crew returned to Fire Station #23 once again to film the interior scenes for Ghostbusters II.
And I just about died when I spotted the wooden wall adornment pictured above, which was featured in the sequel. So cool!
The firehouse was also featured in 1994’s The Mask, in which it doubled as Jim Carrey’s deceitful car mechanic’s office.
He later vandalizes the place after turning into “The Mask”.
In 2003’s National Security, the firehouse was used as the location of Earl Montgomery (aka Martin Lawrence) and Hank Rafferty (aka Steve Zahn’s) stakeout. Only the exterior of the building and a very small portion of the interior (pictured above) were featured in that shoot, though. Firehouse #23 has also appeared in V.I. Warshawski, Police Academy 2, Flatliners, Set It Off, RE(e)volution, Big Trouble in Little China, in the television series Firehouse, and in the Season 4 episode of The A-Team entitled “The Road to Hope”. All in all, it has been featured in more than 50 commercial, television, movie, and music video productions over the years.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Fire Station #23, aka the firehouse from Ghostbusters, is located at 225 East Fifth Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the station is not in the safest of areas, so please exercise caution if you choose to stalk it. You can visit the CHAC Fire Station #23 website here.
Hilton Checkers Hotel
A few months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, scored the two of us invites to a party and silent auction being held by the Location Managers Guild of America. We had a fab time at the party and got to meet many location scouts, none of whom had any idea that there were people like us out there obsessed with movie and television locations. LOL Anyway, the highlight of that evening was when I placed the winning bid on a one night stay in the Penthouse Suite of the Hilton Checkers Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles for the bargain price of $160! I’m not kidding! So this past weekend my boyfriend and I cashed in on our big win and spent a night in luxury at the historic boutique hotel.
On its website the Hilton Checkers Hotel touts itself as being Downtown Los Angeles’ only four diamond boutique hotel – and, let me tell you, it didn’t disappoint! Checkers was originally built in the 1920s and was called “The Mayflower”. The boutique hotel, which stands at twelve stories high, was built at a time when the City of Los Angeles did not allow any buildings in the Downtown area to have more than twelve floors. In 1984, the hotel was completely renovated and remodeled and given it’s current moniker. For a time it was owned privately and then was sold to Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. When it was purchased by the Hilton Hotel chain in 2002, it took on the name Hilton Checkers.
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Checkers Hotel has two Penthouse Suites – one each on its 11th and 12th floors – and I can’t tell you how excited I was to be staying in one of them! Besides soon-to-be-famous actress Lindsay Blake :), numerous other celebs have stayed in the hotel’s Penthouse Suites over the years, including Jim Carrey (who lived in one while he was filming the movie Man on the Moon), Carol Burnett (who also resided in one for a few months during her stint at the Ahmanson Theatre performing in Putting It Together), Ray Charles, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith (who were recent guests), and Cher (who books a Penthouse each year when she’s in town for the Grammys).
Both of the Checkers’ Penthouse Suites are identical in size and decor. Each boasts two bathrooms, a separate bedroom with a desk and reading chair,
a separate dining room with a marble table that seats eight,
and a large living room complete with a fireplace and big screen plasma TV.
Besides celebs, dignitaries have also been known to visit the hotel. According to the book Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive!, in 1992 President Richard Nixon and Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev had a meeting in the Checkers’ Library (pictured above).
And, of course, Checkers is also a popular filming location! The hotel was featured twice in a Season One episode of fave television show Shark. In the episode, entitled “Fashion Police”, Sebastian Stark dines at the hotel’s award winning restaurant, named Checkers Downtown, with the mayor.
Later on in the episode, Stark arrests fashion designer Z Pruitt (played by Diedrich Bader) at a lingerie party being held at Checker’s rooftop pool.
Other productions filmed at the hotel include Heroes, which used Checker’s front entrance, and the now-canceled What About Brian, which filmed in the lobby area. In 2003’s A View From The Top, Checkers stood in for the Paris hotel where Gwyneth Paltrow stays on a layover. Paula Abdul and a few of this season’s Idols just recently filmed a segment by the hotel’s pool. And Dancing With The Stars has also shot numerous segments at the hotel. Just last week Carson Daily filmed a television interview about the birth of his son in the Checkers Lounge (pictured above). And Stefanie Powers, of Hart to Hart fame, has filmed numerous PBS specials onsite.
I HIGHLY recommend stalking Checkers! It’s a really beautiful hotel and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again. And if you can swing it, I’d definitely recommend booking a Penthouse room! 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Hilton Checkers Hotel is located at 535 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.
The Liar Liar House
One of the movie houses I have long been obsessed with finding is the home from the Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar. The house in the movie is absolutely adorable, very picturesque and I so badly wanted to see it in person. I happened to mention the Liar Liar house to Mike, from MovieShotsLA,a few weeks ago and of course, he already knew exactly where it was. Duh! I should have asked him for the location right from the beginning. 🙂 LOL! Anyway, once I had the address, I dragged my dad right out to stalk it.
When I first saw Liar Liar, over ten years ago, I actually turned to my mom in the theatre and said “That house has to be in Pasadena.” The home just looked like a Pasadena house to me. And it turns out I was right! 🙂 In person, though, the house actually looks very different than it appeared in the movie. The entire color scheme of the house has been changed and the front door is now painted a bright red. But even though much of the house has been modified in the 11 years since filming took place, it is still very recognizable from the movie. And while the house is absolutely adorable in person, I actually much prefer how it appeared in the movie, with its soft green and taupe coloring. Ugh, why do people keep changing the exteriors of movie houses?? LOL!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The Liar Liar house is located at 1004 Highland Avenue in South Pasadena, just around the corner from Lady Heather’s house from CSI .