Jumpin’ Jack Flash – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 15, 2016July 14, 2016

The British Consulate from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

Much of my free time as of late has been spent tracking down missing locations from Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Ever since writing my post on the apartment where Terry Dolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) lived in the 1986 comedy, I have been just a wee bit consumed with finding other spots featured in the flick. So much so that I even purchased director Penny Marshall’s 2012 autobiography in the hopes that it might shed some light on the subject. One locale that I did not need to put any effort into tracking down was Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, aka the building that portrayed the New York British Consulate in the movie, which fellow stalker Mick managed to pinpoint in February 2014. He had been searching for the place for a while and, on a whim, emailed screen captures to a friend in the hopes that he might recognize it. It turned out to be a fortuitous move because the friend wrote right back saying, “Hey, that’s on my street!” I was floored when Mick relayed the news and ran right out to stalk the site while in Manhattan in April.

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Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum originally served as the private residence of wealthy industrialist/philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who purchased the land on which the structure now stands in 1889. At the time, the area was rather rural, which gave Carnegie ample space to built a large estate flanked by a sprawling garden. He hired the Babb, Cook & Willard architecture firm to design the dwelling, asking them to create “the most modest, plainest, and most roomy house in New York.” If what’s pictured below is modest and plain, I can’t imagine what Carnegie considered grandiose and ornate!

The 64-room, 4-story (that does not include the three-level basement!) estate was quite innovative for its day, boasting an Otis passenger elevator, a steel frame, and a central heating and cooling system, among many other luxurious amenities.

I am in love with the mansion’s gilded glass and copper canopy, which always catches my eye during viewings of Jumpin’ Jack Flash and was no less striking in person.

Today, the property, which has been dubbed the “Carnegie Mansion” or the “Carnegie Hill Mansion,” houses a massive collection of design artifacts including textiles, furnishings, clothing, lighting fixtures, and jewelry that once belonged to sisters Amy, Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt. The collection was originally displayed at the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, which was established in 1897 at Cooper Union college located at 7 East 7th Street. The museum was shuttered in 1963 and the Hewitt sisters’ assemblage was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1967. It was then moved to the Carnegie Mansion in 1970, at which time the property underwent a renovation before being opened to the public as Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in 1976.

In 2011, the site was shuttered for an extensive three-year, $91-million renovation and expansion. It re-opened in 2014 as Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, one of the most cutting-edge and technologically-advanced institutions of its kind. You can read about a few of the property’s most unique innovations here.

The Carnegie Mansion popped up as the Manhattan British Consulate numerous times in Jumpin’ Jack Flash.

Most notably, it was the site of the Queen’s Anniversary Ball that Terry crashed in rather conspicuous fashion (i.e. dressed up as Diana Ross while lip-synching “You Can’t Hurry Love”).

Only the exterior of the Carnegie Mansion was shown in the movie. Scenes involving the interior of the British Consulate were filmed at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.

Jumpin’ Jack Flash is hardly the first production to make use of the Carnegie Mansion. Way back in 1955, it appeared in Daddy Long Legs as the Pendleton House art gallery.

The property was the site of the car crash at the beginning of the 1976 thriller Marathon Man.

The estate played the home of Martha Bach (Geraldine Fitzgerald), Arthur Bach’s (Dudley Moore) grandmother, in the 1981 comedy Arthur.

In the 1988 film Working Girl, the Carnegie Mansion masked as the Union Club, where Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) and Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) crashed a wedding.

The Carnegie Mansion was also shown briefly in the 1993 comedy For Love or Money.

And in the Season 1 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Much ‘I Do’ About Nothing,” the Carnegie Mansion was where Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) and Bart Bass (Robert John Burke) got married.

The ceremony scene was shot in The Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden, the museum’s enclosed rear garden which is open to the public daily, free of charge. Bart and Lily’s reception did not place at the Carnegie Mansion, but at the Madison Room of the Lotte New York Palace hotel.

The Carnegie Mansion is also said to have made appearances in 1973’s Godspell and 1976’s The Next Man, but I was unable to find copies of those movies with which to make screen captures for this post.

On a Jumpin’ Jack Flash side-note – I was floored to discover while scanning through the movie to make screen captures for this post that the police station featured in the flick is none other than the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off police station! How it took me this to recognize it is beyond me, but better late than never.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mick for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, aka the British Consulate from Jumpin’ Jack Flash, is located at 2 East 91st Street on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit the museum’s official website here.

July 6, 2016July 1, 2016

Terry’s Apartment from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

I’ve made no secret over the years of my love for Jumpin’ Jack Flash. (You can read the posts I’ve done on the 1986 comedy’s locations here, here, here, and here.) Whoopi Goldberg is literally perfection in her role as zany New York bank employee Terry Dolittle and I pretty much go around quoting her and the other characters on a regular basis (“Get Larry, the heavy-set guard! Get Larry, the heavy-set guard!”). So when a fellow stalker named Mick emailed me in July 2013 to ask for some assistance in tracking down a few of the movie’s locations, I was eager to help. Somehow I got distracted, though, and never did any investigating. Then Mick contacted me again the following February and this time I got to work.

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One of the locales Mick was hoping to find was the apartment where Terry lived. So I popped in my DVD and was thrilled to see that there was a restaurant located on the ground floor of Terry’s building and that its name, La Tablita, was clearly visible on its awning.

An internet search for “La Tablita” and “New York” led me to an ad in a 1985 issue of New York magazine that listed the eatery’s location as 65 West 73rd Street. I headed right on over to Google Street View, popped in that address and, sure enough, it was the right spot!

The exterior of Terry’s apartment building was only shown a couple of times in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, but it was extremely memorable to me due to the unique glass block pop-out located next to the front door.

I was floored to see that virtually none of the property had been changed since filming took place there three decades ago. (I honestly cannot believe the movie will be turning 30 in October!)

Today, the La Tablita space serves as home to a hardware store. Other than a change in tenant, though, it, too, still looks very much the same as it did onscreen.

Terry’s apartment building is part of a set of neighboring row houses that were designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, the same architect who gave us The Plaza Hotel, the Dakota, and the original Waldorf-Astoria, which was demolished in 1929 in order to make way for the Empire State Building. Construction on the homes began on July 20th, 1882. Terry’s building was completed on January 21st, 1885.

Of the 28 properties originally constructed by Hardenbergh, only 18 remain. They can be found from 15A through 19 West 73rd Street and 41 through 65 West 73rd Street. Sadly, the ten homes that once stood in between those two groups were demolished during the Great Depression in order to make room for a 16-story apartment building.

The row houses that do remain standing have been left largely untouched from their original design.

Terry’s building is one of the few that has been modified. The large glass block pop-out that was so memorable to me from Jumpin’ Jack Flash is obviously a later addition and not an original 1885 detail. Other than that, Hardenbergh’s design remains intact, though. You can read more about the history of the 73rd Street row homes here.

Only the exterior of the property was used in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Terry’s apartment interior was a set built on a soundstage at 20th Century Fox Studios in Century City where portions of the movie were lensed. You can check out what a unit in the building actually looks like here. Apparently, the images are from the penthouse, which cracked me up as the place is teeny tiny. I mean, come on! That kitchen looks like it should be on a ship and the second bedroom is more like a closet. Sex and the City really led me astray when it comes to apartment sizing in New York. So did Friends and pretty much every other movie/TV show set in the Big Apple for that matter (outside of Wanderlust), including Jumpin’ Jack Flash! As you can see below, Terry’s apartment was huge compared to the building’s actual units.

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: Terry’s apartment from Jumpin’ Jack Flash is located at 65 West 73rd Street on New York’s Upper West Side.

November 13, 2015January 20, 2016

The Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West from “Falcon Crest”

For years now, I have been trying to track down the bank where Terry Dolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) worked in the 1986 comedy Jumpin’ Jack Flash. It is one of those locations that always sits fixed at the back of my mind, images of it constantly floating around in my head. So when I came across photographs of the Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West, which bears a striking resemble to the bank where Terry worked, on a Noirish Los Angeles forum, my heart caught in my throat! I was on vacation at the time and, unfortunately, did not have my Jumpin’ Jack Flash DVD on hand to make comparisons, but was fairly certain I had found the right spot. My parade was rained on as soon as I got home, though, when I popped in my DVD and fairly quickly realized the two banks were not one and the same. I decided to stalk Bank of the West anyway in the hopes that researching it might help me to eventually locate the Jumpin’ Jack Flash bank. So far, my quest has not been fruitful. Hence this post. I am now putting it out there to my fellow stalkers. If any of you happen to recognize the place or want to get in on the hunt, please let me know!

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In the Noirish Los Angeles thread, a commenter named T.J.P. had asked for help in identifying a bank that had appeared in the Season 6 episode of Falcon Crest titled “Perilous Charm” (screen captures from the episode, in which the property masked as San Francisco Merchant Bank, are pictured below). Forum member Tovangar2 quickly recognized the place as the former First Trust Bank Building, now Bank of the West, located at 587 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Another commenter named HossC then posted a link to photos of the interior of the building and it was those photos that had me so intrigued.

In Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Terry works at First National Bank in Manhattan. Now, I should start off by saying that I am unsure if the bank used in the movie is in New York or Los Angeles, being that filming took place in both cities. I am leaning towards L.A., though – at least for the interior scenes. I am also leaning towards the idea that two different locations might have been utilized as Terry’s bank – one for exteriors and another for interiors. But that is just a guess. Sadly, with this one, I am just not sure about anything.

While I am fairly certain that the bullpen where Terry worked was a set (as evidenced by the fact that it got shot up at the end of the movie) . . .

. . . I believe that the interior of First National Bank is a real location.

The photo of Bank of the West that HossC posted that originally caught my eye was of a large stone staircase, one that I thought was a match to the staircase shown in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Upon closer inspection, though, I realized the two had some differences. I am not used to seeing staircases in banks, so the one featured in JJF always stuck out to me. What I wouldn’t give to see it in person! If it, or the interior of the bank looks familiar to anyone, please let me know!

In the meantime, the Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West is a pretty spectacular property in and of itself. The eight-story Italian Renaissance-style building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed in 1927 by architects Cyril Bennett and Fitch Haskell.

While the cast stone and stucco exterior makes for a stately and imposing site, it belies nothing of the bank’s stunning interior. The inside of the building is marked by tall walnut wood paneling, travertine walls, and towering stone columns. The gorgeous gilt coffered ceiling was painted by John Smeraldi, the same artist who painted much of the interior of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The Sicilian-born painter, who is likewise known for his work at the Vatican and The White House, is so synonymous with the Biltmore, in fact, that the property named its signature restaurant “Smeraldi’s” in his honor. Bank of the West also boasts four murals created by American Impressionist painter Alson S. Clark. Because the property is a working bank, I felt a little odd about taking photographs of the interior, but if you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping by for a peek. It is absolutely gorgeous!

Besides being featured in Falcon Crest, Bank of the West also appeared in the pilot episode of Undercovers as the bank where Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) attempted to steal security footage. I apologize for the subpar screen captures pictured below – I could not find a copy of the episode anywhere and had to take snaps from a preview of it on YouTube.

The super-nice teller that I spoke with while I was stalking the place informed me that a movie starring John Travolta was also lensed on the premises about twenty years ago, but she was unsure of the name of the film or what it was about.

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 Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West, from the “Law and Ardor” episode of Falcon Crest, is located at 587 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015

Liz’s House from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

There are two kinds of people in this world – those who can watch movies over and over and over again and those who cannot. I am in the former category. During my teens and twenties, my parents owned a condominium in Hawaii. We would vacation there every summer, along with other families who owned units in the same community. Our condo was the kids’ hang-out spot (we had a VCR and large movie library) and, for reasons that no longer remain known to me, somehow a tradition began in which all of the youngsters would gather (usually a good four of five of us piled into the pull-out sofa bed) to watch Jumpin’ Jack Flash our first night together in Hawaii each and every year. (Our second night’s viewing was always Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.) Because of this, the film holds a very special place in my heart. So when my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me recently to let me know that one of his readers had asked for some help in tracking down the house where Liz Carlson (Annie Potts) lived in the movie, I ecstatically offered to lend a hand.

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He wound up not needing my help. While watching Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Owen spotted an address number of “515” on the curb in front of Liz’s house. Though the 1986 comedy was lensed in both New York and Los Angeles, he decided to start his hunt in L.A. and did Google Images searches for numerous permutations and combinations of “515” and “Los Angeles.” When he eventually got to “515 Dr. Los Angeles, CA,” the very first picture to pop up was of Liz’s house! The photo was attached to a Redfin page which listed the address as 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood. Prior to finding the dwelling, Owen had asked me if I thought it was in California or New York, and I told him that my inclination was New York. Ironically though, I kept having a nagging thought that the home looked a lot like Casa Walsh from the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. I should have listened to my gut because the two properties turned out to be located about a mile away from each other.

In real life, the 1938 home was designed by Welton Becket, the prolific L.A. architect who also gave us the Cinerama Dome, the Capital Records Building, the Los Angeles Music Center and the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport. Becket used the property as his primary residence through the 1940s.

The property boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,800 square feet, a 0.28-acre lot, 4 fireplaces, beamed ceilings, wood built-ins, French doors, a bonus art studio space and a kitchen with both a dining area and an office.

The residence appears twice in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (which just so happens to be the first movie Penny Marshall ever directed). It first pops up in the scene in which Liz explains to Terri Dolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) that the man she is trying to save is being chased by the KGB.

In a later scene, Terri goes to Liz’s house to ask her for more help, only to find the place vacant.

Thanks to the photos posted on Redfin, I learned that the real life interior of the home was also used in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Though the kitchen has since been updated, it is still recognizable from its appearance. (That’s Life Goes On’s Kellie Martin in her big screen debut pictured below.)

The living room was also featured in the movie (love those built-ins!).

The Dutch doors are also pretty amazing!

The dining room also made a brief appearance in the film.

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Liz’s house from Jumpin’ Jack Flash is located at 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood.

May 7, 2008February 13, 2009

Greystone Mansion

While most mansions in Beverly Hills are well hidden from prying eyes thanks to tall gates and large trees, there is one that is open to the public on a regular basis and it’s called Greystone Mansion. The 46,000 square foot mansion was commissioned in 1928 by millionaire Edward L. Doheny as a gift to his son Edward “Ned” Doheny, Jr. Ned only lived in the home for four short months before he was found dead in his bedroom, along with his secretary Hugh Plunket, on February 16th, 1929.

There has been much speculation surrounding the deaths of Ned and Hugh – some believe it was a bizarre murder-suicide due to a lovers’ quarrel between the two, others believe Hugh asked Ned for a raise and became enraged when he was denied and subsequently shot Ned and then himself, and still others believe Hugh suffered from a psychological disorder and shot Edward during a mental breakdown. Whatever the case may be, after his death Edward’s widow continued to live in the mansion with their five children for the next 26 years until she sold it to a man named Henry Crown. Henry wanted to tear down the mansion, but the city of Beverly Hills stepped in and purchased Greystone from him in 1965, turning it into a public park several years later.

Greystone sits on over 16 acres and is an amazing piece of property. I highly recommend stalking it. Everyday from 10am to 5pm the public is given free reign to walk around the beautiful grounds and get an up close and personal view of the exterior of the mansion. On occasion, there are times when one can tour the inside of the mansion as well. Greystone has also been the filming location of hundreds upon hundreds of movie, TV, print, and commercial productions. Just to name a few – it was featured in Entourage as the location of Anna Faris’ photo shoot, it played Nicolas Cage’s home in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, it was the British Embassy and ball location in Jumpin’ Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg, it played a restaurant in The Holiday, and it was featured each week as Rory Gilmore’s school in Gilmore Girls. It also figures prominently in one of my favorite books The Prada Paradox by Julie Kenner.

While I was at Greystone this past weekend, a production crew was setting up for a film shoot (they wouldn’t say which film) and unfortunately much of the mansion was blocked off. But a very nice security guard happened to let me in to walk around and my boyfriend snapped a pic as I stalked behind the film crew’s signs. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Greystone Mansion is located at 905 Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills. It is open everyday from 10am to 5pm. You can visit Greystone’s official website here.