Manhattan Beach filming locations

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stopped by a couple of weeks ago while doing some stalking in the South Bay was the Manhattan Beach Marriott, which stood in for the supposed-Beverly-Hills-area hotel where the West Beverly High Senior Prom was held in the Season 3 episode of fave show 90210 titled “The Prom Before the Storm”. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who was kind enough to put together an entire 90210-themed South Bay stalking list for me as soon as he found out that I was heading down that way. Sadly, due to some major traffic that the GC and I encountered on our way down there (darn you, 405!), we were not able to spend as much time in the area as I had hoped and only managed to hit up a couple of locations, one of which was the prom hotel. Ironically enough, not only had the GC and I actually stayed at the Manhattan Beach Marriott a few years back, but thanks to its appearance in an early episode of The O.C., I had even blogged about it. So the fact that I did not recognize it when it appeared in “The Prom Before the Storm” episode is highly embarrassing! I mean, what kind of a stalker am I??? Winking smile

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Only the exterior of the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was featured in the episode, in the scene in which Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and the rest of the West Beverly High gang arrive at their Senior Prom. As you can see in the screen capture located on the bottom right above, producers put up curtains to block the interior of the hotel in the scene as it did not match up with the interior set that they had created at Manhattan Beach Studios where the series is lensed.

That set, which was centered around Silver’s (aka Jessica Stroup’s) half-baked Cirque du Soleil prom theme, is pictured above.

I am very happy to report that the hotel looks exactly the same in person as it did in the episode. Ironically enough, the Manhattan Beach Marriott is eerily similar in appearance to the Universal Sheraton, where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling) and the rest of the original West Bev gang attended the spring dance in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 aptly titled “Spring Dance”.

The exterior staircase located just east of the hotel’s front entrance also made an appearance in the episode as the spot where Ivy Sullivan (aka Gillian Zinser) caught her then-boyfriend, now-husband Raj Kher (aka Manish Dayal) drinking.

As I mentioned above, the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was also featured in the Season 1 episode of The O.C. titled “The Debut”. In the episode, the interior of the hotel masqueraded as the interior of Newport Beach’s Pelican Hill Country Club where the dance rehearsals for Marissa Cooper (aka Mischa Barton) and Summer Roberts’s (aka Rachel Bilson’s) Debutante Ball were held.

Both the hotel’s Grand Lobby, which as you can see above has changed its color scheme drastically since the episode was filmed;

and the Manhattan Ballroom, which was unfortunately closed when we showed up to stalk the place but which you can see photographs of here, were featured in the episode.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel, from “The Prom Before the Storm” episode of 90210, is located at 1400 Parkview Avenue in Manhattan Beach. The hotel’s main entrance and the exterior stairwell, which is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view and is located just east of the main entrance, appeared in the episode. In “The Debut” episode of The O.C., the hotel’s front lobby and Manhattan Ballroom were featured. You can visit the Manhattan Beach Marriott’s official website here.

A couple of months ago, I gave Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the mission of locating Dorothy Boyd’s house from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. From a quick internet search, Mike was able to ascertain that Dorothy’s tiny yellow house was located in an area of Manhattan Beach known as the “Tree Section”. The home’s exact location, though, was not mentioned anywhere online and since Google Maps Street View is not available in Manhattan Beach, we were unable to locate the house using the internet. So, two weeks ago, Mike and I set about to stalk Manhattan Beach’s Tree Section in person. Our plan was to literally drive up and down each street in the neighborhood until we found Dorothy’s house. But, thanks to a very lucky twist of fate, it never actually came to that.

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The Tree Section of Manhattan Beach is thus named not because of an abundance of trees as one might guess, but because the vast majority of streets in the area are named after different types of trees, such as Palm, Walnut, Oak, and Elm. It is said that the Tree Section is one of the most sought after areas to live in Manhattan Beach due to its rural neighborhood feel which has been maintained thanks to extremely narrow streets, lack of sidewalks, tiny houses built in the ’40s and ’50s, and proximity to the beach. Oddly enough, though, when Mike and I arrived in Manhattan Beach, we could not find the Tree Section anywhere. After driving around in what seemed like circles for quite some time, we pulled over to ask a random woman to point us in the right direction. The woman immediately asked us, “Well, is there a particular street you are looking for?” We both pretty much started laughing and told her we had NO idea what street we were looking for. Thinking we were probably crazy, she then said “Well, what is it you are trying to find?” Figuring she would have absolutely NO IDEA what were talking about, we told her we were looking for the Jerry Maguire house. Well, lo and behold, she started laughing and said “Oh my God, one of my good friends from high school lived across the street from that house during the filming. I know exactly where it is!” Honestly, what are the odds???? The stalking gods must have been watching out for us that day, because of all the people in Manhattan Beach to ask for directions, we find the one who knows exactly where the JM house is! Our new best friend then gave us detailed directions to the house and Mike and I were on our way! YAY!

Before arriving at the house, Mike was worried that it may have been remodeled, as sadly that is fairly commonplace with the older Tree Section homes. So, we were both absolutely FLOORED when we pulled up and saw that the house looked EXACTLY- and I do mean EXACTLY – the same today as it did over thirteen years ago when the movie was filmed. It is absolutely incredible to me that virtually no part of the house has been changed in the almost decade and a half since filming took place. The paint color, the landscaping, even the house number plaque all the look exactly the same. HOORAY!

The only difference that I noticed was the tree in front, which used to have a second limb that crossed in front of the house. That limb has since been removed.

The Jerry Maguire house shows up numerous times throughout the movie, most notably in the scene when Jerry takes Dorothy out on their first date.

And I believe the real backyard of the home was also used for the filming of several scenes, including both Jerry and Dorothy’s wedding ceremony and their subsequent break-up.

And from what we could see of the inside of the house from the street, it definitely looks as if the home’s real life interior was also used in the film, most notably for the many “Divorced Women’s Group” meetings. A little bit of movie trivia for you – Winnie Holzman, the creator of fave show My So-Called Life, was one of the members of that “Divorced Women’s Group” (pictured above).

Which is extremely ironic to me, because in Jerry Maguire, Dorothy and Jerry have what I’ve always referred to as “their My So-Called Life moment” in the middle of the street out in front of Dorothy’s house. LOVE IT!

I highly recommend stalking the Jerry Maguire house for any fans of the movie, as, thanks to the aweome fact that its appearance has not been changed in recent years, it is one of the most recognizable movie locations I’ve ever been to! On a very sad side note, though, I drove by the 90210 house the other day and almost had a heart attack when I saw that it had been painted an entirely different color! It’s almost unrecognizable now! UGH! Such a tragedy!!!!! 🙁 That stuff should not be allowed to happen!!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Jerry Maguire house is located at 527 23rd Street in the “Tree Section” of Manhattan Beach.

Tag: Manhattan Beach filming locations

The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel from “90210”

The Jerry Maguire House