Marilyn Monroe – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 26, 2018October 16, 2019

The YWCA Hollywood Studio Club from “Dexter”

Aside from Sex and the City’s, I don’t think there’s ever been a television finale that I loved. Dexter’s, in my opinion, was the absolute worst. But I was thoroughly mesmerized by the location chosen to portray Rendall Psychiatric Hospital, the ultra creepy abandoned lair of the Brain Surgeon Killer, Oliver Saxon (Darri Ingolfsson), in the series’ last three episodes. The structure, with its dark, looming presence, dramatic arched windows and iron balconies, was striking onscreen. Thanks to Seeing Stars, I learned that filming had taken place at the historic YWCA Hollywood Studio Club and ran right out to stalk it shortly after the Dexter finale aired in November 2013. While I had every intention of blogging about the site the following October, somehow I never got around to it. So here goes!

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The Hollywood Studio Club was initially founded in 1916 by a small group of aspiring actresses who regularly gathered at the Hollywood Branch Library to rehearse plays. A friendly librarian named Eleanor Jones got the ball rolling on finding the ladies a more suitable venue to perfect their craft, securing a nearby hall with the help of the Young Women’s Christian Association. At the time, most of the club members lived alone in less-than-adequate housing, so in 1919 Eleanor and the YWCA spearheaded a campaign to establish a safe, clean, affordable and chaperoned residence for the girls, as well as other young Hollywood hopefuls from all walks of the entertainment industry, to reside in upon moving to town. The group found what they were looking for in a large columned Colonial-style pad at 6129 Carlos Avenue in the heart of Tinseltown. Though it no longer stands, you can see what it looked like here. Cecil B. DeMille and Mary Pickford helped provide funding and furnishings. With space for only twenty residents, it was not long before the place was bursting at the seams and a larger facility was needed. Numerous show business heavyweights helped raise money for the project, including Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson and Jackie Coogan, with the YWCA picking up the rest of the tab. Julia Morgan was commissioned to design the new site and construction was completed in 1926.

The picturesque three-story Mediterranean Revival-style property featured housing for 88 women, as well as an auditorium, a kitchen that offered two daily meals (Laugh-In’s Jo Anne Worley, a one-time resident, claims the coffee cake served on Sundays was the best she’d ever had), a rehearsal hall, a dining room, a loggia, a library, a gym, a spacious living room, beamed ceilings, multiple fireplaces, 24-hour phone service, and a grassy central courtyard. By all accounts it was an idyllic place to live. As character actress Virginia Sale, who moved into the club in 1927, recounted to the Los Angeles Times in 1975, “It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. And it was like a real home. You knew that the minute you walked in.” Often referred to as a “sorority,” the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club also offered onsite drama, singing, dancing, design, exercise, and writing classes and regularly hosted special events, such as dances, plays and fashion shows. You can see some photos of the place from its early days here.

Countless luminaries called the place home over the years including Donna Reed, Kim Novak, Rita Moreno, author Ayn Rand, Barbara Eden, Sharon Tate, clothing designer Georgia Bullock, Maureen O’Sullivan, ZaSu Pitts, Ann B. Davis, Sally Struthers, and Miss Marilyn Monroe, who in June 1948 moved into Room 307 with actress Clarice Evans. Monroe later occupied Room 334, which was a single. You can see a picture of a check the starlet wrote with the Studio Club listed as her address here. It was during her residency that she posed for those infamous nude photographs. According to Wikipedia, the September 1996 issue of Saturday Night magazine quoted Marilyn as once saying “Funny how shocked people in Hollywood were when they learned I’d posed in the nude. At one time I’d always said no when photographers asked me. But you’ll do it when you get hungry enough. It was at a time when I didn’t seem to have much future. I had no job and no money for the rent. I was living in the Hollywood Studio Club for Girls. I told them I’d get the rent somehow. So I phoned up Tom Kelley, and he took these two color shots—one sitting up, the other lying down . . . I earned the fifty dollars that I needed.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Not all residents found fame and fortune, though. As Virginia Sale also told the Los Angeles Times in 1975, “One woman, older than the rest of us, was murdered in front of the club by a boyfriend. He was an ex-serviceman or something like that. And he then killed himself.” I tried to find some further verification of the story, but came up empty, so I am not sure if it is true or not. Either way, it only adds to the place’s intrigue. In all, more than 10,000 girls called the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club home before it shut its doors in 1975, after falling victim to both hard financial times and a change in the fire code that would have required a whopping $60,000 worth of upgrades. The fire improvements were eventually made following the shuttering and the site subsequently operated as a YWCA Job Corps training center for a time. Today, the building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Historic-Cultural Monument, is utilized as a Workforce/Youth Development center/Digital Learning Academy – and a filming location. You can check out some current photos of its interior here.

The YWCA Hollywood Studio Club first appeared as Rendall Psychiatric Hospital in the Season 8 episode of Dexter titled “Goodbye Miami,” in the scene in which the deranged Saxon shows his mother, Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), where he kills all of his victims and removes portions of their brains. Shudder! The abandoned former mental asylum is said to be located at 1215 West Clarendon Avenue in Allapattah, Florida on the series, but its actual address is 1215 Lodi Place in Hollywood.

The building popped up in the next two episodes of Dexter, as well, titled, respectively, “Monkey in a Box” . . .

. . . and “Remember the Monsters?” It is in the latter, which served as the show’s horrific finale, that Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) is shot, setting off a series of seriously depressing events.

The interior of the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club was also utilized on Dexter.

But I am fairly certain that Saxon’s kill room, supposedly located inside Rendall Psychiatric Hospital, was nothing more than a studio-built set.

Dexter is hardly the only production to have been lensed on the premises. Thanks to fellow stalker Paul I learned that the club masked as Smith’s Grove Sanitarium in a dream sequence in the 1981 horror film Halloween II.

In the Season 2 episode of Visiting . . . with Huell Howser titled “Hollywood Ladies,” which aired in 1994, Huell tours the Hollywood Studio Club with four women who lived there during the 1940s and have remained friends ever since.

I highly recommend giving the episode a watch (which you can do here). Not only do the woman share fascinating and heartwarming tales of their time at the club and the lifelong friendships it cultivated, but viewers are given great glimpses of the property, including its central courtyard . . .

. . . and dining room and auditorium.

In the Season 1 episode of Agent Carter titled “The Iron Ceiling,” which aired in 2015, the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club portrayed the Red Room Academy, supposedly located in Russia.

The site, playing itself, is where Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins) and the rest of Howard Hughes’ (Warren Beatty) contract starlets take singing and dancing lessons in 2016’s Rules Don’t Apply (which I only scanned through to make the screen captures below, but is now on my list to watch as it looks absolutely darling – and stars Megan Hilty, whom I adore!). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the club are featured in the movie.

The kitchen also appears briefly as the kitchen of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, where Hughes has 350 gallons of Baskin-Robbins banana nut ice cream delivered after learning the flavor is being discontinued.

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Big THANK YOU to the Seeing Stars website for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The YWCA Hollywood Studio Club, aka Rendall Psychiatric Hospital from Dexter, is located at 1215 Lodi Place in Hollywood.

September 12, 2018September 8, 2018

The “How to Marry a Millionaire” Apartment Building

One of the things I love most about L.A. is the direct access the city has to a myriad of unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Case in point – Essentially Marilyn, The Paley Center for Media’s latest exhibit featuring costumes, personal artifacts, clothing, and memorabilia from none other than Miss Marilyn Monroe herself, including the starlet’s personally annotated script from The Seven Year Itch AND a replica of the infamous dress she wore in the 1955 movie’s iconic subway grate scene. (If you feel like going down a rabbit hole of information regarding the legendary frock, check out these fabulous articles on The Marilyn Monroe Collection website here and here.) Fingers crossed I make it out to see the exhibit before it closes on September 30th. In the meantime, I thought I’d blog about an MM locale I stalked back in April 2016 while in New York – 36 Sutton Place South, aka the building where Pola Debevoise (Monroe) lived with her BFFs Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable) and Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall) in How to Marry a Millionaire.

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Though Marilyn’s performance in the 1953 comedy definitely plays to type, it is one of my favorites of hers. Legend has it that when she asked director Jean Negulesco about her bespectacled character’s motivation, he replied “You’re blind as a bat without glasses. That is your motivation.” The advice led to some of the best comedic moments of her career, in my opinion. For those who have never seen the film (and you really should), it centers around three bachelorettes who, hoping to land millionaire husbands, sublease a penthouse apartment in a tony Manhattan building. To portray the girls’ fancy digs, producers looked no further than 36 Sutton Place South.

Originally built in 1949, the 17-story complex boasts 101 units.

Consisting of a brick and limestone façade with glass balconies, the place has something of a postmodern feel.

The white-glove building, which became a co-op in 1962, features a canopied entrance, a doorman and a concierge, an on-site gym and laundry room, and a rooftop deck with a garden and river views. You can see some interior photos of the property here.

36 Sutton Place South only actually appears twice in How to Marry a Millionaire, first popping up in the movie’s opening scene in which Schatze arrives at the building to sublease the unit.

It is then featured in a later scene in which the unit’s owner, Freddie Denmark (David Wayne), returns home and attempts to retrieve a document he has stashed away inside. Only the exterior of the property was utilized in the filming.

All interiors were part of an elaborate set built at 20th Century Fox Studios in Culver City, including the building’s lobby;

the inside of the women’s apartment;

and their balcony, which does look very much like 36 Sutton’s actual rooftop deck. You can see photos of it here and here.

I am fairly certain that close-up shots of the building’s front doors were also shot on a set.

Though the entrance shown in How to Marry a Millionaire does look a lot like 36 Sutton’s actual entrance, the complex’s real life doorway is much larger than its onscreen counterpart. The window that should appear in the right-hand portion of the frame below is also missing and, while the bottom part of the planter to the left of the main doors is slanted in real life, it is flat in the movie. Though these elements could have been changed in the 65 years since filming took place, I do not believe that to be the case.

How to Marry a Millionaire is not 36 Sutton’s only claim to fame. During the 1950s, Joan Crawford and her husband, Pepsi-Cola Company chairman Alfred N. Steele, made the place their New York home.

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 How to Marry a Millionaire apartment building is located at 36 Sutton Place South in New York’s Sutton Place neighborhood.

October 27, 2015September 29, 2017

Hall of Justice

In the early hours of August 5th, 1962, screen star Marilyn Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood home. Later that same day, her body was brought to the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles for an autopsy. I only learned that factoid a couple of years ago and immediately became fascinated with the building. Upon doing further research, I became even more enthralled with the structure thanks to its long-standing connection to L.A.’s criminal element and dark underbelly. Figuring the place would be perfect for a Haunted Hollywood post, I set out to stalk it last fall. I was obviously having a blond moment that day, though, and mistakenly stalked the Los Angeles County Hall of Records instead. But this year I got it right!

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The Hall of Justice was designed in 1925 by the Allied Architects Association and, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy website, is “the oldest surviving government building” in L.A.’s Civic Center.

The granite exterior of the Beaux Arts-style structure is comprised of four identical facades.

The 14-story building was originally constructed to house the Los Angeles county court and jail facilities. Upon its completion, it contained 750 jail cells, 17 courtrooms, a morgue, and office space for court employees and law enforcement officers.

The top four floors of the structure housed the jail facilities, which, at one point or another, were home to some of the city’s most notorious criminals including Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, and Bugsy Siegel. A few celebrities also did time there, such as Evel Knievel, who was jailed on assault charges (and famously hired twenty limousines to transport each of the inmates who were released the same day he was) and Robert Mitchum, who, as detailed in this Los Angeles magazine post, served an almost sixty-day sentence for smoking marijuana.

Countless famous trials took place at the Hall of Justice, as well, including those of Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, and Charlie Chaplin. Oh, if those walls could talk!

The morgue facilities were housed in the Hall of Justice’s basement. It was there that Marilyn’s autopsy was conducted by deputy coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who determined the star’s cause of death as probable suicide from acute barbiturate poisoning. That determination has been disputed by fans, armchair detectives and conspiracy theorists alike ever since. So much so that District Attorney John Van de Kamp ordered a review of Marilyn’s death in 1982. The resulting 29-page report on the matter, which took three and a half months to compile, stated that “no credible evidence” of foul play was found. Doubters and theories continue to abound, though.

Dr. Noguchi also performed the autopsy of Robert F. Kennedy at the Hall of Justice on June 6th, 1968.

The Hall of Justice was severely damaged during the Northridge earthquake in 1994 and was subsequently shuttered for the two decades following. Beginning in 2004, the building underwent a massive 10-year, $231-million restoration and finally re-opened in late 2014. While many historic décor elements were left intact, including the ornate columned loggia, several areas were gutted. The morgue where Marilyn’s autopsy was conducted was a casualty of the renovation. The majority of the courtrooms and jail cells were also removed. One block of cells, which is said to include the cell where both Manson and Sirhan Sirhan were incarcerated, was kept intact and moved to the basement (yes, the same basement where Marilyn was autopsied) and will eventually be part of a public exhibit. You can check out some great pre-renovation photos of the building here (man, I would have loved to have toured it during that time!) and some fabulous post-renovation photos here.

The Hall of Justice is also a filming location!

The building was featured numerous times in establishing shots on the television series Perry Mason.

And it appeared each week in the Season 3 and 4 opening credits of Get Smart.

The building was also featured in The Big Fix, The Distinguished Gentleman and Absolute Power, none of which I had copies of with which to make screen captures for this post.

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 Hall of Justice is located at 211 West Temple Street in downtown Los Angeles.

November 5, 2014September 29, 2017

A Tour of Rockhaven Sanitarium

Well, here it is – my final Haunted Hollywood post of 2014. Sad day! Sad smile Last September, I stalked an abandoned mental health institution named Rockhaven Sanitarium where Marilyn Monroe’s mother, Gladys Baker Eley, spent almost a decade and a half of her life. Due to the fact that the place was gated and boarded up, I only got to see the outside of it, though. So when Friends of Rockhaven contacted me last month to ask if I wanted to attend a tour of the property, I jumped at the chance! And what better time to do it than the day after Halloween?

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I covered Rockhaven’s history extensively in my post about the place last October, so I will just give you the CliffsNotes version here. The sanitarium was founded in 1923 by a nurse named Agnes Richards. Agnes wanted to create a home-like sanctuary to treat women suffering from mental illness and found the perfect spot to start it in Montrose. She leased a two-story residence with a stone edifice and dubbed it “Rockhaven.” (Sadly, that original building was damaged in the Sylmar earthquake and was replaced by the one-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure pictured below in 1972.) Agnes originally took in 6 patients, but by the next year that number had grown to 24.

As her patient list grew, Agnes began to purchase neighboring dwellings and to construct new buildings on adjacent plots of vacant land. By 1940, the expanded 3.3-acre site was comprised of 15 structures, with facilities to treat over 100 patients, a small hospital, a dining hall and a professional kitchen.

Agnes believed that idyllic surroundings would aid in her patients’ healing processes, so she made sure that Rockhaven’s grounds, which boasted gardens, trees, ponds, fountains, flowerbeds, patios, and walkways, were meticulously landscaped.

Even today, after sitting vacant for eight years, the place still shows shades of its former tranquility and beauty.

Upon Agnes’ retirement in 1956, her granddaughter, Patricia Traviss, took over operation of the site. When Patricia subsequently retired in 2001, Rockhaven was purchased by the Ararat Home of Los Angeles and was transformed into a nursing home. Ararat found the property too difficult and expensive to maintain, though, so it was shuttered in 2006 and has been left vacant ever since. In April 2008, the city of Glendale purchased Rockhaven and there were plans to turn the site into a community center and public park, but as funds dried up, so did the plans. The facility’s fate is currently up in the air. Thankfully, the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley and Friends of Rockhaven stepped in to care for the place. Friends of Rockhaven also conducts monthly tours of the premises, which is what the Grim Cheaper and I embarked upon this past Saturday.

The tour, which lasted 90 minutes and consisted of about 25 people, was everything that I hoped it would be – and more! Our group got to walk through every square inch of the property – even through indoor areas, which I absolutely loved.

And yes, due to the peeling paint and stillness of the place, being there was definitely spooky, even in broad daylight.

When Rockhaven was shuttered in 2006, its buildings were left furnished. Seeing them in such a state was absolutely eerie.

Many patients’ belongings were also left behind. Clothes were still reportedly hanging in closets and framed photographs arranged on nightstands. When Glendale purchased the site, city workers put the mementos in storage, but Friends of Rockhaven retrieved several items to display, which made the experience of being there all the more creepy. Patients’ rooms appear to be frozen in time, still awaiting the return of their occupants eight years later.

Seeing notes to the Ararat staff still taped to the walls was particularly eerie . . .

as was seeing the former patients’ names written on closet shelves . . .

. . . and on beds.

During its Rockhaven days, Agnes had all of the patients’ rooms decorated by interior designers and many of those embellishments are still in place today, such as the curtain valances and colorful wallpaper border pictured below.

The bathrooms, which were all extensively wallpapered, were particularly enthralling.

Some areas of the property are still set up as they were when Ararat was operational, such as the hospital . . .

. . . while others are now used as storage for the various equipment that was left behind.

During the tour, we were also shown a dilapidated porch;

Murphy beds still in working condition;

eerily quiet hallways;

and the commercial kitchen . . .

. . . with its humongous walk-in refrigerator . . .

. . . and stove, which was in desperate need of a good scouring.

I was most excited to see The Pines building, though, where Gladys lived during her time at Rockhaven.

Gladys, who suffered from mental illness her whole life, was admitted to Rockhaven Sanitarium on February 9th, 1953. Marilyn paid the tab with a $5,000-a-year trust fund she set up in her mother’s name. And yes, the starlet would often come to Rockhaven to visit Gladys. (Pictured below is the hallway leading from the front door into The Pines building.)

The Pines’ green-hued common area is pictured below.

Gladys’ former room is located in the northeast corner of the building.

During her stay at Rockhaven, Gladys escaped from the facility numerous times. In 1963, she tied bed sheets together and climbed out of the 18-inch closet window pictured below. She then scaled a fence and walked 15 miles to Lakeview Terrace Baptist Church in Pacoima, where she was found the following day.

Our tour guides were very accommodating and allowed me to pose for a photograph in front of Gladys’ escape window. In a bit of an eerie twist, when the GC originally snapped my picture, he checked it and said it turned out fine. It was not until we left The Pines building that he looked at it once again and noticed that it had become mysteriously dark. Maybe Gladys did not appreciate the fact that I was photographing her closet!

Our guides found the whole thing very amusing and kindly took me back inside to pose for a second picture.

While in the closet, I noticed what appeared to be handprints leading up to the window and on most of the walls. SPOOKY!

Gladys was released from Rockhaven in 1967 and went to live with her daughter Berniece Baker Miracle, Marilyn’s half-sister, in Florida. She passed away in Gainesville 17 years later, on March 11, 1984, at the age of 81.

The guides also shared some tales of mysterious happenings at Rockhaven. The piano pictured below apparently moves to various locations on the property of its own accord. In fact, when one of the docents opened the garage during the tour, he was shocked to see that the piano was standing in the middle of the room.

Apparently, the previous evening it had been stationed against a wall, barricaded by three very heavy pots, which had also since been moved. The guides reported that most of the ghosts people have witnessed on the property appeared to be happy ones, though – spirits who obviously enjoyed their time at Rockhaven and want to remain there in the afterlife.

All in all, the tour was a fabulous experience and I could not recommend it more. You can find out information about Friends of Rockhaven’s monthly tours here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Rockhaven Sanitarium is located at 2713 Honolulu Avenue in Montrose. You can find out more information about Friends of Rockhaven’s monthly tours here.

October 31, 2014September 29, 2017

The Knickerbocker Hotel

I don’t think there is any property in Los Angeles, perhaps the world, that has seen as much glamour and as much tragedy as the former Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. Today, the Renaissance Revival/Beau Arts-style structure, which was once dubbed “The Hotel to the Stars,” serves as a retirement home. And oh, if those walls could talk!

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The Knickerbocker was constructed from 1923 to 1925 and was designed by architect E.M. Frasier. The 11-story property was the definition of grandeur, featuring wood-beamed ceilings, arched entryways, marble flooring, stained glass and antique furnishings. You can see what the hotel looked like in its early years here. The Knickerbocker became an instant hit with celebrities of the day, including Gloria Swanson, Mickey Rooney, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Rudolph Valentino, Roy Rogers, Bette Davis, Dick Powell, Errol Flynn, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Mae West, Laurel & Hardy, and Cecil B. DeMille. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio even honeymooned there after their January 1954 wedding in San Francisco.

In 1955, the property changed hands and underwent an extensive renovation, during which the vast majority of its beautiful detailing was, sadly, removed. While still an upscale destination for travelers, the hotel had become a shadow of its former self.

As Hollywood began to get seedy in the 1960s, The Knickerbocker suffered a decline in patronage. In 1963, it changed hands once again and quickly became a haven for the homeless and drug-addled. At some point, the hotel went into bankruptcy receivership and was eventually purchased in 1972 by the real estate development firm of Goldrich, Kest, Hirsch and Stern, who turned the site into housing for senior citizens. It remains retirement housing to this day.

The Knickerbocker has long been reported as being haunted, which is no surprise considering the many macabre events that have taken place there over the years. In January 1943, police famously dragged actress Frances Farmer, kicking and screaming, from the hotel lobby for failing to pay a fine on a recent drunk driving arrest. Thing only got worse the following morning at her hearing. An out-of-sorts Frances knocked down a policeman, threw an inkwell at the judge and wound up being dragged away, kicking and screaming once again – this time to the psychiatric ward of L.A. General Hospital. Shortly thereafter she was transferred to Kimball Sanitarium in La Crescenta to begin what was the first of many asylum stays during the actress’ tragic lifetime.

On July 23rd, 1948, famed director D.W. Griffith, who was a long time resident of the Knickerbocker, collapsed of a cerebral hemorrhage in the hotel lobby. He passed away a few minutes later in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

And yes, there’s more. On November 15th, 1962, MGM costume designer Irene Lutz downed several bottles of alcohol and then jumped to her death from her 11th floor room at the Knickerbocker.

Still more. On March 3rd, 1966, William Frawley, who was best known as I Love Lucy’s Fred Mertz, was walking by the Knickerbocker when he suffered a heart attack. His nurse dragged him into the hotel, where he passed away a few minutes later.

And finally, on the night of Halloween 1936, Harry Houdini’s widow, Bess, conducted a tenth and final séance, in an attempt to make contact with the former magician, on the rooftop of the Knickerbocker.

The Knickerbocker is also a filming location! The building was seen in the background of the 1950 movie 711 Ocean Drive.

In 1954, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were bombarded for a surprise taping of This Is Your Life in Room 205 of the hotel.

You can watch that episode by clicking below.

And while many websites state that The Knickerbocker was where Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) and Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) initially met up to conduct their affair in The Graduate, that information is incorrect. The couple actually met up at The Palm Bar inside of the now defunct Ambassador Hotel.

You can watch a Mysteries & Scandals episode about The Knickerbocker by clicking below.

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

I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a safe and fun Halloween! Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Knickerbocker Hotel is located at 1714 N. Ivar Avenue in Hollywood.

August 15, 2014August 14, 2014

The Racquet Club of Palm Springs

On July 24th, while waiting in line for my morning coffee, my eyes wandered over to a nearby newspaper stand and landed on the headline Historic Racquet Club Hotel Destroyed in Fire. My heart immediately sank as the now vacant Racquet Club of Palm Springs is not only steeped in Hollywood history, but is rumored to be the spot where Marilyn Monroe was discovered in 1949. The thought that it had been decimated was devastating. My mom and I finally made it over there to survey the damage while we were in the area last week and found that the headline had been a bit exaggerated. Thankfully, the destruction was not nearly as bad as had been reported.

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I first stalked the Racquet Club in October 2008 (you can read that post here) and, despite the fire which gutted one structure and harmed three others, it looks much the same today as it did back then. In fact, while I was there with my mom, I could not figure out which of the buildings had been lost in the blaze. It was not until I got home and compared aerial views to news photographs that I was able to pinpoint it. The edifice destroyed was a two-story structure comprised of hotel rooms that had been built years after the Racquet Club initially opened. It is denoted with a pink arrow below. Thankfully, the property’s pool, its infamous Bamboo Room restaurant (where the Bloody Mary was invented), the bungalows and the Albert Frey-designed Schiff House remain intact.

That being said, the structures that do still stand are not in great shape and haven’t been for years.

The members-only Racquet Club of Palm Springs was founded by actors Charlie Farrell and Ralph Bellamy (who played James Morse in Pretty Woman) in 1934. At the time, the 53-acre site consisted of two tennis courts and a snack bar. Bellamy and Farrell sold off a majority of the land shortly after the club’s opening, leaving behind 11 acres. A pool was added to the property in 1935, the Bamboo Room in 1937 and 35 guest cottages in 1946.

Due to the fact that the public was kept out, the Racquet Club became an instant celebrity hot spot. Such stars as Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, John Barrymore, Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh all spent time there. Their goings-on were reportedly quite raucous – so much so that The Charles Farrell Show, a television program based upon the club’s revelries, soon hit the airwaves. (The pictures below were taken during my 2008 visit.)

Legend has it that my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe was discovered by the Racquet Club of Palm Springs’ pool. (You can see the pool in the pictures below, which were also taken during my 2008 stalk.) As the story goes, photographer Bruno Bernard brought a blue bikini-clad Marilyn to the club as his guest and snapped images of her standing in heels on the property’s diving board. It did not take long for William Morris agent Johnny Hyde to sit up and take notice. He became enamored with the young starlet and quickly took her under his wing. The rest is history. You can read a story about the Racquet Club encounter, told by Bernard’s daughter, here.

The Racquet Club went through a succession of different owners in its later years and, though its popularity had waned, it continued to be successful for the most part. In 1977, the site was purchased by M. Larry Lawrence, the same real estate developer who in 1973 restored San Diego’s Hotel Del Coronado (another Marilyn Monroe locale) and turned it into a premiere destination. Lawrence did not have the same luck with his Palm Springs acquisition. In 1986, he decided to open the property to the public. The club’s heyday had long since passed, but its loss of exclusivity delivered the final blow. The bungalows were eventually auctioned off to individual buyers. The public areas were then sold in 1999 to developer Bernard Rosenson who planned to turn the premises into a gay and lesbian retirement community. Rosenson spent three years and millions of dollars restoring the historic club, but his idea never took off and the site was shuttered in 2003. At some point thereafter, it went into foreclosure and was taken over by the bank.

New owners purchased the club from the bank in 2011 and, while there were talks of restoring it, it has been left untouched ever since, sitting vacant and dilapidated with no sign as to what its future holds. I sincerely hope someone steps in soon to rehabilitate the historic property. I, for one, would love to sip a Bloody Mary in the very room where the drink was created and jump off the very diving board on which Marilyn Monroe was discovered.

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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Racquet Club of Palm Springs is located at 2743 North Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.

July 1, 2014June 30, 2014

Marilyn Monroe’s Former Burbank Apartment Building

Shortly before I headed to Los Angeles for my weeklong birthday celebration with out-of-town friends Kim, Lavonna, Katie and Kaylee (that’s Katie and Kaylee in the above pic), I came across a Curbed post that mapped 43 properties where my girl Marilyn Monroe once lived. The blurb practically had me foaming at the mouth, obvs. I immediately sent the link to Lavonna and she added several of the addresses to her To-Stalk list, one of which was an apartment building located directly across the street from Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank. Since the girls had already scheduled a WB VIP Tour for the trip, this particular locale was quite convenient and we included a stalk of it on that day’s itinerary.

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Prior to reading the Curbed post, I had no idea that Marilyn had ever called Burbank home. According to the article, she lived in an apartment building at 131 South Avon Street for a very brief period during the summer of 1947 in what seemed to be some sort of house-sitting arrangement.

Per Realtor.com (and several other websites), the 13,283-square-foot structure (which I believe is comprised of 13 units) was originally built in 1835 – 179 years ago. Yeah, that seems a bit ridiculous to me, too. My guess is that the 1835 date is a typo (that somehow got picked up by numerous sources) and that the building was actually constructed in 1935.

Realtor.com also notes that the property was renovated in 1995. As you can see below, it definitely seems to have received a facelift at some point because the façade looks rather modern, especially the front doors and windows.

Because the building does look so new, I had originally wondered if Marilyn’s former domicile had been torn down at some point and a different edifice built in its place. That does not appear to have been the case, though. Pictured below is a 1972 aerial view of the property, as well as a current one. As you can see, the structure of the building seems to be the same in both images. Which means that Marilyn’s former home is actually still standing! How incredibly cool is that?

A peek inside the front doors – courtesy of Lavonna. Someone needs to tell the person in 102 that it’s time for the Christmas bow to come down.

Marilyn’s former Burbank home is located two doors north of the “fake Fendi” building from Sex and the City, so we also did a little stalking of that locale. And while we didn’t have any Fendi on us at the time, we were packing some Louis Vuitton (none of it fake, mmmkay!), so we just had to pose for a picture with it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s former apartment building is located at 131 South Avon Street in Burbank. The fake Fendi building from Sex and the City is located two doors south at 141 South Avon Street.

February 25, 2014February 24, 2014

The Wrong-Door Raid Apartments

One of the most infamous (and humorous) scandals to ever rock Tinseltown involved my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe and her second ex-husband, legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio. (Their relationship wasn’t always sunshine and roses.) Known as the Wrong-Door Raid, it occurred in the late night hours of November 5th, 1954, but did not become public knowledge until almost a year later. I stalked the apartment building where the raid took place – at 8122 Waring Avenue in West Hollywood – last summer, initially planning to blog about it as a Haunted Hollywood locale. As I got to researching the events of that evening, though, I realized they were far more comical than scary and decided to postpone the post until now.

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After a scant 274 days of marriage, Joe and Marilyn divorced on October 27th, 1954. Convinced the starlet was finding solace in another man’s arms (namely her voice coach, Hal Schaefer), DiMaggio hired private detective Barney Ruditsky to tail her. On the night of November 5th, Ruditsky gave DiMaggio some news – Marilyn had just arrived at an apartment building on Waring Avenue in West Hollywood, quite possibly to meet up with a paramour. Joltin’ Joe was dining at the Villa Capri with close friend Frank Sinatra at the time and, hoping to catch Marilyn in the act, the two men rushed out of the restaurant and headed over to West Hollywood. (What they planned to do when they “caught” her is unclear.) On the sidewalk outside of the building, they met up with Ruditsky and a second private eye named Philip Irwin. Some other cohorts were also apparently on the scene, but reports vary as to who. Camera (as well as, supposedly, an ax) in hand, the men broke down the back door of one of the building’s ground floor units shortly after 11 p.m. and stormed inside. They did not find Marilyn, though. Instead, they surprised a spinster named Florence Kotz, who had been asleep in her bed. The group had somehow mistakenly entered the wrong apartment. Marilyn was in an upstairs unit with her friend Sheila Stewart (and quite possibly Schaefer as well, although that has not been proven) during the incident.

Florence immediately called the police, but the perpetrators had already run off, disappearing into the night. Not much was made of the events and the poor woman was left wondering why a group of strange men had broken down her door and taken a photograph of her in bed. Then in September 1955, Confidential magazine published an article telling the true story behind the raid. The sh*t quickly hit the proverbial fan. Frank was eventually served a subpoena on February 16th, 1957 at his Palm Springs home via two detectives who, in a karmic twist, knocked on his front door at 4 a.m., waking him up. Ironically, he filed a complaint. He later testified that he was a participant in the Wrong-Door Raid, but had never entered Florence’s apartment, choosing instead to stay behind in the car. His version of events was largely disputed, though. No one was ever prosecuted for the crime, but Florence did sue the group for $200,000, eventually settling for $7,500.

All I can think when reading about the events of the Wrong-Door Raid night is, ‘What a bunch of morons!’ Love makes people do crazy, ridiculous things, I guess. As Amanda Peet said in fave movie A Lot Like Love, “If you’re not willing to sound [or act, in this case] stupid, you don’t deserve to be in love.”

Years later, Schaefer came forward and “confessed” that he had been with Marilyn in Sheila’s apartment that night. I tend not to believe him, though. While he might well have been in Sheila’s home, I highly doubt it was because Monroe had any romantic interest in him. The guy seems like a total creeper – especially in the video below when describing the events that took place in the hospital with Marilyn following his suicide attempt.

There are several differing reports as to which unit DiMaggio and Sinatra actually broke into and which unit Marilyn was actually in during the raid, but according to the book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, written by fellow stalker E.J. of The Movieland Directory, Florence’s apartment was the one located at 754 North Kilkea Drive.

And Sheila’s apartment was the one at 8122 Waring Avenue.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Wrong-Door Raid apartments are located at 8120/8122 Waring Avenue/754 N. Kilkea Drive in West Hollywood.

February 14, 2014February 14, 2014

Parisian Florist – The Flower Shop Joe DiMaggio Used to Send Roses to Marilyn Monroe’s Gravesite for 20 Years

As a child, I remember often hearing about the weekly delivery of roses that Joe DiMaggio sent to the grave of his former wife, Miss Marilyn Monroe, for two full decades. This was long before my obsession with the blonde bombshell had taken hold, but the gesture stuck with me as an extraordinary act of love, the ultimate valentine, if you will – especially considering that The Yankee Clipper was married to the starlet for less than a year. So when I recently came across the address of the florist that supplied those roses in the book Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here, I figured there was no better time to blog about the place than today, and ran right out to stalk it.

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Parisian Florist has been standing at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and North Sierra Bonita Avenue since it first opened in 1924 (yep, ninety years ago!). Brothers Louis and Max Alhanati purchased the business in 1960, becoming its third owners. It is still run by the Alhanati family to this day. Thanks to its location and plethora of luscious blooms, the shop became popular with the Hollywood set from the outset. Just a few of the luminaries who regularly ordered from Parisian Florist include Jackie Gleason, Clifton Webb, Raymond Burr, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Robert Mitchum, Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Janet Gaynor, Rock Hudson, Charles Laughton, and Telly Savalas. The site was also a favorite of Marilyn’s. So, on August 7th, 1962, Joe contacted Parisian Florist and asked Louis to design a casket blanket for the starlet’s funeral. He also ordered several floral wreaths, hearts, and crosses to be placed at her crypt. Louis’ designs were the only arrangements Joe allowed at the ceremony.

Shortly following the funeral, Joe again contacted Louis and asked that six roses be delivered to Marilyn’s final resting place thrice weekly. His original order stated, “Six fresh long-stemmed red roses, three times a week . . . forever.” For the next twenty years, a half dozen French Baccara blooms were placed each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Marilyn’s crypt at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, for which Joe was billed annually. (Amazingly, Louis never once raised the price on him.) According to this Ellensburg Daily Record article, for unknown reasons DiMaggio requested that the deliveries be reduced to twice weekly in early 1962 (every Tuesday and Saturday). Shortly thereafter, he cancelled the order altogether. Per this Lakeland Ledger article, the last six flowers were sent to Marilyn’s grave on August 31st, 1982. Of the halt, Louis said, “I really don’t know why it was 20 years. He gave me no reason.” More than 18,000 roses were delivered in all over the twenty-year period. As I said, it was the ultimate valentine.

Blonde that I am, when I walked into Parisian Florist I asked the woman working if I was indeed at the shop that had supplied Marilyn’s gravesite roses. She smiled and pointed upwards. While I typically consider myself to be an observant person, I must have been wearing a bag over my head that particular day because I somehow missed the huge display above the main desk commemorating DiMaggio’s weekly deliveries.

The people at Parisian Florist could NOT have been nicer and the woman I spoke with (whom I believe is Alhanati’s daughter) even brought out a baseball that Joe had signed for Louis. I literally just about passed out upon seeing it! The autograph reads, “To Louis, the Flower Man. Best Wishes, Joe DiMaggio.”

Parisian Florist had the most gorgeous hydrangeas on display when I was there (I am a sucker for hydrangeas and peonies). Sadly, because I was going to be out and about for several hours that day, I was not able to purchase any. If we still lived in the L.A. area, though, I sure know where my Valentine’s Day flowers would be coming from. Winking smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Parisian Florist, where Joe DiMaggio ordered weekly flowers for Marilyn Monroe’s gravesite for twenty years, is located at 7528 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the florist’s official website here.

May 31, 2012December 6, 2013

The Sand Acre Estate – Where Marilyn Monroe is Rumored to Have Vacationed

A few weeks ago, while doing research on Seward Johnson’s “Forever Marilyn” statue, which I blogged about yesterday, I came across a press release posted on the Visit Palm Springs website and just about passed out over the mention of a desert-area MM location that I had never before heard of! The press release stated, “Marilyn Monroe has many legendary ties to Palm Springs. To name a few, she was photographed and “discovered” by Johnny Hyde from the William Morris Agency at Charlie Farrell’s Racquet Club. She was also rumored to have frequented a Movie Colony estate with Joe DiMaggio, currently known as the Sand Acre Estate, and owned a 1950’s bungalow-style house in Las Palmas.” While I had stalked and blogged about both Charlie Farrell’s Racquet Club and Marilyn’s Las Palmas home, I had somehow never before even heard of the Sand Acre Estate! So I immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there this past Friday afternoon while visiting my parents in the desert.

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When we pulled up to the Sand Acre Estate, which is located in Palm Springs’ Movie Colony neighborhood (LOVE that name!), I was shocked to discover the sheer enormity of the place! As you can see below, it is absolutely gargantuan! And I was even more shocked to discover that the manse is located directly across the street from Cary Grant’s former desert home, which I stalked back in July of last year. How in the heck had I not known about this place??

The Sand Acre Estate, which is currently a vacation rental and special events venue, is surrounded by a tall stucco wall that is topped by even taller hedges making the place extremely private and hidden from view. The stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon us that day, though, because the front gate happened to be standing wide open when we arrived, affording us a tiny peek at the site’s magnificent grounds.

The 3,434-square-foot Spanish-style dwelling, which was originally built in 1933 and recently underwent a year-long restoration, boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, exposed beam ceilings, a media room, a large gourmet kitchen, a carriage suite complete with its own bedroom, a tennis court, a pool and Jacuzzi, numerous en-suite wood-burning fireplaces, a gym, and a 1.02-acre corner plot of land.

As you can see below, the property also boasts some breathtaking views of the San Jacinto Mountains. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the home here.

The rumors of Marilyn and Joe vacationing at the Sand Acre Estate are, sadly, just that – rumors. Because there is nothing concrete to prove that the couple ever set foot on the premises, Larry Rener, who manages the property, is quoted as saying, “We go with the rumor.” The tower-shaped area pictured below is the room where Marilyn and Joe are purported to have stayed during their frequent visits. And while I am not sure what the starlet’s link to the property was, if one ever even existed, it is definitely easy to picture her vacationing there, unwinding by the pool with her new husband while protected from the prying eyes of the ever-present and hounding media. Besides Marilyn, the Sand Acre Estate also has another Hollywood connection – Linda Gray, Donna Mills, and Morgan Fairchild once posed for a photo shoot there for the cover story of Palm Springs Life magazine’s January 2009 issue.

And on a very exciting side-note – fellow stalker Lavonna texted me on Friday afternoon to let me know that my fan question for Colin Egglesfield on Extra had finally aired! Whoo hoo!

As you can see below, I had quite a bit of fun watching the filming, especially when Colin showed us his AMAZE-BALLS Tom Cruise impersonation. Big THANK YOU to Lavonna for telling me about the episode and for making the screen captures that appear in this post.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Sand Acre Estate, where Marilyn Monroe is said to have vacationed with Joe DiMaggio, is located at 953 North Avenida Palmas in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s vacation rental website here. Cary Grant’s former desert home is located right across the street at 928 North Avenida Palmas.