Michael Jackson videos – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 30, 2010September 6, 2017

The Probable “Beat It” Diner, Part II

[UPDATE – The Monte Carlo Restaurant is NOT where “Beat It” was filmed. The iconic video was actually shot at the Special Café, located just a few blocks away. You can read all about it here. Even though this post contains erroneous information, I am leaving it up as it chronicles an important part of the long, arduous journey my fellow stalkers and I embarked upon to track the locale down.]

This past Friday, after yet another doctor appointment in Downtown L.A., my dad and I stopped by the Monte Carlo Restaurant, aka the (probable) diner which appeared in Michael Jackson’s 1983 music video for his hit song “Beat It”. Our mission that day – and yes, we chose to accept it 😉 – was two-fold. First, I wanted to take more interior photographs of the place in the hopes that I would be able to find some small element which matched what appeared in the video so that I could finally confirm or deny once and for all whether or not “Beat It” had actually been filmed there. Second, I wanted to take a closer look at the restaurant’s “Open/Closed” sign to see if it was, in fact, the same exact one which was featured in the video, as fellow stalker John had speculated in a comment in my last post on the Monte Carlo. If it was, my plan was to ask the owner if we could swap it out with a new sign that my dad had purchased so that I could take the “Beat It” sign home as a souvenir. Upon closer inspection, though, the sign which is currently displayed in the window of the Monte Carlo Restaurant is brand, spanking new and is in far too good of shape and is far too clean to possibly be the same sign which hung there 27 years ago. But . . .

. . . as luck would have it, while we were dining my dad did happen to spot a loose linoleum floor tile that someone had propped up against the wall near where we were sitting, so he snagged it on our way out the door. I’m really not kidding – he actually walked out of the restaurant with a floor tile in his hand!!!! LOL And while I’m still not even sure if “Beat It” was actually filmed at the Monte Carlo or, if it was, if that particular floor tile was in place at the time, it’s still a pretty cool relic to have. But, while I did walk away with a nifty souvenir, sadly the first part of our mission was not achieved as we didn’t get any sort of confirmation about “Beat It” being filmed on the premises. In fact, if it’s possible, I am even MORE confused now than I was before! This was actually a particularly frustrating stalk for me. The woman who owns the Monte Carlo is Chinese and speaks very little English and I can’t tell you how difficult it is to know that she has all of the answers I am seeking, yet not be able to fully communicate with her. I am dying to bring someone into the restaurant who speaks Chinese fluently who could translate our conversation as I think it would finally put an end to all of our doubts and questions about the “Monte Carlo” being the “Beat It” cafe. Any volunteers??? Anyway, to aid in my conversation with the owner, I showed her some screen captures from “Beat It” that I had stored on my cell phone. Well, let me tell you, she just about had a heart attack right then and there! She was practically screaming over the pictures and kept saying “My restaurant! My restaurant! Oh my God, my restaurant!” She immediately grabbed my phone and proceeded to show the pictures on it to all of the people who were working the breakfast shift and all of the patrons who were dining at the time. She then came back over to me and, from what I could best understand, said that she had been made to leave the restaurant during the filming of “Beat It”, so she never got to meet or even see Michael. She also explained that she had never actually watched the video before – which I found very odd. If the biggest superstar in the world filmed a video in your cafe, wouldn’t you not only have seen said video, but also bought a copy of it? So, while it was extremely cute to see her get so excited over the pictures of Michael standing in her restaurant, it really gives me pause that she had never seen “Beat It’” before. Because of the communication barrier, though, I wasn’t able to ask her why that was. Like I said before, I really need to get a translator in there!

I did spot a few landmarks of sorts while my dad and I were at the Monte Carlo that match up with what appeared in the video – one of which was the conduit pipe which runs horizontally along the restaurant’s south wall. I am ashamed to admit that I actually never noticed the pipe in the video until fellow stalker David from Spain pointed it out to me a couple of weeks ago when I posted my first write-up on the “Beat It” cafe. So, this past Friday while stalking the restaurant I made sure to look to see if that pipe was there in real life, too, which it was! YAY! That’s a pretty big confirmation, at least in my eyes, that the Monte Carlo is, in fact, the same place that appeared in “Beat It”.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the lower portion of the wall next to the restaurant’s entrance also matches the lower portion of the wall that appeared in the video. It is apparent that the area of the wall closest to the floor was once painted a lighter shade of green, as was the case in “Beat It”. The flooring also appears to be worn in pretty much the exact same spots as it was in the video. But, again, I would expect that sort of wear and tear in an old restaurant.

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My dad took some photographs from close to the same angle from which “Beat It” was filmed so that I could try to match up certain aspects of the Monte Carlo to the “Beat It” cafe, but I am still unable to say whether or not it’s the same place. I’d love to hear the opinions of my fellow stalkers, though. 🙂

In a very ironic twist of fate, fellow stalker David from Spain was recently watching videos at a party and almost fell off his chair when he noticed a familiar site in the 2004 Hoobastank video for the song “The Reason”. That familiar site just so happened to be the Monte Carlo! Yes, “The Reason” was filmed on location outside of the probable “Beat It” diner!!!! Honestly, what are the odds of that? What amazed me most about the whole thing, though, was how much of the restaurant has changed in the six short years since the video was filmed. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the exterior is almost unrecognizable. In fact, if the “Monte Carlo” name hadn’t been displayed outside, I wouldn’t have believed it was the same place! Apparently, at the time “The Reason” was filmed the restaurant had a green metal roof, a green metal overhang/awing, and completely different exterior signage, all of which is now gone, which got me to thinking – if that much has changed in six short years, imagine the myriad of changes that have occurred in the twenty-seven years since “Beat It” was filmed. I mean, it’s no wonder the cafe looks so different today than it did in the video.

On a Michael Jackson side note – I recently became obsessed with tracking down and purchasing the SUPER CUTE rhinestone-encrusted MJ T-shirt that comedian Jo Koy wore last week on the Chelsea Lately show (pictured above). Thankfully, after the episode aired Jo twittered about where one could purchase said shirt and I immediately did. 🙂 The tee was created by a company named Broke2 and costs $40. Not a bad deal, at all! I had a feeling that some fellow MJ-obsessed stalkers might also be interested in the shirt. If so, you can pick one up here. They come in both women’s and men’s styles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The probable “Beat It” diner, aka the Monte Carlo Restaurant, is located at 109 East Fifth Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Please remember that the cafe is not located in the safest of areas, so exercise caution when stalking it.

March 26, 2010April 20, 2010

The (Probable) Warehouse from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” Video

Another day, another “Beat It” locale! After tracking down the probable diner that appeared in “Beat It”, I set my sights on locating the warehouse which was also featured in Michael Jackson’s iconic 1983 music video. And I really have to say a big thank you to my friend and fellow stalker David in Spain before I go any further with this post because had he not informed me that the “Beat It” diner was located somewhere on Fifth Street in Downtown Los Angeles’ skid row area, I doubt any of us would have ever been able to track down the other locales featured in the short film. Finding these locations has been like a veritable domino effect, one locale leading to the next and to the next and to the next, all thanks to that original clue that David emailed me a few weeks back. So, thank you, David! Anyway, two weeks ago I was at my parents house watching my dad’s Michael Jackson’s Number Ones DVD trying to figure out where the “Beat It” warehouse was located, when my dad spotted an address number of 1013 (pictured above) painted on the building’s exterior wall. I immediately sent that information out to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, David in Spain, and another fellow stalker named David who lives right here in the U.S. (the very same David who tracked down the Martini house from It’s A Wonderful Life which I blogged about back in December). Well, it wasn’t an hour later that David from America (is this getting confusing yet? ;)) emailed me back with the warehouse’s location – 1013 Fifth Street – which is the very same street where the “Beat It” diner and former pool hall/now grocery store can be found! So, I immediately dragged my dad right out to stalk the place. THANK YOU, DAVID!

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As the word “probable” in the title of this post implies and as was the case with the diner, I can’t say with absolute, one hundred percent certainty that the warehouse David found is the actual “Beat It” warehouse. There are quite a few irrefutable similarities between the building that appeared in the video and the one pictured above, but because almost three decades have passed since filming took place, there are also, of course, some major differences. My gut is telling me that it’s the right spot, and they do say that you should always trust a woman’s intuition, but I just can’t be sure. So, once again, dear readers, I am putting it out there for to you to answer. Let me know what you think after reading this post. Did David find the correct place or should we continue our search? And now, on with the blog! The “Beat It” warehouse is currently occupied by a food distributer known as Jing San Food, Incorporated and all I have to say is THANK GOD my dad was with me on this particular stalk because he somehow managed to not only talk our way into the building, but to also get permission to take photographs of the place! Simply AMAZING! Anyway, according to the people I talked to, Jing San Food moved into the warehouse space two years ago and, unfortunately, no one seemed to know what sort of business occupied the premises before that time. Nor did anyone seem to know anything about “Beat It” being filmed there – if, in fact, it was. Anyway, as you can see in the above photographs, the address number of Jing San Food is actually 458 and not 1013 as we had seen in the video.

But, if you look at the above Google Maps Aerial View of the warehouse you can see that it is located on the corner of Alameda and Fifth Streets. The 458 address number refers to its location on Alameda. As is also referenced in the above map, though, the south side of warehouse is situated on the 1000 block of Fifth Street, on the odd-numbered side of the street, which means that it is very possible that way back in 1983, the year “Beat It” was filmed, the warehouse could have been numbered 1013. I am guessing that the building was divided up and leased to more than one tenant at that time, which would have required there to be more than one address number. Because the building is only occupied by one tenant today, those multiple address numbers would be redundant and unnecessary. I am guessing that they did away with the Fifth Street numbers and just kept the Alameda Street address once the new tenants moved in. But, again, that is entirely a guess on my part.

Amazingly enough, though, I did spot a “0” posted on the Fifth Street side of the warehouse – which seems to be a left over address number from quite some time ago and absolutely cements my belief that that particular part of the building was numbered 1013 at one time. So, that’s one thing we’ve got going in our favor.

The next, and quite possibly biggest, thing we’ve got going for us is the cement staircase which leads up to the warehouse. As you can see it is a pretty exact match to the one which appeared in “Beat It”. The warehouse doors have changed and there is now a makeshift doorway in one of the bays (which you can see more pictures of later on in this post) . . .

. . . but otherwise this part of the exterior looks pretty darn similar to the “Beat It” warehouse exterior.

The windows which appear across the street from the warehouse are also pretty darn spot on to the windows which appear across the street in “Beat It”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t match up the exact angle that appeared in the video as there were by no stretch of the imagination at least fifteen big rig trucks parked out on the street in front of the warehouse blocking my view.

Yet another thing we’ve got going in our favor is the fact that the warehouse in the “Beat It” video has an awning of some sort on its exterior and the warehouse David found also has remnants of what looks to be a former awning.

The inside of the warehouse, however, is an entirely different story. As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the ceiling of the building does not look at all like the ceiling from “Beat It”. I confirmed with one of the Jing San Food workers that the entire ceiling of the warehouse had been replaced – not redone, but actually replaced – two years ago, before they took over the space, so it would make sense that it wouldn’t match. But I have no way to confirm what the old ceiling looked like and it seems odd to me that someone would actually change the entire shape of the roof from peaked to flat. I mean, it’s possible that that happened, but I can’t say that it’s very likely.

As promised, pictured above is the interior view of the makeshift door that now stands in the “Beat It” bay. As you can see, the door, which did not appear in the video, was quite obviously an add-on to the property and not an original part of the warehouse. It also, sadly, alters the appearance of the interior quite a bit.

While stalking the warehouse, my dad and I tried to locate something that would tie the place to the “Beat It” video – any small remnant that would irrefutably prove that we were in the right place. Sadly, no such remnant was to be found. In the video, it appears that there is some sort of makeshift office space located behind Michael and the gang members. That office space is no longer there, though. My dad said that warehouses typically have some type of coarse office set-up like the one which appeared in “Beat It” and that because it is usually constructed in a rudimentary manner, it would not be at all uncommon for a new tenant to dispose of it.

Part of that rudimentary office space consisted of a second floor area (you can see the stairway leading up to it in the above screen capture).

At first blush I wouldn’t think that the warehouse I visited would have been tall enough to house a second floor, but as you can see in the above photographs, the tenants are currently having one installed! So, it actually is possible and is, in fact, being done!

The chipped up cement floor of the warehouse is also very similar to the one which appeared in “Beat It”, but then again I would expect the floor of any heavily trafficked warehouse to have that same worn-in appearance.

So, like I said earlier, I am putting it to you to decide, dear readers. Have we found the warehouse? If David was right and this is in fact the actual “Beat It” warehouse, it is absolutely mind-boggling to me that I was in the exact spot where the King of Pop made music history almost three decades prior. That warehouse floor is definitely hallowed ground and I can’t even believe I was able to stand on it!

David was also able to track down the probable manhole cover that the gang members came out of at the beginning of “Beat It”. And I just have to say here that that particular part of the video never really made sense to me. What, do these guys live underground? Just hang out there? LOL Even as a child I can remember wondering why people would be coming up out of the ground like that. But I digress.

We believe the manhole cover is located just east of the warehouse in the middle of the intersection of East Fifth and Seaton Streets. This particular location will be the toughest of them all to prove, though, because . . . well . . it’s a manhole cover. Such covers are located all over the city, pretty much all look exactly the same, and, unfortunately, aside from a nearby set of train tracks, there aren’t really any landmarks seen in the “Beat It’” video with which to distinguish it. But, due to its close proximity to the warehouse and a set of train tracks. I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that the manhole cover pictured above is the one which appeared in “Beat It”.

Big THANK YOU to David (from America) for finding this location and to David (from Spain) for setting off the entire “Beat It” chain of events! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The probable “Beat It” warehouse, aka the Jing San Food, Inc. warehouse, is located at 458 South Alameda Street, at the corner of Alameda and East Fifth Streets, in Downtown Los Angeles. The probable manhole cover is located at the intersection of East Fifth and Seaton Streets, just due east of the warehouse.

March 25, 2010April 20, 2010

The Alley from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” Music Video

Last week, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, stumbled upon an article about Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” music video written by a journalist named Sylvie Simmons who was actually on the set with the pop star during the legendary filming. The article, which was published in a 1983 issue of “Creem Magazine”, begins with the following sentences, “Downtown between the Pacific American Fish Co. and the Hotel St. Agnes Hospitality Kitchen there’s an alley. Cars block each end, no escape. And, silhouetted in the car headlights, two rival LA gangs are swaggering towards each other.” She was, of course, speaking about the scene in the beginning of the “Beat It” video in which two groups of opposing gang members are shown walking down a dark alley. Well, once Mike and I read Sylvie’s words, we immediately started Googling the terms “Hotel St. Agnes Hospitality Kitchen” and “Pacific American Fish Company” to see if we might be able to track down the historic alley that supposedly ran between them. I was actually thinking that this particular find would be an easy one – a slam dunk, if you will – but alas that was not the case at all. Unfortunately, because 27 years have passed since the iconic video was filmed on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, we both came up completely empty handed. As far as we could tell, both the Hotel St. Agnes Hospitality Kitchen and the Pacific American Fish Company had long since either moved to new locales or been shut down entirely. But, thankfully, Mike had a pretty big ace up his sleeve, so our “Beat It” alley search didn’t end there.

As they say in battles, “When all else fails, call for reinforcements!”, which is exactly what Mike did. As luck would have it, Mike happens to know an LAPD officer named Rudy who has worked in the skid row area of Downtown Los Angeles for years. So, Mike immediately called up Rudy and asked if he might be able to track down the fish market’s former location. And, sure enough, he did! The former Pacific American Fish Company headquarters (pictured above) is located at 620 South Gladys Avenue, just a few short blocks from where both the “Beat It” diner and pool hall scenes were filmed. Unfortunately, though, neither of us could find any sort of alleyway or hotel near the former fish company building. It was then that I decided to expand my search.

Using Google Street View I wandered a block north of the former Pacific American Fish Company and stumbled upon a building with a sign posted above its entrance which read “Hotel Saint Agnes”. Eureka! I was extremely surprised to discover, though, that the fish company and the hotel were separated not only by several hundred feet, but by a large street, as well. I had taken Simmons’ words to mean that the two buildings were located directly next door to each other and that the alley could be found right in the middle of them. In reality, though, she was describing an alley located at a point somewhere in between two places that I am guessing at the time were area landmarks. So, I immediately started looking at all of the alleys that are situated in the space between the Hotel St. Agnes and the former fish market and fairly quickly came across one which looked like it could be the “Beat It” locale. And, sure enough, it was! YAY! So, yesterday, on the way home from taking my dad to a doctor appointment, the two of us stopped in Downtown Los Angeles to finally do a little stalking of the famous “Beat It” alley!

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The “Beat It” alley actually shows up just once in the video and only for a very brief second, but to me the location is still iconic. And, amazingly enough, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, it still looks almost EXACTLY the same today as it did 27 years ago when “Beat It” was filmed!

There are, of course, some differences, such as the fact that, for whatever reason, the Saint Agnes Hotel has since added rows of windows along its side.

But the shape and position of the buildings and telephone poles in the background of the video as compared to real life are an almost perfect match. Whoo-hoo! The distance from the street to the buildings that border the alleyway is a bit off, as you can see in the above pictures, but I have noticed that movie cameras have a tendency to distort proximities, for whatever reason. Objects in camera are not as close as they appear. 😉

What struck me the most about the alley, though, was the fact that the big grey pipe shown running down the side of the Hotel Saint Agnes in “Beat It’” is STILL there to this day, over two and a half decades later! SO DARN COOL!

The other alleyway, that the rival gang is shown walking down in “Beat It”, is, I believe, located directly across the street from the first one on the west side of South Gladys Avenue. Unfortunately, though, because the images from that scene are so darn dark, I can’t really say for certain that it’s the right spot. Oh, Michael, why couldn’t you have filmed “Beat It” during the day? I realize it wouldn’t have given you the same sort of dangerous effect as filming at night did, but it sure would have made things easier on us stalkers! 😉

And, of course, I just had to do the little “Beat It” gang member finger snap while I was there. I so wanted to look tough in the above picture, but that’s a little hard to do when you’re wearing capri sweatpants and carrying a Louis Vuitton purse. 😉 I am happy to report, though, that while the alley is not in an entirely fabulous area, it’s not nearly bad as where the former pool hall/now grocery store is located. I mean, as you can see, I did get out of the car for this stalk! I wouldn’t, however, recommend visiting this location alone, as it is in a pretty desolate part of town. As always, please exercise caution.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The “Beat It” alley is located on the South 500 block of Gladys Avenue, next to the St. Agnes Hotel which is located at 560 South Gladys Avenue, in Downtown Los Angeles.

March 15, 2010March 15, 2018

The Bar from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” Video

UPDATE: While I originally thought that the video’s pool hall scenes were also shot at this location, that is not the case. The pool segments were actually shot at the Brunswick Billiard Academy, which was formerly located in the basement of the San Fernando Building at 400 South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. I’ve amended the post to reflect this. Special thanks to Michael Scaglione for the information!

This past week, after I tracked down the (probable) “Beat It” diner, I asked fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for his help in locating the bar that also appeared in the iconic 1983 Michael Jackson music video. Chas, who, unlike me, is not afraid of using the telephone ;), immediately called up “Beat It” director Bob Giraldi’s production company in New York City to inquire about the location. Amazingly enough, he got through to an EXTREMELY nice woman who said that she had never been asked that question before, which I find mind boggling! I mean, does no one besides us care about this stuff??? Anyway, the woman looked up the information on her computer and then confirmed with someone in the production office who had worked on the video before telling Chas that the bar scene had been filmed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles. When Chas told me the news I was elated that I finally had a definitive answer, but was thoroughly confused as the bar in the video did not look at all like any of the Hard Rock Cafes I had ever visited. So, I, of course, got to cyberstalking and quickly discovered that back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, there was, in fact, a dive bar located smack dab in the middle of Skid Row that bore the name “Hard Rock Cafe”. The bar is, sadly, no longer in operation, but, as fate would have it, is quite well known in the music industry for reasons having nothing to do with Michael Jackson! On a side note, after I started having doubts about the Monte Carlo Restaurant being the cafe featured in “Beat It”, I asked Chas to once again call up Bob Giraldi’s production company to see if someone could confirm whether or not I had tracked down the right place. Unfortunately, though, a very rude woman answered the phone and told him she could not give out that information. UGH!

According to what I was able to dig up online – and it’s quite a story – back in December of 1969, after The Doors photographer Henry Diltz took his now-famous photograph of the band standing inside of the Morrison Hotel, lead singer Jim Morrison announced that he wanted to grab a drink. So, the group headed a few blocks north to nearby Skid Row, saw an establishment named the “Hard Rock Cafe”, which Diltz described as “a little wino bar on the corner”, and pulled over. While the group sipped on beers, Diltz decided he liked the feel of the place and ended up taking a series of photographs of the band hanging out there. Those shots ended up not only being featured on the back cover of the band’s Morrison Hotel album in 1970, but they even named the A-side of that album “Hard Rock Cafe” in honor of the establishment. But the story doesn’t end there. The following year, a restaurateur named Peter Morton decided to open up a dining establishment in London and because he was such a huge Doors fan, contacted Jim Morrison and asked if he could name his restaurant “Hard Rock Cafe” after their recent album. Jim agreed and Morton’s restaurant quickly became a hit with Londoners. Shortly thereafter, the “Hard Rock Cafe” became a wildly popular worldwide chain, not to mention a household name. And to think the whole thing came about because Jim Morrison was thirsty!

Fourteen years later, the Hard Rock Cafe again made music history when it appeared in Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” music video, in the scene in which a group of gang members is shown leaving a bar to head to a fight.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the front doors which appeared in the Doors photographs from 1969 are a perfect match to those which appeared fourteen years later in “Beat It”.

Also a perfect match are the bar area . . .

. . . and the wall fan seen in the upper right corner of the front of the Cafe.

Sadly, the original Hard Rock Cafe closed its doors about twenty or so years ago and a grocery store named Green Apple Market now stands in its place. But even though the bar is long gone, I still had to run right out to stalk its former location! 🙂 So, this past Friday, on the way home from taking my dad to a doctor appointment in Downtown Los Angeles, the two of us made a little stop in Skid Row at Green Apple Market. Because the market is located in a pretty sketchy area, I was too scared to actually venture inside and instead sent my dad to snap photographs for me, while I waited behind in the car with my doors locked. 😉 As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the exterior of the grocery store bears little resemblance to the exterior of the Hard Rock Cafe which once occupied the same space. The location of the front doors and front windows are about the only two things that remain the same.

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The owner of the store confirmed for my dad that a bar had once occupied the space about twenty years prior and that after it closed a salon had moved in. That salon went out of business just recently at which point the Green Apple Market took over. For whatever reason, though, the store is only using a portion of the premises, which, according to my dad measures a good 6000 – 7000 square feet. And while the owner seemed to know quite a bit about the location’s history, she had no idea whatsoever that Michael Jackson had filmed “Beat It” on the premises some 27 years prior! And, sadly, there are no remnants whatsoever of the former Hard Rock Cafe left on the property. I was hoping for some small piece of the bar – i.e. the paint on the walls, the flooring, the shape of the ceiling, etc – to still be visible, but, alas, that was not to be. The owner was apparently very nice, though, and told my dad to feel free to take as many pictures as he wanted. YAY! The above two pictures were taken from the back of the store looking forward towards the market’s left wall. The front door is located just to the right and center of the main counter pictured above.

The above photograph shows the view from the back of the store looking forward towards the front doors. The cashier counter is located to the left of this picture.

The above pictured view was taken from the front of the store, looking towards the back. Because the space is not very deep, my dad believes the back wall is actually a false wall that was added after the Hard Rock Cafe closed its doors.

My dad snapped the picture of this particular wall because I had told him that the “Beat It” bar was partially painted green, but alas it was not the same shade of green that colors the store now. 🙁 The ice machine pictured above is located at the very back, right hand side of the store.

Most of that space where the Green Apple Market is now located is currently empty. The vacant room pictured above is situated to the right of the store’s front doors.

The empty deli case pictured above is located on the back side of that vacant room . . .

. . . and pictured above is what is located just around the corner from the empty deli case in the rear area of the store. I soooo regret not going inside the market with my dad and am seriously thinking of going back to re-stalk the place. He did tell me something that gives me reservations about doing so, though. Apparently while he was inside the store, a man came up to him and asked if he was the owner. My dad said no, but pointed out the real owner to the man, who then took off running towards her screaming, “So, you’re the $%#@ &$@#! I talked to on the phone!” See what I mean – it’s not in the greatest of areas. 🙁 It’s hard to believe Michael Jackson once spent a few days there, especially considering the area was a lot rougher during the 80s, but I guess he wanted “Beat It” to be as authentic as possible, and you can’t get more authentic than actually filming on Skid Row.

On a side note – The photographs of The Doors which appear in this post do not belong to me, but remain the sole property of the band and photographer Henry Diltz.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for finding this location and to The Doors, without whom there would be no existing photographs of the place.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The old Hard Rock Cafe site, aka the bar from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” music video, is located at 300 East 5th Street in Downtown Los Angeles, just two blocks east of the Monte Carlo Restaurant, aka the (probable) “Beat It” diner. The old Hard Rock Cafe is currently a Green Apple Market grocery store and is unfortunately not located in the safest of areas, so, if you do choose to stalk it, please exercise caution.

July 10, 2009April 20, 2010

Vincent Price in Thriller

At the risk of this site dwelling far too excessively on the recent sad passing of pop star Michael Jackson, I just had to write one more blog post about him. Or, rather, about his legendary music video Thriller and one of its main filming locations.

I received an email last night with the above photograph attached from fellow stalker Marlon, who happened to be driving by the Palace Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles and noticed the words “Michael Jackson Starring in Thriller” posted on the marquee. It seems that in honor of MJ’s passing, the historic theatre restored its marquee to how it appeared in the iconic music video that was filmed there just over twenty-six years ago. Well, sort of. What the Palace marquee actually spelled out in the Thriller video were the words “Vincent Price Thriller” – Vincent Price, of course, being the notable horror film actor who lent his voice to the rap portion of Michael’s famous song. Maybe someone over at the Palace should have watched the video before restoring the marquee! Sheesh! You know, if they had me on staff they would have gotten it right. 🙂 Anyway, let me tell you that after seeing Marlon’s photograph I just about died!!! And, even though it was about 11 O’clock at night, I begged my fiance to run me right over there to see the marquee for myself. He, of course, denied that request, so I had to wait until this morning to make the trek out to Downtown Los Angeles.

Apparently, though, another fastidious MJ fan had informed the Palace of their marquee faux-pas, because by the time I got there they had fixed the wording to read “Vincent Price in Thriller”. Now, I don’t mean to be nit-picky or anything, but for the record in the video there was no “in” written on the marquee. It simply stated “Vincent Price Thriller”, but I guess I have to just let that one slide. 🙂 Extraneous “in” or not, I was still SO excited to see that marquee in person! For a filming locations buff and huge MJ fan, seeing the Palace marquee brought back to the way it was when Thriller was filmed was . . . well, a thrill! 🙂 I could not have been more excited! And what an amazing tribute to Michael!

The Los Angeles Theatre, which did not have a cameo in the Thriller video, but is located right across the street from the Palace, also put up a marquee memorial to Michael.

While stalking the Palace, I managed to snap some photographs of its beautiful Florentine Renaissance style entrance. The theatre’s antique ticket booth, which can be seen in the background of Thriller, has sadly since been removed, but you can see some great photographs of it here.

According to fellow stalker and the author of one of my very favorite stalking books, Harry Medved, the loft area of the Palace was used as Christian Bale’s magic workshop in 2006’s The Prestige and as Jeff Bridge’s art studio in 1998’s The Big Lebowski and the theatre’s back door was used as the entrance to Club Silencio in David Lynch’s oddball movie Mullholland Drive. To learn more about the Palace and its nearly one hundred year history, you can check out the post I wrote about it last October here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Palace Theatre is located at 630 South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. The theatre is currently closed to the public, but you can certainly stalk its exterior. I am not sure how long the Michael Jackson memorial marquee will be left up, but in this stalker’s opinion it should remain there forever. 🙂