movie filming locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

December 10, 2013December 9, 2013

Melrose Avenue from “L.A. Story”

Another L.A. Story location that has been waiting patiently in my stalking backlog is the block of Melrose Avenue where Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) and Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant) walked and talked after attending a fundraiser for a private art museum in the 1991 flick. Unfortunately though, because the movie was lensed over twenty years ago and that area of Melrose has changed quite a bit during the interim, I am unsure of the exact spot where filming took place. But I sure did my best to try to pinpoint it.

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While watching Harris and Sara’s walk-and-talk scene in L.A. Story, I noticed a neon sign in the background that spelled out “Wacko.” Harris had mentioned in the scene that they were wandering down Melrose, so I decided to begin my hunt there and did a Google search for “Wacko” and “Melrose Avenue.” Sure enough, I was led to an April 1997 Los Angeles Times article that stated, “Wacko, a toy and trinket shop with a bizarre inventory ranging from eyeball magnets to ‘mystic smoke for fingertips,’ is famous for its colorful neon name sign that has become an icon of hipness known worldwide.” (I must not be all that hip being that I had been completely unaware of the sign prior to reading the article. Winking smile ) From there, finding the address of the former Wacko storefront – at 7404 Melrose Avenue – was fairly easy.

It was not until later that I realized a street sign for “Martel Avenue” was visible in the background of the scene. My search would have been a whole lot easier had I noticed that earlier! D’oh!

Wacko was originally established in 1984 by entrepreneur/art collector Billy Shire. Shire’s parents had founded the Soap Plant, a boutique specializing in handmade soap, ceramics and leather clothing, in Los Feliz in 1971. In 1980, Billy took over the family business and moved it to a strikingly unique corner building at 7400 Melrose Avenue. The new space was larger, enabling Billy to expand his wares to include jewelry and books. Four years later, when two vacant storefronts located next door to the Soap Plant became available, he opened a “pop culture toy shop” named Wacko, aka “The Second Happiest Place on Earth.” Besides selling Japanese robots, wind-up trinkets and games, Wacko also offered the largest selection of postcards in all of Los Angeles. In 1986, Shire founded an art showplace named La Luz de Jesus Gallery in the space located upstairs from the Soap Plant and Wacko. All three were so successful that nine years later he opened up sister locations in a 6,500-square-foot space at 4633 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Feliz. Sadly, as the Melrose Avenue clientele shifted from punk to hipster in the late ‘90s, his business began to decline and he wound up closing his outposts there in 1997. His Hollywood Boulevard shops are still alive and well, though. Today, Wacko’s former Melrose Avenue home is the site of a boot shop and cell phone store. You can check out what the building looked like during the Wacko days here.

While the former Wacko building was an easy find, I still have not been able to pinpoint the exact storefronts that Harris and Sara walked in front of in L.A. Story. It is clear from the position of Wacko’s neon sign in the scene that the two were on the north side of Melrose Avenue, heading east from the Martel Avenue intersection towards North Fuller Avenue. None of the storefronts on that particular block match up to what appeared onscreen, though.

Granted a lot can change in 22 years time, but I was absolutely certain that I would find something that had remained the same, something that would allow me to identify the exact storefronts. Sadly though, the Grim Cheaper and I walked up and down that particular block of Melrose several times, screen captures in hand, without turning up a single thing.

The storefront that I most wanted to locate was the spot with the neon-decorated three-panel window, where Harris and Sara paused and where Harris uttered his famous line, “So there I was jabbering at her about my new job as a serious newsman – about anything at all – but all I could think was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful, and yet again, wonderful.”

While I originally thought that the window that appeared behind them in the scene was arched, as you can see in the screen capture pictured below (which I lightened a bit), that is not actually the case. Some sort of arched backdrop was used to create that illusion, but in reality the window is rectangular in shape.

My best guess is that the storefront used is the one located at 7365 Melrose Avenue, which now houses Freak Chic Tattoo. That is just a guess, though. While the shop does boast a similarly-shaped three-panel window, because there are no other identifying marks, it is virtually impossible to say for sure.

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: Harris and Sara’s walk-and-talk from L.A. Story took place on the 7300 block of Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles’ Fairfax district. The couple was on the north side of the street in the scene, near the storefronts located at 7377 and 7383, heading east. I believe that Harris and Sara stopped in front of the storefront located at 7365 Melrose Avenue. The former site of Soap Plant and Wacko can be found at 7400/7404 Melrose Avenue. You can visit the Soap Plant/Wacko official website here.

December 9, 2013December 6, 2013

The Former KCET Studios from “L.A. Story”

While perusing through my extensive backlog of stalking photographs recently, I realized that there were a few L.A. Story locales that I had yet to blog about, one of which was the former site of KCET Studios in Los Feliz, where Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) worked in the 1991 comedy. I had actually stalked the spot way back in May, but, for whatever reason, never got around to writing about it. So here goes.

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The 4.5-acre lot located at 4401 Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz has been the site of a moviemaking facility just shy of one hundred years. The first studio to be established there was Lubin Manufacturing Company in 1912, which was founded by film producer Siegmund Lubin to create educational videos. After he sold the location in 1913, it changed hands numerous times and then was eventually purchased by an actor named Charles Ray in 1920. Ray built several red brick structures on the premises, most of which still stand to this day. He also constructed a cutting-edge soundstage with a glass-enclosed stage, glass roof, removable sides, a water tank, and extensive electrical equipment. Amazingly, that soundstage, known as Studio A, is still currently in use. When Charles Ray Productions went bankrupt in 1923, the locale again went through a succession of different owners including Monogram Pictures, Allied Artists, and ColorVision. In 1971, KCET purchased the facility for $800,000. The company remained there for the next 40 years.

The studio, which was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1978, was acquired by the Church of Scientology to be used as one of their “production of religious and social betterment audiovisual properties” in April 2011.

In L.A. Story, KCET Studios stood in for the KYOY 14 news facilities. The exterior of the structure was shown in one of the movie’s opening scenes, in which Harris arrived at work to give his daily wacky weather report. In the scene, he drove through the studio’s east entrance, which is located near 1441 North Hoover Street.

I am fairly certain that the area where Harris parked his car in the scene is on the studio’s north side, near the intersection of Sunset Drive and North Commonwealth Avenue. I could not match the exact angle of the screen capture below being that the spot where Harris parked is located on the studio grounds, but I believe the street visible behind him is North Commonwealth Avenue.

And that the satellite pictured below is the one he parked next to.

The interior of one of the studio’s soundstages was also used as the KYOY 14 news set in the film.

Thanks to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, I learned that the exterior of the former KCET Studios was also featured as the City Emergency Hospital where Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) was evaluated in the 1956 horror flick Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I believe that the area used as the hospital entrance is the gate located near 4368 Sunset Drive, just east of where Harris parked his car in L.A. Story.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The former KCET Studios, from L.A. Story, is located at 4401 Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz. The entrance that Harris drove through in the flick can be found near 1441 North Hoover Street, in between Fountain Avenue and Sunset Drive. The area where he parked is located just south of the intersection of Sunset Drive and North Commonwealth Avenue. The City Emergency Hospital gate from Invasion of the Body Snatchers can be found near 4368 Sunset Drive, slightly east of where Harris parked his car in L.A. Story.

November 19, 2013November 18, 2013

The Stuart Building from “That Thing You Do!”

Back in early October, upon returning home from doing some That Thing You Do! stalking in Orange (you can read my posts on the locations I stalked here, here and here), I popped in my DVD of the 1996 flick to re-watch it for the first time in years. I was absolutely shocked – and floored – to discover in the course of the viewing that The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa, an architecturally-stunning Pasadena apartment complex that I toured while house-hunting in 2006, had been featured in the movie. Because I had not taken any photos of The Stuart during the tour, I ran right out to re-stalk the place while I was in L.A. last week.

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The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa was originally constructed as the Stuart Pharmaceutical Company’s (they created Mylanta!) main manufacturing facility and office headquarters in 1958. The New Formalist-style structure, which is set back 150 feet from Foothill Boulevard and which was originally known as the Stuart Company Building, was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone and took two years to complete. (Stone also fashioned Radio City Music Hall in New York and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.) The Stuart’s 9.4-acre grounds were designed by legendary landscape architect Thomas Dolliver Church.

The flat-roofed building, which boasts a cast concrete block screen façade and a large linear reflecting pool with fountains, won the National First Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects and was featured on the cover of Time magazine the year it was completed.

Arthur O. Hanisch, the Stuart Company’s forward-thinking owner, sought comfort for his employees in the construction of the building and assigned several recreational areas to the 35,000-square-foot site, including an atrium with a gorgeous open staircase, a garden court, a dining lounge, a pool, a pool house, a large terrace, and an outdoor shade pavilion. As you can see below, the two-story atrium is pretty darn striking! There’s a reason I remembered it all these years later while watching That Thing You Do!

In 1990, the Stuart Company, which had been named in honor of Arthur O. Hanisch’s son, was purchased by Johnson and Johnson/Merck Pharmaceuticals Co. The Stuart Company Building was shuttered shortly thereafter and, in 1993, was put on the market for $16 million. A year later, it was purchased by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, who intended to bulldoze it and construct a metro station on the property. Thankfully, the Pasadena Heritage group immediately stepped in and nominated the Stuart for National Registry status to protect it from demolition. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. During the interim, while its fate was being decided, the building sat vacant and, sadly, fell victim to vandals and transients. Then, in 2002, the site was purchased by a development company named BRE Properties and a multi-million dollar restoration project was begun. BRE also started construction on an upscale 188-unit apartment complex directly behind the Stuart Building, which became known as The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa. Today, the arresting atrium serves as a leasing office and communal space for residents.

In That Thing You Do!, the Stuart Company Building’s atrium masqueraded as the Play-Tone Records headquarters where The Wonders – Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott), Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech), Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn), and T.B. Player (Ethan Embry) – posed for publicity photos upon first arriving in Los Angeles.

The Stuart Company Building was also featured in the 2000 made-for-television movie If These Walls Could Talk 2, in which it stood in for the fertility center visited by Fran (Sharon Stone) and Kal (Ellen DeGeneres). Several areas of the property were used in the filming, including the atrium;

a hallway;

a waiting room;

and an office.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa, from That Thing You Do!, is located at 3360 East Foothill Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit the complex’s official website here.

November 7, 2013November 6, 2013

Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain from “That Thing You Do!”

Another That Thing You Do! locale that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk while the two of us were in the city of Orange in early October was Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain, which popped up twice in the 1996 flick. And while I really wanted to grab a bite there, sadly the GC and I had just eaten prior to arriving in Orange. It was still extremely cool to see the place, which is Orange County’s oldest drugstore and the city of Orange’s oldest continually operating business, in person, though.

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The pharmacy portion of Watson’s was originally founded on Glassell Street by a pharmacist named Keller E. Watson, Sr. in 1899. Two years later, K.E. Watson’s, as it was then known, was moved around the corner to a building on East Chapman Avenue where it has remained ever since (although it has occupied various different storefronts). In 1915, Keller added a soda fountain to the site and Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain was born. When Keller retired in the 1930s, his son, Keller E. Watson, Jr., took over the operations until he, too, retired in 1965. The shop subsequently went through a succession of different owners and then, in 1971, Scott Parker, a pharmacist from Utah, purchased a portion of it. Scott took over the site completely in 1986 and, while the pharmacy section was closed in 2011, the Parker family still runs the establishment to this day.

As you can see below, walking inside the eatery is like taking a step back in time. Besides serving up hamburgers, shakes and its famous malts, the place also sells gifts and cards, so, of course, I just had to do a little shopping while I was there. Winking smile

Watson Drugs first popped up in That Thing You Do! in the scene in which Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) informed Faye Dolan (Liv Tyler) that he had just accidentally hit her car, which was parked outside. As you can see below, both the exterior and the interior of the shop were dressed heavily for the shoot.

Watson’s later appeared in the scene in which Guy gave Faye and his fellow Wonders – Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech), Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn), and T.B. Player (Ethan Embry) – portable radios so that they would be able to keep an ear out for their song at all times.

Thanks to its old-fashioned charm, Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain has long been a favorite of location managers. In the 1987 made-for-television movie The Stepford Children (which looks pretty good, shockingly!), the diner was where Laura Harding (Barbara Eden) told her husband, Steven Harding (Don Murray), that she wanted to leave Stepford and move to a new town.

In 2004, the interior of Watson’s masqueraded as two different Massachusetts-area locales in the Season 1 episode of Medical Investigation titled “Progeny.” It first stood in for the soda shop where a child named Joey White (Adam Taylor Gordon) had a seizure and collapsed. The space was dressed heavily for the shoot, though, and is not very recognizable in the scene.

And, for whatever reason, producers chose to use a different location to stand in for the shop’s exterior, as you can see below.

Later in the episode, Watson’s popped up as the diner where Dr. Stephen Connor (Neal McDonough) and his team – Dr. Natalie Durant (Kelli Williams), Dr. Miles McCabe (Christopher Gorham), Eva Rossi (Anna Belknap), and Frank Powell (Troy Winbush) – discussed what might be causing Joey’s ailment.

Once again, a different location stood in for the coffee shop’s exterior. That exterior, which was also used as Rosalita’s Bar on the television series Happy Endings, can be found on the Paramount Studios backlot.

In the 2006 comedy The Benchwarmers, Watson Drugs was where Gus (Rob Schneider) met his new statistician, Sammy Sprinkler (Alex Warrick). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the diner were used in the scene.

According to the Filmed in Orange website, Watson’s appeared in Fallen Angel, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the 1945 production with which to make screen captures for this post. And while the eatery’s website asserts that the spot was featured in the 1981 comedy The Cannonball Run, I scanned through the flick and did not see it anywhere. Watson’s website also states that Don Knotts, Shelley Hack and Jimmy Smits have all shot commercials on the premises and that George W. Bush made a stop there to pick up a malt while campaigning for the presidency in 2000.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain, from That Thing You Do!, is located at 116 East Chapman Avenue in Orange. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. Tiddlywinks Toys and Games, aka Patterson’s Appliances from the movie, is located just around the corner at 129 North Glassell Street. The That Thing You Do! mailbox scene was filmed just a few storefronts north of Tiddlywinks, in front of 173 North Glassell Street. The building that was dressed to look like a Woolworths in the flick can be found across the street at 160/162 North Glassell.

November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

Patterson’s Appliances from “That Thing You Do!”

After stalking the downtown Orange spot where the That Thing You Do! mailbox scene was filmed (which I blogged about yesterday), I dragged the Grim Cheaper just a few feet south to stalk the storefront that was used as Patterson’s Appliances, drummer Guy Patterson’s (Tom Everett Scott) family’s shop, in the 1996 flick. Thank goodness for the Seeing Stars website and its That Thing You Do! filming locations page, which had the address of Patterson’s Appliances listed, because, as I mentioned yesterday, my trip to Orange was completely unexpected and I, therefore, had not done any prior research. Which is a shame, too, because, as it turns out, the town, which is easily one of the cutest places I have ever visited, has appeared in countless productions over the years, many of them favorites of mine. (Check out this amazeballs list of the various movies and televisions shows that have been filmed in Orange and the corresponding addresses used. I wish every city would compile a database like that! LOVE IT!) Ah well, it looks like I will just have to make another stalking expedition to Orange someday. Smile

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Patterson’s Appliances was one of the main locations used in That Thing You Do! and the supposed 1960s-era Eerie, Pennsylvania storefront popped up repeatedly throughout the movie. While Orange does have a very old-fashioned feel to it, production designers heavily dressed the area for the shoot, as you can see below. Even without the extra dressing, though, the site is still very recognizable from its onscreen appearance. In fact, being there brought me right back to when I first saw the flick in 1996, which I could NOT have been more excited about.

At the time of the filming, the Patterson’s storefront was vacant, which allowed designers to thoroughly transform it into a 1964 appliance shop, complete with old-fashioned dishwashers, radios and television sets.

Today, the space houses a toy store named Tiddlywinks Toys and Games. Thankfully, the exterior still looks much the same today as it did in November and December 1995 when That Thing You Do! was filmed.

When Tiddlywinks moved in, the owners changed a few aspects of the décor, but for the most part the set-up is still very recognizable from That Thing You Do! Sadly, shops tend to get a little skittish over interior photographs being taken and I did not feel like arguing with anyone on that particular day, so I failed to snap any images of the inside of the place. But you can check out some pictures of the filming, as well as a photo of the interior of the then vacant shop dressed as Patterson’s Appliances, here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Tiddlywinks Toys and Games, aka Patterson’s Appliances from That Thing You Do!, is located at 129 North Glassell Street in Orange. You can visit the store’s official website here. The mailbox scene from That Thing You Do! was filmed just a few storefronts north in front of 173 North Glassell Street. The building that was dressed to look like a Woolworths in the flick can be found across the street at 160/162 North Glassell.

November 5, 2013September 29, 2017

The “That Thing You Do!” Mailbox Scene

Well folks, this post sadly marks the end to my 2013 Haunted Hollywood locales, which is especially depressing because this year was easily the Best. Halloween. Ever. Once again, the GC and I (dressed up as The Bachelorette’s Emily Maynard and Jef Holm) headed out to our friends’ house in Malibu. (And yes, I am aware that Emily and Jef are no longer together, but neither are Brenda and Dylan and we dressed up like them, too, one Halloween. 😉 ) Dick Van Dyke ended up not hosting his usual Halloween shindig this year (you can read about his 2011 fest here and his 2012 fest here), so we went instead to a party that our friends’ friends were having in a different gated community nearby. And let me tell you, it was UH-MA-ZING.

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Not only was every single house in the neighborhood dressed to the nines (I swear, nobody does Halloween like the ‘Bu) . . .

. . . but there were celebrities galore, including none other than Gwyneth Paltrow! The GC actually spotted Gwyneth first and, while I just about died of excitement on the spot, because she was with her children, I restrained myself from asking for a photo. I obsessed about it, though, for the next thirty minutes or so and eventually, without me knowing, the GC went up to her and said, “Gwyneth, could you please take a picture with my wife before her head explodes?” Next thing I knew, there was a tap on my shoulder and GP was standing in front of me, saying “I heard you wanted a photo.” Yeah, I was DYING. And absolutely falling in love with the GC all over again. Smile Gwyneth truly could NOT have been nicer (easily one of the sweetest celebs that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting) and I adore her even more now than I did before. So suck it, Vanity Fair! Winking smile

Also in attendance were Cindy Crawford . . .

. . . and Neil Patrick Harris. Like I said, Best. Halloween. Ever. Not sure how I’m ever going to recover from this one! Here’s hoping next year is just as good. Smile

In the meantime, though, it is back to regular, non-haunted postings here at IAMNOTASTALKER. So here goes! As I mentioned in my post about the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, in early October Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, hosted her bachelorette party at my favorite place in the entire world, Disneyland. Because we did not want to make the long drive back to Palm Springs that night, the GC and I got a hotel room in the area, which turned out to be a fateful decision. The following morning, on our way out of town, I did a GPS search for a nearby Starbucks and when I saw that the closest outpost was located in the city of Orange, I just about had a heart attack as my very favorite movie scene EVER had been filmed in Orange – the mailbox scene from 1996’s That Thing You Do! So I immediately braced the GC for the fact that we would be making a little unexpected stalking detour.

In the scene, Faye Dolan (Liv Tyler) is listening to a portable radio and mailing letters in what is supposedly 1960s downtown Eerie, Pennsylvania, when she hears “That Thing You Do!”, her boyfriend’s band’s song, playing on the radio for the very first time. She starts screaming and runs down the street towards an Army/Navy store where she finds fellow band member T.B. Player (Ethan Embry). The two then race to Patterson’s Appliances, where another band member, Guy Patterson (cutie Tom Everett Scott), works. (I will be blogging about the location of Patterson’s Appliances tomorrow.) Guy turns all the radios in the store to the station playing the song and, shortly thereafter, the other two members of the group, Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech) and Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn), show up and proceed to dance around manically. Liv Tyler is sheer perfection in the scene and it is physically impossible not to be happy while watching it.

You can take a look at the That Thing You Do! mailbox scene by clicking below. Go ahead, try not to smile while watching – I dare you. Winking smile

In the scene, the mailbox was set up in front of an empty storefront located at 173 North Glassell Street, in pretty much the exact spot where the red sandwich board sign is situated in the photograph below.

I found this locale thanks to the Seeing Stars website and my trusty iPhone. As soon as the GC and I arrived in Orange, I watched the scene on YouTube and saw that the mailbox was located across the street from a Woolworth store. Seeing Stars listed the address of the store that masqueraded as Woolworths as 160 North Glassell Street, so from there it was simply a matter of matching up the angles of what appeared onscreen to the real life buildings. You can check out some images of the Woolworths building and the rest of the downtown area dressed for the filming on the City of Orange website here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The mailbox scene from That Thing You Do! was filmed in front of what is now a vacant storefront located at 173 North Glassell Street in Orange. The building that was dressed to look like a Woolworths in the flick can be found across the street at 160/162 North Glassell.

October 21, 2013September 29, 2017

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park from “Alias”

Today’s locale is one of my favorite Haunted Hollywood locations ever! Way back in January 2012, fellow stalker Gilles from France sent me an email asking for some help in tracking down a mosque-like structure that stood in for a Moroccan airport in the Season 1 episode of Alias titled “A Broken Heart.” Gilles included some screen captures in his email and, upon first glance, I guessed that the place was most likely a cemetery. So I did a quick Google search for a mosque-like graveyard in Los Angeles and the first result to be kicked back was Angeles Abbey Memorial Park in Compton. Sure enough, it was the right place. And while I was pretty much drooling upon looking at pictures of the site, because of its location, I avoided stalking it. Then, feeling brave this summer after finally visiting the spot where the Black Dahlia’s body was found, I bit the bullet and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there. And I am very happy to report that it is not located in a dangerous area at all.

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Angeles Abbey Memorial Park was originally established in 1923 by a shipbuilder named George Clegg. The Long Beach native reportedly sent two architects to India for inspiration and, upon their return, had them build a 1,000-crypt mausoleum resembling the Taj Mahal. The Moorish-style structure featured imported Italian marble, intricate tile work, and stained-glass windows and ceilings. Sadly though, as you can see below, the building’s façade is currently blocked by large trees and most of its beauty hidden.

The rear of the structure is visible to passersby, though, and pretty darn amazing in and of itself. And don’t even get me started on the interior! We, unfortunately, did not venture inside any of the mausoleums while stalking Angeles Abbey, but I came upon these stunning photographs while doing research for this post and am now absolutely kicking myself! The interiors are nothing short of stunning! Uh-ma-zing!

Other equally-impressive mausoleums were built in the late 1920s and today, Angeles Abbey Memorial Park is the final resting place for over 35,000 souls.

Sadly though, as Compton began to change in the 1960s, the cemetery fell into disrepair. In 2001, the site was grappling with graffiti, vandalism and gang activity. It appears to be in a bit better shape today, though, thankfully, aside from the acres of dead grass.

Stepping onto the grounds of Angeles Abbey is like stepping into another world. Standing there, I had to remind myself that I was still in L.A. and not in some exotic, far-off locale. It is no wonder the place has so often graced movie and television screens.

Ironically enough, though, Angeles Abbey has rarely appeared onscreen as a cemetery. For having such decidedly unique and ornate architecture, the place is truly a blank canvass – one that production designers have turned into everything from a jail to a palace to a courthouse to an airport. As I mentioned above, the exterior of Abbey Memorial stood in for an airport in Morocco in the Season 1 episode of Alias titled “A Broken Heart.”

In that same episode, the interior of the main mausoleum masqueraded as a a bustling Moroccan marketplace.

It is absolutely amazing to me that production designers were able to so completely transform a freaking mausoleum into a Middle Eastern bazaar! That speaks to both their talent and the beauty of the site.

The cemetery popped up again in the Season 4 episode of Alias titled “Ice.” In the episode, the exteriors . . .

. . . and interiors of Angeles Abbey stood in for the Arabian souk where Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) tried to purchase a deadly bio-weapon.

Angeles Abbey was used extensively in the Season 1 episode of JAG titled “Scimitar,” which originally aired in 1995. In the episode, one of the mausoleums masqueraded as Al Mataha Prison in Basra, Iraq where Corporal David Anderson (Ron Livingston – aka Sex and the City’s Berger!) was held.

The interior of one of the mausoleums was also used as the interior of the prison courthouse in “Scimitar.”

In that same episode, Angeles Abbey’s main mausoleum stood in for Al Ba’Ran, one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces.

The interior of the main mausoleum was also utilized as the interior of the palace in the episode.

Thanks to the Phantasm Archives website, I learned that Abbey Memorial Park appeared in Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead. Unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the 1994 horror flick anywhere, but I did manage to make the screen captures pictured below from the trailer, which I found on YouTube.

Thanks again to the Phantasm Archives website, I also learned that the cemetery was used briefly for the mausoleum scenes in Phantasm IV: Oblivion.

In the 2005 movie Constantine, the interior of Abbey Memorial Park’s main mausoleum masqueraded as the underground storage room belonging to Midnite (Djimon Hounsou), where John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) revisited Hell by electrocuting himself in an electric chair from Sing Sing.

And while a 2001 Los Angeles Times article states that the cemetery appeared in 1987’s The Untouchables, I scanned through the movie and did not see it pop up anywhere.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gilles for challenging me to find this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Angeles Abbey Memorial Park, from the “A Broken Heart” episode of Alias, is located at 1515 East Compton Boulevard in Compton.

September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

Liberace’s Valley House from “Behind the Candelabra”

As I mentioned last month in my post about Sherman Way Adult Books from Behind the Candelabra (which you can read here), back in May fellow stalker E.J., of the Movieland Directory website, challenged me to find several locales from the HBO biopic including the L.A.-area home belonging to Liberace (Michael Douglas). It was never made entirely clear where exactly in Los Angeles the house was meant to be located in the flick, but I believe that it was supposed to the pianist’s San Fernando Valley-area residence in Sherman Oaks. (I blogged about Liberace’s real life former Valley dwelling, with the piano-shaped pool, in 2010. You can read that post here).

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Fortunately, this location turned out to be a very easy find thanks to an address number of “4238” that was visible on the home’s mailbox in the scene in which Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) lamented to his friend Bob Black (Scott Bakula) that Liberace wanted him to have plastic surgery. I had an inkling that the number was not faked for the movie (despite its gold coloring), so I started searching 4200 blocks in various Los Angeles neighborhoods for the one-story, 70s-style ranch house. I fairly quickly came across an area known as View Park-Windsor Hills that had a plethora of ranch-style properties, one of which – at 4238 Olympiad Drive – turned out to be the right place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk it two weekends ago while the two of us were in L.A.

I was absolutely FLOORED to discover, while driving there, that the home was located right off of Stocker Street. Winking smile Um, LOVE IT!

And I was even more floored to see that the mailbox and address placard that appeared in the movie were also there in real life.

Liberace’s L.A. house showed up several times in Behind the Candelabra.

As you can see below, the residence looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

The home’s backyard and pool were also utilized in the filming.

As you can see in the Google aerial view pictured below, the slide that appeared in Behind the Candelabra is also there in real life. So incredibly cool!

I am 99.9% certain that several areas of the residence’s actual interior, including the dining room, kitchen, living room, and den, were also used in the movie, but I could not find any photographs of the inside of the home with which to verify that hunch.

In real life, the 1957 house features three bedrooms, three baths, 2,824 square feet of living space, and a 0.23-acre plot of land.

Before tracking down the dwelling, I had been completely unaware of the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood, but once I arrived there, it was easy to see why the residence and area were chosen to be used in Behind the Candelabra. The suburb looks like it has not been touched since the 1970s. Walking among the homes made me feel as if I had stepped into an episode of The Brady Bunch – but in a good way.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Liberace’s Valley house from Behind the Candelabra is located at 4238 Olympiad Drive in the View Park-Windsor Hills area of Los Angeles. Supposedly, Ike and Tina Turner once lived just down the road at 4263 Olympiad Drive.

September 5, 2013September 11, 2013

The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Little Miss Sunshine”

A couple of months ago, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to re-watch fave 2006 dramedy Little Miss Sunshine and I just about fell out of my chair when I spotted the Hyatt Regency Valencia pop up in a brief scene. I had actually stalked and blogged about the Santa Clarita-area hotel way back in November 2009 (you can read that post here) due to its appearance in Twilight. Because the post was fairly brief, though, and had been published during the early days of my site, I figured it was most-definitely worthy of a redo. So the GC and I headed right on over there last month while the two of us were in L.A. for a visit.

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The Hyatt Regency Valencia, which has actually been featured in countless productions thanks to its Anywhere, U.S.A. look and feel, boasts 244 guest rooms, 11 of which are suites, a pool, a gym, a business center, an outdoor fireplace lounge, a lobby lounge, three gardens, 12,000 square feet of meeting space, a day spa, and access to three different local golf courses.

The hotel’s onsite eatery, Vines Restaurant & Bar, has become one of my and the GC’s favorite pit stops over the years; we often find ourselves dropping in for lunch or a cocktail whenever we are in the area.

In Little Miss Sunshine, the Hyatt Regency Valencia stood in for the Scottsdale, Arizona-area Desert Courtyard Suites where Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) tracked down Stan Grossman (Bryan Cranston) to confront him about his defunct “Nine Steps” deal. Several areas of the hotel were utilized in the short scene including the front entrance;

the lobby;

the lobby lounge, which was changed a bit for the filming;

and the pool. (I somehow failed to snap any pictures of the pool while I was stalking the Hyatt, so I snagged the one that appears below off of the hotel’s official website.)

In the Season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Fur and Loathing,” which aired in 2003, the Hyatt Valencia stood in for the Las Vegas-area King’s River Hotel where PAF CON ( the Plushies and Furries Convention – yes, plushies and furries) took place.

In the 2008 tween hit Twilight, the Valencia Hyatt masqueraded as the Phoenix-area hotel where Bella (Kristen Stewart), Alice (Ashley Greene), and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run towards the end of the movie. And while the exterior of the property . . .

. . . and the lobby were featured in the filming;

the interior of Bella, Alice and Jasper’s suite was filmed elsewhere. As you can see in these photographs as compared to the screen captures below, what appeared onscreen does not match the Hyatt’s actual rooms.

In 2010, the Hyatt again popped up as the site of a convention on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, this time for vampire- and werewolf-wannabes in the Season 11 episode titled “Blood Moon.” And while one of the hotel’s hallways;

outdoor fireplace lounge;

and a ballroom were used in the filming;

the interior of the room where Michael Wilson (Thad Luckinbill) was attacked was just a set. As you can see below, it looks nothing like the Hyatt’s actual rooms.

In the Christmas-themed Season 9 episode of NCIS titled “Newborn King,” which aired in 2011, the Hyatt Regency Valencia masqueraded as The Freemont Inn, where Navy Captain Jake Marsden (Marc Aden Gray) was killed.

One of the hotel’s suites (I think Room 334) also appeared in the episode.

As I mentioned in my March 2012 post about the Florida-area house where Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) lived during two Season 8 episodes of The Office, the Hyatt Regency Valencia masqueraded as the Palmetto Suites Tallahassee, the supposed Sunshine State hotel where the Dunder Mifflin gang stayed for a few weeks while setting up a chain of Sabre retail stores in the Season 8 episodes titled “Tallahassee” and “After Hours.” Quite a few areas of the Hyatt were utilized in the filming, including the front exterior;

the lobby;

the lobby lounge, where a fake gift shop was set up for the shoot;

several rooms, including Room 243 where Cathy (Lindsay Broad) stayed, Room 244 where Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) stayed, Room 248 where Erin stayed, and Room 249 where Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) stayed;

two hallways;

and Vines Restaurant & Bar.

According to the Visit Santa Clarita website, episodes of Parenthood, CSI:New York, Make It or Break It, Las Vegas, Big Love, and The Unit have also been filmed at the Hyatt Valencia, but, unfortunately, I am unsure of which episodes in particular.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia from Little Miss Sunshine is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

August 16, 2013August 15, 2013

The Derby Restaurant from “Step Brothers”

During a recent visit to Los Angeles, the Grim Cheaper and I stayed at an Arcadia hotel that just so happened to be located right across the street from a nine-decades old eatery that I had always wanted to stalk – The Derby Restaurant, which was featured in the 2008 comedy Step Brothers. As y’all know, this stalker absolutely loves herself any location with a history! So I dragged the GC right on over there to partake of what turned out to be a fabulous happy hour. (And correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t stepbrothers one word? Why, oh, why was it separated into two for the movie’s title? This is most-definitely a case for fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog!)

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The Derby Restaurant was originally founded by Arcadia Rotary Club charter member Hudson M. Proctor in 1922 at a location on Foothill Boulevard near the Santa Anita Park racetrack (which I blogged about here). At the time it was known as Proctor’s Tavern. Nine years later, when the main thoroughfare in Arcadia shifted from Foothill Boulevard to Huntington Drive, Hudson decided to move his eatery to its current home at 233 East Huntington. The new site featured two dining rooms, two fireplaces and a second-floor apartment where Hudson lived with his wife.

In December 1938, the steakhouse was purchased by Canadian-born jockey legend George “The Iceman” Woolf, who is best known for riding Seabiscuit to several victories, and his partner Bill Peterson. The duo renamed the site “The Derby Restaurant” in honor of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the U.S. Triple Crown. Woolf decorated the property with memorabilia and photographs from his racing career, most of which are still displayed on the premises to this day.

When Woolf was tragically killed during a race on January 3, 1946, his wife, Genevieve, took over daily operation of the restaurant. In 1951, she sold the property to Dominic and Lorene Sturniolo, who continued to run the eatery, along with their son, for the next fifty-plus years. Today, The Derby, which has the distinction of being one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles County, is owned by Dustin Nicolarsen and Michael Thomas. On August 11th, 2011, the Arcadia Historical Society presented a historical marker (one of only eight) to the Zagat-rated site commemorating its significance to the city that it has called home for over 90 years.

While The Derby’s menu is on the pricier side, fortunately the happy hour offerings are very reasonable (which is the only reason the GC agreed to eat there Winking smile ). And I can honestly say that the food is delicious! The place is extremely popular, though, and the bar area was absolutely jam-packed when we arrived, so be prepared for a wait if you happen to venture out there on a Friday night.

In Step Brothers, The Derby Restaurant masqueraded as RJ Posner’s steakhouse, where the birthday party for Derek Doback (Adam Scott) was held. It is during the party that Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) unveil their new music video, which alerts their father/stepfather, Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins), to the fact that his beloved boat has been destroyed.

The birthday party scene was shot in The Derby’s main dining room, which is located just east of the front entrance.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Derby Restaurant, from Step Brothers, is located at 233 East Huntington Drive in Arcadia. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.