Tag: movie filming locations

Molly Malone’s from “Patriot Games”

Way back in mid-June, while trying to track down the Irish pub that masquerades as Scully’s bar on fave show Parks and Recreation (a location that I still have, maddeningly, yet to find, by the way), I came across a website for a Fairfax District-area watering hole named Molly Malone’s. The website mentioned that the historic establishment had been featured in several movies over the years, including Patriot Games, Leaving Las Vegas and Life Without Dick. And even though I am not particularly a fan of any of the three flicks, I just about died of excitement upon reading the news and immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list. Why, oh why, do more bars and restaurants not post similar such information on their websites? It would make my job so much easier! And while I was not able to drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk Molly’s until two Saturdays ago, I have to say that the place was most-definitely well worth the wait.

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Molly Malone’s, which is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue, was originally founded sometime (I believe) during the 1960s. In 1970, the place was taken over by a Dublin-born homemaker named Angela Hanlon, who had come to Los Angeles via Baltimore with her entertainer husband. Finding herself homesick for her native land, Hanlon one day ventured in Molly’s and quickly became a regular. And although there are several differing reports as to how Hanlon came to own the watering hole, the story I like best, which was chronicled in a 1997 Los Angeles Times article, is that, on one very fateful day, Hanlon loaned Molly’s then-owner money and when he skipped town shortly thereafter, the place wound up in her hands. Molly Malone’s has been owned and operated by the Hanlon family ever since.

The space at 575 South Fairfax housed bars long before Molly Malone’s was ever founded, though. According to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article by Hillary Johnson, legend has it that the 575 Club, one of the many watering holes to precede Molly’s, was actually one of the first to be given an alcohol license after Prohibition.

Molly Malone’s dark walls are covered with over seventy original paintings – almost all of them renderings of the bar’s regular customers – created by legendary oil painter Neil Boyle, who was a loyal patron of the drinkery for decades until he passed away in 2006. Lorraine Devon Wilke writes in a 2011 Huffington Post article, “For an artist whose pieces command phenomenal fees, who was always in demand for murals and commissioned work, and whose work hangs in galleries and museums around the country, the prestige of showcasing such valuable art was undeniable to Molly’s. Some patrons came in simply to view Neil’s paintings. It was a draw. Literally.”

In the 1995 LA Times article that I mentioned above, author Hillary Johnson states, “A sign on the wall says, ‘Dublin, 40 km.’ Some would say it’s closer.” And I would have to agree with that sentiment. As soon as we walked through Molly Malone’s dark wooden front door, we were welcomed like old friends. And when I asked the bartender on duty about the various movies filmed on the premises, he came out from behind his post, grabbed me by the hand and proceeded to take me on a tour of the place. And he even introduced me to Molly’s former longtime manager, who just happened to be on site that day, to see if he could answer any more of my questions! Talk about hospitality! Love it!

Besides being a filming location, Molly Malone’s has also long been popular with the Hollywood set. According to the former manager that I spoke with, Lenny Kravitz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Mickey Rourke, and Ralph Fiennes have all been spotted there. The place is also a live music venue and boasts a large back room, complete with a stage, where many young musicians have gotten their start.

The band Flogging Molly not only cut their teeth at the bar, but named themselves in honor of it. Of the name, front-man Dave King said, “We used to play there every Monday night and we felt like we were flogging it to death, so we called the band Flogging Molly.” Love it!

In 1992’s Patriot Games, Molly Malone’s was the Irish pub where Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) threatened to destroy Paddy O’Neil (Richard Harris) after O’Neil refused to tell him the whereabouts of Sean Miller (Sean Bean) and Kevin O’Donnell (Patrick Bergin).

While numerous websites state that either Boardner’s of Hollywood (which I blogged about here) or Cock ‘N Bull British Pub in Santa Monica was the bar featured in the opening scene of 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas, that information is actually incorrect. The bar in question was actually Molly Malone’s and it popped up twice in the flick, first in the scene in which Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) rather aggressively purchases a random woman named Terri (Valeria Golino) a drink before inviting her home with him.

It next appeared in the scene in which the “L.A. Bartender” (Graham Beckel) urged Ben to stop drinking once and for all.

Molly Malone’s also popped up twice in 2002’s Life Without Dick. It first appeared in the scene in which hitman Daniel Gallagher (Harry Connick Jr.) asked his friend Rex (David Cross) to get rid of a gun. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were used in that scene.

Molly’s next popped up in the scene in which Daniel finally admitted to his new girlfriend, Colleen Gibson (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker), that he was a hitman.

The exterior of Molly’s also appeared in that scene, as well.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Molly Malone’s, from Patriot Games, is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. The bar is a 21-and-over establishment, so, if you are going to stalk it, you will have to leave the kiddies at home. You can visit Molly Malone’s official website here.

September 4, 2012
Chris’ Apartment from “Parks and Recreation”

I realize that I am on serious Parks and Recreation overload here, but today’s location is one that I could not not blog about being that I am absolutely OBSESSED with it! What is the location you ask? The supposed Indianapolis-area ultra-modern loft that Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) owns on the series. I became just a wee bit consumed with the pad the first time it popped up during Season 3 of P&R. One look at its high ceilings, open floor plan and towering staircase and I literally went weak in the knees and started drooling. Oddly enough, though, I did not recognize the place even though I had once previously stalked it. There I go having yet another blonde moment!

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Way back in December of 2008, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I went on a quest to track down the liquor store from L.A. Confidential, which we had heard was located on Larchmont Boulevard. (As it turns out, it wasn’t – the L.A. Confidential liquor store is actually on South Cochran Avenue. You can read my post on it here.) During the hunt, we spent hours driving back and forth down Larchmont looking for the store’s facade and also stopping in to speak with several different area shop owners, trying to gather some intel. And while no one had any information on the liquor store, one helpful person informed us that the movie Funny People had recently spent several weeks filming at the Larchmont Lofts on the corner of Larchmont Boulevard and Melrose Avenue. So Mike and I, of course, went to take a look at the building and snap some pics. We did not venture inside, though, nor did I ever see Funny People, so I had no idea what the interior of the actual apartment units looked like.

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago when fellow stalker Justin asked me to track down some Parks and Recreation locales, one of which was Chris Traeger’s apartment building. At the time, I was not even sure if the location was a real one. Chris’s loft is so darn sleek and shiny that I figured it might just be a set. But I started to do some digging anyway and eventually discovered (thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations) that Chris’ pad was real and that it was located in none other than the Funny People building! Talk about a small world! Once I found out that information, I, of course, immediately began searching for rental rates being that Chris’ apartment is pretty much my dream home.

The three-story, ultra-modern Larchmont Lofts building was first completed in 2008. Its 21 loft-style units were originally slated to be sold as condominiums for $750,000 to $1.25 million a piece. Not a’ one of ‘em was purchased, though, according to fave website CurbedLA, and the spaces were eventually leased out as apartments. Rates currently start at a whopping $3,000 a month for a 1-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,200-square-foot flat. Um yeah, like the Grim Cheaper would ever go for that! What I wouldn’t give to live there, though! Sigh!

Chris Traeger’s apartment first popped up in the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Indianapolis”. Interestingly enough, though, while the front entrance and interior of one of the units were used in the episode, the exterior establishing shot was of a different location altogether, one that is no stranger to the screen. The exterior of Chris’ building is actually the exterior of the residence where Mitch Hiller (Billy Campbell) lived in the 2002 movie Enough, which Mike, from MovieShotsLA, stalked a while back. You can take a look at his photos of the property here.

In the “Indianapolis” episode, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) travel from Pawnee to Indianapolis to accept a special commendation on behalf of the Parks Department. While there, they meet up with Chris, who, at that point in the show, lived in the area. A brief scene from the episode was filmed in the Larchmont Lofts lobby, which you can see behind me in the photograph below.

In “Indianapolis”, Chris is shown to live in Unit #207, which is one of the Larchmont Lofts’ three-story townhomes.

As you can see below, the interior of his apartment is nothing short of STUNNING! Love, love, LOVE it!

Especially the large, open-air staircase. Sigh!

Chris’ apartment also appeared in the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Road Trip”, in the scene in which Chris hosts Leslie and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) on an overnight at his home. You can check out some interior photographs of the Larchmont Lofts building – including a three-story townhouse unit like Chris’ – on Curbed LA here.

And I, of course, just had to pretend to buzz Chris from the intercom while I was there.

In Funny People, Larchmont Lofts is the building where Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), Leo Koenig (Jonah Hill), Mark Taylor Jackson (Jason Schwartzman), and Daisy Danby (Aubrey Plaza, who, ironically enough, plays April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation) live. The exterior of the building shows up quite a few times in the flick.

As does the interior of one of the building’s two-bedroom flats. As you can see below, the inside of Ira, Leo and Mark’s apartment in the flick closely resembles that of Chris’ apartment on Parks and Recreation – minus the awesome staircase, which is only a feature of the building’s three-story townhomes.

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. And you can check out my latest post – about low-carb tacos – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chris Traeger’s apartment building from Parks and Recreation is actually the Larchmont Lofts, which is located at 5700 Melrose Avenue in the Larchmont Village area of Los Angeles. You can visit the complex’s official website here. And to contribute to the Lindsay-Wants-to-Live-at-the-Larchmont-Lofts fund, you can click here. Ha ha, just kidding.

July 10, 2012
Red Carpet Wine & Spirits from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

A couple of weeks ago, a fellow stalker named Emily wrote a comment on my post about the Weaver house from fave movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. in which she informed me that the liquor store that appeared in the flick was Red Carpet Wine & Spirits (what a great name!) in Glendale. As fate would have it, I had been looking for that wine shop for what seemed like ages and could NOT have been more excited to read Emily’s comment. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there a few days later and, amazingly enough, our visit turned out to be one of the best stalks of my entire “career”! Thank you, Emily!

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As soon as we set foot in Red Carpet Wine & Spirits, owner H.K. Hedlund walked up to us to ask if he could help us find anything. When I explained the reason behind our visit, he immediately directed us to the exact spot where filming took place and then proceeded to fill us in on tons of behind-the-scenes information. (And yes, I was definitely pinching myself!) H.K. ended up chatting with us for well over an hour, showed us photographs he had taken of the Crazy, Stupid, Love. shoot, dished on some of the celebs who have been spotted in his shop over the years, and told me that I could take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted. Um, yes please! As you can imagine, I was in absolute heaven!

Red Carpet Wine & Spirits was originally founded in 1964 by a man named John Vincenti. Twenty-three years later it was purchased by a retailer named David Dobbs, who, after deciding he wanted to move to Bakersfield, put the place on the market once again in late 2006. Hearing the shop was for sale, many of Dobb’s longtime employees quit and, in a twist of fate, H.K., who at the time owned an importing and wholesale beer business, was brought on to help out during the busy holiday season. H.K. ended up liking the place so much that he purchased it, along with his wife, Lisa, in October 2007. After taking over, the duo, who both grew up in nearby Arcadia, added an adorable wine-tasting room (pictured below) featuring three Enomatic wine dispensers which offer 2-ounce pours for as little as $2. Red Carpet, which boasts a huge and loyal following, hosts numerous onsite events in the wine room each year, including a book signing in July 2010 which featured Jennifer Aniston’s private chef, Jewels Elmore, who authored “The Family Chef: Make Your Kitchen the Heart of your Family”. So incredibly cool! The wine-tasting room can also be booked out for private parties which run from $10 to $20 per person.

Red Carpet, which WineSeller Magazine deemed “One of California’s most renowned wine shops”, currently carries over 1,200 different wines, 1,500 different spirits and 800 different beers, procured from all over the world. Unlike most run-of-the-mill wine stores, the oenophiles who work there actually sample every single libation that lines their shelves, so when I asked for a dry, average-priced champagne recommendation, H.K. was able to speak from experience. The champagne he directed me towards, which I enjoyed on my birthday, was fabulous! H.K. prides himself on his staff’s superior customer service, which I was lucky enough to witness firsthand. When I inquired about the most recent vintage of Marilyn Merlot wine (which you may remember me blogging about here), H.K. informed me that they were sold out, but that he would track down a bottle for me and deliver it right to my door. When I told him that was not necessary, being that I live about ten minutes from the shop and could easily come by to pick it up, he insisted and informed me that home delivery was just one of the many services that he and his team offer, free of charge mind you! Red Carpet is an amazing wine shop and I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking it – or throwing a party there!

In Crazy, Stupid, Love., Red Carpet Wine & Spirits was where Jacob Palmer (cutie Ryan Gosling – sigh!) and Hannah (Emma Stone) shopped for wine before heading to Hannah’s mom’s house for dinner. According to H.K., one of the movie’s producers is a long-time customer of the shop, which is how it came to be used in the flick.

It was while there that Jacob made a phone call to his friend Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) and confided in him that he had met a girl who was a “game-changer”. So I , of course, just had to imitate Jacob talking on the phone while I was there.

H.K. and Lisa even appeared briefly in the background of the scene! How lucky are they?!? You can check out some fabulous photographs that H.K. took during the filming here.

H.K. informed us that Red Carpet Wine had also appeared in the Season 5 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Crime Doesn’t Pay”, in the scene in which Dave Williams (Neal McDonough), while shopping for wine with his new wife, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), ran into Father Drance (Don Moss), the priest who performed his then-wife and daughter’s funeral a few years prior.

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.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Emily for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Red Carpet Wine & Spirits, from Crazy, Stupid, Love., is located at 400 East Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale. You can visit the store’s official website here.

June 19, 2012
The “Jack and Jill” House

This past Sunday afternoon, while doing some stalking in the Pacific Palisades area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper over to Amalfi Drive to stalk the main house used in the 2011 movie Jack and Jill. And I should mention here that while I did not have very high hopes for Jack and Jill before watching it a couple of weeks ago, both the GC and I ended up really enjoying it. Granted, it is by no means a classic, nor will it be winning any major awards any time soon, but it is sweet and funny and I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. I also absolutely fell in love with the uh-ma-zing Mediterranean-style mansion where advertising executive Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler) lived in the flick and became just a wee-bit obsessed with stalking it. Thankfully, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, was able to track it down for me.

While watching Jack and Jill, Mike had noticed an address number of “343” visible on the curb in the background of the scene in which gardener Felipe (Eugenio Derbez) drove Jack’s visiting twin sister, Jill Sadelstein (who was also played by Adam Sandler), home from a party. Mike knew that the residence was located somewhere in Pacific Palisades thanks to an article on the Gambino Landscape Lighting blog and began searching aerial views of the area for Mediterranean mansions with a “343” in their number. Amazingly, it was not long before he found the right one. So I immediately added the address to my “To-Stalk” list and headed on over there on what turned out to be a very dreary and dismal afternoon, one which I did not dress at all appropriately for. I am surprised my lips are not blue in the first picture on this post.

The Jack and Jill house was just recently built in 2005 and boasts 8 bedrooms, 8 baths, 10,160 square feet of living space, and 0.64 acres of land. As you can see on this Estately.com listing, a completely different residence once stood on the site, one that was built in 1948 and measured 3 bedrooms, 3 baths and 3,686 square feet, but it was sold in July 2002 (for a whopping $4 million, mind you) and subsequently torn down to make way for the Mediterranean manse pictured above.

Aerial views of the home show that there used to be a residence located next door, as well.

But that property has also since been leveled and its land now makes up the backyard of the Jack and Jill house;

as you can see above.

While we were stalking the house, a woman who lives in the area walked by and asked why we were taking pictures. When I told her that the home was where Adam Sandler lived in Jack and Jill, she got very excited and said she could not wait to tell her nieces and nephews the next time they came to visit. I SO love it when I inform random strangers about filming locations and they actually get excited, ‘cause, let me tell you, most of the time people (from L.A., at least) could care less. I am definitely an anomaly in this city.

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In Jack and Jill, the Mediterranean-style mansion was where Jack lived with his family – wife Erin (Katie Holmes), daughter Sofia (Elodie Tougne) and son Gary (Rohan Chand). The exterior of the residence was shown repeatedly throughout the movie.

Al Pacino, who played a crazy version of himself in the flick, even filmed a scene outside of the home’s front gate, which I somehow did not get a picture of. Fail!

The property’s real life backyard and pool area also appeared in the flick.

The interior of the Sadelstein house was just a set, though. You can check out some photographs of the property’s real life interior here and, as you can see, it does not match up at all to what appeared onscreen.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Jack and Jill house is located at 1343 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades.

April 24, 2012
The Historic Mayfair Hotel from “The Office”

Fellow stalker John Bengtson, from the SIlent Locations blog, sent me an email last week after reading my post on Red Studios Hollywood from The Artist (a location that I had learned about from his website) informing me that he had tracked down some locales from Season 7’s “The Search” episode of The Office that I might be interested in stalking, most notably The Historic Mayfair Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Holly Flax (Amy Ryan) shared a rooftop kiss. Ironically enough, my good friend, fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, had also sent me this location on February 4th of last year, the day after the episode had originally aired, along with a list of all of the other places featured in “The Search”. And while I did stalk a few of them – Kung Pao China Bistro and Larry’s Chili Dog – for whatever reason, I never made it out to The Mayfair. So, this past weekend, I decided to change that and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there. (I am not sure what happened with the above photograph, but somehow it turned out a bit wonky and neither the GC nor I realized it at the time.)

The Historic Mayfair Hotel was originally designed in 1927 by Alexander E. Curlett and Claud W. Beelman, the same architecture team who gave us the Park Plaza Hotel near MacArthur Park (an extremely popular filming location that I have stalked, but have yet to blog about), the Cooper Arms condominium building in Long Beach, and the Los Angeles Board of Trade Building in Downtown L.A. The 13-story hotel, which at the time was named simply The Mayfair, was commissioned by Texas oil tycoons and was constructed at a cost of $1.5 million – and we’re talking 1920’s dollars! In its heyday, the luxury property hosted such luminaries as Mary Pickford and John Barrymore. Raymond Chandler even wrote and set his 1939 short story “I’ll Be Waiting” at The Mayfair, although he dubbed the place the “Windermere Hotel” in the tale.

The property, which originally boasted 350 rooms, but now has just 304, was the largest hotel west of the Mississippi at one time and featured an immensely popular supper and dance club known as the Rainbow Isle Room, from which George Eckhardts, Jr. and the Rainbow Isle Orchestra would broadcast a live radio show each night. In 2004, after suffering from a long period of neglect, the structure underwent a massive and much-needed $40 million renovation, at which point it was renamed The Historic Mayfair Hotel. You can check out some great photographs of the place during its early days on The Mayfair’s Facebook page here.

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In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being stranded at a supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area gas station, Michael Scott goes on a walkabout which ends on the rooftop of The Historic Mayfair Hotel. When Holly finds him there and Michael tells her how much he has missed her, the two finally kiss, ending several years worth of will-they-or-won’t-they-get-together storylines and allowing audiences to finally breath a long-overdue sigh of relief. Not surprisingly, the roof area of The Mayfair is closed to the public, so I was unable to snap any pictures of it.

Mike, from MovieShotsLA, figured out that The Mayfair stood in for the supposed Chicago, Illinois-area The Addison Hotel where Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) attended her 15-year high school reunion in 1999’s The Deep End of the Ocean.

It was from the lobby of The Mayfair that Beth’s 3-year-old son, Ben Cappadora (Michael McElroy), was kidnapped.

As you can see above, despite the renovation, the lobby still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1998 when The Deep End of the Ocean was filmed.

The super-nice front desk clerk that we spoke with while we were there informed us that both the interior and the exterior of the property had also appeared in 1994’s True Lies, as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area Washington Mayfair Hotel where Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger), on horseback, chased motor-cycle-riding religious zealot Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik) through a lobby.

The Mayfair lobby was actually one of three different lobbies used in that particular scene. Harry is first shown chasing Salim across the length of The Mayfair’s lobby.

The two then turn a corner and are magically transported to the now-defunct The Ambassador hotel, the same lobby of which was used as the Regent Beverly Wilshire in 1990’s Pretty Woman.

The duo then heads outside, “across the street” and into The Westin Bonaventure Hotel. In reality, when the Ambassador was still standing, it was located a good two miles away from The Bonaventure. Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

Thanks to the Richard Dean Anderson Website, I learned that The Historic Mayfair Hotel was also used in the 1986 Season 1 episode of MacGyver titled “The Assassin”.

I am fairly certain that only the exterior of the property appeared in the episode, though, and that all of the interior hotel scenes were filmed on a set. And while IMDB states that The Mayfair was also featured in 2009’s Don’t Look Up, I scanned through the flick yesterday while doing research for this post and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers John Bengtson, from the SIlent Locations blog, and Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of its appearance in The Deep End of the Ocean!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Historic Mayfair Hotel, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 1256 West 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

April 5, 2012
“The Bodyguard” Mansion – aka The Beverly House Compound

After the sad passing of singer Whitney Houston last month, I mentioned to fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, that we should try to track down the mansion where one of Whitney’s most legendary characters, pop star Rachel Marron, lived in 1992’s The Bodyguard. For some very odd reason, I thought that the place had yet to be found, but Mike told me that way back in 2007 he had come across an article on fave website The Real Estalker about “The Beverly House Compound”, the most expensive home then for sale in the United States. In the comments section of the post, someone had reported that the very same mansion had been used as Rachel’s residence in The Bodyguard. How I had not previously come across that information in all my years of stalking is absolutely beyond me, especially considering that the location is one that I have long been itching to stalk. Well, believe you me, once Mike gave me the address, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to Beverly Hills to see the place for myself.

The Beverly House Compound has a vast and storied Hollywood history. It was originally designed by Gordon B. Kaufmann, the very same architect who also designed the Hoover Dam, the Los Angeles Times Building, Scripps College, and the Athenaeum at the California Institute of Technology, a very popular filming location that I have yet to blog about. The Compound was commissioned by banker Milton Gerz in 1927 and cost over $1 million to construct – and we’re talking 1920’s money! In 1947, William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies purchased the lavish three-story, 27-room estate, which sat on over 7 acres of land, for $120,000. Hearst died at the residence in 1951, as did Davies in 1961. Legend has it that John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier spent part of their 1953 honeymoon at the property and supposedly the mansion was also used as the West Coast headquarters for the Kennedy Presidential Campaign in 1960.

In 2007, financier Leonard Ross, who purchased The Compound in 1976, put it up for sale for a whopping $165 million, making it the most expensive home on the market in the entire country at the time. In 2010, the estate, minus three acres of land, was re-listed at the reduced price of $95 million. According to several articles, the lavish property, which has been expanded over the years, currently boasts four separate houses, a cottage, an apartment, 72,000 square feet of living space, 29 bedrooms, a two-story library, two movie projection rooms, a living room with a 22-foot arched ceiling, two tennis courts, a tennis pavilion, staff accommodations, a 50-foot entry hall, an 82-foot cascading waterfall, a disco, and three separate pools. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the mansion on the This and That and More of the Same blog here.

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In The Bodyguard, the exterior of The Beverly House Compound stood in for the exterior of the palatial home where Rachel Marron lived.

All of the interiors of Rachel’s estate were filmed at the nearby Greystone Mansion, though. You can see photographs of the room that was used as Rachel’s fake bedroom here and here.

And you can see a photograph of the Greystone Mansion kitchen here

And for the gate to Rachel’s home a third location was used! The gate actually belongs to the mansion located at 10231 Charing Cross Road in Beverly Hills, which just so happens to be the very same residence where Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston) lived in The Big Lebowski.

A current Google Street View image of that gate is pictured above. And while it looks considerably different today than it did in The Bodyguard, you can see that the basic positioning remains the same.

I tracked down the location of Rachel’s gate thanks to an address number of “10224” that was visible in the background of the scene in which Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) first arrived at Rachel’s mansion.

That gate also looks considerably different today, but, as you can see above, much like was the case with Rachel’s gate, the basic positioning remains the same.

The Beverly House Compound has been the site of constant filming over the years. In The Godfather, it was used as the mansion where movie producer Jack Woltz (John Marley) lived. Yes, that mansion.

According to The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations website, only the exterior of The Compound was used in the filming, though. All of the interior scenes – including the infamous horse head scene – were shot at an estate located at 95 Middleneck Road on Long Island.

In the Season 1 episode of The Colbys titled “The Turning Point”, the residence stood in for the supposed Rome mansion where Francesca “Frankie”Colby (Katharine Ross) vacationed with Lord Roger Langdon (David Hedison).

Ironically enough, though, in the following episode, which was titled “Thursday’s Child”, Greystone Mansion stood in for that same Rome mansion.

In the 1979 movie The Jerk, the grounds of The Compound were used as the backyard of the home where Navin (Steve Martin) lived after he became rich.

As you can see above, though, the front of Navin’s home was a different location entirely.

In 1985’s Fletch, The Compound was where Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) lived.

The real life interior of the property was also used in the filming.

In 1985’s Into the Night, the mansion was where Jack Caper (Richard Farnsworth) lived.

The real life interior of The Compound was used in the filming of that movie, as well.

Way back in 1966, The Compound was used as the home of Mrs. Sampson (Lauren Bacall) in the thriller Harper.

At that time, the backyard and pool area of the property looked considerably different than they do today.

In the Season 3 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Rosemary, for Remembrance”, the mansion was where Jake Garfield (Ramon Bieri) lived.

The real life interior of the mansion was also used in the filming of that episode.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Beverly House Compound, aka Rachel Marron’s mansion from The Bodyguard, is located at 1011 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. Greystone Mansion, which was used as the interior of Rachel’s home, is located at 905 Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills. The gate to Rachel’s mansion, which looks considerably different today, is located at 10231 Charing Cross Road in Beverly Hills.

March 30, 2012
AFI’s Warner Bros. Building – aka the Hospital from “The Artist”

Another locale from The Artist that I found thanks to John Bengtson’s fabulous Silent Locations blog was the Warner Bros. Building on the American Film Institute campus in Los Feliz, which stood in for the exterior of the hospital where George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) was admitted after being injured in a fire towards the end of the Academy Award-winning flick. Amazingly enough, despite the fact that I have lived in Southern California for over twelve years now, for whatever reason, while I had heard of the legendary film school, I had never before visited it. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place two weekends ago, shortly after we stopped by Red Studios Hollywood, aka Kinograph Studios from The Artist which I blogged about yesterday.

The American Film Institute, or “AFI” as it is more commonly known, was founded in 1967 by the National Endowment for the Arts in order to “preserve the history of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers.” Such luminaries as actor Gregory Peck, director Francis Ford Coppola, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., actor Sidney Poitier, and longtime Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti sat on the organization’s original Board of Trustees. The institute was first headquartered inside of the famous Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, but moved to its current location, an eight-acre property which formerly housed Immaculate Heart College, in 1983. AFI Conservatory, the establishment’s fully accredited graduate film school which, in 2011, was named the #1 film school in the world by The Hollywood Reporter, boasts such notable alumni as David Lynch, Edward James Olmos, Darren Aronofsky, Terrence Malick, Amy Heckerling (the writer/director of fave movie Clueless!), Marshall Herskovitz (one of the Executive Producers of fave show My So-Called Life!), Edward Zwick (another of My So-Called Life’s Executive Producers!), and Gary Winick (the director of fave movie 13 Going on 30!). Talk about a Who’s Who of the film industry! The Warner Bros. Building (pictured above) is AFI’s main facility and houses classrooms, a soundstage, screening rooms, computer labs, and production offices.

Thanks to AFI’s hilltop location, the place boasts some rather incredible views of Downtown Los Angeles, as you can see above!

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The Warner Bros. Building only shows up once in The Artist – in the scene in which Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) arrives at the hospital to check on George. According to the Los Feliz Ledger website, the short, one-day shoot took place on November 14th, 2010.

Only the exterior of the Warner Bros. Building was used in the filming. All of the interior hospital scenes were shot about four miles away at The Ebell of Los Angeles, a private women’s club that I have stalked twice, but have yet to blog about. And while hundreds upon hundreds of movies have been filmed at the historic property over the years, for today’s post I would like to concentrate on The Artist. A few different areas of The Ebell appeared in the flick. When Peppy runs through the hospital hallway and asks a nurse where she can find George’s room, she is actually running through the site’s Garden Arcade. And while I do not have a photograph of the actual Arcade, the area where it is located is denoted with a pink arrow above. (You may recognize the courtyard pictured above from the prom scene in fave movie Never Been Kissed.)

Peppy is then shown running through The Ebell’s Solarium Hallway into the 3rd Floor Terrace (both of which were also used prominently in Forrest Gump).

John at Silent Locations was lucky enough to speak with Carol Kiefer, the Art Department Coordinator for The Artist, who informed him that The Ebell had also appeared in several other scenes in the movie. The club’s Art Salon was used as the auction house where George sold all of his belongings after his career took a downturn.

When leaving the auction, George is shown walking down The Ebell’s Lounge Stairway, followed by his loyal chauffer, Clifton (James Cromwell).

The club’s Dining Room masqueraded as the storage room in Peppy’s mansion where George discovered all of his former possessions.

And while the Dining Room was made to appear much smaller than it actually is for the filming and is virtually unrecognizable from its appearance onscreen, I recognized this location thanks to the unique circular-shaped decoration above the window that was visible in the background of the scene.

Supposedly, the Kinograph Studios office of director Al Zimmer (John Goodman) was also located somewhere inside of The Ebell, but I did not see any areas of the property on either tour that looked even remotely like the screen captures pictured above. So I am guessing that a room of the property was either completely redone for the filming or that that information is incorrect.

The anteroom to Zimmer’s office is located at The Ebell, though. In actuality, it is a small room located on the building’s third floor.

Big THANK YOU to John Bengtson, from the Silent Locations blog, for finding these locations!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Warner Bros. Building at the American Film Institute, aka the exterior of the hospital from The Artist, is located at 2021 North Western Avenue in Los Feliz. You can visit the official AFI website here. The Ebell of Los Angeles is located at 743 South Lucerne Boulevard in Hancock Park. Sadly, The Ebell is not currently open to the public, but you can visit the property’s official website here.

March 28, 2012
Red Studios Hollywood – aka Kinograph Studios from “The Artist”

In early March, my friend Tony, the fellow stalker who has the amazeballs On Location in Los Angeles Flickr photostream, wrote a comment on my post about the duplex where George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) lived in The Artist alerting me to a blog named Silent Locations. The blog, which is authored by business lawyer/film historian John Bengtson, features a six-part column chronicling several locales that appeared in The Artist and their connection with various silent films made during Hollywood’s heyday. I highly recommend checking out the feature and the site in general. It is fabulous! Anyway, one of the places mentioned in the column was Red Studios Hollywood, the exterior of which stood in for both the exterior of Kinograph Studios in The Artist and Maroon Cartoons in 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place on a very windy Sunday afternoon two weekends ago.

The site where Red Studios Hollywood now stands was originally founded as Metro Pictures Back Lot #3 in 1915, long before the company joined forces with Goldwyn Pictures and became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. During its Metro heyday, such films as Scaramouche, Little Robinson Crusoe and The Champ were filmed on the premises. Beginning in May 1946, the lot went through a series of different owners, the most prominent of whom were Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The showbiz powerhouse couple leased the property in 1953 and turned it into the very first Desilu Studios, where they shot seasons 3 through 6 of I Love Lucy. In 1974, the lot became known as Ren-Mar Studios, an independently owned and operated facility where various production companies were able to rent out studio space. Legendary television producer David E. Kelley made his home there in the 80s and shot Picket Fences (one of my faves!), Chicago Hope, The Practice and the first two seasons of Ally McBeal. In January 2010, the lot was sold yet again, this time to Red Digital Camera Company, who renamed the place Red Studios Hollywood.

A few of the countless other productions that have been filmed on the premises over the years include The Golden Girls, The Dick Van Dyke Show, the first four episodes of Seinfeld, The Andy Griffith Show, Make Room for Daddy, Lizzie McGuire, NewsRadio, Empty Nest, Monk, and, most recently, True Blood. The series Weeds was also filmed on the lot, back when it was Ren-Mar, and during Season 4, after Agrestic burned down, producers had Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) move to a fictional seaside town named “Ren Mar” in honor of the historic studio. Love it!

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In The Artist, the back entrance of Red was used as the main entrance of Kinograph Studios, where George Valentin worked at the beginning of the flick.

As you can see above, that area was changed drastically for the movie – so much so that it is virtually unrecognizable today. A huge false front was built over the actual studio entrance for the filming and the Hollywood Rounder blog was lucky enough to get to watch it being constructed. You can check out some very cool pics of the construction here and here, the fake security guard kiosk here, and the finished product here.

Interestingly enough, when Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) is shown being dropped off at a location that is supposedly directly across the street from the Kinograph entrance, she is actually on New York Street at Paramount Studios, in front of the building that is used regularly as the Boston police station on Rizzoli & Isles.

At one point in The Artist, George is also shown walking in between some of the Red Studios Hollywood soundstages.

The area where he walked is denoted with a pink circle above.

In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Red’s main entrance on Cahuenga Boulevard stood in for the entrance to Maroon Cartoons, where the famous animated hare worked.

The courtyard just beyond that entrance was also used in the filming.

That area is denoted with a pink circle above.

On a Who Framed Roger Rabbit side-note – while doing research prior to writing this post, I came across a blurb in The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations book which, in reference to the flick’s title, stated, “No, there is no question mark, as it’s considered bad luck in a film title.” I had never before heard that bit of trivia and found it interesting, especially since my good friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong grammatical errors blog, had recently written a post which mentioned WFRR’s punctuation error. Superstition or not, I think the flick really needed the mark in its title and I found myself inadvertently adding one each time I typed “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in this post. I guess some habits are hard to break.

The music video for Britney Spears’ hit 2000 song “Lucky” was also shot at Ren-Mar and the exterior of the studio is visible in the MTV Making the Video special about the production.

You can watch Part I of the Making the Video of “Lucky” by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker John Bengtson, from the Silent Locations blog, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Tony, from the fantastic On Location in Los Angeles Flickr photostream, for pointing me to John’s site!

Stalk It: Red Studios Hollywood, aka Kinograph Studios from The Artist, is located at 846 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the official Red Studios Hollywood website here. The area of the studio used in The Artist can be found on Lillian Way, in between Willoughby and Waring Avenues. The studio’s main entrance on Cahuenga Boulevard is the entrance that stood in for Maroon Cartoons in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Red Studios Hollywood is not open to the public and does not currently offer a tour.

March 27, 2012
Runyon Canyon Park from “The Hills”

A few years ago, after my good friend Nat happened to spot Runyon Canyon Park pop up in an episode of fave reality series The Hills, she sent me an email asking if I had ever stalked the place. And while I had long known that the locale was not only a big-time celebrity hangout, but also a popular filming location, because I am not a fan of hiking (or working out in general, if we are really being honest here), I had never added it to my “To-Stalk” list. But I assured Nat, who is very much into calisthenic-type activity and who, unlike me does not actually consider walking to Starbucks a form of exercise, that the next time she came to visit, we would definitely hit the place up. Which is how, bright and early a few Sundays ago, the Grim Cheaper, Nat and I found ourselves in Hollywood about to embark upon a morning hike at Runyon Canyon Park. I even bought some new workout pants for the occasion! (Now, shopping – that is definitely a type of exercise that I can get behind!) Unfortunately for Nat, though, because there did not seem to be any restrooms on the trail and because I had downed a Venti iced latte shortly before arriving there, our trek was pretty short-lived. See what I mean? I was just not made for the outdoors. The GC made fun of me relentlessly while we were hiking, by the way, due to the fact that I was carrying my Louis Vuitton purse. Men! I mean, what the heck else was I supposed to do with it? Leave it in the car? As if!

The 160-acre parcel of land that now makes up Runyon Canyon Park was originally named “No Man’s Canyon”. It came to be known by its current moniker thanks to one of its early owners, coal baron Carman Runyon, who used the sprawling site as a hunting and riding venue. In 1929, the grounds were purchased by Irish tenor John McCormack, who had a large mansion built on the premises which he dubbed “San Patrizio”, in honor of St. Patrick. When A&P Supermarket heir Huntington Hartford bought the estate in 1942, he renamed it “The Pines” and commissioned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to build a pool house on the site. Hartford’s friend Errol Flynn was a frequent guest at the pool house and is rumored to have thrown some wild parties there. Sadly, when Jules Berman, a wealthy liquor importer, purchased the property in the late 1960s, he demolished “The Pines”. The Lloyd Wright-designed pool house was subsequently destroyed by a fire in 1972. All that remains of the two historic structures are some ruins located near the Fuller Avenue entrance to the park. So incredibly sad! In 1984, the City of Los Angeles stepped in and acquired the vacant acreage, subsequently turning it into a public park, as it remains to this day.

Thanks to Runyon Canyon Park’s proximity to Hollywood and the stunning views that it boasts (which you can see above), the place has long been a stomping ground of the rich and famous. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted working out there include Gilles Marini, Famke Janssen, Eriq La Salle, Josh Hartnett, Hayden Panettiere, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Matthew McConaughey, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kathy Griffin, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Duhamel, Kellan Lutz, Ryan Gosling, Dane Cook, Orlando Bloom, Sheryl Crow, Ashley Tisdale, Haylie Duff, Anne Hathaway, Ali Fedotowsky, Amanda Bynes, Matthew Perry, Ali Larter, Joe Jonas, Amanda Seyfried, Adrian Grenier, Natalie Portman, and Chris Pine. And while we did not see any celebs during our hike, when fellow stalker Lavonna was in town this past November, she spotted B.J.Novak, aka Ryan Howard from The Office, walking the trails.

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In the Season 3 episode of The Hills titled “With This Ring . . .”, Whitney Port had a one-on-one training session/date with her personal trainer, Jarett Del Bene, at Runyon Canyon Park.

And in the Season 4 episode of The Hills titled “Who To Choose?”, Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge discussed Audrina’s love life while on a hike at Runyon Canyon. And I could swear that the park showed up in yet another episode of the series in which Lauren and Whitney were shown working out, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere.

In the Season 4 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Trip, Part 2”, Jerry Seinfeld (who played himself), George Costanza (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards) visited Runyon Canyon Park immediately after Kramer was released from jail, where he was being held as the supposed “The Fog Strangler” serial killer.

In the 2009 flick Funny People, Runyon Canyon Park was where Ira Wright (Seth Rogan), Leo Koenig (Jonah Hill) and Mark Taylor Jackson (Jason Schwartzman) discussed the illness of fellow comedian George Simmons (Adam Sandler).

Thanks to fave book Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors (and I just figured out how to write in color on my blog, by the way! In heaven!!!!), I also learned that in the ultra-weird 2001 flick The Anniversary Party, Runyon Canyon was where Joe Therrian (Alan Cumming) and his wife Sally (Jennifer Jason Leigh), along with their friends Skye Davidson (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Levi Panes (Michael Panes), searched for their missing dog, Otis.

Hollywood Escapes also states that 1983’s Breathless and 2005’s Undiscovered were filmed at Runyon Canyon Park, but, unfortunately, I could not find copies of either movie with which to make screen captures for this post.

Some filming locations are also visible from the various Runyon Canyon trails, including the abandoned Solar Drive mansion from Law & Order: Los Angeles that I blogged about last December;

and the John Lautner-designed Garcia House from Lethal Weapon 2, which I blogged about way back in February of 2008. And there is a also private home known as Runyon Ranch located inside of the park that has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years, including my fave, Beverly Hills, 90210, but I am saving that location for a different post.

Big THANK YOU to my good friend Nat for forcing me to suggesting that I stalk this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Runyon Canyon Park from The Hills is located at 2001 North Fuller Avenue in Hollywood. You can visit the park’s official website here.

March 8, 2012
The “Rain Man” Convenience Store

Back in February, while doing research on the Hollywood Hills apartment building where Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) lived in 1988’s Rain Man, I came across a September 2004 article on the Palm Springs Life website titled “Quiet on the Set” about filming in the Coachella Valley. And, let me tell you, I just about fell out of my chair when I read the (rather poorly written) words, “The wind energy farms on Interstate 10 are another popular attraction. Tom Cruise and Valeria Golino drove past the Palm Springs windmills in the opening minutes of Rain Man. Cruise exits from a convenience store at Windy Point on Highway 111 and puts sun block on the nose of his autistic brother, Dustin Hoffman.” Prior to reading the article, I had no idea whatsoever that any Rain Man filming had taken place in the area. So I, of course, immediately started searching through aerial views of Windy Point trying to locate the convenience store and, amazingly enough, it was not long before I found it! Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place two weekends ago while on our way to visit my parents in the Desert.

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In Rain Man, Charlie and his brother, Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman), stop at the convenience store towards the end of their long cross-country road trip. It is there that Charlie puts sunscreen on Raymond’s nose causing Raymond to say that his face feels “very slippery”. LOL

Remarkably, the convenience store still looks very much the same today as it did when the movie was filmed way back in 1988.

I absolutely LOVE that the two poles which appeared in the background of the Rain Man scene are still there in real life, almost two and a half decades later! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

While we were stalking the place, the GC and I ventured inside to see if any of the employees happened to know about the filming and, amazingly enough, the woman behind the counter did! She informed us that the signs that were posted on the store back in 1988 when Rain Man was filmed were still there until just recently, when the property’s new owner had them replaced with the “Food Shop” sign pictured above. Oh, why, oh why did I not know about this location sooner? Ugh!

On a Rain Man side-note – I am itching to track down the laundromat where Charlie made a phone call to his business partner, Lenny (Ralph Seymour), and learned that the four Lamborghinis he was trying to sell had all been repossessed. The GC has a hunch that it is located in Nevada, somewhere near Red Rock Canyon, and I think he might be right. I have not had time to do any research on it, though, but thought I would put it out there to my fellow stalkers. Does the location look familiar to anyone?

And on a Palm Springs side-note – while in the Desert last week, fellow stalker Kim informed me that a celebrity golf tournament was going to be taking place on Sunday, March 4th. So, much to the GC’s chagrin, I, of course, just had to stalk it. I ended up having an AMAZING time and really cannot thank Kim enough! The stars (all of whom were incredibly nice) that I met while there were scratch golfer Oliver Hudson (Kate Hudson’s brother and Goldie Hawn’s son), from Dawson’s Creek and Rules of Engagement;

Sam Page, from Shark (such a cutie!);

Patrick Warburton, aka “David Puddy” from Seinfeld;

Rob Morrow, from Numb3rs and Northern Exposure (SO amazingly nice – LOVE HIM!);

Richard Karn, aka “Al Borland” from Home Improvement;

Mike Inez, from Alice in Chains;

Christopher McDonald, aka “Shooter McGavin” from Happy Gilmore (it was so incredibly cool to see “Shooter” play golf in person!);

guitarist/songwriter/music producer Steve “The Colonel” Cropper (he was also a member of The Blue Brothers band in both the 1980 and 2000 movies of the same name);

Cheech Marin;

and Alice Cooper. Such a fabulous day! Thank you, Kim!

You can check out a great article about several Midwest Rain Man filming locations that I stumbled upon yesterday while doing research for this post on the Road Trip Memories blog here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The convenience store from Rain Man is located at 60490 Overture Drive, about two miles south of where State Route 111 meets the Interstate 10 Freeway, in Palm Springs.

March 7, 2012