Movie Locations – Page 24

November 25, 2009November 24, 2009

Bella’s Mom’s House from “Twilight”

Well, it took me long enough, but on Monday afternoon I finally decided to crawl out from that rock I’ve been living under for the past year by sitting down to watch the movie that the rest of the world has long been obsessed with – Twilight. Yes, it’s true – while it seems that pretty much every other human being on the planet has gone Bella and Edward crazy, until earlier this week I had yet to watch – or even read – the saga’s first installment. I’m not exactly sure why I avoided the movie for as long as I did, being that I am usually right in line with the masses when it comes to the latest pop culture obsessions, especially the teeny-bopper ones. For some reason, though, Twilight never piqued my interest. But then, this past Friday night, I met up with fellow stalkers Lavonna, Beth, Kim, and Melissa, who were in town from Cincinnati, and they were all quite disappointed to learn that a stalker like myself had yet to see the movie. So, on Monday afternoon, I decided to bite the bullet and finally sat down – Starbucks iced latte in hand – to watch Twilight in its two hour entirety. And I am shocked to report that I didn’t hate it. I didn’t exactly love it, either, but I definitely didn’t hate it. It was actually pretty enjoyable. The cinematography was nothing short of breathtaking and Robert Pattinson wasn’t so bad to look at, either. Don’t hate me ladies, but before seeing the movie, I thought RB was absolutely hiddy. Now I can understand what all the fuss is about, though. There’s definitely just something about him. And I am happy to report that while most of Twilight was filmed on location in the Pacific Northwest, the movie did feature two locations in the Los Angeles area, most notably Bella’s mom’s house. So, of course, I just had to stalk it! 🙂

Thanks to my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry who sent me this Twilight link well over a year ago, I knew that Bella’s mom’s house was located somewhere in the Valencia area. I just wasn’t sure exactly where. So, yesterday, after watching the movie, I got to cyber-stalking and came across this page on Wikipedia, which stated that the home was located near Highlands Elementary School. And even though Wikipedia isn’t always the most reliable of sources, I decided to begin my search in the neighborhood surrounding the school. And sure enough, just about ten minutes later, I came across the house! YAY! So, early this morning, I made the journey out to Santa Clarita to do some Twilight stalking! Because Bella’s mom’s house is supposed to be located in Arizona in the movie, quite a bit of it was changed for the filming, including the paint color, the landscaping, and the exterior decor. Numerous fake cactus plants were also added to the surrounding area. You can see photographs of the house all decked out for the filming on this fansite, which details the experience of two stalkers who made a trek from Arizona to California – in the middle of the night, no less – just to watch Twilight being filmed! Two women after my own heart, I swear! (The photographs of the house are featured on the website under the heading “More Pictures on the Set 4/29 and 4/30”. You have to scroll down a ways to see them.).

Bella’s mom’s house is actually only featured very briefly in the movie. I’m talking like 30 seconds brief. LOL But since it is one of the only Twilight sites located in the state of California, I figured stalking it was better than nothing. 🙂 The abode first shows up in the very beginning of the movie, when Bella and her mom and step-dad are shown moving out of the property.

The spot where Bella digs up a cactus plant to take with her to her dad’s house is located in the field situated directly next to the home.

The house shows up once again towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Bella is led to believe that the evil vampire James has kidnapped her mother.

[ad]

Even though the house looks a bit different in person than it appeared onscreen, to all of those L.A. area Twilight fans, I still highly recommend stalking it! It’s a whole lot cheaper than traveling all the way to Oregon and Washington where the rest of the movie was filmed. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bella’s mom’s house from Twilight is located at 22301 Cataro Drive in Santa Clarita.

November 16, 2009November 16, 2009

Bethesda Fountain and Terrace

Just around the corner from the Central Park Boathouse Cafe, which I blogged about on Friday, is another New York landmark known as Bethesda Fountain and Terrace. Because the area is one of my favorite places in all of New York, I’ve actually stalked it numerous times during my many trips to the Big Apple, but, for some reason, never thought to blog about it. Which is actually quite ironic being that the fountain has been immortalized in countless movie and television productions over the years. So, with the mindset of ‘it’s better late than never’, today I thought I’d give it a go. 🙂 The first time I visited Bethesda Fountain and Terrace was back in 2004 during my very first trip to Manhattan. My fiancé and I happened upon the fountain while walking through Central Park and I immediately recognized it from an episode of fave show Sex and the City and just about flipped out. Since that time, I’ve made it a point to visit the area at least once whenever I’m in New York. On a side note – Due to the below freezing temperatures, fountains in Manhattan are turned off during the winter months, which is why Bethesda Fountain is not running in the above photograph which was taken in December of 2004.

Bethesda Fountain, which measures 26 feet tall and 96 feet in diameter and is one of the largest fountains in New York, was the only sculpture that was included in “The Greensward Plan”, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s original design blueprint for Central Park. In the plan, the fountain and terrace area were intended as a gathering place for park-dwellers, a picturesque spot for Manhattanites to congregate and socialize.

The statue that flanks the top of the fountain is named “Angel of the Waters” and was designed by Emma Stebbins, sister of Central Park Commissioner Henry G. Stebbins. The statue, which was built in Germany, took over seven years to construct and wasn’t unveiled until 1873, an additional five years after its completion. The idea behind the neoclassical statue was based on “The Pool of Bethesda”, a man-made bath in Jerusalem, which, as legend had it, was often frequented by angels who could cure the ailing. The fountain was built in commemoration of the Croton Aqueduct, Manhattan’s very first fresh water system, which had been completed thirty years prior. The statue’s largest angel measures eight feet tall and holds a lily in one hand symbolizing the purity of New York’s water, while blessing the waters of the fountain with her other hand.

The four cherubs which stand beneath the main angel represent Peace, Purity, Temperance, and Health.

British architect Jacob Wrey Mould designed the two large staircases which flank the terrace, as well as all of the area’s ornamental details, which include wildlife carvings and over 16,000 intricate Minton tiles.

The Terrace and Fountain area quickly became the focal point of Central Park and even boasted an outdoor restaurant at one time. But during the 1970s, Central Park fell into a terrible state of disarray and, sadly, remained that way for over a decade. When my parents checked into the Plaza Hotel during their very first trip to New York back in 1980, the concierge told them in no uncertain terms NOT to enter the Park under any circumstances. Today, Central Park is so incredibly beautiful and picturesque, that it is EXTREMELY hard for me to imagine it ever being a scary place. During that time, Bethesda Fountain became a haven for the homeless and drug addicted of New York and was even given the nickname “Freak Fountain”. It wasn’t until 1980, when the Central Park Conservancy stepped in with their plan to restore the Park to its original grandeur, that things began to change. The Conservancy’s first step was to renovate the fountain, which had actually been left dry for over a decade. A few months after the fountain was restored, the Terrace area was also renovated. Today, Bethesda Terrace is so grand and so tranquil that it’s hard to believe at one time it was one of the most dangerous areas of the park.

Because it is so incredibly picturesque, Bethesda Terrace is one of the most photographed areas of Central Park and has long been a favorite of movie producers. As mentioned above, I first recognized the area from a Season 2 episode of Sex and the City. In that episode, which was entitled “The Freak Show”, Carrie meets a “normal” guy while sitting by the fountain one spring day and, in an unprecedented move, gives him her unlisted phone number.

In Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, Kevin is chased onto Bethesda Terrace by Harry and Marv, aka the “Sticky Bandits”. He just narrowly escapes them by hiding in the trunk of a horse drawn carriage.

Not only does Nate run near the fountain in the Season 1 episode of Gossip Girl entitled “Poison Ivy”,

but in that very same episode the fountain shows up as the spot where Serena and Blair have a much needed heart-to-heart.

The Terrace is also the site of the grand finale of the “That’s How You Know” song and dance number from the movie Enchanted.

In Elf, while Will Ferrell is trying to save Christmas, Santa’s sleigh knocks off the tip of the “Angel of the Waters” statue and almost crash-lands on the Terrace’s top level.

The fountain is also the location of the New York City Junior Science Fair from which Mel Gibson and Rene Russo’s son is kidnapped in the 1996 movie Ransom.

It’s also the spot where George Clooney, Michelle Pfeiffer, and their two children frolic in some puddles while on their way to a soccer game in the movie One Fine Day.

The music video for the They Might Be Giants song “They’ll Need a Crane” was also shot in its entirety at Bethesda Fountain.

[ad]

The fountain has also been featured in the movies The Producers, The Way We Were, Deconstructing Harry, Sunday in New York, Eyewitness, Stuart Little 2, Hair, Godspell, Everyone Says I Love You, Angels in America, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Tommy Boy, Bullets Over Broadway, It Should Happen to You, It Could Happen to You, Madigan, Green Card, and The Manchurian Candidate, and in episodes of TV’s The Amazing Race, Law and Order, and Lipstick Jungle.

Bethesda Fountain and Terrace is an absolutely beautiful spot and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough! It has long been considered “the heart of Central Park” and is definitely a New York must-see!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bethesda Fountain and Terrace are located just off of 72nd Cross Street Drive in Central Park.

November 6, 2009November 5, 2009

The “Big” Paddleball Court

Another day, another Big location. And, sadly, this is actually the last Big location that I have to blog about. 🙁 Well, from this year’s New York trip, anyway. Being that fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down both the MacMillan Toys headquarters and Tom Hank’s loft from the movie, it looks like I’ll have a few more Big locations to stalk during next year’s New York vacation. 🙂 But for now, the last and final Big locale that Owen, my fiancé, and I visited during our stalking day in Manhattan last month was the court where Josh (aka Tom Hanks) played a little game of paddleball against his MacMillan Toys co-worker Paul (aka John Heard) in the movie. In real life, that paddleball court, which Owen found thanks to fave stalking book The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, is named Vesuvio Playground and it encompasses not only a paddleball court, but basketball courts, bocce ball courts, a sandbox, a mini pool, and a shower area, as well. When the park originally opened in 1929 it was called Thompson Playground and it consisted solely of a wading pool and a swing set and existed on a much smaller parcel of land than today’s .64 acres. In 1957, the City purchased an additional piece of land in order to expand the playground into what it is today. The park was then renamed Vesuvio Playground in honor of the nearby Vesuvio Bakery, which is owned and operated by longtime SoHo community leader Anthony Dapolito and his family.

In Big, Vesuvio Playground is the site of a very brief, but very memorable, scene in which the newly-adult Josh gets challenged to a paddleball duel by his douchebag of a co-worker, Paul. Because Paul is extremely jealous of his girlfriend Susan’s growing affection for Josh, he brings him to the paddleball court thinking he’ll teach him a lesson.

But Josh, who is a paddleball novice, ends up calling Paul out for cheating during the game which leads to a very juvenile – and absolutely hilarious – playground fist fight between the two. LOL LOL LOL

Unfortunately, even though it was mid-day, the paddleball court was absolutely JAM PACKED with children while we were stalking it, so we weren’t able to venture inside to take photographs. I mean, hello, shouldn’t kids be attending school during the middle of the day??? 😉 LOL I am happy to report, though, that the same pizza place which was visible in the background of the Big paddleball scene is still in business to this day, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs. 🙂 So cool!!

[ad]

According to fave stalking book Manhattan on Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, Frankie (aka Nick Scotti) and Joey (aka Domenick Lombardozzi) play handball on the very same paddleball court in the 1997 movie Kiss Me Guido. And the playground was also featured in an episode of the NBC series Third Watch.

On a very sad side – During our stalking day, Owen, my fiancé, and I also tried to stalk Asti, the Italian eatery where Billy takes Josh for his birthday in Big. Unfortunately, though, that restaurant closed its doors on New Year’s Eve 1999, after 75 long years in operation. 🙁 Such a bummer! Asti, which was named after a town in Italy famous for its sparkling wine (LOVE IT!), was a New York institution ever since it first opened in 1925. Apparently, not only did such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Luciano Pavarotti, and Noel Coward frequent the restaurant during its heyday, but there was even an autographed photograph of Tom Hanks from the filming of Big displayed in the front window. Also LOVE IT! 🙂 Even the building which once housed Asti is famous – former President Chester A. Arthur once lived there! I can’t even begin to tell you how sad I am that this landmark restaurant is now gone. 🙁 Currently, in its place is another eatery – a steak restaurant named Strip House (pictured above). You can read more about Asti and its history here.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for loaning me his Big paddleball court pics to post here, as, for some reason, I did not take that many photographs of it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vesuvio Playground, aka the Big paddleball court, is located at 95 Thompson Street in New York’s SoHo area. The former Asti restaurant (now Strip House) was located at 13 East 12th Street in Greenwich Village.

November 5, 2009November 4, 2009

The Hotel St. James

The one location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me I could absolutely NOT come home from New York without stalking was the seedy hotel where Josh Baskin (aka Tom Hanks) stayed after first becoming “big” in the 1988 movie of the same name. Mike had found the location of the Hotel St. James thanks to fave website The 80s Movies Rewind shortly before I left on my Big Apple vacation. So, since Owen, my fiancé, and I had already stalked several other Big filming locations during our NYC stalking day, we decided to keep the theme going by also making a stop at the Hotel St. James. The twelve story St. James, which first opened up in 1972 and is no longer the mangy place it was when Big was filmed, is considered to be one of the city’s most affordable hotels. Located just a block away from Times Square, a room at the St. James will run you anywhere from $159 to $269 per night depending on the time of year. Let me tell you, rates that low in Manhattan are almost unheard of! And thankfully, in real life, the hotel looks NOTHING like it did in the movie – otherwise I might never have ventured inside! LOL

The Hotel St. James first shows up in the very beginning of Big, as the seedy little place that Josh and Billy stumble upon while wandering the streets of Manhattan looking for an affordable hotel. Thanks to the shady characters hanging around out front, Josh refuses to even walk inside the place, prompting Billy to say “St. James, Josh! It’s religious!” LOL LOL LOL Josh and Billy end up booking a room at the hotel, which costs them $17.50 a night, plus a ten dollar deposit for the sheets. LOL LOL LOL Apparently, at the time Big was filmed during the late 80s, the St. James really was a decrepit little spot in a very shady part of town. But thanks to Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to clean up Times Square, Disney’s restoration of the New Amsterdam Theatre, and a renovation of the actual St. James itself, the hotel is really quite beautiful – and quite safe – now. 🙂

Several areas of the St. James were featured in Big, including the exterior (On a side note, the sign in the entrance door pictured in the screen capture above reads, “Firearms Kept On Premises”. LOL LOL LOL Really shows what a classy joint the hotel used to be!) ;

the lobby entrance;

and the check-in desk, which as you can see in the above photographs and screen captures is still positioned in the exact same place as it was in Big. The plastic partition and the toothless concierge are long since gone, though. 🙂

According to the EXTREMELY friendly concierge that I talked to, while the filming of Big did take place in the lobby area of the St. James, the hallway and hotel room scenes were actually all filmed on a studio soundstage. However, I’m not entirely convinced that information is correct. After recently re-watching the movie, it seems to me that a real St. James’ hotel room and the real St. James hallways were used in the filming. Thankfully, though, as you can see in these photographs, both the rooms and the hallways have undergone significant remodeling since that time! LOL

It is in Josh’s St. James hotel room that the very famous Big silly string scene took place. 🙂

[ad]

I highly recommend stalking the Hotel St. James! Even though it has undergone some drastic changes in the years since the filming of Big took place, the hotel is still set up very similarly to how it was portrayed in the movie and is therefore still very recognizable. 🙂 The Hotel St. James also looks like a very nice, very affordable place to spend a few nights when visiting the Big Apple! And while the newly renovated St. James is not luxurious or upscale by any means, it prides itself on having roomy, comfortable, clean accommodations. If the lobby is any indication of what the rooms look like, they must be be pretty darn nice!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hotel St. James is located at 109 West 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan. You can visit their website here.

November 4, 2009November 4, 2009

The “Big” School

Located just around the corner from the two main houses used in the movie Big is Cliffside Park Elementary School #6 – the elementary school attended by Josh Baskin (aka Tom Hanks) and his best friend Billy (aka Jared Rushton) in the 1988 flick. So, since we were already in the area, Owen, my fiancé, and I just had to stalk the place. 🙂 I am always a little bit leery of stalking schools while they are in session, though, as teachers and administrators tend not to like it when random adults start taking pictures of their campus while children are present. Why are there so many bad people out there who have to ruin things for us harmless movie-stalkers??? Anyway, because most of the students of Cliffside Park Elementary were outside playing on the playground while we were stalking the place, I wasn’t able to snap the greatest of pictures, nor were we able to venture inside for a closer look. 🙁

Cliffside Park Elementary School #6, which despite what its name would lead you to believe, is actually comprised of both an elementary school and a middle school and houses about 630 students in grades one through eight. The reason for the misnomer, you ask? Originally, the school was solely an elementary school facility. It wasn’t until about eight years ago that the middle school portion was added. Cliffside Park #6 was featured twice in Big. It first shows up at the very beginning of the movie, when young Josh rides his bike down the side of the school on his way to play stickball with Billy.

Owen and I couldn’t seem to locate the actual stickball court the boys play on while we were stalking the place, though. But, according to this former Cliffside student, apparently there did used to be an empty lot located behind the school where children would actually play stickball. That lot got covered over a few years back, though, when an addition was added to the school building. So sad! 🙁 I am guessing that addition was built to house the new middle school.

Cliffside Park #6 also shows up towards the end of the movie, during the montage sequence in which adult Josh returns to his hometown and watches a group of children take their class picture at his alma mater.

In that same montage, Josh also watches some boys play baseball in the school’s baseball field. Random site note – as Owen and I discovered, the “grass” on the baseball field is not real- it’s actually Astroturf! LOL

I am very happy to report that Cliffside Park Elementary School #6 looks very much the same today as it did back in 1988 when Big was filmed. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how cool I think it is that the school is located so close to the two homes used in the movie, because if there actually were a real Josh and a real Billy who lived in those houses, then Cliffside Park #6 would really be the school they would attend! 🙂 LOVE IT! And, while I highly recommend stalking Cliffside Park #6, I suggest doing so during non-school hours when no children are present. It’s a lot easier to take photographs that way. 🙂

[ad]

Big THANK YOU to Owen for “loaning” me his photographs of the Big baseball field and allowing me to post them here, as, for some odd reason, I didn’t take any pictures of the field while we were stalking the school.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Big school, aka Cliffside Park Elementary School #6, is located at 440 Oakdene Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. The Big houses are located just around the corner at 435 and 437 Greenmount Avenue. The Heffernan house from The King of Queens is also located right around the corner at 519 Longview Avenue. Unfortunately there is no easy way to get to these locations from Manhattan. A taxi ride is your quickest, easiest bet, but be prepared as the trip will cost you $45 each way! Riding the bus is a much cheaper option, but be prepared for a long travel time, as the bus ride to Cliffside Park takes upwards of an hour.

November 3, 2009November 3, 2009

The Houses from the Movie “Big”

Right around the corner from The King of Queens house, which I blogged about on Friday, are the two main houses used in the 1988 Tom Hanks movie Big. And when I say “right around the corner”, I literally mean RIGHT around the corner. The King of Queens house and the Big houses are located a scant 88 yards away from each other! Too cool! So, of course, since Owen, my fiancé, and I were already in the area stalking the Heffernan house a few weeks ago, we just had to walk around the corner to make a stalking stop at the Bighomes, too. 🙂 Owen had found the addresses of the houses belonging to Josh (aka Tom Hanks) and his best friend Billy (aka Jared Rushton) in the 80’s flick thanks to IMDB’s Big filming locations page. And even though IMDB’s location information isn’t always one hundred percent accurate, thankfully, in this case, it was right on the money!

I am VERY happy to report that the two Big houses still look EXACTLY the same today as they did back in 1988 when the movie was filmed! I was absolutely amazed at the fact that, besides the leaves on the trees out front being a little bit fuller and a little more green due to the time of year, the two homes look absolutely identical today to how they were portrayed onscreen twenty-one years ago. YAY! Other movie house owners should take lessons from these people!! 🙂

The home pictured above belonged to Josh and his family in the movie and was where he lived before he became “Big” and subsequently moved to Manhattan. Several areas of the house were featured in the flick, including the front exterior;

the garage, where a new door has been installed, but which otherwise looks very much the same as it did in the movie;

and the front door, which I was extremely excited to see still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in Big! The only difference is that a white screen door which covers the front door was added in the time since filming took place.

Best friend Billy’s house is located directly next door to Josh’s and I am happy to report that its front door also looks EXACTLY the same as it did in the movie. I was so tempted to go up and knock. 🙂

In Big, Billy and Josh have a pulley system that runs between their two bedroom windows, which face each other. The pulley shows up in the scene in which Billy and Josh’s mom talk about Josh’s dissappearance late at night. In the scene, Josh’s mom uses the pulley to show Billy a set of baseball cards that she had purchased for Josh’s birthday. She tells Billy he can keep the cards, but he sends them back to her telling her that Josh will be home soon. UPDATE – Fellow stalker Owen just informed me that Billy and Josh’s pulley is actually only shown in the extended edition DVD of the movie and not in the regular version.

Of course, in real life, that pulley is not there. 🙁 Would have been SO cool if it was, though! If I owned those houses, I would so install one for my fellow stalkers to appreciate. 🙂 Otherwise, though, the boys’ windows still look very much the same.

And, of course, I just had to pose for a pic on the street corner where Susan dropped Josh off at the end of the movie. 🙂 That street corner also looks very much the same as it did in Big – all that was missing in real life were the piles of fallen autumn leaves which covered the sidewalks in the movie.

[ad]

I can’t tell you how exciting it was to finally see the Big houses in person twenty-one years after first watching the movie which made them famous! I honestly can’t recommend stalking them enough! 🙂

On a side note – In real life, the houses from Bigare located in the borough of Cliffside Park, New Jersey and in the filming of the scene in which the police are called out after Josh first disappears, the words “Cliffside Park” can be seen on the police car that Billy walks by. So LOVE that they used the real town’s name!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Josh’s house from the movie Big is located at 437 Greenmount Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Billy’s house is located right next door at 435 Greenmount Avenue. At the end of the movie, Susan drops Josh off at the Southwest corner of Greenmount and Highridge Avenues. The King of Queens house is located directly around the corner at 519 Longview Avenue. Unfortunately there is no easy way to get to these locations from Manhattan. A taxi ride is your quickest, easiest bet, but be prepared as it will cost you $45 each way! Riding the bus is a much cheaper option, but the travel time is upwards of an hour.

October 27, 2009October 27, 2009

Grand Central Station

Yet another Gossip Girl filming location that I stalked a few weeks back while vacationing in Manhattan is the train station known as Grand Central Terminal. But being that Grand Central has actually been featured in more than a few hundred productions since it first opened in 1913, it’s not really accurate to refer to the place simply as a “Gossip Girl filming location”. Truth be told, being that the building is a National Historic Landmark and has been in operation for close to a century now, it’s really not fair to refer to the place as a “filming location” at all. The fact that the station has been immortalized in countless films and television shows over the years is more of a side-note than anything else. Truth be told, Grand Central Station, or Grand Central Terminal as it is officially called, is not only the largest train station in the entire world, but is also a marvel of modern-day architecture and one of the cornerstones of New York History. The terminal, which boasts 44 platforms and 67 different tracks and covers over 48 acres of space!!!, first opened on February 2, 1913 after a staggering ten years of construction. The Beaux-Arts style building was actually designed by two architectural firms – the firm of Reed & Stern handled the engineering, while Warren and Westmore conducted the aesthetic composition. And the place truly is a site to behold! The station’s main concourse is absolutely breathtaking – I mean my breath was literally taken away the first time I saw it! Seeing the huge shafts of sunlight stream through the concourse’s many window panels, as Hal Morey captured so beautifully in this photograph, is something everyone should experience in person at least once in their lives. The main concourse’s Grand Staircase which is made of marble and which was modeled after the main staircase in the Paris Opera House, is flanked by three beautiful – and HUGE – 75-foot tall leaded glass windows (pictured above).

On a side note – The Grand Staircase is also, coincidentally, where I took one of my very favorite photographs of New York (pictured above)! LOL LOL LOL

But my favorite part of the terminal’s main concourse has to be its ceiling! Oh, the ceiling! Grand Central’s beautiful, vaulted ceiling, which features a mural of Zodiac signs painted backwards was designed and created in 1912 by artist Paul Helleu and contains over 2,500 stars which actually light up. The reason for the backwards Zodiac depiction, you ask? The mural is supposed to represent the view of the stars a god would see while looking down upon planet Earth through the heavens.

The exterior of Grand Central Station is also quite remarkable, as you can see in the above photograph.

In 1914, while the station was under construction, French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutans designed a 48 -foot tall statue of the Roman gods Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury which was to sit sentinel above Grand Central’s 42nd Street entrance. The statue, which was carved by the John Donnelly Company, also boasts a central glass clock measuring a whopping 13 feet in circumference. The clock was designed by none other than Tiffany & Co. and represents the largest example of Tiffany Glass in the entire world.

At night, the exterior becomes even more spectacular.

As you can see in the above picture, Grand Central is usually bustling with commuters and visitors alike! In fact, more than 500,000 people walk through the terminal’s doors EACH DAY!!!! (No, that’s not a typo – I really meant EACH DAY!) According to this fabulous article, in the year 1947 alone over 65 MILLION people visited Grand Central – an amount which equaled 40% of the entire popular of the United States at the time!

Which makes it all the more amazing that the station’s doors were almost shuttered in the 1950s. Due to the decline of railroads as a popular means of transportation, the terminal faced demolition on numerous different occasions beginning in the year 1954. Thankfully all such plans were subsequently thwarted, until 1967 when Penn Central Railroad announced its plans to tear down Grand Central and replace it with a sixty-plus story office building. Thankfully, New York preservationists, most notably former First Lady Jackie O., stepped in to stop the project. Jackie’s efforts took her all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where a ten year battle was fought over the station. Penn Central eventually lost the case and Grand Central was awarded landmark status, eliminating any further possibility of it ever being destroyed or changed. In 1994, the terminal was taken over by the Metro-North company, who subsequently began an extensive renovation process, restoring the terminal to her original glory to the tune of $250 million. Today Grand Central is as beautiful, and as busy, as ever. Besides being simply a commuter hub, today’s Grand Central Station also boasts fifty different retail stores and five different upscale restaurants, including the world-famous Oyster Bar which has been in operation since the station first opened in 1913. And, of course, as I mentioned before, the terminal is also a frequent filming location!

Grand Central has been featured in two different episodes of Gossip Girl – the Pilot episode and the Season Two episode entitled “Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?”. In the Pilot, It-girl Serena van der Woodsen is spotted at Grand Central while making her infamous return to New York after a year spent in a Connecticut boarding school.

In that same episode, Rufus Humphrey picks up his kids, Dan and Jenny, at Grand Central after a weekend spent with their mother.

And yet again in that very same episode, Grand Central’s famous Campbell Apartment Bar, which I have blogged about once before, shows up at the site of Nate and Serena’s illicit tryst.

In the “Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?” episode, Rufus confronts Lily about the child she never told him about while standing in the middle of Grand Central’s main concourse.

The Campbell Apartment also shows up in that episode as the spot where Chuck Bass hires a private investigator to look into the background of his deceased father’s widow.

Grand Central, as well as its flap-board destination sign, figure prominently in the end of fave teeny-bopper movie Just My Luck.

Other movies that have filmed at the terminal include North By Northwest, Armageddon, Carlito’s Way, Hackers, I Am Legend, K-PAX, Men In Black and its sequel Men In Black II, Midnight Run, Old Dogs, Party Monster, Revolutionary Road, The Bone Collector, The Cotton Club, The Fisher King, One Fine Day, Conspiracy Theory, Midnight Run, Loser, Falling In Love, The Prince of Tides, The Freshman, The Perfect Score, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and Unfaithful. And, Grand Central replicas have even been built on studio soundstages when filming on location at the actual station wasn’t feasible, as was the case with Superman, Twentieth Century, Going Hollywood, The Thin Man Goes Home and Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

[ad]

On a “must-see” side note – One of Grand Central’s most famous spots, an area which I, sadly, have yet to visit, is the Whispering Gallery, which is located in the station’s Dining Concourse. As the name suggests, thanks to the laws of physics and the Gallery’s domed ceiling, two friends can stand at opposite corners of the room, face the walls, and whisper to each other and those whispers will be carried, quite loudly, from one corner of the room to the other. How amazingly cool is that? Fellow stalker Owen has even tested out this marvel of science and says it really does work! I absolutely cannot wait to try it out myself next year!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Grand Central Station is located on 42nd Street, in between Lexington and Park Avenues. Docent-led tours of the station are given each Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. by the Municipal Arts Society. The Whispering Gallery is located in the station’s Dining Concourse near the world-famous Oyster Bar. The Campbell Apartment is located at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue, just off Grand Central’s main concourse area. Sadly though, the bar has recently come under new ownership and the dress code has been changed. And, for some incredibly odd reason, it seems no one on the Campbell Apartment staff knows exactly what the new dress code entails. When we called the bar to inquire about the dress code prior to our arrival, we were told that jeans and tennis shoes were permissible. But when we showed up we were denied entrance . . . due to our jeans and tennis shoes. LOL Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a place upholding a dress code, at all. In fact, I quite like it. But if you’re going to do so, the staff should darn well be able to tell patrons CORRECTLY what that dress code is!

October 22, 2009October 22, 2009

Blair Waldorf’s Gossip Girl Apartment Building

Well, it must be Gossip Girl week here at Iamnotastalker.com because here I am once again blogging about yet another location from the ubiquitous CW series. While in New York two weeks ago, one of the locales at the very top of my stalking list was the Upper East Side building where Queen Bee Blair Waldorf lives on my new favorite show. I found this location, once again, thanks to FanPop’s awesome Gossip Girl page and, because I love me some BW, I just simply wasn’t leaving New York until I had stalked her place. So, after dropping my best friend, his girlfriend, and his mother off at the Guggenheim Museum – because as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t do museums 🙂 – I dragged my fiancé just a few blocks North to do some stalking of Blair’s pad. On a side note: While doing research on Blair’s apartment building for today’s post, I came across this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING website, which lists pretty much EVERY SINGLE location ever featured on Gossip Girl! And, let me tell you, I almost fell off my chair while looking at it! HOW IN THE HECK DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS SITE BEFORE I LEFT FOR NEW YORK! UGH! 🙁 I could have spent my entire trip stalking Gossip Girl!!!!! LOL Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to set that as my goal for next year’s trip! 🙂

On Gossip Girl, Blair Waldorf lives in the Penthouse apartment of the ultra-exclusive Fifth Avenue building pictured above. The 15-story building, which houses 43 different apartments, was built in 1925 by architect George F. Pelham, Jr., who also designed the Castle Village apartment complex in Hudson Heights and the residential building located at 1120 Park Avenue. A two-bedroom unit in Blair’s building, which you can take a look at here, is currently for sale for the bargain price of $2,695,000! Besides views of Central Park, the building also boasts a full-time, white-gloved doorman AND a full-time, white-gloved elevator operator. That’s just so Blair Waldorf, isn’t it? 🙂 So love it!

Blair’s building has been featured regularly in establishing shots throughout the series’ two and a half year run. Filming also took place there for the Season One episode entitled “Victor, Victrola”, in which Nate Archibald and his father get into a fistfight on the sidewalk out in front of the building (pictured above).

In the Season Two episode entitled “In the Realm of the Basses”, Blair receives an invitation from the elite Colony Club in which the actual address of the real apartment building used for the filming is displayed. Love it!

[ad]

According to fave book Manhattan On Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, Blair’s building was also used in the 2001 Chris Rock movie Down to Earth, as the residence of Charles Wellington, whose body the spirit of Chris Rock inhabits after his untimely demise. The building also has a bit of celebrity history, as well. During their marriage, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid owned a seven-room unit on the building’s 12th-floor, which they sold in March 2002, almost a year after their divorced was finalized, for a cool $6.5 million.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Blair Waldorf’s apartment from Gossip Girl is located at 1136 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of 5th Avenue and 95th Street, on New York’s Upper East Side.

October 21, 2009June 16, 2011

The Central Park Conservatory Water

Because I spoke only very briefly about the Central Park Conservatory Water in yesterday’s post regarding the filming of Gossip Girl, today I thought I’d do a more in-depth blog on that location and the myriad of filming that has taken place there over the years. So, here goes. 🙂 The Conservatory Water is so named because in the original plans for Central Park, which were drawn up in 1857 by designers Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, an oval-shaped conservatory, or greenhouse, containing tropical plants was to be situated in the area where the Model Boat Pond now stands. When the money for that particular project fell through, Olmstead and Vaux instead decided to place an oval-shaped model boat pond, designed after those in Paris’ Jardin du Luxembourg, in the exact spot where the conservatory was originally positioned. Hence the name “Conservatory Water”. Over the years, the Pond became incredibly popular with children and adults alike and, thanks to the model yacht races which are held there each weekend, the area has come to be more commonly known as the “Model Boat Pond”. In fact, ask any New Yorker for directions to the Conservatory Water and I doubt they’d know what you were talking about. 🙂

Besides its weekend boat races, the Conservatory Water is also famous for two statues which are situated along its perimeter. The statue pictured above is of children’s author Hans Christian Andersen, who penned the stories “The Little Mermaid”, “The Snow Queen”, and “Thumbelina”, among countless others. In the statue Hans is depicted reading his tale “The Ugly Duckling” to an attentive little duck. So cute!!! And please don’t ask what the heck I am wearing in the above picture – it was a freezing cold and rainy day in New York and I threw on whatever warm clothes I could find. LOL

At the North end of the pond sits the famous Alice in Wonderland statue, in which Alice cavorts atop a life-sized mushroom with her friends the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Dormouse, and the White Rabbit. The statue was commissioned in 1959 by George T. Delacorte, founder of the Dell Publishing Company, in honor of his wife. Legend has it that George’s face was the model for the face of the Mad Hatter in the statue. 🙂

The Model Boat Pond is so incredibly beautiful and picturesque, with its flat pool of reflecting water, curving benches running along its perimeter, lush green foliage and pink cherry trees juxtaposed against the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, that it’s not very hard to see why producers have returned to film there time and time again.

In fave movie 13 Going On 30, the Model Boat Pond shows up very briefly during the montage scene in which Jenna is shown enjoying her newfound age. You can see the Alice and Wonderland statue in the background of the first screen capture pictured above.

In fave show Sex and the City, the Model Boat Pond shows up in the Season One episode entitled “The Power of Female Sex”, in the scene in which Carrie takes French Architect Gilles on a tour of the city. While at the Pond, Carrie says, “I felt like I had landed in a Claude Lelouch film”, Lelouch being a French film director known for his picturesque cinematography. The Alice and Wonderland statue shows up in this scene, as well – Carrie is sitting on top of it in the first screen capture pictured above.

In Just My Luck, yet another of my favorite teeny-bopper movies, cutie Chris Pine has some incredibly bad luck while visiting the Model Boat Pond at the very beginning of the film. Again you’ll notice the Alice in Wonderland statue pictured in the background above. It seems to be a favorite of filmmakers. 🙂

In the 1998 movie The Object of my Affection, it is while sitting on a bench overlooking the Pond that my girl Jen Aniston tells Paul Rudd that she is pregnant.

In fave movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Fred is followed by Doc Golightly, Holly’s former husband, while taking a stroll near the Conservatory Water.

And in the 1999 movie Stuart Little, Stuart (who was voiced by none other than Alex P. Keaton himself – Michael J. Fox) and his pal Jonathan Lipnicki race a model sailboat at the Pond. (That’s Hugh Laurie, aka Dr. House M.D., who plays Stuart and Jonathan’s dad in the flick, pictured in the second screen capture above!)

The producers definitely took some liberties while filming this scene, though, because while the race starts out at the Model Boat Pond, it ends up in the Central Park Reservoir, which, contrary to what the movie would have you believe, is not actually connected to the Pond and is, in fact, located quite a few miles away.

At one point, the boats even sail under a small bridge, but, being that the Model Boat Pond has no bridge, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I’m fairly certain this scene wasn’t actually filmed in Central Park. My guess is that the scene was filmed a few thousand miles away on a soundstage at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. LOL When watching that scene, you’ll notice that the camera never pans back far enough to show the entire Pond, leading me to believe that producers built their own version of it at the studio in Los Angeles which they then used for the filming.

[ad]

The Pond also showed up in I’m Not Rappaport, F/X, Jungle 2 Jungle, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Key Exchange and in 1964’s The World of Henry Orient. And it has even been immortalized in print, as well! In J.D. Salinger’s famous Catcher in the Rye novel, Holden Caulfield laments his problems to the Conservatory Water’s resident ducks.

I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Model Boat Pond enough!! It is one of my very favorite places in all of New York! In fact, one of my favorite things to do while visiting the city is to grab a bagel from a street vendor and eat it while sitting on one of the many benches surrounding the Pond – weather permitting, of course. 🙂 Which is exactly what my best friend, Kylee, and fiancé are doing in the above photograph which was taken during my 30th birthday trip to the Big Apple. 🙂 Ironically enough, while doing research on the Pond for today’s post, I kept running across the following sentence – or some variation of it – written again and again: “The Conservatory Water is so relaxing and peaceful that you almost forget you are in New York.” But to me, the Pond is a perfect representation of what it is that makes New York so incredibly unique. I mean where else can you find a huge and incredibly quiet and picturesque piece of nature located smack dab in the middle of a beautiful, bustling, towering city? 🙂 No, for me, the Model Boat Pond couldn’t be more New York and I never forget what city I am in while visiting it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Conservatory Water, aka the Model Boat Pond, is located in Central Park on New York’s Upper East Side and can be reached from 72nd through 75th Streets.

October 19, 2009October 19, 2009

Nate Archibald’s Townhouse

Rather than suffer through the re-run abyss airing on most television networks this past summer, my fiance and I instead decided to purchase and watch the first two seasons of the hit CW series Gossip Girl, which neither of us had ever before seen. Even though Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had been telling me for months that I would love the show, I steered clear of it as I had been under the incorrect assumption that it catered mostly to the teeny-bopper set. But, let me tell you, once we finally sat down to watch, it didn’t take long for my fiance and I to become totally and completely hooked!!! As much as it pains me to admit, there were literally whole weekends spent watching back to back episodes, the two of us never once leaving the couch! LOL Needless to say, I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with the show . . . and its locations. And, even though Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass are the two GG characters I love the most, the locale I was most excited about stalking while in New York two weeks ago was the absolutely beautiful Neoclassical townhouse belonging to Nate Archibald (aka Chace Crawford) on the show. I found this location – and a few others – thanks to this awesome website. So, bright and early on our very first morning in NYC, I dragged my parents and my fiance out to finally do some Gossip Girl stalking! 🙂

Ironically enough, when we arrived at the townhouse, I almost didn’t recognize the place thanks to the fact that it was COMPLETELY covered in Halloween decorations. LOL But being that Halloween is my favorite holiday, I really didn’t mind. 🙂 The six story townhouse, which was built in 1910 and measures 11,296 square feet, is absolutely beautiful in person and it’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use it as the residence of the Archibald family – heirs to the Vanderbilt fortune – on the show.

As fate would have it, while we were taking photographs of the townhouse, the real life owner happened to walk outside, so I, of course, had to ask him a few questions about the filming. He was SUPER nice to us, but was very nonchalant about Gossip Girl, as if the filming of a hit television show on his property was an everyday occurrence, which I suppose, for him, it actually is. LOL Besides telling us that Chace Crawford is very nice in person, the owner also mentioned that the real interiors of his house are used for the filming of the interiors of the Archibald home, as well. So cool! 🙂

Even cooler is the fact that in the Season 2 episode of Gossip Girl entitled “There Might Be Blood”, the real life address of the home is shown as Nate’s return address on the letter he mails to Jenny! 🙂 Love it!

And thanks to fave book Manhattan on Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, I found out that the Archibald townhouse was also used as the office of therapist Susan Lowenstein (aka Barbra Streisand) in the 1991 movie The Prince of Tides.

And, from how it appears in the movie, I am pretty sure the real life interiors of the home were also used in the filming.

AND, according to this article, the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, rented this very same house for about six months back in 1999 for the bargain price of $75,000 a month while recording his “Invincible” album. SO COOL!

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Nate’s townhouse enough! It is such an amazing piece of property, that even if it wasn’t a filming location, I’m pretty sure I’d still be obsessed with it. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Nate Archibald’s townhouse from Gossip Girl is located at 4 East 74th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Located right around the corner at 25 East 73rd Street is Via Quadronno, my very favorite place to eat breakfast in all of New York. Their croissants are out of this world!