Palm Springs filming locations

June 13, 2013June 12, 2013

Frances’ House from “Behind the Candelabra”

One Behind the Candelabra location that I was not able to stalk two weekends ago was the palatial Palm Springs abode belonging to Frances Liberace (Debbie Reynolds), the flamboyant pianist’s overbearing mother, in the 2013 HBO biopic. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to do so this past Saturday morning. And, as it turns out, the residence has quite a fascinating history.

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The ornate Hollywood Regency-style dwelling was originally designed in 1962 by James McNaughton, a Palm Springs-area architect who initially got his start in set decoration. In fact, he has the distinction of being television’s first set designer. McNaughton won numerous awards during his stint in show business, including a Look Award, a Christopher Award, and a Peabody award, and he also received quite a few Emmy nominations. I am fairly certain that the residence was commissioned by George Randolph Hearst, Sr. (the eldest son of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst) and his wife, Rosalie. If the couple did not actually commission the property, they were at least its first owners.

After George’s passing in 1972, Rosalie held onto the residence. It was there that Patty Hearst, George and Rosalie’s niece, hid out in 1977 while on probation awaiting an appeal for her bank robbery conviction. In May 1991, Rosalie sold the house to Harvey and Lori Sarner for a whopping $1,650,000. The Sarners still own the property to this day.

The 7-bedroom, 4.75-bath, 7,557-square-foot house, which sits on a 0.62-acre plot of land, is quite eccentric. According to an August 2012 MyDesert.com article, the dwelling was so lavishly appointed in George and Rosalie’s day that it was known as “Little Hearst’s Castle.” From the looks of things, not much has changed since that time. The place actually has a very Liberace feel to it, ironically enough, and reminds me quite a bit of the pianist’s third desert home, which I blogged about here.

As you can see below, the entire property is surrounded by double-sided Greek goddess statues, which, according to the Radiant Writing blog, are holdouts from the George and Rosalie days. The Radiant Writing author describes the property, which she remembers from her childhood, as such, “This home was gaudy on a small scale and no doubt a son’s attempt at mimicking his father’s extravagant San Simeon Castle. All it looked like to me was a morgue. The home had lion statues guarding both sides of the front door and was surrounded by a wrought iron fence, reminiscent of the Haunted House at Disneyland. The most haunting thing about the always dark house was the presence of the Romanesque goddess bust type statues placed within 3 feet of each other along the scary fence. The goddess busts had 70’s style light globes on their heads.”

The Hearst house appeared once in Behind the Candelabra, in the scene in which Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his boyfriend, Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), visited Frances in Palm Springs and listened to her complain about being lonely. Only the property’s backyard was featured in the flick. As you can see in the screen capture below, the home’s pool area is very reminiscent of the iconic Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

Amazingly enough, Behind the Candelabra filming in Palm Springs took place in August, the city’s hottest month of the year, during which high temperatures average 107 degrees! Being that a one-minute segment can take hours upon hours to shoot, the cast and crew must have been absolutely miserable filming the scene in Frances’ backyard! I mean look at the clothes they are wearing! Ugh!

While stalking the house, I was floored to discover that the backyard is partially visible from a neighboring street.

On a Behind the Candelabra side-note – I did not even recognize Debbie Reynolds in the role of Frances Liberace and, in fact, had no idea it was her until after I had finished watching the movie and was researching its locations online. Talk about a fantastic make-up job!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frances’ house from Behind the Candelabra is located at 701 West Panorama Road in the Little Tuscany Estates area of Palm Springs. The backyard portion of the residence can be partially viewed from the intersection of West Vista Chino and North Via Monte Vista. The world famous Kauffman House (which I blogged about here) is located right around the corner at 470 West Vista Chino.

June 11, 2013June 10, 2013

Our Lady of Solitude Church from “Behind the Candelabra”

Another Palm Springs’ Behind the Candelabra location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked recently was Our Lady of Solitude Church, where the funeral for Liberace (Michael Douglas) was held in the recently-aired HBO biopic. This locale was especially interesting because in a case of art imitating life, it was where the flamboyant pianist’s actual 1987 memorial service took place. But more on that later.

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In February 1926, Banning resident Father Philip LaVies began working on plans to found and build a Roman Catholic church in the Palm Springs area. The land for the parish was purchased from the Southern Pacific Railroad and temporary services were held there beginning in 1928. LaVies commissioned Albert Martin, the prolific architect who gave us St. Vincent de Paul Church (which I blogged about here), St. Monica Catholic Church (which I blogged about here), Los Angeles City Hall, and the Million Dollar Theatre, to design the site. The Spanish Revival-style structure was completed in 1930. A rectory was added to the property in 1964 and a parish center in 1974. Our Lady of Solitude, which was designated a Class One Historic Site on May 15, 1985, is currently one of the oldest churches still standing in Palm Springs

Our Lady of Solitude has had a few brushes with celebrity in its past. Apparently, President John F. Kennedy attended mass there whenever he was in town. And Jackie Coogan (who just so happens to be the grandfather of Keith Coogan, my girl Pinky Lovejoy’s fiancé) must have as well, because the GC spotted the placard pictured below posted on one of the church’s pews. So incredibly cool! It is also rumored that Liberace was an Our Lady of Solitude parishioner, although I am unsure if there is any validity to that.

Our Lady of Solitude church popped up only once in Behind the Candelabra, in the movie’s closing scene in which Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) attended the funeral of his estranged lover, Liberace (Michael Douglas).

In the scene, Scott parked in the lot located directly across the street from the church.

The actual interior of Our Lady of Solitude was also used in the filming.

As Scott watches the rather colorless ceremony, he starts to envision a funeral service that would be fitting of his flamboyant former lover. In his imagination, the church altar lifts away to reveal a lit stage . . .

. . . complete with Mr. Showmanship himself wearing a pink bedazzled suit and flying off into the great beyond.

Behind the Candelabra took a few liberties with the scene, though. The real story is as follows: Liberace passed away at The Cloisters, his Palm Springs home (which I blogged about here), at 2:05 p.m. on February 4th, 1987. According to a Daily News Wire Services article published a few days later, his body was removed from the house within hours and taken directly to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. A memorial service was held the following day, Friday, February 6th, at Our Lady of Solitude church. It was not an actual funeral, as was portrayed in Behind the Candelabra, though, as the pianist’s body was not present.

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion online about the Our Lady of Solitude service and which celebrities attended it. According to Scott Thorson’s 1988 book, Behind the Candelabra, on which the movie was based, only two stars were present – actress Charlene Tilton, from the television series Dallas (who was one of Liberace’s Palm Springs neighbors), and, ironically enough, Michael Douglas’ father, Kirk. And while the fabulous Findadeath website states that Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, and Robert Goulet were also in attendance, the truth of the matter is that two different public services were held to honor the pianist. The first was the February 6th service at Our Lady of Solitude. A second memorial was then held (after Liberace had already been entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park on February 7th) at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Las Vegas on February 12th. That service was the one attended by Goulet, Reynolds, and O’Connor, as well as Rip Taylor and Sonny King.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Our Lady of Solitude Church, from Behind the Candelabra, is located at 151 West Alejo Road in Palm Springs. You can visit the parish’s official website here.

June 5, 2013June 4, 2013

Palm Springs City Hall from “Behind the Candelabra”

The Behind the Candelabra location that I was most excited to stalk was Palm Springs City Hall, which appeared very briefly towards the end of the recently-aired HBO biopic. When I first saw the locale pop up onscreen, in all of its retro glory, I was convinced that it was a set that had been fabricated for the shoot. While I figured that set was most likely based upon what the actual Palm Springs City Hall looked like during Liberace’s era, never in my wildest dreams did I think the place would still bear the same façade today. So imagine my surprise when I pulled up pictures of the structure on my iPhone via Google Images and discovered that it looks exactly like it did onscreen – 1950’s signage and all! I, of course, immediately added the site to my To-Stalk List and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there this past Saturday morning. And I am very happy to report that the building is just as fabulous in person!

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Palm Springs City Hall was originally constructed beginning in 1952 and was designed by architects E. Stewart Williams [the mid-century modern marvel who designed the Kenaston residence from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s infamous July 2005 W Magazine photo shoot, the Koerner House from Alpha Dog, and the 1951 remodel of Howard Manor (now the Colony Palms Hotel)], Albert Frey (the father of the desert modernism-style of architecture who designed a portion of the Burgess House from Alpha Dog), and Frey’s partners, John Porter Clark and Robson Chambers.

The one-story, concrete block building took five years to complete.

The eastern portion of the building houses the entrance to the City Council chamber and features a poured-concrete disc overhang with the words “The People Are the City.”

The building’s main entrance boasts a corrugated metal canopy with a large circular cutout.

That cutout is of the exact same diameter as the disc overhang in front of the City Council chamber, which brings a sense of symmetry to the building’s two entrances.

The three palm trees that grow through the cutout remind me of the “twin palms” that are the focal point of Frank Sinatra’s former desert home, which was also designed by E. Stewart Williams.

My favorite element of the building, though, has to be the bris-soliel (a term I just learned today) made of diagonally-cut aluminum piping, which not only provides an unusual design aesthetic, but morning shade to the structure’s interior.

Palm Springs City Hall only showed up once in Behind the Candelabra, in the scene in which a Riverside County Health Department spokesman announced to the press that Liberace (Michael Douglas) had died from complications of the AIDS virus and not from heart failure due to an anemia caused by a watermelon diet (I don’t even understand that diagnosis!) as had originally been reported by his manager, Seymour Heller (Dan Aykroyd).

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Palm Springs City Hall, from Behind the Candelabra, is located at 3200 East Tahquitz Canyon Way in Palm Springs.

June 4, 2013June 4, 2013

Liberace’s House from “Behind the Candelabra”

Two Sunday nights ago, I (along with the rest of the world) was glued to my television set watching Behind the Candelabra, the HBO biopic about legendary pianist Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his teenaged lover, Scott Thorson (Matt Damon). I have to say that I was a bit disappointed when all was said and done, though. As Melissa Maerz said in her review of the flick for Issue #1261/1262 of Entertainment Weekly magazine, “Liberace’s fans were actually mostly straight women, the older, blue-haired types. And for better or worse, that seems like the target audience for this movie, a glossy story of love gone wrong and then (slightly) redeemed at the end, without a whole lot of deep pathos in between.” While entertaining, I had expected more. I did, of course, become a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down the film’s many locations, though, especially being that quite a bit of it was lensed right here in Palm Springs. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, also got in on the hunt and managed to find Liberace’s desert home from the movie, so I ran right out to stalk it – braving 107-degree heat, mind you! – this past Saturday afternoon.

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Mike was able to locate the residence thanks to the fact that a massive brown manse was visible in the background of the scene in which Scott went to visit Liberace on his deathbed. Using aerial views and Google Street View, he matched up the angle of the manse shown in the movie to an address that was identified as 696 North Via Monte Vista in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs. Sure enough, it was the right spot. Ironically enough, and unbeknownst to Mike, the hilltop mansion that he had spotted was none other than the house where Tom Rose (James Handy) lived in the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “P.S. I Love You” (which I blogged about here).

In real life, the 5-bedroom, 4.5-bath, 2,772-square-foot dwelling, which was originally built in 1930, is known as Casa de Monte Vista. The site boasts a 0.77-acre plot of gated land, vaulted wood-beamed ceilings, a rotunda entrance, a formal dining room, a library, a clay tile roof, a covered patio, a saltwater pool, lush landscaping including an organic herb and vegetable garden, mountain views, and four (!) guest casitas. According to Zillow, the space last sold in May 1996 for $408,000. It appears to have been put on the market once again in 2008 at a price of $1,695,000, but was later taken off. The abode currently serves as a private residence/special events venue/vacation rental. You can check out the home’s website here.

As you can see below, the property is absolutely gigantic! According to the Casa de Monte Vista website, in the 1950s, the pad was owned by actor Robert Stack and then later, in the 1960s, became a frequent stomping ground of members of The Rat Pack. And while the short-lived Casa de Monte Vista blog states that the home also once belonged to Lucille Ball (as well as the creator of the margarita), I am not sure if that information is correct. The residence’s most recent brush with celebrity, besides the filming of Behind the Candelabra, took place on Sunday, May 26th when Debbie Reynolds, who played Liberace’s mom, Francis, in the flick, hosted a special viewing party on the premises.

Casa de Monte Vista was featured twice towards the end of Behind the Candelabra. The exterior of the house first popped up in the scene in which Scott went to say goodbye to Liberace at his Palm Springs residence after learning that he was gravely ill.

The real life interior of the residence, which you can see photographs of here, was also shown in that scene.

The exterior of the home showed up once again in the scene in which it was announced to the press that Liberace had passed away.

What was shown of the property in Behind the Candelabra looked so much like The Cloisters (Liberace’s real life former desert home) that I originally thought filming had taken place there. When Mike informed me that was not actually the case, I couldn’t help but wonder why on earth The Cloisters hadn’t been used. Then I passed by the place this past weekend and was shocked (and saddened) to discover that the exterior had been completely remodeled since I stalked it last and currently looks nothing like it did in Liberace’s day. (I think the actual residence might have been left unaltered, but the fencing, front gate, foliage, and driveway area have, unfortunately, been rendered unrecognizable.)

The photograph below is one I took of The Cloisters, from virtually the same angle as the above picture, back in April 2008 when I originally stalked the place. You can read that blog post here and I will be writing another post on the location in the near future.

While not technically used as a location in Behind the Candelabra, The Cloisters, in its altered state, did pop very briefly up in the background of Liberace’s funeral scene.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Casa de Monte Vista, aka Liberace’s house from Behind the Candelabra, is located at 696 North Via Monte Vista in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs. You can visit the home’s vacation rental/special events venue website here.

February 14, 2013February 15, 2013

Tom Rose’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper surprised me with tickets for the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert annual Discovery Home Tour as a sort-of Welcome-to-Palm-Springs gift. The tour was an experience, to say the least. I honestly cannot remember the last time the GC and I laughed so hard – and for so long. I was “live texting” fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, throughout the day and at one point, after describing a house that had a microwave, mini-fridge, espresso machine, and pantry set up in multiple bathrooms directly across from toilets
(I’m not making this up – residents of that particular abode could literally be sitting on the toilet and making espresso at the same time!), he asked, “What f*cking desert have you moved to? The Sahara?” I have tears in my eyes right now going back through all of the texts from that day. Ah, good times! Anyway, while driving through the Las Palmas neighborhood mid-tour, I mentioned to the GC that I had yet to stalk the Palm Springs residence that Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) visited in the Season 5 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “P.S. I Love You.” I remembered that fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, had the address posted on his site, so I pulled over to look it up. As fate would have it, I actually pulled over directly across the street from the home! I mean, what are the odds of that? So I jumped out of the car and quickly snapped a few pics.

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In real life, the residence, which was originally built in 1983 and sits perched above Patencio Road, boasts seven bedrooms, seven baths, 6,989 square feet of living space, and a 0.73-acre plot of land. The ginormous property was last sold in December 1986 for $3,428,000.

According to a September 2010 Palm Springs Life article, the dwelling belongs to none other than Barbra Streisand and James Brolin, although I was unable to verify that claim through property records or other sources.

The article also states that the residence boasts a “guest mansion”, which, from looking at aerial views, can only be the structure denoted below. It was also built in 1983 and features five bedrooms, six baths, 6,948 square feet, and a 0.9-acre plot of land. Some guest mansion! That place is bigger than most houses!

In the “P.S. I Love You” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Dylan and Charley Rawlins (Jeffrey King) head to Palm Springs to meet with a possible investor for their movie. That investor, Tom Rose (James Handy), turns out to be a mobster and, as you can see below, things don’t go quite according to plan. Gotta love the later years of 90210!

Before Dylan winds up hanging off of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, though, he meets with Tom Rose at the mobster’s desert mansion. As you can see below, the home’s front gate looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. (A HUGE thank you to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making screen captures of Tom’s house for me. I do not own Season 5 of 90210 on DVD, but presumed that the episode would be available for download on iTunes or elsewhere online. Sadly, that was not the case. I could not find “P.S. I Love You” ANYWHERE! Because the vast majority of the episode took place in the Coachella Valley, I was really looking forward to watching it, too. Boo!)

The property’s intercom now looks completely different, though, and was either swapped out for the filming or has since been replaced.

In an odd twist, the house that appeared in the episode looks nothing at all like the actual house that stands behind that front gate. As you can see below, Tom Rose’s residence was Moroccan in style and featured a tall, domed tower . . .

. . . while the real life residence is modern in style and lacks any sort of a tower.

The home’s real life driveway does not match what appeared in the episode, either. While Tom Rose’s driveway opened up to the front of his residence, the actual driveway opens up to the side of the house. Tom’s driveway was also flanked by short stone walls . . .

. . . which are missing in real life. If I had to guess, I would say that, while it is possible that the residence has been vastly remodeled since the filming of 90210 in 1995, I think it is much more likely that a different house (most likely one in the Los Angeles area) was used for the scenes that took place behind the front gate. Don’t quote me on that, though – it is just a guess. If Barbra Streisand really does own the home, as Palm Springs Life states (and because it was last sold in 1986, that means she would have owned it at the time of the filming, as well) this scenario would make sense, as Babs does not strike me as the sort of person who would EVER allow a film crew inside of her residence.

The interior of the property that appeared in the episode is pictured below. And while I am certain that a real life interior was used in the filming and not a set, I am guessing that said interior is located elsewhere, most likely in Los Angeles.

Check out the boom microphone visible in the top of the screen capture below, which Mike pointed out to me.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the screen captures that appear in this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking – and a very happy Valentine’s Day to all of my fellow stalkers!

Stalk It: Tom Rose’s house from the “P.S. I Love You” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 555 North Patencio Road in Palm Springs.

July 25, 2012July 24, 2012

Elvis Presley’s Honeymoon Hideaway

While visiting my parents in the Coachella Valley last month, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, suggested that I do a re-stalk of the desert home where Elvis Presley and his new bride, Priscilla, spent their honeymoon in 1967. I had originally stalked and blogged about the property way back in March 2008, when my website was just a few months old, but because the post (which you can read here) was a mash-up of sorts about several Palm Springs-area celebrity vacation homes, Mike thought it would be a good idea to re-visit the location and dedicate a post solely to it. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there on our way out of town.

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The Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway, as it is commonly known, was designed in 1960 by architect William Krisel for real estate developer Robert Alexander, owner of the The Alexander Construction Company, who built the pad himself, at a cost of $300,000, for his wife, Helene. Together, Alexander and Krisel had constructed almost 2,000 homes in the Palm Springs-area, most notably in what came to be referred to as the “Alexander Tract”, which, according to a February 2009 Palm Springs Life article, historian Alan Hess called the “largest Modernist housing subdivision in the United States”.

The design of the house consists of four perfect circles built on three levels and incorporates many circular elements, including a 64-foot circular banquette couch that surrounds a circular fireplace and a circular-shaped kitchen that curves around a rounded stove. And, as you can see below, the pathway leading to the front door is made up of overlapping circular steps.

I absolutely LOVE the musical clefs on the home’s front gate, by the way.

And the rock outside which declares that Elvis honeymooned on the premises. As I’ve said countless times before on this blog, why don’t more owners of famous homes do this??? LOVE IT! But I digress.

When Look Magazine published an eight-page feature on the property called “The Way-Out Way of Life” in September 1962 (which you can take a look at here), “The House of Tomorrow”, as it was dubbed, became wildly famous, as did the Alexanders. Sadly, the couple, who were said to be the movers and shakers of the Palm Springs social scene at the time, were killed in a plane crash on November 14th, 1965. Elvis, who first heard about the dwelling from his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (who lived nearby at 1166 North Vista Vespero), ended up leasing the property a little less than a year later, on September 16th, 1966, at a rate of $21,000 per year. And while the singer and his then girlfriend, Priscilla Beaulieu, were set to be married on the grounds, when the media caught wind of the impending nuptials, plans were changed and the couple was whisked away to Las Vegas for an impromptu ceremony at the Aladdin Hotel on May 1st, 1967. That afternoon, the newlyweds returned to their Ladera Circle home, where Elvis famously carried Priscilla over the threshold. Lisa Marie was born exactly (like to the day!) nine months later, on February 1st, 1968, by which time the couple had moved into a ranch located in Memphis, Tennessee.

The two-bedroom, four-bath, 4,695-square-foot home, which was restored to its original glory in 1990, features a pool, an outdoor stage, a tennis court, a fruit orchard, a private garden, floor-to-ceiling windows, panoramic views of the Santa Rosa Mountains, and a honeymoon master suite (natch!). You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the residence here. The dwelling is currently used as venue for weddings and private events, and – wait for it! – guided tours of the property are also given on a daily basis at a rate of $25 per person. How cool is that?

And the home is also a filming location! In the 1998 made-for-TV movie Poodle Springs, the exterior of the abode stood in for the residence where Philip Marlowe (James Caan) lived with his wife, Laura Parker-Marlowe (Dina Meyer – aka Beverly Hills, 90210’s Lucinda Nicholson).

The interior and backyard scenes were shot elsewhere, though – most likely at a home in Los Angeles.

And while the 1998 made-for-television movie Elvis and Me, which was based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 book of the same name, supposedly filmed some scenes at the Honeymoon Hideaway, I scanned through it prior to writing this post and did not spot the house anywhere.

The Honeymoon Hideaway is also a popular spot for photo shoots and such stars as Jenny McCarthy, Elisabeth Shue and Jennifer Jason Leigh have all posed there for such noted lensmen as Mario Testino, Mark Seliger and Annie Leibovitz.

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 take a look at my latest post about one of my favorite to-go meals on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for suggesting that I write another post about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway is located at 1350 Ladera Circle in Palm Springs. You can visit the home’s official website here. Tours of the property, tickets for which can be purchased here, are given on a daily basis at a cost of $25 per person.

March 7, 2012March 7, 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! Smile

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! Smile

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.

August 4, 2011December 6, 2013

Twin Palms – Frank Sinatra’s Former Palm Springs Estate

Another Palm-Springs-area location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while vacationing in the Coachella Valley was Twin Palms, the former desert home of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra and his then-wife Nancy Barbato. And while I have actually stalked – and even blogged about – this location once before (way back in April of 2008!), since it was in the very early days of my site, it was an extremely short post that did not include any of the property’s vastly fascinating history. So I decided that the estate was most definitely worthy of a re-write.

Apparently, on May 1, 1947, Frank Sinatra, who had just signed a highly profitable movie contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, wandered into the offices of newly-founded architectural firm Williams, Williams, & Williams. At the time, now-legendary architect E. Stewart Williams, who designed Frankie’s house from Alpha Dog which I blogged about last Thursday, was a novice who had just joined his father’s firm and had yet to design a private residence. Frank, who was holding an ice cream cone and wearing a sailor’s hat, informed the team that he wanted them to design and build a huge Georgian-style estate by Christmas, in time for a party the singer was hosting. And even though the desired finish date was only seven short months away, Williams, Williams, & Williams took the job. Apparently, Frank was a difficult man to say “no” to. E. Stewart came up with two designs for the singer, one in the Georgian-style that Frank had originally envisioned, and another in the mid-century-modern-style, which Stewart would later become famous for. Sinatra liked the modern design and the rest, as they say, is history. E. Stewart’s partner and brother, Roger, later said, “We’d have been ruined if we’d been forced to build Georgian in the desert.”

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The four-bedroom, five-bathroom, 4,500-square-foot estate, which was built fully air-conditioned at a cost of $150,000, was completed in time for Frank’s party. The property was nick-named “Twin Palms”, thanks to the two large palm trees which flanked the home’s piano-shaped swimming pool. The estate, which is currently used as a vacation rental and filming location, currently boasts authentic period furniture, countless Frank Sinatra memorabilia, the original Valentino sound system on which Frank used to cut his records, a pool house complete with his-and-her bathrooms, and a full library of the iconic crooner’s music.

Frank and Nancy divorced in 1948 and Frank’s mistress and future wife Ava Gardner subsequently moved in. Of her time in the house, Ava said, “It was the site of probably the most spectacular fight of our young married life, and honey don’t think I don’t know that’s really saying something . . . Frank’s establishment in Palm Springs, the only house we really could ever call our own, has seen some pretty amazing occurrences.” Indeed! According to the home’s rental website, one of the sinks in the master bathroom bears a crack from a champagne bottle that Frank threw at Ava during one of their legendary brawls. You can see a photograph of that crack here. Frank also reportedly once threw all of Eva’s belongings into the driveway of the home after she had attempted to catch him cheating on her with actress Lana Turner. It was also in this house that Frank kept a room for his friend and my girl Marilyn Monroe, who was a frequent guest. In 1957, after filing for divorce from Ava, Frank sold the property and moved to a new home in nearby Rancho Mirage. Today, Twin Palms is a Palm Springs Class 1 Historical Site and is featured regularly in photo shoots for fashion magazines, including Men’s Health, Town & Country, Palm Springs Life, Sunset, German Elle, and Vogue. And the dwelling is also a filming location! Apparently Frank allowed the exterior of the property to be featured in the 1950 movie The Damned Don’t Cry, which starred Joan Crawford. You can see some fabulous interior photographs of the estate on the Rearranged Design website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Twin Palms, Frank Sinatra’s former desert home, is located at 1148 East Alejo Road in Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s official website here. Tours of the estate are conducted on a semi-regular basis and private tours, for a minimum of 20 guests, can also be arranged by clicking here.

August 3, 2011August 2, 2011

The Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells

One Palm-Springs-area hotel that I have long wanted to vacation at – not because it is a filming location, but because it is just simply beautiful – is the Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells. The Grim Cheaper and I ate dinner at the resort once upon a time many years back and I have been enamored of the place ever since. So for our recent Coachella Valley getaway two weekends ago, I begged the GC to book us a room there. And even though the rates weren’t exactly inexpensive despite the intense summer heat, he readily agreed! Shocking, I know! It was not until the very end of our stay, as we were checking out of the hotel, that I discovered, thanks to the super nice concierge on duty, that the resort was not only something of a celebrity hot-spot, but also a filming location! They say that the more you think about something, the more you attract that thing to you and in this particular instance that was definitely the case. It seems I always find myself stalking, even when I am not necessarily intending to. Winking smile

The Miramonte Resort & Spa, which has been awarded Four Diamond status from AAA, boasts 215 spacious guest rooms sprawled throughout an 11-acre piece of property that has been designed to resemble a Tuscan villa. The well-manicured grounds include several flower and herb gardens, outdoor fireplaces and piazzas, meandering pathways, hammocks tucked away in shaded little spaces, sparkling fountains, 24-hour room service (LOVE it!), a two-story, 12,000-square-foot spa, which was named the “#1 Resort Spa in North America & Caribbean” by Conde Nast Traveler, two 18-hole championship golf courses, two pools, including an adults-only pool, and over 30,000 square feet of event and meeting space. And while the resort is quite large and boasts countless amenities, it somehow manages to retain an intimate, secluded, and quiet ambiance. Both the GC and I absolutely loved the place!

Best of all, we somehow got upgraded to a 425-square-foot “Estate Room” during our stay, which featured a full marble bathroom, two queen-sized ‘Desert Dream Beds’, a sitting area, free wireless internet (which the GC was absolutely floored about), a 42-inch flat screen TV, and striking views of the Santa Rosa Mountains.

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The Miramonte’s SUPER-nice concierge, who spent about twenty minutes speaking with me about filming locations and my website, informed me that The Real Housewives of Orange County had once filmed at the hotel. In the Season 6 episode titled “Body Shots”, Housewife Peggy Tanous and her husband, Micah, spent the weekend with their two daughters, Capri and London, in the Miramonte’s Presidential Suite. It was while laying by the resort’s pool that baby Capri cut her finger and had to be rushed to the hospital – which was just a slight overreaction to the situation in my opinion, but I digress.

The concierge also informed me that in the Season 1 episode of Flavor of Love titled “Flav’s Trippin’”, Flavor Flav took contestants Brooke Thompson, aka “Pumkin”, and Nicole Alexander, aka “Hoopz”, to the Miramonte for a spa getaway. Just a few of the other celebrities who have been spotted at the resort include Larry King, three-time Olympic figure skating World Champion Peggy Fleming, Bernie Mac, George Lopez, Tony Bennett, Tommy Hilfiger, Chris Tucker, and Judy Sheindlin, aka “Judge Judy”.

On a side note – while at my parents’ new house this past weekend, I came across a few celebrity autographs that I had compiled over the years, including the one pictured above from Miss Liza Minnelli. And even though, because I have always been far more into photographs than autographs, there are not that many of them, I thought it might be fun to post a few on my site. So I created a new page titled “Celebrity Guest Book”. You can check it out here. Enjoy!

And a very big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY goes out to my parents today, who are celebrating a whopping 37 years of marriage! Congratulations, guys! I love you!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Miramonte Resort & Spa is located at 45000 Indian Wells Lane in Indian Wells. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

July 28, 2011September 4, 2012

Frankie’s House from “Alpha Dog”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like forever now is the home belonging to Frankie Ballenbacher’s (aka Justin Timberlake’s) father, Juergen Ballenbacher (aka Chris Kinkade), in the ultra-dark and depressing movie Alpha Dog. As I have expressed a few times before on this blog, I was not at all a fan of the 2006 flick, which was based on the real-life kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz by Jesse James Hollywood and his group of drug-dealing cronies, as it was far too disturbing for my taste. But I did absolutely fall in love with the mid-century-modern-style abode where the teenaged kidnap victim, who was named Zack Mazursky (aka Anton Yelchin) in the movie, spent the majority of his imprisonment. I started looking for the Ballenbacher residence pretty much immediately after first watching the film and, even though I knew it was located somewhere in the Palm Springs area, try as I might, I just could not seem to find it. Then on June 1st, fellow stalker/location manager Scott Trimble, of the STS Locations website, wrote a comment on my post about the Caliente Tropics Resort, the motel featured in Alpha Dog, stating that he had actually worked on the movie. So I immediately wrote to him and enlisted his help in tracking the place down. And even though he had only worked on the portion of the movie that was filmed in Los Angeles and was therefore unsure of where the Ballenbacher home was located, he was instrumental in finally helping me to find it. Thank you, Scott! Smile So a couple of weekends ago, while out visiting my parents in Palm Springs, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

In real life, the Ballenbacher residence is known as the Koerner House and it boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4,224 square feet of living space, and 1.1 acres of land. The abode was originally designed in 1955 by legendary mid-century modernist architect E. Stewart Williams, the very same man who constructed the Kenaston Residence in Rancho Mirage – the dwelling where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie posed for their now-infamous July 2005 W Magazine photo shoot. As you can see above, the home is pretty darn incredible!

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In Alpha Dog, drug-dealing kingpin Johnny Truelove (aka Emile Hirsch) orders his friend Frankie to take Zack, whom Johnny is holding as a marker for a $1,200 debt Zack’s brother has incurred, to Frankie’s father’s house in Palm Springs to hide out for a few days. The vast majority of the movie was filmed at the dwelling and both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used in the flick.

And while the house is pretty darn incredible, it was actually the backyard area, which appeared quite frequently in Alpha Dog, that I became so enamored of. What an absolutely amazing piece of property! As you can see above, because it is so strikingly beautiful, it was rather difficult for me to narrow down which screen captures of the backyard to post.

While driving to stalk the Koerner House, the GC and I spotted several open house signs and, thinking that it might just be the Koerner House that was open and that I might just have the opportunity to go inside and see that amazing backyard in person, I almost had a full-blown heart attack! Sadly though, it was in fact a neighboring residence that was hosting the open house, so I guess, for the time being at least, I will just have to settle for looking at aerial views of the property.

Big THANK YOU to Scott Trimble, from the STS Locations website, for finding this location for me! Smile You can follow Scott on Twitter, and learn all about his many location scout adventures, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Koerner House, aka Frankie Ballenbacher’s home from Alpha Dog, is located at 1275 South Calle De Maria in Palm Springs.