Paul Reubens filming locations

September 27, 2012September 26, 2012

Grand Central Air Terminal from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

While doing research for yesterday’s post (which you can read here), I came across a page on IMDB that stated that the bus station scene from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was filmed at the Glendale Amtrak Station. I knew from previous cyber-stalking, though, that the Pee-wee bus station scene was actually filmed a few miles north of the Amtrak depot at the now-defunct Grand Central Air Terminal (a location that I first learned about way back in March 2011 while writing my post on the nearby former bowling alley that stood in for the exterior of Jack Rabbit Slim’s in Pulp Fiction). Ironically enough, I had actually stalked both the Glendale Amtrak Station and Grand Central Air Terminal on the same day in early May. So to clear up the confusion about the Pee-wee bus station, I thought now would be as good a time as any to blog about the place.

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Grand Central Air Terminal was designed by Henry L. Gogerty in the Spanish Colonial Revival/Art Deco-style on the site of what was formerly a private airport for millionaire Leslie C. Brand. The property was officially opened to the public on February 22, 1929 and featured the first paved runway west of the Rocky Mountains. The airport was also the first to offer transcontinental passenger air service from Los Angeles to the East Coast and the premiere flight took place in 1929 with none other than Charles Lindbergh at the helm. Hollywood luminaries Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were also onboard. Other stars who took flights to or from Grand Central over the years include Shirley Temple, Gary Cooper, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, Carole Lombard, and Jean Harlow. Such aviation pioneers as Howard Hughes, Glenn L. Martin, Eddie Rickenbacker, Amelia Earhart, and Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan are all counted as having piloted flights from the airport.

In 1947, following World War II, Grand Central’s runway was cut down to 3,400 feet to make room for a road. When the runway was later deemed too short for jet planes to use in 1959, the 125-acre property was closed and most of its hangars and runways demolished or removed. All that remains of the original airport is the actual terminal building and its three-story Zigzag Moderne-tower. The site was subsequently purchased by Prudential Insurance, who transformed it into an industrial park named Grand Central Business Park. In 1961, The Walt Disney Company leased the vast majority of the property and subsequently purchased it in 1997. The Park is currently used as Disney corporate offices and as the headquarters of Walt Disney Imagineering. And while the Walt Disney Company has an agreement with the city of Glendale to restore the air terminal building, which suffered damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, back to its original grandeur by the year 2015, it has, sadly, been left to deteriorate in the meantime.

In Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Grand Central Terminal stood in for the supposed San Antonio bus station where Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) ran into Simone (my former acting teacher Diane Salinger).

You can even see a portion of a sign reading “Grand Central Building” in the background of the scene.

Thanks to its proximity to several different Hollywood studios, Grand Central Air Terminal has been the site of countless filmings over the years. In the beginning of 1933’s Air Hostess, it was the Los Angeles airport where the TWA flight from Albuquerque landed.

Grand Central was also the airport where saxophonist Ronny Bowers (Dick Powell) landed upon first coming to Southern California in 1937’s Hollywood Hotel.

In 1943, Grand Central stood in for Transatlantic Airways’ London Terminal in the movie Sherlock Holmes in Washington, although it only appeared very briefly.

The north side of Grand Central Terminal stood in for the Carson Police Department in 1985’s My Science Project, although such a small portion of the building was shown that it is virtually unrecognizable.

You can see below, though, that the front of the police station matches the area where Pee-wee sat in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

Grand Central Air Terminal also looks to have been the inspiration for the painted backdrop that was used to portray Genovia International Airport in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. While the layout of the terminal was, for whatever reason, flipped in the movie, the resemblance is undeniable. You can check out a historic photograph of Grand Central, in which its similarities to the Genovia airport are obvious, here. Being that the movie was produced by The Walt Disney Company, it makes sense that the former terminal served as the model for Genovia International.

Grand Central Terminal was also supposedly used in 1923’s Going Up, 1930’s Hell’s Angels, 1933’s Lady Killer, Captured and Central Airport, 1934’s Bright Eyes, 1936’s Hats Off, 1938’s Sky Giant, and 1941’s Sky Raiders, but, unfortunately, I could not find copies of any of those productions with which to verify that information.

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: Grand Central Air Terminal, from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, is located at 1310 Air Way in Glendale. The former bowling alley that was used as the exterior of Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant in Pulp Fiction is located right around the corner at 1435 Flower Street.

August 16, 2012August 15, 2012

North Hollywood Park from “Say Anything . . . “

A few months back, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, informed me that his fiancé, Ame (who grew up in North Hollywood), had just told him that the iconic Boombox scene from the 1989 classic Say Anything . . . was filmed at, of all places, a park – North Hollywood Park in North Hollywood to be exact. I was absolutely shocked to hear this information because, not only had I always assumed that the flick was filmed in its entirety in Seattle, Washington, but the scene was made to look as if it took place in a residential area, directly outside of the house where Diane Court (Ione Skye) lived, and not at a public park. As we both came to find out, though, thanks to the Washington State Film Locations website, while the vast majority of the movie’s establishing shots were lensed in the Pacific Northwest, all actual filming took place right here in Southern California! Well, believe you me, once Mike and I learned that bit of information, we set about tracking down some other locales from the flick and had quite a bit of success. And we also ran right out to stalk North Hollywood Park.

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In the brief, but iconic Say Anything . . . scene, shortly after Diane breaks up with him, a heartsick Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) stands outside of Diane’s bedroom window (or so producers would have us believe) at night, holding a large Boombox that is playing Peter Gabriel’s hit 1986 song “In Your Eyes”. The memorable scene has been duplicated and parodied countless times since, on everything from Saturday Night Live and South Park to The Colbert Report and fave movie Easy A.

In an interesting twist, Peter Gabriel came thisclose to turning down director Cameron Crowe’s request for “In Your Eyes” to be featured in the movie. In a November 2009 Entertainment Weekly article, Crowe explains that he was on the phone with Gabriel a few days after sending him a Say Anything . . . screener, but Gabriel refused to sign off on the song’s use. Of the call, he says, “I just remember being in the kitchen and just going, ‘Oh man.’ I said I understood and I appreciated it and was he sure and he said yes, he was sure, and I was saying goodbye to him and I remember the phone was like on its way to the cradle, I think we’d already even said goodbye. And I just, like, was seized with this thing and I pulled the phone back up and I go, ‘Why? I got to ask you why. Why can’t we have the song? Why was it wrong?’ And he said, ‘Well when he takes the overdose it just didn’t feel like the right kind of use of the song.’ And I’m like, ‘When he takes the overdose?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’re making the John Belushi story [Wired], right?’ I said, ‘No, no, no. It’s a movie about the guy in high school with the trench coat.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, the high school movie. We haven’t watched that yet.’ Hallelujah! ‘Please watch the high school movie and let me know if it works in the high school movie.’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah yeah yeah, okay, great.’ And then we got the word back that he said yes.” And the rest is (very often re-enacted) history.

Before heading out to the park, Mike had told me to wear a trench coat and that he would be bringing along a Boombox from work so that I could recreate the iconic scene. As fate would have it, though, the Boombox went missing a few days before our stalk, but Mike was thankfully able to work his magic by digitally adding the stereo into the below picture. Love it!

I would venture a guess that North Hollywood Park was also the park featured in the Say Anything . . . montage scene, but I, unfortunately, have not been able to verify that hunch.

And thanks to the Hollywood Lost and Found blog, I learned that Pee-wee Herman (Paul Ruebens) rode his beloved red bike through North Hollywood Park – in almost the exact same spot that appeared in Say Anything . . . – at the very beginning of 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

Sadly, I can’t say that I would really recommend stalking North Hollywood Park. While the tree-lined, 99-acre space, which was originally founded in 1927, is quite beautiful and boasts countless amenities, including a library, three baseball diamonds, a public pool, tennis courts, a playground, a skate park, and a recreation center, the place seemed to be a haven for the homeless and a den of criminal activity. The police were actually called and wound up arresting someone in the brief ten minutes that we were there.

And let me tell you, when you’re standing around in shorts, wedges and a trench coat and holding a non-existent Boombox above your head, the “locals” tend to get just a wee-bit rowdy. LOL

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER and you can take a look at my latest post – about low-carb chicken noodle soup – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and his fiancé, Ame, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: North Hollywood Park, where the iconic Say Anything . . . Boombox scene was filmed, is located at 11455 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood. In the scene, Lloyd Dobler was standing on the southwest corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue, in the area denoted with a pink arrow above.

September 12, 2011September 11, 2011

The Cabazon Dinosaurs from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

On our way out to visit my parents in Palm Springs two weekends ago, the Grim Cheaper and I made a little stalking stop at the Cabazon Dinosaurs – the two legendary roadside sculptures located just outside of Palm Springs which were featured in the 1985 movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, among countless other productions. And even though I had passed by the humongous prehistoric creatures countless times on my way too and from the Coachella Valley, for whatever reason, I had never thought to stalk them until just recently.

The infamous Cabazon Dinosaurs were originally designed by a Knott’s Berry Farm portrait artist/sculptor named Claude Bell who was looking for a way to attract diners to the Wheel Inn, his roadside restaurant which opened in 1958. He had visited Lucy the Elephant while growing up in Atlantic City and the image of the six-story tin elephant had stuck with him.

So in 1964, Claude set about building a 150-ton, 45-foot tall, 150-foot long Apatosaurus, whom he later dubbed “Dinny” (pronounced Dine-ee), directly behind his eatery. He first built a steel framework of the creature, then covered it over with a metal grid in the shape of a dinosaur, and then finally coated it all with spray concrete. Much of the materials used were procured from scraps left over from construction of the nearby Interstate 10 freeway. Legend has it that a friend of Bell’s painted the entire exterior of Dinny in exchange for $1 and a case of Dr. Pepper. And while I, too, love me some Dr. Pepper, I seriously doubt I would paint a 150-foot long dinosaur in exchange for a case of it. Winking smile

It took eleven years and over $250,000 to complete Dinny and, of his creation which housed a small gift shop, Bell said that it was “the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as building”.

In 1981, Bell decided to give Dinny a friend and began construction on a 100-ton, 65-foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex, whom he named “Rex”. His original plans called for a large slide to be installed on Rex’s back, but that idea never came to fruition. Steps were built leading up into the inside of the Tyrannosaurus’ mouth, though, enabling visitors to climb to the top of the creature. Bell had plans to add more reptiles to his roadside creation, but sadly passed away in 1988 before he could do so. In the mid 1990s, his heirs sold the dinosaurs for $1.2 million to an Orange County developer named Gary Kanter, who, along with a pastor named Robert Darwin Chiles, immediately set about turning the spot into children’s exhibit and museum which would promote the theory of creationism. They added several more dinosaurs, some robotic, to the 60-acre site, as well as an open-air museum, a sand pit where children can dig for fossils, and a non-denominational church. And while I wanted to venture inside the museum and up into Rex’s giant mouth, the GC was, of course, having none of it.

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In Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, truck driver Large Marge (aka Alice Nunn) drops Pee-wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens) off at the Wheel Inn restaurant, where he discovers that he has lost his wallet and ends up having to wash dishes in order to pay for his meal.

The real life interior of the Wheel Inn was used for the filming of the scene.

And, amazingly enough, it still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1985 when Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was filmed.

It is while at the Wheel Inn that Pee-wee meets waitress Simone (aka my former acting teacher Diane Salinger), who invites him to watch the sun rise from the inside of Rex’s mouth. That scene was not actually shot inside of Rex’s mouth, though, but on a soundstage at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank. You can see some great photographs of what Rex’s mouth actually looks like here. In real life, his mouth is not nearly as big as the set replica that Tim Burton created for the film, nor is there a large pink tongue on which to sit.

After watching the sun rise, Simone’s very large and very jealous boyfriend Andy (aka Jon Harris) shows up and chases Pee-wee around the dinosaurs.

Thanks to Diane, I actually got to meet some of the cast of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure a couple of years ago, while attending a screening of the movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Pictured above is Diane Salinger, Elizabeth Daily, and the man himself, Paul Reubens.

Thanks to Kim Potts’ fabulous write-up of the Cabazon Dinosaurs for the Moviefone website, I learned that the landmark was featured in quite a few other productions, as well. At the end of 1989’s The Wizard, while driving by the dinosaurs Jimmy Woods (aka Luke Edwards) recognizes them from a childhood visit and jumps out of his step-father’s car and up to Dinny.

The actual interior of the dinosaur was used for the filming of that scene.

Miraculously, little of Dinny’s interior has changed in the 22-plus years since The Wizard was filmed.

In 1984’s Paris, Texas, the Wheel Inn is the supposed-San-Bernardino-area restaurant where Travis Henderson (aka Harry Dean Stanton)and his son Hunter (aka Hunter Carson) stop to use a payphone.

The Cabazon Dinosaurs and Wheel Inn also appeared briefly in the 1985 music video for the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, in the scene in which the band’s lead singer Curt Smith stops his Austin-Healey 3000 by the side of the road in order to use a pay phone.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World music video –Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

The dinosaurs were featured extensively in the music video for Tonio K’s 1988 single “Without Love”.

Without Love music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

They also appeared in the U.S. version of the music video for the 1994 Oasis song “Supersonic”.

Supersonic music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

And finally, they made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the 2009 music video for Brad Paisley’s song “Welcome to the Future”.

Welcome to the Future music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the new face of About Me! Smile

Stalk It: The Cabazon Dinosaurs, from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, are located at 50770 Seminole Drive in Cabazon. You can visit the official Cabazon Dinosaurs’ website here. While the museum charges an admission fee, the interior of Dinny houses a gift shop which is free to visit. The Wheel Inn restaurant is located directly in front of the dinosaurs at 50900 Seminole Drive in Cabazon.