I am beginning to discover that The Queen Mary is a lot like the Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles in that every square inch of it has appeared onscreen in multiple notable productions. Case in point – while scanning through Adaptation to make screen captures for my post on Zipper Concert Hall last week, I noticed that the 2002 drama’s opening scene took place in the ship’s Observation Bar & Art Deco Lounge. I had long been aware of the watering hole’s appearance in favorite movie He’s Just Not That Into You (which I detailed in a 2014 article for L.A. magazine), but immediately got curious about what other productions made use of it. When I got to digging, I was shocked at the number of big and small screen hits that feature the bar. So I figured it was only right to dedicate a post to it.
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When we lived in Los Angeles, The Queen Mary was one of my and the Grim Cheaper’s favorite places to staycation. Originally a Cunard-White Star Line luxury liner, the grand 1934 ship is permanently moored just south of downtown Long Beach.
She was purchased by the city after making her final voyage (the last of 1,001 Atlantic crossings) in 1967. Following a painstaking three-year renovation, The Queen Mary opened as a hotel and tourist attraction. The restored vessel is nothing short of stunning inside and out and stepping aboard immediately transports one back in time to the grand old days of ocean travel. I first visited the ship with my parents for my birthday in June 2000, at the height of my Titanic obsession, and honestly felt like I had wandered right onto one of the film’s opulent sets.
On that visit, the Observation Bar & Art Deco Lounge quickly became one of our favorite spots on the boat. Originally a first class parlor (you can see what it looked like in its early days here), the gilded space appears to have been ripped right out of the pages of an Art Deco magazine. Shockingly, during The Queen’s time as a troop ship in World War II, the ornate room was utilized as a dormitory for soldiers. I can’t even imagine bunking amid all that glitz!
For some inexplicable reason, as the ship was being renovated into a hotel, it was decided that The Queen Mary should take on an Old English theme (which explains the extremely odd grouping of fairy-tale-like storefronts that dot the parking lot). As such, all of the Observation Bar’s glam Art Deco furnishings were removed (but thankfully not thrown away) and replaced with Old English décor, giving the space a pub-like feel.
Fortunately, the watering hole was returned to its initial grandeur in the early ‘80s and, though it has gone through some additional revamps in the years since, it remains an utterly glorious space.
Today, the semi-circle-shaped site boasts massive red torchiere lamps, a carved balustrade, a Massacar ebony bar, silver and bronze detailing, maple and cedar woodwork, an original mural that hangs above the bar, 21 windows, and amazing views of Queensway Bay.
It is in the elegant space that Anna (Scarlett Johansson) sings at the end of 2009’s He’s Just Not That Into You.
Back in 1981, Dr. R. Quincy, M.E. (Jack Klugman) discovers what has been ailing his fellow cruise passengers when a woman goes into premature labor in the Observation Bar in the Season 7 episode of Quincy M.E. titled “Slow Boat to Madness: Part 2.” (Spoiler – it’s contaminated tortillas!)
The Observation Bar portrays the New York cocktail lounge where NYPD detective Mike Keegan (Tom Berenger) takes murder witness Claire Gregory (Mimi Rogers) for drinks on his last night of protecting her in the 1987 thriller Someone to Watch Over Me.
In 1989, the Observation Bar popped up a couple of times in the Season 6 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled “The Grand Old Lady.”
The site masks as the New York bar where Garland Stanford (David Warrilow) tells Barton (John Turturro) that Capital Pictures wants to put him under contract in 1991’s Barton Fink.
In the Season 6 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “You Say It’s Your Birthday: Part 1,” which aired in 1996, Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) and Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) discuss Colin Robbins’ (Jason Wiles) disappearance with FBI agent Richard Ballen (Jon Hensley) while at the Observation Bar. (Don’t mind the craptastic screen captures below. Unfortunately, the episode is not available to stream anywhere, not even on Hulu which inexplicably has all of the others from Season 6, so I had to settle for grabs from a poor-quality Dailymotion upload.)
Later in “You Say It’s Your Birthday: Part 1,” Kelly grabs breakfast with Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris) at the bar.
In 1999’s Being John Malkovich (such a great movie!), John Malkovich (playing himself) enters the portal to his own head and winds up seeing himself everywhere at the Observation Bar.
The 2002 film Adaptation opens with actual behind-the-scenes footage of the Being John Malkovich segment lensed at the lounge. (I apologize for the blurry screen caps below, but the scene has a lot of movement.)
Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) also celebrates the wrap of Hell’s Angels at the Observation Lounge in the 2004 biopic The Aviator.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Observation Bar & Art Deco Lounge, from He’s Just Not That Into You, is located on the bow of The Queen Mary’s Promenade Deck at 1126 Queens Highway in Long Beach. You can visit the ship’s official website here. Tickets or hotel reservations are required to venture aboard.
