Richard Gere filming locations

March 27, 2013May 22, 2013

The O’Neill House from "Beverly Hills, 90210"

While perusing the article “The Ultimate Guide to Hidden L.A.” in the February 2013 issue of Los Angeles Magazine, I came across a blurb about the O’Neill House in Beverly Hills – one of Southern California’s most unique residences – and recognized the place immediately. I had seen the property featured in a production a year or so prior, became mesmerized by its whimsical architecture and immediately set about tracking it down, which I did fairly quickly. For the life of me, though, I now cannot remember what production it was. I am only 35 – aren’t I a little young for my memory to be failing? Winking smile My gut is saying that the house popped up in an episode of Californication because I distinctly remember first searching for it in the Venice area – Californication is filmed almost entirely in and around Venice Beach – but I scanned through the Grim Cheaper’s DVDs of the series yesterday and did not spot the abode anywhere. I also contacted fellow stalker Geoff, who chronicles Californication filming locales on his 90210Locations website, but he did not recognize the home at all. I am now starting to doubt that Californication is the correct show. At this point, who knows? I decided to stalk the O’Neill House, anyway, while visiting L.A. a few weeks back in the hopes that I would eventually remember what production had been filmed there, but I still have yet to do so. Randomly enough, though, while scanning through early episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 to make screen captures for yesterday’s post on The Peach Pit, I spotted the property in a very brief scene and just about had a heart attack. It always comes back to 90210 for this stalker. Smile

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In 1978, an art dealer named Don O’Neill and his wife, Sandy, decided to remodel the guest home of their traditional residence in the Art Nouveau-style of Don’s favorite architect, Antoni Gaudi. That guest house is pictured below and is actually the most famous portion of the property.

As you can see below, the detailing on it is nothing short of spectacular.

No matter what one’s architectural style preferences may be, I can honestly say that the residence is amazing to see in person. I don’t know that I would ever want to live there, but I sure could not get enough of looking at the place’s exterior.

Check out the molded fish sculpture to the right of the doorway that conceals what I believe is either a camera or a light fixture. As I said before, the detailing is spectacular!

After construction of the guest house was complete, Don and Sandy decided to rebuild the main part of the house in the same style. Sadly though, Don passed away before the project was finished, but I believe that Sandy still owns the property to this day.

The dwelling, which was designed by architect Tom Oswalt, boasts five bedrooms, six baths, 5,181 square feet of living space, a 0.34-acre plot of land, a pool, a library, maid’s quarters, and a boatload of ornate tile work. As you can see below, the front of the home is much less adorned than the back. According to the fabulous book Los Angeles Attractions, all of the rooms were built in a round or oval shape. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the property here.

The O’Neill house is shown very briefly in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “The First Time”, in the scene in which Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) shows his former girlfriend, Sheryl (Paula Irvine), who is visiting from Minnesota, around Beverly Hills. As they drive through the city, Sheryl takes pictures of various ostentatious residences, one of which is the O’Neill House.

The O’Neill house was also where Jesse Lujack (Richard Gere) stole a baby blue Thunderbird convertible In the 1983 movie Breathless.

In the 1986 thriller 8 Million Ways to Die, the residence was where Angel Moldonado (Andy Garcia) lived. In the movie, Angel talks quite a bit about Antoni Gaudi and how he inspired the unusual home. Areas of the property that were shown in the flick include the guest house;

the breezeway between the guest house and the main house;

the living room of the main house;

and the kitchen.

I am still at a loss as to the other production I saw the O’Neill house featured in, so if any of my fellow stalkers recognize it, please let me know!

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: The O’Neill House, from “The First Time” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 507 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The guest house is located behind the property and can be viewed from the alley that runs north off of Park Way in between North Rodeo Drive and North Camden Drive.

February 24, 2012February 23, 2012

Barb’s Quickie Grill from “Pretty Woman”

Another Pretty Woman location that I spent countless hours trying to track down recently was the tiny café where Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) and Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) had dinner towards the end of the classic 1990 flick. And while the name of the establishment – “Barb’s Quickie Grill” – and a street number – “7006” – were clearly visible in the scene, and a quick Google search had provided me with an address – 7006 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood – this particular locale actually turned out to be quite the difficult find. Thanks to a January 2008 Los Angeles Times article, I knew that the restaurant had closed its doors in 1999, but was shocked to discover, when searching on Google Street View, that the structure that had once housed it was nowhere to be found. The place had seemingly just disappeared right off the sidewalk. So I immediately dragged the GC right on out to Hollywood to do some in-person investigating, but when we got there, the mystery only deepened.

In Pretty Woman, Barb’s Quickie Grill did not appear to be flush with the gray façade seemingly located behind it, so I made the assumption that the eatery was a small structure situated in the space in front of it.

As you can see above, the vertical grooves running down the orange building currently located at 7006 Santa Monica Boulevard clearly match up to those of the gray building visible behind Barb’s Quickie Grill in Pretty Woman. But, as you can also see above, the sidewalk in front of the orange building is nowhere near big enough to have once housed a restaurant, even one as tiny as Barb’s.

Perplexed, I returned home, whereupon I enlisted the help of fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Scott, from the FindaDeath website, and for the next few days the three of us put in quite a bit of elbow grease doing research on the former eatery. I even purchased a copy of the book Fantastic Dives, in which the diner had been featured, hoping it would provide some clarity. Sadly, it did not. It was not until Mike found this image on the Scotty Moore website that we realized that the lighting and camera angles of Pretty Woman had created an optical illusion and that Barb’s was not a structure that had been located in front of the orange building, but that it actually was the orange building! Doh! You can check out some fabulous historic pictures of the eatery that were just added to The Bruce Torrence Hollywood Photograph Collection website here, here, and here.

The history behind the eatery is almost as heart-warming as the movie in which it once appeared and was actually the main reason I was so darn intent on finding the place. The establishment was originally founded as “Lou’s Quickie Grill” by Lou Shulkin and his wife, Anita, at a storefront on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Highland Avenue in 1954. A young L.A.-transplant from Oklahoma City named Barbara Knox started working, first as a dishwasher, then as a waitress, at the short-order café just a short time later. In 1960, the Grill moved a few blocks west to 7006 Santa Monica Boulevard, directly next door to Radio Recorders (pictured above), the then-largest recording studio in the country. It did not take long for the legendary vocalists working at RR, as well as countless celebrities filming at other nearby studios, to discover Lou’s. Just a few of the luminaries who frequented the 12-stool diner throughout its 54-year history include Drew Barrymore, Denzel Washington, James Garner, Ronald Reagan, The Lennon Sisters, Orson Welles, Martin Sheen, Richard Crenna, Bill Cosby, Herb Albert, Buddy Ebsen, Mel Blanc, Jack Benny, and Lawrence Welk. And while Elvis never actually set foot inside of the establishment, he is said to have ordered deliveries from Lou’s each time he recorded music at RR.

Amazingly enough, when Lou and Anita decided to retire in August of 1987, they handed the Grill over to Barbara AT NO COST, despite the fact that they had been offered “tremendous” money for the place over the years. The Shulkins had come to view Barbara as a daughter and, because their own children had established careers in areas outside of the restaurant business, they could think of no better person to endow their beloved café to. So, in late August, Lou, Anita, and Barbara headed down to the Los Angeles County Hall of Records and Lou signed the restaurant over to his long-time waitress. The following morning he had the metal “Lou’s Quickie Grill” sign taken off of the roof of the building and replaced with a new neon window sign which read “Barb’s Quickie Grill”. According to a January 17th, 1988 Lakeland Ledger article, of the incredible gift, Barbara said, “Lou couldn’t give me a gold watch and a handshake and just walk way, like anybody else would. He’s not that kind of man.” Barbara continued to run the restaurant successfully, with frequent visits from her benefactors, until 1999, when she regrettably had to close the doors due to an ongoing battle with Alzheimer’s. She sadly passed away in 2008, at the age of 74. Sometime after the Grill was closed, the space was taken over by Studio 56, which had replaced Radio Recorders, and was completely remodeled. You can read an August 18th, 1987 Los Angeles Times article about the Grill here and a January 12, 2008 Los Angeles Time article about Barbara’s passing here.

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In Pretty Woman, Barb’s Quickie Grill appeared very briefly during the montage scene in which Edward takes the day off of work to spend time with Vivian.

Barbara Knox was even featured in the background of the scene. So incredibly cool!

Finding this location was definitely a group effort, so a big THANK YOU goes out to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Scott, from the FindADeath website, for their help. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Barb’s Quickie Grill, from Pretty Woman, was formerly located at 7006 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. The location now houses the offices of a CPA and is virtually unrecognizable from its onscreen appearance.

February 1, 2012January 31, 2012

The “Pretty Woman” Party House

Over the past few weeks, fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have been on an extensive hunt for several unfound locations from the 1990 classic romantic comedy Pretty Woman. And the locale that I was most interested in tracking down, you ask? Why, the huge, modern-style abode where Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) attended a party in the film’s opening scene, of course. You all know how this stalker absolutely loves herself some movies houses! Anyway, after doing some extensive digging online, purchasing the Pretty Woman 15th Anniversary Special Edition DVD, watching each and every one of the special features included in it, and still coming up completely empty-handed, Mike decided that we had to change our course.

Mike had noticed a smattering of tall buildings in the background of the Pretty Woman party scene and, although the view of them was not entirely clear, he had a hunch that they were located in Century City.

So using an aerial map of West Los Angeles, he drew an angled line based on those views from Century City outward and it led him straight to the hills of Bel Air. He then zoomed in on the spot where the line had pointed and immediately noticed a huge white mansion that was very reminiscent of the Pretty Woman party house. And, sure enough, upon closer inspection, he found that it was, indeed, the right place! Wahoo! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend.

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The opening scene of Pretty Woman centered around a party held at a large house high up in the hills above Hollywood, thrown in honor of Edward’s arrival in Los Angeles. I believe that the residence was supposed to belong to Edward’s lawyer, Philip Stuckey (Jason Alexander), in the flick, but that was never actually specified.

Sadly, not very much of the property is visible from the street, but, as you can see above, the bush where the valet stand was placed, the double windows located above the garage, the brick driveway, and the bent tree on the side of the driveway, all still look exactly the same as they did onscreen way back in 1990. So incredibly cool! In real life, the Pretty Woman party house, which was originally built in 1988 and sits on an almost 3/4-acre plot of land, measures 5 bedrooms, 8 baths, and a whopping 10,650 square feet of living space.

As you can see in the above aerial views, both the home and its surrounding property are absolutely ginormous!

According to director Garry Marshall’s commentary on the Pretty Woman 15th Anniversary Special Edition DVD (which I highly recommend, by the way – the special features are fabulous!), the real life interior of the home was also used in the filming. Man, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

Amazingly, when Mike went to stalk the house a few days after I had, the gate just happened to be open and he was able to snap a few pictures of the front of it! WHOO-HOO!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The party house from the opening scene of Pretty Woman is located at 650 Sarbonne Road in Bel Air.

January 24, 2012January 23, 2012

The “Sylvester Stallone” House from “Pretty Woman”

A couple of weeks ago, while trying to figure out in what movie I had spotted L’Orangerie, aka Chez Quis restaurant from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (which, maddeningly, I still have yet to determine, by the way!), I started scanning through the 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman and found myself wondering why I had never stalked the house jokingly referred to as being Sylvester Stallone’s in the flick. Fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, had tracked down the Hollywood-area residence quite some time ago and, while the address had been on my “To Stalk” list ever since, for whatever reason, I had never made it out there. So I quickly decided to remedy the situation and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there just a few days later.

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At the very beginning of Pretty Woman, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), while lost in Hollywood, spots a hobo on the sidewalk digging through some trash and pulls over to ask him the way to Beverly Hills. The hobo replies, “You’re here! That’s Sylvester Stallone’s house right there!” LOL LOL LOL I swear, I have seen Pretty Woman about one hundred times and that scene never fails to make me laugh!

To find “Sylvester Stallone’s house”, Chas tracked down a helpful crew member who told him the general vicinity in which it was located. From there, he simply scanned aerial views and it was not long until he found the right place. And, amazingly enough, despite the fact that over two decades have since passed, the property still looks almost exactly the same today as it did when Pretty Woman was filmed! The small front door/front porch area was at some point enclosed, but otherwise the place appears to have been untouched by time. So incredibly cool! In real life, the tiny home, which was originally built in 1902, measures 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 1,201 square feet.

On a Pretty Woman side-note – While scanning through the flick a couple of weeks back, I was knock-me-over-with-a-feather-shocked to discover that the lobby scenes were not filmed inside of the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills (pictured above) or on a soundstage at Disney Studios, as countless websites and books have suggested over the years.

Amazingly enough, the lobby scenes from Pretty Woman were actually shot at the since-demolished Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

What tipped me off to this fact was the famous Ambassador lobby fountain, the base of which is visible in the background of almost all of the hotel scenes. You can see a photograph of that fountain here.

Upon closer inspection, I spotted several other elements of the interior of the Ambassador lobby that matched perfectly with what appeared in Pretty Woman, including the curved, check-in desk, which you can see a photograph of here (credit).

and the gold-detailed ceilings and wood-paneled columns, which you can see a photograph of here (credit).

I also realized that the lobby lounge where Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) waited for Edward was actually the Ambassador’s famed The Palm Bar, which you can see photographs of here, here, and here.

And it has long been known that the ballroom where Vivian (aka Julia Roberts) learned the proper use of flatware and where Edward played the piano was the Ambassador’s Embassy ballroom, which you can see a photograph of here. So it now seems as if the vast majority of Pretty Woman was actually filmed inside of the Ambassador Hotel, which makes the fact that the structure no longer stands even more heartbreaking than it already was. Oh, how I wish I had seen that place in person! Sigh.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ extensive Pretty Woman filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The “Sylvester Stallone” house from Pretty Woman is located at 1735 North Hudson Avenue in Hollywood.