San Francisco – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 7, 2020August 6, 2020

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” House

Pre-COVID and before my dad’s many complications following his February surgery, I was planning a surprise trip for the Grim Cheaper’s March birthday. Even though it involved a flight, I was over-the-moon excited about it. Our travels obviously had to be postponed and, considering the current climate, who knows when we will be able to embark upon the short getaway. In light of my and so many others’ vacation delays, I figured a virtual trip was in order! So I enlisted my BFF Nat, who lives in the Bay Area, to do some stalking on my behalf. Though I consider all locations immensely important to a production (duh!), the residence I sent her to stalk is the centerpiece of The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Without the spectacular house at the heart of the feature, there is no story. So, obviously, one look at the trailer, and I was all in! The 2019 drama tells the tale of Jimmie Fails (played by the actor of the same name), an SF native obsessed with restoring his childhood home, a towering Victorian that his grandfather built by hand in 1946. The only problem? His family no longer owns the place. But that doesn’t stop him from painting the eaves, weeding the yard, and, in a bold move, secretly moving in. The movie couldn’t be more up my alley if it tried! Before watching even a single frame, I did some research on the property that figures so prominently in it and sent Nat right out to stalk it.

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Known as the John Coop House in real life, the stunning Queen Anne Victorian was designed by German-born architect Henry Geilfuss for mill owner John Coop in 1889. Coop did much of the carpentry himself and, upon its completion, utilized the ornate residence as a showpiece of his work.

Said to be at 959 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco’s Fillmore District in the movie, the home actually stands at 959 South Van Ness Avenue in the Mission.

The massive property, easily the grande dame of the neighborhood, boasts 6 bedrooms, 3 baths, a whopping 5,240 square feet, a carved staircase, wainscoting throughout, a wood-paneled library (with a secret chamber concealed behind a bookshelf!), a formal parlor, ceiling frescoes and friezes, stained glass windows, a tiled fireplace, a turret capped by a “witch’s hat,” and a 0.10-acre lot (which is actually pretty spacious for San Francisco).

Though the house is striking both onscreen and off, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, sadly, left me wanting. On paper, the narrative (loosely based upon Jimmie Fails’ real life) couldn’t be more compelling, but it moved slowly (almost painfully at times), bounced around in too many directions, and as a whole felt lacking. That’s not to say there aren’t good points. I fell in love with the main characters, Jimmie and his BFF, Montgomery Allen (Jonathan Majors) – serious #friendshipgoals there! Cinematically, it is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen and, having grown up in the Bay Area, I can say paints a very accurate portrait of life in the city (especially that bus stop scene!). And hey, I’m willing to forgive all being that the house is not just a character in it, but the character! Location manager Daniel Lee certainly had his work cut out for him in finding the ideal residence to ground the movie – a painstaking process that, per Curbed, took several years. It was worth the elbow grease, though, because Lee hit the nail on the head with the John Coop House! I don’t know how one could look at the image below, with the pad showcased in widescreen glory, and not be smitten! Of scouting for the location, director Joe Talbot said, “We wanted to find a place that would hopefully make the audience feel those things Jimmie is feeling. It sounds silly to say this, but we needed the house to feel like a character, to feel developed, to go through its own arc.” Talbot obviously doesn’t read my blog – if he did, he’d know that’s not a silly sentiment at all!

Interestingly, in the first two shots we get of the dwelling, there are discrepancies. Though the images are shown within minutes of each other and are supposed to represent the same day, some changes occur from one to the next. As you can see in the first shot (the top screen capture below), the residence to the direct left of the John Coop House has a light green roof and the pad two doors to the right is painted yellow. In the second shot, though (lower cap below), the property to the left has a dark green roof and the one two doors down is now black. Talbot did express to Curbed that the rapidly shifting nature of the city posed some problems for the shoot. The article states, “Changes to approved and permitted filming locations happened so quickly—sometimes from one day to the next—that they created continuity challenges and compromised the film’s cinematography.” I am guessing this is one of those instances. I’m shocked it wasn’t noticed – and corrected – in post-production, though.

The odd triangle-topped garage door ornamentation, which was (thankfully) covered in foliage for much of the shoot and only unveiled at the end of the movie after Jimmie’s childhood home has supposedly been renovated, is unsightly, to say the least. Per the San Francisco Daily Photo blog, the Coop House originally boasted a single garage that was enlarged (to its aesthetic detriment) in 1998. You can see a photo of it prior to the augmentation here.

The film certainly showcases the rest of the Coop House in spectacular fashion.

And the interior is even more magical than the exterior!

It is so ornate and enchanting, in fact, that I thought it could only be the stuff of a production designer’s imagination – a production designer with a hefty budget, no less. I was thrilled to discover that was not the case. Incredibly, the ornate detailing captured so beautifully onscreen is authentic to the residence! As stated in Curbed, “Everything you see in the film—the hardwood floors and the intricate period molding, yes, but also the secret room behind a bookshelf, the built-in organ, the attic big enough to host the play-within-the-film, even the sauna—is actually in that damn house.” An architectural survey of the property conducted in 1975 sums the place up perfectly, noting it “has one of the most outrageous interiors – ornament is heaped upon ornament.” You can check out some fabulous photos of the inside of the Coop House here.

In a case of art imitating life, for decades the pad has been owned by a man whose life has been shaped by it. Retired chemist Jim Tyler was first introduced to the Victorian in the early 1960s when he attended a party there. Wholly transfixed, he acquired the place just a short time after, trading his own house for the then-stark property, which did not even have heating at the time. He was forced to sell it within two short years and moved away from San Francisco, but, like Jimmie, the home always remained close to his heart. When Tyler returned to the city in 1970, the house happened to be for sale and he liquidated all he had to re-purchase it. A man after my own heart, he has spent the last five decades assiduously restoring and enhancing it, as well as researching and documenting its history. The John Coop House is certainly the love of Tyler’s life, as it was onscreen in Jimmie’s – and his adoration for it shows clear as day to anyone who passes by.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The John Coop House, aka Jimmie’s childhood home from The Last Black Man in San Francisco, is located at 959 South Van Ness Avenue in the Mission District.

May 17, 2019May 16, 2019

Fog City Diner from “So I Married an Axe Murderer”

I abhor change, as longtime readers of this site well know. So I was devastated to learn that Fog City Diner, the landmark eatery in my hometown of San Francisco, had undergone a major revamp and reopened as the simpler, sleeker and far more modern “Fog City.” The shiny chrome train-like structure situated on Battery Street at The Embarcadero had been a staple of the city’s skyline for decades and a harkening back to my childhood every time I passed by. I was informed of the unseemly renovation while visiting my friend Nat, who lives in the area, in February 2015. Despite my sadness over the matter, since the restaurant’s former iteration made an appearance in the the 1993 comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer, we decided to head over there for some brunch/stalking my last day in town.

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Fog City Diner was originally established in June 1985 by restaurateurs Bill Higgins, Bill Upson and Cindy Pawlcyn, of Napa’s Mustards Grill fame. Designed by Pat Kuleto, the unique space bore the look and feel of a streamlined 1930s diner, but a very high class one, with the reimagined comfort food offerings to match. Just steps from the waterfront, the site where the eye-catching eatery was erected was originally home to a train engine repair facility. It became a coffee shop named Harbor Cafeteria, which catered to soldiers and sailors, in 1958. After going through several different restaurant incarnations, including Mildred Pierce and Battery Point, in the years that followed, it was eventually transformed into the gleaming chrome fixture that instantly became a San Francisco icon. You can check out some images of what it looked like here and here.

Sadly, in 2013 Higgins and Upson (Pawlcyn had long since dropped out) decided to give the restaurant a complete overhaul. It shuttered in March of that year and then re-opened six months later as Fog City. During the renovation, the historic and well-loved site was taken down to its studs and then rebuilt by architect Michael Guthrie. The new design, which sort of retains its diner shape, boasts a large central bar, seating for 160 patrons, an exhibition kitchen with a wood-fired oven and seven-foot grill, and views of the San Francisco Bay. Though pretty, all of the elements that made the place so unique have disappeared. Gone are the dark leather train-car-like booths, checkered tilework, handsome wood detailing, and fabulous chrome siding.

The revamped site looks like a normal, everyday restaurant, both inside and out.

When I visited Fog City for the first time as a kid, I remember being absolutely mesmerized. I truly felt as if I had entered an antique train car and was dining atop the rails. It was a magical experience – one that did not wane, even as I continued to frequent the eatery as a teen and adult. Sadly, the redesign just does not compare to the Fog City of old. You can check out what the interior formerly looked like here and here.

Thankfully, I can at least report that the food is still as good as ever.

In So I Married an Axe Murderer, Charlie Mackenzie (Mike Myers) takes Harriet Michaels (Nancy Travis) on a rather awkward double date with his friends Tony Giardino (Anthony LaPaglia) and Susan (Debi Mazar) at Fog City Diner.

The film gives audiences a fabulous glimpse of what the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the restaurant looked like pre-remodel.

As you can see in the screen capture as compared to the photograph below, though the footprint of the structure remains the same, its aesthetic is a far cry from what it used to be.

Fog City Diner was the also site of a famous Visa commercial from 1990 (well, it was at least famous to us San Franciscans), which you can watch here.

And it was satirized as the Fog City Dumpster, a restaurant run by a group of bears, in Farley, the popular San Francisco Chronicle comic strip that ran from 1975 to 2007.

Fog City Diner was supposedly featured in an episode of Nash Bridges, as well, but I am unsure of which episode. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Fog City, aka the former Fog City Diner from So I Married an Axe Murderer, is located at 1300 Battery Street in San Francisco. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

August 27, 2018August 29, 2018

“The Princess Diaries” Firehouse

My friend Nat is a definite hostess with the mostest. When I last visited her in San Francisco in October 2016, she not only had champagne chilling in the fridge, but an itinerary of area stalking locales she thought might interest me compiled and mapped out on her phone. The spot on the list I was most excited about seeing was former Engine Company No. 43, where Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) lived with her mom, Helen (Caroline Goodall), and cat, Fat Louis, in 2001’s The Princess Diaries. This stalker loves herself any adaptive reuse and in person, the firehouse-turned-home did not disappoint. Somehow I forgot to blog about the place after returning home from my trip, though, and was not reminded of it until last Thursday when Mandy Moore, who played meanie cheerleader Lana Thomas in the film, posted a #tbt image of The Princess Diaries July 2001 premiere on Instagram. Seeing the photo brought me right back to the day I stalked the firehouse and I figured there was no time like the present to finally blog about it.

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The Mission Revival-style Engine Company No. 43 was originally built in 1911, back when firemen were still fighting blazes via horse-drawn carriages.

Following its decommission, the 4,800-square-foot wood frame structure was sold to a private buyer at a surplus auction in 1976 and subsequently transformed into a residence.

Today, the unique homestead boasts 8 rooms, 2 stories, a 340-square-foot outbuilding that initially housed Company No. 43’s kitchen, a double 0.11-acre lot, parking for 4+ cars, and original detailing throughout including a fireman’s pole.

The residence last hit the market in late 2014 with an asking price of $2.6 million (at the time it was being utilized as a 2-unit rental property) and was sold the following March for $1.85 million. That’s quite a bargain to call The Princess Diaries firehouse home, if you ask me!

Engine Company No. 43 pops up numerous times throughout the film.

In person, the place still looks much the same as it did onscreen 17 years ago.

Only the front exterior of the structure is featured in the movie.

The home’s massive side staircase also makes a couple of appearances.

Because those scenes were shot from the backyard, I was, obviously, unable to snap any photos matching the angle shown in the flick. But I was thrilled to see that the staircase is visible from the street.

The interior of Mia and Helen’s pad was nothing more than an elaborate set built inside of a soundstage a good 350 miles away at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. You can check out some fabulous photos of it on art director Caty Maxey’s website.

Engine Company No. 43’s actual interior (which you can see here) is a far cry from its onscreen counterpart. While Mia and Helen’s home is colorful and lovingly cluttered, the firehouse’s real life inside is sophisticated and minimalist. I honestly can’t decide which I like better.

Interestingly, while The Princess Diaries was set in San Francisco, not much of the movie was shot there. Along with Engine Company No. 43, the Anthony R. Grove High School exterior (which Nat took me to stalk many moons ago) can also be found in the City by the Bay at 2601 Lyon Street in Cow Hollow. The school’s courtyard scenes were lensed a bit closer to home, though, at Alverno Heights Academy in Sierra Madre, which I blogged about here.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for telling me about and taking me to this location!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Engine Company No. 43, aka The Princess Diaries firehouse, is located at 724 Brazil Avenue in San Francisco’s Excelsior District.

October 2, 2017September 29, 2017

The “Pacific Heights” House

I have been waiting for this day for months! Yep, that’s right folks – it is finally, finally time for my annual Haunted Hollywood postings and I could not be more excited! In honor of the occasion, I have added a Haunted Hollywood category to my site and while I typically only publish three columns a week during normal months, I am going to attempt to do a write up of a new spooky spot every single day of October. God knows I have enough material! We’ll see how it goes. For my first locale this year, I thought I’d cover the house from Pacific Heights. I stalked the picturesque pad, which can’t actually be found in the tony neighborhood the film was named for but about three miles south in Potrero Hill, last fall while visiting San Francisco. Though I actually find Pacific Heights to be more anger-inducing than scary, I still thought it would be fitting to include the dwelling that served as its focal point in my October postings.

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For those who haven’t seen Pacific Heights, the 1990 thriller – or “horror film for yuppies” as Roger Ebert dubbed it – tells the story of Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine), a young San Francisco couple who use all their savings to purchase a dilapidated, but still rather pricey (try $749,000!) Victorian home with two rental units supposedly located at 170 Pacific Street. Patty and Drake fix up the residence themselves, move into the top floor space and lease out the two rentals, one of them to maniacal con man Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton), who proceeds to terrorize the couple, as well as the occupants of the other unit, without paying so much as a dime of his monthly rent. Due to San Francisco’s pro-tenant property laws, Drake and Patty are powerless to stop Carter, evict him, or do much of anything really. Screenwriter Daniel Pyne was inspired to pen the film’s script after his own experience of trying to evict a deadbeat tenant from an apartment he once owned.

In the film, Patty and Drake’s real estate agent informs them that the turreted home was built around 1886 and “probably remodeled slightly in the ‘40s.”

In reality, the statuesque Queen Anne was constructed in 1895.

The three-story dwelling was made to look significantly run-down for the movie’s early scenes. According to William A. Gordon in his book Shot on This Site, “When the production company discovered it, the house had been recently repainted. To create a ‘distressed’ look, they masked the entire house with sound-blasting frisket, a substance with light adhesive on one side and paper on the other. The painted side was treated with chemicals to make the exterior look cracked and aged. After two days’ filming, the crew removed the frisket.”

After Drake and Patty complete their improvements, the property comes to resemble its actual self.

Only the exterior of the residence was utilized in the filming. Interior scenes were shot on a set built on a soundstage at The Culver Studios in Culver City.

The views shown in the film are real and absolutely breathtaking (though the San Francisco skyline has changed considerably since Pacific Heights was lensed almost 30 years ago).

In fact, in Shot on This Site, Gordon says the home was chosen for the movie because of its stunning panoramic views.

Along with spectacular views, in real life the residence also boasts a corner 0.06-acre lot, 4 bedrooms, a den, 3.5 baths, 3,200 square feet, 2 fireplaces, an eat-in kitchen, bay windows, parquet flooring, vaulted ceilings, separate guest quarters, a finished basement, a 1-car garage, a patio, a BBQ area, an attic, a garden, and a studio in-law apartment, just like in the movie. Per Zillow, the pad is currently worth a whopping $3.27 million.

Zillow also states that the property appeared in several episodes of Nash Bridges, but I am unsure of which episodes in particular. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Drake and Patty’s residence from Pacific Heights is located at 1243 19th Street in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood.

February 10, 2017February 9, 2017

The Administration Building, Treasure Island from “The Parent Trap”

The stalking itinerary for my October 2016 trip to Northern California was extremely Scream-centric. So much so that I did not really do any research on area locales from other productions. But life threw a pleasant surprise my way shortly after I arrived in the City by the Bay. Upon landing at SFO, my mom and I headed to Treasure Island to pick up my uncle who was spending the weekend with us. As we passed through the island’s main entrance, I happened to look to my right and noticed a striking curved structure that I immediately recognized as the exterior of The Stafford Hotel from the 1998 re-make of The Parent Trap. I had long known of the building’s use in the movie and even mentioned it in this 2012 post about The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey (which also masked at The Stafford in the film), but had completely overlooked it while planning my NorCal getaway and didn’t really put two and two together until I actually drove right by the place. So I, of course, had to jump out and snap some pics.

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Prior to my October trip, I had never actually visited Treasure Island, despite growing up in San Francisco – and despite the fact that my parents held their wedding reception there! (Fun fact – their reception took place at Casa de la Vista, the same spot where Patty Hearst’s wedding reception was held a few years later.) The 403-acre man-made island was created by the US Army Corps of Engineers from 1937 to 1939 on what was then the Yerba Buena Shoals. Named after the popular Robert Lewis Stephenson book, the 1-mile by 2/3-mile land mass was constructed for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exhibition, a World’s Fair that celebrated the completion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. It was originally intended that when the event ended, Treasure Island would be utilized as an airport. In 1938, engineer William Peyton Day and architect George William Kelham were commissioned to construct an Administration Building for the Exhibition that would later serve as the airport’s main terminal.

Utilizing Art Deco and Streamline design elements, the duo created a dramatic 148,000-square-foot, U-shaped, Art Moderne-style structure out of reinforced concrete.

Researching the history of locations is easily my favorite part of writing my blog. Sometimes though, just reading words in a book or online makes a place’s past intangible and flat. Such was the case with the Golden Gate International Exhibition. I perused articles about the fair’s exhibits and artwork, but didn’t really grasp its grandeur. Then while talking to my grandma on the phone a couple of days ago, she happened to ask what I was working on for my next post. I told her that I was writing about Treasure Island and she exclaimed, “I was there on opening day!” Yes, on February 18th, 1939, my grandma attended the inaugural day of the Golden Gate International Exhibition with her parents and sister! The fair remained in operation through October 29th, 1939 and then reopened again from May 25th to September 29th the following year. Throughout that time, my grandma visited on several occasions, with her family and also on a school trip. It was amazing to hear her stories and first-hand accounts of an event and place that I had been researching all day. She really brought the exhibition to life for me. Listening to her tales, I could practically see her walking among the towering exhibits, sampling the food, and staring in wonder at the various exotic civilizations represented in the performances and shows. The fair truly was like Disneyland! My grandma was especially fascinated by Billy Rose’s Aquacade, in which synchronized swimmers, including a young and unknown Esther Williams and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller, performed dazzling in-water routines. You can check out some photographs that really show the magic of the Golden Gate International Exhibition here, here, here, here, and here (in the last one, you can even see the side of the Administration Building on the extreme left).

When the Golden Gate International Exhibition closed for good in 1940, the plans to make Treasure Island an airport were put on hold due to the onslaught of World War II and the site instead became a naval base. It continued to operate as such until being decommissioned in 1997. Though the city immediately set about redeveloping Treasure Island at that time, it was not until last year (yep, last year!) that construction on the massive project actually began. Though it may take an additional 15 years to complete, more than 8.000 homes, several hotels, parkland, 240,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, a large marina, and a ferry terminal are all set to be built on the island. The Administration Building will be left intact (thankfully it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places) and will likely be turned into a museum.

The Administration Building, Treasure Island pops up as The Stafford Hotel in a few scenes in The Parent Trap. It is there that Hallie Parker and Annie James (both played spectacularly by Lindsay Lohan) scheme to rekindle the spark between their parents, Nick Parker (Dennis Quaid) and Elizabeth James (Natasha Richardson).

Only the exterior of the building was used in the shoot. Interior Stafford Hotel scenes were filmed at the Langham Huntington, Pasadena, while the pool segments were shot at The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey.

The Administration Building, Treasure Island was also featured briefly in 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the Berlin airport where Indy (Harrison Ford) and his father, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery), caught an airship flight. As was the case with The Parent Trap, only the exterior of the property appeared in the film. Interior airport scenes were shot at Lawrence Hall in London.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Administration Building, Treasure Island, aka the exterior of The Stafford Hotel from The Parent Trap, is located at 1 Avenue of the Palms in San Francisco.

September 26, 2016February 17, 2017

Harmon Pet Care from “Fuller House”

Well, my fellow stalkers, I am finally home from my trip back east. Over the course of twelve days, the Grim Cheaper and I hit up Washington D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia and stalked a myriad of locations in the process (I took close to 3,000 pictures! I’m shocked my computer didn’t crash when I uploaded them all!). Those posts will be coming soon. In the meantime, though, we had to scoot off on another quick trip (I swear I think I have traveled more this year than any year prior), so my friend, fellow stalker Michael, of countless The Brady Bunch posts fame (you can read them here, here, here and here) has graciously stepped in yet again with a slew of fabulous guest columns that I will be publishing over the course of this week. Thank you, Michael! So without further ado . . .

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I’m back for my fifth guest post. And brace yourself, it’s not about The Brady Bunch—what ever happened to predictability? I’ve flipped the calendar from the 70s to 2016 to cover a contemporary comedy, Fuller House, created and produced by the same folks that brought us Full House and starring most of the cast from the 90s classic.

I had anxiously awaited the release of the new series since it was first announced, even visiting Warner Bros. last winter (and again this summer, but that’s a story for another day) to get a better look at a backlot facade they’d built to stand in for the San Francisco-located home used on the original sitcom. I was looking forward to seeing how they’d incorporate the new facade into the program and how they’d redo the iconic opening titles.

Although I was pleased enough with the new show, I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that Fuller House didn’t go all out and create a multi-location opening title a la Full House, and instead went with a more modern opening without any on-site filming. The tenth episode, “A Giant Leap,” was filmed partly on location at AT&T Park in San Francisco, but even those scenes were limited to the ball park. The new series didn’t offer many new establishing shots to track down, and even the facade that had been built on the Warner Bros. backlot went mysteriously unused, while vintage footage of the San Francisco home was dusted off to establish scenes set in the iconic house.

Something new did catch my eye, though—an establishing shot used throughout the first season. D.J. Tanner—not to be confused with her sister Stephanie who’s now a D.J. spinning under the name D.J. Tanner—is a veterinarian working at Harmon Pet Care. And while all of the interior scenes were shot at Warner Bros. in Burbank, the establishing shot of the clinic was filmed in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Admittedly, it wasn’t much work to pin down this location. Paper lanterns, ornamental street lights, and a sign that reads “Welcome to Chinatown” left little doubt.

On my last visit to San Francisco, I headed to the Dragon’s Gate—the formal entrance to Chinatown, and the beginning of a major shopping artery. The Dragon’s Gate actually appeared in the unaired original pilot episode of Full House. Rather than send the cast to Northern California, production had body doubles for the actors filmed at quintessential San Francisco landmarks. These clips were then used extensively in the closing titles of the pilot, and some also reappeared in the first season opening and closing titles.

Continuing my walk, I quickly came upon the intersection shown in Fuller House—Grant Avenue and Sacramento Street, looking south.

As I started to line up the shot, I noticed something that I hadn’t at home. The Harmon Pet Care sign is mounted to an entirely different building than the building with the Harmon Pet Care awning. Because of the angle of the shot used on Fuller House, you can’t see much of the facade behind the sign. I imagined that the pet clinic signs were digitally added to to a piece of stock footage in post-production. My suspicions about the digital manipulation were confirmed when I noticed that among other changes, an awning at the end of the street in the clip is brown in the Fuller House clip, but is currently red, and has been for at least a couple of years before the production of the new show.

The Harmon Pet Care sign is superimposed over Old Shanghai, a home decor and fashion retailer.

And the awning is that of the Far East Café.

I didn’t dine at the Far East Café, so I can’t attest to their menu offerings, however I’ve read that it’s a particularly vintage restaurant and has some unique architecture. The building dates back to the early 1900s, while the restaurant opened in the 20s and some of the original decoration is even older having been imported from China.

The rest of the block and signage looks very similar to the Fuller House establishing shot.

The eighth episode, “Secrets, Lies and Firetrucks,” contains the only evening establishing shot of the pet clinic. For this footage, the camera was moved to the opposite end of the block.

It wasn’t until I was writing this post that I noticed an entirely different building was shown in an establishing shot for the season’s last episode, “Love Is in the Air.” Nearly all of the business names were digitally removed, but thankfully they left a visible address that allowed me to home in on the alternate location. For this clip, B & C Laundromat on Waverly Place stands in for Harmon Pet Care. The awning from the Far East Café footage was digitally reversed and placed above its entrance.

Editor’s Note – A big THANK YOU to Michael for sharing this fabulous post with us (especially the uh-ma-zing graphic below, which I’m enthralled with)! I’m already looking forward to the rest of this week’s offerings!

Stalk Them: Far East Café and Old Shanghai, aka Harmon Pet Care from Fuller House, are located at 631 and 645 Grant Avenue in San Francisco, respectively. B&C Laundromat, aka Harmon Pet Care from the “Love Is in the Air” episode, is located at 115 Waverly Place in San Francisco.

February 29, 2016February 26, 2016

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the “Fuller House” House

My latest Scene It Before post, about the mystery of the Fuller House house, is up on LAmag.com. You can read it here!

February 23, 2015February 23, 2015

The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar from "The Bachelor"

This season of The Bachelor has been one for the record books! I don’t think there has ever been a prior season featuring so many crazy contestants – and for The Bachelor, that’s really saying something. Sure there are a few sane women in the bunch (Whitney, Carly and Becca), but for the most part each episode is like a parade of crazy – and I am loving every minute of it! The Grim Cheaper and I just visited a location from a past season of the show last week while up in San Francisco for my grandma’s 90th birthday. One of my besties Nat, who lives in SF, planned a spectacular Valentine’s Day evening for us, during which we stopped by the iconic Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar at The Fairmont San Francisco Hotel. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited!

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Construction on The Fairmont began in 1902. In a bit of unfortunate timing, the hotel was completed, but had not yet opened, shortly before the 1906 earthquake. While the building was not harmed by the actual quake, the fires that followed wound up devastating the structure. Architect Julia Morgan, who co-designed William Randolph Hearst’s Ocean House in Santa Monica, was eventually brought in to rehabilitate it and The Fairmont was finally opened to the public in 1907. It soon became the city’s most popular upscale hotel. The property went through a succession of different owners during its early years and in 1929 was purchased by an engineer named George Smith, who installed a 75-foot indoor pool on the hotel’s Terrace level that he dubbed the “Fairmont Plunge.”

The hotel suffered a downturn during the Great Depression and was sold yet again, this time to Benjamin Swig. In the hopes of restoring The Fairmont’s popularity, Swig brought in interior decorator Dorothy Draper to redesign the place.

And it worked. The Fairmont once again became the toast of San Francisco society, as well as the go-to hotel for visiting celebs and dignitaries. Just a few of the stars who have stayed at The Fairmont over the years include Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Wells, William Randolph Hearst, Rudolph Valentino, Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, James Stewart, Kim Novak, Fred Astaire, James Brown, Ernest Hemingway, David Duchovny, Harrison Ford, Uma Thurman, Courteney Cox, Katie Holmes, and Mischa Barton. The Fairmont has also hosted such presidents as Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and, just last week, Barack Obama. And it was in the hotel’s famed supper club, The Venetian Room, that Tony Bennett first sang his trademark song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

In 1945, Swig hired MGM set director Mel Melvin to transform the Plunge into a nautical-themed Chinese restaurant that he named the S.S. Tonga. While popular, Benjamin decided to redesign the place once again in the 1950s due to the advent of the tiki bar craze. The new Polynesian-themed eatery was dubbed the “Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar.”

Swig stationed a barge, complete with a thatched roof, in the center of the pool and hired bands to play on it nightly.

He also installed a large dance floor that had been constructed out of the deck of the S.S. Forester, a ship that once travelled between San Francisco and the South Sea Islands.

To say that the Tonga Room is spectacular would be a gross understatement. The place is absolutely phenomenal and my photographs really don’t do it justice. It is easily one of San Francisco’s most unique spots and it is not surprising that producers chose to feature it in the Season 16 episode of The Bachelor that was filmed in SF. Oh, and did I mention that it rains there? So freaking cool!

The Fairmont popped up during Ben Flajnik’s season in the episode titled “San Francisco, California” and was shown several times throughout the episode.

Not only were the women put up at the hotel . . .

. . . but the incredibly dramatic rose ceremony - in which Shawntel Newton (from Brad Womack’s season) barged in and was then subsequently ousted (cue Courtney saying “Sayonara”) – took place on the patio of The Fairmont’s 6,000-square-foot Penthouse Suite. Just a few of the luminaries who have stayed in the suite include President John F. Kennedy, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Marlene Dietrich. You can check out some photographs of the space here. The library room is uh-ma-zing!

The show’s group date took place in the Tonga Room. In the episode, Ben described the restaurant as an iconic and historic San Francisco landmark, so I was shocked that I had never heard of it before, especially considering that I grew up in SF. I immediately called my mom to ask how it was that my parents had never taken me there and she replied, “We never took you there? How is that possible?” I don’t know, mom! I don’t know! Winking smile I have wanted to remedy the situation ever since and am so glad that I was recently able to do so!

The Bachelor returned to The Fairmont during its current season. In the fourth episode, titled “Camping,” Bachelor Chris Soules and contestant Jillian Anderson had an extremely awkward date on the patio of the Penthouse Suite, the same spot where Ben’s rose ceremony took place.

The Fairmont has been featured in countless productions over the years, so many that it would be impossible for me to chronicle them all here. As Jim Van Buskirk and Will Shank say in their book Celluloid San Francisco, “The Fairmont has starred in so many movies that, legend has it, the doorman is required to be a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild.” Love it! A few of its notable onscreen appearances include Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In the 1958 thriller, Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) is shown briefly driving by the hotel.

Supposedly, the shots of San Francisco that appeared in the movie’s opening sequence were taken from the roof of The Fairmont, but I am unsure if that information is correct.

Hitchcock returned to the hotel to shoot a brief scene for 1976’s Family Plot, in which Blanche Taylor (Barbara Harris) leaves a cryptic message for George Lumley (Bruce Dern) with the doorman.

The Fairmont was used in establishing shots of the St. Gregory Hotel in the 1983 television series Hotel.

Interiors were shot on a set modeled after the inside of The Fairmont.

In the 1996 thriller The Rock, John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) demands a suite at The Fairmont while helping the FBI with a case.

The FBI secures him the Penthouse Suite and it is on the patio that Mason gets his hair cut . . .

. . . and from which F.B.I. Director Womack (John Spencer) is thrown.

Though portions of the Penthouse interior were utilized in the filming (including the library, pictured below), I believe that most of the hotel room scenes were shot elsewhere.

And oddly enough, when Mason is shown exiting The Fairmont, he is actually standing in front of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

In the 1994 comedy Junior, an establishing shot of The Fairmont is shown as the location of the West Coast Pharmaceutical Convention.

But interiors were actually shot in the Gold Room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

And when Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) are shown leaving the convention, they are actually standing at the Biltmore’s limo ramp .

Fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, also informed me that The Fairmont was where Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) gave a speech at the National Parks Conference in the Season 6 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Moving Up.” The hotel was only used in establishing shots, though. Interior filming took place elsewhere.

The Fairmont has also appeared in Jade, Hard to Hold, Shoot the Moon, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, A Night Full of Rain, Mother, Towering Inferno, Petulia, Midnight Lace, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Magnum Force, Kiss Them For Me, The Streets of San Francisco and The Amazing Race.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Fairmont San Francisco is located at 950 Mason Street in Nob Hill. You can visit the Fairmont’s official website here. The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is located on the hotel’s Terrace Level. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

August 9, 2010August 7, 2010

The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco

Last Sunday morning, after checking out of the spectacular San Francisco loft where my bachelorette party was held, my friend Nat and I headed over to the historic former Presidio Army Base to stalk the recently-opened Walt Disney Family Museum. Knowing what a Disney freak I am, Nat figured that the museum would be right up my alley, which it, of course, was! The Walt Disney Family Museum, which was founded by Walt’s heirs through the Walt Disney Family Foundation, first opened a little under two years ago on October 1, 2009. After the Presidio Army Base closed down in 1989 and the property was taken over by the US National Parks Service five years later, the Walt Disney Foundation set about renovating three of the former bases’ main buildings to house their new museum. And while it might seem a bit random to open a gallery about the world’s most famous animator on a former Army Base, I must say that the place’s setting is nothing short of spectacular!

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As you can see in the above-pictured photographs, the museum boasts absolutely gorgeous – albeit majorly fog-filled – views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Amazingly enough, I had never actually heard of the museum before this past weekend and was shocked to discover that the legendary imagineer had a museum dedicated to him in the City by the Bay, because, as far as I knew, he had no connection to the area. As it turns out, though, Walt’s eldest daughter Diane Marie Disney, moved to Northern California in the early 1970’s and still lives there to this day. Because the museum focuses on the history of Walt’s life and career and boasts a massive collection of memorabilia from both, it makes sense that it would be opened in the city where his closest living heir now lives. And once you see the museum’s breathtaking surroundings, it makes sense why Dianne chose to honor her father there.

The Walt Disney Family Museum consists of ten permanent galleries, each of which focuses on a different aspect of the icon’s life, including his early years, his arrival in Hollywood, his animation, the historical 1937 production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, his marriage to Lillian Disney, and, of course, the creation of Disneyland. Sadly, though, no photographs of any kind were allowed in any of the galleries. Pictures were allowed in the museum’s lobby area, though, and, amazingly enough, Walt’s Academy Award collection was displayed there, so I did get to snap some photographs of that. As it turns out, Walt Disney has the distinction of holding the record for most Academy Award nominations received by a single person in the history of the Academy – he was nominated a whopping 59 times! He won 26 of those nominations, including an honorary Oscar in 1939 for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature film. The award, whose inscription reads, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field”, is the only Academy Award of its kind and befittingly features one large Oscar statuette flanked by seven miniature ones.

I cannot tell you how absolutely floored I was to be seeing that Oscar, which was presented to Walt at the 11th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony by a then-six-year-old Shirley Temple, in person. I had first read about the one-of-a-kind award many, many years back and had thought it was just about the coolest thing ever! So, when I read in the museum’s brochure that some of Walt’s Oscars were on display in the main lobby, my mind immediately flashed to that Snow White award, but, because it is so valuable, never in my wildest dreams did I think it would actually be there. So, as you can imagine, I just about died upon seeing it! So darn cool!

Also on display in the museum’s main lobby is a furniture set that used to be housed inside of the Disney Family Apartment, which is located inside of the original Disneyland theme park, above the Disney Fire House on Main Street U.S.A. I had never actually heard about the private apartment until fellow stalker Kerry pointed it out to me last summer after the two of us had eaten at Club 33. According to Kerry, whenever Walt stayed at the apartment, the lamp in the main window was lit to alert Disney Cast Members of his presence. Following his death on December 15, 1966, the lamp was turned on and has been left permanently lit ever since. The Walt Disney Family Museum also boasts an absolutely GINORMOUS 3-D diorama of the “Disneyland of Walt’s imagination” in one of its galleries and if you look at it closely you can see an apartment located above the Disney Fire House – and there is, of course, a lamp flickering inside of the window. So darn cool! You can read more about the Disney Family Apartment and see photographs of the inside of it here.

The Walt Disney Family Museum is an absolutely fascinating place and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough. It was such a treat to learn about the life and times of the man who created one of my favorite places in the entire world. Walt truly was a fascinating person and I was amazed to discover how little I knew about him before visiting the museum. More than just an innovator and an animator, Walt was a family man who loved his wife and children above all else. It was absolutely heartwarming to learn about the incredible love that he had for them. I also highly recommend stalking the museum’s gift store as they have some FABULOUS items in there!

Big THANK YOU to Nat for taking me stalk this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Walt Disney Family Museum is located at 104 Montgomery Street, on the former Presidio Army Base, in San Francisco. You can visit the museum’s official website here. The museum is closed on Tuesdays and all major holidays. Tickets for adults are $20, seniors and students are $15, children ages 6-17 are $12.50, and children ages 6 and under are free.

August 5, 2010March 3, 2011

My “Sex and the City” Bachelorette Party

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s blog, this past weekend I headed up to Northern California to celebrate my final days of singlehood with a bachelorette party in San Francisco. My friends Nat and Kylee planned the entire celebration and until I actually arrived at the party site, I had absolutely no idea of what the evening would entail. As it turned out, they had put together a Sex and the City-themed soiree for me which was held at an amazingly chic New York-style loft in the Marquee Loft Building located in the heart of downtown San Francisco. YAY!

When I first walked into the loft, Nat and Kylee had the Sex and the City theme song blasting from the TV in the living room, but I have to admit that I was so in awe of the actual loft that I didn’t even notice the music and therefore had no idea of the night’s theme.

The loft was simply AMAZING and walking in I truly felt like I had stepped into a residence in New York. The place was decorated so perfectly and was just so Sex and the City-ish, that I should have known right away what my friends had in store for me, but the blonde in me had taken over I guess, because I am ashamed to admit that I had absolutely no idea.

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Then I walked into the kitchen and immediately noticed the cupcake apron that Charlotte York (aka Kristin Davis) had worn in Sex and the City 2, but even then I STILL didn’t realize the night’s theme! I thought the apron was simply a part of the loft’s cool decor and when I pointed it out to Nat and commented on its movie connection she must have been ready to smack me because she said, “Yes, I KNOW!! I wanted you to feel like you were walking into Charlotte’s kitchen.” How incredibly cute is that????? Nat and Kylee finally explained the theme of the evening to me and needless to say I could NOT have been more excited.

Besides the loft fitting in with the party’s whole Sex and the City theme, the place was also, of course, a filming location! As it turns out, Nelson Moss (aka Keanu Reeves) lived in the Marquee Loft Building, in Unit #702, in the 2001 movie Sweet November.

And while we didn’t stay in the exact unit where filming took place, many elements of our loft, including the front door, living room windows, and kitchen area, were an exact match to Nelson’s loft in the movie.

The Marquee Loft Building, which was built in 1921, originally housed the Don Lee Cadillac Dealership and was designed by Charles Peter Weeks and William Peyton Day, the notable San Francisco architecture team who was also responsible for designing the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, and the Huntington Hotel. The former auto dealership, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was converted into a residential loft building in 1999 and that same year won the San Francisco Business Times award for “Best Rehab of the Year”. My fiancé and I actually currently live in a loft-style apartment, but our entire place could literally fit in the master bedroom of the loft where my bachelorette party was held. 😉

My bachelorette loft, which is a vacation rental, featured two bedrooms (pictured above) and over 1,300 square-feet of living space. I was absolutely DYING over it as it is EXACTLY the type of place that I would love to own someday.

The ultra-chic pad also boasted a private computer office area;

a large living room with a sofa-bed;

and amazing views of the City . . .

. . . especially at night! Sigh! What I wouldn’t give to live in a place like that!

But my story doesn’t end there! In keeping with the night’s theme, instead of just making a veil for me to wear throughout the evening, as is the norm with bachelorette parties, Kylee constructed an almost exact replica of Carrie’s feathered veil from Sex and the City: The Movie. I was absolutely DYING laughing when she first pulled it out of her bag, as I knew as soon as I saw that flash of blue exactly what it was.

Then to complete the look, she also had a Carrie-style necklace made for me that spelled out the word “Mrs.”, with a diamond stud standing in for the period. LOVE IT! I should really explain here that neither Nat nor Kylee is at all a fan of Sex and the City (in fact, Kylee downright hates the show) so the fact that they came up with all of this stuff is absolutely mind-boggling to me! I mean, I’m like the biggest Sex and the City fan in the entire world and I don’t think I would have thought of any of it!

But the soiree didn’t just involve spending the weekend at an exclusive New York-style loft. My friends also took me to Teatro ZinZanni, which is described on its website as “a bewitching evening of European Cabaret and Cirque, Divas and Madmen, Spectacle and Sensuality with Live Music and Gourmet Five-Course Dinner – set in the nightclub of your dreams!” I had never actually heard of the musical/comedy/dinner theatre show, which is currently celebrating its tenth year in San Francisco, before this past Saturday night, but, let me tell you, the whole thing was RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. The show was absolutely HILARIOUS, the food was AMAZING, and the costumes! Sigh, the costumes! I couldn’t take my eyes off of them! The subject matter of the show changes a few times each year and, as fate would have it, the current theme just happens to be “Love, Chaos, and Couture”, which fit in perfectly with my SATC-themed night. One of the stars of the show also just happened to be actress Liliane Montevecchi, who played Mrs. DeLauer in 2003’s How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days. Teatro ZinZanni was simply AMAZING and I honestly cannot recommend stalking it enough. As my friend Nat says, “It is my favorite thing to do in San Francisco.” And I can honestly say it is now mine, too!

All in all, the evening was spectacular and, as I said to Nat afterwards, she and Kylee could not have planned a more perfect evening for me had I given them a blueprint of what I wanted. 🙂 The following morning, my mom texted me and said that my dad was worried that I might have gotten sick during the party. That cracked Nat and Kylee up to no end and Kylee said sarcastically, “Yeah, ‘cause that would just be so Lindsay.” 😉 No, I did not get sick – the evening was fun, but extremely classy, which is exactly the way I wanted it. 🙂 As I mentioned in Monday’s post, planning this wedding has been a very stressful and trying endeavor, compounded mostly by the fact that my dad has been so sick (and yes, he is sick once again and has to have another surgery today – UGH). But looking at these photographs absolutely warms my heart and makes me realize that, when all is said and done, I am not going to look back on the past few months with irritation at the guests and family members who asked for ridiculous things , the vendors who fell through or messed up, or the invitations that didn’t arrive on time. All of that stuff is trivial. No, I am going to look back and be hit with how incredibly lucky I am to be surrounded by such an exorbitant amount of love in my life. As it turned out the evening’s Sex and the City theme could not have been more apropos, because the thing I thought about most that night was friendship. I have the most incredible group of friends a girl could possibly ever ask for . . . just like Carrie Bradshaw.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Marquee Lofts are located at 151 Alice B. Toklas Place in San Francisco. In Sweet November, Keanu Reeves lived in Loft #702. My bachelorette party was held in Loft #509, which is a vacation rental. You can visit the loft’s rental website here. Teatro ZinZanni is located at Pier 29 on the Embarcadero at Battery Street. You can visit the show’s official website here.