South Pasadena attractions

October 19, 2011September 29, 2017

Laurie Strode’s House from “Halloween”

A couple of months ago, fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, clued me into an INCREDIBLY cool little bit of Haunted Hollywood stalking information that I had not been previously aware of. Apparently, the real life owners of the home that stood in for the Strode residence in the 1978 classic horror film Halloween are so extremely stalker-friendly that they provide a supply of plastic pumpkins on their front porch all year long for fans of the movie to pose with in photographs. Well, as you can imagine, I was absolutely bowled over with excitement upon hearing this news and decided that, even though I had previously stalked the Strode house and blogged about it briefly way back in October of 2008, that it was most-definitely worthy of a re-visit. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to South Pasadena to do just that this past weekend.

And, sure enough, as soon as we arrived at the home, I spotted an assortment of plastic foam pumpkins sitting on a chair on the property’s front porch, along with a framed sign.

That sign reads, “Yes this is the scene with Jamie Lee Curtis from the 1978 Halloween. You may borrow the pumpkin. Have a good time.”

The sign also includes a still from the movie so that fans can refer to it while posing on the front walkway. How incredibly cool are these homeowners??? Big, huge, Andre-the-Giant-sized props go out to them for embracing the cinematic history of their residence and allowing stalkers to share in some of the fun. If I owned a famous movie home, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be doing this same, exact thing. LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

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The supposed-Haddonfield, Illinois Strode residence was featured several times in Halloween. It first appeared in the beginning of the movie in the scene in which Laurie Strode (aka Jamie Lee Curtis) is reminded by her father, Morgan Strode (aka Peter Griffith), to drop a key off at the “Meyer’s place”. According to the fabulous website The Cabinet, that particular scene was the very first of the entire movie to be shot. And according to IMDB’s Halloween trivia page, director John Carpenter hired Jamie Lee Curtis, in what was her very first movie role, as a sort-of nod to Alfred Hitchcock who had cast Jamie’s mother, Janet Leigh, in the iconic role of Marion Crane in Psycho. In another homage to the legendary Hitchcock classic, Carpenter also named the character of Michael Meyer’s psychiatrist “Sam Loomis” after Marion’s lover in Psycho.

The Strode residence next shows up in the scene in which Laurie returns home from school, after having been accidentally scared by Sherriff Leigh Bracken (aka Charles Cyphers).

And finally, it appears in the scene in which Laurie waits, pumpkin in hand, to be picked up by her friend Annie Brackett (aka Nancy Kyes) to go baby-sitting.

It is that scene that the homeowners allow you to recreate with their fake pumpkins. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Amazingly, the Strode residence looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did in 1978 when Halloween was filmed. The north-facing side of the house is the area that appeared in the movie.

For whatever reason, the east-facing side, which is pictured above, was not seen in Halloween. According to fave website Zillow, in real life the property is not a single-family home, but a multi-occupancy dwelling which features three separate units.

And while I cannot say for certain that the home’s actual interior was used in the filming, I am guessing that it was.

On a very random side-note – while doing some research on Halloween earlier today, I almost fell off my chair upon discovering that Kyle Richards (star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, whom I loathe more than there are words in the English language to express – I honestly do not think there has ever been a bigger b*tch in the history of reality television, but I digress) had played Lindsey Wallace, the little girl whom Annie babysat, in the 1978 flick.

And on a Halloween side-note – as the GC and I were driving away from the Strode residence, we spotted a house that was decorated beyond belief for the upcoming holiday!

As you can see above, the amount of detail that went into the embellishment of the home is utterly incredible!

I was shocked to discover that the fence which runs along the perimeter of the property and reads “cemetery” above the gate was actually just a prop! I mean, I, of course, realized the “cemetery” part was decoration, but the entire fence? WOW!

And it was not until I was about to leave that I realized the home’s brick façade was also just a decoration! As you can see in the above photograph, the entire front of the residence has been wrapped in some sort of plastic covering. Talk about going all out!!! If I ever have a house, you better believe that this is what it is going to look like every year come Halloween! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Laurie Strode’s house from the original Halloween movie is located at 1115 Oxley Street in South Pasadena. The massively-decorated-for-Halloween home that we stumbled upon is located right around the corner at 1130 Diamond Avenue in South Pasadena.

May 24, 2011May 23, 2011

Pappa Don’s Delicatessen from “Modern Family”

I must apologize in advance for the length of today’s post. I spent most of my day yesterday at the Walk of Fame star ceremony for American Idol creator Simon Fuller – an event which I will be writing about later this week – and therefore did not have time to write a very lengthy blog post for today, so I am sorry. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a fellow stalker named Cait wrote a comment on my blog post about Carmine’s II Restaurant from the “Boy’s Night” episode of Modern Family alerting me to the fact that the series had filmed its Season 1 episode titled “Fifteen Percent” at Pappa Don’s Delicatessen in South Pasadena. In her comment, Cait said she “you probably already know this (you know everything!) . . .”, but I have to admit that not only did I NOT know that information, until reading Cait’s comment I had never even heard of Pappa Don’s! So I immediately added the restaurant to my lengthy “To Stalk” list and finally made it out there to stalk the place this past Thursday afternoon. Yay!

Pappa Don’s Delicatessen was originally founded by the eponymous “Pappa Don” in the early 1960s. Sometime during the 80s Pappa sold the restaurant to a chef named Harry – a man whom many diners came to refer to as the “Soup Nazi” due to his reportedly gruff exterior. Harry apparently had no tolerance whatsoever for patrons who added what he felt were inappropriate additions to his sandwich creations. LOL Sadly, Harry passed away unexpectedly in August of 2007 at the tender age of 58 and Pappa’s was forced to shutter its doors for a time. On February 28th, 2008, the deli re-opened, this time under new owners who thankfully made very few changes to the restaurant or its menu. Pappa Don’s Delicatessen is a VERY cool little spot that serves up some fabulous sandwiches at EXTREMELY low prices. Because I am diabetic and usually try to avoid carbs altogether, I was unfortunately not able to sample any of the deli’s grub, but I purchased one of their “Anchor” sandwiches – which consisted of tuna salad on sourdough with Swiss cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, and mayo, all for only $4.95 – to take home to the Grim Cheaper and he absolutely devoured the thing. Said it was one of the best tuna salad sandwiches he had ever eaten.

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In the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) runs into his father-in-law, Jay Pritchett (aka Ed O’Neill), who is hanging out with his group of friends in front of Pappa Don’s. While there Jay ends up introducing Cameron not as his son-in-law, but as “a friend of my son’s”.

When Cameron tells his husband Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) how he was introduced, Mitchell marches right on over to the deli to confront his father. While there, he ends up meeting Jay’s friend, Shorty (aka Chazz Palminteri), whom he is convinced is gay.

The deli showed up once again at the very end of the episode in the scene in which Shorty, who has spent most of the episode adamantly denying that he is gay, gifts Jay with two tickets to see “the great Michael Buble”, who “sings like an angel”. Ah, Shorty, I couldn’t agree with you more on that count! And he’s not bad to look at, either. Winking smile

Susanne, the SUPER-nice owner of Pappa Don’s, also informed me that the deli had been featured in the pilot episode of the new Fox television series Traffic Light, in the scene in which Mike (aka The Office’s David Denman), Adam (aka Nelson Franklin), and Ethan (aka Love Actually’s Kris Marshall) discuss the fact that Ethan can get away with saying anything, no matter how obnoxious, thanks to the fact that he has a British accent.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Cait for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pappa Don’s Delicatessen, from the “Fifteen Percent” episode of Modern Family, is located at 303 Pasadena Avenue in South Pasadena. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Pappa Don’s is open Monday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the place only accepts cash, so make sure to visit an ATM before you stop by.

May 20, 2011May 19, 2011

The “She’s Out of Control” House

Last week I enlisted fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, to help me find locations from the 1989 teen comedy She’s Out of Control. Now I should mention here that while I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED She’s Out of Control growing up, according to the movie’s IMDB trivia page film critic Gene Siskel detested it so much that he actually considered quitting his job after viewing it! LOL In truth, the flick is one of my very favorite 80s movies of all time, so how Gene could hate it that much is absolutely beyond me!

I mean, how can you go wrong with a movie that features performances by both a very young Dustin Diamond (aka Screech from Saved by the Bell!) . . .

. . . AND Mr. Chandler Bing himself, Matthew Perry?!? Sheesh! I don’t even want to know what choice words Gene would have for that other favorite 80s movie of mine Girls Just Want To Have Fun!

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Anyway, Chas being the great guy that he is immediately added the DVD to his Netflix queue (even though it is unequivocally a chick flick) and it arrived in his mailbox just a few days later. He watched the movie shortly after receiving it and, amazingly enough, somehow managed to track down the house belonging to the Simpson Family – Doug (aka Tony Danza), Katie (aka Ami Dolenz), and Bonnie (aka Laura Mooney) – that very same night! The abode was, of course, the location that I was most interested in stalking, so I could not have been more excited when he gave me the news and I ran right out to stalk the place the very next morning. Yay!

I had fallen in love with the Simpson house the first time I watched She’s Out of Control over two decades ago and I am very happy to report that it is just as cute and charming in person as it appeared to be onscreen.

And while I had originally thought that the real life interior of the residence was used in the movie, that does not actually seem to be the case. I happened to find these interior photographs of the house online and, as you can see in the above screen captures as compared with this interior image as well as this one, the stairwell which appeared onscreen does not match that of the actual house.

The real life kitchen and living room areas also do not seem to match their onscreen counterparts.

While doing some internet research on the property yesterday morning, I was shocked to discover that the very same dwelling also popped up as the residence where Laurie Strode (aka Scout Taylor-Compton) babysat Tommy Doyle (aka Skyler Gisondo) in the 2007 Rob-Zombie-directed remake of the horror film Halloween.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location! Smile You can check out Chas’ detailed She’s Out of Control filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Simpson house from She’s Out of Control is located at 1960 La France Avenue in South Pasadena. Here is a map link to that location.

March 16, 2011March 15, 2011

Maggie Peyton’s House from “Herbie Fully Loaded”

After fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, so expertly tracked down the Georgia Rule house for me last week, I asked for his assistance in locating the residence where the Peyton family – Ray Peyton Sr. (aka Michael Keaton) and his children Ray Peyton Jr. (aka Breckin Meyer) and Maggie Peyton (aka Lindsay Lohan) – lived in the 2005 movie Herbie Fully Loaded. Now before I get y’all thinking that I am a massive Lindsay Lohan fan or something, I would like to assure you that I most definitely am not. Nor was I a huge fan of Herbie Fully Loaded, truth be told. What I was a fan of, though, was the Peyton family’s adorable and – what I thought was – little Craftsman-style bungalow which appeared countless times throughout the movie. And while I had a hunch that the property was located somewhere in the Pasadena area, I just could not seem to find it. So last week I called upon Chas and, working together this past Monday afternoon, the two of us were finally able to track it down. Yay!

I decided to take a page out of fellow stalker Owen’s book for this particular hunt and began my search by looking through various Herbie Fully Loaded message boards to see if any fans had mentioned the home or its location. And, sure enough, several had! I first came across this filming locations thread on the LoveBugFans website on which a real life photograph of the house was posted and, amazingly enough, an address number of 1120 was visible on the curb out in front of it. After seeing that photograph, I became convinced that the home was located somewhere in Altadena. So I immediately passed that information along to Chas and he subsequently started using Google Street View to search all of the 1100 blocks in the Altadena area, even though his gut was actually telling him that the house was located in South Pasadena.

Imagine my surprise when I came across yet another thread, this time on the LoveBugCentral website, on which someone had stated that the Peyton home was located just a few doors down from Patrick Gates’ house from the National Treasure movies. And where is Patrick Gates’ house located, you ask? I am ashamed to admit that it can be found on Buena Vista Street in . . . yep, you guessed it, South Pasadena. So, after apogizing profusely to Chas for steering him in the wrong direction, I immediately opened up Google Street View and started perusing Buena Vista Street and, sure enough, found the house in just a few short minutes.

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The Herbie Fully Loaded house actually looks much different in person than it did onscreen as, for whatever reason, only a side view of the property was ever shown in the movie.

The view of the house from the street is pictured above and, as you can see, it is absolutely MASSIVE in real life – much, MUCH larger than it appeared onscreen.

In actuality the Peyton home, which was built in 1870, boasts 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a whopping 3,974 square feet of living space. It is incredible to me how deceiving the home’s appearance was onscreen, as while watching the movie I had been fully convinced that Maggie’s house was a teeny, tiny, little California bungalow, ala Dylan McKay’s home from Beverly Hills, 90210.

As you can see in the above aerial view, in real life the home also sits on a GINORMOUS parcel of land.

The home’s real life backyard also appeared quite a few times in the movie.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, for helping me find this location! Be sure to check out his detailed Herbie Fully Loaded filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Maggie Peyton’s house from Herbie Fully Loaded is located at 1120 Buena Vista Street in South Pasadena. Patrick Gates house from National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets is located just a few houses west of Maggie’s at 1030 Buena Vista Street. Lady Heather’s house from the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is located at 929 Buena Vista Street. And the Liar Liar house is located just around the corner at 1004 Highland Street.

January 31, 2011January 30, 2011

Pamela’s House from “Teen Wolf”

A little over two weeks ago, fellow stalker Owen went on a mission to try to track down all of the locations used in the 1985 comedy Teen Wolf, which starred his favorite actor Michael J. Fox. And the locale that he was most interested in finding was the house belonging to Pamela Wells (aka Lorie Griffin), Scott Howard’s (aka MJF’s) love interest in the flick. Because Scott’s house in the movie was located in South Pasadena – ironically enough, it was the very same residence where the teenaged Lorraine Baines (aka Lea Thompson) lived in the Back to the Future movies – Owen had a feeling that Pamela’s house was most likely also located somewhere in that same vicinity. So, without so much as even an address number or a street name to guide him, but armed with a pretty great hunch, he started using Google Street View to search through the properties situated near the Howard residence and happened upon Pamela’s house rather quickly. Amazingly enough, it is located right around the corner and just a scant .2 miles away from the Howard home! Yay! So, this past Friday afternoon, I set out to stalk the place, even though it has been YEARS since I have watched Teen Wolf!

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Pamela’s house only actually shows up once in Teen Wolf, in the scene in which Scott walks Pamela home after a date at the local bowling alley – a locale which I blogged about back in June of 2009. It is while walking her home that Pamela breaks Scott’s heart by telling him that she will not go to the school dance with him because she already has a boyfriend.

Amazingly enough, Pamela’s house looks VERY much the same today as it did when the filming of Teen Wolf took place back in 1985. Aside from a change in paint color and the removal of the front window shutters, the residence is virtually indistinguishable from its onscreen counterpart, which I find so incredibly cool. Although I do have to admit that I much prefer the way the house looked in 1985 than to how it appears now.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pamela’s house from Teen Wolf is located at 1980 Oak Street in South Pasadena. Scott Howard’s house from Teen Wolf, which was also Lorraine Baines’ house in Back to the Future, is located just around the corner at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena.

January 14, 2011January 13, 2011

Angela’s Substitute Teacher’s Apartment Building from “My So-Called Life”

Well, it appears as if I am definitely on a My So-Called Life kick as of late because once I popped in my DVD of the series’ pilot episode last week, I have literally not been able to stop watching since. The show has definitely withstood the test of time as it is still absolutely riveting to watch today, sixteen years after it originally aired, which is simply incredible to me! Anyway, while watching the Season 1 episode of the series titled “The Substitute” earlier this week, I noticed an address number of “1008” in the background behind Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes) in the scene in which she goes to the apartment building where her substitute teacher, Mr. Vic Racine (aka Roger Rees), lives to confront him about deserting his family. And while the outside of his building is never actually shown in its entirety in the episode – all that appears in the scene is a brick wall, a wooden fence, and a red door – I became rather obsessed with finding where it was located. Not because I necessarily wanted to stalk it, but because seeing that “1008” was like a challenge, a little clue being dangled in front of my eyes, tauntingly daring me to track the place down. As crazy as it may sound, for whatever reason, once I spotted that address number I was absolutely NOT going to rest until I found it!

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I had also noticed railroad tracks in the background of the scene, so I was 99.9% certain that Mr. Racine’s apartment building was located in the South Pasadena area, somewhere in the vicinity of Andie’s house from the movie Pretty in Pink. I immediately emailed my super-friendly and super-knowledgeable contact over at the South Pasadena film office to ask for her thoughts. While waiting for a response, I decided to start searching aerial views of the the streets on either side of the city’s Metro Gold Line tracks and it wasn’t long before I came to a conclusion – Mr. Racine’s “apartment” was actually the side of the popular South Pasadena eatery Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop. I emailed my contact once again to tell her my theory and to send along a set of screen caps from “The Substitute” episode and she wrote me back almost immediately saying that I was indeed correct – the scene had been shot on the side of Buster’s Coffee Shop. YAY! So, early yesterday morning I headed on over to South Pasadena to snap some pics.

And let me tell you, I just about died upon realizing that the EXACT SAME “No Trespassing” sign that had appeared in the episode was still there in real life! Seeing that sign literally gave me goose bumps, I was so excited! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! As you can see in the above photograph, the “1008” address sign was also there in real life, as well.

The area looks quite a bit different today as the majority of it has been fenced off.

But you can kind of catch a good glimpse of the spot where filming took place if you head north across the train tracks. And while it does seem like a VERY odd spot for a substitute to live, or anyone to live for that matter, it does appear that there is some sort of small apartment complex located behind the wooden fencing pictured above.

The door pictured above is actually the side entrance to Buster’s and it still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1994 when “The Substitute” episode was filmed.

The tree and telephone pole that appeared in the background behind Angela also still look very much the same.

And the electrical meters which appeared in the scene are also still there in real life.

While I was taking photographs yesterday, one of the Buster’s workers came outside and inquired as to what I was doing. When I explained that an episode of My So-Called Life had been filmed on the premises over 16 years ago, he said, “Oh yeah, I know! Wow, I haven’t thought about that in a REALLY long time!” As it turns out, he was there during the filming of “The Substitute” episode, although he doesn’t remember much of what went on. I thought it was still incredibly cool nonetheless – I mean he actually witnessed the filming of one of the most ground-breaking shows on television! Love it! The front of Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop is pictured above. The purple arrow denotes where “The Substitute” was filmed. Ironically enough, Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located just across the train tracks from Mr. Racine’s apartment and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

On a My So-Called Life side note – while watching the episode titled “The Zit” a couple of days ago, I was floored to discover that the department store where Angela and her mother, Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), shopped for make-up was none other than the former Bullocks Wilshire department store, now Southwestern Law School campus, near Downtown Los Angeles, which I blogged about back in December of 2009.

The Mother/Daughter Fashion Show scene from that same episode was also filmed at Bullock’s Wilshire, in the former department store’s Louis XVI Room.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Vic Racine’s apartment from “The Substitute” episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1008 Mission Street, directly behind Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop, in South Pasadena. Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located right across the train tracks from Buster’s at 1000 Mission Street. And the former hardware store, now Radhika restaurant, where Michael Myers stole a mask and some knives in the original Halloween is also located across the street from Buster’s at 966 Mission Street.

January 6, 2011January 6, 2011

The “My So-Called Life” House

Since I blogged about the house which stood in for the Chase residence in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life yesterday, I thought I would write today about the house which was used in the remaining 18 episodes of the series. I have actually blogged about this location once before, over three years ago when I first started this site (and I absolutely CANNOT believe that it has already been THREE years!), but because it has been so long I figured the property was worthy of a more in-depth re-post. So, here goes! I became obsessed with finding the Chase residence back in 2007, but unfortunately, at that time the location was not posted anywhere online and the only information I had to go on was an address number of “1110” that was visible in the background of a few episodes. I had a hunch, though, that the dwelling was most likely located in South Pasadena, as the producers of My So-Called Life had filmed another one of their series, thirtysomething, primarily in that area. So, one weekend the Grim Cheaper and I ventured up and down all of the 1100 blocks located in South Pasadena until we found the house. And, amazingly enough, it didn’t take us long at all.

As it turns out, the property is located just a few blocks south of Mission Street at 1110 Glendon Way. And I am very happy to report that even though over one and a half decades have passed since filming took place, the Chase house still looks very much the same today as it did onscreen.

The only real differences I noticed were that the exterior has since been painted a dark green color, while it was light blue on the series, and the French doors located just to the left of the front door have since been replaced by a large picture window. Otherwise though, the property is completely recognizable from the show.

The house is actually owned by the City of South Pasadena and is currently vacant, so I was able to snap some pics of the interior of the property through the front windows. As you can see, it doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to the interior of the Chase house that was shown on the series, which was, of course, a set that was modeled after the residence used in the pilot episode.

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The Chase house was also used as the childhood home of Michael Myers (aka Daeq Faerch) in Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of the horror film Halloween.

According to this website, the home’s real life living room and foyer appeared in Halloween, but the basement, bathroom, hallway, and bedroom scenes were filmed inside of a residence located at 2218 South Harvard Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The house where Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) lived on My So-Called Life is located just across the street and two properties south of the Chase home.

Amazingly enough, it still looks very much the same today as it did when filming took place over 16 years ago.

In the episode titled “Dancing in the Dark”, Angela and Jordan Catalano’s (aka Jared Leto’s) very unromantic first kiss took place in Jordan’s car which was parked just outside of Brian’s home.

And I am fairly certain that the real life interior of Brian’s house was also used in the filming of that episode.

The home located just across the street from Angela’s, which was pictured in the background of quite a few episodes, still looks pretty much exactly the same today, as well.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Chase house from all of the episodes of My So-Called Life excluding the pilot is located at 1110 Glendon Way in South Pasadena. Brian Krakow’s home is located across the street and two houses south of the Chase residence at 1115 Glendon Way.