Angeles Abbey Memorial Park from “Alias”

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (3 of 23)

Today’s locale is one of my favorite Haunted Hollywood locations ever!  Way back in January 2012, fellow stalker Gilles from France sent me an email asking for some help in tracking down a mosque-like structure that stood in for a Moroccan airport in the Season 1 episode of Alias titled “A Broken Heart.”  Gilles included some screen captures in his email and, upon first glance, I guessed that the place was most likely a cemetery.  So I did a quick Google search for a mosque-like graveyard in Los Angeles and the first result to be kicked back was Angeles Abbey Memorial Park in Compton.  Sure enough, it was the right place.  And while I was pretty much drooling upon looking at pictures of the site, because of its location, I avoided stalking it.  Then, feeling brave this summer after finally visiting the spot where the Black Dahlia’s body was found, I bit the bullet and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there.  And I am very happy to report that it is not located in a dangerous area at all.

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Angeles Abbey Memorial Park was originally established in 1923 by a shipbuilder named George Clegg.  The Long Beach native reportedly sent two architects to India for inspiration and, upon their return, had them build a 1,000-crypt mausoleum resembling the Taj Mahal.  The Moorish-style structure featured imported Italian marble, intricate tile work, and stained-glass windows and ceilings.  Sadly though, as you can see below, the building’s façade is currently blocked by large trees and most of its beauty hidden.

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (22 of 23)

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (23 of 23)

The rear of the structure is visible to passersby, though, and pretty darn amazing in and of itself.  And don’t even get me started on the interior!  We, unfortunately, did not venture inside any of the mausoleums while stalking Angeles Abbey, but I came upon these stunning photographs while doing research for this post and am now absolutely kicking myself!  The interiors are nothing short of stunning!  Uh-ma-zing!

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Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (9 of 23)

Other equally-impressive mausoleums were built in the late 1920s and today, Angeles Abbey Memorial Park is the final resting place for over 35,000 souls.

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (1 of 23)

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (2 of 23)

Sadly though, as Compton began to change in the 1960s, the cemetery fell into disrepair.  In 2001, the site was grappling with graffiti, vandalism and gang activity.  It appears to be in a bit better shape today, though, thankfully, aside from the acres of dead grass.

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (7 of 23)

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (4 of 23)

Stepping onto the grounds of Angeles Abbey is like stepping into another world.  Standing there, I had to remind myself that I was still in L.A. and not in some exotic, far-off locale.  It is no wonder the place has so often graced movie and television screens.

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (14 of 23)

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (16 of 23)

Ironically enough, though, Angeles Abbey has rarely appeared onscreen as a cemetery.  For having such decidedly unique and ornate architecture, the place is truly a blank canvass – one that production designers have turned into everything from a jail to a palace to a courthouse to an airport.  As I mentioned above, the exterior of Abbey Memorial stood in for an airport in Morocco in the Season 1 episode of Alias titled “A Broken Heart.”

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In that same episode, the interior of the main mausoleum masqueraded as a a bustling Moroccan marketplace.

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  It is absolutely amazing to me that production designers were able to so completely transform a freaking mausoleum into a Middle Eastern bazaar!   That speaks to both their talent and the beauty of the site.

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The cemetery popped up again in the Season 4 episode of Alias titled “Ice.”  In the episode, the exteriors . . .

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. . . and interiors of Angeles Abbey stood in for the Arabian souk where Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) tried to purchase a deadly bio-weapon.

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Angeles Abbey was used extensively in the Season 1 episode of JAG titled “Scimitar,” which originally aired in 1995.  In the episode, one of the mausoleums masqueraded as Al Mataha Prison in Basra, Iraq where Corporal David Anderson (Ron Livingston – aka Sex and the City’s Berger!) was held.

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The interior of one of the mausoleums was also used as the interior of the prison courthouse in “Scimitar.”

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In that same episode, Angeles Abbey’s main mausoleum stood in for Al Ba’Ran, one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces.

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The interior of the main mausoleum was also utilized as the interior of the palace in the episode.

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Thanks to the Phantasm Archives website, I learned that Abbey Memorial Park appeared in Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead.  Unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the 1994 horror flick anywhere, but I did manage to make the screen captures pictured below from the trailer, which I found on YouTube.

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Thanks again to the Phantasm Archives website, I also learned that the cemetery was used briefly for the mausoleum scenes in Phantasm IV: Oblivion.

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In the 2005 movie Constantine, the interior of Abbey Memorial Park’s main mausoleum masqueraded as the underground storage room belonging to Midnite (Djimon Hounsou), where John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) revisited Hell by electrocuting himself in an electric chair from Sing Sing.

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 And while a 2001 Los Angeles Times article states that the cemetery appeared in 1987’s The Untouchables, I scanned through the movie and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (12 of 23)

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (10 of 23)

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gilles for challenging me to find this location!  Smile

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park (5 of 23)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Angeles Abbey Memorial Park, from the “A Broken Heart” episode of Alias, is located at 1515 East Compton Boulevard in Compton.

Roger Azarian’s House from "Beverly Hills, 90210"

Roger Azarian's House 90210 (3 of 5)

One location that I had wanted to stalk pretty much ever since first moving to Southern California was the mansion where Roger Azarian (a pre-Friends Matthew Perry) lived in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “April Is the Cruelest Month”.  So when fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, managed to track it down a few years back, I was BEYOND excited – until I took a look at the place on Google Street View, that is, and saw that no part of it was visible from the road.  Boo!  So I never wound up stalking it.  Flash forward to a couple of days before my move to the desert, when I grabbed my buddy E.J.’s Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites book and headed to the San Fernando Valley for a solo stalking adventure.  At one point I randomly found myself on Louise Avenue in Encino and thought the street name rang a bell.  I pulled over to do some searching on my iPhone and quickly discovered that Louise Avenue just so happened to be where the Azarian mansion was located.  So, even though I knew the pad would not be at all visible, I decided to head right on over there for a little looksie.

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As it turns out, Google Maps did not lie – Roger’s residence, sadly, cannot be viewed from the street.

Roger Azarian's House 90210 (4 of 5)

Roger Azarian's House 90210 (1 of 5)

 

But Bing Maps does provide some fabulous aerial views of the place, so I guess there’s that.  Winking smile  As you can see below, Roger Azarian’s mansion and the parcel of land that it sits on are both absolutely ginormous!

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After doing a bit of research, I believe that the property is actually comprised of two separate dwellings (a main house and a guest house) with two different addresses – one being 4839 Louise Avenue and the other 4825 Louise Avenue.

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While the front gate displays a single address, 4839, Zillow shows that the residence located at that number only consists of a scant one bedroom, one bath and 1,200 square feet – far too small to be Roger Azarian’s manse.  I believe that those measurements refer instead to a guest house located on the property.  According to Zillow, the house at 4825 Louise Avenue boasts seven bedrooms, six baths and 7,186 square feet, which sounds much more like the dwelling that appeared onscreen in Beverly Hills, 90210.   For whatever reason, though, the 4825 number is not displayed anywhere on the front gate.  You can check out some interior photographs of the property, which was originally built in 1932 and appears to be named “Encino Acres”, here.

Roger Azarian's House 90210 (5 of 5)

In the “April Is the Cruelest Month” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) befriends wealthy budding tennis star Roger Azarian and fairly quickly begins to fear that he is planning to kill to his own father.  Quite a few areas of the house were used in the episode, including the front exterior;

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the interior;

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the pool;

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and the pool house.

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While doing research for this post, I discovered that Roger Azarian’s manse is quite the oft-used locale.  It was also featured on 90210’s sister show, Melrose Place, as the mansion where Arthur Field (Michael Des Barres) lived.

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The abode also appeared in another 90210 spin-off, the 1994 series Models Inc., as the home of Chris White (Kurt Deutsch). 

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In the 1983 television series Emerald Point N.A.S., the dwelling was where Harlan Adams (Patrick O’Neal) lived.

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In Seasons 5 through 8 of the television Falcon Crest, the manse was used as the residence of the Agretti family.

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In the Season 3 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “Welcome to America, Mr. Brand”, the dwelling belonged to Kenneth Clayton-Dobbs (David Fox-Brenton).

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Oddly enough, though, a different residence was shown for the establishing shots of the property in the episode.

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In the Season 5 episode of Alias titled “Bob”, Encino Acres was where Jack Bristow (Victor Garber) met up with Elizabeth Powell (Caroline Goodall).

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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.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Gilles in France for finding episodes of Models Inc. and Emerald Point N.A.S. for me on YouTube and for making the Falcon Crest screen captures that appear in this post!  Smile

Roger Azarian's House 90210 (2 of 5)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Roger Azarian’s house from the “April Is the Cruelest Month” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 4825/4839 Louise Avenue in Encino.

The VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center aka the American Embassy from “Argo”

Embassy from Argo (18 of 23)

There are few things this stalker loves more than opening her mailbox to discover a slew of “For Your Consideration” screeners – something that happens each January shortly before the Screen Actors Guild Awards.  This year, the DVDs waiting in my mailbox were Silver Linings Playbook (my pick for best movie of the year), Les Miserables (which I have yet to watch) and Argo (which absolutely KNOCKED MY SOCKS OFF!).  I cannot believe that Ben Affleck was not nominated for a Best Director Academy Award.  The mere fact that he was able to shoot 90% of Argo, a movie that supposedly takes place in 1970s Tehran, in 2013 Los Angeles is astounding!  He deserves an Oscar for that alone.  Anyway, a few weeks back, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, sent me a Los Angeles Times article about the Southern California locations featured in Argo and, believe you me, when I read that the Veterans Affairs Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center in North Hills had masqueraded as the American Embassy in the flick, I immediately started chomping at the bit and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place shortly thereafter.

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The Veterans Affairs Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center (try saying that one three times fast!), which is absolutely ginormous, has quite an interesting history.  In 1952, Lester and Mary Gentry donated a 160-acre plot of land to the city so that a veterans hospital could be built.  The Sepulveda Care Center was the result of that generous donation and by 1993 the site was treating over 275,000 veterans each year.  Sadly though, much of the property was damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the main hospital building subsequently torn down, and the majority of the premises shuttered.  In a controversial move, the site was deemed “unsafe” to operate as a care center soon thereafter, yet it is constantly used by production companies for filming.  According to a 2009 Los Angeles Daily News article, the designation “was all a smokescreen, a chance for VA officials to save some money, downsize and gut Sepulveda.”  And while the property does currently house a working outpatient center, a pharmacy, a nursing home, an X-ray lab, a therapy pool, and a methadone clinic, the majority of the buildings remain vacant.  As you can see below, though, a restoration project is currently underway.  In February of last year, the city began gutting the interior of two of the dilapidated structures, with the plan to turn them both into housing for homeless vets.  In the meantime, the Center is still being used for filming.  And lots of it.

Embassy from Argo (12 of 23)

Embassy from Argo (17 of 23)

According to the Los Angeles Times article about Argo, two locations were used to stand in for the American Embassy in the film.  The scenes that took place outside of the embassy walls (pictured below) were shot at a building in Istanbul, Turkey – one that I have yet to track down.

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The scenes that took place inside of the embassy walls were, of course, shot at the VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center.  The L.A Times article states, “A Veterans Affairs medical building in North Hills, with its institutional, red brick facade, turned out to be remarkably similar to the U.S. embassy in Tehran from which six Americans escaped and sought refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador.  ‘It even had the same number of stories as the U.S. embassy in Tehran,’ said Chris Baugh, location manager for ‘Argo.’  ‘It was a huge stroke of luck.’”  You can check out some photographs of the actual former American Embassy in Tehran here and here.  As you can see, it does look quite a bit like the Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center.  Following the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, the embassy site ceased functioning as such and today is used by the Iranian government as a training facility for the Revolutionary Guards Corps.

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Because the VA site is so incredibly vast (there are over 18 separate, very similar-looking buildings) and so little of the exterior of the American Embassy was actually shown in Argo, the GC and I had quite a time trying to pinpoint the exact spot where filming took place.  Thankfully though, we ran into an extremely nice security guard who was all too happy to help.  According to him, a façade of the embassy was constructed in a parking lot on the premises during the shoot, and I am fairly certain that that façade is what is pictured in the screen capture below, as it does not match up to any of the actual hospital buildings.

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For some of the close-up angles of the embassy, the security guard informed us that Building 4 was used.  Because the shots were so tight, though, the structure is not very recognizable from the film.  In fact, the only recognizable element, besides the windows, is the brick wall situated at the front of the building.

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That brick wall is pictured below.

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Embassy from Argo (21 of 23)

The interior of one of the VA buildings (according to the security guard, Building 5) also stood in for the interior of the American Embassy in Argo.

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Building 4 also appeared in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween reboot as Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, where a young Michael Meyers (Scout Taylor-Compton) was institutionalized after murdering his family.

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The real life interior of the hospital was also used in the filming.

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In fact, the very same room that stood in for the Visa Application office in Argo also stood in for the family visiting room in Halloween, as you can see below.  So incredibly cool!

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Building 4 was also where Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) were beat up by kid bullies in the 2008 comedy Step Brothers.

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The north side of Building 4 (which I, unfortunately, did not get a picture of) was the main location used in Accepted.  In the 2006 comedy, the site stood in for the abandoned Harmon Psychiatric Hospital . . .

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. . . which Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) and his friends turned into the fake South Harmon Institute of Technology.

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The location was so prominent in the filming that it was even featured in the movie’s poster.

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The real life interior of the building was also used in the filming.

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And a pool was even built in the courtyard area for the shoot.

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The exterior of VA Sepulveda’s Building 200, which is an actual working medical facility, is also used regularly for filming.

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Embassy from Argo (7 of 23)

As is the interior.  The building was closed when we showed up to stalk it, though, so I could only snap photographs through the front windows, unfortunately.

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Embassy from Argo (5 of 23)

Building 200 is most notably used on Grey’s Anatomy where it stands in each week for Seattle Grace Hospital.

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Because I have never actually watched an episode of Grey’s Anatomy (I know, I know), like a dork I accidentally took a picture of the wrong side of the building.

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The south side of the building is the side used as Seattle Grace.

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While the majority of the interior of Seattle Grace is just a set, the lobby of VA Sepulveda also pops up occasionally on the show.

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The interior of Building 200 also masqueraded as a Geneva-area hospital in the Season 2 episode of Alias titled “Salvation”.

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The 1981 horror flick Halloween II was also filmed at the VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, although I am unsure of which exact structure was used in the production.  I am guessing, though, that it was the main hospital building that was demolished after the Northridge earthquake.

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The Season 8 episodes of Falcon Crest titled “Ties that Bind” and “The Last Laugh” were also supposedly filmed at VA Sepulveda, but I could not find copies of either with which to verify that information.

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Embassy from Argo (3 of 3)

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.

Embassy from Argo (15 of 23)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Veterans Affairs Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, aka the American Embassy from Argo, is located at 16111 Plummer Street in North Hills.  Building 4 was used as the exterior of the embassy.  Building 200 serves as Seattle Grace Hospital on Grey’s Anatomy.  You can check out a map of the Ambulatory Care Center here.

The Canfield-Moreno Estate from “Scream 3”

Canfield-Moreno estate (1 of 3)

One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like ages now is the Canfield-Moreno Estate – an absolutely humongous Italianate-style villa that was featured extensively in the 2000 thriller Scream 3.  I first found out about the locale thanks to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who had stalked it a few years back and, as fate would have it, had been invited onto the property and INSIDE OF THE MANSION by a caretaker to snap some pictures.  For whatever reason, though, I had just never made it out there.  Then, a few weeks ago, Mike reminded me of the site and suggested that I blog about it during my Haunted Hollywood month.  Because it is not at all visible from the street, he also kindly agreed to provide the photographs for the post.  “All you need is a pic of yourself in front of the gate,” he said, “and I’ll take care of the rest!”  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there just a few days later.

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A production of some sort was actually being filmed when the GC and I showed up to stalk the estate and the main gates were standing wide open.  Unfortunately though, as you can see below, even with the gates open, not much was visible.  So I honestly cannot thank Mike enough!  Without his pictures, this would have made for a very boring blog post.  (I ended up having to pose for a photograph in front of the mansion’s back gate as too many cars were driving in and out of the front one, making it impossible for me to stand by it.)

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Canfield-Moreno estate (3 of 3)

The 22,000-square-foot Canfield-Moreno Estate, which is also known as The Paramour Mansion and The Crestmont, was originally constructed in 1923.  It was designed in the Mediterranean Revival-style by Robert D. Farquhar, the same architect who also designed the California Club in downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, and the William Andrews Clark Jr. Mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  The 22-room villa was commissioned by silent film star Antonio Moreno and his wife, oil heiress Daisy Canfield Danziger, after whom the residence is now known.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (9 of 27)

During the time that Antonio and Daisy lived there, the mansion was the site of regular Sunday night soirees with many of Hollywood’s elite in attendance.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (20 of 27)

When the couple decided to separate in 1928, they deeded the estate to the Chloe P. Canfield Memorial Home, a finishing school for girls that was founded according to Daisy’s father’s will.  Sadly, a few years later, on February 23rd, 1933, Daisy lost control of her car while on Mulholland Drive and plunged off a 300-foot cliff.  She died instantly.  Since that time, it has been rumored that her ghost haunts the mansion.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (19 of 27)

In the 1950s, the Chloe P. Canfield Memorial Home Foundation was dissolved and the estate sold to Franciscan nuns, who turned the site into a boarding house for troubled girls.  After the residence was damaged during the Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987, the nuns vacated the property and put it up for sale.  Sadly, the once-grand mansion was left to deteriorate over the decade that followed.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (8 of 27)

The Canfield-Moreno estate was finally purchased in 1998 by a developer named Dana Hollister for $2.25 million.  Hollister, who has an affinity for historic sites, set about restoring the mansion to its original grandeur.  She also added a recording studio to the premises and countless musicians have since recorded there, including Gwen Stefani, Papa Roach, Fiona Apple, and Sarah McLachlan.  And while Hollister’s original intention was to turn the four-and-a-half-acre site into a luxury hotel, opposition from neighbors halted that plan and it is currently being used as her primary residence.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (5 of 27)

The ginormous Canfield-Moreno estate is comprised of a 15,388-square foot, U-shaped main house, which boasts 8 bedrooms and 8 baths, as well as several detached cottages and stables that dot the sprawling hilltop land.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (22 of 27)

As you can see in the aerial views pictured below, the estate is absolutely gargantuan and more of a compound than a residence.

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And, as you can also see below, the place also exhibits some pretty amazing views.

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The estate’s interior boasts a Moroccan flair and, though remodeled recently, looks like it came straight out of Old Hollywood.

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Thanks to the unique look and gargantuan size of the estate, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, it has appeared in more than a few productions over the years.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (15 of 27)

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In Scream 3, the Canfield-Moreno Estate stood in for the home of Stab 3 producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen).  Both the exterior . . .

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. . . and the interior appeared in the flick.

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In 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, the estate stood in for Hillcrest Academy High School, where Keri Tate (Jamie Lee Curtis) worked.  Both the interior   . . .

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. . . and the exterior were used in the filming.  The estate’s pool was covered over for the shoot, as you can see below.

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A different location – one that I have yet to find – was used for Hillcrest Academy High School’s front gate.

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Also in 1998, the interior of the estate appeared in the music video for the R.E.M. song “At My Most Beautiful”.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

R.E.M.’s “At My Most Beautiful” Video–Filmed at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

In the Season 2 episode of Alias titled “Truth Takes Time”, which aired in 2003, the Canfield-Moreno Estate stood in for the Tuscan villa where Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) hid out with his wife, Emily Sloane (Amy Irving).

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The interior of the property was also used in the episode.

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Oddly enough, though, at one point during “Truth Takes Time”, the exterior of a different home was shown as an establishing shot of Arvin’s villa.

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In the season 3 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk and the Panic Room”, which aired in 2004, the Canfield-Moreno estate was the mansion where record producer Ian Blackburn (Stewart Finlay-McLennan) lived and was murdered – presumably by his pet chimpanzee.

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The interior of the house also appeared in the episode.

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The estate also appeared in Britney Spears’ 2004 “My Prerogative” music video, in which she crashed her Porsche into the residence’s pool.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

Britney Spears “My Prerogative” Music Video–Filmed at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

                   In 2009, the mansion appeared in the Season 4 episode of Brothers & Sisters titled “From France with Love” as a prospective wedding venue for Rebecca Harper (Emily VanCamp) and Justin Walker (Dave Annable).  While Rebecca is scouting the location with her mom, Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig), and Justin’s mom, Nora Walker (Sally Field), she realizes that a pornographic film is being shot on the premises and therefore decides to go with another venue.  LOL

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The villa was also used in the music video for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ 2011 song “If I Had a Gun”.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ “If I Had a Gun” Video–Shot at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

According to Wikipedia, the estate was also used in Rock Star: INXS, Rock Star: Supernova, Scream Queens, From G’s to Gents, Rock of Love: Charm School, Charm School with Ricki Lake, Mad Mad House, and MTV’s The X Effect, but I was, unfortunately, not able to find copies of any of the productions with which to verify that information.

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Canfield-Moreno estate (14 of 27)

On a side-note –  The photograph of the Canfield-Moreno Estate that is pictured below, which Mike took, was actually chosen to be featured in the 2012 issue of Locations Magazine!!  How incredibly cool is that?

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The magazine . . .

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. . . and printed photograph are pictured below.  Um, LOVE IT!

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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.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location and for allowing me to post his FABULOUS pictures of it here.  Smile

Canfield-Moreno estate (27 of 27)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Canfield -Moreno Estate from Scream 3 is located at 1923 Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake.

Charlie’s Apartment Building from “Monster-in-Law”

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The third and final Monster-in-Law locale that I set out to find this past weekend was the supposed Venice Beach area apartment building where Charlie Cantilini (aka Jennifer Lopez) lived in the flick.  Fellow stalker Nick had already determined that the Spanish-style building was located somewhere in Hollywood, so from there I set out on a Google search using the terms “Mediterranean”, “apartments”, and “Hollywood”.  And I have to say that I got REALLY lucky on this one, because the first thing that popped up was this  link to a complex named “Mediterranean Apartments” on North Sycamore Avenue.  After looking at an aerial view of the building, I quickly determined that it was not, in fact, the Monster-in-Law locale that I had been searching for, but I did notice another apartment complex just a few doors down that looked an awful lot like Charlie’s. And sure enough, it was!  The stalking gods were definitely smiling on me during this search, because, honestly, what are the odds of tracking the building down so easily???  And, let me tell you, I almost fell over when I realized that not only had I already stalked Charlie’s apartment a few years prior, but I had even blogged about it!  More on that later, though.

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In real life, Charlie’s apartment building is known as the El Cadiz and it is located in the heart of Hollywood, a good fifteen miles away from Venice Beach, it’s purported location in Monster-in-Law.   The building was constructed during the height of the Great Depression in 1936 by architect Milton J. Black and was named after the province of El Cadiz in the south of Spain.  According to the book Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles: A Typological Analysis, the complex has the distinction of being the very last Spanish Revival-style courtyard apartment building to be constructed in L.A.  In 2005, the Church of Scientology purchased the El Cadiz, and thanks to the community’s fear that the place would subsequently be torn down, just a few months later the City of Los Angeles declared it a Cultural Historic Monument, preserving its beauty for future generations to appreciate.  The El Cadiz is an absolutely gorgeous dwelling that boasts numerous Andalusian decorative elements including a red-tiled roof, covered balconies scattered throughout, large water fountains, arched doorways and windows, and a multitude of courtyards.  Sadly, though, none of those elements is visible from the street and what is visible is fairly non-descript, as you can see above.

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Even more unfortunate is that fact that not even Google maps can give us a very good view of the building.  🙁   But you can read a more in-depth history of the property and see a picture of its interior courtyard here.

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Charlie’s apartment building is only featured at the very beginning of Monster-in-Law, in the scenes which take place before she moves in with new-fiancé Kevin Fields (aka Michael Vartan). 

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Because of the way some scenes were filmed and because, according to the movie’s production notes, all of the apartments in the El Cadiz building were vacant and undergoing extensive renovations at the time of the filming, I am fairly certain that the real life interior of one of the units was used in the movie, too.

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Coincidentally, the El Cadiz was also featured each week during the first two seasons of the immensely popular television series Alias, where it stood in for Sydney Bristow’s apartment.   (An even further coincidence is that both productions starred actor Michael Vartan!)  As I mentioned above, I actually stalked the place – and blogged about it! – back in February of ‘08, but because only the exterior of the complex was featured in Alias, while only the interior courtyard was featured in Monster-in-Law, I didn’t recognize that they were actually the same place.   

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Nick for helping me find this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: El Cadiz, aka Charlie’s apartment building from Monster-in-Law and Sydney Bristow’s apartment building from Alias, is located at 1721-1731 North Sycamore Avenue in Hollywood.

Sydney Bristow’s Apartment

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 Although I am not a big Alias fan – never seen an episode, actually – I know most of America was pretty obsessed with it. And I do love me some Jennifer Garner. So when I found the address of Sydney’s Bristow’s apartment in my fave stalking book, I, of course, had to stalk it.

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  Sydney Bristow lived in a very cute Spanish style apartment building called the El Cadiz in Hollywood. It was built in 1936 and definitely evokes a feeling of Old Hollywood. The El Cadiz is also a City of Los Angeles declared Historic-Cultural Monument.

Now that I have stalked Alias, I think I am going to have to go rent me the first season on DVD, so I can see what all the fuss is about. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Sydney Bristow lived in the El Cadiz apartments located at 1731 N. Sycamore Avenue in Hollywood, just a half a block north of Hollywood Boulevard and a few short blocks from the Hollywood and Highland Center. In 1970, Janis Joplin died of a drug overdose just a half a block from the El Cadiz at the Highland Gardens Hotel, which can be found at 7047 Franklin Avenue.