The Omega Beta Zeta House from “Scream 2”

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This past Saturday, while I was out stalking the Oscars, fellow stalker Tony spent his day trying to track down the large Victorian mansion which appeared as both the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house in Scream 2 and the Strong residence in Catch Me If You Can.  Tony knew that the house was located somewhere in the Altadena area and, since I live in the vicinity, was hoping I could help him find it.  We spent quite a bit of time emailing back and forth that day – me on my blackberry while out and about in Hollywood and Tony on his computer at home.  I am sad to say that I was unable to provide him with any help whatsoever in this particular hunt, though, as I had long been under the incorrect assumption that the Woodbury Story House on Madison Avenue in Altadena was the residence used as the Strong mansion in Catch Me If You Can.  Tony proved me wrong, though, and, as it turns out, didn’t need my help after all.  He managed to track down the correct location fairly quickly, first using Google to make a list of all of the large Victorian-style houses in the Altadena area and then viewing each one using aerial maps.  YAY!  Thank you, Tony!  So, once Tony gave me the address, I, of course,  had to run right out to immediately stalk the place.

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The Scream 2/Catch Me If You Can estate is actually known as both the Crank House and Fair Oaks Ranch and is something of a historical residence.   The vacant property was first owned by a wealthy landowner named Dr. John S. Griffin.  In 1862, Griffin sold the lot to his sister, Eliza Griffin Johnston, for $1000 after her husband, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, passed away during the Civil War.  Eliza built a small abode on the property and dubbed her new home “Fair Oaks Ranch”, after the city of Fair Oaks in Virginia where she was born.  In 1864, following the death of her son in a steamship accident, Eliza sold the property to Benjamin Eaton, one of Pasadena’s first founders.  Eaton ended up splitting the land in half and in 1876 sold one of the halves to a New Yorker named James F. Crank.  Crank had Eliza’s original home moved off of the property (it is currently located at 2072 Oakwood Avenue in Altadena) and in 1882 built a much larger, two and a half story, Victorian-style abode, named the Crank House, in its place.  In 1910, after investing and subsequently losing his fortune in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroads, Crank was forced to sell the residence.   And while his property was further subdivided after the sale, I am happy to report that his former house still stands and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.  The seven bedroom, four bathroom home measures a whopping 6,450 square feet and currently sits on over one and a half acres of land.  Sadly, though, the residence is situated behind a large gate and is not very visible from the street.

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But, as luck would have it, when I showed up to stalk the place yesterday, not only was the property’s back gate standing open . . . 

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. . . but, the front gate was, as well!  So, I just had to stick my arm around the open gate and snap the above pictures!  YAY!  🙂 

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And, being that the house is not visible from the street, I can’t really recommend visiting it in person.  But if you are absolutely dying to catch a glimpse of it, I am happy to report that parts of it can actually be seen from the streets surrounding the property.  🙂   

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In Scream 2, the Crank House stood in for the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house located on the campus of the fictional Windsor College in Ohio.

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The house is where sorority girl CiCi Cooper (aka Sarah Michelle Gellar) meets her untimely end thanks to a push off the mansion’s second floor balcony.  In the movie, the house is supposedly situated within walking distance of the Delta Lambda Zeta house, where the “Martini Mixer” fraternity party was held, but in actuality it is located a good six miles away from that residence.  On a side note – I have to admit that I must have jumped out of my chair at least ten times while making the above screen captures!  LOL

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In Catch Me If You Can, the Crank House stood in for the New Orleans residence belonging to Roger (aka Martin Sheen) and Carol Strong (aka Nancy Lenehan) and their daughter Brenda (aka Amy Adams).   The house showed up in several scenes in the movie, most notably as the location of Frank Abagnale (aka Leonardo DiCaprio) and Brenda’s engagement party.

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Both the interior and the exterior of the Crank House were used extensively in the filming of Scream 2 and Catch Me If You Can.  As you can in the above screen captures, which were taken from both films, the interiors match almost exactly.  Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Tony for finding this location!  🙂  And be sure to check out Tony’s Flickr site, as it features some fabulous photographs of filming locations in and around the L.A. area.

On a very sad side note – I was heartbroken today to learn of the untimely death of actor Corey Haim.  Corey was one of my very first movie star crushes.  I was eleven years old when I first layed eyes on him in 1988’s License to Drive and I think it’s safe to save I’ve been smitten ever since.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones at this difficult time.  I hope that in death Corey has finally found the peace that he never seemed to have in life.  Rest in peace, sweet Corey. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: The Crank Estate, aka Fair Oaks Ranch, is located at 2186 East Crary Street in Altadena.  The property’s front gate is located around the corner, at the end of Layton Street.  Remember, this is a private residence, so please do not trespass.  To see the best views of the house, drive on Crary Street just a bit east of the property and look backwards or drive a block south to Garfias Drive and look north.  I’ve marked the areas with the best views of the house on the map above.

Christmas Tree Lane

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Last December, I blogged about a house in Altadena known as the Balian Mansion, or, as I like to call it, the real Clark W. Griswold house (pictured above).  And even though the mansion has appeared only briefly onscreen – in the movie Obsessed and in an early episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 – the house is somewhat of an institution in these parts due mainly to something that happens there each December.  During the Christmas season, the Balian Family decorates their mansion with THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of twinkle lights.  People literally drive from miles around to see the spectacle and, last year, the place was even written up as one of AOL’s Top Twelve Festive Holiday Homes.  Anyway, in last December’s post on the Balian Mansion, I happened to mention another display of Christmas lights in the Altadena area – a one mile stretch of road named Christmas Tree Lane, which, while not a filming location, is definitely a holiday must-see.  Well, one very astute reader named Allyn contacted me shortly after that post was published to let me know that Christmas Tree Lane actually is a filming location, appearing in, among other things, the 1998 teen comedy Can’t Hardly Wait.   Allyn told me that the Lane popped in a scene in which the two nerd characters are shown walking along a cedar tree lined street.   Ironically enough, though, even though Allyn had described the exact location AND the movie in which it was featured, this proved to be a rather difficult stalk for me.  It all started yesterday morning when I popped in my Can’t Hardly Wait DVD and scanned through it TWICE, both times coming up completely empty-handed.  I couldn’t seem to find a scene featuring Christmas Tree Lane ANYWHERE!  It then occured to me that Allyn had perhaps mistakenly told me the wrong movie.  So, I promptly started scanning through a few other teen comedies that I thought Allyn might have confused with Can’t Hardly Wait.  After skipping through Not Another Teen Movie, She’s All That, and  the first two American Pie flicks with absolutely no luck, I became completely perplexed.  And then, like a beacon, it hit me!  I needed to consult with fellow stalker Owen.  Because Owen has long had a penchant for actress Jennifer Love Hewitt (JLove, are you listening??), I figured he would know the movie Can’t Hardly Wait like the back of his hand.  And, sure enough, he did! 

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While my first instinct was that the Christmas Tree Lane segment might only have appeared in a deleted scene or an extended version of Can’t Hardly Wait, fellow stalker Owen clued me in to the fact that it actually pops up about 15 seconds after the credits start rolling at the very end of the movie.  Which explains why I missed it even though I scanned through the movie TWICE!  LOL  In the scene, the two X-Philes, so named because they are huge X-Files fans :), are shown walking along a tree lined street in the early morning.  And just as one X-Phile says to the other, “This town is so lame.  Nothing exciting ever happens here.”, a UFO appears and beams the two right up.  THANK YOU, OWEN!  🙂

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Christmas Tree Lane is, in actuality, a mile long stretch of Santa Rosa Avenue, in between Woodbury Road and Altadena Drive, in Altadena.  The road is lined with over 150 towering deodar trees which were planted by Altadena’s founder, John P. Woodbury, in 1885.  Woodbury had originally seen the large-scale deodar trees during a trip to Italy and returned home to Altadena with several hundred of their seeds, which he immediately planted.   After being cultivated at a ranch for two years, the trees were then deposited all along the mile long driveway leading up to Woodbury’s yet-to-built Altadena mansion.  And while the mansion was never actually completed, that mile long stretch of driveway eventually became Santa Rosa Avenue, a main thoroughfare in Altadena.  In 1920, a rather festive Altadena gentleman named Frederick C. Nash, along with The Pasadena Kiwanis Club, decided to light one small section of Santa Rosa Avenue during the holiday season.  Over the years, more and more trees were added to the spectacle, finally resulting in a one mile stretch of land encompassing 150 trees, which are lit with over 10,000 twinkle lights.  The street was eventually dubbed Christmas Tree Lane and was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1990.  According to the official Christmas Tree Lane website, the display is “the oldest large-scale Christmas lighting spectacle in the United States” and each December more than 50,000 motorists venture out to Altadena to view it.  The lights on the trees are hung each year by a group of hard-working, dogged volunteers and members of the Board of the Christmas Tree Lane Association.  Up until the year 2000, the electricity costs were paid for by Southern California Edison, but after the deregulation of California utilities, the financial obligation of keeping the trees lit fell to the Christmas Tree Lane Association.  The tree lighting tradition has only been able to continue thanks to the many generous donations received each year.  If you would like to donate your time or money to the Christmas Tree Lane Association, you may  do so here.  I honestly can’t recommend stalking Christmas Tree Lane enough!  It is an absolutely magical display of Christmas lights, the likes of which I have never seen duplicated.  On a side note – the fact is not lost on me that I am wearing a tank top in one of the above photographs, despite the fact that it was taken after dark in late December.  LOL  That’s Los Angeles for you, though!  And while I am usually a big fan of L.A.’s warm climate, during Christmastime I actually prefer there to be a chill in the air.  As Kevin McAllister said in Home Alone 2, “Who wants to spend Christmas in a tropical climate, anyway?”  😉  Come December 26th, though, I am all about the heat!  🙂

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I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t take the time here to mention two other Pasadena area homes which, while not filming locations, are definitely holiday must-sees. The two houses are actually located on neighboring streets and, let me tell you, both are a site to behold!  The first one is pictured above.

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Not only do both houses feature a myriad of multi-colored twinkle lights, but they also boast musical animatronic displays starring such characters as Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, among countless others!  Not kidding!  I can’t even tell you how much fun it is to visit these two homes each year and to see what new Christmas decorations have been added to the already over-the-top spectacles.  LOVE IT! 

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Big THANK YOU to Allyn and Owen for helping me out with this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Christmas Tree Lane is a mile long section of Santa Rosa Avenue located between Woodbury Road and Altadena Drive in Altadena.  This year, the lights will be turned on nightly from dusk until midnight through January 6th.  If you would like to donate time or money to the Christmas Tree Lane Association, you can do so here.  At the end of Can’t Hardly Wait, the two X-Philes are shown walking north on Santa Rosa Avenue, directly in front of the house numbered 2287.  The Balian Mansion is located at 1960 Mendocino Lane in Altadena, just a short distance from Christmas Tree Lane.  The other two must-see houses in the area are located at 1776 Las Lunas Street and 1775 Monte Vista Street in Pasadena, just north of the 210 Freeway.