Bedtime Stories – IAMNOTASTALKER

December 20, 2019December 20, 2019

The Tire House from “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday”

Today’s locale is becoming quite the prolific film star! I’ve blogged about the residence at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena previously – twice, in fact. It first came on my radar thanks to its appearance in the 2008 comedy Bedtime Stories, as I chronicled here. Then, in 2015, I noticed it pop up in the pilot episode of the short-lived Fox series Grandfathered and dedicated another post to the place. Pretty thorough coverage, I know. But when I learned that it also cameoed in not one, but two Christmas-themed productions recently, I decided that yet another write-up was in order!

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The picturesque English Revival holds a pretty special place in my heart. I have it to thank for meeting and becoming friends with fellow stalker Owen. Way back on May 20th, 2009, I received an email from him asking for some assistance in tracking down the home belonging to Wendy (Courteney Cox) in Bedtime Stories. That email kicked off the first of many location hunts the two of us have embarked upon. Owen’s comment on my initial post about the place was quite prophetic. He wrote, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Did I say ‘Louis’? I mean ‘Lindsay.’” Oh, how right he was! The two of us became fast friends and remain so today, more than a decade later! The house has fared pretty well, too, cameo-wise.

As mentioned above, it was also featured in the Grandfathered pilot in which it portrayed the home of Jimmy Martino’s (John Stamos) ex, Sara (Paget Brewster). It only appeared in the one episode, though. Once the series got picked up, filming of Sara’s house scenes shifted to a different pad at 12660 Kling Street in Studio City.

Then, last week, while writing my post on the residence where Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) lived in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, I scanned through the 1988 sequel Big Top Pee-wee and the 2016 Netflix film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday to see if the same property was utilized in either. It wasn’t, but I was thrilled to see the Bedtime Stories house in the latter! Though it only popped up briefly, I recognized it immediately as the spot where Pee-wee released a tire from a trailer as part of his extensive morning routine at the beginning of the flick.

Coming full circle, a few days before that discovery, I received a text from Owen informing me that he had attempted to write a comment on my original Bedtime Stories house post, but that my site wasn’t allowing it. (That’s an ongoing issue with old posts that the Grim Cheaper is trying to fix.) Because I knew he had been binging Christmas movies, I figured he was likely wanting to apprise me of the home’s Pee-wee’s Big Holiday cameo. But once the GC finally got comments on the post up and running, I was shocked that Owen was actually clueing me in on a different Yuletide-themed appearance! He wrote, “When I think of this house, I think of you, because our friendship had its genesis in the search for this location. For that reason, I thought I’d let you know that the house recently updated its filming location curriculum vitae, if you will. I saw it pop up again on the “Christmas Spirit” episode of 9-1-1, which aired on Dec. 2. They give the address as 2749 Elmer Ave. in North Hollywood in the episode . . . and then proceed to allow the ‘800’ house number near the front door to be visible five minutes later. You have to do better than that to fool a stalker!” Yeah, especially when it comes to such a well-known locale! In the “Christmas Spirit” episode, the pad is where a mom (Chrystee Pharris) collapses and 9-1-1 operator Maddie Kendall (Jennifer Love Hewitt) talks her young son, Leo (Seth Carr), through performing CPR until the paramedics arrive.

The residence is so idyllic and charming, it is not at all hard to see how it wound up onscreen in so many productions. Built in 1925, the pad has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,165 square feet, a 0.23-acre lot, and a detached garage. It last sold in January 2004 for $652,500, but Zillow puts its worth at $1,555,821 today! So not only does the property have the ability to foster friendships, but it’s lucrative to boot!

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

Big THANK YOU to Owen for asking me to find this house back in 2009, informing me of its recent 9-1-1 appearance, and, most of all, ten years of friendship.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The “tire house” from Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is located at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena.

June 11, 2009June 10, 2009

The Bedtime Stories School

Last week, while searching for the Bedtime Stories house, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to also try to find the school featured in the movie. We started our search by looking at street views of different elementary schools in the Los Angeles area, but pretty much came up empty-handed. So, I decided to once again ask my friend who had worked on the movie if she happened to remember where the school was located. She, of course, did not, but what she did remember was that the school from the movie wasn’t actually a school at all, but a public library. She said that the exterior of the library had been changed quite extensively for the filming and made to look a lot bigger than it actually is. Two whole wings were actually added to one side of the building to make it look more like an elementary school. So, armed with that little bit of information, off I went to search local libraries. And, sure enough, it wasn’t long before I found the right one! 🙂

In real life, Daniel Webster Elementary School is, in fact, the Los Angeles Memorial Branch Library which was constructed in 1930. It was built to honor twenty alumni of Los Angeles High School, which is located directly across the street, who had lost their lives in the first World War. Students had originally purchased a small parcel of land across the street from the high school in 1922 and turned it over to the Park Commission with the decree that a memorial park, in honor of all alumni who had fought in the war, would be built on the premises. Today, that park is known as L.A. High Memorial Park. The following year, students and alumni purchased an additional parcel of land adjacent to the park. In 1929, the City of Los Angeles decided to build a library on that adjacent piece of land and commissioned the architecture firm Austin and Ashley, who had also designed the high school, to build it. The library was designed to match the English Tudor style architecture of the high school, which had been built twelve years beforehand. A stained glass window, designed by Judson Art Studio, with the names of the twenty alumni who had lost their lives, was installed in the adult reading room. The library officially opened to the public on April 29, 1930.

Sadly, the original Los Angeles High School building was badly damaged in the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and was quickly condemned by the City of Los Angeles. Preservationists tried to stop the demolition of the beautiful building, but a mysterious fire gutted the school, thereby sealing its fate. The building was completely demolished later that same year and a huge blue and gold cement monstrosity was built in its place (pictured above). That monstrosity even pops up in Bedtime Stories, in the scene when Adam Sandler picks his niece and nephew up from school. You can see pictures of what Los Angeles High School used to look and pictures of its demolition here and here. So sad!!!!

Ironically enough, the original Los Angeles High School building was a frequent filming location, showing up in A Kiss Before Dying (1956), Compulsion, and the television series Room 222. You can watch the intro to Room 222, in which the school is featured prominently, here.

As you can see in the above screen capture and photographs, the Los Angeles Memorial Branch Library looks much different and much smaller in person than how it appeared onscreen. You can also see the wing that was added to the right side of the building.

The front door of the library is very recognizable from the film, though. 🙂

Because the real interior of the library looks nothing like an elementary school, the interior scenes were shot about 20 miles away at McKinley School in Pasadena. And, according to the librarian who I talked to while stalking the place, the interior of the Memorial Branch Library, but not the exterior, was featured in the 1987 movie Baby Boom. Go figure. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bedtime Stories school is really the Memorial Branch Library located at 4625 West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles. The interior school scenes were filmed at McKinley School located at 325 South Oak Knoll Avenue in Pasadena.

June 5, 2009June 4, 2009

The Bedtime Stories House

Got a challenge last week from fellow stalker Owen who wanted me to find Courteney Cox’s house from the 2008 movie Bedtime Stories. And even though I had yet to see the movie, I was actually in luck with this challenge as one of my acting classmates had worked as a production assistant on the Adam Sandler flick. So, I immediately called her up to ask her where the house was located. But, sadly, as is often the case with this sort of thing, she could not for the life of her remember. UGH! But she did tell me that she thought the home might be in Pasadena. So, I got Mike from MovieShotsLA in on the hunt and we started our search there. And, as usual, it wasn’t long before Mike had found the house! He’s so the man!! 🙂 The Bedtime Stories house is actually located on a quiet, tree-lined street in South Pasadena, a few miles south of Pasadena proper. And yesterday, I ran right out to stalk it. 🙂

The Bedtime Stories house is absolutely adorable and looks much the same in person as it did in the movie. And, while I was there stalking the place, I was lucky enough to get to chat with the owner, who gave me some scoop on the filming! 🙂

She told me that some filming actually took place inside of the house, too. Filmed inside of her home were the living room scenes;

the kitchen scenes;

and the backyard party scene.

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The children’s room where Adam Sandler tells his bedtime stories, however, was built on a soundstage at Universal Studios. The owner said that producers changed the interior of her home quite a bit for the filming and that in real life it looks much different than how it appeared on screen. All in all, filming at her house took just about two weeks to complete.

A few months after the filming had been completed, producers returned to the home yet again to film one more exterior set-up shot. Apparently, long after filming had wrapped, it was decided that a shot of the home in the rain at night was needed. So, they brought in a huge rain machine and set it up behind the house. So cool!

What I found most interesting, though, was that for the scene when Keri Russell and Adam Sandler meet, producers actually painted fake parking spaces up and down the entire street in front of the house! Apparently, they so loved the idea of Adam taking up two parking spaces and Keri giving him a hard time about it, that they created fake parking spaces along an entire city block!! LOL When I watched that scene while trying to locate the house the other day, I remember thinking how odd it looked for a cute little house in a cute little neighborhood to have vertical parking spaces in front of it. LOL Ah, the magic of the movies! 🙂

Amazingly enough, the lines from the fake parking spaces are still visible in front of the house! So cool!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bedtime Stories house is located at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena.