Café-Club Fais Do-Do from “Crossroads”

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One location that I blogged about way back in March of 2009 and had been dying to re-stalk ever since – in order to snap some interior pictures – was Café-Club Fais Do-Do, the supposed New-Orleans-area karaoke bar that appeared in the 2002 movie Crossroads.  (For those who did not catch my original post on the place, in the Spring of 2001 I was an extra in Crossroads and spent a full three days filming at the Fais Do-Do – a magical experience that I will never forget.)  Because the club is typically only open at night for concerts and events, though, and because the Grim Cheaper has a major aversion to paying any sort of a cover charge, since the filming I had never been able to get back inside.   Until last Wednesday afternoon, that is, when I tagged along with fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, on a scouting expedition.  A couple of months back, Mike actually joined the Location Managers Guild of America under the title of Apprentice and, when I heard that he was in the process of building his portfolio, I immediately (and a bit selfishly) suggested that he visit Café-Club Fais Do-Do – with me accompanying him, of course.  Don’t get me wrong – the place is incredibly unique and visually stimulating and I knew that he would not only shoot some incredible photographs of it, but that it would also be a highly useful locale to have in his scouting arsenal.  But mostly, I just really wanted to stalk it myself.  Winking smile

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The Art Deco building which currently houses Café-Club Fais Do-Do was originally constructed in 1930 and is actually comprised of two separate sections – The Club (pictured above) and The Ballroom.  In its original incarnation, The Club was a branch of the First Citizens Savings Bank and Trust, which explains the structure’s uniquely rich and ornate interior.  Sometime in the 1960s, the bank was converted into a jazz bar/underground club, but thankfully most of its architecturally and historically significant detailing was kept intact.  During its years as a jazz club, such musicians as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, BB King, Pearl Bailey, John Coltrane, and Billy Preston were all said to have hung out there.

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The Ballroom (pictured above) was originally constructed as the single-screen Variety Movie Theatre and was where the filming of Crossroads took place.  I am unsure of when exactly the Variety ceased showing movies, but in 1990 the entire building was purchased by a new owner who, while still keeping the two distinct areas separate, decided to turn the venues into a nightclub and bar which collectively would be known as Café-Club Fais Do-Do – “Fais Do-Do” meaning “nighty-night” in French.  And while this post on the Lon’s Place blog states that The Club area was sold to a new owner in 2010, according the film liaison that we spoke with, the same person who bought the building back in 1990 still owns it to this day.

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While we were stalking the Fais Do-Do, I was extremely sad to discover that the huge two-story bar that used to be located in the center of The Ballroom and on which I had sat in Crossroads had since been removed.  To me, that bar, which had a dance floor on top of it, was the coolest, most unique aspect of the entire club and I cannot believe the owner did away with it!  So incredibly sad.

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In Crossroads, Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom was used for the interior of Club Bayou, where Lucy Wagner (Britney Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning) competed in a karaoke contest in order to win money to fix their car which had just broken down.

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That’s me in the blue pants standing next to Ben (Anson Mount) in the above screen capture.  Smile

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The Fais Do-Do dressing room, which you can see a photograph of here, was featured in the scene in which Kit, Mimi and Lucy get ready to go onstage.  Sadly, a film crew was using that area at the time that we were stalking the club so we were unable to take any pictures of it.

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The GC and I recently started watching fave show The O.C. again from the beginning and, let me tell you, I just about fell off my chair when I spotted Café-Club Fais Do-Do pop up in a Season 1 episode.  In “The Escape”, the Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom stood in for “Boom Boom”, the supposed-Tijuana-area club where Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) caught Luke Ward (Chris Carmack) cheating on her.

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And, while scanning through “The Escape” to make screen captures for this post, I was shocked to discover that the little bar where Marissa almost overdosed on pain pills later in the episode was none other than the Fais Do-Do’s Club!  The Club was remodeled in 2010 (as you can see in these photograph on the Lon’s Place blog) and looks a bit different now, but, amazingly enough, the actual bar where Marissa sat still looks exactly the same today as it did when the episode was filmed back in 2003!

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After reading my original post on the Fais Do-Do back in 2009, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, figured out that The Ballroom also stood in for Delloser Hall, the reggae club where Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) got stoned after inadvertently eating a pot-laced cake, in fave movie Never Been Kissed.

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In the extremely odd 2006 film The Gymnast, the Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom was used extensively as the place where Jane Hawkins (Dreya Weber) and Serena (Addie Yungmee) learned aerial fabric acrobatics.

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In the flick, you can clearly see the club’s former bar . . .

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. . . as well as the dance floor above it.

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Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s dressing room also appeared in The Gymnast.

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And in one scene, a business card featuring the club’s actual address, fax number, and website was even shown.  So incredibly cool!

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Fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, also let me know that the Fais Do-Do had appeared in the Season 2 episode of Arrested Development titled “Queen for a Day”.  In the episode, the exterior . . .

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. . . as well as The Ballroom stood in for The Queen Mary, the bar that Tobias Funke (David Cross) purchased.

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The Club was also used in that episode as the restaurant where Byron “Buster” Bluth (Tony Hale) took his new girlfriend, Starla (Mo Collins), out for a milkshake.

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And the dressing room stood in for the Hot Cop stripper club, from which Lindsay Bluth Funke (Portia de Rossi) hired strippers to scare her husband into selling The Queen Mary.

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Back in February of 2011, while doing research for my post on The Little Door restaurant, I discovered that Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Club room was used in the Season 2 episode of Entourage titled “The Abyss”, in the scene in which the boys – Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) –  gather together to watch Saigon perform.

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I was shocked to discover (thanks to the Ron’s Place blog) that in 1994’s Reality Bites, The Club stood in for the bar where “Hey, That’s My Bike!”, Troy Dyer’s (Ethan Hawke’s) band, regularly played.  The room was heavily dressed for the filming, though, and is almost unrecognizable in the movie.

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The Fais Do-Do Club was also featured in the Jane’s Addiction video for “Underground”.

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As was the dressing room area.

Jane’s Addiction “Underground” Music Video–Filmed at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles

You can watch the “Underground” video by clicking above.

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The Club also appeared in the Destiny’s Child “No, No No, Part 1” music video.

Destiny’s Child–”No, No, No Part 1” Music Video Filmed at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles

You can watch the “No, No, No, Part 1” video by clicking above.

This Is 40, the yet-to-be released sequel to 2007’s Knocked Up, also did some filming in Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom in 2011.  And while the Ron’s Place blog stated that The Big Lebowski and American Gangster were also filmed at the Fais Do-Do, I scanned through both movies while doing research for this post and did not spot the place anywhere.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Café-Club Fais Do-Do, from Crossroads, is located at 5253 and 5257 West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles.  You can visit the club’s official website here.

Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do

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Back before she was going shoeless in public restrooms and flashing her privates to anyone with a camera, I was majorly obsessed with pop princess Britney Spears.  The hair, the cute little outfits, her music – I absolutely loved everything about the girl!    I attended her 2001 Live From Las Vegas  concert event, I learned the steps to “Oops! . . . I Did It Again and performed a mini-Britney concert with some of my sixth grade students back when I was a substitute teacher, and I dressed up like her every chance I got.  The above photo is from a Christmas costume party back in 2000 when I dressed up like Britney and made my good friend Ty dress up like Justin Timberlake.  He’s such a big guy, though, that everyone thought he was supposed to be Britney Spears security.  LOL 

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So, in Spring of 2001, when a co-worker of mine told me that her good friend was responsible for casting the extras in all of Britney’s music videos, I almost died on the spot!  I begged her to pass my phone number on to her friend in the hopes that maybe someday she’d hire me as an extra and I’d get to see my idol in person.  Well, not three days later I got a call from the friend asking if I wanted to do background work  in the Britney Spears MOVIE that was currently filming.  I’ll never forget standing there screaming “Oh my god!  Oh my god!  Oh my god!” into the phone, and the friend saying – a bit nervously – “OK, you can’t do that once you get to the set!”  LOL   So, bright and early the next morning I set out for a three day shoot on the set of the Britney Spears movie.  And I really could not have been more excited!

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Britney’s movie was originally entitled What Are Friends For  and the scene being filmed was the karaoke contest scene where BritBrit and her friends sang Joan Jett’s famous “I Love Rock N’ Roll” in the fictional Club Bayou, which was supposedly located in New Orleans.  In reality, though, the club where Britney performed is named Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do and is located just off the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles.  Even though quite a bit of Crossroads  was actually filmed in Louisiana, the karaoke scene was filmed in L.A. Go figure.   You can see the exterior of the fictional Club Bayou which is shown in the movie and the exterior of the real club where filming took place above.

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The filming of the karaoke scene took three long days to complete, but, of course, I was loving every minute of it!  I think it is pretty much safe to say, though, that no other extra was quite as excited to be there as I was. 🙂  During the three day shoot I made friends with a few of the background actors and they all teased me incessantly over my love for BritBrit.  LOL  Needless to say they weren’t big fans of hers.  🙂   (Pictured above are my group of extra friends hanging out on the set – I’m the one in the middle.  This was long before I cut my hair and dyed it blond, so I look a bit different today.)  If I remember correctly, there were about 75-100 extras hired for the karaoke scene and right before filming began one of the assistant directors gave us each an exact place to stand during the scene and told us what we were to be doing.  As I was getting my instructions, a very thin blond woman came up to me and introduced herself.  She told me that she LOVED my outfit and that she wanted me to be sitting front and center during Britney’s performance.   She led me over to the bar area, just a few feet away from where Britney would be performing, and sat me next to an actor wearing a blue shirt.  Well, it turns out that the thin blond woman was Crossroads  director Tamra Davis and the actor she sat me next to was Britney’s love interest in the film, Anson Mount!!!!

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Needless to say I was THRILLED!!!  Not only was I sitting thisclose to Britney while she was performing onstage, but I was also right next to the movie’s lead actor!  Ironically, the outfit that director Tamra Davis so loved wasn’t what I had originally intended to wear that morning.  (A little known fact – 95% of the time movie and TV extras wear their own clothes during filming.)  All Crossroads  extras were told to wear New Orlean’s style club attire to the shoot.  And on the morning of my first day on the set I had put on something entirely different.  But my mom stopped me as I had one foot out the door and said “You don’t look very New Orleansy.  Why don’t you wear that cute halter top you got in Hawaii with your blue capris.”  Well, of course, I argued with her as I thought the shirt and pants she was talking about didn’t really match, but in the end she won out.  And, as luck would have it, had I not worn that outfit I never would have gotten noticed by Tamra Davis.  The moral of the story?  Ladies – always listen to your mother!  🙂   As a result of my mother’s foresite, not only did I have a front row seat for Britney, but I also got considerable screen-time in the movie.  🙂  (That’s me next to Anson Mount in the above screen capture.)

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When I first saw Crossroads  I just about died as you can see me quite a bit in the karaoke scene.  Being that I was such a HUGE fan of Britney, it was pretty darn cool that I shared my big screen debut with her.  🙂

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And let me tell you, filming that scene was quite an experience.  For pretty much three days straight I sat around watching Britney perform “I Love Rock N’ Roll” on a stage that was about two feet away from me!  I was literally pinching myself the whole time thinking “I’m getting paid for this????”  You have to remember that this was at the height of Britney’s career – she still had that cutesy, good girl image, “Oops! . . . I Did It Again” was multi-platinum, and she and Justin Timberlake were madly in love.  I mean, do you know how many 13 year old girls would have died to have been in my shoes!  I was 24 at the time, but that’s besides the point.  LOL  🙂  The highlight of the filming for me was when Britney Spears, Pop Princess!!!! actually started a conversation with me!  I am amazed I was even able to get any words out to talk to her.  LOL   During one of the many breaks from filming, BritBrit walked right up to me with a big smile on her face and asked me what I was doing with my drink.  I had actually been sticking my finger in the drink I was holding playing with the fake ice in my glass.   In movies and television, whenever anyone is drinking, the ice in their glass isn’t real –  fake ice made out of a gelatin formula is used.   Real ice has a tendency to clink against glasses, thereby making noise and disrupting filming.  So clear jello-like cubes are used instead – and, boy, are they fun to play with!  When I told Britney this, she started laughing hysterically and said “Oh mah gawd, you’re so funny!”  Apparently, she thought this was the funniest thing she had heard in a long time.  LOL  It really wasn’t all that funny, but I was on cloud nine, nonetheless.  Britney Spears thought I  was funny!!!!  🙂  BritBrit was very nice, fairly quiet, and extremely down to earth.  It almost seemed as if she had no idea how truly famous she really was.  She also spoke with a very heavy Southern accent, which I wasn’t expecting.  And I have to say that while she seemed very  sweet and SUPER cute in person, it was quite obvious that she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  🙂 

For me, being an extra in Crossroads  was an AMAZING experience.  It was truly everything I hoped it would be.  I’m am so lucky it was my first movie experience, as it was such a good one.  And while the actual movie didn’t turn out that great, I will always look back on my time working on it with fondness.

You can watch the entire “I Love Rock N’ Roll” scene here.

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I can’t really recommend stopping by Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do for a drink as the only time I ever visited it was while we were filming.   Since I’m not really a clubbin’ kind of girl, I’ve never been back to check it out.  But if you’re into that kind of thing, it seems like a pretty cool place to grab a drink.  The Fais Do-Do (which means “Nighty-Night” in French) building was originally constructed in 1930 and at the time housed the First Citizens Savings Bank and Trust.  The club, which definitely has a New Orlean’s vibe to it, has remained a popular nighttime hotspot since its opening in 1990. 

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do is located at 5257 W. Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles.  You can visit their website here.