Arden Villa from “National Lampoon’s Vacation”

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In an email exchange with my friend/fellow stalker Owen in late January, I casually made mention of National Lampoon’s Vacation’s original ending, in which, after finding Walley World closed, Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase) heads to Roy Walley’s (Eddie Bracken) mansion, pulls a gun and forces the theme park mogul to entertain his family.  The segment didn’t work with test audiences, so it was scrapped and the bit at Magic Mountain shot to replace it.  Years later, that original ending was reworked into the segment involving the kidnapping of Clark’s boss for the movie’s 1989 sequel, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.   Owen was unaware of all of this, though.  As he replied, “I had no idea about an alternate Vacation ending.  I’d love to see footage of Clark going to Roy Walley’s house.  And if that footage exists and we can view it, we then need to find that house!“  Sadly, the footage has never seen the light of day, but Owen’s response took the words right out of my mouth!  As I typed my initial email to him, I couldn’t help but wonder where the Walley mansion was located.  Amazingly, through a series of fortunate events, Owen was able to ID it!  Turns out, it’s a place I am very familiar with.

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The only imagery of the original ending I was able to dig up is below.  Virtually nothing outside of the edge of a pool and a tall wall can be seen in it.  In the hands of a lesser stalker that might have been a problem, but not Owen!

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Amazingly, Owen managed to get his hands on the Vacation call sheets years ago.  They were packed away in storage, though, and he wasn’t sure when he’d make it out to his unit to look through them.  But, just a few days after our email exchange, there was a bit of a mix-up at the storage facility that had Owen driving out to check on his things not once, but twice!  On his second visit, as he was taking inventory of the items inside, he remembered our Vacation query and dug out the call sheets.  Sure enough, Roy Walley’s mansion was noted in the pages!  As Owen discovered, filming took place at one of Pasadena’s most well-known and oft-filmed estates, Arden Villa!   Though I had stalked the place before, only its front gate is visible from the street, so I never blogged about it.  Armed with this scintillating new info, though, I decided it was definitely time for a post!  So I ran right out there to re-stalk it just a few days later.

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Arden Villa was originally built in 1913 for railroad tycoon William Kennon Jewett.  Designed in the Italianate/Palladian style, the estate was the work of the Marston and Van Pelt architecture firm.  Per the Knight Industries website, the home was initially rust brown in color, but was repainted to the canary yellow it is today in the mid-80s.  The screen captures that appear later in this post attest to that.

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Boasting 5 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, a whopping 10,290 square feet, 7 fireplaces, a wine cellar, an elevator, a game room, a finished basement and attic, a huge pool, lily ponds, a tennis court, and a 2,340-square-foot guest house complete with its own pool, the massive manse originally sat on 9 acres, but all but 2.5 were sold off.  Sadly, the only part of it visible from the street is the front gate and a portion of the 100-yard driveway just beyond it.  You can check out some interior photos of the place here, though.

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Arden Villa most recently hit the market in 2017 for $28 million, but did not sell until September 2019.  Avengers director Anthony Russo was the lucky buyer, snapping it up for a cool $15,579,500.

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Because so little can be seen in that one image of National Lampoon’s Vacation’s original ending, I wasn’t ready to sign off completely on Arden Villa being Roy Walley’s mansion, even with the call sheet documentation.

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Especially since aerial views and MLS photos show that the wall running alongside the property’s pool looks nothing like the one visible behind Clark.  As evidenced in the imagery below as well as in this pic, though there is a wall in the same general vicinity at Arden Villa, it is almost two-stories high, boasts a built-in outdoor fireplace, is largely covered with hedges, and has a columned edge, none of which jibe with what appeared in Vacation.  So I was left thinking that filming either took place elsewhere or the wall had been knocked down and rebuilt (or at the very least remodeled) since the 1983 shoot.

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Luckily, I got clarity thanks to a 1984 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King!  In Season 1’s “Weekend,” Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner) and Amanda King (Kate Jackson) work a case at Arden Villa, which is posing as The Cumberland hotel.

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In a scene taking place by the pool, a wall is visible behind Lee and its rust coloring, white lip and vertical perforations all match what was seen in Vacation!  Eureka!

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I got further confirmation thanks to Knight Rider!  On the iconic series, Arden Villa regularly portrayed F.L.A.G. headquarters, including in the Season 2 episode titled “Brother’s Keeper” (pictured below), which aired in 1983.

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In a scene from the episode, the wall is briefly visible as April Curtis (Rebecca Holden) and Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare) walk near the pool, giving us an almost identical angle to that of the Vacation still.  As you can see below, there’s no question the walls are one and the same!

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Season 2’s “A Knight in Shining Armor” also provides a similarly-angled view of the wall and, again, it’s a direct match to what appeared in Vacation.  Suffice it to say, Arden Villa did, in fact, mask as Roy Walley’s mansion and the pool wall was then remodeled after the fact!  You can check out the script pages for the movie’s original ending here.  It’s actually pretty funny.  Though some internet sources claim the segment involves The Girl in the Ferrari (Christie Brinkley) turning up as Roy’s daughter and Clark eventually taking a plane hostage (both of which sound idiotic), that does not appear to be the case.  While I love what ultimately made its way to the screen, the ending as originally shot would have been a pretty fitting closure to the Griswold family’s tumultuous trip.  Here’s hoping the footage will be aired someday!

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Arden Villa has appeared in countless productions over the years, far too many to chronicle here.  But what follows are some of the highlights . . .

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Way back in 1933, before the property had a pool, it was the site of an elegant tea party in the Marx Brothers comedy Duck Soup.

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Det. Ken Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) investigate a murder there in the Season 4 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “Photo Finish,” which aired in 1978.

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Arden Villa plays the home of Avery Williams (Robert Goulet) in the Season 4 episode of Fantasy Island titled “The Proxy Billionaire/The Experiment,” which aired in 1981.

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Des Spellacy (Robert De Niro) attends a wedding at the property in the 1981 drama True Confessions.

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In what is perhaps its most famous cameo, Arden Villa is the site of the epic lily pond catfight between Alexis Carrington Colby (Joan Collins) and Krystle Carrington (Linda Evans) in the Season 3 episode of Dynasty titled “The Threat”, which aired in 1983.  You can watch the scuffle here.  The backside of the estate was actually used regularly throughout the series as the rear of the Carrington mansion.  Front and aerial shots were lensed about 360 miles away at Filoli in Woodside, though.

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Arden Villa serves as the home of Fred Fusco (Lorne Greene) in the Season 4 episode of Highway to Heaven titled “The Smile in the Third Row,” which aired in 1985.

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It’s the residence of Zeke Bridges (Noble Willingham) in the 1992 comedy The Distinguished Gentleman.

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Arden Villa pops up as the Bel Air home of Stuart “He Gives Good Woo” Carson (David Gail) in the Season 3 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Moving Targets,” which aired in 1993.

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In 1996, Oasis filmed the music video for their song “Don’t Look Back in Anger” on the premises.

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James Whale (Ian McKellen) and Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser) attend a party there in the 1998 drama Gods and Monsters.

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Portions of the pad appear as the interior of the Cleary mansion in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers.

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Rose (Toni Collette) attends a wedding there in the 2005 drama In Her Shoes.

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The villa is also the residence of Jason Normandy (Jonathan Banks) in the Season 2 episode of Shark titled “Partners in Crime,” which aired in 2008.

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Though some articles state that Billy Madison did some filming at the estate, I don’t believe that to be true.  From what I’ve read, the 1995 comedy was lensed in its entirety in Canada.  And while I thought that a reshoot might possibly have taken place at Arden Villa, I scanned through the flick and did not see anything resembling the mansion.  The same goes for Terms of Endearment, which is also said to have shot scenes on the premises – I’m pretty sure that information is incorrect.

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Big THANK YOU to my friend/fellow stalker Owen for finding this location’s Vacation connection!  Smile

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Arden Villa, aka Roy Walley’s mansion from the original ending of National Lampoon’s Vacation, is located at 1145 Arden Road in Pasadena.

Paramount Studios – The Fifth Time Around

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This past Tuesday, my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry and her daughter Jen and I embarked on a tour of Paramount Studios in Hollywood.  While it was Kerry and Jen’s very first time visiting the historic lot, it was actually my fifth – I had previously been on three paid tours and one wedding venue tour.  Yes, yes, I know – I just can’t seem to get enough of the place!  Sadly though, this tour was easily my least favorite of the bunch and if it had been my first visit to the lot, I doubt I would have ever returned.  Our tour guide was painfully, painfully slow and quite boring to listen to and she, sadly, made the tour boring, which is quite a feat being that the lot is so extremely fascinating and has such a vast filming history.  Worst of all, while she spent the majority of our tour showing us the exterior of various soundstages and telling us what had been filmed inside of them over the years, we only got to spend about ten minutes in the New York backlot area (my favorite part of the lot) and were only shown the perimeter of it.  But we still managed to have fun and, even though I feel like I know the lot like the back of my hand now and could probably host my own tours of the place Winking smile, I still learned a few new things that I thought I’d share with my fellow stalkers.

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When arriving on the lot for a Paramount Studios tour, groups are always first led to the Studio Store to purchase their tickets. 

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I was EXTREMELY excited about stalking the Store, which also doubles as a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, because I had recognized it pop up as the Lima Bean Café in a few recent episodes of Glee!  (I love that producers dubbed their faux café Lima Bean, by the way, being that the show is set in Lima, Ohio!  LOL LOL LOL)

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The Studio Store first appeared in the Season 2 episode of Glee titled “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle”, in the scene in which Blaine Anderson (aka Darren Criss – who I just found out graduated from the very same high school I did!!!!), Kurt Hummel (aka Chris Colfer), Rachel Berry (aka Lea Michele), and Mercedes Jones (aka Amber Riley) discuss the recent problems with the McKinley High football team.

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The store also appeared multiple times in the Season 2 Valentine’s Day-themed episode of Glee titled “Silly Love Songs”, as the regular hangout of Kurt and Blaine.

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And it was featured twice in this week’s episode of the show which was titled “Blame It on the Alcohol”.  It was first used as the spot where Blaine and Kurt discuss the fact that Blaine might actually have a crush on Rachel. 

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And it next appeared in the scene in which Rachel kisses Blaine to see if the two have any chemistry.

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After purchasing our tickets, our tour guide spent over 25 minutes (not kidding!) hosting a getting-to-know-you session, which seemed just slightly excessive being that the entire tour is only scheduled to last two hours.  Sad smile  Because that ate up such a significant portion of our time, the rest of the tour was quite harried and rushed and we did not get to see a whole lot.  We were first driven by the site of the studio’s former film vaults, which, as you can see in the above photographs, have sadly just recently been demolished.

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You can see what the vaults used to look like in the above photographs.

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My dad was quite obsessed with the vaults when we took our wedding venue tour of Paramount back in July of 2009 and he managed to snap the above picture of the inside of one.  Even though the vaults had not been used in years, due to the fact that because they lacked air conditioning films were apt to melt while inside, it is incredibly sad to me that they are no longer standing.

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We were then taken to the Lucy Park area, where we were shown a  cement block that Woody Harrelson and Ted Danson had christened with their hand and footprints – a la the famous hand and footprint forecourt outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood – in 1989 while they were filming Cheers.  And while Ted Danson just signed his name on the block, Woody’s inscription reads, “Woody Harrelson was here (naked)”.  Apparently Ted had dared Woody to run around the lot naked one day and while he was doing so, the two happened upon a block of wet cement and decided to make their mark on it.  LOL 

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Lucy Park is also the site of the famous tree where Grey Brady (aka Barry Williams) smoked his first cigarette in the Season 2 episode of fave show The Brady Bunch titled “Where There’s Smoke”.  So I, of course, just had to get my pic taken in front of the tree.  Winking smile

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Our tour guide informed us that the very same tree and surrounding area were also used in the Season 2 episode of The Brady Bunch titled “A Fistful of Reasons”, in the scene in which Buddy Hinton (aka Russell Schulman) teases Cindy Brady (aka Susan Olsen) about her lisp.

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The tree was also where Peter Brady (aka Christopher Knight) beat up Buddy later in that same episode, knocking out his tooth and causing him to then lisp.  Ah, if only things worked out in the real world as they did in Brady world!

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Lucy Park also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Community titled “The Science of Illusion”, in which Shirley Bennett (aka Yvette Nicole Brown) and Annie Edison (aka Alison Brie) chase Jeff Winger (aka Joel McHale) after catching him with frog-sized mariachi band costumes (yeah, I don’t really get it either Winking smile).

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Lucy Park was also used regularly as Jefferson High School on the television series Happy Days, although that area looks quite a bit different today than it did back in the 1970’s when the series was filmed.

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You can see Greg’s tree from The Brady Bunch in the screen captures pictured above, though. 

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Next, we headed over to the exteriors of Stage 27 and 30, where the hit series Community is filmed.  The interior and exterior of both soundstages are used in the filming of the show.  As you can see above, the exterior of Stage 30 is used as the Greendale Community College Library (the sign of which is missing the letter “Y” – love it!);

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while the exterior of Stage 27 stands in for the campus’ Borchert Hall.

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We were then taken inside of the two soundstages to tour a few of the sets used in Community and, even though I have never seen an episode of the show, the sets were extremely cool to see.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photographs while inside, but we were shown the Greendale Community College Library;

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the Dean’s Office;

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and the cafeteria/game room – which was quite possibly one of the biggest sets that I have ever seen in my entire life!

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By this time we were already an hour and forty minutes into the tour and only had twenty minutes left.  So we spent a brief ten minutes driving around the New York Street backlot area.  While there, we were shown the practical set pictured above, which has appeared in several productions, including Spiderman 3 which I blogged about in one of my previous Paramount Studios posts

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On this tour I found out that the same spot was also the café where Indiana Jones (aka Harrison Ford) and Mutt Williams (aka Shia LaBeouf) met for the first time in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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I also finally got to stalk the stoop where Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter –sigh!) sat during their Junior Prom in the Season 1 episode of 90210 titled “Zero Tolerance”.

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The last time I embarked on the tour, I snapped a photo while sitting on what I thought was Liam and Naomi’s stoop, but as it turns out I was sitting a few stoops too far to the right.  So, this time I made sure to get a pic in the right spot, which I could NOT have been more excited about!  Smile  For those who would also like to take a picture where Liam and Naomi sat, their stoop is located on the Lower East Side portion of New York Street and is the stoop located closest to Washington Square.

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After that, we drove by Stage 15 where NCIS: Los Angeles is filmed and I was able to get some great shots of the façade used as the exterior of the NCIS headquarters.

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The last stop on our tour was the Paramount Theatre, the inside of which, our guide informed us, was used as Jeff’s former law office in the Season 2 episode of Community titled “Accounting for Lawyers. 

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And while we did not get to view the inside of the theatre on this particular tour, I snapped the above photographs on one of my previous tours.

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The interior of the theatre was also used as an opera house in the Season 7 episode of Frasier titled “Out With Dad”, although it was heavily decorated in that episode and is largely unrecognizable.

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The exterior of the theatre was also used as Brooks Memorial Hospital, where Pierce Hawthorne (aka Chevy Chase) was admitted, in the Season 2 episode of Community titled “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.  Tours are given daily, Monday through Friday, at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. and cost $40 per person.  Reservations can be made by calling (323)956-1777.  Parking for the tour costs $7 per car and the tour lot is located on Bronson Avenue, directly across the street from the studio’s main entrance.  I recommend booking your tour at least a week in advance, as they tend to sell out quickly.  You can find out more information about the Paramount Studios Tour here.

Bullocks Wilshire – The Department Store from “Christmas Vacation”

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One location that I have been dying to stalk for months now is the former Bullocks Wilshire department store located just outside of Downtown Los Angeles  – a spot which has been featured in countless productions since its grand opening way back in 1929.  And, even though I am usually a big fan of immediate gratification, I waited to stalk this location until just recently as I wanted to blog about it in December, along with my other Christmas movie posts.  So, what holiday movie was the building featured in, you ask?  One of my very favorite Christmas flicks of all time – the 1989 holiday classic Christmas Vacation.   In the movie, Bullocks Wilshire stood in for the Chicago area department store where Clark Griswold (aka Chevy Chase), accompanied by his son, Rusty (aka The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki), shopped for lingerie.  I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who, as luck would have it, just happened to be driving right by the department store on the day filming took place way back in 1989.  Once Mike noticed the production trucks, he, of course, immediately pulled over to inquire about what was being filmed and to watch some of the action.  And, let me tell you, when Mike told me about the location a few months back, I just about passed out from excitement as I had always wanted to know where that scene had taken place!  Thank you, Mike!  🙂

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The Bullocks Wilshire building was originally built in 1929 by the father and son architecture firm of John and Donald Parkinson, a team who was also responsible for designing the Continental Building, which is better known as Los Angeles’ first skyscraper, Union Station, L.A.’s City Hall and the Memorial Coliseum.  Department store magnate John G. Bullock commissioned the building in the hopes of creating the most luxurious and upscale shopping experience Angelinos had ever seen. The interior, which was designed by Eleanor Lemaire and Jock Peters, was the utmost in splendor, featuring travertine flooring, marble walls, ornate elevators, and rosewood display cases.  

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For the design of the relief located above the department store’s Wilshire Boulevard entrance, which reads, “To build a business that will never known completion”, Bullock looked to MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, who is best known for designing the first ever Oscar statue.

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Because Bullock wanted to cater to the growing number of motorists in the L.A. area, the department store was the first in Los Angeles ever to feature a porte cochere, aka a covered driveway under which shoppers could hand over their vehicles to waiting valets.

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  The building’s most remarkable feature – in my mind, at least – has to be the highly elaborate mural painted on the ceiling of the porte cochere.  Romanian painter Herman Sachs designed the brightly colored fresco secco as a tribute to Mercury, the god of travel.  The painting features renderings of different forms of modern-day transportation, including airplanes, trains, and ships. 

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Upon its opening on September 26, 1929, the 241 foot tall Bullocks Wilshire encompassed over 230,000 square feet of retail space which included a perfume hall, a penthouse tea room, a “doggery” which sold trinkets for shoppers’ furry companions, a saddle shop, a Louis XVI room, a furrier, live mannequins, a salon, and a private suite where the truly elite could shop in complete privacy, all the while sipping martinis and snacking on the finest hors d’oeuvres.  Years later, Bullock added a Chanel Room, a photography studio operated by celebrity photographer Neil Gittings, and a Ladies Custom Salon, run by future Hollywood costume designer Irene Lentz.  Thanks to Bullock’s incredible attention to detail, the department store quickly became the place to see and be seen in Los Angeles.  Such stars as Mae West, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock, John Wayne, and Marlene Dietrich all visited Bullocks Wilshire at one time or another.  And actresses June Lockhart and Angela Lansbury and former First Lady Patricia Nixon even worked there in their early years.  Thanks to the building’s architectural detail and rich history, Bullocks Wilshire was added to the National Registry of Historic Places on May 25, 1978.  Sadly, in the late 80s, the store began a precipitous decline, eventually being sold to the Macy’s chain.  A few years later, the historic building was heavily vandalized both inside and out during the riots of 1992, with looters destroying display cases, prized artifacts, and even setting fire to the property.  Bullocks Wilshire ended up closing its doors for the last time in 1993.  But its story doesn’t end there.    About a year later, the property was purchased by Southwestern Law School, which had long occupied a neighboring building.  The school then set out on a ten year, $29 million restoration project which completely restored the historic building back to its original state.  For this endeavor, Southwestern Law School received a National Preservation Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.   Today, Bullocks Wilshire is used as a part of the Southwestern Law School campus, where, coincidentally, actor Jerry O’Connell (husband of Rebecca Romijn) is currently a student.  🙂

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And, while the building is not actually opened to the public, while stalking the place, I ventured inside and asked the security guard on duty if I might be allowed to take a quick peek.  The guard truly could NOT have been nicer and allowed my fiancé and me to walk around the school.  Unfortunately, though, photography is not allowed indoors, so I couldn’t take any pictures, other than the two pictured above, which I snapped through the building’s front window.  But, take my word for it, the interior – which you can see photographs of here – is nothing short of magnificent.  Walking into Bullocks Wilshire is like stepping back in time to a more glamorous era.  The cafe, the lounge area, even the bathrooms have all been restored to their original state and I couldn’t have been more excited to be seeing it all with my own two eyes.  And, even though the building is now technically a college campus, the interior still looks much as it did when it operated as an upscale department store.  I was so mesmerized with the place, in fact, that I am just dying to get my hands on a copy of this book to learn more about the building’s rich history!

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Bullocks Wilshire shows up just briefly in Christmas Vacation in the very memorable scene in which, while out shopping with his son Rusty, Clark Griswold meets and flirts with a lingerie saleswoman named Mary and utters that famous line, “It’s a bit nipply out”.  LOL LOL LOL When I was a Senior in high school – and I should mention here that I went to a Catholic high school – one of my classmates, Marcus, came up with the inspired idea of reading a surf report to the entire school each morning during our daily announcements.  Marcus’ little experiment was going well, too, until one particularly cold morning, when he announced to the student body that the ocean “was a bit nipply” that day.  Needless to say, that was the end of that morning’s announcements – and our daily surf report.  But, ever since that fateful day, even all these years later, I can’t help but think of Marcus and laugh every time I watch the Christmas Vacation shopping scene.  🙂

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Bullocks Wilshire was also the store where Benjamin Siegel shopped at the beginning of the movie Bugsy;

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its La Directoire room was the site of the ”Romantic Dinner” Taco Bell commercial featuring Gidget, the talking Chihuahua;

it was where Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes) shopped with her mother Patty (aka Bess Armstrong) in the Season 1 episode of My So-Called Life titled “The Zit”;

and the Louis XVI Room was where the Mother/Daughter Fashion Show was filmed in that same episode.

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it was the location of the eponymous elevator in Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator” music video

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the exterior was featured briefly in Public Enemy’s “By The Time I Get to Arizona” music video;

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and in The Aviator, it stood in for the nightclub where Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner got attacked by Hughes’ former girlfriend.

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Supposedly, the final scene in Ghostbusters was filmed on the roof of Bullocks Wilshire, but as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the Ghostbusters roof and the Bullocks Wilshire roof look nothing alike.  And, while it’s entirely possible that some close-up filming for that scene did take place on top of the Bullocks Wilshire tower, my best guess is that the entire scene was filmed on a studio soundstage somewhere in Hollywood.  Bullocks Wilshire has also been featured in the movies Topper (where it stood in for the luxurious Connecticut area Seabreeze Hotel), Tarzan’s New York Adventure (where it was used as a New York hotel), Dunston Checks In (where it again stood in for a New York hotel), Fist of the North Star, On Deadly Ground, Family Plot, The Tie That Binds, Rough Magic, and in episodes of Murder, She Wrote, Judging Amy, and The Agency.

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Big THANK YOU to Mike for finding this location!  🙂

On a very sad side note – My thoughts and prayers go out to Brittany Murphy’s friends and loved ones today.  I can’t even imagine losing someone so young, especially this close to the holidays.  🙁    Rest in peace, Brittany.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Bullocks Wilshire is located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.  You can visit the building’s official website and see interior photographs of it here.  Because Bullocks Wilshire is part of the Southwestern Law School campus, it is not open to the public. Once a year, though, tours of the property are given.  You can check the Southwestern Law School website for further tour information.

The Christmas Vacation Mansion

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Last week I did something that I am almost too ashamed to admit to on this forum.  I, Lindsay Blake of iamnotastalker.com, actually spent about two hours searching for a filming location that I – are you sitting down for this – HAD ALREADY FOUND!  LOL LOL LOL I’m not kidding!!!!  I guess I truly am a blonde!  Ever since fellow stalker Owen tracked down the Griswold house from fave movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, I have wanted to find the mansion which stood in for Clark’s boss, Frank Shirley’s, house in the movie’s 1989 sequel Christmas Vacation.  So, last week, I sat down at my computer on a mission to do just that.   But unbeknownst to me, it seems I already had!

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My first stalking step was to pop in my Christmas Vacation  DVD and skip forward to the scene when Cousin Eddie shows up with his RV at Frank Shirley’s Chicago area manison on Christmas Eve night and kidnaps him – an idea he gets after hearing  Clark’s HILARIOUS “last minute gift ideas” rant.  LOL LOL LOL 

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As soon as the mansion came into view on my computer screen I realized that it looked extremely familiar.  My first thought was that it might be located in the Pasadena area and that the reason it looked familiar was because I had driven by it regulary on my way to and from home.  The more I watched the scene, the more I kept thinking to myself, “Man, I KNOW that house!”  I spent the next couple of hours on Google Map’s Street View, looking up and down all the streets I frequent on a regular basis.  I also spent quite a bit of time researching behind-the-scenes information on the movie.  Then, just as I was about to go completely crazy, it hit me!  Not only had I stalked the Christmas Vacation  mansion before, but I had even BLOGGED ABOUT IT!  LOL LOL LOL   What an airhead I am!

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It turns out that the Christmas Vacation  house is actually the Mansion Bel Aire which I stalked last May while on the hunt for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air  house.  The Mansion Bel Aire was built in 1922 by prominent Glendale area businessman Mattison Boyd Jones and was also used in the Aaron Spelling TV series Flamingo Road.    According to Zillow, the house sits on over one and a half acres and measures a whopping 5,698 square feet!  The mansion is truly amazing to see in person and I highly recommend stalking it – preferably during the month of October, as the owners apparently really do the place up for Halloween.  Mansion Bel Aire has been nominated for a City of Glendale Halloween Spirit Award for several years in a row now.  You can bet I am going to be dragging my fiance out to stalk it once again come October!  🙂  Personally I think they should do the place up for Christmas, too!  Bring in fake snow ala how it looked in Christmas Vacation!  Can you imagine how cool that would have been to see being filmed?!?!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Christmas Vacation  mansion, aka Mansion Bel Aire,  is located at 727 West Kenneth Road in Glendale.

The National Lampoon’s Vacation House

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And speaking of National Lampoon’s Vacation, last week fellow stalker Owen made it his mission to locate the Griswold home from the 1983 comedy flick.  Amazingly enough, he ended up finding the house pretty much right away!  For this particular movie location expenditure, Owen decided to “stalk outside the box”, so to speak, and started looking through Vacation’s IMDB message boards to see if they provided any clues as to the home’s locale.  He ran across a thread entitled “Griswold House 2008″ where, lo and behold, someone had actually posted recent pics of the home.   Owen ended up contacting the owner of those photos who told him that one evening, while stuck in traffic after attending a concert in Los Feliz, he happened to gaze to his left where he saw, and immediately recognized, the Griswold Family home.  How this guy recognized the house from a movie filmed way back in 1983 while not actively looking for it, is beyond me.  My hat is definitely off to him!!!!  🙂 

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So, Owen did a little bit of digging and ended up finding the house, exactly where the man told him it would be – in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.  In reality, the home is a long way off from Chicago, Illinois, where the Grisworlds supposedly lived in Vacation.   🙂  I am happy to report that the house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1983 when the movie was filmed there.  Hallelujah!  🙂  It is absolutely AMAZING to me that in twenty-six years virtually nothing about the house has been changed.  

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Well, except for one thing.  For some incredibly odd reason, the owners did make one major addition to the Griswold home.  Since the filming, a large fence which surrounds the perimeter of the property and blocks the view of the house from the street, has been added.  I wonder if the fence was installed to ward of potential stalkers, like myself.  😉  Either way, even with the addition of the fence, the home is still largely recognizable from the film.

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Even the street out in front of the house, where we see Clark pull up in the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, seems to be exactly the same as it appeared in Vacation.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The National Lampoon’s Vacation  house is located at 2310 North Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.