The “People Like Us” Apartment Building

People Like Us apartment building (2 of 15)

This past weekend, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park (one of my very favorite shopping centers) to do some major Christmas shopping. And “since we were in the area” (cough, cough), I asked if we could make a little stalking stop beforehand at the apartment building where Frankie Davis (Elizabeth Banks) and her son, Josh Davis (Michael Hall D’Addario), lived in the 2012 flick People Like Us. I had learned about the location thanks to a June 26th, 2012 Los Angeles Times article that chronicled the various L.A. locales that appeared in the flick and in which author Richard Verrier stated, “Filming took place throughout the San Fernando Valley, where Sam’s [Chris Pine’s] sister Frankie, a struggling bartender, lives with her son in an apartment complex, which was actually the Saticoy Court Apartments in Canoga Park.” Never before had I seen a film location spelled out like that in a newspaper article, so I would be remiss if I did not give major props to Richard here! A man after my own heart, I swear!

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The location was also (sort of) spelled out in People Like Us, in the scene in which Sam is shown reading a letter from his recently-deceased father which states, “Please get this to Josh Davis. Regal Arms Apartments. 731 Saticoy Street.” From there, tracking down the building – which, in actuality, is located at 21731 Saticoy Street – was a snap.

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As luck would have it, while we were stalking the Saticoy Court Apartments (which are, sadly, gated), one of the residents, who could NOT have been nicer, came outside and started talking to us. He answered all sorts of questions I had about the filming (although he did not live on the premises at the time and, shockingly, has still yet to watch People Like Us!) and, when he saw how excited I was about seeing the building in person, invited us inside for a closer look! (Yes, I was pinching myself. The GC, not so much. Winking smile)

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People Like Us apartment building (3 of 15)

As luck would further have it, while I was snapping photographs, the owner of the actual apartment used in the movie (unit #58), who also could NOT have been nicer, happened to step outside and spent quite a few minutes talking with us. She informed us that filming did indeed take place inside of her actual apartment and that she and her husband were moved into one of Saticoy Court’s vacant units for a few weeks during the shoot. She also told us that filmmakers chose her particular unit over the many others in the building because they liked its location in relation to the exterior stairwell and that the interior of her apartment was painted and upgraded a bit for the production. And while I was hoping that she might invite us inside for a little look-see, sadly that was not to be.

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The Saticoy Court Apartments, which was named the “Regal Arms” in People Like Us, showed up repeatedly throughout the flick. Quite a few areas of the building were used in the movie, including the front exterior;

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People Like Us apartment building (15 of 15)

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People Like Us apartment building (1 of 15)

the main entrance doors;

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the mailboxes;

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the exterior stairwell;

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the central courtyard and pool;

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People Like Us apartment building (5 of 15)

the side of the building (please excuse my photograph, which was taken from the wrong angle);

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Apartment 25, where Ted (Mark Duplass) lived;

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and, of course, Apartment 58.

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How cool is it that they used the unit’s actual number for the filming, by the way? Love it!

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Even though I was not a huge fan of People Like Us, I cannot tell you how much fun I had stalking Saticoy Court and how amazeballs it was to be invited inside! AND the GC and I got all of our Christmas shopping done shortly thereafter, so it was definitely a banner day.

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On a very sad People Like Us side-note – This past Monday morning, a fellow stalker named Diane published a comment on my Henry’s Tacos post informing me that the historic eatery is set to close its doors in just a few weeks. According to the AngelCityArt blog, while the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted 5-0 last year to designate Henry’s a historic-cultural monument, for whatever reason, Councilman Paul Kerkorian never submitted the proposal to the City Council and the designation was not pursued. Mehran Ebrahimpour, the owner of the Henry’s Tacos building, vehemently opposed the cultural status nomination and subsequently raised the rent on the site considerably last December. Due to the spike in rent, Henry’s current owner, Janis Hood, whose grandfather, Henry Comstock, founded the eatery on December 13th, 1961 (exactly fifty-one years ago tomorrow), will close up shop at the end of the month. Such a shame! You can visit the official Henry’s Tacos Facebook page here and you can watch an ABC 7 news special on the closure by clicking below.

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.

People Like Us apartment building (15 of 15)

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Saticoy Court Apartments, aka the Regal Arms Apartments where Frankie lived in People Like Us, are located at 21731 Saticoy Street in Canoga Park.

Lillian and Sam’s House from “People Like Us”

People Like Us house (7 of 13)

After I tracked down Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) and Josh’s (Michael Hall D’Addario’s) house from 2012’s People Like Us (which I blogged about on Friday), the next item on my To-Search-For list was the gorgeous Craftsman-style abode where Lillian Harper (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her son, Sam Harper (Chris Pine), lived in the flick.  Thankfully, this locale proved to be an easy find, despite the fact that very little of the exterior was ever shown.

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Towards the end of People Like Us, there is a scene in which a phone book listing of Lillian and Sam’s address is shown.  And while the residence is said to be located at 2523 Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon area, I knew from this June 2012 Los Angeles Times article that the place could actually be found in L.A.’s West Adams District.  Because the real life address of Frankie’s home had been used in the movie, I had an inkling that the address number of Lillian’s house was most likely real, as well.  So I started looking at aerial views of all residences numbered 2523 in the West Adams area and, sure enough, found the place after just a few minutes.  Whoo hoo!  And I, of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk it just a few days later.

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As luck would have it, the SUPER-nice owner of the People Like Us house happened to come outside while we were stalking the place and filled us in on all sorts of filming information about the neighborhood.  Ironically enough, the Eppes family’s home from the 2005 television series Numb3rs (pictured below), which I stalked and blogged about way back in March of 2008, is located right next door.

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The owner answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of People Like Us and even said that if she was not running to appointment at the time, she would have invited us inside to see the interior of the house, which was used extensively in the film!  OMG!  That would have been amazing!  Sigh!  She also told me that I was welcome to go up onto the front porch to pose for a pic in the spot where Josh knocked on the door in the movie.  Yay!

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Lillian and Sam’s house popped up numerous times in People Like Us, although, as I mentioned above, not much of the exterior was shown.

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People Like Us house (1 of 13)

The 6-bedroom, 5-bath, 4,030-square-foot abode, which was originally built in 1922 and sits on 0.16 acres, is quite spectacular in real life, as you can see below.  Despite its large size, it does very much look like a Laurel Canyon-area home.  I am guessing that the reason producers opted not to use an actual LC residence is that the streets there are extremely narrow and twisty and not very conducive to the transportation and parking needs of large production trucks.

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People Like Us house (3 of 13)

As I mentioned above, the to-die-for interior of the home was used extensively in the flick.  Of the fact that actual places and not sets were used in People Like Us, producer Bobby Cohen said, “There is something special about shooting in real locations.  There is a texture to them that you can’t rebuild.  It makes a difference.”  I definitely agree.  While some sets are absolutely spectacular (the bar from Burlesque comes to mind), I much prefer the look of real life locations.  And the look of the interior of the People Like Us home is pretty darn spectacular.  It would have been pretty foolish to use a set when an interior like that was available.

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The home’s real life garage, which you can barely see in the background of the photograph below, was also used in the movie.

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As was the majestic backyard.  What I wouldn’t give to see that backyard in person!

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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.

People Like Us house (8 of 13)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Lillian’s house from People Like Us is located at 2523 4th Avenue in Los Angeles’ West Adams DistrictThe Numb3rs house is located right next door at 2515 4th Avenue.  The Fisher & Sons Funeral Home from Six Feet Under (which I blogged about here) is located around the corner at 2302 West 25th Street.

Frankie’s House from “People Like Us”

Frankie's House - People Like Us (9 of 11)

As I mentioned in early November in my post about Henry’s Tacos, I did not especially love the 2012 movie People Like Us as I found it to be a bit too depressing.  What I did love, though, was the fact that the flick was filmed in its entirety in L.A.  So after watching, I, of course, set about tracking down as many of its locales as I could – all by myself!  Lately I feel like I do not get to spend much time searching for locations as I am usually too busy writing about them.  While I love the hunt, blogging each day and physically stalking sites each weekend does not leave much time for actually tracking them down.  So while I typically hand over the task of searching to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, with People Like Us, I decided that I was going to do all of the heavy lifting myself.  And I loved every minute of it!  Smile  The locale I was most interested in finding, of course, was the house that Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) moved into towards the very end of the movie.  And I am embarrassed to admit that while finding it should have been a slam dunk, it took me more than a few hours to do so.

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In People Like Us, an address number of 809 was visible on the side of Frankie’s front door.  For whatever reason, though, I was absolutely convinced that the number was a fake, so I initially did not pay much attention to it.

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And while the filming locations map on the People Like Us Facebook page states that Frankie’s house is located on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles, because the residence was shown to be on a flat, straight street in the movie and because Laurel Canyon is an extremely twisty and hilly road, I knew that information had to be incorrect.  (I somehow did not even notice the word Burbank written next to the drawing of Frankie’s home on the map until making a screen capture of it for this post – yes, I am that blonde!)  My gut was telling me that the abode was most likely located in the Valley somewhere, so I began searching for it in Van Nuys, Reseda, Valley Village and North Hollywood, but, unfortunately, came up completely empty-handed.

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It was not until a few hours into the hunt that I recalled a scene in which Frankie’s son, Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario), wrote a note to Sam (Chris Pine) giving him their new address.  And while I did not in a million years imagine that the home’s actual address would have been used in the note, I thought the address given might provide some sort of clue as to the pad’s real life location.  So I scanned to that portion of the flick and saw that Josh wrote down 809 Fairview. On a whim, I punched 809 Fairview and Los Angeles into Google and it kicked back a map of 809 North Fairview Street in Burbank.  One quick Google Street View glance and I saw that it was the right place.  As you can imagine, I felt like a complete and total dolt after that!  All those hours searching and it turns out that the home’s location had been spelled right out for me the entire time!  D’oh!

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Frankie’s house shows up only twice in People Like Us – first in the scene in which she is shown moving into the abode.

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Frankie's House - People Like Us (6 of 11)

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Frankie's House - People Like Us (3 of 11)

And next in the scene in which Sam shows up at Frankie’s house unexpectedly, hoping for a reconciliation.  Sadly, as you can see in the photographs and screen captures both above and below, the house has changed quite a bit since the filming of People Like Us.  Gone is Frankie’s landscaping and front lawn, the exterior trim is now painted red instead of white, the brick front porch steps have been swapped out for Spanish-style ones, a railing has been added, and the front porch overhang altered.  Boo!  At least the shutters flanking both front windows still look the same despite a change in paint color.

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Frankie's House - People Like Us (10 of 11)

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Thankfully though, the abode pretty closely resembles its onscreen self on Google Street View, as you can see below, so I guess there’s that.  Winking smile

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I much prefer the look of the house in the movie to its real life appearance.  I am just not all that into drought-resistant landscaping, I guess.  Winking smile  According to Zillow, the 2-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,148-square-foot abode was originally built in 1936 and sits on 0.16 acres of land.

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I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also used in People Like Us, although very briefly.

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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.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Frankie’s house from People Like Us is located at 809 North Fairview Street in Burbank.