The “Christmas Vacation” Pool

Christmas Vacation Pool (13 of 24)

Another Christmas-themed locale that I had long wanted to track down and stalk was Clark W. Griswold’s (Chevy Chase’s) dream pool from the 1989 classic Christmas Vacation.  (Is it odd, by the way, that I can still remember exactly where I was and who I was with the first time I saw the flick back in middle school?  But I digress.)  Being that the pool had only popped up once in the movie and that a very small portion of it was ever shown, I had no clue whatsoever where it might be located or how to even begin searching for it.  Then, back in February, while Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were visiting Warner Bros. Ranch, where the majority of Christmas Vacation was lensed, our lovely tour guide took us by the lot’s pool and I got an inkling that it might have been the one used in the movie.  Our guide was unsure if that was the case, though, and when I re-watched the flick to make comparisons later that day, I noticed some differences in the two pools which led me to believe that they were not one and the same.

[ad]

Then, in October, I returned to the Ranch for another tour, this time with fellow stalkers Kim and Lavonna, and our guide informed us that Old Navy had just shot a series of Christmas Vacation-themed commercials (one of which you can watch by clicking below) on the premises and that, during the filming, Chevy Chase had mentioned that the lot’s pool had been used as Clark’s dream pool in the original movie.  YAY!  As someone who is always seeking further verification, though, I popped in my dad’s Christmas Vacation DVD while visiting my parents during Thanksgiving to see if any mention of the pool’s location was made in the commentary and, sure enough, director Jeremiah S. Chechik stated that the pool scene was filmed at Warner Bros. Ranch, just across from the house used as the Griswold residence in the film.

Clark’s dream pool, which, according to the fabulous Columbia Ranch website, was originally built in 1948, is located in the Park section of Warner Bros. Ranch, right next to the fountain used in the Friends opening credits and the Alan House from Pushing Daisies and Small Soldiers.

ScreenShot6736

Mike took the photographs below during our February visit and, as you can see, a backdrop was installed around the southern portion of the pool at the time for a production that did not want it to be visible.

Christmas Vacation Pool (24 of 24)

Christmas Vacation Pool (23 of 24)

For the filming of Christmas Vacation, a significant amount of foliage was added to the premises to make it appear more like a residential backyard.  And, as you can see below, while the lip of the pool was plain cement at the time of the shoot, it is now brick, and the metal ladder that was once affixed to the side of the structure has also since been removed.

ScreenShot6730

Christmas Vacation Pool (7 of 9)

But, thankfully, the legs of the diving board still look EXACTLY the same today as they did in 1989 when Christmas Vacation was filmed!  LOVE IT!

ScreenShot6735

Christmas Vacation Pool (8 of 9)

You can check out a close-up photograph of those legs below.

Christmas Vacation Pool (10 of 24)

And I, of course, just had to pose on the diving board like Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) while I was there.  If only I had brought my skivvies that day!  Winking smile

ScreenShot6732

Christmas Vacation Pool (1 of 1)

The Warner Bros. Ranch pool also appeared very briefly in the Season 1 episode of The Monkees titled “The Chaperone” during their “You Just May Be the One” performance.

ScreenShot6725

ScreenShot6726

The pool also popped up several times in various The Partridge Family episodes, including the Season 1 episode titled “Danny and the Mob” . . .

ScreenShot6724

ScreenShot6729

. . . and the Season 2 episode titled “Home Is Where the Heart Was”.

ScreenShot6727

ScreenShot6728

And while the pool was used in the Season 1 episode of Bewitched titled “And Something Makes Three”, it was never actually shown.  In the episode, Samantha Stephens (Elizabeth Montgomery) conjures up a pool in her backyard on a hot summer day, absolutely perplexing nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz (Alice Pearce), who can only see small glimpses of Samantha, jumping up and down on a diving board and splashing water, over their shared fence.

ScreenShot6722

ScreenShot6723

The Warner Bros. Ranch pool was also used significantly in the 2012 high school comedy Project X.

ScreenShot6720

ScreenShot6721

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.

Christmas Vacation Pool (18 of 24)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Christmas Vacation pool is located on the Warner Bros. Ranch lot at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank.  Unfortunately, the Ranch is gated and not accessible to the public.

The Christmas Vacation Mansion

Mansion-Bel-Aire-2

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!

 ScreenShot1538

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 

ScreenShot1540

Mansion-Bel-Aire-6

ScreenShot1539

Mansion-Bel-Aire-9 

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!

[ad]

Mansion-Bel-Aire-10

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.