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.

The “Doppelganger” Mansion

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Another location from the 1993 thriller Doppelganger that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk this past weekend was the mansion where Holly Gooding (aka Drew Barrymore) grew up in the flick.  I found this locale, once again, thanks to Tony, my friend and fellow stalker who has the amazing Flickr photostream which I mentioned yesterday.  Incredibly enough, Tony has somehow managed to track down almost every single location featured in Doppelganger and he was kind enough to share them all with me so that I could blog about them during my Haunted Hollywood month well, every location that is except for the supposed-Arcadia-area Our Lady of Mercy Psychiatric Institute which I have now become just a wee bit obsessed with finding.  But I digress.  Anyway, last weekend, after stopping by the apartment building featured in the movie, the GC and I headed a short two miles north to Los Feliz to do some stalking of the mansion.

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The Doppelganger mansion is featured twice in the flick.  It first pops up in the scene in which Holly and her new roommate, struggling mystery writer Patrick Highsmith (aka George Newbern), meet with Holly’s family lawyer, Mike Wallace (aka George Maharis), in order to get the keys to her former home which has been locked up and sealed since her father’s murder four years prior.  While there, Patrick says that the abode is “right out of a Bette Davis movie” – a line which I, of course, loved.  Winking smile

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The large, English-country-style abode later pops up in the movie’s climactic, rather odd, and definitely spooky final scene in which Holly returns to her childhood home in the middle of the night to confront her evil doppelganger and finally end the nightmare in which she has been living.

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Patrick, of course, follows Holly and, carrying a baseball bat, climbs up the side of the house and through a second story window in the hopes that he can save her.

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I believe that the interior of the mansion that was shown in the movie was just a set and not the home’s real life interior.

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According to fave website Zillow, the Doppelganger mansion, which was originally built in 1923, boasts 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 3,500 square feet of living space, although I would have guessed it to be much, much larger.  And amazingly, the property still looks almost exactly the same today as it did 18 years ago when Doppelganger was filmed.  Even the three large circular trees which flank the home’s front door and front window still look exactly the same.   Love it!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Tony for finding this location!   You can check out Tony’s FANTASTIC Flickr photostream, which features countless filming locations, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Doppelganger mansion is located at 2421 Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los AngelesDonna Martin’s house from the B.Y.O.B. episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located just two doors south of the Doppelganger mansion at 2405 Glendower Avenue.  And the so-called “Los Feliz Murder House”, which I blogged about back in January, is located just around the corner at 2475 Glendower Place.

The “Doppelganger” Apartment Building

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Last week, while perusing through my friend and fellow stalker Tony’s Flickr photostream – which is comprised of an absolutely AMAZING collection of pictures of hundreds upon hundreds of filming locations – I came across his photographs of the apartment building that was used in the thriller Doppelganger. And while I had absolutely loved me some Doppelganger when it first came out way back in 1993, I had not seen the movie in such a long time that I had somehow forgotten Drew Barrymore was even in it!  So I decided it was most definitely time for a re-watch and ran right out to rent the flick that very night.  Unfortunately, it was not nearly as good as I had remembered it to be, especially the ending which I did not understand at all.  But I, nevertheless, still had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the apartment building that very same weekend – especially since it fit in so perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme!

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In Doppelganger, Holly Gooding (aka Drew Barrymore) migrates from New York to Los Angeles after being cleared of a murder charge, whereupon she moves into an apartment building with a struggling mystery writer named Patrick Highsmith (aka Father of the Bride’s George Newbern).

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In the movie, the idyllic little building, which has a central courtyard, a two-tiered fountain, and a communal birdcage, is named “Angel’s Court” and it is supposedly located at 1167 North Orange Grove Avenue in the Hollywood area.

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In reality, the building is located just east of Hollywood and south of Thai Town and is, sadly, not nearly as inviting or picturesque in person as it appeared to be in Doppelganger.  Don’t get me wrong, the building is by no means unattractive, but the neighborhood where it is located is, unfortunately, a bit on the iffy side and the courtyard that seemed so charming onscreen is rather bare in real life.  I am guessing that the fountain and birdcage that appeared in the movie, along with the archway that was situated over the front gate, were just props that were brought in solely for the filming as they are no longer there.

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In Doppelganger, Patrick and Holly lived in Apartment #2 and I am guessing that the real life interior of that particular unit was also used in the filming.

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And, according to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, the building, which was originally constructed in 1922, was once also home to a few celebrities – cinematographer Harry Zech lived there during the 1920s and silent film actress Frances Deamer lived there in the 30s.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Tony for finding this location!   You can check out Tony’s FANTASTIC Flickr photostream, which features countless filming locations, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Doppelganger apartment building is located at 1165 North Hobart Boulevard in Los Angeles.  In the movie, Patrick and Holly lived in Apartment 2 and FBI Agent Stanley White (aka Dan Shor) lived in Apartment 6.

“The Wedding Singer” Limo Test Parking Lot

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One location that fellow stalker Owen has been on the lookout for for what seems like years now is the parking lot where Robbie (aka Adam Sandler) and Julia (aka Drew Barrymore) tested Sammy’s (aka Allen Covert’s) limo driving skills in fave movie The Wedding Singer.  And I think I can safely say that this particular hunt has been one of the most challenging and longest lasting stalks that I’veexperienced to date.  For whatever reason, no matter how hard we tried, neither of us could seem to locate that lot!  I’m really not joking when I say that the two of us looked at pretty much every single parking lot in the greater Los Angeles area, either in person or via aerial views.  Owen even managed to contact at least a dozen crew members involved in the 1998 production, all of whom gave him a different answer when asked where the limo test scene had been filmed.  Talk about frustrating!  Then, miracle of miracles, Owen somehow got his hands on the entire collection of shoot sheets from the movie, one of which stated that the limo scene had been filmed in a public parking lot somewhere on Honolulu Avenue in the city of Montrose.  So, that following Saturday, I dragged my fiancé over to Montrose to stalk each and every lot in the immediate area.

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While watching the Wedding Singer scene, Owen had noticed what he called a “distinct-looking tree” in the background behind Robbie and Julia.  It was that tree that my fiancé and I set out to find that Saturday morning in Montrose.  Sadly, though, none of the lots on Honolulu Avenue had a single, solitary tree, let alone a distinct-looking one.   Owen and I had all but given up hope at that point when fellow stalker Chas, of ItsFilmedThere, managed to get a hold of one of the Wedding Singer producers, who remembered that the scene had been filmed in the auxiliary bus parking lot at Descanso Gardens.  Amazingly enough, I had actually already stalked Descanso’s main lot looking for that tree, but had come up empty-handed.  I hadn’t realized at the time that there was an additional, second lot on the premises.  So, this past weekend, I dragged my fiancé out to Descanso once again, Wedding Singer screen captures in hand, to track down Owen’s distinct-looking tree.

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And, sure enough, we did!  Surprisingly enough, even though the Descanso Gardens auxiliary bus lot is quite large, I spotted Owen’s tree almost immediately.   And I, of course, just had to pose in front of it holding my Wedding Singer screen caps!  🙂

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And I am very happy to report that, even though twelve years have passed since The Wedding Singer was filmed, Owen’s tree looks much the same today as it did onscreen.  Sure, it’s a bit larger now and grows a bit more to the right than it did in the movie, but for the most part it is immediately identifiable.  YAY!

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   Now, I do realize that there are some stalkers out there who might say that this location is “just” a tree or “just” a parking lot.  And I get that, I do.  I mean my favorite locations have always been – and always will be – film and television houses.  (Ranking a close second are restaurants, but I digress.)   At the same time, though, this has been one of the most fun stalks I’ve ever been involved with.  As I said above, it’s been long and challenging, but I mean that in the best possible way.   As my fiancé likes to say, it’s about the journey, not the destination.  And even though I was “just” searching for a parking lot – and a parking lot tree – this journey was definitely a blast!   And I’d like to thank Owen for inviting me along for the ride!  🙂   So, yes, while it is just a parking lot, I decided this location was definitely blog-worthy.  And, aside from Owen, I knew my friend and fellow stalker Ashley over at TheDrewseum would also appreciate this particular locale.  🙂

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In the super cute scene which took place at Descanso, Robbie creates an obstacle course of sorts out of cones to test his best friend’s limo driving ability before he will allow Julia to hire him for her upcoming nuptials.  During the test, Julia says, “Of course I’m going to hire him – not only is he your best friend, but he’s the only limo driver in town.”  To which Robbie replies, “Yeah, I just like having fun with him.”  LOL   Sammy unfortunately hits several of the cones during his test, causing Robbie to admonish, “You hit two cones!  Those could have been people!  Those could have been guests at her wedding!”  To which Sammy says – in what I think is Owen’s favorite line out of the entire movie – “They were CONES!”  LOL 

You can watch the hilarious limo test scene by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Descanso Parking Lot

Stalk It: The Wedding Singerlimo test parking lot is actually the auxiliary bus parking lot at Descanso Gardens, which is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Canada Flintridge.  The location where Julia and Robbie were standing in the scene is denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial map.  Sammy’s limo test starts out next to the shrub located just due north of the pink “X”.

The Never Been Kissed House

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Last weekend, thanks to fellow stalker Chas, I was able to stalk a location I’ve been on the lookout for for quite some time – Drew Barrymore’s childhood home from fave romantic comedy Never Been Kissed.   Chas is quite the master stalker, so last week I enlisted his help in finding this location and, lo and behold, he unearthed it pretty much immediately!  Thank you, Chas!!!  Never Been Kissed  supposedly takes place in the Chicago area, but being that 99.9% of the movie was filmed right here in L.A., Chas had an inkling that “Josie Grosie’s” childhood home was most likely located here, as well.  And sure enough, he was right.  🙂

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I am very happy to report that Josie’s house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1999 when Never Been Kissed was filmed.  And I really could not have been more excited to be seeing it in person!  

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 Josie’s home is featured several times throughout the movie, most notably as the location of the heartbreaking scene when she gets egged on prom night by her high school crush, Billy.  Ugh, such a sad scene!

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It is also the spot where Guy picks up Josie for her second prom experience – one that turns out to be much better than her first.  🙂

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Amazingly enough, Chas also managed to track down the home Josie lived in as an adult in the movie, which, ironically, can actually be found in Chicago.  I find it incredibly strange that the producers would go all the way to the Windy City to film a few establishing shots of the home along with one very brief scene between Drew Barrymore and David Arquette that takes place in front of the home, when pretty much every other scene in the movie was filmed in Los Angeles.  But, according to Chas, whenever filmmakers want to establish that a movie is taking place in Chicago, they film at a location near an ‘L’ Train.  Which is exactly what they did in Never Been Kissed.  🙂  In the movie, Drew’s home is located directly beneath a set of ‘L’ Train tracks.  Chas just recently visted the Windy City and was kind enough to stop by Josie’s house to take some pictures for me.  SO COOL! 

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding these locations and sharing his pictures of Josie’s Chicago home!  🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Never Been Kissed  house is located at 368 North Ridgewood Place in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.  The home Josie lives in as an adult is located at 930 West Newport Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.