The Stuart Building from “That Thing You Do!”

That Thing You Do! building (8 of 14)

Back in early October, upon returning home from doing some That Thing You Do! stalking in Orange (you can read my posts on the locations I stalked here, here and here), I popped in my DVD of the 1996 flick to re-watch it for the first time in years.  I was absolutely shocked – and floored – to discover in the course of the viewing that The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa, an architecturally-stunning Pasadena apartment complex that I toured while house-hunting in 2006, had been featured in the movie.  Because I had not taken any photos of The Stuart during the tour, I ran right out to re-stalk the place while I was in L.A. last week.

[ad]

The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa was originally constructed as the Stuart Pharmaceutical Company’s (they created Mylanta!) main manufacturing facility and office headquarters in 1958.  The New Formalist-style structure, which is set back 150 feet from Foothill Boulevard and which was originally known as the Stuart Company Building, was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone and took two years to complete.  (Stone also fashioned Radio City Music Hall in New York and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.)  The Stuart’s 9.4-acre grounds were designed by legendary landscape architect Thomas Dolliver Church.

That Thing You Do! building (12 of 14)

That Thing You Do! building (14 of 14)

The flat-roofed building, which boasts a cast concrete block screen façade and a large linear reflecting pool with fountains, won the National First Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects and was featured on the cover of Time magazine the year it was completed.

That Thing You Do! building (7 of 14)

That Thing You Do! building (6 of 14)

Arthur O. Hanisch, the Stuart Company’s forward-thinking owner, sought comfort for his employees in the construction of the building and assigned several recreational areas to the 35,000-square-foot site, including an atrium with a gorgeous open staircase, a garden court, a dining lounge, a pool, a pool house, a large terrace, and an outdoor shade pavilion.  As you can see below, the two-story atrium is pretty darn striking!  There’s a reason I remembered it all these years later while watching That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do! building (1 of 14)

That Thing You Do! building (2 of 14)

In 1990, the Stuart Company, which had been named in honor of Arthur O. Hanisch’s son, was purchased by Johnson and Johnson/Merck Pharmaceuticals Co.  The Stuart Company Building was shuttered shortly thereafter and, in 1993, was put on the market for $16 million.  A year later, it was purchased by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, who intended to bulldoze it and construct a metro station on the property.  Thankfully, the Pasadena Heritage group immediately stepped in and nominated the Stuart for National Registry status to protect it from demolition.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.  During the interim, while its fate was being decided, the building sat vacant and, sadly, fell victim to vandals and transients.  Then, in 2002, the site was purchased by a development company named BRE Properties and a multi-million dollar restoration project was begun.  BRE also started construction on an upscale 188-unit apartment complex directly behind the Stuart Building, which became known as The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa.  Today, the arresting atrium serves as a leasing office and communal space for residents.

That Thing You Do! building (3 of 14)

That Thing You Do! building (4 of 14)

In That Thing You Do!, the Stuart Company Building’s atrium masqueraded as the Play-Tone Records headquarters where The Wonders – Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott), Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech), Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn), and T.B. Player (Ethan Embry) – posed for publicity photos upon first arriving in Los Angeles.

ScreenShot003

ScreenShot002

The Stuart Company Building was also featured in the 2000 made-for-television movie If These Walls Could Talk 2, in which it stood in for the fertility center visited by Fran (Sharon Stone) and Kal (Ellen DeGeneres).  Several areas of the property were used in the filming, including the atrium;

ScreenShot020

ScreenShot019

a hallway;

ScreenShot021

ScreenShot022

a waiting room;

ScreenShot024

ScreenShot025

and an office.

ScreenShot029

 ScreenShot027

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

That Thing You Do! building (13 of 14)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa, from That Thing You Do!, is located at 3360 East Foothill Boulevard in Pasadena.  You can visit the complex’s official website here.

Lauren and Jason’s Malibu Rental from “The Hills”

Lauren and Jason's Beach House (2 of 6)

Way back in June 2010, a fellow stalker named Nick emailed me to let me know he had tracked down the Malibu beach house that Lauren Conrad and her then boyfriend Jason Wahler leased for the summer in the Season 1 episode of The Hills titled “Timing Is Everything.”  And while the location was one that I had been dying to find for ages, because I was knee deep in wedding planning at the time, I was unable to stalk it.  Then, on a rather overcast morning this past March, I remembered the locale while out and about in The ‘Bu and dropped by.  For whatever reason, though, the pad slipped my mind yet again shortly thereafter and I failed to blog about it.  It was not until two Thursdays ago, when I received the November 18th, 2013 issue of US Weekly with its “Life After The Hills” cover feature, that I was reminded of the residence and that it was long overdue for a write-up.  So here goes.

[ad]

The modern-style seaside pad, which was originally built in 2005 and sits just east of Las Tunas Beach, boasts three bedrooms, two and a half baths, 3,000 square feet of living space, a chef’s kitchen, a game room, Brazilian cherry wood flooring, onyx marble detailing throughout, and a master suite with an office, fireplace, dual walk-in closets (yes, please!), and a spa tub.  According to Zillow, back in 2010 the property was available for sale for $4,195,000 or for lease at $13,000 a month.  It later sold in November of that same year for $3,688,000.

Lauren and Jason's Beach House (1 of 6)

Lauren and Jason's Beach House (4 of 6)

The interior of the house is pretty darn spectacular, as you can see below.  You can check out some more photographs of the interior on Redfin here.

ScreenShot8765

ScreenShot8766

In the “Timing Is Everything” episode of The Hills, which was the Season 1 finale, Lauren turned down a Teen Vogue summer internship in Paris in order to spend the season living with Jason in a rented Malibu beach house.  The rental was shown twice in the episode, but very briefly each time.

ScreenShot8757

ScreenShot8750

The real life interior of the home was also featured in “Timing Is Everything.”

ScreenShot8752

ScreenShot8754

As was the rear of the property, which sits on stilts over the ocean and is, unfortunately, completely unstalkable, as you can see below.

ScreenShot8753

ScreenShot8759

The beach house also popped up briefly at the beginning of The Hills Season 2 premiere, which was titled “Out with the Old . . .”  By the start of that episode, Lauren and Jason were, not surprisingly, broken up and Lauren had become known around the Teen Vogue offices as “The Girl Who Didn’t Go to Paris.”  (While making screen captures for this post, I got COMPLETELY sucked in to watching both “Timing Is Everything” and “Out with the Old . . .”  Man, The Hills was a great show!  Why, oh why did it have to go off the air?  For those who were as into the series as I was, this article is a fascinating read!)

ScreenShot8760

ScreenShot8761

On a side-note – While watching “Timing Is Everything” and “Out with the Old . . ,” I happened to spot my favorite blogger, Cupcakes and Cashmere’s Emily Schuman, who worked at Teen Vogue at the same time as Lauren, twice.  Looks like Emily was even sporting her famous messy bun back then.  Love it!

ScreenShot8749

ScreenShot8762

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Nick for finding this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Lauren and Jason's Beach House (3 of 6)

Stalk It: Lauren and Jason’s summer rental from the “Timing Is Everything” episode of The Hills is located at 19220 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain from “That Thing You Do!”

Watson Drug Store (10 of 11)

Another That Thing You Do! locale that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk while the two of us were in the city of Orange in early October was Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain, which popped up twice in the 1996 flick.  And while I really wanted to grab a bite there, sadly the GC and I had just eaten prior to arriving in Orange.  It was still extremely cool to see the place, which is Orange County’s oldest drugstore and the city of Orange’s oldest continually operating business, in person, though.

[ad]

The pharmacy portion of Watson’s was originally founded on Glassell Street by a pharmacist named Keller E. Watson, Sr. in 1899.  Two years later, K.E. Watson’s, as it was then known, was moved around the corner to a building on East Chapman Avenue where it has remained ever since (although it has occupied various different storefronts).  In 1915, Keller added a soda fountain to the site and Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain was born.  When Keller retired in the 1930s, his son, Keller E. Watson, Jr., took over the operations until he, too, retired in 1965.  The shop subsequently went through a succession of different owners and then, in 1971, Scott Parker, a pharmacist from Utah, purchased a portion of it.  Scott took over the site completely in 1986 and, while the pharmacy section was closed in 2011, the Parker family still runs the establishment to this day.

Watson Drug Store (2 of 11)

Watson Drug Store (3 of 11)

As you can see below, walking inside the eatery is like taking a step back in time.  Besides serving up hamburgers, shakes and its famous malts, the place also sells gifts and cards, so, of course, I just had to do a little shopping while I was there.  Winking smile

Watson Drug Store (8 of 11)

Watson Drug Store (9 of 11)

Watson Drugs first popped up in That Thing You Do! in the scene in which Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) informed Faye Dolan (Liv Tyler) that he had just accidentally hit her car, which was parked outside.  As you can see below, both the exterior and the interior of the shop were dressed heavily for the shoot.

ScreenShot8737

ScreenShot8739

Watson’s later appeared in the scene in which Guy gave Faye and his fellow Wonders – Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech), Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn), and T.B. Player (Ethan Embry) – portable radios so that they would be able to keep an ear out for their song at all times.

ScreenShot8740

ScreenShot8741

Thanks to its old-fashioned charm, Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain has long been a favorite of location managers.  In the 1987 made-for-television movie The Stepford Children (which looks pretty good, shockingly!), the diner was where Laura Harding (Barbara Eden) told her husband, Steven Harding (Don Murray), that she wanted to leave Stepford and move to a new town.

ScreenShot649

ScreenShot650

In 2004, the interior of Watson’s masqueraded as two different Massachusetts-area locales in the Season 1 episode of Medical Investigation titled “Progeny.”  It first stood in for the soda shop where a child named Joey White (Adam Taylor Gordon) had a seizure and collapsed.  The space was dressed heavily for the shoot, though, and is not very recognizable in the scene.

ScreenShot653

ScreenShot654

And, for whatever reason, producers chose to use a different location to stand in for the shop’s exterior, as you can see below.

ScreenShot652

Later in the episode, Watson’s popped up as the diner where Dr. Stephen Connor (Neal McDonough) and his team – Dr. Natalie Durant (Kelli Williams), Dr. Miles McCabe (Christopher Gorham), Eva Rossi (Anna Belknap), and Frank Powell (Troy Winbush) – discussed what might be causing Joey’s ailment.

ScreenShot655

ScreenShot656

Once again, a different location stood in for the coffee shop’s exterior.  That exterior, which was also used as Rosalita’s Bar on the television series Happy Endings, can be found on the Paramount Studios backlot.

ScreenShot657

In the 2006 comedy The Benchwarmers, Watson Drugs was where Gus (Rob Schneider) met his new statistician, Sammy Sprinkler (Alex Warrick).  Both the exterior . . .

ScreenShot8743

ScreenShot8748

. . . and interior of the diner were used in the scene.

ScreenShot8744

ScreenShot8746

According to the Filmed in Orange website, Watson’s appeared in Fallen Angel, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the 1945 production with which to make screen captures for this post.  And while the eatery’s website asserts that the spot was featured in the 1981 comedy The Cannonball Run, I scanned through the flick and did not see it anywhere.  Watson’s website also states that Don Knotts, Shelley Hack and Jimmy Smits have all shot commercials on the premises and that George W. Bush made a stop there to pick up a malt while campaigning for the presidency in 2000.

Watson Drug Store (5 of 11)

Watson Drug Store (11 of 11)

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Watson Drug Store (4 of 11)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain, from That Thing You Do!, is located at 116 East Chapman Avenue in Orange.  You can visit the eatery’s official website here.  Tiddlywinks Toys and Games, aka Patterson’s Appliances from the movie, is located just around the corner at 129 North Glassell Street.  The That Thing You Do! mailbox scene was filmed just a few storefronts north of Tiddlywinks, in front of 173 North Glassell Street.  The building that was dressed to look like a Woolworths in the flick can be found across the street at 160/162 North Glassell.

Patterson’s Appliances from “That Thing You Do!”

Patterson Appliances That Thing You Do (7 of 19)

After stalking the downtown Orange spot where the That Thing You Do! mailbox scene was filmed (which I blogged about yesterday), I dragged the Grim Cheaper just a few feet south to stalk the storefront that was used as Patterson’s Appliances, drummer Guy Patterson’s (Tom Everett Scott) family’s shop, in the 1996 flick.  Thank goodness for the Seeing Stars website and its That Thing You Do! filming locations page, which had the address of Patterson’s Appliances listed, because, as I mentioned yesterday, my trip to Orange was completely unexpected and I, therefore, had not done any prior research.  Which is a shame, too, because, as it turns out, the town, which is easily one of the cutest places I have ever visited, has appeared in countless productions over the years, many of them favorites of mine.   (Check out this amazeballs list of the various movies and televisions shows that have been filmed in Orange and the corresponding addresses used.  I wish every city would compile a database like that!  LOVE IT!)  Ah well, it looks like I will just have to make another stalking expedition to Orange someday.  Smile

[ad]

Patterson’s Appliances was one of the main locations used in That Thing You Do! and the supposed 1960s-era Eerie, Pennsylvania storefront popped up repeatedly throughout the movie.  While Orange does have a very old-fashioned feel to it, production designers heavily dressed the area for the shoot, as you can see below.  Even without the extra dressing, though, the site is still very recognizable from its onscreen appearance.  In fact, being there brought me right back to when I first saw the flick in 1996, which I could NOT have been more excited about.

ScreenShot635

Patterson Appliances That Thing You Do (11 of 19)

At the time of the filming, the Patterson’s storefront was vacant, which allowed designers to thoroughly transform it into a 1964 appliance shop, complete with old-fashioned dishwashers, radios and television sets.

ScreenShot636

Patterson Appliances That Thing You Do (9 of 19)

Today, the space houses a toy store named Tiddlywinks Toys and Games.  Thankfully, the exterior still looks much the same today as it did in November and December 1995 when That Thing You Do! was filmed.

ScreenShot639

Patterson Appliances That Thing You Do (19 of 19)

When Tiddlywinks moved in, the owners changed a few aspects of the décor, but for the most part the set-up is still very recognizable from That Thing You Do!  Sadly, shops tend to get a little skittish over interior photographs being taken and I did not feel like arguing with anyone on that particular day, so I failed to snap any images of the inside of the place.  But you can check out some pictures of the filming, as well as a photo of the interior of the then vacant shop dressed as Patterson’s Appliances, here.

ScreenShot640

ScreenShot644

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Patterson Appliances That Thing You Do (18 of 19)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Tiddlywinks Toys and Games, aka Patterson’s Appliances from That Thing You Do!, is located at 129 North Glassell Street in Orange.  You can visit the store’s official website here.  The mailbox scene from That Thing You Do! was filmed just a few storefronts north in front of 173 North Glassell Street.  The building that was dressed to look like a Woolworths in the flick can be found across the street at 160/162 North Glassell.

The “That Thing You Do!” Mailbox Scene

untitled (2 of 4)

Well folks, this post sadly marks the end to my 2013 Haunted Hollywood locales, which is especially depressing because this year was easily the Best. Halloween. Ever.  Once again, the GC and I (dressed up as The Bachelorette’s Emily Maynard and Jef Holm) headed out to our friends’ house in Malibu.  (And yes, I am aware that Emily and Jef are no longer together, but neither are Brenda and Dylan and we dressed up like them, too, one Halloween. 😉 )   Dick Van Dyke ended up not hosting his usual Halloween shindig this year (you can read about his 2011 fest here and his 2012 fest here), so we went instead to a party that our friends’ friends were having in a different gated community nearby.  And let me tell you, it was UH-MA-ZING.

[ad]

Not only was every single house in the neighborhood dressed to the nines (I swear, nobody does Halloween like the ‘Bu) . . .

untitled (2 of 3)

untitled (4 of 4)

. . . but there were celebrities galore, including none other than Gwyneth Paltrow!  The GC actually spotted Gwyneth first and, while I just about died of excitement on the spot, because she was with her children, I restrained myself from asking for a photo.  I obsessed about it, though, for the next thirty minutes or so and eventually, without me knowing, the GC went up to her and said, “Gwyneth, could you please take a picture with my wife before her head explodes?”  Next thing I knew, there was a tap on my shoulder and GP was standing in front of me, saying “I heard you wanted a photo.”  Yeah, I was DYING.  And absolutely falling in love with the GC all over again.  Smile  Gwyneth truly could NOT have been nicer (easily one of the sweetest celebs that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting) and I adore her even more now than I did before.  So suck it, Vanity FairWinking smile

Halloween 2013 (1 of 3)

Also in attendance were Cindy Crawford . . .

Halloween 2013 (2 of 3)

. . . and Neil Patrick Harris.  Like I said, Best. Halloween. Ever.  Not sure how I’m ever going to recover from this one!  Here’s hoping next year is just as good.  Smile

Halloween 2013 (3 of 3)

In the meantime, though, it is back to regular, non-haunted postings here at IAMNOTASTALKER.  So here goes!  As I mentioned in my post about the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, in early October Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, hosted her bachelorette party at my favorite place in the entire world, Disneyland.  Because we did not want to make the long drive back to Palm Springs that night, the GC and I got a hotel room in the area, which turned out to be a fateful decision.  The following morning, on our way out of town, I did a GPS search for a nearby Starbucks and when I saw that the closest outpost was located in the city of Orange, I just about had a heart attack as my very favorite movie scene EVER had been filmed in Orange – the mailbox scene from 1996’s That Thing You Do!  So I immediately braced the GC for the fact that we would be making a little unexpected stalking detour.

That Thing You Do Mailbox Scene (7 of 15)

In the scene, Faye Dolan (Liv Tyler) is listening to a portable radio and mailing letters in what is supposedly 1960s downtown Eerie, Pennsylvania, when she hears “That Thing You Do!”, her boyfriend’s band’s song, playing on the radio for the very first time.  She starts screaming and runs down the street towards an Army/Navy store where she finds fellow band member T.B. Player (Ethan Embry).  The two then race to Patterson’s Appliances, where another band member, Guy Patterson (cutie Tom Everett Scott), works.  (I will be blogging about the location of Patterson’s Appliances tomorrow.)  Guy turns all the radios in the store to the station playing the song and, shortly thereafter, the other two members of the group, Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech) and Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn), show up and proceed to dance around manically.  Liv Tyler is sheer perfection in the scene and it is physically impossible not to be happy while watching it.

ScreenShot632

That Thing You Do Mailbox Scene (1 of 15)

You can take a look at the That Thing You Do! mailbox scene by clicking below.  Go ahead, try not to smile while watching – I dare you.  Winking smile

In the scene, the mailbox was set up in front of an empty storefront located at 173 North Glassell Street, in pretty much the exact spot where the red sandwich board sign is situated in the photograph below.

That Thing You Do Mailbox Scene (11 of 15)

I found this locale thanks to the Seeing Stars website and my trusty iPhone.  As soon as the GC and I arrived in Orange, I watched the scene on YouTube and saw that the mailbox was located across the street from a Woolworth store.   Seeing Stars listed the address of the store that masqueraded as Woolworths as 160 North Glassell Street, so from there it was simply a matter of matching up the angles of what appeared onscreen to the real life buildings.   You can check out some images of the Woolworths building and the rest of the downtown area dressed for the filming on the City of Orange website here.

That Thing You Do Mailbox Scene (9 of 15)

That Thing You Do Mailbox Scene (4 of 15)

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

That Thing You Do Mailbox Scene (12 of 15)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The mailbox scene from That Thing You Do! was filmed in front of what is now a vacant storefront located at 173 North Glassell Street in Orange.  The building that was dressed to look like a Woolworths in the flick can be found across the street at 160/162 North Glassell.

“The Seventh Sign” House

The Seventh Sign House (18 of 19)

NOTE – This blog was supposed to post yesterday, but somehow did not, so it looks like I am a day late and a dollar short.  Sorry about that!  I would like to start off by wishing my fellow stalkers a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  I hope all of you have a fabulously spook-filled day.  Smile  And now, on with the post!  Way back in July 2012, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I embarked upon a stalking adventure in and around the Venice Beach area.  While there, he took me by an adorable little dwelling that was the main location used in the 1988 horror film The Seventh Sign.  I had never actually heard of the flick at the time, but Mike figured that the residence would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme.  And, as luck would have it, we happened to meet the longtime homeowner while we were stalking the place and he not only told us all sorts of behind-the-scenes information about the shoot, but invited us into the backyard where quite a bit of the filming took place!

[ad]

The Grim Cheaper and I ended up watching The Seventh Sign shortly after I returned home and I can’t say that I was a big fan.  As I mentioned in my post about the residence belonging to Heather Langenkamp (who played herself) in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, I am not especially fond of sci-fi-style horror flicks.  It was very cool to see the house that I had just stalked a few days prior featured so prominently onscreen, though.  In The Seventh Sign, the two-story bungalow is where Abby Quinn (Demi Moore) lives with her husband, Russell Quinn (Michael Biehn), and their demonic unborn child.

ScreenShot8724

The Seventh Sign House (7 of 19)

According to the homeowner, whose parents owned the pad back in 1988 when The Seventh Sign was filmed, the property was chosen for the shoot because producers liked the fact that it was located on a corner, that it had an apartment above the garage, and that the main house and garage could both be captured onscreen in a single shot.  Due to a massive amount of foliage that has since grown, that is no longer the case, though, as you can see below.  Otherwise, the abode looks very much the same as it did onscreen, despite the passage of over 25 years.

ScreenShot8725

The Seventh Sign House (8 of 19)

In The Seventh Sign, Abby and Russell rent out that garage apartment to a rather mysterious individual named David Bannon (Jürgen Prochnow) in order to make some extra income before their baby arrives.  Things don’t quite go as planned, though.

ScreenShot8736

The Seventh Sign House (17 of 19)

Amazingly enough, while the landing is now different, the stairs leading up to the garage apartment look very much the same today as they did back in 1988.

ScreenShot8734

The Seventh Sign House (12 of 19)

I was floored when the owner allowed me to pose for a photograph on the stairs, which Mike had told me played a significant role in the filming.  Smile

The Seventh Sign House (14 of 19)

The homeowner also informed us that an incredibly difficult-to-shoot scene was filmed in which Abby walked across a beam of light (in actuality it was a wooden bridge) from the main house to the garage apartment.  The scene was very labor-intensive, expensive, required countless retakes, took several nights to complete, and in the end wound up on the cutting room floor!  Ya gotta love Hollywood!

ScreenShot8735

 The Seventh Sign House (10 of 19)

Several areas of the residence’s real life interior were also used in the filming, including the living room;

ScreenShot8726

ScreenShot8730

the kitchen;

ScreenShot8728

ScreenShot8729

and the front room.  You can check out some more interior photographs of the property on an old rental listing here.

ScreenShot8731

ScreenShot8732

In real life, the charming little cottage, which was originally built in 1916, is not a single-family dwelling.  It actually consists of three units – the main home, which features two separate apartments, one on each floor, and a third apartment located above the property’s detached garage, as was depicted in the movie.

The Seventh Sign House (5 of 19)

The Seventh Sign House (1 of 19)

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!  Smile

The Seventh Sign House (4 of 19)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Seventh Sign house is located at 902 Palms Boulevard in Venice.

The Cobb Estate from “Phantasm”

Cobb Estate Phantasm (13 of 15)

One locale that I came across (thanks to an article on Amoeblog) while doing research for my 2012 Haunted Hollywood posts was the former Cobb Estate in Altadena, the gates of which appeared in the 1979 cult horror film Phantasm.  And while I stalked the location shortly thereafter, for whatever reason I never got around to blogging about it last October.  I actually completely forgot about the site, in fact, until I sat down to write my recent post on Angeles Abbey Memorial Park, which was used in two installments of the Phantasm series – Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead and Phantasm IV: Oblivion.  Well, it is better to be late than never, as they say, right?

[ad]

The Cobb Estate is named after lumber magnate Charles H. Cobb, who, along with his wife, Carrie, purchased the then vacant 107-acre site in 1916.  Two years later, the couple commissioned a rambling Spanish-style mansion to be built on the premises.  When Charles, who was a Freemason, passed away in 1939, he willed the massive estate and its acreage to the Pasadena Scottish Rite Temple.  The brotherhood sold the site just a few years later and it subsequently went through a succession of different owners, including the Sisters of Saint Joseph.  Then, in 1956, the Marx Brothers (yes, those Marx Brothers) purchased the property as an investment.  It was left vacant while they debated what to do with it and became a popular hangout for miscreants who vandalized the once elegant grounds and mansion.  Sadly, in 1959, the Brothers decided to demolish the majority of the Cobbs’ former home.  Today, all that survives is the foundation, a few rock walls, some exterior stairwells, a long, twisting driveway, and the front gates.

Cobb Estate Phantasm (8 of 15)

Cobb Estate Phantasm (5 of 15)

In 1971, after their plans to turn to site into a cemetery were thwarted, the Marx Brothers put the land up for auction.  Bob Barnes, a social studies teacher at nearby John Muir High School in Pasadena, caught wind of the sale and, fearing that it would be acquired and pillaged by developers, rallied his students to raise funds to save the property.  Miraculously, they did.  In nine days time – and thanks to a generous donation from art collector Virginia Steele Scott – the group garnered over $150,000.  According to this 2011 Pasadena Star-News article, when the auction was held, Barnes was outbid by $25,000, but he made a last-minute plea to auctioneer Milton Wershaw saying his was the “people’s bid.”  Wershaw halted the auction for five minutes so that the group could raise the extra funds and even chipped in $1,000 himself.  The money was gathered, at which point, in a heart-warming twist, one of the land developers stepped down, announcing, “I am with the people, I shall bid no more!”  Barnes wound up donating the 107 acres to the Angeles National Forest and, in my favorite part of the story, headed out to Hollywood the following day, purchased a map of the stars’ homes, rang Groucho Marx’s doorbell, and thanked him.  So incredibly cool!

Cobb Estate Phantasm (9 of 15)

Cobb Estate Phantasm (10 of 15)

Today, the Cobb Estate is, as the sign on the gate will tell you, “A quiet refuge for people and wild life forever.”  The popular hiking area is apparently open 24 hours a day and after-dark walks are allowed.  Um, no thanks.  Winking smile

Cobb Estate Phantasm (1 of 15)

Cobb Estate Phantasm (3 of 15)

At some point in time (and for reasons unknown to this stalker – and seemingly everyone else on the internet, although there have been some reported unexplained occurrences), the property gained the nickname the “Haunted Forest.”  (It is also known as the “Enchanted Forest.”)

Cobb Estate Phantasm (15 of 15)

Cobb Estate Phantasm (11 of 15)

In Phantasm, the gates of the Cobb Estate masqueraded as the entrance to Morningside Cemetery, lair of The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm).

ScreenShot626

Phantasm2

Oddly enough, though, all of the scenes that supposedly took place behind the gates were actually shot about 400 miles away at the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate in Oakland.

ScreenShot627

ScreenShot628

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the Phantasm screen captures that appear in this post!  Smile

Cobb Estate Phantasm (7 of 15)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The gates to the Cobb Estate, from Phantasm, are located at the intersection of North Lake Avenue and East Loma Alta Drive in Altadena.

George Nader’s Former Home

George Nader House (16 of 16)

Earlier this year, while doing research on the various Coachella Valley-area houses formerly owned by pianist Liberace, I came across a blurb in fave book Palm Springs Confidential about the city’s first ever triple homicide, which took place in a Las Palmas Estates residence that once belonged to actor George Nader.  After wiping the drool from my chin Winking smile, I added the site to my Haunted Hollywood To-Stalk list and finally managed to drag the Grim Cheaper out there a couple of weekends ago.

[ad]

The 3-bedroom, 3.25-bath, 3,608-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1961, has quite a distinguished Hollywood pedigree.  Upon its completion, the dwelling was first inhabited by George Arnold, the longtime producer of Las Vegas’ popular Rhythm on Ice show.  When he moved out in the mid-60s, the pad was purchased by The Merry Widow actress Gregg Sherwood, who continued to own the place until 1976, when she sold it to a race track executive named Ed Friendly and his wife, San Francisco socialite Sophia.  The couple did not live there long.  At around 7:30 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, October 12th, 1978, Sophia, who was then 71, and Ed, who was 74, were just preparing to eat a fish dinner that had been prepared by their housekeeper, 67-year-old Frances Williams, when the doorbell rang.  The visitor was granted access to the home and proceeded to have a brief conversation with Sophia, during which he pulled out a .45-caliber handgun.  Sophia tried to flee down a hallway, but was shot in the back of the head and died instantly.  The killer then entered the kitchen and shot Frances, who had just placed the Friendlys’ dinner in a warming oven.  Ed, who was hard of hearing and likely unaware of the carnage taking place just a few feet away, was shot last, in the bedroom where he was watching TV.  Before leaving, the killer grabbed a fedora from the hallway and placed it over Sophia’s face.  None of the neighbors saw or heard a thing.

George Nader House (1 of 16)

George Nader House (2 of 16)

At 7:30 the following morning, the pool man showed up at the property and spotted Frances’ corpse through the window.  When police arrived later, they discovered the bodies of Ed and Sophia, as well as spent shell casings in the den, kitchen and hallway.  The warming oven, with the Friendlys’ dinner inside, was still turned on.  The house was in disarray, but nothing appeared to have been stolen.  And while the case led investigators all over the globe, it was eventually dropped due to a shortage of funds, the death of two key witnesses, and a lack of evidence, and remains open and unsolved to this day.  Police do have a theory, though, and, boy, is it tawdry!

George Nader House (3 of 16)

George Nader House (14 of 16)

Prior to meeting Ed, Sophia was married for 24 years to Curtis Wood Hutton, who just so happened to be the first cousin of Woolworth heir Barbara Hutton.  Curtis and Sophia had two children, Edward and Sophia (yes, she apparently named her daughter after herself).  At some point during the early years of the marriage, Barbara gifted Curtis, who was said to be one of her favorite relatives, a $1 million trust fund.  When he joined the Navy during World War II, Sophia, nervous that her husband might be killed in the line of duty, leaving her penniless, had the trust amended so that it would be payable to her upon Curtis’ death.  If she happened to precede her husband in death, the two Hutton children would inherit the money.  The amendment turned out to be irrevocable, so even after Curtis and Sophia divorced in 1951, she still stood to inherit the $1 million if he passed away before her.  Then, in 1977, the sh*t hit the proverbial fan.  Not only did Sophia amend her will, disinheriting her son and daughter, but Curtis also became terminally ill.  Edward, who was destitute at the time, realized he had to act fast if he ever wanted to see a dime of his father’s trust fund.  Police speculate that he paid Andreas Christensen, a London-based friend of his who was no stranger to crime, to commit the murders.  Things went according to plan, too, because Curtis died on October 28th, just two weeks after Ed and Sophia, and the Barbara Hutton trust, which then amounted to $1.3 million, was divided between Edward and his sister.  As I said, tawdry stuff!  You can read two fabulous, more in-depth articles about the murders on the DuJour magazine website and on the SFGate website.

George Nader House (6 of 16)

George Nader House (8 of 16)

Actor George Nader and his life partner, Mark Miller, purchased the property in 1991.  They owned the place until George’s death in 2002.  According to Palm Springs Confidential, at the time that they purchased it, the couple had no idea that a triple homicide had taken place on the premises.  Miller said, “We were never told about the murders.  We found out two years later.”  Nice disclosure job from the real estate agent.  Winking smile

George Nader House (10 of 16)

George Nader House (9 of 16)

Sadly, the residence was sold in August 2011 and the new owners have since completely remodeled the place.  You can see what the home used to look like via Google Street View below and in these photographs from the 2011 real estate listing.  I personally prefer the pre-remodel design.  So Old Hollywood!

ScreenShot619

ScreenShot618

On a side-note – I would like to wish a big CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and her new husband, Keith Coogan.  The two tied the knot this past Saturday in Malibu and a fabulously pink time was had by all.  (Can you tell that I was just a little excited to be partnered up with none other than Jeremy Miller during the ceremony?? Smile)  You can read a great write-up on the festivities, which included the bride and groom driving off in a DeLorean, on the Mike the Fanboy website here.

Keith&Kristenweddingcollage2

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

George Nader House (7 of 16)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: George Nader’s former house, where Ed and Sophia Friendly were murdered in 1978, is located at 893 Camino Sur in Palm Springs’ Las Palmas Estates neighborhood.

Dan Aykroyd’s Former Haunted House

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (5 of 8)

Another spooky locale that I learned about thanks to fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory, and his fabulous book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites was the longtime home of Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd and his wife, actress Donna Dixon.  The residence piqued my interest due to Aykroyd’s claim of numerous hauntings taking place there over the years.  So I, of course, immediately added it to my Haunted Hollywood To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there back in early May.

[ad]

Dan Aykroyd is not the first celebrity to live in the two-story, country-style abode.  In fact, the property’s tenancy records read like a Who’s Who of Hollywood and include such luminaries as Natalie Wood, Ringo Starr, Alfre Woodard, (possibly) Renee Zellweger, and “Mama” Cass Elliot.  According to the book Swans and Pistols, during Cass’ tenure there, the singer encouraged famous guests like Eric Clapton, Ryan O’Neal, David Crosby, and Don Johnson to write notes on a “graffiti” wall in the living room.  (How cool would that have been to see?)  Dan and Donna purchased the site sometime during the 1980s and it was not long before strange occurrences started taking place.

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (2 of 8)

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (4 of 8)

A 2003 iVillage article quoted Dan as saying, “A ghost certainly haunts my house.  It once even crawled into bed with me.  I rolled over and just nuzzled up to whatever it was and went back to sleep.  The ghost also turns on the Stairmaster and moves jewelry across the dresser.  I’m sure it’s Mama Cass because you get the feeling it’s a big ghost.”  Dan’s bed must have been a pretty busy place because in 2005 he told ContactMusic.com that the spirit of a man who died at the home in the 1960s bunked with him, as well.  That same year he also spoke of the specter in a Huffington Post interview, saying, “Have I personally ever seen a ghost?  Not one.  Have I ever felt an unseen presence near me?  Damn right.  In my bed no less when we lived in Mama Cass’s Hollywood estate.”  You can watch a video below of Aykroyd talking about selling the Cass residence and the fact that he had to disclose that there had been some “unusual activity” on the premises “that could not be explained rationally or physically.”

And after going through my photographs of the property yesterday, I tend to believe him.  The picture below, which gave me the chills when I saw it, has not been altered in any way.  Creeeeeeepy!

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (1 of 8) (1)[6]

Aykroyd apparently put the house on the market several times while owning it, but the place never sold.  I guess not many people are willing to cuddle up to ghosts.  Winking smile  According to The Real Estalker, in 2006, the actor tried to lease it out at the whopping rate of $30,000 a month.  It remained on the market for over 450 days, though, until he decided to offer it for sale in November 2007 for $4.2 million.

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (7 of 8)

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (8 of 8)

According to Berg Properties, the estate was finally sold one month later to none other than actress Beverly D’Angelo (of the Vacation movies) for $3.8 million.  She, too, has been visited by Mama Cass’ apparition, as she talks about in the below (overly dramatic) clip from a Season 3 episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories.

Sadly, not much of the 4,828-square-foot residence is visible from the street.  According to The Real Estalker, the estate, which was originally built in 1951, boasts 5 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, a master bedroom with an attached office and weight room, a library, 6 fireplaces, over one acre of land, a pool, and a motor court.  There also seems to be some sort of tree house on the premises, as you can see below.  You can check out some interior photographs of the pad – wallpapered kitchen ceiling and all – here.

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (6 of 8)

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites! Smile

Dan Aykroyd's haunted house (3 of 8)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Dan Aykroyd’s former haunted house is located at 7708 Woodrow Wilson Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

Henry Kyle’s Former House

Henry Kyle's house (9 of 9)

Many, many months back, my mom texted me to ask if I had ever stalked the Bel-Air mansion where Texas tycoon Henry Harrison Kyle was murdered on July 22nd, 1983.  Because the property had also once been the residence of filmdom’s first “It Girl,” Clara Bow, my mom thought it would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood posts.  That was the first that I had ever heard of the place and, of course, started chomping at the bit to stalk it, so I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to do just that a short time later.

[ad]

According to a June 1996 The New York Times article, legend has it that the 1923 manse was originally built for the then King of Spain.  Sometime during the early 1930s, the pad was purchased by film producer Louis Lewyn and his wife, Marion Mack.  The couple loaned the residence to actress Clara Bow to live in shortly thereafter and the starlet remained there for the next couple of years.

Henry Kyle's house (2 of 9)

Henry Kyle's house (8 of 9)

  For those not familiar with Old Hollywood lore, the Brooklyn-born Bow became a silver screen phenomenon thanks to a starring role in the 1927 silent film It.  The flick was based upon a magazine article penned by British novelist Elinor Glyn, who explained the elusive trait as such, “’It’ is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force.  With ‘It’ you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man.”  From 1927 on, Clara, who starred in over 58 films during her lifetime, would forever be known as “The It Girl.”  The phrase caught on and is still used regularly in Hollywood to this day.  Sadly, Bow’s heavy Brooklyn accent interfered with her career during the advance of “talkies” in the mid 1930s.  The beauty retired from acting in 1935 at the age of 28 and moved to Nevada.  She spent the remainder of her years hidden from the public eye and passed away from a heart attack at the age of 60 on September 27th, 1965.

Clara Bow

Multimillionaire Henry Kyle, who amassed his fortune via extensive real estate, coal mine, bank, and oil-drilling equipment firm holdings, relocated from Dallas to Bel-Air in the Spring of 1983, along with his two sons, 20-year-old Henry Harrison Kyle II, aka “Ricky,” and 19-year-old Scott, in order to begin a new job as the head of Four Star International Inc. television production company.  At the time of his arrival, he purchased Bow’s former Mediterranean-style manse.  He did not live there long.  In the pre-dawn hours of July 22nd, 1983, Ricky woke his father up and informed him that there was a prowler in the house.  Henry grabbed a gun and walked downstairs to the dining room, where Ricky, who also had a gun, subsequently shot him in the back at point-blank range.  Henry returned fire, hitting his son in the arm.  It was too late, though.  When police arrived later that morning, they discovered Henry’s 6’4” nude body sprawled on the dining room floor.  The Texan, who was often described as a real-life J.R. Ewing, was dead at the age of 60.  (Ironically enough, according to a 1983 The Pittsburg Press article, upon moving, Kyle rented out his Texas residence to none other than Larry Hagman, who was in the Lone Star State to film Dallas.  Hagman subsequently vacated the property shortly after Henry was killed.)

Henry Kyle's house (5 of 9)

Henry Kyle's house (6 of 9)

Ricky was arrested five weeks later.  Foreshadowing the eerily similar Menendez murders in 1989, Ricky originally said that an intruder had killed the senior Kyle and that he had been shot in the crossfire, but then later copped to the crime saying that his father, who had supposedly been abusing him both physically and emotionally for years, had fired at him and that Ricky had fired back strictly in self defense.  Prosecutors contended that Ricky, who was a frequent drug abuser, killed his father to gain access to his vast inheritance.  The first trial resulted in a hung jury.  In the second trial, Ricky was convicted of involuntary manslaughter (huh?), sentenced to five years in prison, and subsequently served three.  Who says our justice system doesn’t work?

Henry Kyle's house (7 of 9)

Kyle’s former manse was last sold in August 2011 for $6.375 million.  According to the real estate listing, the abode boasts 6 bedrooms, 7.5 baths, 8,900 square feet of living space, a chef’s kitchen, a formal dining room, a master suite with two bathrooms, an enclosed sleeping porch, a ballroom, a rooftop deck, a 0.70-acre plot of land, a pool, a sundeck, a motor court, a 3-car garage, and a newly-built detached guest house.  The entire property encompasses a total of 9,450 square feet.  Unfortunately, as you can see below, virtually none of it is visible from the street.

Henry Kyle's house (3 of 9)

Henry Kyle's house (4 of 9)

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created real estate listings, which is where I got the photographs pictured below.

ScreenShot578

ScreenShot579

As you can see, the interior of the residence is really quite spectacular.  You can check out some more interior pics of the pad here.

ScreenShot580

ScreenShot581

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Henry Kyle's house (1 of 9)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Henry Kyle’s former house is located at 110 Stone Canyon Road in Bel-Air.