Falcon Crest – IAMNOTASTALKER

June 28, 2017June 26, 2017

The Gilmore Mansion from “Gilmore Girls”

While I realize this may be considered blasphemy in some circles, I have never really watched Gilmore Girls. On paper, the show definitely looks like something that would appeal to me, but for whatever reason, I failed to tune in when it originally started airing in 2000. At the behest of fellow stalker/Gilmore Girls aficionado Chas, from the It’s Filmed There website, I finally viewed six or so episodes early last year, but the series just didn’t hook me. Don’t get me wrong – GG is not bad or unentertaining by any means. I just can’t seem to get into it – which I think is largely due to the fact that the show boasts 7 seasons, 153 episodes, and a 4-part reboot. That’s a lot of binge-watching to get through. It’s kind of overwhelming to even think about. Despite my viewing neglect, I do know quite a bit about the series’ locations, thanks both to Chas and the fact that I’ve gone on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, where GG was mainly lensed, countless times. One locale I did not know about – heck, not even Chas knew about it – was the home used for establishing shots of the Gilmore mansion, aka the stately pad where Richard (Edward Herrmann) and Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop) lived.

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It is pretty common knowledge among Gilmore Girls fans – and regular Warner Bros. tourgoers such as myself – that the exterior of the Gilmore mansion was a façade built inside of a soundstage on the studio lot. So imagine Chas’ surprise when he received an email from Thomas Pucher, of the Falcon Crest website, a couple of months back informing him that said façade was modeled after the exterior of an actual house – a handsome 1924 French Provincial Revival-style manse located in Pasadena. Not only that, but actual footage of the dwelling was used in establishing shots of the Gilmore residence during Season 1.

In real life, the massive 5-bedroom, 7-bath, 8,124-square-foot property, which sits on a 0.74-acre lot, is known as the William R. Staats House.

It was designed by the Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury architecture firm for real estate developer William Staats, who worked with Henry Huntington in developing Pasadena.

The William R. Staats House was not the only mansion utilized as the Gilmore home on Gilmore Girls. In fact, the tale of Richard and Emily’s residence is a bit of a long one. The GG pilot was lensed largely in Toronto, Canada and its environs, with a few re-shoots done on the Warner Bros. Studio backlot. In the pilot, a dwelling at 61 Binscarth Road masked as the Gilmore mansion.

The interior of the Binscarth Road pad was also utilized in the pilot.

Once Gilmore Girls got picked up, production moved to Los Angeles. Virtually all series filming took place at Warner Bros. GG is not a show that left the lot very often. One of the few non-studio locales utilized was the William R. Staats House. The exterior of the residence was first featured in the Season 1 episode titled “Kill Me Now.”

The exterior also appeared in “Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers.”

While I knew that the studio-built façade was also utilized during Season 1, because I don’t watch the show, I was unsure of which bits were shot at the real house and which were shot on set. Enter my friend/guest poster extraordinaire Michael (you can read his many IAMNOTASTALKER articles here). Michael is a big fan of GG, so I passed the information about the Staats House along to him. He wound up reviewing several Season 1 episodes and came to the conclusion that the Pasadena pad only appeared in establishing shots a couple of times on the series and that all of the scenes that took place in front of the Gilmore mansion involving actors were lensed at the set re-creation. It was easy for him to distinguish between the real home and the façade based on three factors – the façade bricks are much whiter and flatter than those of the real house, the studio re-creation bushes are much taller than those of the real home, and, most telling of all, the set mansion does not have a threshold, while the real house does.

As Michael further explained, “In the first season they keep pretty close to the door. I assume they hadn’t built much of the exterior at that point. Then in the second season, the front driveway set is expanded, ivy is added to the facade, and a second light is added next to the door, all deviating from the Pasadena location.”

Though some commenters on this recent Reddit post about the Gilmore mansion speculate that the actual interior of the Staats House was utilized during Season 1, that is incorrect. Once the series was picked up, a set replica of the interior of the Toronto residence used in the pilot was constructed. Said set was featured from the second episode, titled “The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton” (pictured below), through the end of the series – though it was altered a bit over the years. As creator Amy Sherman-Palladino explained during Entertainment Weekly’s PopFest in October 2016, “We always had this issue with the Gilmore house where we didn’t have a lot of money that first season, so it was a little tiny, and it kinda looked like Ed [Herrmann] was in a doll house. He was a very tall man, and the next year we had a little bit more money, so we could make a room a little bigger every year.”

The enlarged Gilmore mansion interior from Season 2 is pictured below.

As Thomas informed Chas, the Staats House also popped up in two Season 5 episodes of Falcon Crest as the Monte Carlo chateau where Peter Stavros (Cesar Romero) was held prisoner. It first appeared in “Gambit Exposed.”

The interior of the property was also shown in the episode and, as you can see, it does not look anything like the Gilmore mansion.

The Staats House then appeared in the subsequent Falcon Crest episode, titled “Finders and Losers.”

Thanks to Chas, I also learned that the Staats House masked as the home of Richard Montana (Balthazar Getty) in the Season 6 episode of Charmed titled “Love’s a Witch.”

The episode affords us a fabulous look at the interior of the residence.

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

Big THANK YOU to Thomas Pucher, from the Falcon Crest website, for finding this location and to Chas, from It’s Filmed There, for telling me about it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Richard and Emily Gilmore’s mansion from Gilmore Girls is located at 293 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.

November 13, 2015January 20, 2016

The Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West from “Falcon Crest”

For years now, I have been trying to track down the bank where Terry Dolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) worked in the 1986 comedy Jumpin’ Jack Flash. It is one of those locations that always sits fixed at the back of my mind, images of it constantly floating around in my head. So when I came across photographs of the Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West, which bears a striking resemble to the bank where Terry worked, on a Noirish Los Angeles forum, my heart caught in my throat! I was on vacation at the time and, unfortunately, did not have my Jumpin’ Jack Flash DVD on hand to make comparisons, but was fairly certain I had found the right spot. My parade was rained on as soon as I got home, though, when I popped in my DVD and fairly quickly realized the two banks were not one and the same. I decided to stalk Bank of the West anyway in the hopes that researching it might help me to eventually locate the Jumpin’ Jack Flash bank. So far, my quest has not been fruitful. Hence this post. I am now putting it out there to my fellow stalkers. If any of you happen to recognize the place or want to get in on the hunt, please let me know!

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In the Noirish Los Angeles thread, a commenter named T.J.P. had asked for help in identifying a bank that had appeared in the Season 6 episode of Falcon Crest titled “Perilous Charm” (screen captures from the episode, in which the property masked as San Francisco Merchant Bank, are pictured below). Forum member Tovangar2 quickly recognized the place as the former First Trust Bank Building, now Bank of the West, located at 587 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Another commenter named HossC then posted a link to photos of the interior of the building and it was those photos that had me so intrigued.

In Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Terry works at First National Bank in Manhattan. Now, I should start off by saying that I am unsure if the bank used in the movie is in New York or Los Angeles, being that filming took place in both cities. I am leaning towards L.A., though – at least for the interior scenes. I am also leaning towards the idea that two different locations might have been utilized as Terry’s bank – one for exteriors and another for interiors. But that is just a guess. Sadly, with this one, I am just not sure about anything.

While I am fairly certain that the bullpen where Terry worked was a set (as evidenced by the fact that it got shot up at the end of the movie) . . .

. . . I believe that the interior of First National Bank is a real location.

The photo of Bank of the West that HossC posted that originally caught my eye was of a large stone staircase, one that I thought was a match to the staircase shown in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Upon closer inspection, though, I realized the two had some differences. I am not used to seeing staircases in banks, so the one featured in JJF always stuck out to me. What I wouldn’t give to see it in person! If it, or the interior of the bank looks familiar to anyone, please let me know!

In the meantime, the Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West is a pretty spectacular property in and of itself. The eight-story Italian Renaissance-style building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed in 1927 by architects Cyril Bennett and Fitch Haskell.

While the cast stone and stucco exterior makes for a stately and imposing site, it belies nothing of the bank’s stunning interior. The inside of the building is marked by tall walnut wood paneling, travertine walls, and towering stone columns. The gorgeous gilt coffered ceiling was painted by John Smeraldi, the same artist who painted much of the interior of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The Sicilian-born painter, who is likewise known for his work at the Vatican and The White House, is so synonymous with the Biltmore, in fact, that the property named its signature restaurant “Smeraldi’s” in his honor. Bank of the West also boasts four murals created by American Impressionist painter Alson S. Clark. Because the property is a working bank, I felt a little odd about taking photographs of the interior, but if you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping by for a peek. It is absolutely gorgeous!

Besides being featured in Falcon Crest, Bank of the West also appeared in the pilot episode of Undercovers as the bank where Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) attempted to steal security footage. I apologize for the subpar screen captures pictured below – I could not find a copy of the episode anywhere and had to take snaps from a preview of it on YouTube.

The super-nice teller that I spoke with while I was stalking the place informed me that a movie starring John Travolta was also lensed on the premises about twenty years ago, but she was unsure of the name of the film or what it was about.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Pasadena Main Branch of Bank of the West, from the “Law and Ardor” episode of Falcon Crest, is located at 587 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

October 8, 2014September 29, 2017

The Chandler Estate from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”

The Chandlers are widely considered to be one of L.A.’s “first families.” Patriarch Harry not only served as publisher of the Los Angeles Times for 27 years, but was largely responsible for developing the San Fernando Valley, the Hollywood Hills and Dana Point in the O.C., as well. He was also instrumental in the construction of some of the city’s most famous structures including the Biltmore Hotel, the Hollywood Bowl, the California Institute of Technology and the Los Angeles Coliseum. So when I found out that his Los Feliz estate had been used in the 1956 science fiction thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I ran right out to stalk the place.

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The 8,891-square-foot, red-brick, Georgian-style manse was built from 1914 to 1916 and boasts 24 rooms, including eight bedrooms and four baths, a two-story entrance hall, a library, a solarium, a butler’s pantry, a pool, a detached four-car garage, and a one-bedroom guesthouse. Sadly, outside of a long tree-lined driveway, little else of the place is visible to the public. The views from the street out front are pretty darn spectacular, though.

An aerial view of the Chandler estate is pictured below. As you can see, it is quite impressive. You can also check out some close-up and interior photographs of the pad here.

After Harry Chandler passed away in 1944, his wife Marian continued to live at the mansion until her own death in 1952. The Chandler family held onto the property for quite some time and in 1972 leased it at a rate of $1,000 a month to the Source Family (the cult that operated The Source Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, which I blogged about here). During their time there, the Source Family dubbed the estate “Mother House.” The Chandler’s opted not to renew the group’s lease after the first year, so in 1973 the Family moved elsewhere. In September 2008, the mansion was put on the market for $6,799,000. There were no takers, though, and in January of the following year the price was dropped to $5.499 million. The residence finally sold in October 2009 for $3,696,000.

It is well-documented online that the Chandler estate served as the home of Jack Belicec (King Donovan) and his wife, Theodora (Carolyn Jones), in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Having scanned through the flick in preparation for this post, though, I cannot say with certainty that the reports are correct. So little of the house can been seen in the movie that it is virtually impossible to confirm or deny the location.

It has also been reported on several Invasion of the Body Snatchers websites and message boards that the Chandler estate was demolished sometime after filming took place. I think what led to that assumption is the fact that most sites list the address of the residence as 2330 Hillhurst Avenue. There is no such address is Los Feliz. The Chandler estate is actually located at 2411 Inverness Avenue. But as you can see below, both addresses point to the same spot, which leads me to believe that the home was originally numbered 2330 Hillhurst. In its early days, the Chandler estate boasted five acres. The majority of the land was sold off over the years, though, and the residence currently sits on 0.83 acres. I am guessing that the address was changed to 2411 Inverness at some point due to that division of land, leading Invasion fans to believe that the residence was no longer. Thankfully though, it is still standing in its original state.

The interior of the Belicec home was also shown in two Invasion of the Body Snatchers scenes, but I am uncertain if the the Chandler estate’s actual interior (if filming did, in fact, take place there) was used or a set. I am leaning toward the latter, though.

In 1985, the estate was used in a few Season 4 episodes of Falcoln Crest as the home of Gustav Riebmann (Paul Fremann), although very little of it could be seen in the episodes.

The Chandler estate was also where Matthew Winfield (a very young George Clooney) hid out in the Season 3 episode of Hunter titled “Double Exposure,” which aired in 1987. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property appeared in the episode.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Chandler estate, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is located at 2411 Inverness Avenue in Los Feliz.