Jeff Malene’s House From Girls Just Want To Have Fun

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Got a call from fellow stalker Chas last week, who told me that he had finally received his Girls Just Want To Have Fun  Netflix rental in the mail.  Chas was calling me up to ask if I wanted any other locations from the movie found – besides SJP’s ubiquitous apartment building, of course.  I believe my exact answer to his question was “Um, yeah, ALL OF THEM!”  LOL  So, this past week Chas set about locating every single GJWTHF  filming location.  And I am happy to report that he came through – big time!  One location that I was absolutely DYING to stalk was the small house belonging to siblings Jeff  and Maggie Malene (aka Lee Montgomery and Shannen Doherty) in the movie.  I did not have high hopes for this location, though, as I was convinced that it had been torn down in the twenty-four years since GJWTHF  had been filmed.  Thankfully, Chas proved that theory wrong, though, when he located the house just outside of South Pasadena on Friday.  YAY!

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So, I, of course, immediately ran right out to stalk it!  🙂  And I am EXTREMELY happy to report that aside from the paint color and a new porch railing, the GJWTHF  house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1985 when the movie was filmed!   🙂  I was absolutely STUNNED that all these years later the house would still be so recognizable.  So cool!  I do have to say, though, that Jeff Malene’s house is actually a lot bigger in person than I imagined it would be.  For some reason, onscreen it appeared to be much smaller than it actually is.  Standing there on Friday, looking at this small, relatively nondescript home, I couldn’t help but think to myself ‘How in the HECK did Chas find this location amidst the millions of other homes in L.A.?’  It’s incredible – just incredible!

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Amazingly enough, even Jeff’s neighbor’s house still looks very much the same today as how it appeared in the movie.  As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, although the two downstairs windows have changed a bit, the upstairs window still looks exactly the same. 

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Jeff’s house shows up several times throughout Girls Just Want To Have Fun, most notably the front yard area where Jeff practices doing flips to impress SJP.

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The garage area where Jonathan Silverman and Lee Montgomery play basketball in the beginning of the movie also looks exactly the same, but unfortunately, thanks to a fence standing in my way, I couldn’t get a good picture of it.  🙁

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I highly recommend stalking the GJWTHF  house to all fans of the ’80s flick!  I can’t tell you how cool it was to be seeing that house in person all these years later!

As always, a big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Jeff Malene’s house from Girls Just Want To Have Fun  is located at 6511 Pollard Street in Los Angeles, just off of Avenue 64.

The Girls Just Want To Have Fun Apartment Building!!

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As I sit here writing this I am in shock – absolute shock.  This morning at around 10 O’clock I got a phone call from fellow stalker Chas who had some news to share with me, some very big news!  Are you all sitting down for this????  Chas was calling me up to tell me that HE HAD FOUND THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN  APARTMENT BUILDING!   No, that was not a major typo, you did just read that last sentence correctly!!!!  Chas, who I am now probably going to name my first born after, actually FOUND THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN  APARTMENT BUILDING!!!!  For those who are new to my blog, the large brick apartment building that Sarah Jessica Parker lived at in fave ’80s movie Girls Just Want To Have Fun is for me the absolute Holy Grail of filming locations, the one location I have spent YEARS looking for but could NOT for the life of me find, the one spot that I was sure I would go to my grave still wondering about.   And Chas FOUND IT!  In record time, too!

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I only set Chas on the mission of finding the GJWHF  apartment this past Sunday night and being that I have spent YEARS searching for it, it is absolutely unbelievable to me that he located it in a record TWO days!  And the guy doesn’t even live in the L.A. area!!!!  He has to have ESP or something!  It’s a gift, I tell ya!   And, oh yeah, did I mention that he has NEVER EVEN SEEN THE MOVIE!  LOL  After seeing the ONE screen capture of the building I had posted online, Chas got an inkling as to where it might be located.  And sure enough, minutes later, he found it – right where he thought it would be!  Totally mind-blowing!  What’s even more amazing to me is that he recognized the building using aerial images, as the bird’s eye view of it (pictured above) does not look at all like how I pictured it to be.  Because of the angle at which the apartment was always shown in the movie, I was under the impression that it was a U-shaped structure surrounding a grassy courtyard. 

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In reality, though, the GJWHF  apartment building is made up of four separate matching buildings which surround a grassy courtyard.   The two rear buildings have a large space running in between them which was not visible in the movie.  

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Pretty much immediately after Chas told me the good news, I ran right out to FINALLY stalk the GJWHF  apartment!   And I have to say that seeing it in person was heaven – absolute heaven – for me!  I honestly never believed the day would come when I would actually be able to STALK THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN  APARTMENT BUILDING!!!  My biggest fear was that the place had been torn down, so, to see it in person today was INCREDIBLE!  I honestly could NOT have been more excited!!!!!  And while the apartment does look slightly different today than how it appeared in GJWHF, what’s amazing to me is how little has actually changed in the twenty-four years since filming took place!!!  For the most part, the building looks EXACTLY the same as it did in 1985 when GJWHF  was filmed.  

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The main changes occured in the building’s courtyard area, where the walkway and foliage now look quite different than how they appeared in the movie.  But other than that, the rest of the building looks virtually identical to how it appeared onscreen back in 1985!  And it was so very cool to see it all in person!

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This morning, when Chas first told me he had found the much-coveted apartment building, I was in absolute and total shock.  My first thought was ‘What in the heck am I going to do with all of my free time?’   LOL  You see, for the past year and a half, anytime I’ve had a free moment or two, instead of picking up a magazine or turning on the TV, I’d hop on Google Maps and search for the ever-elusive GJWHF  apartment building.   And anytime I’d drive through a new neighborhood, I’d crane my neck looking down each and every side street hoping against hope I’d randomly stumble upon it.  So, to be honest, seeing that building in person today was a bit of a bittersweet moment for me.   As excited as I was, I couldn’t help but wonder (subtle SJP reference there) what in the heck I am going to do with myself now!!  LOL LOL LOL I feel like a mountain climber who spends years training to climb Mount Everest, finally makes it to the top, and then wonders ‘Now what?’   The Girls Just Want To Have Fun  apartment was my definitely my Mount Everest.  🙂   I have no doubt, though, that it won’t be long before I come up against a new hard-to-find location that will keep me up for many a night!  🙂

Big  Huge THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Girls Just Want To Have Fun  apartment building is located at ( WOW I never thought I’d be writing those words!) 511-517 South Mariposa Avenue in Los Angeles.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

I have been an SJP fan since looooooooong before Sex and the City premiered. Back in grade school, my friend Nat introduced me to a little 80s flick starring Sarah Jessica Parker called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and from that moment on I have been absolutely obsessed. Along with my other fave 80s movie, License to Drive, I literally think I watched Girls Just Wanna Have Fun at least once a week throughout my childhood. For those who have never seen it, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is a little bit Dirty Dancing, a little bit So You Think You Can Dance, with a little bit of The Cutting Edge mixed in – what more could you ask for? 🙂 The movie is also CHOCK full of stars. Besides SJP, GJWHF co-starred Jonathan Silverman, Helen Hunt and my all time fave, Brenda Walsh herself, Shannen Doherty! So can’t wait for 90210 2.0 to premiere, but I digress. Anyway, I grew up believing that all of GJWHF was filmed in and around the Chicago area. So last week when I discovered that some filming took place at John Marshall High School, I decided to dig a little further to see if I could find some other LA locations from the movie. And I am happy to report that I was successful! 🙂

In the very beginning of the movie, Helen Hunt takes SJP with her on a babysitting job so that the two of them can watch “DanceTV” together. While watching the scene where the girls walk to the house where they are to babysit, I noticed a street sign in the background which said “200 S. Plymouth Blvd”. So I did a little Zillow stalking and it turns out that there IS a South Plymouth Boulevard in Los Angeles. In that scene, the girls walk past a HUGE brick house on a large corner lot before making their way to their babysitting job at the house next door. When I zoomed in on Zillow to see a larger view of the homes on Plymouth Boulevard, I spotted the large brick house the girls walk past! So I immediately hopped in my car and set out to stalk the place in person. 🙂

Pulling up to the house, I could not have been more excited. It’s pretty silly actually, as only one very brief scene took place at this location, but I was floored just the same! I felt like I was one step closer to finding the brick apartment building SJP’s character lived at in the movie – a location I have always wanted to stalk!

I am happy to report that the large brick house looked exactly the same as it did 23 years ago when filming took place. The home is very beautiful in person and it’s easy to see why filmmakers chose to use it in GJWHF as it definitely looks like it would be located in a midwest suburb.

The Plymouth Boulevard street sign that gave me my big stalking clue as to the home’s location is also still in the same exact spot it was during filming. 🙂

After stalking the brick home, I made my way next door to stalk the house where HH and SJP babysat. Although only the front porch area of the home was shown during filming, it was easy to see that it was the same house used in GJWHF. You will notice the house number “217” in the background of the above screen capture. Those same gold house numbers are still there in real life. 🙂

My next stalking mission is to find SJP’s apartment from the movie (pictured in above screen capture). Does it look familiar to anyone?? I have a feeling that this location is going to keep me up at night for the next few weeks. 🙂

For those who have not seen Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, I highly recommend renting it. It is a GREAT 80s movie and just as much fun to watch today as it was in 1985. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house SJP and HH walk by in the movie is located at 201 S. Plymouth Blvd. in Los Angeles. The house where the girls babysit is located next door at 217 S. Plymouth Blvd.

John Marshall High School

Last week, Mike (from MovieShotsLA) and I hit up John Marshall High School in Los Feliz for a little stalking of one of Los Angeles’ most oft filmed high schools. Mike had made an appointment to tour the school with Marshall’s resident historian, Joanna, who has been teaching at Marshall for over 30 years. Not only is Joanna a seasoned Marshall High teacher, but she also attended the school as a teenager and has a vast wealth of information about the school and its prestigious filming history.

Upon our arrival, Joanna provided us with a spreadsheet of productions filmed on campus detailing what specific areas of the school were used for each film and what each particular scene entailed. She rocks! I was most excited to find out that Marshall stood in for the Chicago Catholic all girls high school from one of my FAVE movies of all time- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun ! According to Joanna, three large white crosses were added to the roof of the high school during the filming of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, causing parents and local residents (who didn’t realize a movie was being filmed on campus) to call in and inquire about the religious symbols. The screen capture above, taken from GJWHF, didn’t come out very well as the only scene that shows the crosses on top of the school is actually a very brief scene which fades in from another causing the picture to be a bit transparent.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun filmed extensively at the school and if you watch the movie you will see it popping up quite a few times – including the scene where one of the nuns (donning a full robe and habit) performs a gymnastics routine on an outdoor vault. LOL According to Joanna, the front of the school is a very popular place for filming due to it’s gorgeous “collegiate gothic” architecture. Even though the school is actually located in Los Angeles, it has the look and feel of a Midwest or East Coast school, leading to its popularity with location scouts and producers. The school’s unique doors (pictured above in GJWHF) are usually a dead giveaway that a movie was filmed at John Marshall.

The school has been featured in literally countless movies, TV shows, and music videos. Just to name a few – Tom Hanks drove a bus for John Marshall students in Bachelor Party, Luke Perry and Kristie Swanson attended school there in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, it stood in for Dewey High on Growing Pains and John Adams High on Boy Meets World, Garth Brooks filmed a music video in the school’s auditorium, it was John Cusak’s alma mater in Grosse Pointe Blank, and the site of the therapy session between Dr. Evil and his son in Austin Powers 2. John Marshall was also featured as the high school in Can’t Hardly Wait, Pretty in Pink, Zapped!, Like Father, Like Son, True Crime, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, Boston Public, Uncle Buck, Mr. Novak, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Van Halen’s music video Hot for a Teacher was filmed in the school’s former library. And the final scene from Grease – the famous carnival scene – was filmed on the school’s football field (pictured above). According to Joanna, in one of the carnival scenes you can actually see a large “M” (for Marshall) in the background on one of the school buildings. 🙂 Whew – that’s a lot of filming! I would kill for that resume! 🙂

John Marshall, named for the former Chief Justice of the United States, opened up on January 26, 1931. The school currently has 4000 students and a faculty of 200. Famous alumni include Julie Newmar aka Catwoman, Judge Lance Ito, Heidi Fleiss, countless sports heroes and my personal fave, Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo attended the school for only one semester before landing his role on Growing Pains, which ironically filmed at John Marshall High. 🙂 Joanna said that she has been interviewed dozens of times about Mr. DiCaprio, even though his stint at Marshall was so brief. She said that most interviews were quite ridiculous as Leo only attended Marshall for a few months and therefore there just wasn’t that much to talk about. She did tell me that Leo’s counselor really liked him though. 🙂 She also said most interviewers wanted to see the auditorium where Leo would have performed had he ever acted in any Marshall High plays (which he never did). She said countless interviewers walked around the high school’s main stage saying “So he would have stood right here!” LOL

Marshall is a truly beautiful and unique school and I highly recommend stalking it. After all, chances are it has appeared in one of your favorite movies or TV shows. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: John Marshall High School is located at 3939 Tracey Avenue in Los Feliz.