Villapiano’s from “That Thing You Do!”

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One That Thing You Do! location that I had been trying to track down for what seemed like ages was the red-boothed Italian restaurant that stood in for Villapiano’s, the “spaghetti place out by the airport,” in the 1996 flick.  Thankfully, a couple of months ago, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, tracked down and put me in touch with one of the movie’s crew members who informed me that the eatery I was searching for was the now-defunct Palomino Club in North Hollywood.  While the hot spot closed almost two full decades ago and is currently operating as a special events venue, a quick gander at Google Street View showed me that the exterior was still recognizable from That Thing You Do!, so I ran right out to stalk it while visiting L.A. a few weeks back.

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The Palomino Club was originally founded in 1949 by country music singer Hank Penny.  At the time, the space located at 6907 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood was a rundown, vacant former saloon named the Mulekick that Hank described looking like “death warmed over.”  After driving by the abandoned site one day, he decided it would be the perfect spot to open a western bar/music venue.  The name Palomino Club was inspired from the tag in a shirt Penny had recently purchased.  The establishment took off and soon became far too popular for Hank, who was still a working musician, to manage, so he sold it to Bill and Tom Thomas in 1952.  The brothers continued to grow the business and it wasn’t long before it became what the Los Angeles Times referred to as “country music’s most important West Coast club.”  Just a few of the luminaries who played there over the years include Barbara Mandrell, Patsy Cline, Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Linda Ronstadt, Dwight Yoakum, the Red Hot Chili Peppers (police had to shut the place down during that concert!), Elton John, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Elvis Costello and Glenn Campbell.

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After the passing of Bill in 1979 and Tom in 1985, the Palomino Club started to decline and it was finally shuttered in September 1995.  At some point thereafter it became Le Monge Banquet Hall, an events venue specializing in continental, Mexican, Russian, Armenian and Persian foods.

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The Palomino Club popped up twice as Villapiano’s, the spot where The Wonders played their first two paid gigs, in That Thing You Do!

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The exterior of the site has changed a bit in the years since the movie was filmed, as you can see in the screen captures and photographs pictured above and below.

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Although the shape of the signage remains the same, thankfully.  (Nice graffiti!  Winking smile)

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As depicted in That Thing You Do!, the Palomino Club originally had two front doors, one of which has since been covered over.  That door’s former location is denoted with a pink arrow below.  You can almost still see the outline of it.

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The interior of the Palomino Club was also shown in That Thing You Do!  Unfortunately, the woman working at Le Monge Banquet Hall at the time that I showed up to stalk the place would not let me take any photographs of the inside.  You can check out what it currently looks like here, though.  As you can see, the interior is not at all recognizable from its silver screen appearance.

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That Thing You Do! was hardly the Palomino Club’s first brush with Hollywood.  The property has been featured onscreen countless times over the years.  In the 1971 film Minnie and Moskowitz, the establishment’s parking lot was where a reluctant Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) danced with her new paramour, Seymour Moskowitz (Seymour Cassel).

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In the classic 1978 comedy Every Which Way But Loose, the Palomino Club was featured repeatedly as trucker/prize fighter Philo Beddoe’s (Clint Eastwood) regular hangout.

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The interior was also shown throughout the movie.

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The Palomino Club also popped up in Every Which Way But Loose’s 1980 sequel, Any Which Way You Can.

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The interior of the bar was used in the sequel, as well.  And yes, that is a chimpanzee drinking beer in the second screen capture below.

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In 1978’s The Other Side of the Mountain: Part II, the Palomino Club played the local Bishop, California hangout of John Boothe (Timothy Bottoms).

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The interior of the club was featured in the movie, as well.

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The Palomino was where Jake Hanson (Grant Show) rescued Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) from some rowdy bar patrons in the Season 3 episode of Melrose Place titled “And the Winner Is,” which aired in 1995.

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The bar’s interior was also used in the episode.

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In the 1996 comedy Sgt. Bilko, the Palomino Club stood in for the Rusty Spur where Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko (Steve Martin) took Rita Robbins (Gleanne Headly) dancing.

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The interior of the club also appeared in the movie.

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The Palomino Club was apparently featured in 1969’s From Nashville with Music and 1978’s Hooper, as well, but I could not find a copy of either production with which to make screen captures for this post.

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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.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for helping me to find this locale!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Villapiano’s (by the airport) from That Thing You Do! was actually the now-defunct Palomino Club, formerly located at 6907 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood.  The site is now a special events venue named Le Monge Banquet Hall.  You can visit its official website here.

Shooters Bar & Grill from “Melrose Place”

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One location that had been on my “To Stalk” list pretty much ever since I first moved to Southern California over twelve years ago was Fellini’s “Old Country” Italian restaurant – the Hollywood-area eatery that stood in for Shooters Bar & Grill on the 1992 Beverly Hills, 90210-spinoff Melrose Place.  And while I was never a huge fan of the series (I think I was a bit too young for it as most of the storylines went right over my head), I did watch the entire first season and the pool hall/bar where the characters regularly hung out was a place that I had always wanted to see in person.  For whatever reason, though, I had just never made it out there.  So, while Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were out doing some stalking in the Hollywood area two weeks ago, I suggested that we stop by.  Sadly, this was a bit of a disappointing stalk for both of us, though, as the site has changed drastically since filming took place and is virtually unrecognizable from its weekly onscreen appearances as Shooters on Melrose Place.

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Unfortunately, I could not find much information online about the history of Fellini’s, which is surprising being that the establishment seemed to be something of a Hollywood landmark and was around for almost two full decades.  According to this December 1987 Los Angeles Times article, Fellini’s, which was named in honor of the legendary Italian film director Federico Fellini, was founded in 1976 by a man named Gary Michael Gilson.  The portion of the building that stood in for Shooters was not actually a part of the original restaurant, but was added in 1982 when Gilson decided to expand into a vacant former antique shop located next door.  During its heyday, such stars as Bonnie Raitt and Dennis Quaid were said to not only have hung out there, but were even known to jump up on the eatery’s tiny stage and sing a few tunes from time to time.  Fellini’s ended up shutting its doors sometime in the late ‘80s, at which point it was transformed into a short-lived nightclub named Trinity that closed after less than a year.  The establishment was then purchased by new owners and was reopened once again as Fellini’s, but not until 1993, so it seems that at the time Melrose Place was first filmed, the site was vacant.  I am not sure when Fellini’s officially closed for the second time, but in mid-2010 the place housed a furniture store, as you can see in these photographs on the Daveland blog here.  The storefront, which has since been painted a drab blue-grey color, currently houses MUSE Atelier hair salon.

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The exterior of Fellini’s showed up weekly on Melrose Place throughout the series’ seven-season run.  You can check out some pictures of what Fellini’s used to look like when it was still in business here and a close-up of its doors here.  As you can see in the photographs, not much was changed for the filming of Melrose Place.  Sadly, that is not the case today.  Gone are the familiar black awning, peach-colored paint, and arched double windows.  Today, the storefront is a bleak reminder of its former self.  As Mike said to me while we there, “This place looks like a morgue!”  LOL  Why the new owners would take a formerly very cute façade – not to mention a historic filming location – and turn it into something dismal is beyond me.

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While we were there, Mike did notice that some markings from the former arched double windows were still visible on the exterior of the building.  I SO love when there is some remnant, no matter how small, still in existence on filming locations that have been drastically altered.  So incredibly cool!

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While scanning through episodes of Melrose Place to make screen captures for today’s post, I noticed that something was not quite right about the close-up shots of Shooters’ front doors, and I came to the conclusion that a set of the entrance area had been created for all of the close-up filming.

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As you can see in the above screen captures, the wall just to the left of the Shooters’ awning is popped out in the close-up view, but not in the faraway shot.

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And in the close-up shot, the window to the left of the awning has no ornamentation surrounding it, but in the faraway shot it does.

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Being that, in real life, the façade of the building is flat and does have ornamentation surrounding its side window, the only explanation is that a replica of the entrance was created on a soundstage at Santa Clarita Studios in Valencia where the series was lensed for all of the close-up shots.  (You can see a pretty cool picture of the original Melrose Place apartment set on the Santa Clarita Studios website here.)

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The interior of Shooters was also just a set and, from what I read online, it did not at all resemble the dark wood-paneled, Old World-style of the real life Fellini’s.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have been able to have seen that place in person!

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And while Fellini’s was used almost entirely for establishing shots on Melrose Place, some actual filming did take place there.  In the pilot episode of the series, Jake Hanson (Grant Show) takes Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) on a date at Shooters and the two are shown pulling up to the front of the restaurant on Jake’s motorcycle.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for taking me to this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The former Fellini’s restaurant (now MUSE Atelier salon), aka Shooters Bar & Grill from the original Melrose Place, is located at 6808/6810 Melrose Avenue, just west of North Highland Avenue, in Hollywood.