Boris Karloff’s Former Home

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The Haunting of Hill House is giving me life right now!  To say I am obsessed with the spooky new Netflix original series would be an understatement.  I am currently only five episodes in (so no spoilers please!), but am absolutely mesmerized by the storyline, the characters, the actors (it is amazing how much the child stars resemble their adult counterparts!), and the locations.  Sadly, it was filmed in Georgia (the eponymous house is actually Bisham Manor in LaGrange), so I won’t be stalking its locales anytime soon, but when I brought the show up to my grandma recently, she mentioned that the most frightening movie she had ever seen was the original Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff as The Monster.  She first watched the 1931 classic as a child and said it absolutely terrified her and still does to this day.  The conversation reminded me that I had stalked Karloff’s former residence a few years back, but had failed to blog about it.  I learned about the pad thanks to my friend Scott Michaels’ 2013 article for Discover L.A. titled “The 13 Scariest Places in Los Angeles,” in which he wrote, “Frankenstein’s monster thespian Boris Karloff was a gentleman who had a passion for gardening.  He was especially proud of his rose garden.  Legend has it that several of Karloff’s friends willed their cremains to him, so they could permanently reside in his rose bed.”  So the actor who played what is arguably moviedom’s most famous monster supposedly buried the ashes of multiple friends in his yard?  There couldn’t be a more appropriate locale for my Haunted Hollywood posts!  I honestly don’t know how the place sat in my stalking backlog for so long.  Thank you, Grandma, for reminding me about it!

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Though I was most interested in the 1927 Spanish-style hacienda thanks to its Karloff connection, it turns out that the property’s macabre history dates back prior to his ownership.  In July 1923, the place was leased by Katharine Hepburn, who had just won a role in A Bill of Divorcement which prompted a move from the East Coast to the West.  Per the book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, written by my buddy E.J. from The Movieland Directory, she lived in the dwelling with best friend, actress Eve March, and a family maid.  All soon became convinced the pad, most notably the pool apartment, was haunted.  E.J. writes, “One night March watched the door latch open and close by itself, and the next day Hepburn and March watched a ghostly man walk from the pool into the apartment, closing the door behind him.  The first time Hepburn’s younger brother Richard stayed overnight, he told her that a young man stood over his bed all night staring down at him.  He was too afraid to move until sunrise.”  Because of the hauntings, Katharine did not stay on the premises long, moving out in 1934 at which point Karloff (real name William Henry Pratt) moved in with his wife, Dorothy.

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The property quickly became his paradise.  During his tenure, Boris kept a menagerie of animals on the grounds including a tortoise, ducks, chickens, six dogs, a cow, a parrot, and a 400-pound pig named Violet.  In the book Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration, author Gregory William Mank says, “For Karloff, home was his Mexican farmhouse — a bizarre aerie, high amidst the oak trees and honeysuckle of Coldwater Canyon, in the mountains above Beverly Hills.  Twenty-three twenty Bowmont Drive, with its pool and beautiful, rambling gardens, previously had been the address of Katharine Hepburn.  The actress sincerely believed a ghost haunted the house, moving the furniture, jiggling the latch on Ms. Hepburn’s bedroom door and looming over the guest bed — so terrifying Hepburn’s brother Richard that he couldn’t sleep ‘one single night’ during his visit.  After Kate’s friend Laura Harding tried to have her dogs ferret out the ghost — to no avail — Hepburn vacated, and Boris and Dorothy had moved into the haunted hacienda in the spring of 1934.  ‘We felt rather sorry for the ghost,’ said Laura Harding — after all, the spirit had likely met its match in the star who’d played Frankenstein’s Monster!  Perhaps Boris scared away the ghost, or maybe they were kindred spirits, for the star loved his ‘little farm.’”

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Indeed he did.  Dorothy and Boris created an oasis at the home, which at the time boasted a sprawling 2.5 acres of land, planting laurel and eucalyptus trees (which still line the property to this day), farming a massive fruit orchard, landscaping a rambling lawn, and cultivating a plethora of terraced gardens including a large rose garden with more than 20 varieties of the flower.  It is there that Karloff is said to have sprinkled the remains of more than one friend, which I can presume only added to the hauntings.  As Mank relayed to the Los Angeles Times in 1995, Boris buried “under the roses the cremated remains of old stock-company cronies whose last wish was to rest in their now-famous friend’s Eden.”  A supremely bizarre request, especially considering the actor’s horror background, but I guess the heart wants what the heart wants.

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Karloff lived on the premises until his divorce from Dorothy in 1946.  The majority of the land surrounding the hacienda was subsequently subdivided, leaving behind a much smaller 0.95-acre lot.  Today, the pad boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, 4,984 square feet, white-washed masonry walls, tile and hardwood flooring throughout, beamed ceilings, multiple patios and courtyards, a whopping SIX fireplaces including one outside, an exterior pizza oven, a chef’s kitchen, a pool, maid’s quarters, a wine cellar, a bar, a library, a tiled staircase, a den, and a sun room.  The residence, which you can see photos of here, is absolutely exquisite!  It very closely resembles the La Quinta Resort & Club, at least how the hotel looked prior to its recent (and unfortunate) remodel.  Sadly, outside of the front gate and garage (pictured below via Google Street View), virtually none of the estate is visible from the road.  (Because the latter is situated quite a distance up from the former, I did not realize it was part of the Karloff residence when I was stalking the place and failed to snap photos of it.)

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As I’ve said before, though, that’s why God created aerial views.

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Several other stars have called the Bowmont pad home over the years, including rocker Eric Burdon, who also reportedly moved out due to the hauntings, and director Gottfried Reinhardt.  Per The Movieland Directory, producer Leland Hayward and his wife, actress Margaret Sullavan, lived on the premises at one point, as well.  But the home’s storied pedigree doesn’t end there!  Realtor Elaine Young told People magazine in 1991 that the property, which she was responsible for leasing out during the many years it belonged to Producers Studio head Fred Jordan, has a “quasi-demonic history.”  LOVE IT.  Young says, “Donovan [Leitch] leased it and did something to the toilet paper rack.  Elliott Gould leased it and threw the furniture in the pool.  Everybody did something.”  Jordon sold to Frasier actress Peri Gilpin in 2003 who subsequently sold to Friends writers/producers Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan in 2007.  Per Yolanda’s Little Black Book, the abode is currently owned by producer John Goldwyn and his husband Jeffrey Klein, who bought it for $7.3 million in 2015.  Despite the multiple changes of hand, the dwelling apparently remains largely in its original state because in Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, Mank writes, “ . . . a recent owner relates that a late-in-life Katharine Hepburn (who died in 2003) suddenly appeared one day without warning, mysteriously dressed in black and inspecting the house and grounds.  ‘Well,’ said Hepburn to the owner, ‘I’m glad to see you haven’t f*cked the place up!’”

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

Big THANK YOU to Scott Michaels, of the Find A Death website, for writing about this location and to my Grandma for reminding me of it!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Boris Karloff’s former house is located at 2320 Bowmont Drive in Beverly Crest.

The House Where Nick Adams Died

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As I have mentioned a few times over the past couple of months, fellow stalker E.J., from The Movieland Directory website, recently published an e-book about Old Hollywood titled Unscripted: Hollywood Back-Stories, Volume 1 (which you can purchase on Nook here and on Kindle here).  The book, which I devoured in less than a day, features countless historical locations, one of which – the Beverly Hills house where Rebel-Without-a-Cause actor Nick Adams was found dead in 1968 under “mysterious and still-unexplained” circumstances – I thought would be perfect for my Haunted Hollywood postings.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there just a few days later.

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While I have never actually seen Rebel Without a Cause (I know, I know – and I call myself a stalker!), Unscripted features an entire chapter dedicated to the flick and the premature death of four of its young stars.  [James Dean passed away in a car crash on September 30th, 1955 at the age of 24.  Sal Mineo was stabbed to death in 1976 at age 37 in what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong.  Natalie Wood famously drowned off the island of Catalina at the age of 41 in 1981.  (You can read my blog posts on the hotel where she stayed the night before her death here and the restaurant where she ate one of her last meals here.)  And Nick Adams was found dead of an apparent drug overdose on February 7th, 1968.  He was 36.]  When I read the sentence, “In a bizarre coincidence, each would die tragically, at a rate of one per decade, before and after the film’s October 27, 1955 release”, I was immediately intrigued and decided that I just had to stalk Adams’ then home.

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At the time of his death, Adams, who was going through a divorce, had just returned from Rome after his latest movie, Murder in the Third Dimension, had been scrapped shortly before production was set to begin.  Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Nick rented a two-story, three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,810-square-foot Cape Cod-style residence in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills.  As the story goes, he was supposed to have dinner with his divorce lawyer, former L.A.P.D. officer Ervin “Tip” Roeder, on the night of February 7th, 1968.  When Nick failed to show up at the restaurant, Roeder headed over to the 1957-era house to check on him.  And while Roeder did not notice anything amiss, when no one answered his many knocks at the door, he headed to the back of the property, forced open a window and ventured upstairs, where he found Nick, fully clothed, sitting on the floor next to his bed, his eyes staring blankly ahead.  The actor was dead at 36.  You can see a photograph of Adams being removed from his home on the Find a Death website here.

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Nick Adams House (7 of 7)

The coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who also performed the autopsies of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate, and (coincidentally) Natalie Wood, found a lethal combination of paraldehyde (an anticonvulsant) and Promazine (an antipsychotic) in Adams’ system, which he believed would have killed the actor instantly.  His death was ruled an accidental suicide, even though, according to several sources, including John Austin’s 1970 book Hollywood’s Unsolved Mysteries and Ken Schessler’s 1997 book This is Hollywood, no pill bottles or syringes were found in the home.  Of the death, Schessler says, “To this day, police are still puzzled as to how the drugs had entered his system, as no means of ingestation were ever found near his body.”  It appears that someone’s wires got crossed somewhere along the way, though, because according to the February 8th, 1968 edition of the Los Angeles Times, “a number of stoppered bottles containing prescription drugs were in a medicine cabinet.”  Either way, the truth of Adams’ death seems to have been buried along with the young actor and the circumstances surrounding it the fodder of stalkers like me ever since.

Nick Adams House (3 of 7)

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., from The Movieland Directory website, for informing me of this location!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The house where Nick Adams died is located at 2126 El Roble Lane in Beverly Hills.

The Canfield-Moreno Estate from “Scream 3”

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One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like ages now is the Canfield-Moreno Estate – an absolutely humongous Italianate-style villa that was featured extensively in the 2000 thriller Scream 3.  I first found out about the locale thanks to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who had stalked it a few years back and, as fate would have it, had been invited onto the property and INSIDE OF THE MANSION by a caretaker to snap some pictures.  For whatever reason, though, I had just never made it out there.  Then, a few weeks ago, Mike reminded me of the site and suggested that I blog about it during my Haunted Hollywood month.  Because it is not at all visible from the street, he also kindly agreed to provide the photographs for the post.  “All you need is a pic of yourself in front of the gate,” he said, “and I’ll take care of the rest!”  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there just a few days later.

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A production of some sort was actually being filmed when the GC and I showed up to stalk the estate and the main gates were standing wide open.  Unfortunately though, as you can see below, even with the gates open, not much was visible.  So I honestly cannot thank Mike enough!  Without his pictures, this would have made for a very boring blog post.  (I ended up having to pose for a photograph in front of the mansion’s back gate as too many cars were driving in and out of the front one, making it impossible for me to stand by it.)

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The 22,000-square-foot Canfield-Moreno Estate, which is also known as The Paramour Mansion and The Crestmont, was originally constructed in 1923.  It was designed in the Mediterranean Revival-style by Robert D. Farquhar, the same architect who also designed the California Club in downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, and the William Andrews Clark Jr. Mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  The 22-room villa was commissioned by silent film star Antonio Moreno and his wife, oil heiress Daisy Canfield Danziger, after whom the residence is now known.

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During the time that Antonio and Daisy lived there, the mansion was the site of regular Sunday night soirees with many of Hollywood’s elite in attendance.

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When the couple decided to separate in 1928, they deeded the estate to the Chloe P. Canfield Memorial Home, a finishing school for girls that was founded according to Daisy’s father’s will.  Sadly, a few years later, on February 23rd, 1933, Daisy lost control of her car while on Mulholland Drive and plunged off a 300-foot cliff.  She died instantly.  Since that time, it has been rumored that her ghost haunts the mansion.

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In the 1950s, the Chloe P. Canfield Memorial Home Foundation was dissolved and the estate sold to Franciscan nuns, who turned the site into a boarding house for troubled girls.  After the residence was damaged during the Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987, the nuns vacated the property and put it up for sale.  Sadly, the once-grand mansion was left to deteriorate over the decade that followed.

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The Canfield-Moreno estate was finally purchased in 1998 by a developer named Dana Hollister for $2.25 million.  Hollister, who has an affinity for historic sites, set about restoring the mansion to its original grandeur.  She also added a recording studio to the premises and countless musicians have since recorded there, including Gwen Stefani, Papa Roach, Fiona Apple, and Sarah McLachlan.  And while Hollister’s original intention was to turn the four-and-a-half-acre site into a luxury hotel, opposition from neighbors halted that plan and it is currently being used as her primary residence.

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The ginormous Canfield-Moreno estate is comprised of a 15,388-square foot, U-shaped main house, which boasts 8 bedrooms and 8 baths, as well as several detached cottages and stables that dot the sprawling hilltop land.

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As you can see in the aerial views pictured below, the estate is absolutely gargantuan and more of a compound than a residence.

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And, as you can also see below, the place also exhibits some pretty amazing views.

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The estate’s interior boasts a Moroccan flair and, though remodeled recently, looks like it came straight out of Old Hollywood.

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Thanks to the unique look and gargantuan size of the estate, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, it has appeared in more than a few productions over the years.

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In Scream 3, the Canfield-Moreno Estate stood in for the home of Stab 3 producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen).  Both the exterior . . .

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. . . and the interior appeared in the flick.

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In 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, the estate stood in for Hillcrest Academy High School, where Keri Tate (Jamie Lee Curtis) worked.  Both the interior   . . .

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. . . and the exterior were used in the filming.  The estate’s pool was covered over for the shoot, as you can see below.

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A different location – one that I have yet to find – was used for Hillcrest Academy High School’s front gate.

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Also in 1998, the interior of the estate appeared in the music video for the R.E.M. song “At My Most Beautiful”.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

R.E.M.’s “At My Most Beautiful” Video–Filmed at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

In the Season 2 episode of Alias titled “Truth Takes Time”, which aired in 2003, the Canfield-Moreno Estate stood in for the Tuscan villa where Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) hid out with his wife, Emily Sloane (Amy Irving).

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The interior of the property was also used in the episode.

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Oddly enough, though, at one point during “Truth Takes Time”, the exterior of a different home was shown as an establishing shot of Arvin’s villa.

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In the season 3 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk and the Panic Room”, which aired in 2004, the Canfield-Moreno estate was the mansion where record producer Ian Blackburn (Stewart Finlay-McLennan) lived and was murdered – presumably by his pet chimpanzee.

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The interior of the house also appeared in the episode.

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The estate also appeared in Britney Spears’ 2004 “My Prerogative” music video, in which she crashed her Porsche into the residence’s pool.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

Britney Spears “My Prerogative” Music Video–Filmed at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

                   In 2009, the mansion appeared in the Season 4 episode of Brothers & Sisters titled “From France with Love” as a prospective wedding venue for Rebecca Harper (Emily VanCamp) and Justin Walker (Dave Annable).  While Rebecca is scouting the location with her mom, Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig), and Justin’s mom, Nora Walker (Sally Field), she realizes that a pornographic film is being shot on the premises and therefore decides to go with another venue.  LOL

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The villa was also used in the music video for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ 2011 song “If I Had a Gun”.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ “If I Had a Gun” Video–Shot at the Canfield-Moreno Estate

According to Wikipedia, the estate was also used in Rock Star: INXS, Rock Star: Supernova, Scream Queens, From G’s to Gents, Rock of Love: Charm School, Charm School with Ricki Lake, Mad Mad House, and MTV’s The X Effect, but I was, unfortunately, not able to find copies of any of the productions with which to verify that information.

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On a side-note –  The photograph of the Canfield-Moreno Estate that is pictured below, which Mike took, was actually chosen to be featured in the 2012 issue of Locations Magazine!!  How incredibly cool is that?

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The magazine . . .

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. . . and printed photograph are pictured below.  Um, LOVE IT!

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You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location and for allowing me to post his FABULOUS pictures of it here.  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Canfield -Moreno Estate from Scream 3 is located at 1923 Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake.

The Thomas W. Phillips Residence from “The People Under the Stairs”

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In his comment on my Milbank Mansion post, fellow stalker David, from The Location Scout blog, also informed me that directly across the street from the Beckett house (which I blogged about yesterday) was another famous movie location – the Thomas W. Phillips residence, which was featured extensively in The People Under the Stairs.  And even though I had never seen the 1991 horror flick, since we were right there and since I was gearing up for my annual Haunted Hollywood postings, I figured I might as well stalk the place.  And I am so glad that I did, because its façade is seriously sinister.  The residence looks like a real life haunted house and it is not hard to see why Wes Craven chose to feature it in The People Under the Stairs.

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The Thomas W. Phillips residence was constructed in 1905 by the architecture team of Sumner B. Hunt & Abraham Wesley Eager.  Hunt was also responsible for designing The Ebell of Los Angeles (an oft-filmed at locale that I have yet to blog about) and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Mt. Washington.  Thomas W. Phillips, who had commissioned the construction of the three-story Craftsman-style abode, was one of the original founding residents of L.A.  You can check out a photograph of the dwelling from its early days here.  As you can see, not much has changed in the 107 years since it was built.  Love it!

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In real life, the massive abode, which was deemed a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1991, boasts 8 bedrooms, 4 baths, a whopping 7,707 square feet of living space, and a 0.40-acre plot of land.  Besides being a filming location, according to a February 1999 Los Angeles Times article, the residence also belonged to actress Butterfly McQueen (aka Scarlett O’Hara’s maid in Gone with the Wind) at one point in time.

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The Thomas W. Phillips residence was used quite extensively in The People Under the Stairs as the home where Man (Everett McGill), Woman (Wendy Robie) and Alice (A.J. Langer) – and, of course, the people under the stairs – lived.

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In the movie, the residence was said to be the Robeson Funeral Home, which was established in 1896.

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All of the interior house scenes were filmed on a studio lot, though, and not inside of the actual Thomas W. Phillips residence, which you can see some photographs of here.  And yes, the dwelling does have a very large – and very spooky – basement in real life, much like its onscreen counterpart.

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Thanks to The Official Halloween Message Board, I learned that the kitchen of the Thomas W. Phillips residence stood in for the Myers’ kitchen in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween re-boot.  Unfortunately, I could not find any great photographs of the real life kitchen online, but you can sort of see it here and here.

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The Thomas W. Phillips residence also appeared in the background of both the Season 2 episode of Lie to Me titled “Darkness and Light” . . .

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. . . and the Season 3 episode of Brothers and Sisters titled “Going Once . . . Going Twice.”

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The abode also popped up in 1989’s The Immortalizer and 2000’s The Convent.  And while I could not find copies of either of those movies with which to make screen captures for this post, you can see some on The Location Scout blog here.  And while IMDB states that the house was also used in the 1998 video Witchcraft, I could not find a copy of the production with which to verify that information.

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You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And be sure to check out my latest post, about one of the best salads I’ve ever had in my life, on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to David, from The Location Scout blog, for telling me about this location!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Thomas W. Phillips residence, aka The People Under the Stairs house, is located at 2215 South Harvard Boulevard in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.

The Beckett House from “Delusion: The Blood Rite”

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Way back in February, fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout blog, wrote a comment on my post about the Milbank Mansion, the interior of which was used as the inside of the Finch home in Running with Scissors, informing me that the exterior shots of the Finch residence were filmed at the Beckett house in the West Adams District.  David also let me know that the Beckett house had appeared in quite a few B-movies from the ‘80s, most of them of the horror genre.  And while I did add the place to my To-Stalk list, for whatever reason, I never ventured out there.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I spotted the mansion in a Season 2 episode of Lie to Me (the Grim Cheaper and I just finished watching the entire series on DVD and absolutely fell in love with it – I am seriously bummed that it was cancelled!) and decided that I had to stalk the place as soon as possible.  So I dragged the GC right on over there, just in time for my Haunted Hollywood postings.

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The Beckett house was originally built in 1905 for Dr. Wesley W. Beckett and his wife, Iowa Archer.  Dr. Beckett was a member of the board of trustees at USC and the namesake of the school’s Beckett Hall.  According to commenter “KWB” on the Big Orange Landmarks blog (where you can read a fabulously detailed history of the residence), the doctor lived on the premises until his death in 1936.  You can see a photograph of the home around the time that it was originally constructed here.  It is amazing to me that, despite its severely dilapidated state, it still looks almost exactly the same today as it did over one hundred years ago.  In 1981, the property apparently suffered a destructive fire on its top floors and while the then owners, thankfully, restored it, the mansion has since been left to deteriorate.  Today, the home, which very much looks like a real life haunted house, is vacant and is used primarily for filming.

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The Beckett house, which was designated a Los Angeles Historic–Cultural Monument in 1973, boasts 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, a whopping 5,415 square feet, and a 0.54-acre plot of land.  You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the mansion here.  While some of the inside is in serious need of TLC, the majority of it is in far better shape than what the exterior would lead one to believe.  Despite the decay, it is easy to see that the place must have been magnificent in its heyday!

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As luck would have it, when we showed up to stalk the place, we happened to spot a man who was building some sort of elaborate scenery piece in the side yard.  We got to talking with him and he informed us that he was setting up for an interactive Halloween-themed theatre production known as “Delusion: The Blood Rite“ that was going to be held at the mansion for the second year in a row.  How incredibly cool is that?  The 2011 play, which was simply titled “Delusion”, was named “Best Haunted Attraction” by FOX LA and “Hottest Ticket in L.A.” by NPR’s All Things Considered.  Actor Neil Patrick Harris saw the show twice last October and loved it so much that he is actually co-producing it this year.  Um, love it!

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The play (which looks to be scaaaaaaaaaaary!) is currently running through November 10th.  You can purchase tickets here and you can watch a video about it by clicking below.

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Due to its marred appearance, the home has long been a favorite of location scouts seeking decrepit or spooky locales.  As I mentioned above, the exterior of the property was used as the exterior of the mansion where the crazy Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) lived with his even crazier family in 2006’s Running with Scissors.  As you can see below, the facade was painted Pepto-Bismol pink for the movie.

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Thanks to The Official Halloween Message Board, I learned that the upstairs portion of the Beckett house was used as the upstairs of the home where the young Michael Meyers (Daeg Faerch) lived in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween re-boot.  Several areas of the abode appeared in the movie, including a bedroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here) that stood in for the bedroom of Judith Meyers (Hannah Hall, who also played “Young Jenny” in Forest Gump);

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another bedroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here) that was used as Michael’s room;

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a bathroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

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a hallway (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

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another bedroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here) that was used as the bedroom of Baby Boo (who was played by Sydnie Pitzer, Myla Pitzer and Stella Altman);

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a back stairway (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

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and the basement (which you can see a real life photograph of here).  It was rather difficult to get a decent screen capture of the basement as the scene shot there was far too dark, but in the image below you can see that the small rounded windows that appeared in the movie match the home’s actual basement windows.

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The living room of the Beckett house also masqueraded as the Strode family’s living room in the flick.  You can see a real life photograph of that room here.

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Thanks to Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, I learned that the Season 3 episode of Brothers and Sisters titled “Going Once . . . Going Twice”, which aired in 2008, featured the Beckett house as the bank-owned residence that Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) purchased as a surprise for his boyfriend, Scotty Wandell (Luke MacFarlane).

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The interior of the property was also used in the episode.

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The Beckett house was also shown in a real estate listing in the episode . . .

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. . . and in an auction image, which stated that the property was located in Pasadena.

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Both the exterior . . .

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. . . and the interior of the house were also used extensively in the 2008 music video for Robert Plant and Allison Krause’s song “Please Read the Letter”.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

The Beckett House from the “Please Read the Letter” Music Video

In the Season 2 episode of Lie to Me titled “Darkness and Light”, which aired in 2010, Dr. Cal Lightman (Tom Roth) tracks a missing and troubled young woman named Molly (Natalie Dreyfuss) to the dilapidated old mansion where she has been living with several other downtrodden girls.

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The interior of the home also appeared in the episode.

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Mike, from MovieShotsLA, informed me that the mansion was also used as the frat house where Emma Kurtzman (Natalie Portman) and Adam Franklin (Ashton Kutcher) met for the second time in the 2011 romantic comedy No Strings Attached.

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As you can see below, though, a different location was used for the interior of the frat house.

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The Beckett house was also featured in 1988’s Twice Dead, 1989’s The Immortalizer, 1992’s Evil Toons, 2000’s The Convent, 2001’s The Attic Expeditions, and 2005’s Lethal Eviction, all of which you can read about and see screen captures from on The Location Scout blog here.

The Beckett House (3 of 9)

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And be sure to check out my latest post, about one of the best salads I’ve ever had in my life, on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

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Big THANK YOU to David, from The Location Scout blog, for telling me about this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Beckett house, from “Delusion: The Blood Rite”, is located at 2218 South Harvard Boulevard in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.  The play will be running through November 10th and tickets are $45 per person.  You can visit the official “Delusion: The Blood Rite” website here.

Halloween at Dick Van Dyke’s House

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While doing research on the Strode House from Halloween a couple of weeks back, I came across a blog post about the extravagant yard haunt that actor Dick Van Dyke hosts every Halloween at his home in Malibu.  And while you wouldn’t think it would be possible, being that I have lived in Southern California for well over a decade, have spent countless hours stalking, and am obsessed with all things Halloween and all things celebrity, until reading that post I had never before heard anything about it!  And, let me tell you, I just about had a heart attack a few minutes later when I discovered that Dick Van Dyke lives inside of the gated Serra Retreat community because some of our good friends just (like literally weeks ago!) moved into that very same community!  I immediately texted said friend to ask if she lived near Dick Van Dyke or knew him at all and started hyperventilating when she wrote back that not only are they next-door neighbors, but that the Grim Cheaper and I were welcome to come to his Halloween party!  Talk about fate!  I mean, do these things actually happen???  Days later, as I sit here typing this, I am still in a bit of shock and can’t quite believe that I was actually at Dick Van Dyke’s house for Halloween!  And that right there is why I LOVE L.A. – one simply never knows what unthinkable adventure is waiting just around the corner!  (The GC refused to dress up as Dylan again after already dressing up on Saturday night, which is why I am dressed like a flapper above.  I am now thinking of changing his nickname to the “Grim Grumper”, by the way.  Winking smile)

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About two seconds after we arrived at our friends’ house on Halloween night, some trick-or-treaters knocked on the door and I just about died when I realized it was none other than James Cameron, dressed as a pirate, and his family!  I kid you not!  I was absolutely DYING inside as he introduced himself to our friends and welcomed them to the neighborhood.  Like really?  As I said above, does this stuff actually happen???  Oh, what I would not give to live in the ‘Bu and have James Cameron trick-or-treat at my door!  HOW INCREDIBLY COOL!  I did not ask James for a photograph as I figured it would have been a bit awkward, but I am kind of kicking myself about it now.  As my girl Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, constantly admonishes me, when an opportunity presents itself, always, always ask for a picture!  Ah well, maybe next Halloween!  Anyway, shortly after James left, we all headed over to Dick Van Dyke’s house and, let me tell you, it was nothing short of AMAZING!  For this Halloween-obsessed stalker, being there was the ultimate experience!

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Dick had decorated the entire front of his property – like every single square inch of it – with a myriad of Halloween displays and contraptions and, let me tell you, it was like nothing I had ever seen!  The whole thing was like being in the middle of a horror movie set!  We were there for well over an hour and I still do not think I saw everything.  The spooktacular was comprised of animatronic mannequins, some of which would jump out at people from hidden corners;

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a talking statue, a la the talking statues in the graveyard at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion;

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a Pee-Wee Herman lookalike who was controlling an animatronic wolf that would jump out to “attack” each passerby;

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and a video-rigged front door that had both a picture of Dick Van Dyke that would change from normal to scary depending on where you were standing and a “window” to an insane asylum in which an inmate with an ax tries to break her way out.

You can watch a video of the door by clicking above.  Notice the marks that show up on the door when the inmate hits it with the ax!  Simply incredible!

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My favorite part of the whole thing, though, had to be the graveyard, which consisted of a myriad of tombstones, some of which moved and had animatronic corpses coming out of them.  There was also an invisible screen set up at the back of the graveyard on which was projected a video of cartoon skeletons doing the “Thriller” dance!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  Sadly, the GC could not get a good picture of the video, nor could he get a photograph of the glow-in-the-dark monster footprints that had been painted in the street out in front of Dick’s house.  AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!

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Because so many celebrities live in Serra Retreat, I was keeping my eyes peeled the entire time we were there and was beyond excited when I spotted Camille Grammer from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  As I have mentioned several times before on this blog, I absolutely LOATHE RHOBH star Kyle Richards (“hot, heaping hunks of hate!” as Jerry Stiller would say), and I don’t much like her sister Kim or their friend Taylor Armstrong, either.  And while I used to like Lisa Vanderpump, after her high-school-like mean-girl behavior in the recently-aired “The Opposite of Relaxation!” episode,  I don’t really care for her either.   The only two on the show that I like are Adrienne Maloof-Nassif and Camille Grammer.  So seeing Camille was especially exciting!

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So I, of course, just had to ask her for a pic.  I am very happy to report that Camille was a total sweetheart and even told me that I was beautiful!!!  How nice is that?  And she is absolutely gorgeous in person, far prettier even than she appears to be on TV.  Love her!!  Ironically enough, fellow stalker Chas later told me that Camille had been featured in an interview on TMZ TV on Halloween night in which she was asked what Halloween party she would be attending.  Her response?  “Dick Van Dyke’s and his is the best.”  LOVE IT!

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Shortly after I took the pic with Camille, Dick Van Dyke walked outside and I just about died.  I, of course, also asked him for a photo and he happily obliged.  Unfortunately, I did not get to talk to him at all, though, as he was extremely busy and had hoards of neighbors coming up to him, all wanting to say hi.  All in all it was a magical evening and I still cannot quite believe it all happened!  As I said yesterday, between meeting Matthew Lillard on Friday, dressing up as Brenda and Dylan on Saturday, and then spending Halloween night at Dick Van Dyke’s house, this was quite simply the Best. Halloween. Ever.

During the party, I also just had to run around the corner to get my picture taken in front of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline’s former house.  🙂

You can read a great blog post about decorating Dick Van Dyke’s house written by one of his Halloween crew members on the Disney Travel Babble website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Unfortunately, because Dick Van Dyke lives inside of Serra Retreat, a gated community that is not open to the public, there is no stalking location for this one.

The So-Called Houdini Ruins

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One location that I have wanted to stalk for just about forever now is the so-called Harry Houdini Estate, or Houdini Ruins, located at the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Lookout Mountain Avenue in Laurel Canyon.  I first read about the site five years ago in fave stalking tome Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide, but, for whatever reason, had never made the trip out there to stalk it.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves in the Laurel Canyon area and decided that, because the locale had long been rumored to be haunted by the ghost of the famous magician, the timing could not have been more perfect to finally stop by.  It was not until after I got home and did some research that I discovered that Houdini had most likely never even set foot on the property, let alone lived there, and therefore had pretty much no reason whatsoever to haunt it.

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It is not exactly clear how or why the rumor about the Houdini Estate got started.  According to an October 1989 Los Angeles Times article written by Michael Szymanski, the first printed mention of it was in Kenneth Schessler’s 1972 book This is Hollywood.  When Szymanski told Schessler that his information about the Estate had largely been panned, Schessler responded, “I heard about the controversy, but I proved it by finding it in a directory of some sort.  I just can’t remember where.”  Um, OK, I believe you, then!  Winking smile What is known as fact is this: Harry Houdini did reside in the Los Angeles area for a brief period around 1919 while filming two movies for the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation/Paramount Pictures.  Where he stayed during that time, though, is anybody’s guess.  Journalist Maurice Zolotow once researched the magician for a Los Angeles Magazine article and said, “Houdini resided in Hollywood for about two years, yet I’ve never been able to discover where he lived.”  Further adding to the mystery and allure of the Laurel Canyon site is the fact that the 40-room Italianate-style mansion which once stood there burned entirely to the ground in 1959.  All that remained after the blaze were some ornate stone staircases, cement walls, and the former servant’s quarters.  The main home was never rebuilt and the ruins of the fire, which came to be known as the “Houdini Ruins” and which you can take a look at here and here, were visible from Laurel Canyon Boulevard for years to come.  As you can see in the above photographs, though, that is, unfortunately, no longer the case.

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However it began, the Houdini Estate rumor spread even further after the fire and countless websites and books still to this day state that the Laurel Canyon ruins were once a part of the magician’s property, despite many claims to the contrary.  Houdini historian Manny Weltman even went so far as to say, “Houdini never set foot on those grounds, and anyone who says so is lying. If anyone comes up with proof I’ll eat my magic hat.”  When the site went up for sale in 1989, Merrill Lynch hired two different title search companies to research the title, but neither could find any link to Houdini.  Today, the location, which mainly serves as an event venue and is known as “Houdini House”, consists of a 3.9-acre plot of land with landscaped terraces, waterfalls, ponds, hiking trails, meandering pathways, and an Old-Hollywood-style home that sleeps twelve.  One of my friends actually attended a wedding at the estate and said it was an absolutely magical experience.  So, whether Houdini ever set foot on the property or not seems to be entirely irrelevant, as it has somehow managed to generate a mystique all on its own.  Oh, what I would not give to throw a Halloween party there!  Can you imagine how incredibly cool that would be?!?!  And while the Houdini House rental rates are actually quite reasonable, somehow I still don’t think the GC would ever go for it.

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Someone who did go for it, though, was The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Taylor Armstrong, who in the Season 1 episode titled “It’s My Party and I’ll Spend If I Want To”, famously threw her 4-year-old daughter, Kennedy, a $60,000 Mad-Hatter-themed birthday party at the Houdini Estate.  And no, that was not a typo – the party, which was for a FOUR-YEAR-OLD, actually cost $60,000!!!!!  The spectacle caused fellow Housewife Lisa Vanderpump to ask, “What ever happened to Pin the Tail on the Donkey?”  Love it!

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The bust of Houdini which was shown in the Housewives episode can just barely be viewed from Laurel Canyon Boulevard and is pictured above, albeit quite blurrily.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The so-called Houdini Ruins are located at 2400 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Laurel Canyon.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, no part of the property is visible from the street, so I cannot really recommend stalking it.  You can visit the Houdini House’s official website here.

Laurie Strode’s House from “Halloween”

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A couple of months ago, fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, clued me into an INCREDIBLY cool little bit of Haunted Hollywood stalking information that I had not been previously aware of.  Apparently, the real life owners of the home that stood in for the Strode residence in the 1978 classic horror film Halloween are so extremely stalker-friendly that they provide a supply of plastic pumpkins on their front porch all year long for fans of the movie to pose with in photographs.  Well, as you can imagine, I was absolutely bowled over with excitement upon hearing this news and decided that, even though I had previously stalked the Strode house and blogged about it briefly way back in October of 2008, that it was most-definitely worthy of a re-visit.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to South Pasadena to do just that this past weekend.

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And, sure enough, as soon as we arrived at the home, I spotted an assortment of plastic foam pumpkins sitting on a chair on the property’s front porch, along with a framed sign.

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That sign reads, “Yes this is the scene with Jamie Lee Curtis from the 1978 Halloween.  You may borrow the pumpkin.  Have a good time.”

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The sign also includes a still from the movie so that fans can refer to it while posing on the front walkway.  How incredibly cool are these homeowners???  Big, huge, Andre-the-Giant-sized props go out to them for embracing the cinematic history of their residence and allowing stalkers to share in some of the fun.  If I owned a famous movie home, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be doing this same, exact thing.  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!

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The supposed-Haddonfield, Illinois Strode residence was featured several times in Halloween.   It first appeared in the beginning of the movie in the scene in which Laurie Strode (aka Jamie Lee Curtis) is reminded by her father, Morgan Strode (aka Peter Griffith), to drop a key off at the “Meyer’s place”.  According to the fabulous website The Cabinet, that particular scene was the very first of the entire movie to be shot.  And according to IMDB’s Halloween trivia page, director John Carpenter hired Jamie Lee Curtis, in what was her very first movie role, as a sort-of nod to Alfred Hitchcock who had cast Jamie’s mother, Janet Leigh, in the iconic role of Marion Crane in Psycho.  In another homage to the legendary Hitchcock classic, Carpenter also named the character of Michael Meyer’s psychiatrist “Sam Loomis” after Marion’s lover in Psycho.

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The Strode residence next shows up in the scene in which Laurie returns home from school, after having been accidentally scared by Sherriff Leigh Bracken (aka Charles Cyphers).

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And finally, it appears in the scene in which Laurie waits, pumpkin in hand, to be picked up by her friend Annie Brackett (aka Nancy Kyes) to go baby-sitting.

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It is that scene that the homeowners allow you to recreate with their fake pumpkins.  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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Amazingly, the Strode residence looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did in 1978 when Halloween was filmed.  The north-facing side of the house is the area that appeared in the movie.

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For whatever reason, the east-facing side, which is pictured above, was not seen in Halloween.  According to fave website Zillow, in real life the property is not a single-family home, but a multi-occupancy dwelling which features three separate units.

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And while I cannot say for certain that the home’s actual interior was used in the filming, I am guessing that it was.

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On a very random side-note – while doing some research on Halloween earlier today, I almost fell off my chair upon discovering that Kyle Richards (star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, whom I loathe more than there are words in the English language to express – I honestly do not think there has ever been a bigger b*tch in the history of reality television, but I digress) had played Lindsey Wallace, the little girl whom Annie babysat, in the 1978 flick.

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And on a Halloween side-note – as the GC and I were driving away from the Strode residence, we spotted a house that was decorated beyond belief for the upcoming holiday!

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As you can see above, the amount of detail that went into the embellishment of the home is utterly incredible!

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I was shocked to discover that the fence which runs along the perimeter of the property and reads “cemetery” above the gate was actually just a prop!  I mean, I, of course, realized the “cemetery” part was decoration, but the entire fence?  WOW!

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And it was not until I was about to leave that I realized the home’s brick façade was also just a decoration!  As you can see in the above photograph, the entire front of the residence has been wrapped in some sort of plastic covering.  Talk about going all out!!!  If I ever have a house, you better believe that this is what it is going to look like every year come Halloween!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Laurie Strode’s house from the original Halloween movie is located at 1115 Oxley Street in South Pasadena.  The massively-decorated-for-Halloween home that we stumbled upon is located right around the corner at 1130 Diamond Avenue in South Pasadena.

The Mills View House from “Picket Fences”

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Well, my fellow stalkers, it is finally that time of year again, the month I look forward to all year long – October!  With it comes fall leaves, cooler temperatures, and my favorite holiday of them all, Halloween.  And you know what that means – I will once again be devoting the entire month of blog posts to locations having to do with Haunted Hollywood!  First up is the Mills View house, a Monrovia-area property that I learned about way back in March from a journalist named Toni Momberger who interviewed me for an Inland Valley Daily Bulletin newspaper article she was writing about famous movie homes.  Toni told me that she had toured the huge, Victorian-style abode as part of her research for the article and she was shocked to discover that I had never before heard of the place.  As fate would have it, the house had been featured prominently in not one, but two spooky productions over the years, so I figured it would be the perfect start to my Haunted Hollywood theme and I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it a few weeks back.

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The 5-bedroom, 2-bath, 3,140-square-foot Mills View house, which was built in 1887 by architects Luther Reed Blair and Uriah Zimmerman, was originally situated on a 5-acre plot of land on what was then the corner of Banana Avenue (now Hillcrest Boulevard) and Melrose Avenue.  The Eastlake-Victorian-style home was commissioned by William N. Monroe, the founder of Monrovia, as a wedding gift for his son, Milton Monroe, and his new bride, Mary Nevada.  Construction on the property began in May of 1887, shortly after Milton and his wife were married, and was completed a mere seven months later.  Sadly, the Monroes divorced a short time after tying the knot and ended up selling their wedding home to Colonel John H. Mills and his wife, Elizabeth Cook Mills, in 1893.  The Mills dubbed their new residence “Mills View” because on a clear day the island of Catalina was supposedly visible from one of the third floor windows.  Unfortunately, Colonel Mills passed away only three months after moving into the home and it went through several ownership changes after Elizabeth subsequently died in 1905.  Mills View, which boasts numerous stained glass windows, a third floor attic, hardwood flooring throughout, and five fireplaces with original tilework, became a Monrovia City Landmark on June 4, 1996.

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According to this Monrovia Patch article, Mills View has appeared in over 20 productions since 1980 alone. Sadly though, I know of only two – both of which, as I mentioned above, fit the thriller genre.  And the property definitely does give off a spooky vibe in person – I think primarily due to its gargantuan size – so it is not very hard to see why location scouts have flocked to it over the years.

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In the Season 1 Halloween-themed episode of fave show Picket Fences titled “Remembering Rosemary”, Mills View was where Rosemary Bauer committed suicide ten years prior by jumping out of a third-floor window, and where Sheriff Jimmy Brock (aka Tom Skerritt) and his deputies Maxine Stewart (aka Lauren Holly) and Kenny Lacos (aka Costas Mandylor) returned to investigate the case after deciding to re-open it a few days before Halloween.

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I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the house, which you can see some photographs of here, was used in the episode.

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Mills View was also the primary location used in the 1986 horror flick House.  In the movie, it was the haunted property that mystery-writer Roger Cobb (aka William Katt) inherited from his Aunt Elizabeth (aka Susan French).  According to the House production notes, for the onsite filming, which lasted two weeks, production designer Gregg Fonseca repainted the exterior of the property and  added Victorian gingerbread detailing, a few spires, a wrought-iron fence, and a sidewalk.  At the rear of the residence, he covered up the home’s real life clapboard siding with a fake brick edifice and added some much-needed landscaping.

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No filming took place inside of the actual home, though.  For all of the interior scenes, a replica of the house, which included two full stories, a living room, a den, a staircase, and three upstairs bedrooms, was built on a soundstage at Ren Mar Studios in Hollywood.

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And I am fairly certain that the pool shown in the movie was either a fake built on the property solely for the filming or that a second location was used, as Mills View does not currently appear to have a pool.

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Two very lucky British House fans were given a personalized tour of Mills View last year and wrote a great blog post about it which you can check out here.

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On a Halloween side note – I was finally able to dig up a photograph of me dressed up as Agent Dana Scully for Halloween one year during college, which I had mentioned in the blog post I wrote about meeting David Duchovny back in June.  The only picture I could find, though, was not a very good one as my eyes are closed in it.  Ah well.  That is my good friend Alex, who was dressed up a Parrothead, posing with me.

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While going through boxes at my parents’ new house looking for the Dana Scully picture, I also stumbled upon my Fox Mulder doll, which I could NOT have been more excited about!  I am so going to have to stalk DD again and get him to sign the doll for me.  How incredibly cool would that be??

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Mills View, from the movie House and the “Remembering Rosemary” episode of Picket Fences, is located at 329 Melrose Avenue in Monrovia.

The Witch’s House from “Clueless”

One of my favorite sites to stalk in all of Beverly Hills is known simply as “The Witch’s House” and it just so happens to fit in perfectly with this month’s Halloween theme. Although not really a filming location, the house is a Beverly Hills landmark of sorts. Known formally as “The Spadena House”, after the Spadena family who lived there in the 1930s, the house did show up very briefly in fave movie Clueless, during the scene when Alicia Silverstone is “totally buggin'” about Ty’s crush on Josh (pictured in above screen capture).

The home was originally built on a silent film studio lot in Culver City known as Irvin C. Willat Productions and was used as an office/dressing room. It was designed by the very first art direction Oscar Winner, Henry C. Oliver, in 1921. Willat Productions was sold in 1926 and the house was purchased and later moved to its current location in the heart of Beverly Hills, where it was turned into a private home for the Spadena family. No one can say for sure how the house came to be called “The Witch’s House”, but mention the words to any Beverly Hills native and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Personally, I believe the house got its nickname due to its resemblance to the witch’s home in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”.

In 1998, a real estate agent named Michael Libow was hired to sell the house. Apparently he became frustrated that all prospective buyers planned to demolish the property, so he took matters into his own hands and purchased the home himself for $1.3 million. He is currently restoring the property to its original state, along with the help of art director Nelson Coates. For the past few years the two have painstakingly rennovated the home, even re-creating the original moat which once surrounded the property. The Witch’s House is still currently under rennovation, so unfortunately a large chain link construction fence blocks some of the view from the street. But hopefully in a few years the rennovations will be complete and the house will be even more spectacular for us stalkers to view.

Because it is so truly unique, I am actually very surprised that the house hasn’t appeared in more Hollywood productions. Besides Clueless, the Witch’s House was also featured in the 1965 movie The Loved One, as the home of Sir John Gielgud’s character, and in the 1957 horror film The Undead. Supposedly, during its time on the Willat lot, the home also appeared in a quite a few 1920s silent films, as well.

The Witch’s House is simply a must see for all Beverly Hills tourists, especially during the Halloween season, and it is a beautiful example of Storybook style architecture.

You can read more about the history of the Witch’s House and see some fabulous photos of it here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Witch’s House is located at 516 N. Waldren Drive, at the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, in Beverly Hills.