The All American Burger from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

All American Burger Don't Tell Mom (14 of 20)

I was devastated to learn back in early 2010, thanks to fellow stalker Amanda, that The All American Burger on Sunset Boulevard, which masqueraded as Clown Dog restaurant in 1991’s Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was being turned into a Chipotle Mexican Grill.  I never expected that the historic eatery was going to be demolished in the process, though, so when I drove by it later that same year, I was shocked to discover a vacant lot.  All that remained of the once-popular burger shack was its neon signage.  It was not until two weeks ago, though, while I was on my way to stalk Parisian Florist, that I saw the Chipotle outpost that now stands in its place.  Sad as I was, I figured I might as well pull over and snap some pics so that I could write an updated post on the property.

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The All American Burger was originally founded in 1963 by a successful stockbroker named Aaron Binder.  The company grew fairly quickly and, by 1970, four sister eateries had opened up throughout L.A.  For reasons that are unclear, things took a turn for the worse in 1981 and the chain filed for bankruptcy.  Binder was later found guilty of fraud (stemming from a tax shelter investment scheme) and sent to prison for ten years.  He wound up serving 42 months.  It is unclear what happened to the restaurants following the bankruptcy and Binder’s imprisonment, but I believe they were sold to several new owners.  Each branch was eventually shuttered, except for the Sunset Boulevard location which, according to LA Weekly, was the last remaining of the chain, until it, too, closed its doors in early 2010.  The subsequent demolition of the restaurant and rebuilding did not take long as Chipotle opened on the site in November of that same year.

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All American Burger Don't Tell Mom (10 of 20)

I originally visited The All American Burger in December 2009 and it turned out to be one of my favorite stalking experiences ever.  You can read about that stalk – in which I got to don an All American Burger uniform and go behind the counter – here.

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Sadly, the Chipotle building looks nothing at all like the former The All American Burger.  As I mentioned, the sole remnant of the historic eatery is its signage – or at least a portion of it.  As you can see below, the hand pointing to the parking lot that was part of the All American Burger sign was incorporated into Chipotle’s new sign.

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I would say I love the fact that Chipotle made the gesture, but I’m too darn sad that The All American Burger was demolished in the first place.

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While doing research for this post I learned that it was directly across the street from The All American Burger, on the curb in front of 7677 Sunset Boulevard, that Hugh Grant infamously picked up a prostitute named Divine Brown in the early morning hours of June 27th, 1995.  Hugh then drove Divine three blocks to the corner of Hawthorn and North Curson Avenues, where the two indulged in “lewd conduct” and were eventually arrested.  Oddly, neither seemed to be negatively affected by the arrest.  Hugh’s career did not miss a beat and, according to this 2010 Daily Mail article, Divine made about $1 million off of the 20-minute encounter and wound up leaving the “business” for good.  She currently runs a music production company in Atlanta.

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All American Burger Don't Tell Mom (20 of 20)

In Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, The All American Burger stood in for Clown Dog restaurant, where Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) worked for a day and met her future boyfriend, delivery boy Bryan (The Good Wife’s Josh Charles).

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The real life interior of the eatery was also used in the movie.

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The All American Burger was featured in a couple of other productions during its too-short lifetime.  In the Season 2 episode of Californication titled “La Petite Mort,” which aired in 2008, the restaurant was where Hank Moody (David Duchovny) confronted his daughter’s boyfriend, Damian (Ezra Miller).

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And in 2009, the eatery was where Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) responded to a 911 call from a customer complaining that her regular lunch spot was out of chicken nuggets (LOL) in the Season 1 episode of Southland titled “Derailed.”

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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.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The All American Burger, aka Clown Dog restaurant from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was formerly located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.  The property is now the site of a Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Chuck E. Cheese’s from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

Don't Tell Mom Chuck E. Cheese (1 of 17)

I have been on the hunt for the Chuck E. Cheese’s featured in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead for what seems like ages.  Despite having an inside connection – my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, is married to none other than Kenny Crandell, aka Keith Coogan, himself – I had a tough time tracking the place down.  All Keith could remember about the eatery was that it was located somewhere in the Valley near a large cement watershed.  So, feeling inspired a couple of weeks back, I decided to look at aerial views of every San Fernando Valley-area Chuck E. Cheese’s to see if any matched the one that appeared in Don’t Tell Mom.  Sure enough, the one in Sun Valley’s Canyon Plaza shopping center did.  Well, sort of – but more on that later.

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The Sun Valley Chuck E. Cheese’s shows up towards the beginning of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, in the scene (which was one of Keith’s favorites) in which Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) takes her siblings – Kenny, Melissa (Danielle Harris), Zach (Christopher Pettiet) and Walter (Robert Hy Gorman) – out for dinner after landing an executive administrative assistant job at General Apparel West.  Oddly enough, at some point after Don’t Tell Mom was filmed in 1991, Chuck E. Cheese’s moved from the storefront pictured below (which is currently vacant) to one a few doors north in the same center.  Despite the move and some other alterations, though, the restaurant’s former site is still recognizable from its onscreen appearance.

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Don't Tell Mom Chuck E. Cheese (13 of 17)

As Sue Ellen and her siblings leave Chuck E. Cheese’s, they witness their dead babysitter’s Buick getting stolen by three drag queens dressed as Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli and Dolly Parton.  The theft takes place in Canyon Plaza’s large parking lot in front of what was, at the time, a Mervyn’s, but today is a Kohl’s.  While the shopping center has since been remodeled a bit, it is still very recognizable from the scene.  I absolutely love that the space next to Kohl’s still houses a Subway after all these years!

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Don't Tell Mom Chuck E. Cheese (8 of 17)

The Sav-On Drugs that appeared in the movie is now a CVS Pharmacy (Southern California Sav-Ons were acquired by CVS Caremark in 2006), but, thankfully, looks much the same as it did onscreen in 1991.  In fact, it was due to the structure’s jutted-out façade with decorative arched cut-outs that I was finally able to identify the Chuck E. Cheese’s location.

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Don't Tell Mom Chuck E. Cheese (15 of 17)

The space where Chuck E. Cheese’s moved to appears to have housed an AutoZone at the time that Don’t Tell Mom was filmed.  You can just barely make out its red neon logo in the screen capture below.

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Don't Tell Mom Chuck E. Cheese (10 of 17)

I was most excited to see that the rounded sidewalk where the Crandell kids stood in the scene and the yellow speed bump next to it were still there in real life, looking EXACTLY the same as they did onscreen.  LOVE IT!  I cannot express how much fun it was to stalk such an iconic location from one of my favorite movies 23 years after it was filmed, especially since so little of it has been changed.

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If only the pay phone that Sue Ellen used to call Bryan (Josh Charles) was still on the premises (if it was, in fact, real and not a prop)!

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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 Keith Coogan for helping me to find this location!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Chuck E. Cheese’s from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead was formerly located at 8353 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Canyon Plaza shopping center in  Sun Valley.  It has since moved a few storefronts north to 8375 Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

Clown Dog Restaurant from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

UPDATE – I just drove by this location last week and was shocked to discover that the entire thing had been completely torn down.  The only part of it left standing is the All American Burger sign pictured below.  🙁  A Chipotle restaurant is currently being built in its place. So incredibly sad!  I will leave this post up, though, for those stalkers who are interested in seeing photographs of how it used to look.

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A few weeks ago, I dragged my boyfriend out to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to stalk a restaurant named All American Burger – a location which has been on my list of places to stalk ever since fellow stalker Owen informed me that it stood in for the Clown Dog diner where Bryan (aka Josh Charles) worked in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.  In a random twist of fate, Owen happened upon this information during his search for the main house used in Don’t Tell Mom  back in September.  While trying to track down that location, Owen came across an interview with actor Keith Coogan, who played Christina Applegate’s younger brother Kenny in the flick, who had this to say, “The film was shot entirely in Southern California. Mostly in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley areas. The house is really close to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Some locations were in the heart of Hollywood, like the roof of the Holiday Inn, and the Clown Dog is actually an ‘All American Burger’ located on Sunset Blvd. Some scenes were shot in Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as some interiors which were filmed in Simi Valley/Sherman Oaks.”   (Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find the source of that interview online, otherwise I would post a link to it here.)  An actor who not only remembers where scenes from his movies were filmed, but actually references them in an interview???  SO LOVE IT!!!!!  Thank you, Keith!!!  So, once I heard where Clown Dog was located, I immediately added the address to my long “to stalk” list and finally made it out there to see the place in person just a few weeks back.  YAY!

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And, let me tell you, this was one stalk that was DEFINITELY worth the wait.  As fate would have it, the owner of the restaurant, an INCREDIBLY nice man named Lang, was working behind the counter when we arrived.  Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, “Was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filmed here?”  Lang laughed and told me that yes, indeed, the movie had been filmed on the premises.  I then asked him if everyone who came in inquired about the very same thing, to which he replied “You’re only the second person in the twenty-plus years I’ve worked here who has ever asked me that!”  LOL  It’s nice to know I’m unique!   Lang seemed truly amused at my excitement over stalking his restaurant and really could NOT have been nicer about it.  Not only did he tell  me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted . . .

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. . . BUT HE ALSO LET ME DON ONE ONE OF THE ALL AMERICAN BURGER UNIFORMS AND STEP BEHIND THE COUNTER TO POSE FOR A PIC!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!

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I also so love it that the real All American Burger hat is almost exactly the same as the Clown Dog hat that Christina Applegate wore in the movie!  🙂

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Because my fiancé and I were both starving at the time, we just had to grab a bite to eat during our stalk.  And, let me tell you, we were not disappointed!  While All American Burger is by no means fancy, their food is simply A-MA-ZING!  The menu features your typical all-American fare, such as burgers, hot dogs, and French fries, all of which happen to be right up my alley.  🙂  My fiancé and I ended up splitting a cheeseburger and fries – both of which were excellent!  And the Grim Cheaper was very excited about the fact that the entire meal cost us $4!   Even more exciting to him, though, had to be the restaurant’s working pinball machine, which he played quite a few games on.  So cool!  (Please pardon the above picture, I was in a goofy mood that day.  🙂 )

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All American Burger pops up twice in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.  It first shows up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Sue Ellen (aka Swell), gets a job working behind the counter of the fast food restaurant. 

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Fed up with Mr. Egg, her perennially happy boss, Swell quits her new job after only one day of work, but not before making a romantic connection with fellow Clown Dog employee Bryan.

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The restaurant next shows up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Swell, upset over her recent fight with Bryan, drives by Clown Dog and sadly watches him working through the window. 

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I am very happy to report that although over 18 years have passed since Don’t Tell Mom was filmed, All American Burger still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen.  Missing in real life, of course, is the circus themed decor that was used to dress the restaurant during the filming.  Besides Don’t Tell Mom, All American Burger has also been featured in a recent episode of Southland and in an album cover for one of musician Howie Day’s CD’s.  And because the restaurant is something of a Hollywood institution, celebs have been known to stop in there from time to time, including The O.C.’s Adam Brody, who is a regular.  🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: All American Burger, aka Clown Dog from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.