Palm Springs filming locations – Page 2

June 1, 2011June 1, 2011

Caliente Tropics Resort from “Alpha Dog”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk while visiting the Palm Springs area two weekends ago was the Caliente Tropics Resort which appeared in the ultra-disturbing 2006 movie Alpha Dog. I found this location thanks to fave stalking book Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, which was written by stalking god Harry Medved (who, as it just so happens, will be signing books at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on Sunday, June 19th at 2 p.m., but I digress). For those who have yet to see Alpha Dog – and I can’t really say that I would recommend doing so as it is extremely depressing – the movie very closely follows the true life story of the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz by drug dealer Jesse James Hollywood and his gang of friends. Pretty much the only differences between the actual story and its onscreen counterpart are the names of those involved and the setting. In real life, Nicholas was kidnapped from his hometown of West Hills and taken to Santa Barbara, where he was held hostage for three days, during which time he attended a pool party at the Lemon Tree Inn. In Alpha Dog, the Markowitz character, who was named Zack Mazursky, was kidnapped from Claremont and then taken to Palm Springs for the weekend, during which time he attended a pool party at the Caliente Tropics Resort. It was that resort that the GC and I set out to stalk two weekends ago.

The Caliente Tropics Resort was originally constructed in 1964 as part of motel mogul Ken Kimes’ tiki-themed motor-hotel chain and was known simply as The Tropics. (While Kimes built and owned over 60 successful motels in his lifetime, he is perhaps best known for being married to murderer/con-woman/Elizabeth-Taylor-impersonator Sante Kimes). In its early years, the Tropics was THE place to vacation in the Coachella Valley and such luminaries as Elvis Presley and most of the members of the Rat Pack were frequent guests. Nancy Sinatra even lived there for a time during her childhood. Sadly, the motel fell into disrepair sometime during the 80’s and remained that way until the year 2000, whereupon it was purchased by new owners who immediately embarked upon a $2.2 million restoration project to bring the property back to its original, Polynesian-themed grandeur.

The Caliente Tropic Resort boasts the third largest pool in the Coachella Valley. It holds a whopping 100,000 gallons of water and, amazingly enough, looks exactly the same today as it did when the place first opened in 1964. The pool also has the distinction of being the site of one of the very first Miss Hawaiian Tropic contests.

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In Alpha Dog, the Caliente Tropics Resort is stated to be in Palm Desert, but in actuality the hotel is located about eleven miles west of Palm Desert, right in the heart of Downtown Palm Springs. In the movie, Frankie Ballenbacher (aka Justin Timberlake) takes Zack Mazursky (aka Anton Yelchin) to a party at the Caliente at the behest of drug-dealer/kingpin Johnny Truelove (aka Emile Hirsch), who has kidnapped the teenager in order to hold him as a marker for a debt his brother owes. Several areas of the hotel appeared in the flick, including the exterior, which you can see above. And I really do have to apologize for the quality of my screen captures – as I mentioned earlier, Alpha Dog is a very dark movie and my screen captures definitely reflect that.

The pool area also appeared in the movie as the spot where Zack – ahem – “swam” with his new friends Julie Beckley (aka Amanda Seyfried) and Alma (aka Amber Heard).

I am fairly certain that one of the hotel’s real life rooms was also used in the filming, but I was, unfortunately, not able to verify that while I was stalking the place.

The Caliente Tropics Resort was also featured in the 1997 movie City of Industry as the hotel where Roy (aka Harvey Keitel) and Lee Egan (aka Timothy Hutton) stayed while in Palm Springs planning the heist of a local jewelry store.

While stalking the hotel, the GC spotted three cement blocks bearing sets of handprints, a la Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. One of the blocks was signed by someone named “Anna Nicole”, whom I logically assumed was reality star Anna Nicole Smith. I promptly went to the front desk to inquire about the blocks, but not only did the woman working in the office not know who the Anna Nicole in question was, but she had also been unaware up until that time that there were even signed cement blocks with handprints on the premises! Needless to say, she was not exactly a wealth of information. Winking smile Anyway, while she was speaking with me, she told me she did not believe the handprints belonged to the reality star, saying with a crinkled nose, “I seriously doubt Anna Nicole Smith would have ever stayed here.” LOL

As it turns out, though, Miss Smith did in fact once stay at the Caliente Tropics Resort during the filming of the Season 2 episode of The Anna Nicole Show titled “Anna (Palm) Springs into Action”. In the episode, Anna ventures out to the Desert in order to judge the 2003 American Guy male beauty contest. And, ironically enough, the woman at the front desk was actually not too far off in her assessment of the situation, as Anna complained about her accommodations the entire time she was there, calling the hotel “cheapy” and “embarrassing”.

The Anna Nicole Show–Caliente Tropics Resort

You can watch a clip from the “Anna (Palm) Springs into Action” episode of The Anna Nicole Show, in which the Caliente Tropics Resort is shown, by clicking above.

Unfortunately I never was able to figure out who the other sets of handprints belonged to. The block on the left looks as if it says, “Sav-A-Pet”, “Petsmart”, “Herb M.”, and “Marcel”, but after Googling countless combinations of those particular words, I came up empty-handed. And I am at a complete loss as to what is spelled out on the block on the right. I believe the first word is “Harold”, but neither the GC nor I could figure it out while we were stalking the hotel. Ideas, anyone?

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Caliente Tropics Resort, from Alpha Dog, is located at 411 East Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. The cement block featuring Anna Nicole Smith’s handprints can be found in the patch of grass located just south of the resort’s pool, in the area marked with a pink “X” in the above aerial view.

May 23, 2011May 20, 2011

The “Ocean’s Eleven” House

One location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk last weekend while vacationing in Palm Springs was the supposed-Las-Vegas, Nevada-area residence where Reuben Tishkoff (aka Elliot Gould) lived in the 2001 heist movie Ocean’s Eleven. I had absolutely fallen in love with the mid-century-modern-style residence while first watching the film just about a decade ago and was shocked to discover, thanks to a free Map of the Stars’ Vacation Homes that I once picked up at the Palm Springs Visitors’ Center, that it was located in the Coachella Valley. And while I had actually dragged the GC out to stalk the dwelling once before quite a few years back – long before I ever started my blog – because I had only taken one photograph of it, I decided the place was definitely worthy of a re-stalk.

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Reuben Tishkoff’s house popped up twice in Ocean’s Eleven. It first appeared in the scene in which Danny Ocean (aka George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (aka cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater Brad Pitt) try to convince the millionaire hotelier to put up the money to fund their proposed casino heist.

It later showed up as the spot where Danny pitched his plan for robbing the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand casinos to his band of cohorts including Frank Catton (aka Bernie Mac), Livingston Dell (aka Eddie Jemison), Yen (aka Shaobo Qin), Saul Bloom (aka Carl Reiner), Linus Caldwell (aka Matt Damon), Basher Tarr (aka Don Cheadle, who, interestingly enough, had an uncredited role in the film), and brothers Virgil and Turk Malloy (aka Casey Affleck and Scott Caan, respectively). Quite a bit of the house was featured in the movie including the front gate and the front door areas (both are pictured above);

the backyard;

. . . and the living room.

And while not a lot of the property can actually be seen from the street, this is one location that I would still definitely recommend stalking as it is just so unique. According to IMBD’s Ocean’s Eleven trivia page, the abode was designed in 1959 by Archibald Quincy Jones, the same architect who gave us the Palm Springs Tennis Club, Campbell Hall Episcopal School in North Hollywood (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s alma mater) and the once popular, but now-defunct restaurant Romanoff’s On the Rocks. According to the Ocean’s Eleven production notes, which I found online, director Steven Soderbergh and production designer Phil Messina wanted the residence of the “old school” Tishkoff character to be a “throwback to the 1950s and 60s”. Messina says, “We looked for sweeping, low line, mid-century homes in Las Vegas and discovered that that architecture doesn’t exist there anymore. I had a book on modern houses in Palm Springs and that’s where we ended up filming Tishkoff’s house.” IMDB also states that the homeowners were paid a whopping $200,000 for the property’s onscreen appearance! Yowza, now that’s what I call a paycheck! In real life, the one-story residence boasts 3 bedrooms, 6 baths, 6,307 square feet of living space and sits on a 1.2-acre corner plot of land located just about a mile away from the heart of Downtown Palm Springs.

As you can see in the above photographs, the house also boasts some amazing views of the San Jacinto Mountains.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ocean’s Eleven house is located at 999 North Patencio Road in Palm Springs. Here is a Bing map link to that location.

January 7, 2010January 7, 2010

The Kenaston Residence

Even though I have always been one hundred percent on Team Aniston – I even have the sweatshirt to prove it 😉 – while visiting Palm Springs during Halloween weekend a few months back I became a bit obsessed with stalking the home where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie posed for their famous “Domestic Bliss” photo spread which appeared in the July 2005 issue of W Magazine. It all started a few days before Halloween when I came across the following People Magazine article while doing some cyberstalking of the Palm Springs area, trying to come up with a list of desert locations to stalk. The article mentioned that Brangelina’s controversial photoshoot – controversial because it occurred on March 25, 2005, the very same day that Jennifer Aniston filed for divorce from Brad – had taken place at a private residence located in Rancho Mirage. And that was it for me! The next few hours were spent trying to track down the exact location of the property where my least favorite celebrity couple had posed for their 60-page spread. Being that I can’t stand either Brad or Angelina, I have no valid explanation as to why I became so darn determined to find the house. All I can say is that when I get on a kick, I get on a kick and there’s absolutely no stopping me. So, I was completely overjoyed when I was finally able to pinpoint the location of the house, which is known as the Kenaston Residence in real life, and I made my fiancé stop there during our drive over to Palm Springs, before we even had a chance to check into our hotel. Not kidding. 🙂

The Kenaston Residence was built in 1957 by mid-century modernist architect E. Stewart Williams for a Palm Springs resident named Roderick W. Kenaston. Stewart Williams is perhaps best known for building Frank Sinatra’s desert hideaway with the piano shaped swimming pool, which I stalked a couple of years ago and the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway’s Mountaintop Station, which I have also stalked but have yet to blog about. In 2003, after several different ownerships and re-models, a Los Angeles area art director and his wife purchased the Kenaston Residence and spent two years restoring it back to its original grandeur. Sadly, out of the five Rancho Mirage area homes built by Stewart Williams, the Kenaston Residence is the only property that still looks the same today as it did when it was built. The remaining homes have all either been altered or completely destroyed. 🙁

The U-shaped Kenaston Residence, which was built around a large square shaped swimming pool, features four bedrooms, 3.5 baths, over 5,000 square feet of living space, a media room, 50 palm trees!, a six car garage, an interior/exterior rock wall, a “floating fireplace”, floor to ceiling glass walls, mountain views, concrete floors, and a 17 foot long living room planter. The house was built on a half acre of land and Williams even had the remarkable foresight to situate the home facing North, so as to avoid the extreme desert temperatures. Besides the Brangelina shoot, the Kenaston Residence has also been the site of photoshoots for Madonna, James Blunt, the band Coldplay and has been featured in Italian Elle, Luxury Living, The London Independent, and on Bravo Television. In 2007, the home was sold to new owners for $2,350,000. I swear, if I owned a house like that, I don’t think I would ever be able to let it go. Especially since, according to the previous owner, it earned at least $50,000 in photoshoot rental fees each year! Cha-ching! 🙂 You can see interior photographs of the home from its 2007 real estate website here.

Brad and Angie’s “Domestic Bliss” photo spread, which featured the couple and several children acting out scenes of an unhappy family life in the 60s, made use of the entire Kenaston Residence, both inside and out. According to this article, because Pitt, who actually co-created and co-directed the shoot with photographer Stephen Klein, was “tired of celebrity portraiture and always up for an artistic ‘jam sesh’”(UGH, gag me!), he came up with the unique idea of basing the spread on “unidentifiable malaise” in a marriage. Speaking about what I can only assume was his union with my girl Jen, he said, “You don’t know what’s wrong because the marriage is everything you signed up for.” You honestly don’t know what’s wrong, Brad? Um, I think your wandering eye might have had something to do with it!! The duo’s photo shoot took two full days to complete, during which time Angelina, who had brought along her then-only son Maddox, and Brad stayed in separate rooms at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in Palm Springs. So, I guess I am going to have to stalk the Le Parker in the near future, too. Oh honey, I feel a trip to Palm Springs coming on! 😉

The property is actually quite unassuming and non-descript from the street. One could easily drive right by, without realizing the rich architectural history that lies just beyond the home’s walnut wood walls.

Amazingly enough, even though there is a large concrete wall surrounding the back of the property, much of the Kenaston Residence can still be seen from the street. And because the surrounding wall is only about four feet tall, you can easily see into the backyard area, where the cover photo from Brangelina’s W Magazine issue was shot, as well. Love it!

Interestingly enough, photographer Steven Klein’s inspiration for the “Domestic Bliss” photo spread came from the photographs of legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman. One of the poses from the issue was almost a direct copy of a very famous photograph Shulman took of Case Study House #21, aka the Bailey House (pictured above). I found this little bit of trivia out while doing some research on the Kenaston Residence and became absolutely fascinated by it, as I am a huge fan of Julius Shulman, who sadly passed away in July of this past year. Those of you who read my blog regularly will remember the post I wrote about the tour of Case Study House #22 (aka The Stahl House) that I took in March of last year and Julius Shulman’s iconic photograph which led me to stalk the house in the first place.

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You can see the entire 60-page “Domestic Bliss” portfolio here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Kenaston Residence is located at 39-767 Desert Sun Drive in Rancho Mirage. To get an overall view of the house, I would also recommend venturing west on Mashie Drive and south onto Keenan Drive. The Case Study House #21, upon which one of the Brangelina pictures was based, is located at 9036 Wonderland Park Avenue in Los Angeles.

May 14, 2009September 21, 2011

Bob Hope’s Palm Springs House

While in Palm Springs this past weekend, I dragged my boyfriend – ahem, fiance (I swear, I’m never going to get used to saying that!) out to stalk Bob Hope’s former residence, which is located high up on a cliff at the very top of Southridge Drive. I wasn’t so much interested in seeing the home because it had once belonged to Bob Hope, but rather because it was designed by famed architect John Lautner. And I am absolutely obsessed with Lautner homes! Once upon a time, I actually hated his designs – I thought they were just simply too weird. But over the years they have really grown on me. I love that all of his homes are so incredibly unique and recognizable. One look at a poured concrete wall or a curving roof line and you know immediately if a house was designed by Lautner. It’s no wonder that his homes have been used in countless Hollywood productions over the years including Charlie’s Angels, Diamonds Are Forever, The Big Lebowski, and Lethal Weapon 2.

Not everyone is as big a fan of John Lautner as I am, though. Legend has it that Bob Hope wasn’t exactly happy with the house that Lautner designed for him. According to this article, Judith Lautner, John’s daughter, states that Bob “made life hell for my father. He destroyed a lot of the thinking. He just stepped in and said ‘No, no, no.'” Legend also has it that Bob never even spent one night in the home, but instead used it solely for entertaining purposes. The home, which was built in 1979 and was designed to look like the skirts of a volcano, measures 17,531 square feet, has 6 bedrooms and 9.75 bathrooms!

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Unfortunately, Bob’s former home is located in a private, gated community, so I wasn’t able to get very close to it. 🙁 And, judging from the signs pictured above, the neighborhood is not very stalker friendly! When I saw the sign which read “Trespassers will be photographed and may be prosecuted”, I was pretty much outta there! Bob’s former community is very exclusive and was once also home to actors Steve McQueen and William Holden. Lautner also designed another home – the Elrod House – just down the road from Bob’s, but, unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after I got home, so I didn’t get any photographs of it! Ugh, I am such a blond sometimes!

Because I couldn’t get very close to the house while stalking it, I had to settle for doing some cyberstalking as soon as I got home. It’s funny, but in aerial images the home actually appears to be rather small, but rumor has it that the open circle cut-out in the roof is so large that a helicopter could actually land there!! I don’t know if that is true or not, but being that the home measures almost 18,000 square feet, it is definitely a possibility! Another rumor floating around about the former Bob Hope residence is that the shape of the pool was loosely based on the comedian’s profile. So cool! You can see another amazing aerial view of the home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bob Hope’s Palm Springs house is located at 2466 Southridge Drive. The Elrod House is located just a few houses down at 2175 Southridge Drive. Both are in a private, guard-gated community, so DO NOT trespass. If you are into hiking, apparently the nearby Araby Trail offers some great views of both homes.

September 4, 2008February 13, 2009

P.S. I Love You

In honor of the big 90210 v. 2.0 premiere that took place on Tuesday night, I just had to do a little 90210 v. 1.0 stalking this past weekend. Since my boyfriend and I were out in Palm Springs for a little Labor Day vacay, I dragged him to the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa which was featured in the series’ Season 5 finale. In the episode, entitled “P.S. I Love You”, Brandon, Valerie and the gang head out to Palm Springs for an Alpha/KEG get together. The group stayed at the Rancho Las Palmas, which at the time was known as Marriot’s Rancho Las Palmas Resort. Two years ago the hotel changed ownership and dropped the Marriott from its name. One of the most famous scenes in 90210 history took place at this hotel – the scene when Ray Pruit pushes Donna down a flight of stairs. It is those stairs that I set out to stalk this past weekend.

Unfortunately, since the hotel has changed hands since filming took place, none of the new staff could give me any information about where filming took place. In fact, most of the hotel staff looked at me like I was crazy when I told them that 90210 had filmed there. LOL But the concierge, who used to work at the nearby Desert Springs Marriott, did tell me that the TV show Las Vegas(sigh – Josh Duhamel!) filmed over at his former workplace several times. Looks like I have some more stalking of that hotel to do! 🙂

Anyway, I had a pretty clear picture in my head of the stairs Ray Pruit – “spelled with one ‘T’ cause that’s all his momma could afford” – pushed Donna down from watching the episode way back when. I was shocked to find out that there are actually 120 sets of those exact same stairs on the hotel property – four sets for each of the hotel’s 30 buildings. So, while I did take a picture on one of the sets of stairs, I am not sure it was the exact one that was used during filming. I am planning on borrowing Mike from MovieShotsLA‘s DVD of that episode to try to pin down the exact filming location. Big THANK YOU to Mike, too, for making these screen captures for me. 🙂

Since being taken over by the KSL Resorts hotel chain, Rancho Las Palmas has been extensively remodeled, however it is still pretty recognizable from the 90210days. Unfortunately, though, the pool areas have changed dramatically since filming, so once again I wasn’t able to pinpoint which of the hotel’s three pools was used for filming. But, according to the concierge, even if I had been able to pinpoint the correct pool, it would most likely be unrecognizable. All three pools have been completely gutted and remodeled since the KSL takeover. BUMMER! In the picture above I am standing in front of the hotel’s adults only Tranquility Pool, which, judging by the surroundings, I am pretty sure was the one featured in 90210.

Even though this particular stalking adventure was kind of a bust, I would still recommend stalking the hotel as it was still very cool to be there. Rancho Las Palmas is absolutely gorgeous, and I am actually hoping to stay there on my next trip out to the desert. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa is located at 41-000 Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage, just outside of Palm Springs. You can visit their website here. During the summer rooms will run you about $250 per night. The famous stairs that Donna was pushed down are located throughout the hotel property. The Tranquility Pool is located just off the main lobby.

April 28, 2008February 13, 2009

Where Trista and Ryan Got Married

Even though I have not been a big fan of this season’s The Bachelor, I was a HUGE fan of Bachelorette Trista Rehn back in 2003, so this weekend while in Palm Springs I just had to stalk the hotel where she married Ryan Sutter in their million dollar wedding extravaganza. The nuptials took place on December 10, 2003 and were watched by over 26 million viewers. The ceremony was held at the hotel the Lodge at Rancho Mirage and my boyfriend and I actually stayed there quite a few years ago, long before Trista and Ryan were even a gleam in ABC’s eyes. I had been dying to go back to stalk the hotel ever since the wedding aired on TV and I finally made it there this weekend.

Unfortunately, the Lodge closed back in August of 2006 to undergo an extensive remodel and it has yet to reopen. During the remodel, the property was actually purchased by the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company and it is set to open as the Ritz Carlton Rancho Mirage in the fall. Sadly you can’t get very close to the property and there isn’t much to see at this time. But I am definitely planning on doing a little stalking of the Ritz this winter when it reopens. 🙂 I sure hope that the gazebo where Trista and Ryan got married is still there.

Side note: A few years ago I also stalked Jerry Ferris from the third season of The Bachelorette. Jerry was the jilted bachelor who had his heart broken on national TV when Jen Schefft refused his proposal. He was also my celebrity crush of 2005. 🙂 I knew from watching the show that Jerry worked at an art gallery in LA and after doing a bit of stalking, I located it. Jerry could not have been nicer (or cuter) in person and I was absolutely floored to meet him. Unfortunately Jerry’s art gallery closed a few years back, but it used to be located in The Grove shopping center in LA.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Ritz Carlton Rancho Mirage is located at 69-730 Highway 111 in Rancho Mirage. You can visit their website here. The hotel is scheduled to open in late 2008.