Molly’s Apartment from “Booksmart”

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Recently I’ve had to face the fact that my friend Owen, a Connecticut native, possibly knows more than I do about Pasadena, the city that I called home and regularly explored for almost 15 years!  Last December, he tipped me off to Oaklawn, a gorgeous South Pasadena enclave full of cinematically famous houses I had not previously heard of.  Then, a few weeks ago, he sent me this Entertainment Weekly article about locations from Booksmart.  I had yet to see the 2019 comedy at the time, but the photo of the gloriously pink mid-century modern apartment complex where Molly (Beanie Feldstein) lived immediately caught my eye.  I was shocked to learn while diving into the article that the retro property, made up of condos in real life, is in Pasadena!  How I had missed it in all my years residing in Crown City is beyond me!  So I made it a point to amend that and headed on over there soon after.

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Villa San Pasqual, as Molly’s complex is known in real life, was designed in 1953 by architect Lionel V. Mayell.

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The property, a designated Pasadena landmark, features striking mid-century detailing, including a bright stucco exterior, hipped roofs, and arresting floating staircases with uniquely-patterned railings.

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Oh, and front doors with centered knobs.  Why do we not do that anymore??

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The complex’s pink and turquoise color combo is perfection!

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The sprawling property, comprised of 15 separate buildings surrounding landscaped courtyards, is absolutely huge!  You could get lost wandering the grounds.

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To say Villa San Pasqual is cinematic is an understatement!  The interiors are even more so!

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The complex is incredibly versatile, too.  It could just as easily portray Las Vegas as it could Los Angeles or Miami onscreen.  In fact, according to The Movieland Directory website, it appeared in a 2010 episode of CSI: Miami, but I have been unable to figure out which one.

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Per Entertainment Weekly, Booksmart’s director Olivia Wilde and production designer Katie Byron zeroed in on the locale because “they fell in love with the retro peach color.”  As did I, ladies!  As did I (though I consider it more pink than peach).  The site also fit in with their desire to film at a “quintessentially Angeleno complex.”

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Wilde furthers, “I also love that [Molly’s complex] is designed to make you commune with your neighbors, yet it’s something Molly would want nothing to do with.”

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The only thing missing according to the duo?  “One of the cheesy, vaguely European monikers that evoke a vacation rental.”  So they added the Le Capris sign – “intentionally misspelled so that it wouldn’t be confused with a real building,” per EW.

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In the movie, Molly lives in Unit T of Villa San Pasqual’s southeastern-most building, which is situated on Catalina Avenue.

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It is denoted with yellow arrows in the photos below.

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Interiors appear to have been filmed on a set.  You can check out the real inside of Unit T here.

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Villa San Pasqual boasts a couple of other roles on its resume.

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Along with the aforementioned appearance on CSI: Miami, I also learned via The Movieland Directory that David Sinclair (Alimi Ballard) and Colby Granger (Dylan Bruno) chased down a suspect there in the Season 4 episode of Numb3rs titled “Graphic,” which aired in 2007.

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Villa San Pasqual also popped up a couple of times as the complex where Levi Callow (Luke Wilson) lived on the television series Enlightened, which aired from 2011 to 2013.

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Villa San Pasqual, aka Molly’s apartment complex from Booksmart, is located at 1000 San Pasqual Street in Pasadena.  Molly lived in unit T of the complex’s southeastern-most building (denoted with a yellow arrow below), which is situated on South Catalina Avenue.

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The Howard Motor Company Building from “The Mentalist”

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I always play tourist in my own town.  Never was that more the case then when I resided in Pasadena.  The area is so chock-full of notable locales, though, that sometimes it takes a newcomer to point them out.  My friend Kim recently embarked upon her first visit to Crown City (it was socially-distanced, of course!) and in poring through the Facebook photos she posted that day, I was pleasantly surprised to see pics of the Howard Motor Company Building!  Though Kim took note of the gorgeous structure immediately upon passing it, I drove by daily while living in Pasadena and even once witnessed The Mentalist filming on the premises, but somehow never dedicated a post to the place!  So to the top of my To-Stalk List it went and I headed over there shortly thereafter.

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The Howard Motor Company Building was designed in 1927 by the Austin Company of California architecture firm.

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The Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure served as an automobile showroom for the dealership through 1938, at which time the Busch-Morgan Motor Company moved in.

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The stunning building continued to operate as a car gallery through at least 1996.

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The ornate edifice, with its spectacular California Churrigueresque detailing, was intended to attract passersby traveling along the popular Route 66, get them to stop, and hopefully buy a new car.  The concept certainly worked on my friend Kim who immediately pulled over to get a better look at the place.

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The Howard Motor Company Building is easily one of Pasadena’s most beautiful structures.

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The interior is just as incredible as the exterior!

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Sadly, the property, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has been tenantless for pretty much as long as I remember, though it sometimes houses a Spirit Halloween store in the Fall.

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The long-term vacancy left it open for the filming of The Mentalist in November 2009.  My dad and I happened to be driving by when the shoot was being set up and, of course, stopped to watch.

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Though I don’t have any photos from that day, we were invited inside to take a peek at the space with all of its glorious set dressing and, let me tell you, the Howard Motor Company Building was definitely ready for its close-up!

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In the episode, Season 2’s “Redline,” which aired in February 2010, the site portrayed the supposed Marin County Zenith Motors showroom, where Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and the CBI team investigated the murder of a woman found stuffed inside the trunk of a car.  The program showcased both the exterior . . .

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. . . and interior of the space to spectacular effect!

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With the red carpeting, extensive foliage and up-lighting, the episode really gives us an idea of what the building must have looked like back in its heyday.

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Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for reminding me of this location!  🙂

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Howard Motor Company Building, from the “Redline” episode of The Mentalist, is located at 1285 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

First Church of Christ, Scientist from “Little Fires Everywhere”

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Though I stalked and blogged about Little Fires Everywhere locations ad nauseam, amazingly there is still one spot I have yet to cover – Pasadena’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, which masked as the Shaker Heights courthouse on the new Hulu series.  I recognized the building as soon as it came onscreen in episode 7 (though, truth be told, I often get it confused with the similar-looking Second Church of Christ, Scientist in West Adams).  Not only did I used to live just a few blocks from the temple and pass by it regularly on my thrice daily walks to Starbucks, but I am very familiar with it thanks to its appearance in Scream 2.  I was sure I had taken pictures of the place for my October 2016 write-up on the horror flick’s Los Angeles locales, but when I went to look, I couldn’t find any in my photo library.  So onto my To-Stalk List it went.  Then, late last week, my friend Kim sent me a text asking about must-see places in Pasadena.  Turns out she was heading to Crown City for a little (socially distant) stalking trek the following day.  Thrilled, I asked if she might pop by First Church of Christ, Scientist to snap some pics for me, which she gladly did.  Thank you, Kim!

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First Church of Christ, Scientist was designed by Franklin Pierce Burnham beginning in 1909.  The Classical Revival building was one of the architect’s last works and he, sadly, didn’t live to see it completed.  Burnham passed away unexpectedly in December 1909, at which point Marston & Van Pelt (who also gave us Arden Villa from Vacation, the Gilmore mansion from Gilmore Girls, the S.S. Hinds Estate from Beaches,  and the A.L. Garford House from Twins) took over.

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The structure’s most notable feature is its central dome, inspired by the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, aka the religion’s “mother church.”

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When it was completed, First Church of Christ, Scientist had the distinction of being Pasadena’s largest building.  Though that is no longer the case, it remains one of the city’s prettiest.  As such, it is no shock that it found its way to the screen.

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The church first pops up as the Shaker Heights courthouse in the seventh episode of Little Fires Everywhere, titled “Picture Perfect,” as the custody battle for Mirabelle McCullough/May Ling Chow (I cannot find the name of the actress who plays her anywhere!) gets underway.

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The building also appears a couple of times in the Little Fires Everywhere finale, titled “Find a Way.”  It is first shown as in an establishing shot as the McCullough/Chow trial continues.

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And then later, after the verdict is announced, the McCulloughs’ lawyer, Bill Richardson (Joshua Jackson), holds a press conference on the front steps.

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Only the exterior of the building was used on the series.  Interiors were shot elsewhere, though I am unsure of where.

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As I mentioned earlier, First Church of Christ, Scientist is also featured in Scream 2.  Though little of it can be seen, it is outside of the building that Ghostface gets into a car crash and kills Hallie McDaniel (Elise Neal) in the 1997 horror flick.  In the caps below, Hallie is standing at the eastern end of the church’s Green Street side, with the camera facing west.

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Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) shoots August Marks (Billy Brown) in front of First Church of Christ, Scientist in the series finale of Sons of Anarchy, titled “Papa’s Goods,” which aired in 2014.

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That same year, the building posed as Washington, D.C.’s United States Department of Justice at the top of the Season 1 episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. titled “Nothing Personal.”

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Huge THANK YOU to my friend Kim for stalking this location for me and taking all of the photos that appear in this post!  Smile

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: First Church of Christ, Scientist, aka Shaker Heights courthouse from Little Fires Everywhere, is located at 80 South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena.

Arden Villa from “National Lampoon’s Vacation”

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In an email exchange with my friend/fellow stalker Owen in late January, I casually made mention of National Lampoon’s Vacation’s original ending, in which, after finding Walley World closed, Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase) heads to Roy Walley’s (Eddie Bracken) mansion, pulls a gun and forces the theme park mogul to entertain his family.  The segment didn’t work with test audiences, so it was scrapped and the bit at Magic Mountain shot to replace it.  Years later, that original ending was reworked into the segment involving the kidnapping of Clark’s boss for the movie’s 1989 sequel, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.   Owen was unaware of all of this, though.  As he replied, “I had no idea about an alternate Vacation ending.  I’d love to see footage of Clark going to Roy Walley’s house.  And if that footage exists and we can view it, we then need to find that house!“  Sadly, the footage has never seen the light of day, but Owen’s response took the words right out of my mouth!  As I typed my initial email to him, I couldn’t help but wonder where the Walley mansion was located.  Amazingly, through a series of fortunate events, Owen was able to ID it!  Turns out, it’s a place I am very familiar with.

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The only imagery of the original ending I was able to dig up is below.  Virtually nothing outside of the edge of a pool and a tall wall can be seen in it.  In the hands of a lesser stalker that might have been a problem, but not Owen!

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Amazingly, Owen managed to get his hands on the Vacation call sheets years ago.  They were packed away in storage, though, and he wasn’t sure when he’d make it out to his unit to look through them.  But, just a few days after our email exchange, there was a bit of a mix-up at the storage facility that had Owen driving out to check on his things not once, but twice!  On his second visit, as he was taking inventory of the items inside, he remembered our Vacation query and dug out the call sheets.  Sure enough, Roy Walley’s mansion was noted in the pages!  As Owen discovered, filming took place at one of Pasadena’s most well-known and oft-filmed estates, Arden Villa!   Though I had stalked the place before, only its front gate is visible from the street, so I never blogged about it.  Armed with this scintillating new info, though, I decided it was definitely time for a post!  So I ran right out there to re-stalk it just a few days later.

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Arden Villa was originally built in 1913 for railroad tycoon William Kennon Jewett.  Designed in the Italianate/Palladian style, the estate was the work of the Marston and Van Pelt architecture firm.  Per the Knight Industries website, the home was initially rust brown in color, but was repainted to the canary yellow it is today in the mid-80s.  The screen captures that appear later in this post attest to that.

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Boasting 5 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, a whopping 10,290 square feet, 7 fireplaces, a wine cellar, an elevator, a game room, a finished basement and attic, a huge pool, lily ponds, a tennis court, and a 2,340-square-foot guest house complete with its own pool, the massive manse originally sat on 9 acres, but all but 2.5 were sold off.  Sadly, the only part of it visible from the street is the front gate and a portion of the 100-yard driveway just beyond it.  You can check out some interior photos of the place here, though.

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Arden Villa most recently hit the market in 2017 for $28 million, but did not sell until September 2019.  Avengers director Anthony Russo was the lucky buyer, snapping it up for a cool $15,579,500.

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Because so little can be seen in that one image of National Lampoon’s Vacation’s original ending, I wasn’t ready to sign off completely on Arden Villa being Roy Walley’s mansion, even with the call sheet documentation.

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Especially since aerial views and MLS photos show that the wall running alongside the property’s pool looks nothing like the one visible behind Clark.  As evidenced in the imagery below as well as in this pic, though there is a wall in the same general vicinity at Arden Villa, it is almost two-stories high, boasts a built-in outdoor fireplace, is largely covered with hedges, and has a columned edge, none of which jibe with what appeared in Vacation.  So I was left thinking that filming either took place elsewhere or the wall had been knocked down and rebuilt (or at the very least remodeled) since the 1983 shoot.

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Luckily, I got clarity thanks to a 1984 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King!  In Season 1’s “Weekend,” Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner) and Amanda King (Kate Jackson) work a case at Arden Villa, which is posing as The Cumberland hotel.

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In a scene taking place by the pool, a wall is visible behind Lee and its rust coloring, white lip and vertical perforations all match what was seen in Vacation!  Eureka!

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I got further confirmation thanks to Knight Rider!  On the iconic series, Arden Villa regularly portrayed F.L.A.G. headquarters, including in the Season 2 episode titled “Brother’s Keeper” (pictured below), which aired in 1983.

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In a scene from the episode, the wall is briefly visible as April Curtis (Rebecca Holden) and Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare) walk near the pool, giving us an almost identical angle to that of the Vacation still.  As you can see below, there’s no question the walls are one and the same!

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Season 2’s “A Knight in Shining Armor” also provides a similarly-angled view of the wall and, again, it’s a direct match to what appeared in Vacation.  Suffice it to say, Arden Villa did, in fact, mask as Roy Walley’s mansion and the pool wall was then remodeled after the fact!  You can check out the script pages for the movie’s original ending here.  It’s actually pretty funny.  Though some internet sources claim the segment involves The Girl in the Ferrari (Christie Brinkley) turning up as Roy’s daughter and Clark eventually taking a plane hostage (both of which sound idiotic), that does not appear to be the case.  While I love what ultimately made its way to the screen, the ending as originally shot would have been a pretty fitting closure to the Griswold family’s tumultuous trip.  Here’s hoping the footage will be aired someday!

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Arden Villa has appeared in countless productions over the years, far too many to chronicle here.  But what follows are some of the highlights . . .

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Way back in 1933, before the property had a pool, it was the site of an elegant tea party in the Marx Brothers comedy Duck Soup.

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Det. Ken Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) investigate a murder there in the Season 4 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “Photo Finish,” which aired in 1978.

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Arden Villa plays the home of Avery Williams (Robert Goulet) in the Season 4 episode of Fantasy Island titled “The Proxy Billionaire/The Experiment,” which aired in 1981.

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Des Spellacy (Robert De Niro) attends a wedding at the property in the 1981 drama True Confessions.

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In what is perhaps its most famous cameo, Arden Villa is the site of the epic lily pond catfight between Alexis Carrington Colby (Joan Collins) and Krystle Carrington (Linda Evans) in the Season 3 episode of Dynasty titled “The Threat”, which aired in 1983.  You can watch the scuffle here.  The backside of the estate was actually used regularly throughout the series as the rear of the Carrington mansion.  Front and aerial shots were lensed about 360 miles away at Filoli in Woodside, though.

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Arden Villa serves as the home of Fred Fusco (Lorne Greene) in the Season 4 episode of Highway to Heaven titled “The Smile in the Third Row,” which aired in 1985.

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It’s the residence of Zeke Bridges (Noble Willingham) in the 1992 comedy The Distinguished Gentleman.

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Arden Villa pops up as the Bel Air home of Stuart “He Gives Good Woo” Carson (David Gail) in the Season 3 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Moving Targets,” which aired in 1993.

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In 1996, Oasis filmed the music video for their song “Don’t Look Back in Anger” on the premises.

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James Whale (Ian McKellen) and Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser) attend a party there in the 1998 drama Gods and Monsters.

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Portions of the pad appear as the interior of the Cleary mansion in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers.

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Rose (Toni Collette) attends a wedding there in the 2005 drama In Her Shoes.

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The villa is also the residence of Jason Normandy (Jonathan Banks) in the Season 2 episode of Shark titled “Partners in Crime,” which aired in 2008.

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Though some articles state that Billy Madison did some filming at the estate, I don’t believe that to be true.  From what I’ve read, the 1995 comedy was lensed in its entirety in Canada.  And while I thought that a reshoot might possibly have taken place at Arden Villa, I scanned through the flick and did not see anything resembling the mansion.  The same goes for Terms of Endearment, which is also said to have shot scenes on the premises – I’m pretty sure that information is incorrect.

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Big THANK YOU to my friend/fellow stalker Owen for finding this location’s Vacation connection!  Smile

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Arden Villa, aka Roy Walley’s mansion from the original ending of National Lampoon’s Vacation, is located at 1145 Arden Road in Pasadena.

The Baldwin Home from “For All Mankind”

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Apple TV+ is seriously setting the bar high when it comes to original content!  Every program I’ve come across on the streaming platform has been excellent.  I first got hooked on The Morning Show, then Truth Be Told and, most recently, For All Mankind, a 1960s/1970s-set series that focuses on an alternate reality in which Russia wins the space race and the United States struggles to keep up.  I love anything having to do with NASA (The Astronaut Wives Club is another favorite).  Add to that incredible set design and costumes and a fascinating premise and it is not hard to see how I became obsessed.  I was also thrilled to discover while watching that, though set in Texas and Florida, the show was filmed entirely in Los Angeles,  So I, of course, immediately began tracking down its locales.  The first spot I set out to find was the supposed Houston home belonging to the Baldwin family – astronaut Ed (Joel Kinnaman), his wife, Karen (Shantel VanSanten, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Meghan Markle), and their son, Shane (played by both Teddy and Tait Blum).

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Fortunately, an address number of “3345” was visible on the front of the Baldwin house in several scenes, which made IDing it a snap.

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The huge front yard, abundance of foliage and traditional architecture led me to believe the property was most likely in Pasadena, so I began searching 3300 blocks there and quickly found the Baldwin pad at 3345 Lombardy Road in the desirable Chapman Woods neighborhood.

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The sprawling one-story residence looks much the same in person as it did on For All Mankind.

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Originally built in 1949, the dwelling has retained its mid-century look, making it a perfect fit for the series.  Producers really did not have to do much to make it screen-ready.

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Throw in a few period cars and, voila, they had themselves a very seemingly retro home.

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The property’s massive backyard, which you can see images of here, was also featured on For All Mankind, in the second episode titled “He Built the Saturn V.”

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Only the exterior of the house was utilized on the series.  The inside of the Baldwin residence was a studio-built set.  You can check out what the actual interior of the home looks like here.  Though portions of it are a bit dated, it does not resemble the Baldwins’ place in the slightest.

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In real life, the pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,844 square feet, a formal dining room, 3 fireplaces, French doors, bay windows, a plethora of built-ins, a 3-car garage, and a 1.29-acre lot with expansive lawns, a tennis court, and a large patio.

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The Baldwin residence is currently for sale for a cool $2,688,000.  Shockingly, the listing makes no mention whatsoever of the place’s recent small-screen role!  I would think such a thing would only up the property’s value!  If I was the agent, I’d have the information splayed across the sign in the yard!  I mean “1+ acres” is great, but so is a film history and the income that comes along with it.  Man, why do I always have to think of everything?

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Baldwin residence from For All Mankind is located at 3345 Lombardy Road in PasadenaNora Walker’s (Sally Field) house from Brothers & Sisters can be found two miles east at 1640 Lombardy.

Mayfield Senior School from “All About Steve”

Mayfield Senior School from All About Steve (6 of 24)

Stalkings can come about from the most random of situations.  Many, many moons ago, I joined a grief group (long story) where I met a woman who worked at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena.  During one of our sessions, she happened to mention that filming took place on the campus regularly and my ears immediately perked up.  After the meeting, I, of course, approached her to pick her brain about the school’s cinematic history and she wound up inviting me for a tour.  Though I never took her up on her offer, I did pop by for an impromptu visit one Saturday afternoon several years later.  My friend happened to be on site at the time and welcomed me to poke around.  Because it was the weekend, all of the buildings were locked up, but I did get to see the exteriors – and they were fabulous!  The place somehow went straight to the back of my mind afterwards, though, and stayed there until earlier this summer when I spotted it while scanning through All About Steve making screen captures for this post.  Thrilled over the discovery, I dug up my old photos of the school and decided to finally sit down and write about it.

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Mayfield School, as it was initially known, was founded in 1931 by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus on a small campus located at 405 South Euclid Avenue in Pasadena.  It was the city’s first private Catholic learning institution, serving students in grades Pre-K through 12 (though boys were only accepted at the primary levels).

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Mayfield Senior School from All About Steve (21 of 24)

By 1950, Mayfield’s enrollment had grown such that more space was needed and it was decided that the facility would split into an upper school and a lower school.  The lower, comprising grades K-8, would remain at the Euclid site.  For the upper levels, 9-12, a new location was secured thanks to Dr. Charles and Vera Strub who gifted the Society of the Holy Child Jesus with a 1917 mansion situated about two miles away.

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Mayfield Senior School from All About Steve (14 of 24)

Originally known as the Marshall-Eagle House, the striking Italianate Beaux Arts estate was designed by Frederick L. Roehrig (who also gave us the Stimson House from House II: The Second Story, the Andrew McNally House from Kingdom Comethe Lincoln Clark House from Little Black Book, and the Rindge House from The Brasher Doubloon) for oil tycoon E.J. Marshall.  Today, it goes by the moniker “Strub Hall” in honor of its generous benefactors.  Though transformed from private residence into a campus building, much of the original detailing miraculously remains intact, with the ground floor living spaces repurposed into a chapel, conference room and student activities area.  You can check out some photos of the interior here.

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Mayfield Senior School from All About Steve (3 of 24)

The sprawling eight-acre campus boasts five additional buildings, including a gym and a music studio, as well as a courtyard, a meditation garden and a grotto.

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It is not at all hard to see how the gorgeous site wound up onscreen.

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Mayfield Senior School from All About Steve (17 of 24)

In All About Steve, Mayfield poses as the supposed Sacramento-area The Youngstrum School, where Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) attends a career day event and speaks about her job as a cruciverbalist.  The exterior of Strub Hall . . .

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. . . as well as the interior of the school’s auditorium appeared in the movie.

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All About Steve is hardly the only production to feature Mayfield.  In fact, the property is one of Pasadena’s most popular filming locations – and that’s saying a lot considering the city’s prominence onscreen.  There are far too many cameos to chronicle fully here, but what follows are some of the highlights.

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Mayfield portrays Valley View Sanitorium, where Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) becomes an unwitting patient, in the Season 2 episode of The Incredible Hulk titled “The Quiet Room,” which aired in 1979.

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In one brief scene from the 1992 favorite The Cutting Edge, Strub Hall stands in for the Albertville, France chateau where Kate Moseley (Moira Kelly) and Doug Dorsey (DB Sweeney) stay while in town for the Olympics.  It is in the foyer of the building that Kate tells Doug she is retiring from skating.  From what I’ve gleaned, virtually all of the movie was shot in Toronto, so I am unsure how this short bit came to be lensed in Pasadena.  I am guessing it must have been a pick-up shot captured after principal photography wrapped.

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Bishop (Robert Redford) tracks down Liz (Mary McDonnell) teaching music at Strub Hall in 1992’s Sneakers.

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Mayfield pops up as the T. Carter Foundation, where Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) goes “all the way to the top” by visiting the richest man in town, Todd Carter (Terry Kinney), in the 1995 drama Devil in a Blue Dress.

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In the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor, Strub Hall serves as the office of Dean Richmond (Larry Miller).

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That same year, it portrayed the hospital where Matilda (Mara Wilson) was born in Matilda.

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John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) lives there in the 1997 action flick The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

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Strub Hall was used for interior scenes involving the Potsdam Conference in the 2006 drama The Good German.

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It plays Paris’ Chateau Parc des Chanteraines, where Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) attends an Interpol anti-terrorist seminar, in the Season 4 episode of NCIS titled “Trojan Horse” which aired in 2007.

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Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is summoned there to discuss his affair in the 2008 thriller State of Play.

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On the series Switched at Birth, which started airing in 2011, Mayfield masquerades as the supposed Kansas City-area Buckner Hall, where Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) attends school.

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Mayfield pops up as Bridget Donovan’s (Kerris Dorsey) high school during the third season of Ray Donovan, which kicked off in 2015.

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And currently, Mayfield stands in for Atlas Academy on Marvel’s Runaways.

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

Mayfield Senior School from All About Steve (10 of 24)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Mayfield Senior School, from All About Steve, is located at 500 Bellefontaine Street in Pasadena.  Please remember that it is a working school and not open to the public.

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “What Have They Done”

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I’ve made no secret of my apathy for the second season of Big Little Lies.  But I was, of course, still entranced by its locations, which I’ve been obsessively IDing ever since episode 1 aired in early June.  So I figure it is only appropriate to follow up my complete guide to the locales from Season 1 by doing the same for S2.  Because a great deal more sites were featured this time around (S1 utilized 25 spots total, while S2 boasted 18 in its premiere alone!), an episode-by-episode breakdown seems to make the most sense here.  I apologize in advance to the non-Big Little Lies fans out there!  (A couple of notes – since I have already covered Season 1 extensively, I will not be including any flashback scenes.  Places that appear in multiple episodes will be mentioned as such, so there will be some crossover and repetition in the various posts.  And I am also missing a few locales, but will add them in as they are found.)

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And now, without further ado, I present all of the locations from Big Little Lies’ Season 2 premiere, “What Have They Done?”, in order of appearance.

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1. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – All of the women’s Season 1 residences, aside from Jane Chapman’s (Shailene Woodley), are re-used in Season 2, including the modern cliffside manse where Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) lives with her boys, Josh (Cameron Crovetti) and Max (Nicholas Crovetti).  In “What Have They Done?,” the pad’s actual front entrance, rear patio, living and dining rooms are featured (the latter is the site of that infamous scream!), but, as was the case with Season 1, the enormous master suite was just a soundstage-built set.

2. Jane’s New Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) Season 2 finds Jane and her son, Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage), living in an apartment in Ocean Harbor, the same waterfront complex where Celeste leased a unit at the end of S1.  Though the inside of their new place (which I believe was a set) is featured in “What Have They Done?” . . . 

. . . the exterior is not seen until episode 3, “The End of the World.”

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3. Otter Bay Elementary School (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood)At the outset of Season 2, the children of the Monterey 5 embark upon their second-grade year at Otter Bay, once again portrayed by Kenter Canyon Elementary School in Brentwood.  In “What Have They Done?”, the front of the school, exterior hallways, parking lot, quad, and auditorium are all featured.

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The park at the southern end of the school is also where the kids dance in the opening credits.

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4. Madeline Gets Cut Off (Intersection of Esplanade Street and Ocean View Drive, Pacific Grove) In a nod to the Season 1 premiere, while heading to grab coffee with Celeste, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) gets cut off by a fellow driver and then aggressively lays on her horn (because, as she explains, “Once I lean in, you know how I am!”) in the very same spot where she fell and rolled her ankle in “Somebody’s Dead.”

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5. Blissful Drip Café (Lovers Point Park, 631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – After dropping their kids off for their first day of school, Madeline and Celeste hit up their new java hangout, Blissful Drip Café, where Madeline has an unfortunate tête-à-tête with Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep).  The bohemian outdoor eatery is not a real place, but was a temporary set constructed solely for the show in a grassy expanse of Lovers Point Park, as I documented in this post.

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In the scene, the women park in front of the former Lattitudes at Lovers Point restaurant (631 Ocean View Drive), which currently sits vacant.

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6. Ed and Tori’s Grocery Store Encounter (Whole Foods Market, 331 North Glendale Avenue, Glendale) – Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) runs into Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic)  – and her new, ahem, assets – at the Glendale outpost of Whole Foods Market.  (Big THANK YOU to my friend/Brady Bunch aficionado Michael for IDing this location.)

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7. Bonnie’s Run (Old Coast Road, south of Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur– The bucolic forested path where Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) runs – and relives Season 1’s murder – can be found on Old Coast Road in Big Sur.  The same trail is also where Bonnie and her mom, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), hike in “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

8. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – The same gorgeous Calabasas bungalow from Season 1 serves as the home of Bonnie and Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) in Season 2.

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9. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane inexplicably goes from being an accountant in Season 1 to a Monterey Bay Aquarium educator in Season 2.  The popular aquatic museum plays itself in “What Have They Done?” (as well as in several other episodes), with Jane and her new co-worker/love interest Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) leading a class in one of the site’s Discovery Labs.

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10. Café Descanso (Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge) – Unlike Blissful Drip, Season 2’s other new coffee shop hangout, Café Descanso, is a real place.  It is at the picturesque site, located on the grounds of Descanso Gardens, that Nathan begs Ed to take Bonnie to lunch in “What Have They Done?”  The eatery also pops up in “Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” and “She Knows.”  You can read a more in-depth post on it here.

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11. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata Klein (Laura Dern) poses for a “Women in Power” photoshoot at the same palatial mansion that served as her residence in Season 1.  While the exterior and interior are both seen in the premiere episode (as well as throughout the rest of S2), I am fairly certain that Gordon’s (Jeffrey Nordling) beloved man cave was just a set.

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12. Madeline’s House Showing (98 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – In Monterey, selling houses is “like printing money,” at least according to Madeline who has made the change from working in community theatre to peddling real estate.  She is not very good at her job, though, as evidenced by the personal call she makes to Renata during a showing.  The gorgeous seaside pad where she ignores her clients can be found right down the street from Celeste’s.  A former real estate listing describes the place as being of “such innovative design, of such sheer drama that it vies for attention with the pounding Pacific Ocean itself.”  You can see images of its interior here.

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13. Sea Cliff High School (Ramona Convent Secondary School, 1701 West Ramona Road, Alhambra) – Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton) announces to Madeline and Nathan that she is not planning on attending college (which somehow results in a shoving match) during a parent/teacher conference at the fictional Sea Cliff High School.  Filming took place at Ramona Convent Secondary, an all-girls Catholic preparatory in Alhambra.

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14. Madeline’s Real Estate Office (Deasy Penner Podley, 30 North Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre) – The “Monterey” Sotheby’s office where Madeline works – and where she runs into Mary Louise in “What Have They Done?” – is the Sierra Madre branch of Deasy Penner Podley.  I further detail the brokerage, which also appears in “The End of the World,” here.

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15. Del Monte Beach (653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey)Jane’s solo shoreline dance is interrupted by Corey, who brashly asks about her involvement with the Monterey 5, at the Central Coast’s secluded Del Monte Beach.  This spot is, coincidentally, just down the street from Jane’s new apartment.

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16. Carmel River State Beach (Carmelo Street and Scenic Road, Carmel)An establishing shot of the parking lot at Carmel River State Beach is shown in the scene in which the ladies discuss the latest developments in Perry Wright’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder case.       

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I am fairly certain, though, that actual filming of the segment took place on Ocean View Boulevard near Lovers Point Park.

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17. Side Door Café (Happy Trails Garden, 207 South Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena)An oft-used locale from Season 1, Side Door Café only pops up once this time around.  In “What Have They Done?” Celeste and Jane have a late-night meet-up there to discuss Perry’s estate.  The striking space, formerly known as Happy Trails Garden, was sadly shuttered in early 2018 and currently sits vacant.  You can read my 2017 post on it here.

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18. Carmel-By-The-Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel)  In what becomes a regular occurrence throughout Season 2, Bonnie ventures over to the Carmel-By-The-Sea Police Department, which plays itself, at the end of “What Have They Done?”

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Be sure to check out my look at episode 2, “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

The Complete Guide to the Season 1 Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies”

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As longtime readers know, I watch a LOT of TV.  Only a handful of shows have ever become full-fledged obsessions, though, Beverly Hills, 90210, The Hills, and Big Littles Lies among them.  The second season of the latter will finally be debuting in June and I am beyond excited!  I cannot wait to revisit the women of Monterey!  Can we just fast-forward to summer already?  To stave off my anticipation, I recently did some more digging into locations from the show’s inaugural season and figured I should update my 2017 round-up of spots featured on the series accordingly.  So here goes!  As was the case with that post, because I have not visited the majority of these sites in person, I am relying on screen captures instead of photos for imagery.  And be forewarned – there are spoilers galore ahead!  If you haven’t seen Big Little Lies and are planning to, I’d hold off on scrolling any further.

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1. Madeline’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Easily my favorite locale of the entire series, the Cape Cod-style pad where Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) and husband Ed (Adam Scott) live can be found in Malibu.  The beachfront property, which serves as a vacation rental IRL, is no stranger to the screen boasting countless cameos in such productions as Models Inc., Diagnosis Murder, and Hannah Montana.  You can read a more in-depth post on it here.

Interestingly, a different spot was utilized as the front of Madeline’s home in a few episodes.   And that pad can actually be found in Monterey.  It’s at 2830 14th Avenue in Carmel-By-The-Sea.

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2. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata (Laura Dern) and Gordon Klein’s (Jeffrey Nordling) massive modern home can also be found in The ‘Bu.  And it’s an oft-filmed spot, as well, with roles in everything from 90210 to Brothers & Sisters to Revenge.

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3. Jane’s House (161 North Chester Avenue, Pasadena) – The modest cottage where Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) resides with son Ziggy (Iain Armitage), which I wrote about here, can be found on a sleepy, tree-lined street in Pasadena.

4. Bonnie’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – The bucolic bohemian bungalow belonging to Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) and her husband, Nathan (James Tupper), sits tucked away in a wooded area of Calabasas.

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5. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and husband Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) stunning cliffside estate, another of my favorites from the series, is the sole residence that can actually be found on the Central Coast (not counting the front of Madeline’s).  Only the exterior (both front and back) and lower floor of the property appeared on Big Little Lies.  All of the other portions of the Wright home were studio-built sets.

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6. Otter Bay Elementary School (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood)Otter Bay, the elementary school attended by all of the children on the series, is actually Kenter Canyon Elementary in Brentwood.  The site’s exterior and interior, including the principal’s office, library and auditorium, appear on the show.

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  7. Blue Blues Restaurant (The Culver Studios, 9336 Washington Boulevard, Culver City) – Though the actual Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey (101 Washington Street) is shown as the ladies walk up to Blue Blues, their regular hangout owned by Tom (Joseph Cross), in “Somebody’s Dead” . . .

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. . . . the actual café can’t be found there.  As I covered in this post, the coffee shop was just a set built entirely inside of a soundstage at The Culver Studios, where the series is lensed.  Fans can still get their Blue Blues fix by visiting Paluca Trattoria (6D Old Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey), which served as the inspiration for the bayside eatery.

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The pathway leading to Old Fisherman’s Wharf is also where Jane and the girls run in “Once Bitten” . . .

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. . . and the adjacent parking lot is where Madeline and Joseph Bachman (Santiago Cabrera) get into an accident in the same episode.

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The same parking lot is also where Joseph confronts and kisses Madeline in “Push Comes to Shove.”

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   8. Side Door Café (Happy Trails Garden, 207 South Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena)Side Door, the ladies’ other regular hangout, is an actual restaurant.  Or, at least, it was.  Pasadena’s Happy Trails Garden, which was very reminiscent of Carmel’s popular Hog’s Breath Inn, shuttered much to my dismay in 2018 and now sits vacant.  The bucolic site, which was outfitted with a plethora of firepits for the shoot and is said to have been modeled after Monterey’s Restaurant 1833, popped up three times on the series – once in “Serious Mothering” and twice in “Push Comes to Shove.”  You can read my 2017 post on it here.

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9. Madeline’s Fall (Intersection of Esplanade Street and Ocean View Drive, Pacific Grove) The spot where Madeline “rolls her ankle” in “Somebody’s Dead,” thereby setting off the entire storyline, can be found on Ocean View Drive in Pacific Grove.  A stop sign was installed for the scene just north of where Madeline falls, at the intersection of Ocean View Drive and the north end of Esplanade Street.  In real life there is a parking sign standing in that spot.

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10. Liberation Yoga (124 South La Brea Avenue, Hancock Park) – The yoga studio that Bonnie owns, which pops up in both “Everybody’s Dead” and “Push Comes to Shove,” is actually Liberation Yoga in Hancock Park.

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11. Wanderlust Hollywood (1357 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood) – The above is not to be confused with the other yoga studio shown on the series.  In “Serious Mothering,” Madeline and Celeste run into Bonnie and Nathan while taking a class at Wanderlust Hollywood.

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12. Lovers Point Park & Beach (631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – The popular shoreline retreat Lovers Point makes several appearances in Big Little Lies.  In “Serious Mothering,” Nathan and Ed have a rather terse tête-à-tête in the park area situated above the beach.

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Jane and Ziggy visit Lovers Point in both “Living the Dream” and “Push Come to Shove.”

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And it is at Lovers Point that Jane tells Celeste that her son Max (Nicholas Crovetti) is the one who has been bullying Amabella Klein (Ivy George) in “You Get What You Need.”

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13. Gordon Klein’s Office (1999 AOS, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Century City) – In “Living the Dream,” Renata heads to Century City office building 1999 AOS for a mid-day visit with her husband.  Only the exterior and lobby of the property were utilized for the scene, though.

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Gordon’s actual office can be found on the 26th floor of nearby Century Park Plaza (1801 Century Park East, Century City).

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14. Monterey Bay High School (Ulysses S. Grant High School, 13000 Oxnard Street, Van Nuys) – Screen favorite Grant High School in Van Nuys portrays Monterey Bay High, the school attended by Madeline’s eldest daughter, Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton), which pops up in “Living the Dream.”  Areas used in the episode include the principal’s office, a hallway and the main quad.  You may recognize Grant from its myriad of cameos in such productions as Saved by the Bell, Clueless, The Office, Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” music video, and Crazy. Stupid. Love.  You can check out an in-depth post I wrote about the place for Los Angeles magazine here.

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15. Studio City Recreation Center (12621 Rye Street, Studio City) – In “Living the Dream,” Ziggy hits a home run during his first Tee-ball game at Studio City Recreation Center, aka Beeman Park.  The site is also very briefly featured via flashback in “Push Comes to Shove.”  You can check out an in-depth post I wrote about the park, detailing its appearances in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Scrubs and Role Models, here.

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16. Colton Hall Museum (570 Pacific Street, Monterey) – Another Central Coast location, Colton Hall Museum masks as Monterey City Hall, where Celeste acts as Madeline’s lawyer in “Push Comes to Shove.”

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The interior of the museum, which you can see a photo of here, was also used in the episode.

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  17. Bixby Creek Bridge (CA-1, Big Sur) – In “Once Bitten,” Madeline has a bad dream that takes place at Bixby Bridge, the same span shown in the series’ opening credits.  The picturesque structure, one of the most photographed bridges in California, can be found in Big Sur, about twenty miles south of Monterey.

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18. Saxon Baker’s Interior Design Office (1035 East Green Street, Pasadena)In “Once Bitten,” Jane heads to a supposed San Louis Obispo interior design office to confront her possible rapist, Saxon Baker (Stephen Graybill).  In reality, filming took place at a quaint brick building on Green Street in Pasadena where Albert Einstein once worked.

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19. Celeste and Perry’s Therapist’s Office (130 Fountain Avenue, Pacific Grove) – Perry and Celeste start seeing marriage counselor Dr. Amanda Reisman (Robin Weigert) in “Living the Dream,” but the exterior of her charming office, another of the show’s Monterey locales, isn’t shown until “Once Bitten.”

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20. Cypress Community Hospital (Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, 23625 Holzman Highway, Monterey) –  After their car accident in “Once Bitten,” Madeline and Joseph are taken to “Cypress Community Hospital,” which is actually the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.  Only the exterior of the facility was featured on the series.

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I believe that interiors were shot at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital (333 North Prairie Avenue, Inglewood), which was, sadly, razed in late 2017.

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21. Monterey Regional Airport (200 Fred Kane Drive, Monterey) –  This spot, where Celeste and her boys surprise Perry when he returns home from a business trip in “Once Bitten,” plays itself.

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The airport’s interior appeared in the scene, as well.

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22. Celeste’s New Apartment (1 Surf Way, Monterey) In “Burning Love,” Celeste attempts to break away from Perry by renting an oceanside apartment.  Her new place is another of the series’ Monterey locations.  Known as Ocean Harbor House in real life, the picturesque complex, which is made up of condos, sits overlooking Del Monte Beach.

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23. Madeline’s Community Theatre/Trivia Night Costume Gala – Barnsdall Art Park (4800 Hollywood Boulevard, East Hollywood)Easily the series’ most memorable locale, Barnsdall Art Park serves as two notable spots on Big Little Lies.  In virtually every episode it pops up as the community theatre where Madeline works.  The constantly broken stairs she is regularly forced to walk up can be found on the eastern side of the park, adjacent to the Junior Art Center.

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The theatre itself is a mash-up of two Barnsdall spots – interiors were shot at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre (which you can see photos of here) . . .

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. . . while exteriors were filmed at the adjacent Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

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Most notably, though, Barnsdall Art Park is where the Audrey and Elvis Trivia Night costume gala is held in “You Get What You Need.”

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The community theatre’s broken stairs are the very same ones that figure so heavily in the episode’s climax.

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Barnsdall also appears in Big Little Lie’s opening credits.  You can read an in-depth post on the park here.

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24. Mountain View Cemetery (2400 North Fair Oaks Avenue, Altadena) – Toward the end of “You Get What You Need,” Perry is laid to rest at one of L.A.’s most oft-used locations, Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, which has appeared in everything from The Office to Seinfeld to A Lot Like Love.  You can read a post I wrote on it here.

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25. Garrapata State Park Beach (CA-1, Carmel-By-The-Sea) – The series comes to an end with the women and their children frolicking on the picturesque beach at Garrapata State Park (which is also where Jane, Celeste and Madeline run in “Once Bitten”).  The scene was such a perfect closing to the show, I am almost fearful to have the story opened up again for Season 2.  Though I truly can’t wait to revisit the women of Monterey, in some ways I would like to just be able to picture them forever standing together on that beach, bittersweetly frozen in time.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Hotel Constance from “Café Society”

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It is always such a thrill to discover that a beloved restaurant, building, bar or boutique I wasn’t aware was a filming location has actually appeared onscreen.  Such was the case with Hotel Constance, one of my favorite Pasadena-area lodgings.  You’ve seen me talk about the place before in My Guide to L.A. – Hotels post back in 2015 (it’s number 9 on the list).  I’ve stayed there with my family on numerous occasions and have always gushed about it, but somehow was unaware it boasted any film cred.  So I was ecstatic to recently come across a mention on The Woody Allen Pages website that the locale was featured in the 2016 drama Café Society.  A bit more digging led to some additional onscreen appearances, so I figured it was high time I dedicate a post to the place.

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Hotel Constance originally opened to the public on December 3rd, 1926.  Commissioned by and named for Pasadena entrepreneur Constance V. Perry, the seven-story Mediterranean Revival-style property was the city’s most modern lodging at the time.  You can check out what it looked like in its early days here.

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Perry sold the hotel, as well as the adjoining one-story commercial building situated next to it on Colorado Boulevard, in 1930 in order to dedicate her time to other business ventures.  At some point, the property was transformed into a retirement home known as the Pasadena Manor, a role it held for the next several decades.  (While I am unsure of exactly when the retirement-home transition took place, the earliest mention of the Manor I could find on newspapers.com was in 1970.)

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Though I lived just a few blocks from the building for several years and walked past it often, it was not until it was sold to Singpoli, a Hong Kong-based real estate investment firm, in 2007 and plans to revitalize it were talked about that I first took notice.  I’ll never forget walking by the boarded-up structure one sunny afternoon and becoming completely enthralled with the historic images of the place pasted in the front windows, along with the placard announcing that the property would soon be restored and turned into a hotel once again.

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Hotel Constance from Cafe Society (12 of 16)

It was thrilling to pass by the site in the years that followed and witness the new developments regularly taking place.

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Amazingly, because no major renovations had ever been done to the property prior to the 2007 sale, much of its original detailing was intact, albeit covered over with carpet, plaster and wallpaper.  Preservation architect Peyton Hall, who spearheaded the restoration, told the Pasadena Star News, “The interior of the lobby has (green-painted) paneled columns, and the mirrors on them are not original.  The original terra-cotta tiles were covered with vinyl tile, and we’ve uncovered them . . . and the coffered ceiling and the stairway will all remain.”  You can see what the lobby looked like mid-renovation here.  An image of that exact same area in its post-rehab state is pictured below.

Hotel Constance from Cafe Society (10 of 16)

After the $60-million revamp, the hotel opened to much fanfare as the DusitD2 Constance Pasadena on July 31st, 2014.  An arm of the Thai-based Dusit International, it was the luxury hospitality company’s first U.S. lodging.

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The hotel’s interior aesthetic, envisioned by Hong Kong designer Joey Ho, is ultra-modern with nods to its historic past.

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Check out that coffered ceiling!

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The adjacent commercial building also underwent a large-scale renovation.  While most of it was razed, the original storefronts were preserved.  Per an Arcadia Historical Society post, “The six retail stores attached to the hotel had prior face-lifts and were scheduled for demolition.  When the surfaces were removed, however, statuettes on columns were uncovered on the original façade.  These statuettes were extensively damaged when someone literally took a hammer and knocked off pieces so that they could be boarded up, with a new storefront.”  Thankfully, they were repaired and incorporated into the new design, which you can see almost completed in the Google Street View imagery below.

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A second tower with additional guest rooms, a fitness center, meeting space, and a rooftop pool, hot tub, sun deck and bar, was also just completed last year.

Hotel Constance from Cafe Society (9 of 16)

Hotel Constance from Cafe Society (16 of 16)

In all, the property boasts 136 rooms and suites, a Cal-Asian eatery known as Perry’s Restaurant, the swanky Blue Room cocktail lounge, and many modern appointments including in-room iPads that control lighting and on which guests can order room service or read daily newspaper publications.

Hotel Constance from Cafe Society (15 of 16)

At some point, Dusit International ceased operating the site and today it is known simply as Hotel Constance.  My family has stayed at the lodging numerous times and I can honestly say it is one of the best hotels we have ever had the pleasure of checking into.  As I recounted in My Guide to L.A. post, during one of our visits, while the bellman was walking us to our room, my dad mentioned to my mom that he had forgotten to pick up a special cereal he likes on the way into town.  The bellman overheard and, incredibly, said he would be happy to go pick it up for us – at no charge!  I’ve never known a hotel to offer that kind of service, but at the Constance, they do.  Sure enough, not 15 minutes later, my dad had his special cereal in hand!  It truly is a remarkable place.

Hotel Constance from Cafe Society (8 of 16)

In Café Society, Hotel Constance portrays the supposed Wilshire Boulevard office of talent agent Phil Stern (Steve Carell), who Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) visits in the hopes of getting a job.  For the shoot, filmmakers made use of the building’s Mentor Avenue side.

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Only the exterior of the hotel appears in the film.  Per The Woody Allen Pages, interiors were lensed at the Brooklyn Public Library located at 10 Grand Army Plaza near Prospect Park.

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In the Season 2 episode of Jane the Virgin titled “Chapter Thirty-Six,” which aired in 2016, Rafael Solano (Justin Baldoni) briefly meets with Avery Van Allen (Shvona Lavette Chung) at Hotel Constance’s Blue Room Lounge.

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In 2017, the Lounge portrayed the InterContinental Miami hotel restaurant where Charlie Murphy, Cedric the Entertainer, George Lopez, D.L. Hughley and Eddie Griffin grabbed breakfast in the Season 1 episode of The Comedy Get Down titled “Black Wives Matter.”

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

Hotel Constance from Cafe Society (1 of 16)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Hotel Constance, from Café Society, is located at 928 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.  You can visit the property’s official website here.

The Urban Outfitters from “National Treasure”

Urban Outfitters from National Treasure (2 of 2)

Today’s stalking venture is not only six years in the making, but a cross-country endeavor!  Way back in January 2013, as the Grim Cheaper and I were preparing to move from Pasadena to Palm Springs, I caught National Treasure on TV and immediately recognized the exterior of the Urban Outfitters in the flick as that of 139 West Colorado Boulevard, just a few blocks from where we lived at the time.  Seeking a reprieve from packing, I ran down there to see if the interior of the store had been used, as well.  Because it was an impromptu stalk, I did not bring screen captures or a clip of the scene to aid in the identification process, but what I saw when I arrived seemed to match what appeared in the film.  Being that I was in the middle of a move, the search went straight to the back of my mind as soon as I got home and did not get picked up again until I visited Philadelphia in September 2016.  During our stay in the City of Brotherly Love, I furiously researched locales from the 2004 adventure flick, largely shot in the area, and was shocked to come across a mention on Curbed LA that the Urban Outfitters from the movie was actually at 1627 Walnut Street near Rittenhouse Square.  Doubting my original find from three years prior, I dragged the GC right on over there, but it was obvious upon entering that it was not the spot where Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage), Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) and Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) shopped for casual clothes mid-flick.  The Philly store, which you can see photos of here and here, has a very different feel to it than what was shown onscreen.  Somehow, upon returning home, I completely forgot about the locale yet again, though.  It was not until last month, when a fellow stalker named Wylen published a comment on my site letting me know that the Pasadena Urban Outfitters had appeared in an episode of My So-Called Life, that I was reminded of it.  So I headed right back out there, screen captures in hand this time, and am thrilled to finally be able to confirm that the Colorado Boulevard store is, indeed, the one from National Treasure.

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The Pasadena outpost of Urban Outfitters is housed inside a stately two-story brick structure in the heart of Old Town that is largely referred to as the “Wood & Jones building” in honor of its former longtime tenant, Wood & Jones printing company, established in 1907.  Founders Bert Wood and Fred Jones pinpointed Pasadena as the ideal place to headquarter their business after learning that the city had the highest per capita income in the country at the time.  The duo first set up shop in a space on Union Street before moving to Colorado Boulevard in 1909.

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Early images of the printery, featured in a 2010 interview Huell Howser did with Wood’s granddaughter, Hanna, for KCET, are pictured below.  And you can check out a photo of the outside of the building taken in 1936 here.  It is amazing how little of the exterior has been altered over the years.

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When Jones passed away in the 1940s, the Wood family took over full operation of the business and continued to run it through 1994, at which time it was sold to longtime employee J.J. Gish.  Per the book Historic Pasadena, the Woods held on to the Old Town building, though, and continue to own it to this day – its lineage honored by the company signage that remains present on its façade.

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Wood & Jones vacated the building later that same year (it is still in operation just a few miles away at 2040 East Walnut Street, though it is now known as “Typecraft”) and Urban Outfitters moved in shortly thereafter.

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It has been going strong ever since.

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Though the exterior of the store is shown briefly in National Treasure . . .

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. . . it is on the second level that all of the action happens.

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The stairs leading to the second level, which are visible at the beginning and end of the scene, actually served as my smoking gun, so to say, when it came to identifying the location.  Their general layout, railing, and the elevator door situated on the landing match that of the Pasadena store perfectly.

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For the shoot, a cashier counter was set up in the southwest corner of the second floor, in the area pictured in my photograph below.

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Urban Outfitters from National Treasure (1 of 1)

Unfortunately, I did not get great pictures of that exact spot as I thought filming had taken place a little east of where it actually did, but you can see it more clearly in the Yelp image from user Ghalya M. below.

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A display wall now cuts through the area where filming occurred, separating women’s clothing from lingerie and greatly limiting the view of the large steel girder that could be seen behind the prop cashier counter in the scene.  (That girder is denoted with pink arrows in the images below.)

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The wall beams visible in the far background behind the group are also now covered over with display paneling, but are still partially evident.

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It is not very hard to see how the Pasadena Urban Outfitters came to be used in the film.  With all of the exposed brick and ductwork, it definitely has a Philadelphia feel, much more so, ironically, than its Rittenhouse Square counterpart, which boasts a subdued, sleek, modern aesthetic.

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 Per the Clothes On Film website, the Urban Outfitters segment was not an original plot element.  Author Lord Christopher Laverty explains, “Despite serving a worthwhile purpose in character development, the scene in which Abigail and Gates bond at an Urban Outfitters was actually a late addition to the script.  As the costumes had already been selected, [costume designer] Judianna Makovsky had to think of a store where the two protagonists could feasibly buy these clothes.  Urban Outfitters was within shooting distance [editor’s note – Jon Voight’s house from the film is nearby in South Pasadena] and so seemed like the logical choice.”  Interestingly, Abigail’s jacket was actually an Abercrombie & Fitch score, her sweater was designer, and her boots were from Barneys New York Co-Op, while Ben’s jacket was a Levi’s find.

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I am 99.9% certain that the dressing room where Ben and Abigail changed out of their formal wear was a set, for two reasons.  A, the space just looks like a set (due to privacy reasons, rarely are double-swinging doors utilized in dressing rooms and even more rarely are they as low as the ones featured in National Treasure) and B, the dressing room at the Pasadena Urban Outfitters does not look anything like what is pictured below.

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Which is a shame as I so would have loved to re-create the moment below.

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As fellow stalker Wylen informed me, back in 1994, when the building still housed Wood & Jones, it served as the print shop owned by Patty Chase’s (Bess Armstrong) father, Chuck (Paul Dooley), in the Season 1 episode of My So-Called Life titled “Father Figures.”  Wylen’s dad actually worked on the premises at the time, which is how he knew of the filming.  In his comment, he stated, “I think in the episode they even named Patty’s dad’s company Wood & Jones, possibly because they may have had an establishing shot of the actual building, but that didn’t end up in the episode.”  Wylen is correct – the shop is referred to as “Wood & Jones” in “Father Figures.”  He is also likely right about the establishing shot.  What I did not realize until sitting down to write this post, though, is that, per IMDB, Chuck’s last name is actually “Wood ” –  obviously to match the shop’s moniker.  How fascinating that the real life signage of a building (one that never ended up being shown) not only informed the name of a company on the series, but also that of a character!  Wylen went on to say, “I remember Wood & Jones closed up shop the same year and my family helped move things out and a bunch of stuff that was in the background we ended up taking.  When I saw the episode my mom and I kept saying, ‘Hey, we have that!’”  So incredibly cool to not only have an artifact from My So-Called Life, but a piece of Pasadena history.

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As I mentioned earlier, in 2010 Huell Howser filmed a brief segment for KCET in front of Urban Outfitters.  You can watch it here.

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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 fellow stalker Wylen for informing me of this location’s My So-Called Life connection!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Urban Outfitters from National Treasure is located at 139 West Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.  You can visit the store’s official website here.