The “Beaches” Mansion vs. The “Starsky & Hutch” Mansion

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Two weeks ago, fellow stalker Jenny left a comment on my post about the long-sought-after Beaches mansion in which she mentioned that the very same residence had also been used in both 1983’s Mr. Mom and 1987’s Who’s That Girl.  Ironically enough, I had received virtually that same exact comment from a fellow stalker named Sarah on the post I wrote about the Starsky & Hutch mansion (pictured above) way back in May of 2009.  So yesterday I decided to do some digging to see which mansion, if either, had been used in the two 80s flicks – a task which proved to be easier said than done.

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Both the Beaches mansion and the Starsky & Hutch mansion are extremely large, Tudor-style residences situated on absolutely huge pieces of land in Pasadena, so it is easy to see how they have been mistaken as being one in the same over the years.  The Beaches mansion, which is pictured above although sadly not much of it can be seen from the street, was originally built in 1916 and boasts 8 bedrooms, 4 baths, and a whopping 7,479 square feet of living space.

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The gargantuan home sits on just under two acres of land.

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In Beaches, the mansion was where Hillary Whitney Essex (aka Barbara Hershey) lived with her daughter, Victoria Cecilia Essex (aka Grace Johnston).

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The Starsky & Hutch mansion, which was built in 1912, boasts 13 bedrooms (and no that is not a typo!), 8 baths, and 11,573 square feet of living space.

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The monstrous residence sits on a 2.2 acre plot of land.

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In 2004’s Starsky & Hutch, the mansion was where Reese Feldman (aka Vince Vaughn) lived with his wife, Mrs. Feldman (aka Molly Sims), and was where David Starsky (aka Ben Stiller) accidentally shot a pony while at a bar mitzvah party.

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As it turns out and as you can see above, Mr. Mom was filmed at the Starsky & Hutch mansion and not at the Beaches mansion.  In the movie, the property stood in for the residence belonging to Caroline’s (aka Teri Garr’s) millionaire boss, Ron Richardson (aka Martin Mull).

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And here’s where things get confusing.  As you can see above, the Starsky & Hutch mansion was also used as the home of Simon Worthington (aka John McMartin) in Who’s That Girl.  Well, the front of the house was, at least.

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The backyard, though, where the wedding of Louden Trott (aka Griffin Dunne) and Wendy Worthington (aka Sixteen Candles’ Haviland Morris) was supposed to take place, was actually the backyard of the Beaches mansion!

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The interior scenes from Who’s That Girl were also filmed at the Beaches mansion.  The screen captures in the top row pictured above were taken from Who’s That Girl, while the ones in the bottom row were taken from Beaches, and, as you can see, the interiors match perfectly.

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The Starsky & Hutch mansion was also used numerous times in the television series Falcon Crest as the home belonging to Carlo Agretti (aka Carlos Romero) and his daughter, Melissa (aka Ana Alicia).  It first showed up in the Season 1 episode titled “House of Cards” and then popped up repeatedly throughout the next few seasons.  According to IMDB, the Starsky & Hutch mansion was also used in the Season 2 episode of Fantasy Island titled “The Last Whodunit” and in the Season 4 episode of Murder She Wrote titled “Witness for the Defense”, neither of which I could find a copy of to make screen captures for this post.  And according to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory, the property also appeared in an episode of the short-lived television series Pepper Dennis.

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As I mentioned in my post two weeks ago, the Beaches mansion has also been used in countless productions over the years.  It stood in for Roger Sterling’s (aka John Slattery’s) country club in the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “My Old Kentucky Home”.

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And in the Season 2 episode of Parks & Recreation titled “94 Meetings” it appeared as the Turnbill Mansion, which Leslie Knope (aka Amy Poehler) fought to save.

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Fellow stalker Tamara in Australia also let me know that the Beaches mansion was used as the residence where the eponymous Alice (aka Natalie Gregory) lived in 1985’s FABULOUS Irwin-Allen-produced television movie Alice in Wonderland, which featured an all-star cast and which I used to watch repeatedly with my grandma when I was a child.  The same property also appeared in the Season 7 episode of Columbo titled “Try and Catch Me”, which I was unfortunately unable to find a copy of to make screen captures for this post.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Jenny, Sarah, and Tamara for helping me to clear up the filming location confusion with these particular properties.  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Beaches mansion is located at 880 La Loma Road in Pasadena.  The Starsky & Hutch mansion is located just about two miles east at 1050 Arden Road in Pasadena.

The Starsky & Hutch Mansion

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A few weeks ago, my mom drove me by what has to be one of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen in my entire life!  The property spans almost an entire city block!  When you drive by it literally just keeps on going and going and going!  LOL  My mom showed me the absolutely ginormous Tudor style mansion to see if I recognized it from any movies or television shows.  She had an inkling that, because of its massive size, it was probably used as a filming location at some point in history.  And she was right, although I didn’t realize it at the time. 

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Then, last week, as I was scanning through Starsky & Hutch, making screen captures for my post about Rae’s Restaurant, I saw the house and almost fell out of my chair!   In the 2004 comedy, the mega-mansion was featured as the home of Vince Vaughn’s character, Reese Feldman.

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The mansion appears twice in Starsky & Hutch.  We first see it when the detectives show up there to interrogate Vince Vaughn about a dead body they have just discovered.

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Later on in the movie, Vince Vaughn throws his daughter a bat mitzvah party in a large tent in the home’s backyard.

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During the party, Ben Stiller accidentally shoots a pony in front of all of the party guests just outside of the mansion’s large garage.

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This same house was also used in the short lived Rebecca Romijn series Pepper Dennis.  As you can see in this Movieland Directory link, Arden Road is no stranger to the silver screen.  Numerous houses on Arden have been featured in productions over the years, most notably the “Carrington Mansion” from television’s Dynasty, which is located just a few houses down from the Starsky & Hutch  manse.  Unfortunately, though, it is not at all visible from the street.  🙁 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: Reese Feldman (aka Vince Vaughn’s) mansion from Starsky & Hutch is located at 1050 Arden Road in Pasadena.  The “Carrington Mansion” is located just a few houses away from it at 1145 Arden Road.

Altadena Town and Country Club

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As I predicted a few weeks ago, getting engaged has opened up a whole new stalking world for me!  And even though I have known for years now the exact spot where I want to get married, I am fully planning on dragging my fiance from one end of L.A. to the other looking at wedding/filming locations.  Hey, a girl should really keep her options open, shouldn’t she?  For stalking’s sake, at least.  🙂  So, yesterday I set out to stalk my very first wedding (and, of course, filming) location – the Altadena Town and Country Club.  I had heard rumors a few years back that a scene from Dirty Dancing  had been filmed at the club – how did these Dirty Dancing  being filmed in Altadena rumors get started, anyway???? – and have wanted to stalk the place ever since.  Yesterday, I finally had my chance.

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Altadena Town and Country Club, which was established in 1910 and was originally called the Altadena Country Club, is an absolutely beautiful private club located at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains. 

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The five and a half acre property boasts sprawling lawns;

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a beautiful rose garden;

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a sparkling swimming pool complete with a poolside snack bar;

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multiple tennis courts;

 

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a 27,000 square foot clubhouse,

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consisting of several beautiful ballrooms with wood-beamed ceilings;

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a large terrace overlooking the pool;

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and an upscale restaurant with a top notch wine list.  In fact, one of my very favorite champagnes is on the Club’s list of options for wedding toasts.  🙂   Altadena Town and Country Club looks like the perfect setting to host a wedding and the prices are extremely reasonable to boot!!!  I didn’t end up taking the full wedding tour while I was there yesterday, as it was the event coordinators’ day off.  But I think I am going to make an appointment to do just that, as I ended up really liking the place.  🙂

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And, while I am absolutely certain that Dirty Dancing  was not filmed at the Altadena Town & Country Club, many other productions have been filmed there.  The Club stood in for Marsante Country Club in the Season One episode of The Mentalist  entitled “Scarlett Fever”;

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 it was used as Vince Vaughn’s pool club in Starsky & Hutch;

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and it was the location of the Lambda Omega Omega “End of Finals Loo-au” in Van Wilder.  Altadena Town and Country Club was also featured in an episode of Mad Men, the 1994 movie Speechless, and the Wonder Years two-part series finale entitled  “Summer/Independence Day”. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Altadena Town and Country Club is located at 2290 Country Club Drive in Altadena.  You can visit their website here.  Unfortunately, the Club is not open to the public, but it is available as an event and wedding venue.