Franck’s Wedding Coordinator Shop from “Father of the Bride”

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When the Grim Cheaper and I first showed up to stalk Fig & Olive restaurant, from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial which I blogged about last week, I became absolutely enchanted with Melrose Place, the tiny tree-lined street on which the eatery is located.  Even though I had been a fan of the series Melrose Place back in the 90s, before tracking down Fig & Olive earlier this year I had no idea that the charming and idyllic little street, which runs a scant three blocks and is made up of mostly high-end boutiques, even existed.  In a recent About.com Los Angeles article, author Shana Ting Lipton calls Melrose Place a “hidden gem” and she could not be more right!  Because its name so closely resembles that of the neighboring, and far more well-known, Melrose Avenue, I believe Melrose Place often gets lost in the shuffle, which explains why this stalker had never before heard of it.  Needless to say, I absolutely fell in love with the picturesque little thoroughfare on the spot, as did the GC.

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While we were there, I happened to notice that the sidewalks on Melrose Place were extremely wide with brick ornamentation and my mind immediately flashed upon the shop where wedding coordinator Franck Eggelhoffer (Martin Short) and his assistant, Howard Weinstein (BD Wong), worked in fave movie Father of the Bride – a location that I had long been trying to track down.  For some odd reason, I had remembered that the sidewalk in front of Franck’s shop was also quite wide and lined with brick (I know, I know – my mind retains the oddest of information), so I snapped a quick pic of the Melrose Place sidewalk so that I could compare the two when I returned home.  Well, lo and behold, when I popped in my DVD later that night, I was able to confirm that the sidewalks were one and the same.  Yay!

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From that point, all I had to do was pinpoint the exact storefront where Franck worked and, being that Melrose Place is only three blocks long, the venture was an easy one.  Then, last Thursday, after I had figured out the correct spot, I dragged Mike, from MovieShotsLA, right on back out there to do some stalking of it.

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Franck’s shop shows up only once in Father of the Bride, in the scene in which George Banks (Steve Martin) begrudgingly accompanies his wife, Nina (Diane Keaton), and daughter, Annie (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), to meet the hard-to-understand wedding coordinator for the first time.  One of my very favorite lines in the movie is actually uttered during that scene – when George laments over the high price of the wedding cake, he says, “My first car didn’t cost $1,200!”, to which Franck responds, “Well, welcome to the ‘90s, Mr. Banks!”  Love it!

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In the scene, George, Nina and Annie are shown walking east on Melrose Place in front of the building numbered 8420.

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And I, of course, just had to imitate them by posing for an action walking shot while I was there. Smile

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I believe that the green “Antiques” awning that was visible in the background behind the trio was once attached to the building pictured above, which is located at 8422/8424 Melrose Place.  Fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, came across an article about the vacant property which mentions that it did, in fact, once house an antique store.  And, as fate would have it, back in 2007 the very same building was also the site of a Hanes Comfortique Event hosted by none other than Owen’s main squeeze, Jennifer Love Hewitt.  Talk about synchronicity!

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The building that stood in for Franck’s shop, which was also an antique store at the time of the filming, is now home to the Zero + Maria Cornejo boutique.  According to the About.com Los Angeles article that I mentioned earlier, Melrose Place actually used to be known as “the antiquing street” thanks to the myriad of antique shops that were located there once upon a time.

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And while the full exterior of the property was not shown in Father of the Bride, the door that Annie, George and Nina walked through still looks exactly the same today as it did back in 1991 when the movie was filmed!  Love it!

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The real life interior of the store was also featured in Father of the Bride.  As you can see in these pictures, while that interior has since been remodeled, it is still set up in the same basic three-room configuration that it was during the filming.

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Even the ribbed pillars that were visible in the background of the scene are still there, as you can see in the main photograph featured in this RackedLA post.

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In the scene, George, Nina, Annie, and Franck sat on a couch in front of the store’s eastern-most window.

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That window is pictured above.

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It is thanks to that portion of the scene that I was able to pinpoint exactly where Franck’s shop was situated.  While looking for clues, I had noticed a few distinct architectural elements on the building located across the street, which was visible through Franck’s window.  From there I used Google Street View to search for those elements and, thankfully, it was not long before I found them.  As you can see in the screen shot and Street View image above, the arched window (denoted with a pink arrow), horizontal lip (denoted with a yellow arrow) and rectangular-shaped cutout (denoted with  a blue arrow) of the building located at 8417 Melrose Place all match up to what appeared onscreen.

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Sadly, as you can see above, those elements are now covered over with large awnings and are no longer visible.  Thank God for Street View!

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I had also spotted a center island and a “Keep Right” sign through the window in the scene and, looking at aerial views, saw that that same island was located just east of the Zero + Maria Cornejo boutique.  And while the island still exists to this day, the “Keep Right” sign has since been removed.

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The Zero + Maria Cornejo employee that we spoke with while there could NOT have been nicer and was not only floored to learn that he worked in such a cinematically significant location, but also allowed Mike and me to snap some pics through the same window that Annie, Nina, George, and Franck sat in front of.

On a Father of the Bride side note – I just learned that the character of Franck Eggelhoffer was inspired by real life wedding planner Kevin Lee, who appeared on this past season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as the wedding coordinator hired by Lisa Vanderpump.  You can watch a video clip of the “real Franck” by clicking above.  And yes, Martin Short had the guy down to a T!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Zero + Maria Cornejo, aka Franck’s wedding planning shop from Father of the Bride, is located at 8408 Melrose Place in West HollywoodFig & Olive restaurant, from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial, is located just down the street at 8490 Melrose Place in West Hollywood.  You can visit Fig & Olive’s official website here.

The “L.A. Story” Gas Station

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Last week, while doing research for my post on L’Orangerie, aka Chez Quis restaurant from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I came across some information on The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations website about the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station on Highland Avenue in Hollywood – a very cool-looking, old-time gas station that appeared in the 1991 movie L.A. Story.  Thanks to the place’s unique, Art Deco architecture and historic feel, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with it and immediately added the address to my ever-growing “To-Stalk” list.

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I think part of the reason that I became so enamored with the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station is that it reminded me of the circular, 50s-style drive-in restaurant that was used in Britney Spears’ “For Those Who Think Young” Pepsi commercial – which was sadly just a set that was built inside of a soundstage.  For reasons that are beyond my comprehension, I have long been obsessed with all of the Pepsi ads featuring Britney.  I honestly cannot get enough of ‘em.  In fact, I just watched about twelve different versions of both “The Joy of Pepsi” and “For Those Who Thing Young” videos.  But I digress.  Anyway, because he has an affinity for all things historic, I figured that the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station was one location that the Grim Cheaper would actually not mind being dragged to.  Sadly though, when we arrived, we found the structure to be in a pretty pitiful state.  Such a shame!

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The Gilmore Gasoline Service Station has an absolutely fascinating backstory.  The structure was originally built for the Gilmore Oil Company, which was founded by one of the most influential and prominent families in Los Angeles history.  Arthur Freemont “A.F.” Gilmore, a dairy business owner from Illinois who migrated to Southern California during the 1880s, found fortune in 1903 when he accidentally struck oil while drilling a water well on some property that he owned in the Rancho La Brea area.  In 1919, after A.F. had passed away, his son, Earl, founded the Gilmore Petroleum Company, which later became the Gilmore Oil Company.  Their Red Line service stations, which bore the motto “Someday you will own a horseless carriage.  Our gasoline will run it.”, soon became common fixtures across all of Los Angeles.  The Gilmore family is most famous, though, for founding the Gilmore Bank and the world-famous Farmers Market at 3rd & Fairfax, and for building Gilmore Field – the now-defunct minor league baseball park that was once home to the Hollywood Stars baseball team.

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The double-canopied Gilmore Gasoline Service Station was designed in 1935 by an engineer named R.J. Kadow.  It was one of the first Gilmore stations to be constructed and is now, sadly, one of the last remaining of its kind.  After the Gilmore Oil Company was sold in 1945, the station went through a succession of different owners and, in early 1990, after the then-tenant decided not to renew his lease, there was talk of possibly tearing the structure down.  Thankfully, the Melrose Neighborhood Association stepped in and, on March 23rd, 1992, the building was declared a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument.  Despite the station’s historic status, though, it has somehow been allowed to fall into disarray in recent years.  According to a November 1990 Los Angeles Times article, there were once plans to restore the building and open a snack shop/gas station/classic car rental on the site, but I am not sure if those plans ever came to fruition and, as you can see above, the place is currently in dire straights.  You can check out some photographs of the station taken during better days here.

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In L.A. Story, Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) and Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant) stop at the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station, where they ask for a “full service” treatment – their tank filled, car washed, and all four tires removed and exchanged LOL – before heading to a fund-raising dinner.  As you can see in the screen captures pictured above, at the time that the movie was filmed in 1991, the gas station was an incredibly cool little place.  I cannot express how disheartening it was to discover that a unique piece of Southern California’s history – one with historic cultural status, no less – has been allowed to deteriorate in such a way.  As I said earlier, what a shame!

Fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, also let me know that the station was featured in the 1982 movie 48 Hours as the supposed San-Francisco-area gas station where parolee Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) told detective Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) where he had hidden the stolen money.

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On an L.A. Story side-note – I would so love to find the supposed-Santa-Barbara-area El Pollo del Mar (the Chicken of the Sea – LOL) motel that appeared in the flick.  I know that the interior scenes were filmed at the since-demolished Ambassador Hotel, but I am interested in tracking down the exterior.  Does anyone happen to know where it is?

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The former Gilmore Gasoline Service Station, from L.A. Story, is located at 859 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood.

The “Father of the Bride” Grocery Store

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Due to my parents’ recent move and my dad’s recent hospital stay, I have sadly not had time to do much stalking as of late.  While in Palm Springs this past weekend my mom happened to ask me if I had some locations stockpiled (or should I say “stalkpiled”? Winking smile) for times such as this.  Well, as I explained to her, I have so many darn locations on my “To Blog” list that half the time I forget about them, which was the case with the spot I am writing about today – the grocery store from the 1991 movie Father of the Bride.  I stalked the market way back in early May and had completely forgotten about it until yesterday morning when I was going through my Picasa web albums and spotted the pictures I took while there.  So, don’t worry mom!  The problem lies not in there being a lack of locations to write about, but in me being able to recall them all!  Anyway, a couple of months ago I asked fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, to track down several locations from fave movie Father of the Bride, one of which was the grocery store where George Banks (aka Steve Martin) refused to buy “superfluous” hot dog buns.  Fellow stalker Owen had actually tried to find this location last year and had somehow managed to get into contact with actor Britt Leach who played the role of the assistant grocery store manager in the scene.  Britt, who has to be one of the nicest guys in the world, not only wrote back to Owen immediately, but subsequently wrote to me as well and did his best in helping us to find the place.  He informed us that the store was located in the Burbank area, possibly near the IKEA on North San Fernando Boulevard.  So with that information in hand, Owen and I tried to track the place down, but, for whatever reason, came up completely empty-handed.

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Enter Chas, who somehow managed to get in touch with a member of the Father of the Bride production team, one who not only remembered the exact address of the store, but who also informed him that it had sadly changed hands in recent years.  At the time of the filming, the market was owned by Vons, but the property was shuttered a couple of years back, whereupon it was purchased by Henry’s Farmers Markets and the interior was remodeled shortly thereafter.  Such a shame!  As you can see in these pictures of the former Vons location, though, the exterior, which was not featured in FOTB, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did before Henry’s took over.

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The interior, however, is another story altogether.  While it is a beautiful grocery store, the interior is, sadly, completely and totally unrecognizable from its appearance in Father of the Bride.

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In FOTB, George Banks heads to a local market in order to cool off after having had a bit of a meltdown over his daughter’s impending wedding.  While there, he has an even bigger meltdown over the fact that while hot dogs are sold in packages of eight, hot dog buns are sold in packages of twelve.  So, he decides to take a stand by ripping open packages to remove the four offending buns.  When a befuddled clerk tries to stop him, George says that the hot dog and hot dog bun corporations “are not ripping off this nitwit anymore, because I am not paying for one more thing I don’t need.  George Banks is saying ‘no’!”  LOL  He winds up getting arrested and is sent to jail, where his wife Nina (aka Diane Keaton) has to bail him out.

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And even though the store now looks completely different, I just had to find the hot dog bun aisle while I was there so that I could pose with a package of buns.  Smile

Father of the Bride hot dog scene–Henry’s Market in Burbank

You can watch the Father of the Bride grocery store scene by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location!  You can check out Chas’ Father of the Bride filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Henry’s Farmers Market, aka the Father of the Bride grocery store, is located at 1011 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank.