Pomona College’s Harwood Court – aka Eastland School from “The Facts of Life”

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Well over six months ago, my good friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, asked if I would like to do some stalking with him of Harwood Court, the Pomona College dormitory which stood in for the fictional Eastland School, attended by Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), Dorothy ‘Tootie’ Ramsey (Kim Fields), Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), and Joanne ‘Jo” Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon), in the 1980’s television series The Facts of Life. My answer, of course, was a resounding “YES!”  Because both of our schedules have been a bit hectic as of late, though, we were not able to make it out there until this past Sunday afternoon.  Needless to say, we were both pretty excited about the whole adventure when it finally came to pass and, a few days before we headed to Claremont, Mikey sent me an email which stated, “Wow, this is just like going scuba diving with Jacques Cousteau, or playing football with Tim Tebow, or getting a pants-dropping lesson from Marky Mark!  Well, maybe not that last one!”  Um, my stalking skills being compared to the scuba skills of Jacques Cousteau?!?!  LOVE IT!

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This location was actually found by Robert, of the Movie Locations and More website, way back in the Summer of 2010.  Earlier that year, Robert had read online that the exterior of Eastland School was a building on the Pomona College campus in Claremont, but because Google Street View of that area is not particularly clear, he was unable to track down the exact structure used via the internet.  So when he came to Los Angeles for a stalking visit a few months later, he drove around the 140-acre campus, screen shot in hand, and, amazingly enough, was able to track down the building fairly quickly.  Thank you, Robert!  In reality, Eastland School is the Harwood Court residential hall – a 68,000-square-foot unisex dormitory that was built in 1921 and currently houses 170 students.  The structure, which was originally an all-female dorm, was completely renovated by the Wheeler & Wheeler architectural firm in 1990.  Thankfully though, it still looks much the same as it did onscreen in The Facts of Life.

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A few years ago, Mikey had actually purchased one of Molly Ringwald’s costumes from the first season of The Facts of Life, as well as a promotional lunch box from the series that he had signed by none other than Mrs. Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) herself, and he brought both items with him on our stalk to add to the fun.  On our way there, he mentioned that he thought I might be able to fit into the track jacket portion of Molly’s former costume and, shockingly, he was right!  I cannot tell you how nervous I was to be wearing such an amazing piece of television history, while drinking a Starbucks, no less, so I only kept it on long enough to snap a couple of pics.

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Molly is pictured wearing one of the track jackets above.  So incredibly cool!!

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While we were there, a resident happened to walk out of Harwood Court and we stopped her to ask if she would take a photograph of Mikey and me.  She obliged and afterwards I inquired if she was aware that her dorm was, in fact, The Facts of Life school.  Shockingly, she had not actually been aware, and, even more shockingly, she did not seem to be too impressed by the news.  Ah well, I guess not everyone is a stalker.  Winking smile

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Harwood Court showed up as the fictional Peekskill, New York-area Eastland School during the opening credits of The Facts of Life’s entire nine-season run.

“The Facts of Life” Filmed at Harwood Court Residence Hall at Pomona College

You can watch the series’ opening credits by clicking above.  On an interesting side-note – the show’s insanely-catchy theme song was co-composed by Alan Thicke, aka Jason Seaver, the patriarch of the Seaver family on Growing Pains, and real-life father of R&B singer Robin Thicke.

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While doing research before heading out to Pomona College with Mikey on Sunday, I discovered that Harwood Court had also appeared in several other productions.  In 1985’s Real Genius, it was featured as the dormitory where Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret), and Jordan (Michelle Meyrink) lived.

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And while some of the real-life interior of the building was actually used in the movie . . .

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. . . I am fairly certain that the hallway and dorm rooms were sets.

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In 1987’s Teen Wolf Too, Harwood Court stood in for the Hamilton College dormitory where Todd Howard (Jason Bateman) lived with his roommate, Stiles (Stuart Franklin).

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The back side of the building appeared in the movie’s beyond-words-awful “Do You Love Me” dance sequence.

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I believe that the interior scenes were all filmed on a set, though.

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In the Season 1 episode of the reality series Top Chef Masters titled “Masters Get Schooled”, the Elimination Challenge, in which professional chefs Michael Schlow, Hubert Keller, Tim Love, and Christopher Lee were required to cook a gourmet meal in a dorm room, was held at Harwood Court.

You can read Mikey’s fab write-up of our The Facts of Life stalk on the Mike the Fanboy website here and you can watch a video Mikey put together of our adventure by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Robert, from the Movie Locations and More website, for finding this location and to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for inviting me to stalk it with him.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Harwood Court residence hall, aka Eastland School from The Facts of Life, is located on the campus of Pomona College at 170 East Bonita Avenue in Claremont.

The “Teen Wolf” Party House

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As I mentioned in the post I wrote back in January about the residence where Pamela Wells (aka Lorie Griffin) lived in Teen Wolf, fellow stalkers Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, and Owen recently embarked upon a mission to track down all of the locations used in the 1985 comedy.  One of the locales that they both wanted to find was the house where the high school party was thrown in the beginning of the flick, just before Scott Howard (aka Michael J. Fox) finds out that he is a werewolf.  Because no address number and no street signs were visible in the background of the scene, though, we really had nothing to go on for this one and Owen was fairly certain that, as the movie had been filmed well over two and a half decades ago, the chances of finding the place were slim to none.  Well, as fate would have it, a few months before Owen and Chas began their Teen Wolf hunt, I had been doing some stalking in a residential area of Eagle Rock and had gotten to talking with a homeowner who filled me in on some of the filming that had taken place in his neighborhood.  One of the places he pointed out to me was a house that he said had been used in Teen Wolf.  Because he had never seen the movie, though, he was unsure of what scene the house had appeared in or if it had, in fact, even made it into the final cut of the flick, so I did not think much of it at the time.  But when Owen sent me a screen capture of the party house and asked if I had any idea where it might be located, I recognized it immediately and sent him back the address.  There’s an old saying that goes, “Work begets work.”  Well, in this particular instance, I’d have to say that stalking begets stalking.  Winking smile 

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The Eagle Rock house only appeared in one brief scene in Teen Wolf in which Scott and his friends, Rupert “Stiles” Stilinski (aka Jerry Levine) and Lewis (aka Matt Adler), attend a high school house party.  It is while in one of the home’s closets that Scott and Lisa “Boof” Marconi (aka Susan Ursitti) kiss for the very first time.

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I am very happy to report that the property looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1985 when the movie was filmed.

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And, as you can see in these photographs, the real life interior of the property was also used in the filming.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house and take a picture in the closet where Scott and Boof kissed! 

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From what I can tell from this photograph and this photograph, though, that closet may have been a fake that was built in the room located directly off of the kitchen.  As you can see in the above screen capture, the closet door was located next to an arched built-in bookshelf that is visible in the photographs that I linked to. 

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And as you can see in the above screen capture, the built-in bookshelf is located directly next to the kitchen, which is also visible in the photographs that I linked to.  So, from the way that it appears, I believe that producers created a faux closet on what is, in actuality, the home’s backyard patio.  Ah, the magic of Hollywood! 

You can check out Chas’ extensive Teen Wolf filming locations page by clicking here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Teen Wolf party house is located at 5223 Shearin Avenue in Eagle Rock.

Pamela’s House from “Teen Wolf”

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A little over two weeks ago, fellow stalker Owen went on a mission to try to track down all of the locations used in the 1985 comedy Teen Wolf, which starred his favorite actor Michael J. Fox.  And the locale that he was most interested in finding was the house belonging to Pamela Wells (aka Lorie Griffin), Scott Howard’s (aka MJF’s) love interest in the flick.  Because Scott’s house in the movie was located in South Pasadena – ironically enough, it was the very same residence where the teenaged Lorraine Baines (aka Lea Thompson) lived in the Back to the Future movies – Owen had a feeling that Pamela’s house was most likely also located somewhere in that same vicinity.  So, without so much as even an address number or a street name to guide him, but armed with a pretty great hunch, he started using Google Street View to search through the properties situated near the Howard residence and happened upon Pamela’s house rather quickly.  Amazingly enough, it is located right around the corner and just a scant .2 miles away from the Howard home!  Yay!  So, this past Friday afternoon, I set out to stalk the place, even though it has been YEARS since I have watched Teen Wolf!

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Pamela’s house only actually shows up once in Teen Wolf, in the scene in which Scott walks Pamela home after a date at the local bowling alley – a locale which I blogged about back in June of 2009.    It is while walking her home that Pamela breaks Scott’s heart by telling him that she will not go to the school dance with him because she already has a boyfriend.

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Amazingly enough, Pamela’s house looks VERY much the same today as it did when the filming of Teen Wolf took place back in 1985.  Aside from a change in paint color and the removal of the front window shutters, the residence is virtually indistinguishable from its onscreen counterpart, which I find so incredibly cool.  Although I do have to admit that I much prefer the way the house looked in 1985 than to how it appears now.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Pamela’s house from Teen Wolf is located at 1980 Oak Street in South Pasadena.  Scott Howard’s house from Teen Wolf, which was also Lorraine Baines’ house in Back to the Future, is located just around the corner at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena.